title: Polikarpov I-16

text: Its main opponent in the sky in 1941 was the German Messerschmitt Bf 109. The I-16 was slightly more maneuverable than the early Bf 109s and could fight the Messerschmitt Bf 109E, or "Emil", on equal terms in turns. Skilled Soviet pilots took advantage of the Polikarpov's superior horizontal maneuverability and liked it enough to resist the switch to more modern fighters. The German aircraft, however, outclassed its Soviet opponent in service ceiling, rate of climb, acceleration and, crucially, in horizontal and diving speed, due to better aerodynamics and a more powerful engine. The main versions of the I-16 had a maximum speed of 450–470 km/h (279–291 mph), while the Bf 109E had a maximum speed of 560–570 km/h (347–353 mph), the more streamlined Bf 109F "Friedrich" could hit 615–630 km/h (372-390plus mph). So German pilots held the initiative and could decide if they wanted to chase their opponents, could attack them from above and behind and then gain altitude for a new attack. Meanwhile, Polikarpovs could only defend each other by forming a defensive circle or via horizontal maneuverability.


title: Polikarpov I-16

text: Moreover, in terms of armament, Messerschmitts had a slight edge on the I-16. The "Emil" carried two wing-mounted 20mm MG FF cannons and two synchronized 7.92 mm MG-17s with a weight of a one-second salvo of 2.37 kg, while the most common version of the I-16 – armed with just two synchronized and two wing-mounted 7.62 ShKAS – could deliver 1.43 kg of bullets each second. Finally, the ammunition storage on a Messerschmitt exceeded that of the I-16, carrying 1,000 rounds for each machine gun (plus sixty drum-housed rounds for each cannon), while the Polikarpov carried just 450 rounds for each ShKAS gun.


title: Polikarpov I-16

text: Specially modified I-16s were used in the Zveno parasite aircraft experiments using the Tupolev TB-3 as a mothership.


title: Polikarpov I-16

text: The Luftwaffe was known to have captured some I-16 and UTI-4 two-seat trainers (two of which were marked with the "Stammkennzeichen" codes DM+HC and DM+HD) and flown from the "Erprobungstelle Rechlin" central Luftwaffe test facility by Kampfgeschwader 200 (KG 200). The Luftwaffe was not the only air force able to test its fighters against the I-16; the Japanese captured a few I-16s as well, and the Romanian Air Force also got one when a Soviet pilot defected. The Finnish Air Force (FAF) captured some I-16s (along with several other Soviet types). During the Winter War and the Continuation War, the Finns captured six I-16s and one I-16UTI. Two of the captured I-16s and I-16UTIs were put back into flying condition and flight tested.


title: Polikarpov I-16

text: Commencing in 1993, New Zealand pilot and entrepreneur Sir Tim Wallis' Alpine Fighter Collection organised the restoration of six I-16s and three I-153s, found in Russia, to an airworthy condition by the Soviet Aeronautical Research Institute (Sibnia) in Novosibirsk. The flight of the first restored aircraft (I-16 "9") took place in October 1995. Once restored the aircraft were transported by rail to Vladivostok and from there shipped via Hong Kong to New Zealand. This project was completed in 1999 when the third and final I-153 arrived in New Zealand. In addition a seventh I-16 was later restored for American collector Jerry Yagen.


title: Lymphocytosis

text: Lymphocytosis is an increase in the number or proportion of lymphocytes in the blood. Absolute lymphocytosis is the condition where there is an increase in the lymphocyte count beyond the normal range while relative lymphocytosis refers to the condition where the proportion of lymphocytes relative to white blood cell count is above the normal range. In adults, absolute lymphocytosis is present when the lymphocyte count is greater than 5000 per microliter (5.0 x 10/L), in older children greater than 7000 per microliter and in infants greater than 9000 per microliter. Lymphocytes normally represent 20% to 40% of circulating white blood cells. When the percentage of lymphocytes exceeds 40%, it is recognized as relative lymphocytosis.


title: Lymphocytosis

text: Lymphocytosis is a feature of infection, particularly in children. In the elderly, lymphoproliferative disorders, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia and lymphomas, often present with lymphadenopathy and a lymphocytosis.


title: Lymphocytosis

text: Lymphocytosis is usually detected when a complete blood count is obtained. If not provided the lymphocyte count can be calculated by multiplying the total white blood cell (WBC) count by the percentage of lymphocytes found in the differential count. The lymphocyte count can also be directly measured by flow cytometry.


title: Bride price

text: Bride price, bride-dowry (Mahr in Islam), bride-wealth, or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the woman or the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride dowry is equivalent to dowry paid to the groom in some cultures, or used by the bride to help establish the new household, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. Some cultures may practice both simultaneously. Many cultures practiced bride dowry prior to existing records.


title: Bride price

text: The tradition of giving bride dowry is practised in many Asian countries, the Middle East, parts of Africa and in some Pacific Island societies, notably those in Melanesia. The amount changing hands may range from a token to continue the traditional ritual, to many thousands of US dollars in some marriages in Thailand, and as much as a $100,000 in exceptionally large bride dowry in parts of Papua New Guinea where bride dowry is customary.


title: Bride price

text: Bridewealth is commonly paid in a currency that is not generally used for other types of exchange. According to French anthropologist Philippe Rospabé, its payment does therefore not entail the purchase of a woman, as was thought in the early twentieth century. Instead, it is a purely symbolic gesture acknowledging (but never paying off) the husband's permanent debt to the wife's parents.


title: Bride price

text: Dowries exist in societies where capital is more valuable than manual labor. For instance, in Middle Ages Europe, the family of a bride-to-be was compelled to offer a dowry — land, cattle and money — to the family of the husband-to-be. Bridewealth exists in societies where manual labor is more important than capital. In Sub-Saharan Africa where land was abundant and there were few or no domesticated animals, manual labor was more valuable than capital, and therefore bridewealth dominated.


title: Bride price

text: An evolutionary psychology explanation for dowry and bride price is that bride price is common in polygynous societies which have a relative scarcity of available women. In monogamous societies where women have little personal wealth, dowry is instead common since there is a relative scarcity of wealthy men who can choose from many potential women when marrying.


title: Bride price

text: The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi mentions bride price in various laws as an established custom. It is not the payment of the bride price that is prescribed, but the regulation of various aspects:


title: Bride price

text: The Torah discusses the practice of paying a bride price to the father of a virgin at Shemot (Exodus) 22:16-17 (JPS translation): "And if a man entice a virgin that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins." Devarim (Deuteronomy) 22:28-29 similarly states, "If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, that is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he hath humbled her; he may not put her away all his days."


title: Bride price

text: Jewish law in ancient times insisted upon the betrothed couple signing a "ketubah", a formal contract. The ketubah provided for an amount to be paid by the husband in the event he divorced his wife (i.e. if he gives her a "get"; women cannot divorce their husbands in orthodox Jewish law); or by his estate in the event of his death. The provision in the ketubah replaced the bride price tradition recited in the Torah, which was payable at the time of the marriage by the groom.


title: Bride price

text: This innovation came about because the bride price created a major social problem: many young prospective husbands could not raise the amount at the time when they would normally be expected to marry. So, to enable these young men to marry, the rabbis, in effect, delayed the time that the amount would be payable, when they would be more likely to have the sum. The object in either case was financial protection for the wife should the husband die, divorce her or disappear. The only difference between the two systems was the timing of the payment.


title: Bride price

text: In fact, the rabbis were so insistent on the bride having the "benefit of the ketubah" that some even described a marriage without one as being merely concubinage, because the bride would lack the benefit of the financial settlement in case of divorce or death of the husband; without which the woman and her children could become a burden on the community. However, the husband could refuse to pay if a divorce was on account of adultery by the wife.


title: Bride price

text: To this day in traditional Jewish weddings between opposite-sex couples, the groom gives the bride an object of value, such as a wedding ring, to fulfill the requirement in the ketubah. The object given must have a certain minimal value to satisfy the obligation - e.g. it cannot be a prize out of a Cracker Jack box, but, modernly, the value is otherwise nominal and symbolic.


title: Bride price

text: Some of the marriage settlements mentioned in the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" suggest that bride price was a custom of Homeric society. The language used for various marriage transactions, however, may blur distinctions between bride price and dowry, and a third practice called "indirect dowry," whereby the groom hands over property to the bride which is then used to establish the new household. "Homeric society" is a fictional construct involving legendary figures and deities, though drawing on the historical customs of various times and places in the Greek world. At the time when the Homeric epics were composed, "primitive" practices such as bride price and polygamy were no longer part of Greek society. Mentions of them preserve, if they have a historical basis at all, customs dating from the Age of Migrations (c. 1200–1000 BC) and the two centuries following.


title: Bride price

text: In the "Iliad", Agamemnon promises Achilles that he can take a bride without paying the bride price (Greek "hednon"), instead receiving a dowry "(pherne"). In the "Odyssey", the least arguable references to bride price are in the marriage settlements for Ctimene, the sister of Odysseus; Pero, the daughter of Neleus, who demanded cattle for her; and the goddess Aphrodite herself, whose husband Hephaestus threatens to make her father Zeus return the bride price given for her, because she was adulterous. It is possible that the Homeric "bride price" is part of a reciprocal exchange of gifts between the prospective husband and the bride's father, but while gift exchange is a fundamental practice of aristocratic friendship and hospitality, it occurs rarely, if at all, in connection with marriage arrangements.


title: Bride price

text: Islamic law commands a groom to give the bride a gift called a Mahr prior to the consummation of the marriage. A mahr differs from the standard meaning of bride-price in that it is not to the family of the bride, but to the wife to keep for herself; it is thus more accurately described as a dower. In the Qur'an, it is mentioned in chapter 4, An-Nisa, verse 4 as follows:


title: Bride price

text: And give to the women (whom you marry) their Mahr [obligatory bridal money given by the husband to his wife at the time of marriage] with a good heart; but if they, of their own good pleasure, remit any part of it to you, take it and enjoy it without fear of any harm (as Allah has made it lawful).


title: Bride price

text: Morning gifts, which might be arranged by the bride's father rather than the bride, are given to the bride herself. The name derives from the Germanic tribal custom of giving them the morning after the wedding night. The woman might have control of this morning gift during the lifetime of her husband, but is entitled to it when widowed. If the amount of her inheritance is settled by law rather than agreement, it may be called dower. Depending on legal systems and the exact arrangement, she may not be entitled to dispose of it after her death, and may lose the property if she remarries. Morning gifts were preserved for many centuries in morganatic marriage, a union where the wife's inferior social status was held to prohibit her children from inheriting a noble's titles or estates. In this case, the morning gift would support the wife and children. Another legal provision for widowhood was jointure, in which property, often land, would be held in joint tenancy, so that it would automatically go to the widow on her husband's death.


title: Bride price

text: In parts of Africa, a traditional marriage ceremony depends on payment of a bride price to be valid. In Sub-Saharan Africa, bride price must be paid first in order for the couple to get permission to marry in church or in other civil ceremonies, or the marriage is not considered valid by the bride's family. The amount can vary from a token to a great sum, real estate and other values. Lobolo (or Lobola, sometimes also known as Roora) is the same tradition in most cultures in Southern Africa Xhosa, Shona, Venda, Zulu, Ndebele etc. The amount includes a few to several herd of cattle, goats and a sum of money depending on the family. The cattle and goats constitute an integral part of the traditional marriage for ceremonial purposes during and after the original marriage ceremony.


title: Bride price

text: In some societies, marriage is delayed until all payments are made. If the wedding occurs before all payments are made, the status is left ambiguous. The bride price tradition can have destructive effects when young men don't have the means to marry. In strife-torn South Sudan, many young men steal cattle for this reason, often risking their lives.


title: Bride price

text: Assyrians, who are indigenous people of Western Asia, commonly practice the bride price ("niqda") custom. The tradition would involve the bridegroom's family paying to the father of the bride. The amount of money of the niqda is reached by negotiation between groups of people from both families. The social state of the groom's family influences the amount of the bridewealth that ought to be paid. When the matter is settled to the contentment of both menages, the groom's father may kiss the hand of the bride's father to express his chivalrous regard and gratitude. These situations are usually filmed and incorporated within the wedding video. Folk music and dancing is accompanied after the payment is done, which usually happens on the doorstep, before the bride leaves her home with her escort (usually a male family member who would then walk her into the church). It is still practised by Muslims in the region and is called Mahr.


title: Bride price

text: In many parts of Central Asia nowadays, bride price is mostly symbolic. Various names for it in Central Asia include , , , and . It is also common in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The price may range from a small sum of money or a single piece of livestock to what amounts to a herd of livestock, depending on local traditions and the expectations and agreements of the families involved. The tradition is upheld in Afghanistan. A "dark distortion" of it involved a 6-year-old daughter of an Afghan refugee from Helmand Province in a Kabul refugee camp, who was to be married to the son of the money lender who provided with the girl's father $2500 so the man could pay medical bills. According to anthropologist Deniz Kandiyoti, the practice increased after the fall of the Taliban. It is still practised by Muslims in the region and is called Mahr.


title: Bride price

text: In Thailand, bride price—"sin sod" (Thai: สินสอด, pronounced [sĭn sòt] and often erroneously referred to by the English term "dowry") is common in both Thai-Thai and Thai-foreign marriages. The bride price may range from nothing—if the woman is divorced, has a child fathered by another man, or is widely known to have had premarital relations with men—to tens of millions of Thai baht (US$300,000 or ~9,567,757 THB) for a woman of high social standing, a beauty queen, or a highly educated woman. The bride price in Thailand is paid at the engagement ceremony, and consists of three elements: cash, Thai (96.5 percent pure) gold, and the more recent Western tradition of a diamond ring. The most commonly stated rationale for the bride price in Thailand is that it allows the groom to demonstrate that he has enough financial resources to support the bride (and possibly her family) after the wedding. In many cases, especially when the amount is large, the parents of a Thai bride will return all or part of the bride price to the couple in the form of a wedding gift following the engagement ceremony.


title: Bride price

text: In Kachin society they have the system of Mayu and Dama. "Mayu" means a group of people who give woman and "Dama" means a group of people who take woman. The “bride wealth” system is extremely important for kinship system in Kachin society and has been used for centuries. The purpose of giving "bride wealth" is to honor the wife giver "Mayu" and to create a strong relationship. The exact details of the “bride wealth” system vary by time and place. In Kachin society, bride wealth is required to be given by wife taker “Dama” to wife giver “Mayu.” Kachin ancestors thought that if wife takers “Dama” gave a large bride price to wife giver “Mayu”; it meant that they honored the bride and her family, and no one would look down on the groom and bride.


title: Bride price

text: In traditional Chinese culture, an auspicious date is selected to "ti qin" (), where both families will meet to discuss the amount of the bride price () demanded, among other things. Several weeks before the actual wedding, the ritual of "guo da li" () takes place (on an auspicious date). The groom and a matchmaker will visit the bride's family bearing gifts like wedding cakes, sweetmeats and jewelry, as well as the bride price. On the actual wedding day, the bride's family will return a portion of the bride price (sometimes in the form of dowry) and a set of gifts as a goodwill gesture.


title: Bride price

text: Bride prices vary from in famously money-centric Shanghai to as little as . A house is often required along with the bride price (an apartment is acceptable, but rentals are not) and a car under both or only the bride's name, neither of which are counted toward the bride price itself. In some regions, the bride's family may demand other kinds of gifts, none counted toward the bride price itself. May 18 is a particularly auspicious day on which to pay the bride price and marry as its Chinese wording is phoenetically similar to "I will get rich". Bride prices are rising quickly in China largely without documentation but a definite verbal and cultural understanding of where bride prices are today. Gender inequality in China has increased competition for ever higher bride prices. Financial distress is an unacceptable and ignored justification for not paying the bride price. If the grooms' side cannot agree or pay, they or simply the groom himself must still pay a bride price thus borrowing from relatives is a popular if not required option to "save face". Inability to pay is cause for preventing a marriage which either side can equally recommend. Privately, families need bride prices due to China's lack of a social security net and a one child policy which leaves parents with neither retirement funding nor caretaking if their only child is taken away as brides typically move into the groom's residence upon marrying as well as testing the groom's ability to marry by paying cash and emotionally giving up his resources to the bride. Publicly, families cite bride price as insurance in case the man abandons or divorces the wife and that the bride price creates goodwill between families. The groom's side should pay more than what the bride's side has demanded to "save face". Amounts preferably follow the usual red envelope conventions though the sum is far more important.


title: Bride price

text: Changing patterns in the betrothal and marriage process in some rural villages of modern China can be represented as the following stages:


title: Bride price

text: It is still practised by Muslims in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and is called Mahr. In North East India, notably in Assam (the indigenous Assamese ethnic groups) an amount or token of bride price was and is still given in various forms. In some parts of Indian state of Gujarat, bride price is rather prevalent, resulting from the fact that there are lesser number of girls than boys in the society. The practice is also found in cases where the family of groom has to go for lower caste brides, when they are unable to find brides in their own castes (intra-caste marriages are still preferred !).


title: Bride price

text: It is still practised by Muslims, known as Rohingyas in Myanmar, especially in Rakhine State and is called Mahr.


title: Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero

text: The story follows a world where several young men and women regularly find themselves spirited away to a world of sword and magic called . Those who survive and return are typically gifted with magic abilities. An international training organization named Babel protects these young returnees and trains them in the use of their power. A wayward hero named Akatsuki has come back to his world, along with a beautiful girl called Miu who is the daughter of the Last Dark Lord, whom he defeated in battle.


title: Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero

text: The light novel series written by Tetsuto Uesu and illustrated by Tamago no Kimi was published by Hobby Japan in eleven volumes from May 1, 2010 to February 28, 2013.


title: Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero

text: A manga illustrated by Haiji Nakasone was published in Hobby Japan's web magazine "Comic Dangan" from January 20, 2012 to June 21, 2013 and compiled into three volumes.


title: Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero

text: A 12-episode anime adaptation by Arms and directed by Rion Kujō began aired between July and September 2012. It has been licensed by Funimation in North America. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll. The opening theme is "Realization" by Faylan and the ending theme is "Ai no Sei de Nemurenai" by Aki Misato. Seven special short episodes titled "Hajirai Ippai" (numbered 0 to 6) were also included with the Blu-ray releases.


title: Languages of France

text: Of the languages of France, French is the sole official language according to the second article of the French Constitution. French, a Gallo-Romance language, is spoken by nearly the entire population of France.


title: Languages of France

text: In addition to French, several regional languages are also spoken to varying degrees, such as Alsatian, a Germanic dialect (specifically Allemanic) (spoken by 1.44% of the national population); Basque, a language isolate; Breton, a Celtic language (spoken by 0.61%); Corsican, an Italo-Dalmatian language; and various other Gallo-Romance languages (Langues d'Oïl 1.25%, Occitan 1.33%). Some of these languages are also spoken in neighbouring countries, such as Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy or Spain.


title: Languages of France

text: The official language of the French Republic is French (art. 2 of the French Constitution) and the French government is, by law, compelled to communicate primarily in French. The government, furthermore, mandates that commercial advertising be available in French (though it can also use other languages). The French government, however, does not mandate the use of French by private individuals or corporations or in any other media.


title: Languages of France

text: A revision of the French constitution creating official recognition of regional languages was implemented by the Parliament in Congress at Versailles in July 2008.


title: Languages of France

text: The 1999 Report written for the government by Bernard Cerquiglini identified 75 languages that would qualify for recognition under the government's proposed ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Of those languages, 24 are indigenous to the European territory of the state while all the others are from overseas areas of the French Republic (in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean and South America).


title: Languages of France

text: Although ratification was blocked by the Constitutional Council as contradicting the Fifth Republic's constitutional provision enshrining French as the language of the Republic, the government continues to recognise regional and minority languages to a limited extent (i.e. without granting them official status) and the "Délégation générale à la langue française" has acquired the additional function of observing and studying the languages of France and has had "et aux langues de France" added to its title. The category of "languages of France" (in French: "langues de France") is thus administratively recognised even if this does not go so far as to provide any official status. Following his election as president, François Hollande reasserted in 2012 his campaign platform to ratify the European Charter and ensure a clear legal framework for regional languages (within a programme of administrative decentralisation that would give competencies to the regions in language policy).


title: Languages of France

text: The regional languages of France are sometimes called "patois", but this term (roughly meaning "dialects") is often considered derogatory. "Patois" is used to refer to supposedly purely oral languages, but this does not, for instance, take into account that Occitan was already being written at a time when French was not and its literature has continued to thrive, with a Nobel Prize for Frédéric Mistral in 1904.


title: Languages of France

text: It is estimated that at the time of the French Revolution in 1789, only half of the population of France could speak French, and as late as 1871 only a quarter spoke French as their native language.


title: Languages of France

text: The topic of the teaching of regional languages in public primary and secondary schools is controversial. Proponents of the measure state that it would be necessary for the preservation of those languages and to show respect to the local culture. Opponents contend that local languages are often non-standardised (thus making curricula difficult), of dubious practical usefulness (since most are spoken by a small number of people, without any sizable corpus of publications) and that the curriculum and funding of public schools are already too strained. The topic also leads to wider controversial questions of autonomy of the "régions". Regarding other languages, English, Spanish, Italian and German are the most commonly studied foreign languages in French schools.


title: Languages of France

text: In April 2001, the Minister of Education, Jack Lang, stated formally that for more than two centuries, the political powers of the French government had repressed regional languages, and announced that bilingual education would, for the first time, be recognised, and bilingual teachers recruited in French public schools.


title: Languages of France

text: Some of the languages of France are also cross-border languages (for example, Basque, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch, Franc-Comtois, Franco-Provençal, Norman, Picard, Occitan and others), some of which enjoy a recognised or official status in the respective neighbouring state or territory. French itself is also a cross-border language, being spoken in neighbouring Andorra, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, and Switzerland.


title: Languages of France

text: According to the 2007 Adult Education survey, part of a project by the European Union and carried in France by the Insee and based on a sample of 15,350 people, French was the mother tongue of 87.2% of the total population, or roughly 55.81 million people, followed by Arabic (3.6%, 2.3 million), Portuguese (1.5%, 960,000), Spanish (1.2%, 770,000) and Italian (1.0%, 640,000). People who spoke other languages natively made up the remaining 5.2% of the population.


title: Languages of France

text: There are also several languages spoken in France's overseas areas (see Administrative divisions of France for details):


title: Languages of France

text: French Sign Language is also recognised as a language of France (with at least one regional variant in Provence).


title: Languages of France

text: A large number of immigrant languages are spoken in France, with a handful having a significant number of home speakers. (Figures as of 2000)


title: Languages of France

text: At the 1999 census, INSEE sampled 380,000 adult people all across Metropolitan France, and asked them questions about their family situation. One of the questions was about the languages that their parents spoke with them before the age of five. This is the first time serious statistics were computed about the proportion of mother tongues in France. The results were published in "Enquête familiale, Insee, 1999".


title: Languages of France

text: When the people with mother tongue and people with some exposure to the language before the age of five (see note #3 below) are added together, the five most widely spoken languages in metropolitan France are (note that the percentages add up to more than 100, because many bilingual people are now counted twice):


title: Deep diving

text: Deep diving is underwater diving to a depth beyond the norm accepted by the associated community. In some cases this is a prescribed limit established by an authority, while in others it is associated with a level of certification or training, and it may vary depending on whether the diving is recreational, technical or commercial. Nitrogen narcosis becomes a hazard below and hypoxic breathing gas is required below to lessen the risk of oxygen toxicity.


title: Deep diving

text: For some recreational diving agencies, "Deep diving", or "Deep diver" may be a certification awarded to divers that have been trained to dive to a specified depth range, generally deeper than . However, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) defines anything from as a "deep dive" in the context of recreational diving (other diving organisations vary), and considers "deep diving" a form of technical diving. In technical diving, a depth below about where hypoxic breathing gas becomes necessary to avoid oxygen toxicity may be considered a deep dive. In professional diving, a depth that requires special equipment, procedures, or advanced training may be considered a deep dive.


title: Deep diving

text: Deep diving can mean something else in the commercial diving field. For instance early experiments carried out by Comex S.A. (Compagnie maritime d'expertises) using hydrox and trimix attained far greater depths than any recreational technical diving. One example being the Comex Janus IV open-sea dive to in 1977. The open-sea diving depth record was achieved in 1988 by a team of Comex divers who performed pipeline connection exercises at a depth of in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the Hydra 8 programme. These divers needed to breathe special gas mixtures because they were exposed to very high ambient pressure (more than 50 times atmospheric pressure).


title: Deep diving

text: An atmospheric diving suit allows very deep dives of up to . These suits are capable of withstanding the pressure at great depth permitting the diver to remain at normal atmospheric pressure. This eliminates the problems associated with breathing high-pressure gases.


title: Deep diving

text: Assumed is the surface of the waterbody to be at or near sea level and underlies atmospheric pressure.


title: Deep diving

text: Deep diving has more hazards and greater risk than basic open water diving. Nitrogen narcosis, the "narks" or "rapture of the deep", starts with feelings of euphoria and over-confidence but then leads to numbness and memory impairment similar to alcohol intoxication. Decompression sickness, or the "bends", can happen if a diver ascends too rapidly, when excess inert gas leaves solution in the blood and tissues and forms bubbles. These bubbles produce mechanical and biochemical effects that lead to the condition. The onset of symptoms depends on the severity of the tissue gas loading and may develop during ascent in severe cases, but is frequently delayed until after reaching the surface. Bone degeneration (dysbaric osteonecrosis) is caused by the bubbles forming inside the bones; most commonly the upper arm and the thighs. Deep diving involves a much greater danger of all of these, and presents the additional risk of oxygen toxicity, which may lead to a convulsion underwater. Very deep diving using a helium-oxygen mixture (heliox) carries a risk of high-pressure nervous syndrome. Coping with the physical and physiological stresses of deep diving requires good physical conditioning.


title: Deep diving

text: Using normal scuba equipment, breathing gas consumption is proportional to ambient pressure—so at , where the pressure is six bar, a diver breathes six times as much as on the surface (1 bar). Heavy physical exertion makes the diver breathe even more gas, and gas becomes denser requiring increased effort to breathe with depth, leading to increased risk of hypercapnia—an excess of carbon dioxide in the blood. The need to do decompression stops increases with depth. A diver at may be able to dive for many hours without needing to do decompression stops. At depths greater than , a diver may have only a few minutes at the deepest part of the dive before decompression stops are needed. In the event of an emergency, the diver cannot make an immediate ascent to the surface without risking decompression sickness. All of these considerations result in the amount of breathing gas required for deep diving being much greater than for shallow open water diving. The diver needs a disciplined approach to planning and conducting dives to minimise these additional risks.


title: Deep diving

text: Many of these problems are avoided by the use of surface supplied breathing gas, closed diving bells, and saturation diving, at the cost of logistical complexity, reduced maneuverability of the diver, and greater expense.


title: Deep diving

text: Both equipment and procedures can be adapted to deal with the problems of greater depth. Usually the two are combined, as the procedures must be adapted to suit the equipment, and in some cases the equipment is needed to facilitate the procedures.


title: Deep diving

text: The equipment used for deep diving depends on both the depth and the type of diving. Scuba is limited to equipment that can be carried by the diver, or is easily deployed by the dive team, while surface supplied diving equipment can be more extensive, and much of it stays above the water where it is operated by the support team.


title: Deep diving

text: Procedural adaptations for deep diving can be classified as those procedures for operating specialized equipment, and those that apply directly to the problems caused by exposure to high ambient pressures.


title: Deep diving

text: Amongst technical divers, there are divers who participate in ultra-deep diving on scuba below . This practice requires high levels of training, experience, discipline, fitness and surface support. Only thirty-five people are known to have ever dived below a depth of on self-contained breathing apparatus recreationally. The Holy Grail of deep scuba diving was the mark, first achieved by John Bennett in 2001, and has only been achieved seven times since.


title: Deep diving

text: The difficulties involved in ultra-deep diving are numerous. Although commercial and military divers often operate at those depths, or even deeper, they are surface supplied. All of the complexities of ultra-deep diving are magnified by the requirement of the diver to carry (or provide for) their own gas underwater. These lead to rapid descents and "bounce dives". Unsurprisingly, this has led to extremely high mortality rates amongst those who practise ultra-deep diving. Notable ultra-deep diving fatalities include Sheck Exley, John Bennett, Dave Shaw and Guy Garman. Mark Ellyatt, Don Shirley and Pascal Bernabé were involved in serious incidents and were fortunate to survive their dives. Despite the extremely high mortality rate, the "Guinness Book of World Records" continues to maintain a record for scuba diving (although in deference to the death rate it has stopped recording the record for deep diving on air). Amongst those who do survive significant health issues are reported. Mark Ellyatt is reported to have suffered permanent lung damage; Pascal Bernabé (who was injured on his dive when a light on his mask imploded) and Nuno Gomes reported short to medium term hearing loss.


title: Deep diving

text: Serious issues that confront divers engaging in ultra-deep diving on self-contained breathing apparatus include:


title: Deep diving

text: In addition, "ordinary" risks like gas reserves, hypothermia, dehydration and oxygen toxicity are compounded by extreme depth and exposure. Much technical equipment is simply not designed for the necessarily greater stresses at depths, and reports of key equipment (including submersible pressure gauges) imploding are not uncommon.


title: Deep diving

text: A severe risk in ultra-deep air diving is deep water blackout, or depth blackout, a loss of consciousness at depths below 50 m with no clear primary cause, associated with nitrogen narcosis, a neurological impairment with anaesthetic effects caused by high partial pressure of nitrogen dissolved in nerve tissue, and possibly acute oxygen toxicity. The term is not in widespread use at present, as where the actual cause of blackout is known, a more specific term is preferred. The depth at which deep water blackout occurs is extremely variable and unpredictable. Before the popular availability of Trimix, attempts were made to set world record depths using air. The extreme risk of both narcosis and oxygen toxicity in the divers contributed to a high fatality rate in those attempting records. In his book, "Deep Diving", Bret Gilliam chronicles the various fatal attempts to set records as well as the smaller number of successes. From the comparatively few who survived extremely deep air dives:


title: Deep diving

text: In deference to the high death rate, the Guinness World Records ceased to publish records on deep air dives in mid-2005.


title: 2020 Major League Baseball draft

text: The 2020 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on June 10 and 11, 2020. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2019 MLB season standings. In addition, compensation picks were distributed for players who did not sign from the 2019 MLB draft and for teams who lost qualifying free agents. On March 26, 2020, MLB and the MLBPA reached a deal that included the option to shorten the draft to five rounds, and also shorten the 2021 draft to 20 rounds due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a plan to allow teams to sign an unlimited number of undrafted players for $20,000 each, MLB ultimately opted to shorten the 2020 draft to five rounds. The draft was originally planned to be hosted live for the first time in Omaha, Nebraska, to accompany the since-cancelled 2020 College World Series. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the draft was instead held remotely from MLB Network's studios in Secaucus, New Jersey. With sponsorship from T-Mobile, the event was officially the 2020 MLB Draft Presented by T-Mobile, with ESPN providing live coverage for the first time since 2008, alongside MLB Network.


title: 2020 Major League Baseball draft

text: The Detroit Tigers, who had the worst record of the 2019 MLB season, selected Spencer Torkelson with the first overall pick in the draft. As punishment for their role in the sign stealing scandal, the Houston Astros forfeited their first- and second-round picks in the draft. The Boston Red Sox also forfeited their second-round pick in the draft as punishment for their own sign-stealing violations. Among the selected players, there were 41 who had played for the United States national baseball team and 2 who had played for the Canada national baseball team.


title: 2020 Major League Baseball draft

text: On September 18, 2020, the Chicago White Sox promoted Garrett Crochet to the major leagues, becoming the first MLB player in six years to reach the big leagues in the same year in which he was drafted.


title: The City of Ember

text: The City of Ember is a post-apocalyptic novel by Jeanne DuPrau that was published in 2003. The story is about Ember, a post-apocalyptic underground city threatened by aging infrastructure and corruption. The young protagonist, Lina Mayfleet, and her friend, Doon Harrow (the second protagonist), follow clues left behind by the original builders of the City of Ember, to safety in the outside world.


title: The City of Ember

text: It is the first book in the "Books of Ember" series, which also includes "The People of Sparks", "The Prophet of Yonwood" (a prequel), and the final installment, "The Diamond of Darkhold". In 2008, the book was adapted into a film by Walden Media and Playtone.


title: The City of Ember

text: As Earth is being ravaged by a series of apocalyptic events known as the Disaster, a coalition of architects, scientists, and doctors (called the Builders) create an underground city named Ember, with an initial population of 200 citizens (100 elderly adults, 100 babies), to ensure humanity survives, with the intention that future generations of the city will not know about the outside world or that they live underground. They build the city to last for two centuries, after which the citizens of Ember will evacuate and return to the surface world. The Builders give the first mayor of the city a box with a timed lock set to open after 200 years, containing instructions explaining how to leave Ember; the box is passed successfully from mayor to mayor, until the seventh mayor, who, thinking the box might contain a cure for the deadly cough disease plaguing the city, takes the box home and tries multiple times to break it open, but fails. He then dies before he can return the box to its rightful place or inform the next mayor of its importance.


title: The City of Ember

text: Approximately two hundred and forty-one years after Ember is established, the city′s supplies are in danger of exhaustion and its hydroelectric generator is in decay, causing the power to go out intermittently. At their graduation ceremony, young people are assigned jobs by lottery: Lina Mayfleet is assigned the job of "Pipeworks Laborer" and Doon Harrow is given the job of "Messenger". However, both are displeased with their assigned jobs so they exchange their assignments and begin work in their respective positions. It is revealed that the seventh mayor was Lina's great-great grandfather and the box with the timed lock is in the closet in their house. By now the timer has finished counting down and the lock has clicked open. When searching the closet, Lina's grandmother finds the box but tosses it aside, not realizing its importance. The opened box is found by Lina's baby sister, Poppy. When Lina comes home, she finds Poppy with torn pieces of paper in her hands and mouth; Poppy has all but destroyed the instructions. Lina saves the scraps of paper, thinking they must be an important message from the Builders of the city, since the message is typed and no one in Ember can write like that. The writing on the message resembles the writing on labels and books left by the builders in the city. Using some glue, Lina reassembles the message as best she can. There are many gaps and some words make no sense like "boat" since no one in Ember has seen or heard of boats. Thanks to side character Clary, friend of Lina’s father, she discovers that the title of the document is "Instructions for Egress" or instructions for exit. Lina realizes that the document is instructions on how to leave their dying city. One of the words on the instructions is clearly "Pipeworks", so Lina enlists the help of Doon who is now working at the Pipeworks. The Pipeworks are underneath the city and a large and fast underground river runs through it that provides the hydroelectric power that Ember runs on. After much trial and error, she and Doon decipher the instructions from the builders. The instructions lead to a hidden room built on the side of the river that contains hundreds of boats as well as matches and candles to create portable light, something unknown in the city of Ember. The builders meant for the citizens of Ember to board these boats and be carried down the river into the outside world.


title: The City of Ember

text: Lina's grandmother dies shortly after their discovery, and Lina and Poppy move in with a neighbor, Mrs. Murdo. At work, Doon discovers that the mayor of Ember and a storeroom worker named Looper have been stealing supplies, and he and Lina report the crime to the guards, who unknown to them are also corrupt. Upon following the instructions given in the note, they find the room with boats and candles meant for use in the exodus. On their return to Ember, they learn that the mayor has declared them criminals and there are notices everywhere with their names. Doon and Lina plan to escape Ember in the boats and agree to meet at the Pipeworks at a certain time, but just before, Lina is arrested and taken to the mayor, who plans to throw her in jail. Suddenly, a blackout occurs and allows her to escape without being seen; she meets Doon at the Pipeworks with her sister Poppy in tow. Lina, Doon, and Poppy escape in a boat through the river, its current carrying them forward. When the boat stops, they learn the origin of Ember from a diary left by one of its original colonists. Shortly after they are faced with a very steep climb and emerge onto the surface where they see their city from above and realize for the first time that Ember is underground. They throw a rock with instructions tied to it down to the city in hope that the people of Ember will escape. Ultimately, Mrs. Murdo finds the message on the street next to Harken Square barely missing her.


title: The City of Ember

text: "The City of Ember" was praised for its setting and main characters, Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow. "Kirkus Reviews" praised the characters, stating: "The likable protagonists are not only courageous but also believably flawed by human pride, their weaknesses often complementing each other in interesting ways." Sally Estes from "Booklist" commented how readers would be able to connect to Lina and Doon's courage amidst the conflicts. Robert Sutton from "Horn Book Magazine" compared the novel to "Gathering Blue" by Lois Lowry, noting how "the darkness of Ember is essentially literal" with the generator (the mechanical light operator) failing and running out of power, leading to frequent blackouts. Sutton noted how DuPrau does not explain the history of Ember all at once, which would confuse and overwhelm the reader and instead, "allows the events of the story to convey the necessary information". Lina and Doon were described as "good sorts" that are "deeply etched". Dian Roback from "Publishers Weekly" also praised the "full blooded characters" as every bit as good as the plot which would hook readers until the end. Although Jones Johns from "School Library Journal" wrote that the setting was not as ingenious as the ones in Joan Aiken's "Is" and Lois Lowry's "The Giver", he said that the characters and pace of the plot would keep readers hooked.


title: The City of Ember

text: A film adaptation of the novel, directed by Gil Kenan, was produced by Walden Media and Playtone with Bill Murray as the mayor, Saoirse Ronan as Lina, and Harry Treadaway as Doon. Filming was finished in October 2007, and the film was released in theaters a year later on October 10, 2008. "City of Ember" was released on DVD on January 20, 2009. The film received mixed reviews, with a Metacritic rating of 58/100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Mamba

text: Mambas are fast moving highly venomous snakes of the genus Dendroaspis (which literally means "tree asp") in the family Elapidae. Four extant species are recognised currently; three of those four species are essentially arboreal and green in colour, whereas the black mamba, "Dendroaspis polylepis", is largely terrestrial and generally brown or grey in colour. All are native to various regions in sub-Saharan Africa and all are feared throughout their ranges, especially the black mamba. In Africa there are many legends and stories about mambas.


title: Mamba

text: The three green species of mambas are arboreal, whereas the black mamba is largely terrestrial. The black mamba is one of the largest and most venomous snakes in Africa. All four species are active diurnal hunters, preying on birds, lizards, and small mammals. At nightfall some species, especially the terrestrial black mamba, shelter in a lair. A mamba may retain the same lair for years.


title: Mamba

text: Mambas and cobras are in the same family: the Elapidae. Like cobras, a mamba may rear and form a hood as part of its threat display, but the mamba's hood is narrower and is longer than the broader hood of some species of cobra, such as say, the spectacled cobras of parts of Asia. In their threat display mambas commonly open their mouths; the black mamba's mouth is black within, which renders the threat more conspicuous. Typically also, a rearing mamba tends to lean well forward, instead of standing erect as a cobra does.


title: Mamba

text: Stories of black mambas that chase and attack humans are common, but in fact the snakes generally avoid contact with humans. Most apparent cases of pursuit probably are examples of where witnesses have mistaken the snake's attempt to retreat to its lair when a human happens to be in the way. The black mamba usually uses its speed to escape from threats, and humans actually are their main predators, rather than prey.


title: Mamba

text: All mambas are highly venomous. Untreated black mamba bites have a mortality rate of 100%. The other mamba species are much less dangerous: their venoms are less toxic (based upon studies); their temperaments generally not as aggressive or as explosive when provoked - and they don't inject as much venom. Fatalities have become much rarer due to wide availability of antivenom. The most potent Black mamba venom published was 0.05 mg/kg (0.01-0.18 mg/kg) via SC route.


title: Mamba

text: Mamba venoms contains both pre-synaptic and post-synaptic neurotoxins (the major neurotoxins are known as dendrotoxins and short chain alpha-neurotoxins). Besides the neurotoxins, they also carry cardiotoxins and fasciculins. Other components may include calcicludine, which is a known component of the eastern green mamba's venom and calciseptine, which is a component of black mamba venom. Toxicity of individual specimens within the same species and subspecies can vary greatly based on several factors, including diet, geographical region, health/size of the snake, etc. Even the weather and altitude can influence toxicity (Ernst and Zug et al. 1996).


title: Mamba

text: Eastern green mamba envenomation, although rapid in onset of symptoms, is considerably less deadly in comparison to the other three species. Although the Eastern green mamba has caused death, most of the recorded bites in the literature involved mild neurotoxic symptoms and recovery with little to no medical treatment. The Western green mambas ("D. viridis" and "D. jamesonii") are intermediate in severity, causing more severe envenomation than the Eastern green mamba, but less severe than the Black mamba.


title: Mamba

text: "Dendroaspis", is derived from Ancient Greek "déndron" ("δένδρον"), meaning "tree", and "aspis" ("ασπίς"), which is understood to mean "shield", but also denotes "cobra" or simply "snake", in particular "snake with hood (shield)". Via Latin "aspis", it is the source of the English word "asp". In ancient texts, "aspis" or asp often referred to the Egyptian cobra ("Naja haje"), in reference to its shield-like hood. The genus was first described by the German naturalist Hermann Schlegel in 1848, with "Elaps jamesonii" as the type species. It was misspelt as "Dendraspis" by Dumeril in 1856, and generally uncorrected by subsequent authors. In 1936, Dutch herpetologist Leo Brongersma pointed the correct spelling was "Dendroaspis" but added that the name was invalid as Fitzinger had coined "Dendraspis" in 1843 for the king cobra and hence had priority. However, in 1962 German herpetologist Robert Mertens proposed that the 1843 description of "Dendraspis" by Fitzinger be suppressed due to its similarity to "Dendroaspis", and the confusion it would cause by its use.


title: Mamba

text: Black mambas live in the savannas and rocky hills of southern and eastern Africa. They are Africa's longest venomous snake, reaching up to 14 feet in length, although 8.2 feet is more the average. They are also among the fastest snakes in the world, slithering at speeds of up to 12.5 miles per hour.


title: Mamba

text: A 2018 analysis of the venom of the mambas, as well as a 2016 genetic analysis, found the following cladogram representative of the relationship between the species.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: The demographics of Uttar Pradesh is a complex topic, which is undergoing dynamic change. Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state, and the largest subdivision in the world. It has a population of about 199,812,341 as per the 2011 census. If it were a separate country, Uttar Pradesh would be the world's fifth most populous nation, next only to China, India, the United States of America and Indonesia. Uttar Pradesh has a population more than that of Pakistan. There is an average population density of 828 persons per km² i.e. 2,146 per sq mi. The capital of Uttar Pradesh is Lucknow, and Allahabad serves as the state’s judicial capital. Hindus and Muslims both consider the state as a holy place.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: The peripheral regions of Uttar Pradesh, are home to a number of tribal communities such as Agaria, Baiga, Bhar, Bhoksa, Bind, Chero, Gond, Kol and Korwa. Five of these tribal communities have been recognised by the Government of India as disadvantaged scheduled tribes, viz. Tharus, Boksas, Bhotias, Jaunswaris and Rajis. The Literacy rate of the state according to the 2011 Census is 70.69%. With the literacy rate for Males at 79.20%, while it is 59.30% for the Females. While this is still below the national average of 74.04% (82.14% for men, 65.16% for women) the rate of growth has been much higher in Uttar Pradesh as compared to the rest of India.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: As of the 2011 census, Allahabad is the most populous district of Uttar Pradesh while Mahoba being the least populated. Only 3 districts of Jaunpur, Azamgarh and Deoria have a sex ratio greater than 1000 while Gautam Buddha Nagar stands lowest in the tally with a very low ratio of 851. On the contrary, Gautam Buddha Nagar scores highest in literacy rate at 80.12% and Kanpur Nagar 2nd at 79.54%, while both being the poorest districts in terms of sex-ratio, depicting a negative-correlation among literacy and sex-ratio in this case. Districts of Srawasti, Bahraich and Balrampur haven't even crossed the 50% literacy mark yet.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: The following table enumerates population, sex-ratio and literacy rates for each district of Uttar Pradesh:


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: In Uttar Pradesh the religion-wise percentage of population is Hindus 79.7, Muslims 19.3, Sikhs 0.3, Christians 0.2, Jains 0.1, Buddhists 0.1 while 0.3 of people have other religion or didn't state one.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: Literacy among women is quite low, going as low as 50.59% in Muslim community. On the contrary, the Jain community with quite high literacy rates, for both males and females as well. Also noteworthy is that Sikh and Hindu communities have very poor sex-ratios.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: For accurate caste population data in India, the Government of India has not publicly released Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 "caste population data" for every single non-SC/ST castes, General castes, OBC/EBCs in India, hence no official figures are available for the same.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: As per estimations based on 2011 census, Dalits constitute 21.1% of Uttar Pradesh population. Mallah community is divided in 27 sub-castes. Other Backward Classes (OBCs) constitute 40% of Uttar Pradesh’s population. Yadavs form the single largest group amongst the OBCs, constituting around 40 percent, and forming almost 9 percent of the state's population. There are 200-odd OBCs in U.P. In Uttar Pradesh, Muslims are divided into 68 castes and sub-castes, 35 of them are OBCs. Forward castes constitute around 18-20% of Uttar Pradesh population, in which Brahmins are about 9% and Rajputs are 8%.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in India with a population of over 199.5 million people on 1 March 2011. It is more populated than the world's 242 countries. If independent it would be the 6th largest country in the world as per Population.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: At the 2011 census of India, 79.7% of Uttar Pradesh population is Hindu. Muslims make up 19.3% of the population, most of whom are Rohillas, a clan of ethnic Pathans. The remaining population consists of Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians and Jains.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: The population of Uttar Pradesh is divided into numerous castes and sub-castes. Historically, Hindu society is divided into four sub-divisions or varnas, the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Muslims are also divided as the Shias and Sunnis. In actual practice, Hindu society in generally used to be divided into numerous lineage groups called jatis. Each jati is then sub-divided into clans, called gotras.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: The peripheral regions of Uttar Pradesh, are home to a number of tribal communities such as Agaria, Baiga, Bhar, Bhoksa, Chero, Gond, Kol and Korwa. Five of these tribal communities have been recognised by the Government of India as disadvantaged scheduled tribes, viz. Tharus, Boksas, Bhotias, Jaunswaris and Rajis.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: Most people in Uttar Pradesh speak Hindustani, which in a literate form is referred to as Hindi and Urdu. Bhojpuri is the second most widely spoken language of Uttar Pradesh.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: In addition, the people of Uttar Pradesh speak a variety of local dialects of Hindi, which are not always easy to classify or identify. E.g., the language of Allahabad is often classified today as Awadhi, but, its actually a mix of several surrounding dialects, including Awadhi and Bundelkhandi. Most Allahabadis refer to their dialect as Allahabadi. Furthermore, in neighbouring Banda, the dialect is exactly the same, but, they refer to it as Bundelkhandi.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: It's said that in India, the dialects change every 50-mile, and its particularly true of Uttar Pradesh.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: The dialect map of Uttar Pradesh is complex, but, in general, in three of the five sub regions of UP, viz, the Doab, Rohilkhand, and Bundelkhand, both Western and Eastern Hindi, as well as a mixture of the two are spoken. E.g., in Upper and parts of lower Doab (till Etawah), various forms of western Hindi are spoken, including Khari boli and Brij Bhasha. In the rest of lower Doab, various mixes of western and Eastern Hindi (Brij Bhasha/ Bundelkhandi and Awadhi) are spoken). Likewise, in Western Bundelkhand, Bundeli (a language closely related with Brij Bhasha) is spoken, while in Eastern Bundelkhand the dialect is still called 'Bundeli' but is part of Eastern Hindi (actually a mixture of Western and Eastern Hindi). In Western Rohilkhand, Khari boli is spoken. in Central Rohilkhand a mix of Awadhi and Khari boli is spoken, while in Eastern Rohilkhand, Awadhi is the dialect.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: Awadhi is the main dialect in the Awadh sub-region of Uttar Pradesh. But, its form changes from west to east.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: As mentioned earlier, often these dialects merge into each other, for example in Shahjahanpur, in Rohilkhand, Khari boli merges into Awadhi.


title: Demographics of Uttar Pradesh

text: In eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bhojpuri language is spoken. It is the second most widely spoken language of Uttar Pradesh after Hindi. It belongs to the Magadhan group of Indo-Aryan languages. This region is known as Bhojpur or Purvanchal. The Bhojpuri variant of Kaithi is the indigenous script of Bhojpuri language.


title: Democrats 66

text: Democrats 66 (; abbreviated D66, ) is a social liberal political party in the Netherlands, which positions itself in the centre of the political spectrum. It is a member of the Liberal International (LI) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).


title: Democrats 66

text: The name of the party refers to its year of foundation, 1966. Initially, its main objective had been to democratise the Dutch political system, but it developed a broader social liberal ideology over time. In the 1967 general election, the party won 7 out of 150 seats in the House of Representatives. No new party had ever gained that many seats before. The party was in government from 1973 to 1977, 1981 to 1982, 1994 to 2002, 2003 to 2006 and 2017 to 2021. It currently holds 24 seats in the House of Representatives, 7 seats in the Senate and 2 seats in the European Parliament.


title: Democrats 66

text: D66 is especially popular among people who hold a university degree, and its voters are mostly concentrated in larger cities and in municipalities with an above-average number of wealthy residents. The party supplies a relatively large proportion of mayors, who are appointed rather than elected.


title: Democrats 66

text: Currently, the party is led by Sigrid Kaag, who was elected party leader on 4 September 2020. Annelien Bredenoord, Jan Paternotte and Sophie in 't Veld are serving as the party's parliamentary leaders in the Senate, the House of Representatives and the European Parliament respectively.


title: Democrats 66

text: At its foundation, the party was called Democrats '66 (, abbreviated D'66). The name referred to the party's goal of radical democratisation and to the year of foundation, which was supposed to convey a modern image. In 1981, the apostrophe was dropped: the name had become a successful political brand, but the year no longer conveyed a modern image.


title: Democrats 66

text: Democrats 66 was founded on 14 October 1966 by a group of 44 people. Its founders were described as "homines novi", although 25 of the 44 had previously been members of another political party. The initiators were Hans van Mierlo, a journalist for the "Algemeen Handelsblad", and Hans Gruijters, a municipal councillor in Amsterdam. Van Mierlo became the party's political leader. The foundation of the party was preceded by the "Appeal 1966" on October 10, in which the founders appealed to the people of the Netherlands to re-take their democratic institutions. The party renounced the 19th-century political ideologies, which dominated the political system and sought to end pillarisation. It called for radical democratisation of the Dutch political system, and for pragmatic and scientific policy-making.


title: Democrats 66

text: The party participated in the 1967 general election, with Hans van Mierlo as its "lijsttrekker" (top candidate). The party won an unprecedented seven seats in the House of Representatives. In the 1971 general election, the party won an additional four seats and it formed a shadow cabinet with the Labour Party (PvdA) and the Political Party of Radicals (PPR). In the 1972 general election, the three parties formed a political alliance called the "Progressive Agreement" (; PAK) and presented the common electoral program "Turning Point '72" ("Keerpunt '72").


title: Democrats 66

text: In the election, D66 lost nearly half its seats, leaving only six. The alliance became the largest political force in the country, but it did not gain a majority. After long cabinet formation talks, the three PAK-parties formed an extra-parliamentary cabinet joined by progressive members of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) and the Catholic People's Party (KVP). The cabinet was led by Labour politician Joop den Uyl. Co-founder Hans Gruijters became Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning. After the formation talks, Van Mierlo left politics, feeling that his political position within the parliamentary party was untenable. Van Mierlo was replaced by Jan Terlouw, who became the new parliamentary leader.


title: Democrats 66

text: In the period 1972–1974, the party lost a dramatic number of members (from 6,000 to 300) and polled very poorly in the 1974 provincial elections. The party also lost half of its senators in the 1974 Senate election. At one of the party congresses, a motion was put forth to abolish the party. A majority of the members voted in favour, but the two-thirds majority was not reached. In reaction, Terlouw started a campaign to revitalise the party, involving a membership drive and a petition to the electorate. He emphasised issues other than democratic reform and gave the party a more liberal orientation. The party doubled its membership in 1975 and won two additional seats in the 1977 general election, despite losing all its seats in the Senate in the same year.


title: Democrats 66

text: In the 1981 general election, D66 gained 17 seats. The party formed a government with the Labour Party and the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), with Terlouw as Minister of Economic Affairs. The cabinet was characterised by the personal and ideological conflicts between Prime Minister Dries van Agt (CDA) and Minister of Social Affairs Joop den Uyl (PvdA). The cabinet fell nine months after it was formed, when the Labour Party left the cabinet. D66 and the CDA continued to govern in a caretaker government. In the subsequent 1982 general election, D66 lost two-thirds of its support, and was left with only 6 seats. After the election, Terlouw left politics and was replaced by Maarten Engwirda. The party was confined to opposition.


title: Democrats 66

text: In 1986, Van Mierlo returned to politics. He emphasised democratic reform as the core issue of the party and wanted to end the polarisation between the Labour Party and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), so that it would be possible to form a government without the CDA. He led the party in the 1986 general election and won 9 seats. In the 1989 election, the party won 12 seats and was asked to join the formation talks of a CDA–PvdA–D66 coalition. While the PvdA preferred to form a government "with" D66, the CDA did not. Ultimately, D66 was excluded from the coalition, because it was not necessary to include them to reach a majority in parliament.


title: Democrats 66

text: Despite being in opposition, D66 adopted a constructive approach towards the government. They were rewarded for this in the 1994 general election, in which the party doubled its number of seats to 24. D66 was able to form its preferred coalition: the "purple government", which included both the social democratic PvdA and the conservative liberal VVD. Van Mierlo was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. As advocated by D66, the first Kok cabinet initiated progressive legislation, such as the introduction of same-sex marriage and the legalisation of euthanasia. The moderately liberal economic policies of the cabinet were also seen as a great success.


title: Democrats 66

text: Shortly before the 1998 general election, Van Mierlo stepped back and Minister of Health Els Borst became the new top candidate. D66 lost ten seats in the election, while its coalition partners gained ground at the cost of D66. The second Kok cabinet continued. Although D66 was technically not needed for a majority in parliament, it was seen as the glue that kept the PvdA and the VVD together. Borst stepped down as party leader and became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health. Thom de Graaf led the party in the House of Representatives. From within the party, there were calls for a more explicit progressive liberal course. In 1999, a constitutional reform that would allow for referendums to be held was rejected by the Senate, because a group of VVD dissidents had voted against it. In response, D66 left the cabinet. After the subsequent formation talks, D66 returned to the cabinet in return for a temporary referendum law and directly elected mayors.


title: Democrats 66

text: In the 2002 general election, the tide had turned against the purple government, and the right-wing populist Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) gained considerable ground. The three purple parties lost an unprecedented 43 seats. D66 was left with only 7 seats. The first Balkenende cabinet, consisting of CDA, LPF and VVD, lasted only three months. In the 2003 general election, D66 lost another seat, leaving only 6. De Graaf stepped down and was succeeded by Boris Dittrich. After long formation talks between the CDA and the PvdA failed, a second Balkenende cabinet was formed, which included the CDA, the VVD and D66.


title: Democrats 66

text: In return for investments in environment and education, and a special Minister for Governmental Reform, D66 supported the centre-right reform cabinet and some of its more controversial legislation. In May 2005, the Senate rejected a constitutional reform that would allow a directly elected mayor. The legislation had been introduced by the second Kok cabinet, but it was unable to get a two-thirds majority because the Labour Party was opposed the electoral system proposed by Minister for Governmental Reform Thom de Graaf. De Graaf resigned, but the rest of the ministers retained their positions as D66 was promised more investment in public education and the environment. A special party congress was called to ratify this so-called "Easter Agreement" ("Paasakkoord"). 2,600 members (20 percent of total membership) were present and the congress was broadcast live on television. The congress agreed to remain in cabinet by a large majority. Alexander Pechtold replaced De Graaf as Minister for Governmental Reform. Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, the Minister of Economic Affairs, became Deputy Prime Minister.


title: Democrats 66

text: In February 2006, Dittrich stepped down as parliamentary leader, because he did not agree with the government's decision to send the Dutch armed forces to the southern province of Uruzgan in Afghanistan. D66 voted against the government's proposal together with the Socialist Party and GroenLinks. Dittrich stated that the mission to send troops was not a reconstruction mission (as the government and the majority of the Dutch parliament claimed), but a military operation. Lousewies van der Laan replaced Dittrich. In May 2006, D66 polled particularly badly in the 2006 municipal elections. D66 began to lose a considerable number of members, some of whom founded deZES, another radical democratic, progressive liberal party. During a special party congress on 13 May 2006, a motion was put forth demanding the withdrawal of D66 from the cabinet, but it was rejected. In June 2006, an internal election was held in order to choose the new party leader. The election was won by Alexander Pechtold.


title: Democrats 66

text: During the special parliamentary debate on the naturalisation process of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, D66 supported a motion of no confidence against Minister for Integration Rita Verdonk. As D66 was a junior coalition partner, this caused a crisis in the second Balkenende cabinet. The cabinet refused to remove Verdonk from her position. Lousewies van der Laan, parliamentary leader of D66, felt that the D66 faction could no longer support the cabinet and stated that the cabinet had to resign. On 3 July 2006, the two D66 ministers Alexander Pechtold and Laurens Jan Brinkhorst resigned, causing the second Balkenende cabinet to fall.


title: Democrats 66

text: In October 2006, just before the D66 party congress and its 40th anniversary as a party, D66 founder Hans van Mierlo asked the question whether D66 still had political legitimacy. He believed that many errors were made in recent history and that only the acceptance of these errors could provide for any credibility for D66. Van Mierlo declared his support for party leader Pechtold, who in his view could provide for such credibility.


title: Democrats 66

text: Since 2008, the party has performed quite well in the opinion polls, ranging from 10 to 26 seats, compared to only 3 seats in the House of Representatives. In the 2009 European Parliament election, the party won 11% of the votes and 3 seats, two more than in the previous election. The news programme Nova attributed this increase to the leadership of Alexander Pechtold, who was considered "the leader of the opposition" at the time. Under the leadership of Pechtold, the party has taken strong stances against the Party for Freedom (PVV) of Geert Wilders. In the 2010 general election, D66 increased its representation to 10 seats. In the 2012 general election, the party further increased its number of seats to 12. Since 2008, the party has experienced a significant increase in party membership, from 10,000 to 25,000 in 2015.


title: Democrats 66

text: In the 2017 general election, D66 won 19 seats in the House of Representatives and formed a centre-right coalition government with the VVD, CDA and Christian Union (CU). Kajsa Ollongren was appointed second Deputy Prime Minister in the third Rutte cabinet.


title: Democrats 66

text: In October 2018, Alexander Pechtold announced his retirement from politics. He was replaced by Rob Jetten as parliamentary leader, but the position of party leader remained vacant. In September 2020, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag was elected the new party leader and top candidate for the 2021 general election. Despite the fact that the opinion polls had predicted D66 to lose seats, the party won 24 seats in the 2021 election, becoming the second largest party in the House of Representatives.


title: Democrats 66

text: The ideology of D66 is a highly contested subject within the party and the question is tied to the reason for its existence. There are two currents within the party, namely the radical democrats and the progressive liberals. Although sometimes antagonistic, these two currents currently complement each other as both emphasise the self-realisation of the individual. The Radical League and the Free-thinking Democratic League, two early 20th century parties are historic exponents of these two traditions.


title: Democrats 66

text: The first party congress emphasised radical democratisation of Dutch society and the political system. Its ideal was a two-party system. To obtain this, it wanted to reform the electoral system after the American first past the post model. The electoral reform was gradually moderated as the party now favours German-style mixed member proportional representation. In this system, a national party-list election is used to make a first-past-the-post election representative to the nationwide vote. This radical democratisation was combined with a pragmatic and anti-dogmatic attitude towards politics. Hans van Mierlo, the party's leader between 1966 and 1972 and between 1986 and 1998 and the party's figurehead, was an important exponent of this tendency within the party.


title: Democrats 66

text: D66's progressive liberal section has historically been much weaker than its radical democratic wing. Under Jan Terlouw between 1972 and 1982, D66 began to emphasise new issues like the environment, public education and innovation. He called D66 a fourth current, next to social democracy, Christian democracy and the conservative liberalism of the VVD. In 1998, the group Opschudding called for a progressive liberal course for the party. In the party's manifesto adopted in 2000, the party explicitly adopted a progressive liberal image. National political reasons explain the usage of the label "social-liberal" since the more right-leaning VVD describes itself as the liberal party.


title: Democrats 66

text: Although supporters of political parties are no longer fixed and election results fluctuate, D66 is overall strong and concentrated in the Randstad conurbation, while also getting its votes in and around university towns. In the 2014 municipal elections, D66 became the largest party in many major cities including Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Tilburg, Groningen, Enschede, Apeldoorn, Haarlem, Amersfoort and Arnhem.


title: Democrats 66

text: The D66 delegation is part of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament. Prior to the first European elections in 1979, D66's appointed MEPs were part of the Socialist Group, before switching to Non-Inscrits from 1979 to 1984, and the LDR/ELDR/ALDE group since 1989.


title: Democrats 66

text: In the European Committee of the Regions, the Democrats 66 party sits in the Renew Europe CoR group, with two full and two alternate members for the 2020–2025 mandate:


title: Democrats 66

text: The highest organ of the D66 is the General Assembly, in which every member can participate. It convenes multiple times per year. It appoints the party board and has the last say over the party program. The party list, including the party's parliamentary leader, for the Senate, House of Representatives, European Parliament candidates are elected directly by the members. The party has between 250 and 300 branches all over the Netherlands.


title: Democrats 66

text: The youth wing of D66 is called the Young Democrats (, abbreviated JD). It has produced several prominent active members of D66, such as former MP Boris van der Ham. The JD is a member of European Liberal Youth and the International Federation of Liberal Youth.


title: Democrats 66

text: D66 is a co-founder of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, a democracy assistance organisation of seven Dutch political parties. The Hans van Mierlo Foundation is the party's policy institute.


title: Democrats 66

text: D66 is a member of the Liberal International and of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). D66 joined the Liberal and Democratic Reformists (LDR) group in 1989. It became a full member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) in 1994 and a full member of the Liberal International in 1986.


title: Democrats 66

text: In recent elections, political commentators have positioned D66 at the centre of the political spectrum. This offers the party a lot of possibilities for co-operation with other parties in the Dutch political landscape. Historically, D66 has often co-operated in cabinets with the Labour Party (PvdA). They were in four cabinets together (Den Uyl, Van Agt II, Kok I and Kok II), and formed a shadow cabinet in the early seventies. However, there have been heavy tensions between D66 and the PvdA on three occasions: in 1981, when D66 decided to continue to govern with the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) after the PvdA had left the first Van Agt cabinet; in 1989, when the PvdA formed the third Lubbers cabinet without D66; and in 2003, when D66 joined the second Balkenende cabinet.


title: Democrats 66

text: Ideologically, the social liberal D66 is linked to People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), although VVD is considered a party of conservative liberalism. This resulted in five coalition governments (Kok I, Kok II, Balkenende II, Rutte III and Rutte IV). Both D66 and the VVD are members of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and their respective members in the European Parliament are part of the Renew Europe group.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: Diesel S.p.A. is an Italian retail clothing company, located in Breganze, Italy. It sells denim, and other clothing, footwear, and accessories. The clothing line has two different brands: Diesel and Diesel Black Gold. There is also a line for children, called Diesel Kid. The company is known for its surreal advertising campaigns.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: Diesel USA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2019. Its parent company, Diesel SpA, is not part of the bankruptcy filing.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: Diesel founder Renzo Rosso began stitching jeans on a sewing machine at the age of fifteen. He used his mother's sewing machine to produce low-riding, bell bottomed jeans, which he would wear himself and sell to his friends for 3500 lire a piece. He later attended an industrial textile manufacturing high school in Padua.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: In 1976 Rosso began working for a clothing manufacturer called Moltex, which was owned by Adriano Goldschmied. After working with the company for two years, he used a loan from his father to buy a 40% holding in the company, which changed its name to Diesel, and marketed jeans under the Diesel brand and many others. Rosso bought out Goldschmied's interest in the Diesel brand name in 1985 for US$500,000, becoming the sole owner of the company. Rosso has said that he learned marketing from the US, creativity from Italy, and systems from Germany.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: During the first part of the 1990s, Rosso pioneered Diesel into the fashion world and set the grounds for its establishment in global markets. In 1990, Russ Togs, Inc. received the license to market and distribute Diesel lines in the United States and Mexico. By 1991, Russ Togs was going out of business, and sold Diesel Sportswear to Rosso upon ending the licensing deal. As a result of Russ Togs collapse, the creation of made in the USA Diesel products never came to fruition, and Diesel instead placed its made-in-Italy jeans and clothing in US stores.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: In 1991, the company launched its first international marketing effort with the highly successful 'Guides for Successful Living' campaign series. The campaign won a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, the world's leading awards in advertising, in 1992. In the same year, Diesel also became the title sponsor for the World Superbike racing circuit. Diesel continued to ignore common marketing rules and began to establish itself as a major brand in the global fashion market. This was a result of Rosso's ambition to always break new grounds and his aspiration to work with most creative agencies and photographers around, including David LaChapelle, Terry Richardson, Ellen von Unwerth, Rankin, and Erwin Olaf.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: Later in 1995, the company launched one of its most popular yet provocative campaigns ever, featuring two kissing sailors staged at the peace celebration of World War II. Shot by photographer David LaChapelle, it was the first major public advertisement to show a homosexual couple kissing and was published at height of the "Don't ask, Don't tell" debates in the US, which had led the U.S. Government to refuse entry to military service for openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons. At the same time, Diesel launched one of the first significant fashion retail websites, which housed images of each of its collections. The first Diesel jeans to be sold online were available in Finland and Sweden starting in 1997. It then opened a virtual store that allowed home delivery for further markets the following year.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: In 1999, Diesel opened large flagship stores in New York City, San Francisco, Rome, and London, and began to open other mono-brand stores for Diesel in order to augment its points of sale in department and other multi-brand retails stores. Further flagship stores (also known as "StyleLabs") opened, including stores in Berlin, Barcelona, and Paris. Diesel also produces illustrated catalogs for its retail lines. The company also won the Premio Risultati award for Best Italian Company of the Year from the Bocconi Institute in 1996. In 1998 "The Wall Street Journal" called Diesel "the label of the moment".


title: Diesel (brand)

text: Throughout the 2000s, Rosso increased Diesel's share in the global fashion market, mainly through opening more company owned stores, embarking on a series of brand collaborations, and by expanding on the business of Diesel. Diesel founder Rosso also began purchasing additional fashion companies in 2002, under the parent company Only The Brave, which Diesel was brought under as well. Companies purchased by Only the Brave included Maison Martin Margiela, Viktor & Rolf, Marni, and licensing company Staff International. In 2005 Diesel released the book "Fifty" upon Rosso's fiftieth birthday, an illustrated history of the company, with a print-run of ten thousand.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: Diesel's denim's products are produced exclusively in Italy, with many of its products produced by out-sourced factories. Its headquarters are in Breganze, on the former Moto Laverda factory area, and had twelve international subsidiaries as of 2005. As of 2008, the company had five thousand points of sale across eighty countries, with 270 mono-brand Diesel stores. Diesel itself owns 170 of those, with the rest owned by franchisees. Turnover was over €1.3 billion in 2009, and by 2010 the company had over 400 stores. In 2012 Diesel founder Rosso was listed on the "Forbes" list of billionaires for the first time. In 2015 the company held the exhibition Welcome to Diesel World in Shanghai, which provided an overview of the company's history, in conjunction with its collection debut. Another exhibition was held in Tel Aviv to mark the company's twentieth year in Israel.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: In the spring of 2013, Rosso named Nicola Formichetti, the former stylist of Lady Gaga and creative director of Mugler, as Diesel's Artistic Director. The announcement followed days of speculation and was met with positive response across the fashion world and daily news press. In an interview with "V" magazine following the announcement, Rosso said "I finally met somebody as crazy as I am", and explained that Formichetti's new responsibilities will be overseeing "the total view" of Diesel's brand, including product, communications, marketing and interior design. Formichetti's first project's included launching a groundbreaking crowd-funded advertising campaign with Tumblr. The campaign, titled #Reboot and shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, featured prominent, young creatives ranging from graffiti artists to film students instead of common models, with varying body shapes, sizes and personal styles.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: Belgian designer Glenn Martens was appointed artistic director of Diesel in October 2020. The Diesel Fall/Winter 2022 Ready-to-Wear fashion show, designed by him and held on 23 February 2022 in Milan, got mostly positive coverage. It was deemed as a "magical and fantastic" show with "big ambitions" and an "out of this world" vibe, while other reviewers appreciated that the "collection’s inspirations spanned decades", although the high-heeled boots proved tricky to walk in as one model was led off the runway by a member of the technical crew after having repeatedly tripped.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: In 2002, Rosso was asked to collaborate with Karl Lagerfeld on a denim collection for the designer's Lagerfeld Gallery. The collection, which was called Lagerfeld Gallery by Diesel, was co-designed by Lagerfeld and then developed by Diesel's Creative Team. It consisted of five pieces that were presented during the designer's catwalk shows during Paris Fashion Week and then sold in very limited editions at the Lagerfeld Galleries Stores in Paris and Monaco, and at the Diesel Denim Galleries in New York City and Tokyo. During the first week of sales in New York, more than 90% of the trousers were sold out, even though prices ranged from as high as $240 to $1840. In a statement after the show in Paris, Rosso said "I am honored to have met this fashion icon of our time. Karl represents creativity, tradition and challenge, and the fact that he thought of Diesel for this collaboration is a great gift and acknowledgement of our reputation as the prêt-à-porter of casual wear."


title: Diesel (brand)

text: In 2003, Rosso asked legendary street and graffiti artist Stephen Sprouse to take over Diesel's Union Square store for New York Fashion Week the following September. As part of the collaboration Sprouse designed a series of limited edition jeans, T-shirts and hats, and made a complete makeover of the Diesel store, which meant adding his renowned Day-Glo design to windows, interiors, and outer building exteriors.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: In 2007, Rosso and Diesel partnered with L'Oréal for the production of Diesel's first fragrance, labelled Fuel For Life. This was followed by a partnership with Italian carmaker FIAT in early 2008 to re-design the classic Fiat 500. Originally one of FIAT's most popular models ever, the new version, simply titled '500 by Diesel', featured several unique design details in the car's interior and exterior and was only produced in 10,000 units.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: In the spring of 2008, Rosso launched a collaboration between Diesel and sportswear giant Adidas. After Diesel made a special denim collection for Adidas that was exclusively available at Adidas Originals stores, called Adidas Originals by Diesel, the collaboration then developed into Adidas making special sneakers called Forum Mid Diesel Lea, Forum Mid Diesel Txt, ZX 700 Diesel, Stan Smith Special, Stan Smith 80's Diesel - available in Diesel stores worldwide.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: In May 2011, Rosso launched the first ever Diesel bicycle, together with award-winning bicycle manufacturer Pinarello. Built as a single-speed, city bicycle with a hydro formed aluminum frame, the collaboration marked one of the first true collaborations between the bicycle and the fashion industry.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: While the most popular Diesel apparel item has been denim wear, the company has expanded to include additional forms of clothing. The company has created leather jackets, women's dresses, and other items. In 1998, Diesel founded an offshoot label called Diesel StyleLab, which produced higher end fashion designs beyond more traditional denim jeans. In the 2000s, the company began to license its brand to other retail manufacturers, in order to create new product categories. These lines included the sunglasses line Diesel Eyewear in partnership with Marcolin, the jewels and watches line Diesel Watches in partnership with Fossil, the fragrance line in partnership with L'Oréal. The production of each line involves supervision from Diesel itself. Diesel has also partnered with Moroso, Seletti, Scavolini, Foscarini, and Berti to create a home furnishings line called Diesel Living, with Bugaboo to create strollers, with AVG to create helmets, with Ducati, and with Fiat to create a limited edition Fiat 500. Diesel also produces limited edition lines of jeans.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: As of 2003, according to Women's Wear Daily, Diesel had three distinct fashion lines, "Diesel Style Lab, the most pricey fashion-forward designer label; Diesel, a fashion brand that still focuses heavily on denim, and 55DSL, the board sport-inspired streetwear line that blends fashion and function." Style Lab and 55DSL are now defunct.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: Currently there are two lines at Diesel: Diesel and Diesel Black Gold. Diesel Black Gold is the luxury ready-to-wear line and was launched in 2008 during the New York Fashion Week. The new line combined Diesel's original expertise in denim and casual wear with the craftsmanship of tailoring. Through its collections of artfully distressed denim and leather, new twists on traditional garments and iconic blends of past and future, Diesel Black Gold has become the largest non-designer label in the contemporary high-end fashion market, and has successfully managed to become a casual alternative to other luxury brands. In 2013 Diesel underwent a re-branding effort, reorganizing both the business structure and marketing methodologies.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: Starting in 1991, Diesel has been known for producing ads that invoke surreal images in lieu of direct product details, in partnership with Swedish ad agency Paradiset DDB, Stockholm. These included 1997 ads portraying life in Communist North Korea (shot in Hong Kong). Another ad campaign imitated automobile crashes. Campaigns have also used social consciousness as a theme, ironic plays on global issues (such as their Global Warming Ready campaign featuring post-global warming backdrops in global locations), as well as anti-establishment messages. Michael Chevalier has critiqued the retail stores, stating that he believes that the stores's merchandise is presented in a confusing way in order to get customers to interact with the sales staff.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: During the late 1990s, Diesel produced CD-ROMs and other computer content, including the computer game "Digital Adrenalin—55DSL".


title: Diesel (brand)

text: In the early 2000s, Diesel began to implement a mindset into their global marketing strategy that "put sales and profit second to building something special for customers, often by creating interactive user experiences that are not directly connected to retail, sales or stores." In a research study of innovative businesses presented by "The Times", much of Diesel's successful growth in the early 2000s was accredited to this mindset. The study concluded that "Diesel is an experience which interacts with and entertains its customers with a far deeper relationship than other brands", and that "It is always about engaging with the customer as opposed to selling at them: creating an enjoyable two-way dialogue as opposed to a hollow one-way monologue."


title: Diesel (brand)

text: In 2007, Diesel sponsored a music contest, Diesel-U-Music. From January to September 2008, Diesel spent $5.8 million on U.S. advertising, according to TNS Media Intelligence.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: This approach took another step, leading to the infamous 'Heidies'. which mocked the phenomenon of reality TV and was one of the first ever campaigns by a fashion brand solely based on the Internet. It featured two models that were locked inside a room and who did whatever the online viewers suggested. The models played two mentally crazy women who, wanting to claim their 15 minutes of fame, had taken an intimate Diesel sales guy as hostage, closed themselves up in a hotel room and hijacked the company's website; requesting that they be selected for the next Diesel advertising campaign. The employee was said to work for Diesel Intimate, as the campaign was in fact the launch for the brand's new line of intimate and beachwear. The campaign became a huge success, and reached over 100,000 views daily while it was live. It was awarded at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival that same year.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: On October 11, 2008, Diesel celebrated the company's 30th anniversary hosting 17 parties around the world all broadcast live online spanning across 24 hours. Following the opening in Tokyo, the live stream continued to Beijing, Dubai, Athens, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Milan, Zurich, Munich, Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Oslo, London, São Paulo and finally ended in New York City, with Rosso's attendance. The event featured live performances by Daft Punk, Earth Wind and Fire, 2manydjs, Mark Ronson, New Young Pony Club, and a pregnant MIA who broke her retirement for the occasion. In addition there were neverseen before mash-ups with Chaka Khan feat. Franz Ferdinand and N.E.R.D. feat. Hot Chip.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: The event was advertised through the release of a video titled 'Diesel SFW XXX Party Video', which immediately went viral and spread rapidly across the Internet, mostly due to its ironic take on 1980s style pornography. By 2011 it had been viewed more than 20 million times online and classified as one of the most successful viral campaigns ever. Additionally, the anniversary event also featured the production of a limited edition pair of jeans, called 'The Dirty Thirty'. The denim, which were for sale for one day only (on the date of the birth of the brand) at the extremely discounted price of €30 and modeled by Daisy Lowe, caused 'hysteria' and lead consumers to form mile-long lines outside Diesel stores around the world. These jeans were sold out within just a few hours worldwide.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: Throughout the 2000s Rosso and the Diesel Creative Team also continued working with a number of famous photographers and agencies, including Jean Pierre Khazem, Carl de Keyzer, Finlay McKay, Elaine Constantine, Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, Johan Renck, and Terry Richardson, the latter for the celebrated "Global Warming Ready" campaign of 2007. In 2001, 2007, 2009, and 2010 Diesel was given Grand Prix awards at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.


title: Diesel (brand)

text: There is a Diesel Art Gallery in Tokyo. In 2009 the head of Diesel's US division, Steve Birkhold, left the company shortly after agreeing a deal to sell cut-priced jeans through Macy's.