title: Yashoda

text: According to the "Bhagavata Purana", Yashoda was the incarnation of Dhara, the wife of the Vasu, Drona. Little is known about Yashoda's early life, other than her marriage with Nanda.


title: Yashoda

text: Yashoda's Father Sri Sumukha was the treasurer and a wealthy trader of Vraja. He is mentioned to have had a very long beard as fair as the white conchshell, and his skin complexion was as dark as the ripe Indian blackberry. He had an elder sister named Veekshanashobhini (IAST : "Vīkṣaṇaśobhini") who was married to a wealthy family of Gomatiksetra (present-day Sultanpur dist., UP). Sumukha also had a younger brother named Charumukha (IAST : "Cārumukha") who had a wife named Bālakagopikā of Vrindavana.


title: Yashoda

text: Yashoda's Mother Sri Pataladevi (IAST : "Pāṭaḷādevī") was from a wealthy and respected mercantile family of seafaring traders from the ancient city of Patala located at the mouth of Indus river in the Sindhu kingdom, which is presently near Thatta, Sindh. Her skin is said to be as soft as the rose petals, known as "Pāṭaḷa" in Sanskrit. Her family was an ardent devotee of Mother Kali and used to worship her before seafaring.


title: Yashoda

text: Kamsa, the ruler of Mathura, had decided to kill Krishna as soon as he was born. In order to protect Krishna from Kamsa, Krishna and Yoganidra or Yogamaya were born at the same time from the wombs of Devaki and Yashoda, respectively, and were exchanged by Vasudeva Anakadundubhi. Krishna survived as the foster son of Yashoda.


title: Yashoda

text: Various childhood episodes or " Lilas" of Krishna, growing up in Yashoda's household, abound in northern Indian Hindu religious texts. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, Yashoda is praised as:


title: Yashoda

text: According to the Bhagavata Purana, once, Krishna was playing in the sand and was swallowing it. Yashoda, upon seeing this, was furious with Krishna for disobeying her and punished him by tying him to a mortar, or a grinding stone. The child dragged the mortar to the tree called "Marutru", and got himself struck between the twin trees. Immediately, the trees regained their original forms of Nalakuvara and Manigriva, the sons of Kubera. The deities had been cursed by Narada for not paying heed to him, and had been liberated from their curse as trees after meeting Krishna. They paid homage to the child, who blessed them, and the two returned to Vaishravanapuri.


title: Yashoda

text: When the demoness Putana attempts to murder the infant Krishna by breastfeeding him with her poison, Krishna sucks out her life force instead, turning her into a carcass. Hearing the demoness' dying screams, Yashoda finds the corpse still bearing her child in her arms. Yashoda snatches him and waves a cow-tail brush over him, in order to guard him from harm.


title: Yashoda

text: According to regional tradition, in the "Dvapara Yuga", Yashoda could not witness the wedding of Krishna. Krishna promised her that she would get that chance of seeing his wedding when Krishna incarnates again as Venkateshvara in the "Kali Yuga". In the "Kali Yuga", Yashoda was born as Vakula Devi, as the mother of Venkateshvara and witnessed the nuptials between Venkateshvara and Princess Padmavathi.


title: Yashoda

text: The 1975 Telugu film "Yashoda Krishna", directed by C. S. Rao, presented events in the life of Krishna and his attachment towards Yashoda. Sridevi played the role of the child Krishna in the film.


title: Yashoda

text: The Tamil devotional song, 'Enna Thavam Seithanai' is addressed to Yashoda, rhetorically wondering what penance she had performed to raise Krishna as her own child. The Carnatic song, "Thaaye Yashoda", composed by Oothukkadu Venkata Kavi, is another song addressed to Yashoda from the perspective of gopikas who complain about Krishna's mischief.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: The Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF) is a deep-field image of a small region of space in the constellation Fornax, containing an estimated 10,000 galaxies. The original data for the image was collected by the Hubble Space Telescope from September 2003 to January 2004. It includes light from galaxies that existed about 13 billion years ago, some 400 to 800 million years after the Big Bang.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: The HUDF image was taken in a section of the sky with a low density of bright stars in the near-field, allowing much better viewing of dimmer, more distant objects. Located southwest of Orion in the southern-hemisphere constellation Fornax, the rectangular image is 2.4 arcminutes to an edge, or 3.4 arcminutes diagonally. This is about one-tenth of the angular diameter of a full moon viewed from Earth (less than 34 arcminutes), smaller than a 1 mm piece of paper held 1 m away, and equal to roughly one twenty-six-millionth of the total area of the sky. The image is oriented so that the upper left corner points toward north (−46.4°) on the celestial sphere.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: In August and September 2009, the HUDF field was observed at longer wavelengths (1.0 to 1.6 µm) using the infrared channel of the recently fitted Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). This additional data enabled astronomers to identify a new list of potentially very distant galaxies.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: On September 25, 2012, NASA released a new version of the Ultra-Deep Field dubbed the eXtreme Deep Field (XDF). The XDF reveals galaxies from 13.2 billion years ago, including one thought to have formed only 450 million years after the Big Bang.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: On June 3, 2014, NASA released the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2014 image, the first HUDF image to use the full range of ultraviolet to near-infrared light. A composite of separate exposures taken in 2002 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3, it shows some 10,000 galaxies.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: On January 23, 2019, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias released an even deeper version of the infrared images of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field obtained with the WFC3 instrument, named the ABYSS Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The new images improve the previous reduction of the WFC3/IR images, including careful sky background subtraction around the largest galaxies on the field of view. After this update, some galaxies were found to be almost twice as big as previously measured.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: In the years since the original Hubble Deep Field, the Hubble Deep Field South and the GOODS sample were analyzed, providing increased statistics at the high redshifts probed by the HDF. When the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) detector was installed on the HST, it was realized that an ultra-deep field could observe galaxy formation out to even higher redshifts than had currently been observed, as well as providing more information about galaxy formation at intermediate redshifts (z~2). A workshop on how to best carry out surveys with the ACS was held at STScI in late 2002. At the workshop Massimo Stiavelli advocated an Ultra Deep Field as a way to study the objects responsible for the reionization of the Universe. Following the workshop, the STScI Director Steven Beckwith decided to devote 400 orbits of Director's Discretionary time to the UDF and appointed Stiavelli as the lead of the Home Team implementing the observations.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: Unlike the Deep Fields, the HUDF does not lie in Hubble's Continuous Viewing Zone (CVZ). The earlier observations, using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) camera, were able to take advantage of the increased observing time on these zones by using wavelengths with higher noise to observe at times when earthshine contaminated the observations; however, ACS does not observe at these wavelengths, so the advantage was reduced.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: As with the earlier fields, this one was required to contain very little emission from our galaxy, with little Zodiacal dust. The field was also required to be in a range of declinations such that it could be observed both by southern hemisphere instruments, such as the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, and northern hemisphere ones, such as those located on Hawaii. It was ultimately decided to observe a section of the Chandra Deep Field South, due to existing deep X-ray observations from Chandra X-ray Observatory and two interesting objects already observed in the GOODS sample at the same location: a redshift 5.8 galaxy and a supernova. The coordinates of the field are right ascension , declination (J2000). The field is 200 arcseconds to a side, with a total area of 11 square arcminutes, and lies in the constellation of Fornax.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: Four filters were used on the ACS, centered on 435, 606, 775 and 850 nm, with exposure times set to give equal sensitivity in all filters. These wavelength ranges match those used by the GOODS sample, allowing direct comparison between the two. As with the Deep Fields, the HUDF used Directors Discretionary Time. In order to get the best resolution possible, the observations were dithered by pointing the telescope at slightly different positions for each exposure—a process trialled with the Hubble Deep Field—so that the final image has a higher resolution than the pixels on their own would normally allow.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: The observations were done in two sessions, from September 23 to October 28, 2003, and December 4, 2003, to January 15, 2004. The total exposure time is just under 1 million seconds, from 400 orbits, with a typical exposure time of 1200 seconds. In total, 800 ACS exposures were taken over the course of 11.3 days, two per orbit; NICMOS observed for 4.5 days. All the individual ACS exposures were processed and combined by Anton Koekemoer into a set of scientifically useful images, each with a total exposure time ranging from 134,900 seconds to 347,100 seconds. To observe the whole sky to the same sensitivity, the HST would need to observe continuously for a million years.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: The sensitivity of the ACS limits its capability of detecting galaxies at high redshift to about 6. The deep NICMOS fields obtained in parallel to the ACS images could in principle be used to detect galaxies at redshift 7 or higher but they were lacking visible band images of similar depth. These are necessary to identify high redshift objects as they should not be seen in the visible bands. In order to obtain deep visible exposures on top of the NICMOS parallel fields a follow-up program, HUDF05, was approved and granted 204 orbits to observe the two parallel fields (GO-10632). The orientation of the HST was chosen so that further NICMOS parallel images would fall on top of the main UDF field.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: After the installation of WFC3 on Hubble in 2009, the HUDF09 programme (GO-11563) devoted 192 orbits to observations of three fields, including HUDF, using the newly available F105W, F125W and F160W infra-red filters (which correspond to the Y, J and H bands):


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: The HUDF is the deepest image of the universe ever taken and has been used to search for galaxies that existed between 400 and 800 million years after the Big Bang (redshifts between 7 and 12). Several galaxies in the HUDF are candidates, based on photometric redshifts, to be amongst the most distant astronomical objects. The red dwarf UDF 2457 at distance of 59,000 light-years is the furthest star resolved by the HUDF. The star near the center of the field is USNO-A2.0 0600-01400432 with apparent magnitude of 18.95.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: The field imaged by the ACS contains over 10,000 objects, the majority of which are galaxies, many at redshifts greater than 3, and some that probably have redshifts between 6 and 7. The NICMOS measurements may have discovered galaxies at redshifts up to 12.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: The HUDF has revealed high rates of star formation during the very early stages of galaxy formation, within a billion years after the Big Bang. It has also enabled improved characterization of the distribution of galaxies, their numbers, sizes and luminosities at different epochs, aiding investigation into the evolution of galaxies. Galaxies at high redshifts have been confirmed to be smaller and less symmetrical than ones at lower redshifts, illuminating the rapid evolution of galaxies in the first couple of billion years after the Big Bang.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: The Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (HXDF), released on September 25, 2012, is an image of a portion of space in the center of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image. Representing a total of two million seconds (about 23 days) of exposure time collected over 10 years, the image covers an area of 2.3 arcminutes by 2 arcminutes, or about 80% of the area of the HUDF. This represents approximately one thirty-two millionth of the sky.


title: Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

text: The HXDF contains about 5,500 galaxies, the oldest of which are seen as they were 13.2 billion years ago. The faintest galaxies are one ten-billionth the brightness of what the human eye can see. The red galaxies in the image are the remnants of galaxies after major collisions during their elderly years. Many of the smaller galaxies in the image are very young galaxies that eventually developed into major galaxies, similar to the Milky Way and other galaxies in our galactic neighborhood.


title: Ontario Party

text: The Ontario Party () is a minor social conservative, economic liberal and right-wing populist political party in the Canadian province of Ontario, founded in 2018.


title: Ontario Party

text: The Ontario Party was founded in May 2018, during the 2018 Ontario general election, by members of the Ontario Alliance leadership who left that party, claiming that the CFO and president of the Alliance were not complying with the constitution of the party or the decisions made by the board of directors.


title: Ontario Party

text: Jay Tysick, the party's first leader, is a former member of the Progressive Conservatives and chief of staff for Ottawa City Councillor Rick Chiarelli. Tysick indicated to media that he was driven to organize a new party after being prevented from running for the PC nomination in the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton. Tysick had been disqualified from standing as a candidate for the Progressive Conservatives due to his socially conservative views.


title: Ontario Party

text: In 2021, the party selected Joel Shepheard as its leader and Raphael Rosch as its president. Shepheard was replaced in December by former Member of Parliament Derek Sloan. Later that month, Chatham-Kent—Leamington MPP Rick Nicholls joined the party to become its first sitting member in the Legislative Assembly.


title: Ontario Party

text: The party failed to win any seats in the 2022 Ontario general election. Sloan cited the newness of the party for the results and announced he would stay on as leader.


title: Ontario Party

text: The Ontario Party is a conservative, right-wing populist party with ties to right-wing Christian groups, anti-vaccination advocates, and organizers of the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa. After the election of Derek Sloan as leader, media and experts began styling the party as "right-wing" to "far-right" in its ideology.


title: Ontario Party

text: The Ontario Party strongly favours conservative economic policies. The party's charter opposes government monopolies, maintains support for balanced budgets, and opposes what it calls "excessive" taxation.


title: Ontario Party

text: The Ontario Party espouses right-wing and socially-conservative opinions on social issues. The party has raised opposition to the complex legal theory known as Critical Race Theory, opposing its teaching in Ontario schools. The party supports a role for private education through a voucher system. As party leader, Sloan has emphasized an opposition to what he calls "gender ideology", namely standing in opposition to transgender rights, a position he has maintained since prior to his appointment as leader. The party opposes reforms to the province's sex education curriculum and, in 2021, announced they would be collaborating with Queenie Yu, the founder and leader of the socially-conservative Stop the New Sex-Ed Agenda Party. The party has espoused conspiratorial views, particularly around the World Economic Forum, which the party claims is advancing a "digital ID" program, and which party leader Sloan said is trying to place "microchips in our bodies and in our heads."


title: Ontario Party

text: As of the 2022 Ontario election, the Ontario Party has emphasized an opposition to COVID-19 public health measures, with party leader Sloan expressing opposition to "authoritarian, unconstitutional lockdowns and mandates".


title: Candy Candy

text: The "Candy Candy" manga provides a story for the shōjo demographic. Candy, an abandoned orphan taken in by the orphanage Pony's Home near Lake Michigan around the start of the 20th century, spent the first years of her life at the orphanage, to where she would often return to repose and to decide her next course in life. When Annie, her best friend at the orphanage, was adopted, she ran outside crying and met briefly a boy who told her not to cry. Candy retained fond memories of the boy and, not knowing his name, remembered him as the "Prince on the Hill". The boy will have great influence and importance in her life later on.


title: Candy Candy

text: When she turned 12, Candy was taken in by the Leagan family as a companion for their daughter Eliza and her brother Neil. The Leagans treated her poorly and eventually made Candy a servant girl. When the Leagan family accused Candy of stealing and sent her off to work in their family farm in Mexico, Candy was rescued from being sent to Mexico by William Ardlay, the sole heir of the very wealthy Ardlay family and the owner of the Ardlay estate. William Ardlay became Candy's tutor until she would reach adulthood, but his true identity remained a mystery and she would not meet him until the end of the story. He was also the uncle of Candy's first love, Anthony Brown, and a relative of Anthony's cousins, the Cornwell brothers Archibald (Archie) and Alistair (Stear), as well as the Leagan children.


title: Candy Candy

text: Later on, Anthony died in a hunting accident when he was thrown off the horseback. Thereafter, Candy, along with Archie and Stear, and the Leagan children, were sent to London to attend the prestigious St. Paul's College, a secondary school, where she met Terrence (Terrius/Terry) Granchester, the illegitimate child of a British Duke with American Broadway actress Eleanor Baker. Candy once saw him crying on the same boat she was taking to London from America. Terry was allegedly her "second and grand love that cannot bear fruit" (in the words of the author Keiko Nagita/Kyoko Mizuki in essays believed to be found on Misaki's website). Circumstances divided the pair when Eliza Leagan schemed to have Candy expelled from St. Paul's by manipulating them into a scandal.


title: Candy Candy

text: After the scandal, Terry left St. Paul's to protect Candy's reputation and pursue his aspiration to become an actor, but Candy also decided to leave soon after. They would both embark on their individual life journeys forward in the United States, where Candy trained to become a nurse in Chicago around the time of World War I, and Terry pursued a career as a rising star actor in New York. An actress and colleague in his theater troupe, Susanna, became attracted to Terry. During a rehearsal session, an accident occurred and Susanna saved Terry's life, but in the process became disabled. Her injury destroyed her acting career. Susanna became depressed and attempted to commit suicide as she did not want to be a burden to anyone and her career was ruined. Feeling responsible, Terry was torn between reuniting with Candy and his concern for Susanna. When Candy discovered what happened without Terry ever telling her beforehand, she decided to sacrifice her own happiness and left Terry. Candy knew that Terry would remain with Susanna as this was the decision he had already made on his own accord without ever consulting with Candy.


title: Candy Candy

text: Afterwards, Candy returned to Chicago to continue her life. By chance, she became the nurse and caretaker to Albert, who lost his memories after a World War I related bomb explosion on a train in Italy. Candy and Albert decided to live together and their cohabitation lasted for several years during Albert's amnesiac state. Yet, Albert ultimately regained his memories and revealed his true identity to Candy. At the end of the story, Candy discovered that he was also the Prince on the Hill. Their relationship had moved on to a different level during their adulthood.


title: Candy Candy

text: In Italy, however, the anime's ending was changed albeit without the endorsement of Keiko Nagita and TOEI productions. Based on this unofficial Italian version, Candy and Terry meet again at a train station deciding to stay together. This ending, however, is simply based on fanfiction and not on any official publication by the author or her agent, therefore, never achieving any international acclaim or official recognition.


title: Candy Candy

text: In 2010 the novel "Candy Candy The Final Story" was re-edited by Mizuki using her real name Keiko Nagita. In this revised novel based on an earlier 1970s text, Candy discovers that Suzanne died when reading about it in the newspaper. At an undefined time, Candy receives a note signed with the initials "T.G.". Albeit never confirmed in the text itself, these initials are allegedly ascribed to the stage actor, Terry Graham. He no longer uses his father's surname "Granchester" as he had renounced it upon his departure from the UK several years ago. The note itself is obscure and thus open to a multitude of interpretations. The novel ends with Candy in her mid-30s living with the man she loves during the Interbellum. The identity of this man is never revealed in the text and there is no evidence indicating who this character is. In addition, there is no indication whether Candy is married or not, employed or has children of her own. All the reader knows is that she is happy to be with the man she loves-whoever he may be.


title: Candy Candy

text: There were some plot and character differences between the manga and the anime: Candy's age was different for several events when she grew up at Pony's Home. In the manga, she was six or seven years old when she met her Prince of the Hill, but was ten in the anime. Her sidekick pet raccoon Kurin/Clint belonged solely to the anime version.


title: Candy Candy

text: Kyoko Mizuki's (the pen name of Keiko Nagita) "Candy Candy" novel, consisting of three volumes, has piqued the interest of "Candy Candy" fans outside Japan for some years. This novel was only available in Japan and published in Japanese.


title: Candy Candy

text: Of particular interest is the 3rd volume, which covers the period after the events chronicled in the manga and anime. The novels have been translated in their entirety by Western fans but the translations confirmed that, true to her artistic form, Kyoko Mizuki did not provide concrete closure to the story. Yet, in the last letter that closed out the novel, Candy was still an optimistic, life-loving and cheerful heroine.


title: Candy Candy

text: In 2010, Kyoko Mizuki, under her real name Keiko Nagita, revised and published the ""Candy Candy Final Story"" (CCFS). CCFS was published in two volumes and not three volumes as the earlier novels. She announced that this was her effort to tell the story as she always intended from the beginning, without the influence of the manga illustrator or the manga production team. Most of the plot of the story remained the same. Changes were made mainly to details of descriptions to scenes. Mizuki also replaced the children hiragana form writing of the earlier novels with more mature kanji form of the writing and made the style of CCFS more poetic. She did, however, add a few major new developments to CCFS. In CCFS, Susanna had died from a chronic illness years after Candy and Terry had separated. It is not said in the CCFS whether Candy responded to a note she had received which had been signed with the initials "T.G.". It is alleged that this note may belong to Terry Graham but that is never confirmed in the text nor is it specified whether Candy responded to that letter or not. Then the novel proceeds with the final section known as the "Epilogue" where a series of letters are exchanged between Candy and Albert. Candy includes a recollection of her (unsent) letter to Anthony where she reflects upon her life thus far. Keiko Nagita also added a final scene where Candy, in her thirties and living in an unknown place near a river called Avon, greets her beloved as he enters their home. The man's name is never revealed, but Nagita said that she was satisfied knowing that Candy now lived a happy life with that mystery man.


title: Candy Candy

text: In 2015, the Italian publisher Kappalab obtained the copyright to publish CCFS in its entirety in Italian. The first volume was published in early 2015. The second volume was released in summer 2015.


title: Candy Candy

text: Announcement of the Candy Candy manga appeared in the March 1975 issue of "Nakayoshi". The first chapter was published in April 1975, and continued until the last chapter in March 1979. However, the story did not appear in the November 1975, December 1976, January 1978 and June 1978 issues. The manga was published in 9 volumes.


title: Candy Candy

text: After the manga had become popular among Japanese girls, an anime series was produced for NET (now known as TV Asahi) in 1976. The anime has 115 episodes which run for 25 minutes each. and It had a wide popularity in Europe and Latin America.


title: Candy Candy

text: There are four animated short films: "Candy Candy" (1977), "Candy Candy: The Call of Spring/The May Festival" (1978), "Candy Candy's Summer Vacation" (1978) and "Candy Candy the Movie" (1992).


title: Candy Candy

text: In 1981 the Drama/Family live action movie of the manga & anime has been produced by Chu-ji Choi, directed by In-hyeon Choi, and written by Man Izawa. Shin-hie Choi is starring, alongside Do-hie Kim, Hyo-jeong Eom, Bo-geun Song and Eun-suk Yu. Due to licensing issue, the movie only made it on domestic release.


title: Candy Candy

text: Sinemart as one of largest Indonesia production house made modern storytelling of Candy Candy with titled Candy drama series produced by Leo Sutanto & directed by Widi Wijaya aired on channel RCTI in 2007 starring Rachel Amanda, Nimaz Dewantary, Lucky Perdana & Bobby Joseph.


title: Candy Candy

text: Between 1998 and 2001, three lawsuits were settled between Kyoko Mizuki, Yumiko Igarashi and Toei Animation over the ownership of the "Candy Candy" copyrights. These lawsuits made Toei halt the broadcast of the Candy Candy anime, which Mizuki has expressed disappointment over. In the 2000s, "Candy Candy" episodes began to be sold on bootleg DVD format, as the legal lawsuits between the authors halted any production of licensed goods. In 2005 and 2006, illegal/unlicensed "Candy" box sets began to appear. The first being from France, included the French and Japanese dialogue. Two Korean box sets are now out of stock, they include the Japanese and Korean dialogue, and Korean subtitles. 20 discs altogether are divided into two box sets and available from HanBooks and Sensasian. Prior to the release, illegal/unlicensed Spanish DVD sets with poor audio and video were widely available on eBay. The illegal/unlicensed DVD set is issued in both Mandarin and Japanese with Chinese, English and Korean subtitles. On January 8, 2007, Chilean newspaper "Las Últimas Noticias" began issuing illegal/unlicensed DVDs of "Candy Candy" with its issues every Monday, with plans to continue to do so until all 115 episodes were released. In 2008, an illegal/unlicensed 115-episode DVD set was released in Taiwan.


title: Candy Candy

text: In 1980, ZIV International acquired the U.S. rights to the series. The first two episodes were dubbed into English, with a new theme song and score created by in-house composer Mark Mercury. This was ultimately condensed into a straight-to-video production, released on tape in 1981 by Media Home Entertainment and then by Family Home Entertainment. It is unknown if any more episodes were dubbed for the American market. None of these have been subsequently reissued.


title: Opie Taylor

text: Opie Taylor is a fictional character played by Ron Howard in the American television program "The Andy Griffith Show", which was televised on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968. Opie Taylor appeared in 209 of the 249 episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show", and appeared in 2 spin-off shows and a TV Movie.


title: Opie Taylor

text: There are two explanations of the origin of the character's name. One is that Opie was named after bandleader and radio actor Opie Cates; the other is that he was named for Opie Shelton (1915–1999), a childhood friend of Griffith, who went on to become president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.


title: Opie Taylor

text: Opie first appears in the February 1960 backdoor pilot of "The Danny Thomas Show". Ron Howard was 5 years old at the time.


title: Opie Taylor

text: In the first episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" (October 1960), Andy's Aunt Bee returns to Mayberry via Morgantown, West Virginia, at her nephew's invitation in order to manage the Taylor household after Andy's housekeeper Rose marries and departs. Opie, 6, takes an instant dislike to Aunt Bee based upon his grief at losing his beloved Rose, although he does secretly enjoy her cooking. After discovering that she can neither play baseball nor fish, Opie declares that he will never love her. The final straw comes when she accidentally lets his pet bird escape, though it reappears at the end of the episode (the bird is never again mentioned). A disheartened Aunt Bee chooses to leave. However, in a surge of empathy, Opie begs his father to let her stay, as he fears for her well-being as she doesn't know how to do "anything" on her own.


title: Opie Taylor

text: Opie's relationship with his "Pa", Andy, provided plot material for many episodes. In one episode ("Opie the Birdman", September 30, 1963), Andy teaches Opie the value of responsibility and parenthood after Opie accidentally kills a mother bird with his slingshot and leaves her three nestlings orphaned. Andy, underscoring the loss, opens Opie's bedroom window so he will hear the chicks calling after the mother who will never come home. Naming the birds "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod", Opie nurtures them until they are ready to be released into the wild.


title: Opie Taylor

text: In another case, Opie finds a wallet containing $50 and gets to keep it when nobody claims it. A day later, Opie meets the man who lost it. The man later tells Andy (who was reimbursing the $50 after he found an ad describing the wallet in the paper) that he met Opie at the courthouse and told him about the wallet. Andy naturally assumes that Opie spent all the money anyway and confronts his son. Opie tells his father that he decided to give back the $50, since he realizes that he couldn't be happy with the money because it wasn't truly 'his' to spend.


title: Opie Taylor

text: When not visiting his father at the courthouse, Opie would sometimes get into jams. Some of his juvenile misdeeds include: trespassing in a neighbor's barn, selling Miracle Salve to the citizens of Mayberry; accidentally destroying Aunt Bee's prize rose; concealing an abandoned baby in his clubhouse; tricking Goober Pyle into thinking a shaggy dog can speak, and starting his own tell-all community newspaper.


title: Opie Taylor

text: Much of the humor in the Andy/Opie relationship comes not from Opie being portrayed as insolent, but because of the respect he has for Andy. For all his boyish misgivings, Opie is always honest and truthful with his father, sometimes to his own detriment. In one episode, Opie describes a utility worker named Mr. McBeevee he met in the woods. Andy thinks it is an imaginary friend and tries to convince Opie of it; but, Mr. McBeevee is real and Opie maintains his story despite facing certain discipline from Andy. In another episode, a runaway boy tells Opie not to disclose his whereabouts. Having previously learned the value of confidentiality from Andy, Opie refuses to tell his father where the boy is rather than lie, or break a confidence, much to Andy's chagrin.


title: Opie Taylor

text: When Opie is "almost 12" he runs away from Mayberry by boarding a jet airplane in Raleigh under false pretenses, and flies to California to see Gomer Pyle and join the Marines in a 1966 episode of "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.".


title: Opie Taylor

text: In the backdoor pilot episode from "The Danny Thomas Show", viewers learn Andy lost Opie's mother when the boy was "the least little speck of a baby." Opie, whose turtle died when someone stepped on it, asked "Who stepped on Ma?" Andy was referred to as a widower several times in the show which would indicate that Opie's mother died and that she did not leave Andy and Opie. On a "Mayberry RFD" episode, viewers learn that Opie's former teacher and stepmother Helen gave birth to Andy Taylor, Jr, who is christened in Mayberry.


title: Opie Taylor

text: In the 1986 made-for-TV reunion movie "Return to Mayberry", Ron Howard reprised his role as a now-adult Opie, who has become a newspaper writer. The plot was driven by his father's return to see Opie's wife give birth to their first child. Half-brother Andy Jr. does not appear nor was he mentioned.


title: Humulus lupulus

text: Humulus lupulus, the common hop or hops, is a species of flowering plant in the hemp family Cannabinaceae, native to Europe, western Asia and North America. It is a perennial, herbaceous climbing plant which sends up new shoots in early spring and dies back to a cold-hardy rhizome in autumn. It is dioecious (having separate male and female plants).


title: Humulus lupulus

text: As the female cone-shaped flowers (hops) are used to preserve and flavor beer, the species is widely cultivated by the brewing industry.


title: Humulus lupulus

text: "Humulus lupulus" is a perennial herbaceous plant up to tall, living up to 20 years. It has simple leaves with 3–5 deep lobes that can be opposite or alternate. The species is triggered by the longer summer days to flower, usually around July or August. The plant is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants. The fragrant flowers are wind-pollinated. The staminate (male) flowers do not have petals, while the pistillate (female) flowers have petals enveloping the fruit. The female flower cones (or strobili) are known as hops. The fruit is an achene, meaning that it is dry and does not split open at maturity. The achene is surrounded by tepals and lupulin-secreting glands are concentrated on the fruit.


title: Humulus lupulus

text: The species is sometimes described as a bine rather than a vine because it has stiff downward facing hairs that provide stability and allow it to climb.


title: Humulus lupulus

text: Hops are unique for containing secondary metabolites, flavonoids, oils, and polyphenols that impact the flavor of the products they are common in, such as beer. The bitter flavors in hops can be accounted for by acids composed of prenylated polyketides (a group of secondary metabolites), which highly impact the taste of hop-based products. Multiple genes have been identified as factors in the expression of taste including O-methyltransferase" "1, geranyl diphosphate synthase, and chalcone synthase. Genomic analyses have shown evidence that the intervention of humans in the selection process of the hop over the thousands of years it has been cultivated have provided noticeable enhancements in aroma and bitterness as well as selection of varieties with high yield rates.


title: Humulus lupulus

text: Predicted genes in homologous primary contigs have been identified as accounting for various traits expressed via variation in the growth, flowering, and stress responses in the plant. These homologous primary contigs correspond to regions with large amounts of sequence variation. Genes in the hop that contain higher rates of sequence divergence in homologous primary contigs (overlapping DNA sequences inherited by a common ancestor) have been attributed to the expression of flowering, growth and responses to (both antibiotic and biotic) stress in the plant. The responses to stress are thought to manifest in the distinct differences and difficulties in the cultivation processes between geographically popular varieties of the hop plant. Outside environmental stress, such as changes in temperature and water availability has also been shown to significantly alter the transcriptome and incite reductions in genes known to be involved in the synthesis of secondary metabolites (including bitter acids), which are organic compounds produced that do not impact development or reproduction of hops. Environmental stress has also been shown to reduce expression of the valerophenone synthase gene, which is known to be an essential genetic component in the regulation of bitter acid production. This shows that impacts of outside stress on "H. lupulus" likely has a direct implication of the expression of the bitter flavor that remains an essential component of the popularity of the plant.


title: Humulus lupulus

text: Because of the growing understanding regarding the hop's overlap in gene structures with cannabidiolic acid synthase, the precursor structure to cannabidiol, there is a gap in general understanding about potential unknown compounds and benefits in hops. As the understanding of the health benefits available in cannabidiol increases, there is a growing demand to further investigate the overlap between cannabidiolic acid synthase and "H. lupulus".


title: Humulus lupulus

text: The genome of "H. lupulus" is relatively large and has been shown to be a similar size to the human genome. The complexity of the hop genome has made it difficult to understand and identify unknown genetic properties, however with the growing availability of accessible sequencing, there is room for more advanced understanding of the plant. Because of the growing concern of climate change, and the assumption that there will be an increase of heat waves, it is likely that growing large yields of hops could become more difficult. This could result in changes to the transcriptome of the hop, or result in a decrease of certain varieties, leaving less room for further research.


title: Humulus lupulus

text: The hop is within the same family of plants such as hemp and marijuana, called Cannabaceae. The hop plant diverged from "Cannabis sativa" over 20 million years ago and has evolved to be three times the physical size. The hop and "C. sativa" are estimated to have approximately a 73% overlap in genomic content. The overlap between enzymes includes polyketide synthases and prenyltransferases. The hop and "C. sativa" also have significant overlap in the cannabidiolic acid synthase gene, which is expressed in the tissues of the leaves in both plants.


title: Humulus lupulus

text: Many cultivars are found in the list of hop varieties. A yellow-leafed ornamental cultivar, "Humulus lupulus" 'Aureus', is cultivated for garden use. It is also known as golden hop, and holds the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (AGM).


title: Humulus lupulus

text: The genus name "Humulus" is a medieval name that was at some point Latinized after being borrowed from a Germanic source exhibiting the h•m•l consonant cluster, as in Middle Low German "homele".


title: Humulus lupulus

text: According to Soviet Iranist V. Abaev this could be a word of Sarmatian origin which is present in the modern Ossetian language () and derives from proto-Iranian "hauma-arayka", an "Aryan haoma".


title: Humulus lupulus

text: From Sarmatian dialects this word spread across Eurasia, thus creating a group of related words in Turkic, Finno-Ugric, Slavic and Germanic languages (see , Chuvash "хăмла", Finnish "humala", Hungarian "komló", Mordovian "комла", Avar "хомеллег").


title: Humulus lupulus

text: The specific epithet "lupulus" is Latin for "small wolf". The name refers to the plant's tendency to strangle other plants, mainly osiers or basket willows ("Salix viminalis"), like a wolf does a sheep. Hops could be seen growing over these willows so often that it was named the willow-wolf.


title: Humulus lupulus

text: "H. lupulus" can cause dermatitis to some who handle them. It is estimated that about 1 in 30 people are affected by this.


title: Humulus lupulus

text: "H. lupulus" is first mentioned in 768 CE when King Pepin donated hops to a monastery in Paris. Cultivation was first recorded in 859 CE, in documents from a monastery in Freising, Germany.


title: Humulus lupulus

text: The chemical compounds found in "H. lupulus" are the main components in flavoring and bittering beer. The fragrant flower cones, known as hops, impart a bitter flavor and also have aromatic and preservative qualities. Some other compounds help with creating foam in beer. Chemicals such as linalool and aldehydes contribute to the flavor of beer. The main components of bitterness in beer are iso-alpha acids, with many other compounds contributing to beer's overall bitterness. Until the Middle Ages, "Myrica gale" was the most common plant used for brewing beer. "H. lupulus" took off as a flavoring agent for beer because it contains preserving agents which prolong the viability of a brew.


title: Humulus lupulus

text: "H. lupulus" was voted the county flower of Kent in 2002 following a poll by the wild flora conservation charity Plantlife.


title: Old Boy (manga)

text: "Old Boy" was serialized in the Futabasha magazine "Weekly Manga Action" from 1996 to 1998, with a total of 79 chapters among eight collected volumes released during that time. The series was picked up for North American localization by Dark Horse Comics and released between 2006 and 2007. The manga was also adapted into an award-winning South Korean film, directed by Park Chan-wook in 2003. In 2013, Spike Lee directed an American remake of the 2003 Park Chan-wook film.


title: Old Boy (manga)

text: Intoxicated and confused, 25-year-old Shinichi Gotō finds himself in a small room inside a private jail after being kidnapped and imprisoned during one fateful night for unknown reasons. Despite his pleadings, none of the guards will tell him who kidnapped him or why he is being held captive. As the days go by, his forced isolation slowly takes a toll on his sanity. He finds an outlet through training his mind and body for the day he will be able to wreak vengeance.


title: Old Boy (manga)

text: After ten years of solitary confinement in a maximum security cell, with only a television for company, he is suddenly released. Once outside, he encounters a much changed world. His long imprisonment ripped him from society and kept him from having the normal life he desired. With nothing to lose, he begins his mission to hunt down the identities of his captors and uncover the reason behind his imprisonment. However, it seems that the unidentified person behind Shinichi's captivity is not finished with him just yet, and thus begins a twisted game where only the winner survives.


title: Old Boy (manga)

text: "Old Boy" was serialized in the Futabasha magazine "Weekly Manga Action" from 1996 to 1998. A total of 79 chapters among eight "tankōbon" (collected volumes) were released in Japan from May 28, 1997 to October 28, 1998. Between June 19 and July 17, 2007, Futabasha re-released the entire series in five, larger volumes. In 2005, Dark Horse Comics bought the rights to make an English translation of the book for its customers worldwide. All eight volumes were released from July 5, 2006 to October 10, 2007.


title: Old Boy (manga)

text: In 2003, it was adapted into the award-winning Korean film "Oldboy" by South Korean director Park Chan-wook. The film was a huge international success and went on to win various awards including the Grand Prix of the Jury at the 57th Cannes Film Festival awards ceremony.


title: Old Boy (manga)

text: In 2006, an Indian version titled "Zinda" and directed by Sanjay Gupta received flak for being an unofficial, unauthorized remake.


title: Old Boy (manga)

text: In 2007, the "Old Boy" manga won an Eisner Award in the category of "Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Japan." Eduardo Chavez of Mania.com noted that "titles like "Old Boy"... take their time to create a wonderful of paranoia and drama". Anime News Network's Carlo Santos praised the artwork, which "fits the tone of the series well" and the pacing of the story, but mentioned poorly developed characters.


title: Bruce Lipton

text: Bruce Harold Lipton (born October 21, 1944) is an American developmental biologist noted for his views on epigenetics.


title: Bruce Lipton

text: In his book "The Biology of Belief", he claims that beliefs control human biology rather than DNA and inheritance. Lipton's contentious claims have not received attention from mainstream science.


title: Bruce Lipton

text: Lipton received a B.A. in biology from C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in 1966 and a PhD in developmental biology from the University of Virginia in 1971. From 1973 to 1982, he taught anatomy at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, before joining St. George's University School of Medicine as a professor of anatomy for three years. Lipton has said that sometime in the 1980s, he rejected atheism and came to believe that the way cells function demonstrates the existence of God.


title: Bruce Lipton

text: From 1987 to 1992, Lipton was involved in research at Pennsylvania State University and Stanford University Medical Center. Since 1993, he has been teaching in non-tenured positions at primarily alternative and chiropractic colleges and schools.


title: Bruce Lipton

text: Lipton has said, "When I first started back in the '70s and my research was coming out, it was the golden age of genes. My research irritated a lot of people. I always thought of them as lemmings running off the cliff of DNA, and I'm standing there on the side with the results from my stem-cell studies thinking, 'Oh my God, you're all going the wrong way.' At some point I realised that they marginalised my work because it didn't conform to their conventional beliefs and I thought, well, they're not even being scientists. And I just left the system. I realised the message is more important for the average person than it is to argue in the halls of science".


title: Bruce Lipton

text: In 2010, in her opinion column in the journal "Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment", Katherine Ellison wrote that Lipton "remains on the sidelines of conventional discussions of epigenetics", and quoted him saying he was basically ignored by mainstream science.


title: Bruce Lipton

text: In "Science-Based Medicine", professor David Gorski described Lipton as a "well-known crank" and likened his idea to the law of attraction, also known as ""The Secret"": "wanting something badly enough makes it so".


title: Madeline Smith

text: Madeline Smith (born 2 August 1949) is an English actress. After working as a model in the late 1960s, she went on to appear in many television series and stage productions, plus comedy and horror films, in the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Madeline Smith

text: She is perhaps best known for playing Bond girl Miss Caruso in "Live and Let Die" (1973), but also had larger roles in the Hammer horror films "The Vampire Lovers" (1970), "Taste the Blood of Dracula" (1970), "Tam-Lin" (1970), "Theatre of Blood" (1973) and "Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell" (1974) and comedy films including "Up Pompeii" (1971), "Up the Front" (1972) and "Carry On Matron" (1972) amongst others. She also appeared in the films "The Killing of Sister George" (1968), "Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You" (1970), "The Amazing Mr. Blunden" (1972) and the musical film "Take Me High" (1973) with Cliff Richard.


title: Madeline Smith

text: After leaving the acting profession in the mid 1980s to bring up her family, she returned to acting in 2011.


title: Madeline Smith

text: Smith was born in Hartfield, Sussex, the only child of Robert and Ursula Smith (née Boas). Her father owned an antiques shop and painting restoration business near Kew Gardens, and her Swiss mother was a translator. After a convent school education, in her late teens she had a temporary job at Biba, the famous boutique located on Kensington High Street, London. It was at the instigation of Barbara Hulanicki, founder of Biba, that she became a model. In the late 1960s and early '70s, she was regularly featured in the work of "Disc" cartoonist J Edward Oliver, who on one occasion devoted an entire strip to her entitled 'The Life and Habits of the Madeline Smith'.


title: Madeline Smith

text: Smith's first screen role was a small part in the film "Escalation" (1968) following this with a role in "The Mini-Affair" (1967), although the latter was released first. Smith first worked for Hammer Film Productions in "Taste the Blood of Dracula" (1969), billed as 'Maddy Smith' and playing an East End prostitute. Among her other film appearances, she played opposite Ava Gardner in "Tam-Lin", Peter Cushing in "The Vampire Lovers" and "Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell", Diana Dors in "The Amazing Mr Blunden", Frankie Howerd in "Up Pompeii" and "Up the Front", and Vincent Price in "Theatre of Blood". In 1972, Smith appeared in "Carry On Matron" in a scene alongside Hattie Jacques, Barbara Windsor and Joan Sims. In 1973, she played the Bond girl Miss Caruso, in the post-opening titles sequence of "Live and Let Die", the first James Bond film starring Roger Moore. Smith's role is therefore significant as Miss Caruso is the first Bond girl of the Roger Moore era. She was recommended for the role by Moore himself, having previously appeared with him in an episode of "The Persuaders!" on TV. Smith and Moore take part in a scene in which he unzips her dress with a magnetic watch.


title: Madeline Smith

text: Smith's numerous stage credits include working with US director Charles Marowitz on "Blue Comedy" (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford) and "The Snob" (at Marowitz's Tottenham Court Road venue the Open Space). She also acted opposite Alec Guinness in the original West End production of Alan Bennett's "Habeas Corpus" (playing Felicity Rumpers), supported Frankie Howerd again in the "Volpone" adaptation "The Fly and the Fox" (Churchill Theatre, Bromley), played Elma in a Cambridge Theatre Company revival of Frederick Lonsdale's "Canaries Sometimes Sing", and spent two years playing the female lead in Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" at the St Martin's Theatre.


title: Madeline Smith

text: Her television credits include "Doctor at Large" (1971), "The Two Ronnies" (appearing in the serial 'Hampton Wick', 1971), "Clochemerle" (1972), "His and Hers" (1970) with Tim Brooke-Taylor, "Casanova '73" (1973) with Leslie Phillips, "Steptoe and Son" (1974), "The Howerd Confessions" (1976), "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?" (1980) and "The Steam Video Company" (1984). She also featured in two episodes of "All Creatures Great and Small", as two different characters (as Angela Farmer in "Pride of Possession" (1978) and as Anne Grantley in the 1983 Christmas special). She was a member of the regular cast of the BBC2 series "The End of the Pier Show" (1974) and "In The Looking Glass" (1978) alongside satirists John Wells and John Fortune and composer Carl Davis. Smith also starred in "The Passionate Pilgrim" (1984) which turned out to be the final screen appearance of Eric Morecambe.


title: Madeline Smith

text: After the birth of her daughter in 1984, Smith gradually wound down her career to enable her time to bring her up. In 2009, Smith interviewed in, and was the cover star of, the coffee-table book "Hammer Glamour". She returned to acting in 2011 with an appearance in an episode of "Doctors". She then followed this with a role in a docu-drama marking the one-hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the "Titanic" before starring in the mini-series "Dancing on the Edge" (2013) and appearing in an episode of "Not Going Out" in 2014. In 2015 she appeared as a contestant on the red team in the BBC antiques gameshow "Bargain Hunt". In December 2018 she appeared in episode 4 of the Christmas series of "Celebrity Mastermind" with The History of Kew Gardens as her specialist subject. In 2019, Smith reunited with her "Up Pompeii!" co-star Tim Brooke-Taylor and actors including Frazer Hines and Camille Coduri in an recorded audio play of the same name to mark fifty years of the series.


title: Madeline Smith

text: Smith married actor David Buck in 1975; he died from cancer in 1989. The couple had a daughter, Emily, born in 1984.


title: Rügen

text: Rügen (; , ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.


title: Rügen

text: The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where it is linked to the mainland by road and railway via the Rügen Bridge and Causeway, two routes crossing the two-kilometre-wide Strelasund, a sound of the Baltic Sea.


title: Rügen

text: Rügen has a maximum length of (from north to south), a maximum width of in the south and an area of . The coast is characterized by numerous sandy beaches, lagoons () and open bays (), as well as projecting peninsulas and headlands. In June 2011, UNESCO awarded the status of a World Heritage Site to the Jasmund National Park, famous for its vast stands of beeches and chalk cliffs like King's Chair, the main landmark of Rügen island.


title: Rügen

text: The towns on Rügen are: Bergen, Sassnitz, Putbus and Garz. In addition, there are the Baltic seaside resorts of Binz, Baabe, Göhren, Sellin and Thiessow.


title: Rügen

text: Rügen is very popular as a tourist destination because of its resort architecture, the diverse landscape and its long, sandy beaches.


title: Rügen

text: The chalk cliffs of the Jasmund peninsula belong to the Rügen Chalk unit and were formed during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, around 70 million years ago.


title: Rügen

text: The main body of the island, known as Muttland, is surrounded by several peninsulas. To the north lie the peninsulas of Wittow and Jasmund, connected to each other by the Schaabe sandbar and to Muttland by the Schmale Heide, an embankment at Lietzow and the Wittow Ferry. The northern peninsulas are separated from Muttland by several lagoons or , the largest of which are the Großer Jasmunder Bodden and Kleiner Jasmunder Bodden. Major peninsulas in the south are Zudar and Mönchgut which both face the Bay of Greifswald.


title: Rügen

text: Rügen has a total area of , or if the adjacent small islands are included. The maximum diameter is from north to south, and from east to west. Of an overall coastline, are sandy Baltic Sea beaches, and sandy beaches. The highest elevations are on the Jasmund peninsula: Piekberg () and Königsstuhl ().


title: Rügen

text: The northern part of the Bay of Greifswald, the Rügischer Bodden, is a large bay in the south of Rügen island, with the island of Vilm lying just offshore. At the western end of the bay, the peninsula of Zudar runs out to the southernmost point of Rügen (Palmer Ort), at the eastern end the highly indented peninsula of Mönchgut projects into the sea. This peninsula ends in the east at the cape of Nordperd near Göhren and in the south at the cape of "Südperd" by Thiessow. In the west of the peninsula of Mönchgut a narrow, bar, the Reddevitz Höft, separates the two bays of Having and Hagensche Wiek.


title: Rügen

text: In the north-east of the island of Rügen is formed by the peninsula of Jasmund, which is joined to the heart of the island, "Muttland", by the bar of Schmale Heide between Binz-Prora and Sassnitz-Mukran and by a rail and road embankment at Lietzow. The Schmale Heide separates the outer bay of Prorer Wiek from the lagoon of the Kleiner Jasmunder Bodden. On the peninsula of Jasmund are the Piekberg (), the highest point on Rügen, and the Königsstuhl, a chalk cliff in Stubbenkammer, which forms the most striking landmark on the island. Another bar, the Schaabe, links Jasmund to the peninsula of Wittow in the north of Rügen. The Schaabe, in turn, separates the outer bay of Tromper Wiek from the lagoon of the Großer Jasmunder Bodden. The peninsula of Wittow and the long, narrow peninsula of Bug to the west are separated from the main body of Rügen by the Rassower Strom, the Breetzer Bodden and the "Breeger Bodden". The Wittow peninsula is adjoined in the north by Cape Arkona. Just under a kilometre to the northwest, located at 54°41' N, is the northernmost point of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Below this cliff () on the shoreline is the Siebenschneidersteinthe fourth largest glacial erratic boulder on Rügen.


title: Rügen

text: The northwestern and western sides of Rügen are also highly indented, but a little flatter. Offshore are the larger islands of Hiddensee and Ummanz as well as the smaller islands Öhe Liebitz and Heuwiese. Sand removal and deposition by the Baltic Sea has to be constantly countered by dredging operations to the north and south of Hiddensee, otherwise Hiddensee would merge with Rügen within a few years. Rügen is dotted with many glacial erratic boulders, of which the 22 largest belong to legally-protected geotopes ("see also: Erratics on and around Rügen).


title: Rügen

text: The heartland of Rügen is gently rolling, and the area is characterized primarily by agriculture. East of the town of Bergen auf Rügen the land climbs to (at Rugard where there is an observation tower) and to in the southeastern hill country of the Granitz. The soil on Rügen is very fertile and productive, particularly in Wittow, the breadbasket of the island. There are major cabbage-producing regions.


title: Rügen

text: Two German national parks are situated on Rügen: the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park, in the west (including Hiddensee), and the Jasmund National Park, a smaller park including the famous chalk cliffs (Königsstuhl). There is also a nature reserve, the Southeast Rügen Biosphere Reserve, consisting of the peninsulas in the southeast.


title: Rügen

text: The climate is in the temperate zone. The winters are not particularly cold, with mean temperatures in January and February of ; and summers are mild and temperate, with a mean temperature in August of . There is an average rainfall of and approximately 1800–1870 hours of sunshine annually.


title: Rügen

text: Administratively, Rügen is part of the district Vorpommern-Rügen. Its subdivisions are the Bergen auf Rügen (municipalities Bergen auf Rügen, Buschvitz, Garz, Gustow, Lietzow, Parchtitz, Patzig, Poseritz, Ralswiek, Rappin, Sehlen and Thesenvitz), West-Rügen (municipalities Altefähr, Dreschvitz, Gingst, Hiddensee, Kluis, Neuenkirchen, Rambin, Samtens, Schaprode, Trent and Ummanz), Nord-Rügen (municipalities Altenkirchen, Breege, Dranske, Glowe, Lohme, Putgarten, Sagard, Wiek) and Mönchgut-Granitz (municipalities Baabe, Göhren, Lancken-Granitz, Middelhagen, Sellin, Thiessow and Zirkow) and the Amt-free municipalities of Binz, Putbus and Sassnitz. Overall, there are 45 municipalities on Rügen, four of which have town status (Bergen, Garz, Putbus and Sassnitz).


title: Rügen

text: Discoveries in the indicate that there has been settlement here since the Stone Age. All over Rügen are numerous stone monuments, such as megalithic tombs and altar stones that have survived to the present day. By the 1st century, the inhabitants of Rügen were part of the East Germanic tribe of Rugii, who occupied roughly the region that was later to become Western Pomerania and who gave the island its name. The Rugii may have originated from Scandinavia or evolved from autochthonous tribes. In the Migration Period, many Rugii moved south and founded an empire in Pannonia.


title: Rügen

text: From the 7th century the West Slavic Rani (or Rujani) built an empire on Rügen and the neighbouring coast between Recknitz and Ryck. It decidedly affected the history of the Baltic Sea area and the surrounding Obodritic (in the west) and Liutician (in the south) occupied mainland for the next few centuries. Many traces of their life can be found today.


title: Rügen

text: The basis of their great military strength was a combination of the Ranian navy and a favourable location. Denmark, which was at that time very successful in Great Britain and Scandinavia, was neither able to match its Ranian rivals in the Baltic Sea region nor protect its coastline from Ranian armies until well into the 12th century. Meanwhile, the Ranians built numerous castles and temples in the Barth-Jasmund-Gristow triangle.


title: Rügen

text: The temple hill of Jaromarsburg, at the northern tip of Rügen and dedicated to the god Svetovid, was significant well beyond the boundaries of the Ranian empire. After the fall of Radgosc it became the chief shrine for the pagan northwestern Slavs. The administrative centre of the empire was Charenza, possibly on the site of the present-day hillfort known as Garz or Venz. The main trading centre of the empire was Ralswiek at the southernmost point of the Großer Jasmunder Bodden.


title: Rügen

text: In 1168, the Danish king, Valdemar I, and his army commander and advisor, Bishop Absalon of Roskilde destroyed the Svetovid temple in the hillfort at Cape Arkona, ending both the territorial and religious autonomy of the Rani; their former monarchs became Danish princes of Rügen. The Rani prince Jaromar I (died 1218) was a vassal of the Danish king and Christianized the island's inhabitants. In 1184, the Pomeranians, whose rule had previously extended as far as the land of Gützkow and to Demmin and thus made them the immediate neighbours of the now Danish Principality of Rugia, were commissioned by their overlord, the Holy Roman Emperor, to seize Rügen for the empire, but were defeated in the Bay of Greifswald.


title: Rügen

text: Under Danish rule the Principality of Rugia changed its character. Danish monasteries were established (e.g. Bergen Abbey in 1193 and Hilda Abbey, today Eldena Abbey, in 1199). German colonists were introduced into the land and soon they became the largest and most culturally influential group within the population. The Slavic cultural element disappeared, mostly due to the lack of their own Slavic church structures, so that the Rani were absorbed in the period that followed into the now German-influenced people of Rügen. In addition to the colonization of the country and the building of new monasteries and churches, towns were also re-established. In 1234 the Rügen Prince Wizlaw I founded the town of Stralsund and granted Greifswald market rights in 1241. The power of the towns grew rapidly, forcing Rügen's rulers to make concessions—for example, the prince's castle at Barth was slighted and Schadegast, the princely "twin" of the municipally-controlled Stralsund, was ousted in favour of the latter.


title: Rügen

text: In 1304 a storm surge, known as the All Saints' Flood, devastated the island and flooded the peninsula between Mönchgut and Ruden.


title: Rügen

text: After the death of the last Slav prince of the "Wizlawiden" ("House of Wizlaw") dynasty, Wizlaw III, in 1325, the principality was acquired by the duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast as a consequence of the 1321 inheritance agreement (), and from 1368/72–1451 was part of the estate of a branch line, the dukes of Pomerania-Barth. This state of affairs, together with the disputes over the Danish throne that occurred at that time, led to the Rügen wars of succession. After they had played out, the former principality went in 1354 to Pomerania-Wolgast and thus became part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1478, Pomerania-Wolgast and Pomerania-Stettin were united and, 170 years later, the combined state went to Sweden in 1648 as a result of the Treaty of Westphalia (see Swedish Pomerania). Rügen was part of Swedish Pomerania from 1648 to 1815. The largest landowners, owning at least one-fifth of the island until 1945, was the House of Putbus, which was an offshoot of the earlier ruling princes of the Wizlawid dynasty. In 1727, they were created counts of Holy Roman Empire and 1731 counts in Sweden, ultimately Swedish princes in 1807.


title: Rügen

text: Under Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden the town of Gustavia was constructed on the Mönchgut peninsula, but was abandoned during the Napoleonic Wars. In the years 1678 and 1715, Rügen was briefly wrested from the Swedes by the Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William and by the King in Prussia, Frederick William I. For example, a Brandenburg-Danish army landed on the island as part of the invasion of Rügen in 1678. After the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1679 the island passed from Danish to Swedish ownership again. At the time of Napoleonic Wars, Rügen was held by the French from 1807 to 1813. In the Treaty of Kiel of 1814, it was transferred initially from Sweden to Denmark and then fell to Prussia, along with New Western Pomerania (), thanks to the Vienna Convention of 1815. In 1818 the island became part of the administrative district of Stralsund and thus belonged to the Prussian Province of Pomerania. Wilhelm Malte I (1783–1854), 1st prince of Putbus, was the last Governor of Swedish Pomerania and the first under Prussian rule.


title: Rügen

text: In 1816 the first bathing resort was founded at Putbus. Later more resorts were established, and Rügen remained the most famous holiday resort of Germany until World War II.


title: Rügen

text: The Nazis added a large resort: Prora, planned by the Strength through Joy organisation, which aimed to occupy people's free time. However, Prora was never completed.


title: Rügen

text: In 1936 the first bridge connecting Rügen with the mainland was constructed (Rügendamm), replacing the former ferry shuttles.


title: Rügen

text: The operation commanded by Wolfram von Richthofen that bombed the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, was named after the island. An Abwehr Signals intelligence Operation during the same conflict was titled Operation Bodden after the strait separating Rügen from the German mainland.


title: Rügen

text: In the aftermath of World War II, East German and Soviet authorities exiled landholders from the mainland to the island.


title: Rügen

text: After the Second World War Rügen became part of the state of Mecklenburg within the German Democratic Republic (GDR). In 1952 the island became part of the district of Rostock.


title: Rügen

text: The island was the focal point of Project Rose ("Action Rose") by the GDR government designed to nationalize hotels, taxis and service companies on 10 February 1953. The occasion was supposed to have been a visit by Walter Ulbricht to the island of Rügen, during which he had been annoyed by the many surviving private hotels and guest houses. Many of the hotel owners were convicted by kangaroo courts under the pretext of having been engaged in economic crime or as agents working for the West. Their property was then confiscated and they were sent to prison. Many of the owners and small businessmen were incarcerated in Bützow prison. The hotels were supposed to have been expropriated by the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB). In fact, they were used as accommodation for the barracks-based "people's police" ( or CPI). As a result of the confiscation of hotels, tourism on Rügen in 1953 came almost to a complete standstill for a time.


title: Rügen

text: In the following nearly four decades, the island became one of the main tourist areas in the GDR. The FDGB played a dominant role in tourist accommodation. In 1963 the FDGB had 7,519 holiday places, the Reisebüro der DDR 2,906 places and a further 5,025 were available for businesses and organizations. In addition, there were 12,245 places for children in summer camps and another 20,800 places for campers. The plots were located mainly near the beaches. Increased holiday capacity was not however generated until the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Rügen

text: In 1990, Rügen became part of the new state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and, together with the neighbouring islands of Hiddensee and Ummanz, formed the district of Rügen. Since the 2011 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern district reforms Rügen has been part of Vorpommern-Rügen.


title: Rügen

text: Rügen is one of the most popular holiday destinations in Germany. The island receives about one quarter of all overnight stays in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Most visitors come to Rügen between April and October, the peak season being from June to August, but its quiet atmosphere in winter is also appreciated.


title: Rügen

text: The first bathing facility on Rügen opened in 1794 at the mineral-rich spring in Sagard. In 1818, the Putbus village of Lauterbach became Rügen's first seaside resort. In the 1860s Sassnitz became a seaside resort, followed by Binz in the 1880s. During World War II Prora was constructed as a mass tourist resort but it was never finished.


title: Rügen

text: Today the most popular seaside resorts are the Schaabe beaches between Altenkirchen and Juliusruh including Drewoldke, Glowe and Breege, and the eastern beaches between Sassnitz and Göhren including Neu Mukran, Prora, Binz, Sellin and Baabe. The latter are accessible via an historic narrow gauge railway employing steam locomotives, called the Rügensche Bäderbahn. Tourist destinations, other than seaside resorts, include Cape Arkona, the wood-covered Stubbenkammer hills on Jasmund with interesting chalk cliff formations, the wood-covered Granitz hills with their or hunting lodge, the classicist buildings of Putbus and the inland villages of Bergen auf Rügen, Ralswiek and Gingst.


title: Rügen

text: The island offers a huge variety of different beach and shore areas. Rügen is often visited by windsurfers and kitesurfers and offers more than fifteen different locations for surfing. The most popular locations are Dranske, Rosengarten, Wiek, Suhrendorf and Neu Mukran.


title: Rügen

text: On the peninsula of Jasmund is the Jasmund National Park, which consists of the beech forest of Stubnitz, including the famous chalk cliffs of Rügen. On the Königsstuhl itself is the Königsstuhl National Park Centre, which has a multivision cinema and audio-guide exhibitions with information about the national park in several languages.


title: Rügen

text: The railway network consists of the electrified standard gauge stretch of the Deutsche Bahn Stralsund (Rügendamm)-Bergen-Sassnitz line (timetable route (KBS) 195), Lietzow-Binz (KBS 197), the non-electrified routes Bergen-Putbus-Lauterbach Mole of the PRESS (KBS 198) and the narrow gauge stretch () of the Rügen Resort Railway (): Lauterbach Mole-Putbus-Binz-Sellin-Göhren (KBS 199).


title: Rügen

text: In addition to regional trains, there are also Intercity services from Binz via Bergen and Stralsund to Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and the Ruhr. Night train services to Munich, Basle and the Ruhr area were deleted from the timetable on 9 December 2007, despite massive protests from the local hotel industry.


title: Rügen

text: The bus service on Rügen is operated by the . Since 1996 it has been continuously expanded, and has developed an integral clock-face schedule. There is a service between all major towns and municipalities on the island at least every two hours, sometimes more frequently during peak season. Throughout the year, buses now run at least every hour on the routes between Sassnitz-Binz-Bergen, Schaprode–Bergen–Klein Zicker, Bergen/Sassnitz-Altenkirchen-Wiek-Dranske and the Altenkirchen-Putgarten near Cape Arkona. In addition, the bus service is well-linked with the railway, especially in Bergen, but also at other railway stations.


title: Rügen

text: Until October 2007, individual traffic from the mainland to the island of Rügen was mainly routed along the two-lane Rügendamm causeway, running between Stralsund and Altefähr over the sound of Strelasund.


title: Rügen

text: The cornerstone for a second crossing over the Strelasund was laid on 31 August 2004. This bridge, the Rügen Bridge, running parallel to the Rügendamm, has a length of about and a vertical clearance for ships of , and was on opened on 20 October 2007. In order to relieve the town of Stralsund, a ring road has been built in the last few years, coming from the southwest. The B 96 federal road between Stralsund and Greifswald is also connected via an access road to the A 20 motorway. The B 96 runs from Stralsund via Bergen to Sassnitz. Here a new route with bypasses is planned (the "New B 96").


title: Rügen

text: The main tourist attractions of Cape Arkona, the Königsstuhl and the Granitz hunting lodge are, however, car-free in order to protect the countryside, as is the island of Hiddensee which belongs to Vorpommern-Rügen district. All these destinations can be reached using public transport, without needing a car.


title: Rügen

text: Rügen has a signposted network of cycle paths. The condition and signing of this network varies considerably from one place to another, from very good in the seaside resorts to poor in the area between Garz and Zudar. There is a circular cycle path around the whole island.


title: Rügen

text: During the summer season there is the option on some routes to carry bicycles on the buses. This is always possible on the railways.


title: Rügen

text: Two car ferries belonging to the operate every half-an-hour between the Zudar peninsula on Rügen and Stahlbrode on the mainland, halfway between Stralsund and Greifswald .


title: Rügen

text: A ferry sails from Sassnitz ferry port in Mukran to the Danish island of Bornholm, to Swedish Trelleborg, to Klaipėda (formerly Memel) in Lithuania, to Baltiysk (formerly Pillau) and to Saint Petersburg.


title: Rügen

text: The island of Hiddensee, which also belongs to the county of Vorpommern-Rügen, is connected by a regular ferry service from Schaprode to Rügen, and is increasingly integrated into the clock-schedule timetable on the main island. In addition, there is a regular ship service from Stralsund, Wiek and Breege to Hiddensee. Tourist services include ferry connections from Lauterbach to Gager, and between Sassnitz, Binz, Sellin and Göhren. There are also round-trips mainly from Sassnitz, but also from Lohme, to the Königsstuhl.


title: Rügen

text: Pleasure steamers also ply between the resorts and Peenemünde on Usedom, where there is a connection to the Usedom Railway (UBB).


title: Rügen

text: Sassnitz-Mukran is the largest railway ferry terminal in Germany and the only one in Europe where different tracks allow switching from standard gauge to broad gauge.


title: Rügen

text: Local passenger ferries connect the piers of Sassnitz, Binz, Sellin and Göhren with the adjacent islands of Hiddensee, Vilm and Greifswalder Oie. Passenger and car ferries connect Rügen's centre of Muttland, to both Wittow in Rügen's north via the Wittow Ferry and to the mainland via the Glewitz Ferry () between Stahlbrode near Greifswald and Glewitz on Rügen's Zudar peninsula.


title: Rügen

text: Rügen Airport is located about from Bergen. After the "Wende", the first sightseeing flights over the island were offered on the former agricultural airfield. In May 1993, the first tarmac runway was inaugurated. Since then, charter flights to Berlin, Hamburg and other cities in Europe have been available.


title: Rügen

text: The Baltic Sea Airport Stralsund also offers flights to and from the region of Western Pomerania. The larger Rostock–Laage Airport offers regular international destinations.


title: Shamshir

text: A shamshir () is a type of Persian/Iranian sword with a radical curve. The name is derived from the Persian word "shamshīr", which means "sword" in. The curved "scimitar" sword family includes the shamshir, kilij, talwar, pulwar and nimcha.


title: Shamshir

text: A "shamshir shekargar" () is the same as a "shamshir", except the blade is engraved and decorated, usually with hunting scenes.


title: Shamshir

text: Originally, Persian swords were straight and double edged. Curved sabre blades were Central Asian in origin. There is considerable disagreement between historians as to when these curved blades were first introduced from Central Asia into Persia, and over what period they became adopted and modified into the recognizable Shamshir. Curved blades began to appear in Persia in the 9th century, when these weapons were used by soldiers in the Khorasan region of Central Asia but were not widely adopted. The sword now called a "shamshir" was developed in Persia over a period of time following influence from the Turkic Seljuk Khanate in the 12th century, the Mongol invasion of the 13th century, and finally taking a form distinct from earlier sabres by the 16th century. The Shamshir had "relatives" in Turkey (the kilij), the Mughal Empire (the talwar), and the adjoining Arabian world (the saif). Over the years blades might be produced in India or the Ottoman empire and rehilted in Persia, and vice versa leading to mongrel swords.


title: Shamshir

text: The shamshir is a curved sword, featuring a slim blade that has almost no taper until the very tip. Instead of being worn upright (hilt-high), it is worn horizontally, with the hilt and tip pointing up. It was normally used for slashing unarmored opponents either on foot or mounted; while the tip could be used for thrusting, the drastic curvature of blade made accuracy more difficult. It has an offset pommel, and its two lengthy quillons form a simple crossguard. The tang of the blade is covered by slabs of bone, ivory, wood, or other material fastened by pins or rivets to form the grip. Many of the older Persian shamshir blades are made from high quality crucible wootz steel, and are noted for the fine "watering" on the blades.


title: Shamshir

text: Although the name has been associated by popular etymology with the city of Shamshir (which in turn means "curved like the lion's claw" in Persian) the word has been used to mean "sword" since ancient times, as attested by Middle Persian "shamshir" (Pahlavi "šmšyl"), and the Ancient Greek σαμψήρα / "sampsēra" (glossed as "foreign sword").


title: Island gigantism

text: Island gigantism, or insular gigantism, is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal species isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives. Island gigantism is one aspect of the more general "island effect" or "Foster's rule", which posits that when mainland animals colonize islands, small species tend to evolve larger bodies, and large species tend to evolve smaller bodies (insular dwarfism). This is itself one aspect of the more general phenomenon of island syndrome which describes the differences in morphology, ecology, physiology and behaviour of insular species compared to their continental counterparts. Following the arrival of humans and associated introduced predators (dogs, cats, rats, pigs), many giant as well as other island endemics have become extinct. A similar size increase, as well as increased woodiness, has been observed in some insular plants.


title: Island gigantism

text: Large mammalian carnivores are often absent on islands because of insufficient range or difficulties in over-water dispersal. In their absence, the ecological niches for large predators may be occupied by birds, reptiles or smaller carnivorans, which can then grow to larger-than-normal size. For example, on prehistoric Gargano Island in the Miocene-Pliocene Mediterranean, on islands in the Caribbean like Cuba, and on Madagascar and New Zealand, some or all apex predators were birds like eagles, falcons and owls, including some of the largest known examples of these groups. However, birds and reptiles generally make less efficient large predators than advanced carnivorans.


title: Island gigantism

text: Since small size usually makes it easier for herbivores to escape or hide from predators, the decreased predation pressure on islands can allow them to grow larger. Small herbivores may also benefit from the absence of competition from missing types of large herbivores.


title: Island gigantism

text: Benefits of large size that have been suggested for island tortoises include decreased vulnerability to scarcity of food and/or water, through ability to survive for longer intervals without them, or ability to travel longer distances to obtain them. Periods of such scarcity may be a greater threat on oceanic islands than on the mainland.


title: Island gigantism

text: Thus, island gigantism is usually an evolutionary trend resulting from the removal of constraints on the size of small animals related to predation and/or competition. Such constraints can operate differently depending on the size of the animal, however; for example, while small herbivores may escape predation by hiding, large herbivores may deter predators by intimidation. As a result, the complementary phenomenon of island dwarfism can also result from the removal of constraints related to predation and/or competition on the size of large herbivores. In contrast, insular dwarfism among predators more commonly results from the imposition of constraints associated with the limited prey resources available on islands. As opposed to island dwarfism, island gigantism is found in most major vertebrate groups and in invertebrates.


title: Island gigantism

text: Territorialism may favor the evolution of island gigantism. A study on Anaho Island in Nevada determined that reptile species that were territorial tended to be larger on the island compared to the mainland, particularly in the smaller species. In territorial species, larger size makes individuals better able to compete to defend their territory. This gives additional impetus to evolution toward larger size in an insular population.


title: Island gigantism

text: A further means of establishing island gigantism may be a founder effect operative when larger members of a mainland population are superior in their ability to colonize islands.


title: Island gigantism

text: Island size plays a role in determining the extent of gigantism. Smaller islands generally accelerate the rate of evolution of changes in organism size, and organisms there evolve greater extremes in size.


title: Island gigantism

text: Many rodents grow larger on islands, whereas carnivorans, proboscideans and artiodactyls usually become smaller.


title: Island gigantism

text: In addition to size increase, island plants may also exhibit "insular woodiness". The most notable examples are the megaherbs of New Zealand's subantarctic islands. Increased leaf and seed size was also reported in some island species regardless of growth form (herbaceous, bush, or tree).


title: Semisonic

text: Semisonic is an American rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1995, consisting of Dan Wilson (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), John Munson (bass, keyboards, backing vocals, guitar), and Jacob Slichter (drums, percussion, keyboards, backing vocals). They are best known in the U.S. for their 1998 single "Closing Time". They also had international success with the singles "Singing in My Sleep", "Secret Smile" and "Chemistry".


title: Semisonic

text: After the breakup of Trip Shakespeare, Dan Wilson and John Munson joined up with drummer Jacob Slichter to form Semisonic in 1995. An EP, "Pleasure", was released that year on Boston indie label CherryDisc, and the studio full-length "Great Divide" in 1996 on MCA.


title: Semisonic

text: Semisonic's breakthrough came two years later in 1998 when their second album, "Feeling Strangely Fine", reached the Top 50 chart on the strength of the hit single "Closing Time", their biggest hit in the United States. In a 2008 performance at Harvard's Sanders Theatre, Wilson made it known that it was originally written about the birth of his first child.


title: Semisonic

text: Their international career also blossomed when another song from the album, "Secret Smile", quickly became a UK radio favourite in the summer of 1999, eventually peaking at No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart.


title: Semisonic

text: In early 2001, the band released its third album, "All About Chemistry," The single "Chemistry" was a mainstay overseas; however, the album did not fare as well in the United States. Another song, "Over My Head", was used in the 2001 teen flick "Summer Catch", and Semisonic rode the wave of various tours in and around the UK.


title: Semisonic

text: Wilson had spoken of doing more Semisonic music in the future but said, "The busy day-to-day life keeps pushing it further into the future." "All About Chemistry" would be their last studio release until reconvening for the "You're Not Alone" EP which they put out in 2020.


title: Semisonic

text: To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of their first album, "Great Divide", the band reunited for a series of three shows in June 2017 – June 14 at a small club in St. Paul, and June 16–17 at First Avenue in Minneapolis. The band played Great Divide in its entirety.


title: Semisonic

text: In December 2017, the band played three more shows in the Twin Cities to commemorate the approaching 20th anniversary of their second album, Feeling Strangely Fine, performing the album in its entirety. In 2018, Feeling Strangely Fine was given a rerelease for the album's twentieth anniversary, including its first vinyl pressing. The anniversary edition included four songs not on the original album: "Long Way from Home", "I'm a Liar", "Beautiful Regret", and "Makin' a Plan".


title: Semisonic

text: In July 2019, Semisonic performed at Summerfest in Milwaukee and then at the Basilica Block Party in Minneapolis. During their 2017–2019 shows, the band performed some new, previously unreleased songs, including "Basement Tapes", "All It Would Take", and "You're Not Alone"


title: Semisonic

text: The band has been honored with a star on the outside mural of the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue, recognizing performers that have played sold-out shows or have otherwise demonstrated a major contribution to the culture at the iconic venue. Receiving a star "might be the most prestigious public honor an artist can receive in Minneapolis", according to journalist Steve Marsh. Wilson and Munson's previous group, Trip Shakespeare, also has a star, making them among the few musicians with multiple stars on the mural.


title: Semisonic

text: The band reunited for a series of two shows on June 14, 2017, in St. Paul and June 16, 2017, in Minneapolis for the first time in nearly five years. The St. Paul show at a smaller venue served as a live rehearsal for the Minneapolis show at famed Minneapolis club First Avenue. The band followed similar setlists for the shows, playing the album "Great Divide" in its entirety with a few additional songs, including a live debut of the Wilson-penned "Basement Tapes". Semisonic played together again in December 2017 with a similar combination of St. Paul and Minneapolis shows, but added a second show at First Avenue. The set list for these shows was the "Feeling Strangely Fine" track list with some supplemental songs including live debuts of two songs.


title: Semisonic

text: In 2018, "Feeling Strangely Fine" was given a rerelease for the album's twentieth anniversary, including its first vinyl pressing.


title: Semisonic

text: On June 26, 2020, Semisonic released the single "You're Not Alone", their first new material in 19 years, and later released the full "You're Not Alone" EP on September 18, 2020.


title: Semisonic

text: Wilson took time out to do some solo projects and play tour dates around the Midwest in December. Munson joined Wilson's brother and former Trip Shakespeare frontman Matt Wilson to form a side project, The Flops, in 2001, though they were expected to make a final performance in early 2005. In 2009, John Munson and Matt Wilson reunited to form a new band The Twilight Hours. They have released two albums, "Stereo Night" (2009) and "Black Beauty" (2016), and have been touring.


title: Semisonic

text: In 2004, Slichter's book "So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star" was published, detailing some of the experiences the group had while touring and attempting to get airplay on radio stations across the US.


title: Semisonic

text: In late spring of 2005, John Munson began playing in a new jazz trio, The New Standards, featuring Chan Poling of The Suburbs and Steve Roehm. This band plays new jazz renditions of "classic" songs.


title: Semisonic

text: In October 2007, Rick Rubin's label American Recordings released Wilson's solo album, "Free Life", featuring collaborations with numerous artists including Munson and Slichter. The song "Cry" was the album's single.


title: History of the steam engine

text: The first recorded rudimentary steam engine was the aeolipile mentioned by Vitruvius between 30 and 15 BC and, described by Heron of Alexandria in 1st-century Roman Egypt. Several steam-powered devices were later experimented with or proposed, such as Taqi al-Din's steam jack, a steam turbine in 16th-century Ottoman Egypt, and Thomas Savery's steam pump in 17th-century England. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen's atmospheric engine became the first commercially successful engine using the principle of the piston and cylinder, which was the fundamental type of steam engine used until the early 20th century. The steam engine was used to pump water out of coal mines.


title: History of the steam engine

text: During the Industrial Revolution, steam engines started to replace water and wind power, and eventually became the dominant source of power in the late 19th century and remaining so into the early decades of the 20th century, when the more efficient steam turbine and the internal combustion engine resulted in the rapid replacement of the steam engines. The steam turbine has become the most common method by which electrical power generators are driven. Investigations are being made into the practicalities of reviving the reciprocating steam engine as the basis for the new wave of advanced steam technology.


title: History of the steam engine

text: The earliest known rudimentary steam engine and reaction steam turbine, the aeolipile, is described by a mathematician and engineer named Heron of Alexandria in 1st century Roman Egypt, as recorded in his manuscript "Spiritalia seu Pneumatica". The same device was also mentioned by Vitruvius in "De Architectura" about 100 years earlier. Steam ejected tangentially from nozzles caused a pivoted ball to rotate. Its thermal efficiency was low. This suggests that the conversion of steam pressure into mechanical movement was known in Roman Egypt in the 1st century. Heron also devised a machine that used air heated in an altar fire to displace a quantity of water from a closed vessel. The weight of the water was made to pull a hidden rope to operate temple doors. Some historians have conflated the two inventions to assert, incorrectly, that the aeolipile was capable of useful work.


title: History of the steam engine

text: According to William of Malmesbury, in 1125, Reims was home to a church that had an organ powered by air escaping from compression "by heated water", apparently designed and constructed by professor Gerbertus.


title: History of the steam engine

text: Among the papers of Leonardo da Vinci dating to the late 15th century is the design for a steam-powered cannon called the Architonnerre, which works by the sudden influx of hot water into a sealed, red-hot cannon.


title: History of the steam engine

text: A rudimentary impact steam turbine was described in 1551 by Taqi al-Din, a philosopher, astronomer and engineer in 16th century Ottoman Egypt, who described a method for rotating a spit by means of a jet of steam playing on rotary vanes around the periphery of a wheel. A similar device for rotating a spit was also later described by John Wilkins in 1648. These devices were then called "mills" but are now known as steam jacks. Another similar rudimentary steam turbine is shown by Giovanni Branca, an Italian engineer, in 1629 for turning a cylindrical escapement device that alternately lifted and let fall a pair of pestles working in mortars. The steam flow of these early steam turbines, however, was not concentrated and most of its energy was dissipated in all directions. This would have led to a great waste of energy and so they were never seriously considered for industrial use.


title: History of the steam engine

text: In 1605, French mathematician Florence Rivault in his treatise on artillery wrote on his discovery that water, if confined in a bombshell and heated, would explode the shells.


title: History of the steam engine

text: In 1606, the Spaniard Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont demonstrated and was granted a patent for a steam-powered water pump. The pump was successfully used to drain the inundated mines of Guadalcanal, Spain.


title: History of the steam engine

text: "The discoveries that, when brought together by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, resulted in the steam engine were:"


title: History of the steam engine

text: In 1643, Evangelista Torricelli conducted experiments on suction lift water pumps to test their limits, which was about 32 feet. (Atmospheric pressure is 32.9 feet or 10.03 meters. Vapor pressure of water lowers theoretical lift height.) He devised an experiment using a tube filled with mercury and inverted in a bowl of mercury (a barometer) and observed an empty space above the column of mercury, which he theorized contained nothing, that is, a vacuum.


title: History of the steam engine

text: Influenced by Torricelli, Otto von Guericke invented a vacuum pump by modifying an air pump used for pressurizing an air gun. Guericke put on a demonstration in 1654 in Magdeburg, Germany, where he was mayor. Two copper hemispheres were fitted together and air was pumped out. Weights strapped to the hemispheres could not pull them apart until the air valve was opened. The experiment was repeated in 1656 using two teams of 8 horses each, which could not separate the Magdeburg hemispheres.


title: History of the steam engine

text: Gaspar Schott was the first to describe the hemisphere experiment in his "Mechanica Hydraulico-Pneumatica" (1657).


title: History of the steam engine

text: After reading Schott's book, Robert Boyle built an improved vacuum pump and conducted related experiments.


title: History of the steam engine

text: Denis Papin became interested in using a vacuum to generate motive power while working with Christiaan Huygens and Gottfried Leibniz in Paris in 1663. Papin worked for Robert Boyle from 1676 to 1679, publishing an account of his work in "Continuation of New Experiments" (1680) and gave a presentation to Royal Society in 1689. From 1690 on Papin began experimenting with a piston to produce power with steam, building model steam engines. He experimented with atmospheric and pressure steam engines, publishing his results in 1707.


title: History of the steam engine

text: In 1663, Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester published a book of 100 inventions which described a method for raising water between floors employing a similar principle to that of a coffee percolator. His system was the first to separate the boiler (a heated cannon barrel) from the pumping action. Water was admitted into a reinforced barrel from a cistern, and then a valve was opened to admit steam from a separate boiler. The pressure built over the top of the water, driving it up a pipe. He installed his steam-powered device on the wall of the Great Tower at Raglan Castle to supply water through the tower. The grooves in the wall where the engine was installed were still to be seen in the 19th century. However, no one was prepared to risk money for such a revolutionary concept, and without backers the machine remained undeveloped.


title: History of the steam engine

text: Samuel Morland, a mathematician and inventor who worked on pumps, left notes at the Vauxhall Ordinance Office on a steam pump design that Thomas Savery read. In 1698 Savery built a steam pump called “The Miner’s Friend.” It employed both vacuum and pressure. These were used for low horsepower service for a number of years.


title: History of the steam engine

text: Thomas Newcomen was a merchant who dealt in cast iron goods. Newcomen's engine was based on the piston and cylinder design proposed by Papin. In Newcomen's engine steam was condensed by water sprayed inside the cylinder, causing atmospheric pressure to move the piston. Newcomen's first engine installed for pumping in a mine in 1712 at Dudley Castle in Staffordshire.


title: History of the steam engine

text: Denis Papin (22 August 1647 – c. 1712) was a French physicist, mathematician and inventor, best known for his pioneering invention of the steam digester, the forerunner of the pressure cooker. In the mid-1670s Papin collaborated with the Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens on an engine which drove out the air from a cylinder by exploding gunpowder inside it. Realising the incompleteness of the vacuum produced by this means and on moving to England in 1680, Papin devised a version of the same cylinder that obtained a more complete vacuum from boiling water and then allowing the steam to condense; in this way he was able to raise weights by attaching the end of the piston to a rope passing over a pulley. As a demonstration model, the system worked, but in order to repeat the process, the whole apparatus had to be dismantled and reassembled. Papin quickly saw that to make an automatic cycle the steam would have to be generated separately in a boiler; however, he did not take the project further. Papin also designed a paddle boat driven by a jet playing on a mill-wheel in a combination of Taqi al Din and Savery's conceptions and he is also credited with a number of significant devices such as the safety valve. Papin's years of research into the problems of harnessing steam was to play a key part in the development of the first successful industrial engines that soon followed his death.