title: Cryptic crossword

text: Cryptic crosswords do not commonly appear in U.S. publications, although they can be found in magazines such as "GAMES Magazine", "The Nation", "The New Yorker", "Harper's", and occasionally in the Sunday "New York Times". The "New York Post" reprints cryptic crosswords from "The Times". In April 2018, The New Yorker published the first of a new weekly series of cryptic puzzles. Other sources of cryptic crosswords in the U.S. (at various difficulty levels) are puzzle books, as well as UK and Canadian newspapers distributed in the U.S. Other venues include the "Enigma", the magazine of the National Puzzlers' League, and formerly, "The Atlantic Monthly". The latter puzzle, after a long and distinguished run, appeared solely on "The Atlantic"s website for several years, and ended with the October 2009 issue. A similar puzzle by the same authors now appears every four weeks in "The Wall Street Journal", beginning in January 2010. Cryptic crosswords have become more popular in the United States in the years following the COVID-19 lockdowns with several "indie" outlets and setters.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Cryptic crosswords are very popular in Australia. Most Australian newspapers will have at least one cryptic crossword, if not two. "The Sydney Morning Herald" and "The Age" in Melbourne publish daily cryptic crosswords, including Friday's challenging cryptic by 'DA' (David Astle). "Lovatts", an Australian puzzle publisher, regularly issues cryptic crossword puzzle books.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: A cryptic clue leads to its answer only if it is read in the right way. What the clue appears to say when read normally (the "surface reading") is a distraction and usually has nothing to do with the clue answer. The challenge is to find the way of reading the clue that leads to the solution. A typical clue consists of two parts:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: There are many sorts of wordplay, such as anagrams and double definitions, but they all conform to rules. The crossword setters do their best to stick to these rules when writing their clues, and solvers can use these rules and conventions to help them solve the clues. Noted cryptic setter Derrick Somerset Macnutt (who wrote cryptics under the pseudonym of Ximenes) discusses the importance and art of fair cluemanship in his seminal book on cryptic crosswords, "Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword" (1966, reprinted 2001).


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Because a typical cryptic clue describes its answer in detail and often more than once, the solver can usually have a great deal of confidence in the answer once it has been determined. The clues are “self-checking.” This is in contrast to non-cryptic crossword clues which often have several possible answers and force the solver to use the crossing letters to distinguish which was intended.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: There are many "code words" or "indicators" that have a special meaning in the cryptic crossword context. (In the example above, "about", "unfinished" and "rising" all fall into this category). Learning these, or being able to spot them, is a useful and necessary part of becoming a skilled cryptic crossword solver.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Compilers or setters often use slang terms and abbreviations, generally without indication, so familiarity with these is important for the solver. Abbreviations may be as simple as 'west' = W, 'New York' = NY, but may also be more difficult. Words that can mean more than one thing are commonly exploited; often the meaning the solver must use is completely different from the one it appears to have in the clue. Some examples are:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Of these examples, "flower" is an invented meaning (using the verb "flow" and the suffix "-er"), and cannot be confirmed in a standard dictionary. A similar trick is played in the old clue "A wicked thing" for CANDLE, where the -ed suffix must be understood in its "equipped with a ..." meaning. In the case of the -er suffix, this trick could be played with other meanings of the suffix, but except for river → BANKER (a river is not a 'thing that banks' but a 'thing that has banks'), this is rarely done.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Sometimes "compiler", or the name or codename of the compiler (if visible by the crossword), codes for some form of the pronoun "I, me, my, mine".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: In the "Daily Telegraph" back page, Monday 15 March 2017, 7 down, is "Banish spirits with zero ice upsetting imbibing times (8)"; the answer is : it means "banish spirits", and is "zero ice" rearranged, including 'x' (described as "times"). The word "upsetting" indicates an anagram and the word "imbibing" indicates an insertion.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: A typical cryptic crossword grid is generally 15×15, with half-turn rotational symmetry. Unlike typical American crosswords, in which every square is almost always "checked" (that is, each square provides a letter for both an across and a down answer), only about half of the squares in a cryptic crossword are checked.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: In most daily newspaper cryptic crosswords, grid designs are restricted to a set of stock grids. In the past this was because hot metal typesetting meant that new grids were expensive.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Some papers have additional grid rules. In "The Times", for example, all words have at least half the letters checked, and although words can have two unchecked squares in succession, they cannot be the first two or last two letters of a word. The grid shown here breaks one "Times" grid rule: the 15-letter words at 9 and 24 across each have 8 letters unchecked out of 15. "The Independent" allows setters to use their own grid designs.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Variety (UK: "advanced") cryptic crosswords typically use a "barred grid" with no black squares and a slightly smaller size; 12×12 is typical. Word boundaries are denoted by thick lines called "bars". In these variety puzzles, one or more clues may require modification to fit into the grid, such as dropping or adding a letter, or being anagrammed to fit other, unmodified clues; unclued spaces may spell out a secret message appropriate for the puzzle theme once the puzzle is fully solved. The solver also may need to determine where answers fit into the grid.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: A July 2006 "Puzzlecraft" section in "Games" magazine on cryptic crossword construction noted that for cryptic crosswords to be readily solvable, no fewer than half the letters for every word should be checked by another word for a standard cryptic crossword, while nearly every letter should be checked for a variety cryptic crossword. In most UK "advanced cryptics" ('variety cryptic'), at least three-quarters of the letters in each word are checked.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: There are notable differences between British and North American (including Canadian) cryptics. American cryptics are thought of as holding to a more rigid set of construction rules than British ones. American cryptics usually require all words in a clue to be used in service of the wordplay or definition, whereas British ones allow for more extraneous or supporting words. In American cryptics, a clue is only allowed to have one subsidiary indication, but in British cryptics the occasional clue may have more than one; e.g., a "triple definition" clue would be considered an amusing variation in the UK but unsound in the US.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: For the most part, cryptic crosswords are an English-language phenomenon, although similar puzzles are popular in a Hebrew form in Israel (where they are called "tashbetsey higayon" (תשבצי הגיון) "Logic crosswords") and (as "Cryptogram") in Dutch. In Poland similar crosswords are called "Hetman crosswords". 'Hetman', a senior commander, and also the name for a queen in Chess, emphasises their importance over other crosswords. In Finnish, this type of crossword puzzle is known as "piilosana" (literally "hidden word"), while "krypto" refers to a crossword puzzle where the letters have been coded as numbers. The German "ZEITmagazin" has a weekly cryptic crossword called "Um die Ecke gedacht" and the "SZ Magazin" features "das Kreuz mit den Worten".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: In India the Telugu publication Sakshi carries a "Tenglish" (Telugu-English, bilingual) cryptic crossword; the Prajavani and Vijaya Karnataka crossword (Kannada) also employs cryptic wordplay. Enthusiasts have also created cryptic crosswords in Hindi. Since 1994, "enigmista" Ennio Peres has challenged Italians annually with "Il cruciverba più difficile del mondo" (The World's Most Difficult Crossword), which has many features in common with English-style cryptics.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: In Chinese something similar is the riddle of Chinese characters, where partial characters instead of substrings are clued and combined.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Clues given to the solver are based on various forms of wordplay. Nearly every clue has two non-overlapping parts to it: one part that provides an unmodified but often indirect definition for the word or phrase, and a second part that includes the wordplay involved. In a few cases, the two definitions are one and the same, as often in the case of "&lit." clues. Most cryptic crosswords provide the number of letters in the answer, or in the case of phrases, a series of numbers to denote the letters in each word: "cryptic crossword" would be clued with "(7,9)" following the clue. More advanced puzzles may drop this portion of the clue.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: An anagram is a rearrangement of a certain section of the clue to form the answer. This is usually indicated by words such as "strange", "bizarre", "muddled", "wild", "drunk", or any other term indicating change. One example:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Anagram clues are characterized by an indicator word adjacent to a phrase that has the same number of letters as the answer. The indicator tells the solver that there is an anagram they need to solve to work out the answer. Indicators come either before or after the letters to be anagrammed. In an American cryptic, only the words given in the clue may be anagrammed; in some older puzzles, the words to be anagrammed may be clued and "then" anagrammed. So in this clue:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: "Chew" is the anagram indicator; "honeydew" clues "melon", which is to be anagrammed; and "fruit" is the definition for the answer, . This kind of clue is called an "indirect anagram", which in the vast majority of cryptic crosswords are not used, ever since they were criticised by 'Ximenes' in his 1966 book "On the Art of the Crossword". Minor exception: simple abbreviations may be used to spice up the process; e.g., "Husband, a most eccentric fellow" (6) for THOMAS, where the anagram is made from A, MOST, and H = husband.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Anagram indicators, among the thousands possible, include: about, abstract, absurd, adapted, adjusted, again, alien, alternative, anew, another, around, arranged, assembled, assorted, at sea, awful, awkward, bad, barmy, becomes, blend, blow, break, brew, build, careless, changed, chaotic, characters, clumsy, composed, confused, contrived, convert, cooked, corrupt, could be, crazy, damaged, dancing, designed, develop, different, disorderly, disturbed, doctor, eccentric, edited, engineer, fabricate, fake, fancy, faulty, fiddled, fix, foolish, form, free, fudge, gives, ground, hammer, haywire, hybrid, improper, in a tizzy, involved, irregular, jostle, jumbled, jumping, kind of, knead, letters, loose, made, managed, maybe, messy, mistaken, mix, modified, moving, muddled, mutant, new, novel, odd, off, order, organised, otherwise, out, outrageous, peculiar, perhaps, playing, poor, possible, prepared, produced, queer, questionable, random, reform, remodel, repair, resort, rough, shaken, shifting, silly, sloppy, smashed, somehow, sort, spoilt, strange, style, switch, tangled, treated, tricky, troubled, turning, twist, unconventional, undone, unsettled, unsound, untidy, unusual, upset, used, vary, version, warped, wayward, weird, wild, working, wrecked, wrong.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: It is common for the setter to use a juxtaposition of anagram indicator and anagram that form a common phrase to make the clue appear as much like a 'normal' sentence or phrase as possible. For example:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Here, the answer is formed by joining individually clued words to make a larger word (namely, the answer).


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer is formed by for "outlaw" and for "leader". The definition is "managing money". With this example, the words appear in the same order in the clue as they do in the answer, and no special words are needed to indicate this. However, the order of the parts is sometimes indicated with words such as "against", "after", "on", "with" or "above" (in a down clue).


title: Cryptic crossword

text: gives ("apostle"), by placing "pal" ("friend") outside of "U" ("university"); the "'s" could be treated as the genitive case suffix or as short for "is".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Other container indicators are "inside", "over", "around", "about", "clutching", "enters", and the like.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Deletion is a wordplay mechanism which removes some letters of a word to create a shorter word. Deletions consist of "beheadments", "curtailments", and "internal deletions". In beheadments, a word loses its first letter. In curtailments, it loses its last letter, and internal deletions remove an inner letter, such as the middle one.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer would be , another word for "sailor", which is a "celebrity", or star, without the first letter.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer is , which means "bird" and is craven, or "cowardly", without the first letter (in this case "c", the abbreviation for "circa" or "about").


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer is . If you ignore the punctuation, a book is a "read", and book "endlessly" is "boo", a "shout".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer is , which means "challenging", and is darling without its middle letter, or "heartlessly".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Note that "sweetheart" could also be simply "wee" or the letter "E", that is, the "heart" (middle) of "sweet".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: A clue may, rather than having a definition part and a wordplay part, have two definition parts. Thus:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: would have the answer , because "blind" can mean both "not seeing" and "window covering". Note that since these definitions come from the same root word, an American magazine might not allow this clue. American double definitions tend to require both parts to come from different roots, as in this clue:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: This takes advantage of the two very different meanings (and pronunciations) of , the one with the long "o" sound meaning "someone from Poland" and the one with the short "o" sound meaning "make shiny".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: These clues tend to be short; in particular, two-word clues are almost always double-definition clues.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: is a quintuple definition of ("blue" (sad), "swallow" (drink), "feathers" (plumage), "fell" (cut down) and "from above"), but in the US this would be considered unsound.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Some British newspapers have an affection for quirky clues of this kind where the two definitions are similar:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: When the answer appears in the clue but is contained within one or more words, it is hidden. For example:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: gives , which means (cryptically at least) "damaged" and can be found as part of "Found ermine deer". The word "hides" is used to mean "contains," but in the surface sense suggests "pelts". A complication is that "damaged" often (but not in this clue) means "rearrange the letters".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Possible indicators of a hidden clue are "in part", "partially", "in", "within", "hides", "conceals", "some", and "held by".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Hidden words clues are sometimes called "Embedded words" or "Telescopic clues". The opposite of a hidden word clue, where letters "missing" from a sentence have to be found, is known as a Printer's Devilry, and appears in some advanced cryptics.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer would be , which is a type of primate. "Initially" signals that you must take the first letters of "amiable person eats" – "ape".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer would be , the name of a famous orphan in musical theatre. This is obtained from the first letters of "actor needing new identity emulates".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: It is possible to have initialisms just for certain parts of the clue. It is also possible to employ the same technique to the end of words. For example:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer would be , which used to be a kingdom in Africa (an "old country"). Here, we take the first letters of only the words "Head Office" (ho) and we take the "end" of the word "day" (y). The letters of the word "dame", meaning "lady", are then made to go around the letters "ho" to form Dahomey.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: That the solver should use the last letters may also be indicated by such words as 'ends', 'tails', 'last' etc. For instance:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer would be , which is "someone wanting women to vote". The word "odd" indicates that we must take every other letter of the rest of the clue, starting with the first: StUfF oF mR wAuGh Is SeT.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings, such as "night" and "knight". Homophone clues always have an indicator word or phrase that has to do with being spoken or heard. Examples of homophone indicators include "reportedly", "they say", "utterly" (here treated as "utter(ing)-ly" and not with its usual meaning), "vocal", "to the audience", "auditioned", "by the sound of it", "is heard", "in conversation" and "on the radio". "Broadcast" is a particularly devious indicator as it could indicate either a homophone or an anagram.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: which is a clue for , which means "shave" and is a homophone of pair, or "twins". The homophone is indicated by "we hear".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: If the two words are the same length, the clue should be phrased in such a way that only one of them can be the answer. This is usually done by having the homophone indicator adjacent to the word that is not the definition; therefore, in the previous example, "we hear" was adjacent to "twins" and the answer was "pare" rather than "pair". The indicator could come between the words if they were of different lengths and the enumeration was given, such as in the case of "right" and "rite".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The letter bank form of cluing consists of a shorter word (or words) containing no repeated letters (an "isogram"), and a longer word or phrase built by using each of these letters (but no others) at least once but repeating them as often as necessary. This type of clue has been described by American constructors Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto, who write the weekly puzzle for "The Nation". The shorter word is typically at least three or four letters in length, while the target word or phrase is at least three letters longer than the bank word. For example, the four letters in the word TENS can be used as a bank to form the word TENNESSEE. Typically, the clue contains indicator words such as "use," "take," or "implement" to signal that a letter bank is being employed.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: In this case, "ingredients" signals that the letters of both "Advil" and "Not" form the bank. Those letters yield the answer, ANTONIO VIVALDI.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Kosman and Picciotto consider this to be a newer and more complicated form of cluing that offers another way, besides the anagram, of mixing and recombining letters.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Other indicator words include "receding", "in the mirror", "going the wrong way", "returns", "reverses" "to the left" or "left" (for across clues), and "rising", "overturned" or "mounted" or "comes up" (for down clues).


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Here the clue appears to say one thing, but with a slight shift of viewpoint it says another. For example:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: gives , a flow-er of London. Here, the surface reading suggests a blossom, which disguises the fact that the name of a river is required. Notice the question mark: this is often (though by no means always) used by compilers to indicate this sort of clue is one where you need to interpret the words in a different fashion. The way that a clue reads as an ordinary sentence is called its "surface reading" and is often used to disguise the need for a different interpretation of the clue's component words.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: This type of clue is common in British and Canadian cryptics but is a bit less common in American cryptics; in American-style crosswords, a clue like this is generally called a punny clue. It's almost certainly the oldest kind of cryptic clue: cryptic definitions appeared in the UK newspaper puzzles in the late 1920s and early 1930s that mixed cryptic and plain definition clues and evolved into fully cryptic crosswords.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: A relatively uncommon clue type, a Spoonerism is a play on words where corresponding consonant clusters are switched between two words in a phrase (or syllables in a word) and the switch forms another pair of proper "sounding" words. For example: "butterfly" = "flutter by".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Both the solution word or phrase and its corresponding Spoonerism are clued for, and the clue type is almost always indicated by reference to William Archibald Spooner himself – with some regions/publications insisting his religious title "Rev." or "Reverend" be included. In contrast to all other clue types, this makes them almost impossible to disguise. But that doesn't necessarily make them easy.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer is ("He will casually put down"). The Spoonerism is "bitter" ("angry") and "lug" ("bear, as in carry").


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The vast majority of Spoonerism clues swap the first consonants of words or syllables, but Spoonerisms are not strictly restricted to that form and some setters will take advantage of this. John Henderson (Enigmatist in the Guardian) once clued for the Spoonerism "light crick" from "right click", which didn't sit well with many solvers.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: A clue in which the only hint to the letters in the solution is that it is a Palindrome, for example:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: An "&lit." or "Literal" clue is not a clue type, but, rather a variant on an existing clue. "&lit" stands for "and literally so". In this case, the entire clue is both a definition and a cryptic clue. In some publications &lit clues are indicated by an exclamation mark at the end of the clue. For example:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer is . The Norse god Odin is hidden in "god incarnate", as clued by "essentially", but the definition of Odin is also the whole clue, as Odin is essentially a God incarnate.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: would give the answer ; in the cryptic sense, "spoil" works as an anagram indicator for "vote", while the whole clue is, with a certain amount of licence allowed to crossword setters, a definition.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: gives the answer . Geese find their origins in eggs, so the whole clue gives "egg", but the clue can also be broken down: e.g., loses its full stops to give "eg", followed by the first letter (i.e., the "origin") of the word goose—"g"—to make "egg".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: "Daily Telegraph" Tuesday 22 April 2014 has: "Dog in wild? Yes! (5)"; the answer is . "Dog in wild" means "rearrange the letters of "", and is the definition.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Ximenes identifies various other types of clue in 'On The Art Of The Crossword' (1966) in chapter VII, 'Improvised Clues', including:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Initial or Final letter clues are also mentioned in this chapter, to be used 'When the setter is in real desperation'.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: "Combination clues" employ more than one method of wordplay; this is particularly common for longer grid entries. For example:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer is . "Baron" "returns", or is reversed, and put inside "pit" or hole, to make "honorable", or "illustrious".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: The answer to this clue is . The phrase "to turn" indicates "to reverse," and "part of" suggests a piece of "Internet torrid".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: To make clues more difficult, cryptic constructors will frequently use traditional indicator words in a misleading manner.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Abbreviations are popular with crossword compilers for cluing individual letters or short sections of the answer. Consider this clue:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Another type of abbreviation in clues might be words that refer to letters. For example, 'you' refers to the letter U, 'why' refers to the letter Y, etc. A clue for instance:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Often, Roman numerals are used to break down words into their component letter groups. E.g. In this clue:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Cryptic clue styles across newspapers are ostensibly similar, but there are technical differences which result in the work of setters being regarded as either Ximenean or Libertarian (and often a combination of both).


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Ximenean rules are very precise in terms of grammar and syntax, especially as regards the indicators used for various methods of wordplay. Libertarian setters may use devices which "more or less" get the message across. For example, when treating the answer BEER the setter may decide to split the word into BEE and R and, after finding suitable ways to define the answer and BEE, now looks to give the solver a clue to the letter R. Ximenean rules would not allow something like "reach first" to indicate that R is the first letter of "reach" because, grammatically, that is not what "reach first" implies. Instead, a phrase along the lines of "first to reach" would be needed as this conforms to rules of grammar. Many Libertarian crossword editors would, however, accept "reach first" as it would be considered to reasonably get the idea across. For instance, a clue following Ximenean rules for BEER (BEE + R) may look as such:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: "The Guardian" is perhaps the most Libertarian of cryptic crosswords, while "The Times" is mostly Ximenean. The others tend to be somewhere in between; the "Financial Times" and "Independent" tend towards Ximenean, the "Daily Telegraph" also – although its Toughie crossword can take a very Libertarian approach depending on the setter. None of the major daily cryptics in the UK is "strictly Ximenean"; all allow clues which are just cryptic definitions, and strict Ximenean rules exclude such clues. There are other differences like nounal anagram indicators and in current "Times" crosswords, unindicated definition by example: "bay" in the clue indicating HORSE in the answer, without a qualification like "bay, perhaps".


title: Cryptic crossword

text: In terms of difficulty, Libertarian clues can seem impenetrable to inexperienced solvers. However, more significant is the setter him/herself. Crosswords in the "Times" and "Daily Telegraph" are published anonymously, so the crossword editor ensures that clues adhere to a consistent house style. Inevitably each setter has an individual (and often very recognisable) approach to clue-writing, but the way in which wordplay devices are used and indicated is kept within a defined set of rules.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: In the "Guardian", "Independent", "Financial Times" and "Telegraph" Toughie series the setters' pseudonyms are published, so solvers become familiar with the styles of individual setters rather than house rules. Thus the level of difficulty is associated with the setter rather than the newspaper, though puzzles by individual setters can actually vary in difficulty considerably.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: It is effectively impossible, then, to describe one newspaper's crosswords as the toughest or easiest. For newcomers to cryptic puzzles the "Daily Telegraph" is often regarded as an ideal starting point, but this is contentious. Since all of the newspapers have different styles, concentrating on one of them is likely to lead to proficiency in only one style of clue-writing; moving to a different series, after perhaps years spent with just one, can leave the solver feeling as if they have gone back to square one. The better technique is to simply attempt as many different crosswords as possible, perhaps to find a "comfort zone" but, more importantly, to experience the widest possible range of Ximenean/Libertarian styles.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: "Themed" or "variety" cryptics have developed a small but enthusiastic following in Britain, the United States, and elsewhere. Variety cryptics are arguably among the most difficult of all crossword puzzles, both to compile and to solve, since they often involve alterations to the answers before entry into the grid, meaning that there is no assurance that the cross clues will match up unless properly altered.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: As an example, a puzzle entitled "Trash Talk" by Bob Stigger in the June 2019 issue of the U.S. publication "Games World of Puzzles" included the following instruction:


title: Cryptic crossword

text: In this variety cryptic crossword, 18 clue answers are garbage, to be treated according to the mantra "13-Across 6-Across and 40-across." Specifically, six answers are too long for the grid; delete one letter. Six others are too short, double one letter. And six more don't match the crossing letters; anagram them.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: In Britain it is traditional — dating from the cryptic crossword pioneer Edward (Bill) Powys Mathers (1892–1939), who called himself "Torquemada" after the Spanish Inquisitor — for compilers to use evocative pseudonyms. "Crispa", named from the Latin for "curly-headed", who set crosswords for the "Guardian" from 1954 until her retirement in 2004, legally changed her surname to "Crisp" after divorcing in the 1970s. Some pseudonyms have obvious connotations: for example, Torquemada as already described, or "Mephisto" with fairly obvious devilish overtones. Others are chosen for logical but less obvious reasons, though "Dinmutz" (the late Bert Danher in the "Financial Times") was produced by random selection of Scrabble tiles.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Roger Squires and the late Ruth Crisp set at various times in their careers for all 5 of the broadsheets.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Research into cryptic crossword solving has been comparatively sparse. Several discrete areas have been explored: the cognitive or linguistic challenges posed by cryptic clues; the mechanisms by which the "Aha!" moment is triggered by solving cryptic crossword clues; the use of cryptic crosswords to preserve cognitive flexibility ("use-it-or-lose-it") in aging populations; and expertise studies into the drivers of high performance and ability in solving cryptics.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Recent expertise studies by Friedlander and Fine, based on a large-scale survey of 805 solvers of all ability (mainly UK-based), suggest that cryptic crossword solvers are generally highly academically able adults whose education and occupations lie predominantly in the area of scientific, mathematical or IT-related fields. This STEM connection increases significantly with level of expertise, particularly for mathematics and IT. The authors suggest that cryptic crossword skill is bound up with code-cracking and problem-solving skills of a logical and quasi-algebraic nature.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Friedlander and Fine also note that solvers are motivated predominantly by "Aha!" moments, and intrinsic rewards such as mental challenge. Solvers voluntarily choose to engage with intellectually and culturally stimulating activities like music, theatre, reading, and the arts in their leisure time, and pursue active musical participation such as singing or playing an instrument at noticeably higher levels than the UK national average. Solving cryptic crossword clues can lead to a succession of 'Aha!' or 'Penny-Dropping' Moments which is highly rewarding; Friedlander and Fine suggest that research could take advantage of the range of cryptic crossword devices to explore the mechanics of insight in more depth. Looking at expert cryptic crossword solvers – who speedily overcome the clue misdirection – and comparing them with typical, everyday solvers of equal experience may provide a better understanding of the kind of person who can overcome a solving 'hitch' more easily, and how they go about it.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Cryptic crosswords often appear in British literature, and are particularly popular in murder mysteries, where they are part of the puzzle. The character Inspector Morse created by Colin Dexter is fond of solving cryptic crosswords, and the crosswords often become part of the mystery. Colin Dexter himself set crosswords for "The Oxford Times" for many years and was a national crossword champion. In the short story "The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will", by Dorothy L Sayers, Lord Peter Wimsey solves a crossword in order to solve the mystery, while the solution to Agatha Christie's "Curtain" hinges on an "Othello" themed crossword. Ruth Rendell has used the device in her novel "One Across, Two Down". Among non-crime writers, crosswords often feature in the works of P. G. Wodehouse, and are an important part of the short story "The Truth About George". Alan Plater's 1994 novel Oliver's Travels (turned into a BBC television serial of the same name in 1995) centres round crossword solving and the hunt for a missing compiler.


title: Cryptic crossword

text: Crosswords feature prominently in the 1945 British romantic drama film "Brief Encounter", scripted by playwright Noël Coward, which is number two in the British Film Institute's Top 100 British films. The plot of "The Riddle of the Sphinx", a 2017 episode of "Inside No. 9", revolves around the clues and answers to a particular crossword puzzle, which had appeared on the day of the original broadcast in "The Guardian".


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Gevorg "Giorgio" Petrosyan (; born December 10, 1985) is an Armenian-born Italian kickboxer who competes in the middleweight division. Nicknamed "The Doctor" and noted for his supreme technical skills, ringsmanship and defensive prowess which has seen him defeat some of the best strikers in the world while taking little-to-no damage, As of September 2022, he is ranked the #5 lightweight and #6 pound-for-pound kickboxer in the world by Combat Press, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest kickboxers of all time. As of October 27, 2022, he is ranked #4 in the ONE Featherweight Kickboxing rankings.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: After immigrating to Italy from Armenia at thirteen years old, Petrosyan began his professional career as a Muay Thai fighter at sixteen, starting out as a -54 kg/119 lb bantamweight before moving up through the weight classes and settling at the -70 kg/154 lb middleweight division, taking numerous titles along the way. Following a decision loss to Nonthanan Por. Pramuk at Lumpinee Stadium in January 2007, he went on a six-year, forty-two fight undefeated streak considered to be one of the most dominant reigns in the history of the sport which was eventually ended by Andy Ristie at "" in November 2013.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: His switch to kickboxing rules and subsequent ascent began in 2008 when he began competing for It's Showtime and K-1, and he established himself as the world's top middleweight with two consecutive K-1 World MAX World Championship Tournament Championships in 2009 and 2010. He then joined Glory in 2012 following It's Showtime and K-1's demise and further cemented his place as the elite -70 kg/154 lb kickboxer by winning the tournament.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Born in Yerevan, Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union (now Armenia) on December 10, 1985 as Gevorg Petrosyan, he emigrated to Italy at the age of thirteen with his father, Andranik, and older brother, Stepan, arriving illegally in the country in the back of a truck. They initially lived homeless in Milan, sleeping in train stations and on the streets, but were later taken in by a family in Gorizia who offered them work as night watchmen at their factory. After settling in Italy, he was soon joined by his mother, Karine, sister, Lianna, and younger brother, Armen, who is also a world champion kickboxer.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Inspired by Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme martial arts films, Petrosyan decided to begin training in Muay Thai at fourteen years old but was initially turned away from the gym for being too small. He persisted, however, and eventually started his training under Alfio Romanut at the Satori Gladiatorium Nemesis gym and had his first fight at the age of sixteen. He continues to reside in Gorizia in Northern Italy and worked as a bricklayer early in his career.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Giorgio Petrosyan started his career as a -54 kg/119 lb bantamweight at the age of sixteen and defeated a local Italian fighter in his February 2002 debut, breaking his toes while doing so. He turned professional shortly after and would compete almost exclusively under Muay Thai rules for the next five years. In his first title fight on November 9, 2003, he scored a third round knockout over Gionata Zarbo to be crowned the Muay Thai Association (MTA) Italian national champion. Steadily moving up in weight and competition level, he captured the MTA European -65 kg/143 lb Championship by outpointing Fabio Pinca in 2004 before making his only successful defence of the belt in February 2005 with another points win over Shemsi Beqiri in his home town of Gorizia. He fought to a draw with three-time Lumpinee Stadium champion Pinsinchai in Bologna, Italy on April 10, 2005 but soon returned to the win column and defeated Olivier Tchétché by second round technical knockout in a WMC Intercontinental Welterweight (-66.7 kg/147 lb) Championship match in Nova Gorica, Slovenia on June 25, 2005.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Petrosyan then made the journey to Thailand to train, visiting the WMC Samui Gym in Ko Samui and Tor. Silachai in Nakhon Ratchasima. He stopped Thai fighter Petch with a low kick in round three at Phetch Buncha Samui Stadium in Ko Samui in February 2006 before returning to Italy to compete in the "Italian Extreme IV" four-man tournament in Modena on April 1, 2006 which he ran through, finishing both opponents in the first round. He floored Richard Barnhill with a left hook before putting him away with a low kick in the semi-finals and gave an almost identical performance in the final when he dispatched Roel Rink with a leg kick shortly after knocking him down with a right hook. This also marked the third consecutive fight in which Petrosyan had stopped opponents with low kicks. He became a world champion for the first time on June 10, 2006 by knocking out Benito Caupain with a first round high kick to win the vacant Kombat League World -66.7 kg/147 lb Muay Thai Championship in Nova Gorica. He would go on to successfully defend this title three times before the end of the year; TKOing Johnny Tancray in round four in Sardinia, Italy on August 5, KOing Frankie Hudders in round two in Pordenone, Italy on September 5 and winning a unanimous decision over Imro Main in Enschede, Netherlands on November 19.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Moving up to middleweight, Petrosyan marked his arrival in the weight class that he would go on to dominate by winning the eight-man 72 kg/158 lb tournament at "Janus Fight Night 2006" in Padua, Italy, on December 2, 2006. He took a unanimous decision win against Cédric Muller in the quarter-finals and TKO'd Frane Radnić in the semis, knocking him down twice in round one with a left cross to the solar plexus, before beating Marco Piqué via another unanimous decision in the final.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Petrosyan fought at the historic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand for the first time on January 23, 2007 where he was also handed the first loss of his career, dropping a decision to Nonthanan Por. Pramuk.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: He was able to bounce back from this loss by recording back-to-back wins, a third-round TKO of Sadio Cissoko on March 17, 2007 and a unanimous decision over Arslan Magomedov on April 14, 2007 at "K-1 Italy Oktagon 2007", both fights taking place in Milan, Italy. From there, he was offered the biggest fight of his career at that point when he replaced John Wayne Parr, who withdrew after injuring his ribs training with Nathan Corbett, to challenge Buakaw Por. Pramuk for his WMC World Junior Middleweight (-69.8 kg/154 lb) Championship at "K-1 Fighting Network Scandinavian Qualification 2007" in Stockholm, Sweden on May 19, 2007. After five rounds, the fight was ruled a split draw and, consequently, Buakaw retained his title.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Petrosyan then went on defeat Abdallah Mabel twice within two months in his next couple of fights, decisioning him in Padua on May 26, 2007 and then TKOing him in Trieste on July 27, 2007. After a first-round knockout of Behrouz Rastagar in Arnhem, Netherlands on October 13, 2007, he entered the "Janus Fight Night 2007" -72 kg/158 lb tournament (the event he had won a year previously) on November 24, 2007. In the quarter-finals, he beat José Reis by unanimous decision. Then, in the semis, he met Abdallah Mabel for the third time in six months and bested the Frenchman once again, winning another unanimous decision. In the final, Petrosyan defeated another familiar opponent by unanimous decision, Marco Piqué, who he had also faced in the final the previous year.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: In early 2008, Petrosyan made the transition to Oriental rules kickboxing when he signed with the It's Showtime organization, making his promotional debut with a unanimous decision victory over Luís Reis at "" in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands on March 15, 2008. April 2008 was another pivotal month in Petrosyan's career as he made his first foray onto the K-1 circuit, TKOing Mikel Colaj in five at "K-1 Italy Oktagon 2008" in Milan on the twelfth and forcing two second round standing eight counts en route to taking a unanimous decision over Chris Ngimbi at the "K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 in Amsterdam" supercard at the Amsterdam ArenA on the twenty sixth.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Following a brief return to the Muay Thai scene with wins over Çağrı Ermiş in Tilburg, Netherlands, on May 24, 2008, and Rafik Bakkouri in Abano Terme, Italy, on June 28, 2008, Petrosyan did not fight again until November when he took to the ring twice within three weeks. On November 8, he beat Naruepol Fairtex by unanimous decision at "Janus Fight Night: The Legend". Then, on November 29, he took another decision over Warren Stevelmans at "It's Showtime 2008 Eindhoven".


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Petrosyan took the World Kickboxing Network (WKN) Intercontinental Welterweight (-69.9 kg/154 lb) Oriental Championship on January 31, 2009 when he stopped David Javakhia with a liver kick inside the opening stanza in Turin, Italy. On March 14, 2009 at "" in Milan, he scored his first win over a truly elite fighter, taking a points victory against Andy Souwer. Using just about everything in his arsenal to keep Andy Souwer off-balance and out of his range, Petrosyan was seemingly in control of the exchanges. However, the fight got dramatic when the judges unexpectedly ruled it a draw after three rounds, sending the fight into an extension round to decide the winner. Things got even more heated when Souwer was dropped by a punch in the extension round and referee Joop Ubeda declined to give him a count. In the end, the judges saw things the way of Petrosyan and gave him the unanimous decision, in what was considered a major upset.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Sporting an impressive 53-1-2 record and now holding a victory over a two-time K-1 MAX champion in Souwer, Petrosyan was invited to compete in the annual K-1 World MAX Tournament for the first time. At the tournament's opening round at the "K-1 World MAX 2009 World Championship Tournament Final 16" in Fukuoka, Japan on April 21, 2009, he controlled Dzhabar Askerov for two rounds before putting him away with a knee to the midsection in three.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Following a unanimous decision win against Faldir Chahbari at "It's Showtime 2009 Amsterdam" on May 16, 2009, Petrosyan faced another one-time K-1 MAX champion in the form of Albert Kraus in the tournament's quarter-final stage at the "K-1 World MAX 2009 World Championship Tournament Final 8" in Tokyo, Japan on July 13, 2009. Petrosyan defeated him soundly, winning a unanimous decision and qualifying for the round of four three months later. On October 26, 2009 at the "K-1 World MAX 2009 World Championship Tournament Final" in Yokohama, Japan, he defeated Yuya Yamamoto in the semi-finals but suffered a broken hand in the process. In round one, he dropped Yamamoto with a left hook, but the Japanese fighter was able to return to his feet following the referee's count. He was still visibly hurt, however, and Petrosyan swarmed to knock him out with a right hook seconds later. Advancing to the final despite his hand injury, he met Andy Souwer for the second time. Petrosyan dominated all three rounds, and dropped Souwer with a knee to the body in the second, en route to a unanimous decision victory, clinching the coveted K-1 World MAX Tournament Championship.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: As the reigning K-1 MAX champion, Petrosyan was scheduled to face Masato in the Japanese legend's retirement match at "Dynamite!! 2009" in Saitama, Japan on December 31, 2009 but his broken hand kept him out of the fight and he was replaced by Andy Souwer. He instead returned to the ring on January 30, 2010, defending his WKN intercontinental title against Mohamed Diaby in Turin. Although giving up a sizable reach advantage to the lanky Diaby, Petrosyan was able to get inside and constantly connect. Midway through round one, he connected with a clean punch, dropping the Frenchman. In round two, he continued the pressure, peppering Diaby with shots and earning a second knockdown when Diaby simply could not stand any longer. Diaby gamely made it to his feet, but his corner had seen enough and threw in the towel.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: He earned a unanimous decision win against Kem Sitsongpeenong in a competitive match, the Thai fighter's first under kickboxing the rule set, at "" in Milan on March 13, 2010 but reinjured his hand in doing so and thus two more proposed matchups, a March 27 meeting with Yoshihiro Sato at the "K-1 World MAX 2010 –70 kg Japan Tournament" in Saitama and a fight with Nieky Holzken at "It's Showtime 2010 Amsterdam" on May 29, were shelved.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: After healing up from his injuries, Petrosyan made his comeback to K-1 and entered into the K-1 World MAX 2010 Tournament, winning a unanimous decision against Vitaly Gurkov in the round of sixteen at the "K-1 World MAX 2010 in Seoul World Championship Tournament Final 16" in Seoul, South Korea on October 3, 2010. After a clear 10-9 opening round, the reigning champion began really picking the tall Belarusian apart with counterpunches, catching kicks and slipping punches en route to another dominant second frame. By the third round, Gurkov's nose was bloodied and busted, and the Belarusian could offer up no reply to "The Doctor's" surgical strikes. A fighter with an extensive Muay Thai background, Gurkov also spent much of the fight clinched up and was eventually yellow carded for such action.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: At the "K-1 World MAX 2010 World Championship Tournament Final" in Tokyo on November 8, 2010, he again met with Albert Kraus in the quarter-finals and the match was identical to the pair's first meeting a year earlier as the Dutchman found himself being countered for the majority of the fight and lost a wide unanimous decision. Against Mike Zambidis in the semis, Petrosyan was literally not hit once in round one and, while the short Greek aggressively pursued him around the ring with leaping hooks and haymakers in two and three, he further countered him with punches and step knees en route to another UD victory, although he suffered a knock down in the 2nd round. In the final, he faced off against home town fighter Yoshihiro Sato and although Sato's height and reach advantage caused him some problems, Petrosyan was still able to dominate the match and took the unanimous decision victory to be crowned the K-1 World MAX champion for the second year in-a-row and become the only fighter ever to defend a K-1 MAX title.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Just as in the 2009 K-1 MAX Tournament, Petrosyan broke his hand for the third time during the 2010 edition. This injury caused him to withdraw from a planned fight with Pajonsuk SuperPro Samui at "" in Athens, Greece on December 11, 2010 in which he was replaced by Andy Souwer.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Giorgio Petrosyan was initially due to take on Yohan Lidon at "Thai Boxe Mania 2011" in Turin on January 29, 2011 but the Frenchman withdrew in advance after conceding that he would be unable to make the -70 kg/154 lb weight limit. Sudsakorn Sor Klinmee stepped in as his replacement and ran the Petrosyan relatively close in match that showed why both men are where they are in the sport but Petrosyan nonetheless had the upper hand throughout the fight and was able to pull off the unanimous decision victory. He then defeated Cosmo Alexandre by UD at the "Fight Code: Dragon Series 2011 - Round 2" in Milan on March 12, 2013.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Although a fourth match with Abdallah Mabel was rumoured for the May 14, 2011 "It's Showtime 2011 Lyon" event in Lyon, France, Petrosyan eventually fought Chahid Oulad El Hadj and, after dominating the first two rounds, accidentally kicked El Hadj in the groin in round three. El Hadj could not continue and the bout was ruled a no contest.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: On July 18, 2011 in Tokyo at "REBELS 8 & It's Showtime Japan Countdown-1", Petrosyan dominated Hinata to a unanimous points victory, controlling the fight by slipping almost all of Hinata's punches, checking low kicks and catching body kicks to disrupt his opponent's rhythm. The Japanese fighter's lack of head movement also made him an easy target for Petrosyan's superior boxing. However, he broke his hand a fourth time in the match.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: With K-1 experiencing extreme financial difficulties, the K-1 World MAX was not organized in 2011 and It's Showtime instead held its own high-level middleweight tournament, "", in Brussels, Belgium on September 25, 2011. Petrosyan was set to take part but his broken hand forced him to withdraw and he was replaced by Robin van Roosmalen who went on to win the competition.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: After having surgery on his hand, he took to the ring again in a fight with an unheralded Zeben Díaz at "" in Tenerife, Spain on November 12, 2011. The Spanish judges scored the bout a split decision in favour of Petrosyan in a fight more straightforward than the scorecards may suggest.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: In January 2012, Petrosyan terminated his contract with It's Showtime, which acted as his management team as well as his promoter, due to them not being able to secure the money he was owed by K-1 for winning the 2010 K-1 World MAX tournament. He stated ""I think I have shown enough patience. I have been repeatedly guaranteed the compensation due. Twelve months have passed without anything, following a number of promises to pay. I remain willing to fight for anyone interested in giving me his gala tournaments, with no limits or proprietary.""


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Now a free agent, he returned to Italy to fight independently and in his first outing since leaving It's Showtime defeated Abraham Roqueñi via unanimous decision at "Yokkao Extreme 2012" in Milan on January 21, 2012. Then, in a much anticipated match-up with Artur Kyshenko at "Oktagon 2012" in Milan on March 24, 2012, Petrosyan once again displayed his dominance, outworking the Ukrainian every step of the way to take the win on all three judges scorecards.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Petrosyan signed with the newly founded Glory organization a week after the Kyshenko fight and was immediately entered into the forthcoming Glory 2012 Lightweight (-70 kg/154 lb) Slam tournament. At the Lightweight Slam's opening round at "" on May 26, 2012, Petrosyan was drawn against Fabio Pinca in a rematch eight years in the making. Petrosyan went to work from the beginning, attacking his opponent. Pinca was able to withstand the onslaught, however, and even pressed the issue on becoming more offensive minded in the fight. As the match went on, Petrosyan used this as an advantage and methodically countered with hooks and liver kicks. Petrosyan's elusiveness was also on display as he ducked and weaved out of the way of Pinca's punches and answered with a counter strike every time before winning a unanimous decision to advance to the round of eight.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Moving on to "" on November 3, 2012 in Rome, Italy, Petrosyan went up against Ky Hollenbeck in the quarter-finals, winning by TKO when Hollenbeck suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the second round after dropping the American with a perfectly timed left hook in the first. He then beat Davit Kiria by unanimous decision in the semis and, in the final, faced Robin van Roosmalen in a highly anticipated showdown. Petrosyan was able to nullify the hard-punching Dutchman by using rangy jabs and lead teep kicks to control the distance while landing power combos at will and took the unanimous points victory to win the third major tournament of his career.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: In a one-off match outside of Glory in Trieste on March 2, 2013, he turned in an uncharacteristically aggressive performance against Ole Laursen as he dropped Laursen with a knee to the liver before knocking him out with a high kick immediately after, leaving the outmatched Dane unconscious on the canvas for several minutes. This was Petrosyan's his first legitimate stoppage win in three years.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Cruising to a UD against Hafid El Boustati at "" on April 20, 2013, Petrosyan put on a lesson in footwork, timing, and ring generalship as El Boustati landed maybe two or three shots the entire fight, while simultaneously getting countered, punched, kneed, and body-kicked.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Competing in the "" in New York City, New York, United States on November 23, 2013, Petrosyan was knocked out for the first time by eventual champion Andy Ristie in the semi-finals. He was unable to find his rhythm due to the Surinamese fighter's pressure but nonetheless remained in control for the first two rounds of the match. In the third, however, Ristie came out aggressively, landing a right hand by way of a switch-step that had Petrosyan stunned and following up with a left uppercut, putting an end to Petrosyan's forty-two fight, six year undefeated streak.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Petrosyan faced Artem Pashporin for the W5 71kg world title on February 18, 2017 at W5 Grand Prix Kitek in Russia. He won the fight by unanimous decision.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: In his second bout for Bellator Kickboxing, Petrosyan faced Amansio Paraschiv at Bellator Kickboxing 5 on April 8, 2017. He won the fight by unanimous decision.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Petrosyan was scheduled to fight Jonay Risco for the ISKA Super Welterweight (-70 kg/154 lb) K-1 Rules World Championship at "PetrosyanMania" in Monza, Italy on October 14, 2017. However, Risco withdrew due to injury and Petrosyan instead fought Chris Ngimbi for the vacant title. Petrosyan won via unanimous decision and became the new ISKA Super Welterweight K-1 World Champion.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: On July 14, 2018 at Bellator Kickboxing 10 in Rome, Italy, Petrosyan defeated Chingiz Allazov b/y unanimous decision, scoring a knock down in the first round


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: In April 2018, Petrosyan signed with ONE Championship, unveiling their Super Series segment as a figurehead, a venture which would intertwine kickboxing and Muay Thai bouts within their MMA based events. Petrosyan found himself in the co-main event slot for "" in Manila, Philippines, squaring off against Lion Fight veteran Jo Nattawut, a bout the Armenian-Italian won with his technical defensive kickboxing expertise via a unanimous decision.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: After securing the Bellator Kickboxing lightweight championship on a one-fight stint in July, Petrosyan returned to the Asian stage in November, for "", taking on Lumpinee Stadium Muay Thai champion Sorgraw Petchyindee Academy.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Petrosyan returned in February 2019, competing for a second time in his brother Armen's kickboxing promotion, PetrosyanMania. He successfully defended his ISKA Super Welterweight (-70kg/154lb) K-1 Rules World Championship against Japanese kickboxer Atsushi Tamefusa. Petrosyan was expected to return to ONE later that year, having recently being announced as a participant in the upcoming ONE Super Series Kickboxing Featherweight Grand Prix. The event was expected to start around May.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: In the Grand Prix Quarter-Finals, he faced Phetmorakot Petchyindee Academy on May 17, 2019 at "". Petrosyan lost by split decision but the result was reversed to a no contest due to illegal clinching and a rematch was scheduled for "". On July 12, 2019, Petrosyan defeated Phetmorakot by unanimous decision to advance to the Grand Prix Semi-Finals, where he was scheduled to face Jo Nattawut for a second time. On August 16, 2019, Petrosyan defeated Jo Nattawut by KO in the first round at "". In doing so, he advanced to the ONE Super Series Kickboxing Featherweight Grand Prix Final, where he is scheduled to face Samy Sana at "".


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: On October 13, 2019, Petrosyan defeated Samy Sana by unanimous decision in the Grand Prix Final to become the inaugural ONE Kickboxing Featherweight World Grand Prix Champion, in addition to winning a USD$1 million cash prize.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Petrosyan next faced former Glory and Kunlun Fight champion Davit Kiria, who made his ONE debut, at "" on February 26, 2021. Petrosyan won the fight by unanimous decision.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Petrosyan was next scheduled to face Superbon Banchamek for the inaugural ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Championship at "" on October 15, 2021. Petrosyan, the heavy favorite, lost via second-round right high kick knockout, suffering his first loss since 2013 and the second-ever knockout loss of his career. Petrosyan was later revealed to have suffered a broken jaw, for which he would undergo surgery to repair.


title: Giorgio Petrosyan

text: Petrosyan was expected to face Sayfullakh Khambakhadov for the ISKA Super Welterweight K-1 Rules World Championship at PetrosyanMania on December 4, 2021. However, the event was postponed due to Petrosyans's injury and is now scheduled to take place on April 30, 2022. Khambakhadov was replaced by Fatih Aydin. Petrosyan won the fight by TKO in the second round.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: The Dzungar genocide () was the mass extermination of the Mongol Dzungar people by the Qing dynasty. The Qianlong Emperor ordered the genocide due to the rebellion in 1755 by Dzungar leader Amursana against Qing rule, after the dynasty first conquered the Dzungar Khanate with Amursana's support. The genocide was perpetrated by Manchu generals of the Qing army supported by Turkic oasis dwellers (now known as Uyghurs) who rebelled against Dzungar rule.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: The Dzungar Khanate was a confederation of several Tibetan Buddhist Oirat Mongol tribes that emerged in the early 17th century, and the last great nomadic empire in Asia. Some scholars estimate that about 80% of the Dzungar population, or around 500,000 to 800,000 people, were killed by a combination of warfare and disease during or after the Qing conquest in 1755–1757. After wiping out the native population of Dzungaria, the Qing government then resettled Han, Hui, Uyghur, and Sibe people on state farms in Dzungaria along with Manchu Bannermen to repopulate the area.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: The Qing dynasty went to war against the Dzungars in the Dzungar–Qing War. The Dzungars lived in the area stretching from the west end of the Great Wall of China to present-day eastern Kazakhstan and from present-day northern Kyrgyzstan to southern Siberia (most of which is located in present-day Xinjiang). They were the last nomadic empire to threaten China, which they did from the early 17th century through the middle of the 18th century. During this time, the Dzungar pioneered the local manifestation of the ‘Military Revolution’ in Central Eurasia after perfecting a process of manufacturing indigenously created gunpowder weapons. They also created a mixed agro-pastoral economy, as well as complementary mining and manufacturing industries on their lands. Additionally, the Dzungar managed


title: Dzungar genocide

text: to enact an empire-wide system of laws and policies to boost the use of the Oirat language in the region.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: After a series of inconclusive military conflicts that started in the 1680s, the Dzungars were subjugated by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1644–1911) in the late 1750s.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: Clarke argued that the Qing campaign in 1757–58 "amounted to the complete destruction of not only the Zunghar state but of the Zunghars as a people". After the Qianlong Emperor led Qing forces to victory over the Dzungars in 1755, he originally planned to split the Dzungar Khanate into four tribes headed by four Khans, the Khoit tribe was to have the Dzungar leader Amursana as its Khan. Amursana rejected the Qing arrangement and rebelled because he wanted to be leader of a united Dzungar nation. The enraged Qianlong Emperor then issued orders for the eradication of the entire Dzungar nation and name. Mongol banners and Manchus would receive Dzungar women and children as slaves. The remaining Dzungars were to be killed.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: The Outer Mongol Khalkha Prince Chingünjav conspired with Amursana to revolt against the Qing in 1755. Chingünjav then started his own rebellion in Outer Mongolia against the Qing in 1756, but it was crushed by the Qing in 1757. Chingünjav and his entire family were executed by the Qing after the rebellion was put down. The Manchu Eight Banners were then ordered by the Qing Qianlong Emperor to conquer the Dzungars.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: Deaths in the Dzungar genocide are estimated at between 70 and 80 percent of the 600,000 or more Dzungars, who were destroyed by disease and warfare between 1755 and 1758, which Michael Clarke describes as "the complete destruction of not only the Dzungar state but of the Dzungars as a people." According to the Qing scholar Wei Yuan (1794–1857), the Dzungar population before the Qing conquest was around 600,000 in 200,000 households. Wei Yuan wrote that about 40 percent of the Dzungar households were killed by smallpox, 20 percent fled to Russia or Kazakh tribes, and 30 percent were killed by Manchu bannermen. For several thousands of li, there were no gers except of those who had surrendered. According to Russian accounts, all the men, women and children of the Dzungars were slaughtered by the Manchu troops. The population of Dzungaria would not rebound for several generations.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: The destruction of the Dzungars has been attributed to an explicit policy of extermination, described as "ethnic genocide", by the Qianlong Emperor which lasted for two years. He ordered the massacre of the majority of the Dzungar population and the enslavement or banishment of the remainder, resulting in the destruction of the Dzungars. The "Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity" classifies the Qianlong Emperor's actions against the Dzungars as genocide under the definition given by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Emperor saw no conflict between his order of extermination and upholding the peaceful principles of Confucianism. He supported his position by portraying the Dzungars as barbarians and subhuman. The Qianlong Emperor proclaimed that "to sweep away barbarians is the way to bring stability to the interior", that the Dzungars "turned their back on civilization", and "Heaven supported the emperor," in their destruction.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: His commanders were reluctant to carry out his orders, which he repeated several times using the term "jiao" (extermination) over and over again. The commanders Hadaha and Agui were punished for only occupying Dzungar lands but letting the people escape. The generals Jaohui and Shuhede were punished for not showing sufficient zeal in exterminating rebels. Others such as Tangkelu were rewarded for their participation in the slaughter. Qianlong explicitly ordered the Khalkha Mongols to "take the young and strong and massacre them." The elderly, children, and women were spared but they could not preserve their former names or titles. Loyalist Khalkhas received Dzungar Khoit women as slaves from Chebudengzhabu, and orders to deprive the starving Dzungars of food were issued. Manchu Bannermen and loyalist Mongols received Dzungar women, children, and old men as bondservants, and their Dzungar identity was wiped out. Mark Levene, a historian whose recent research interests focus on genocide, states that the extermination of the Dzungars was "arguably the eighteenth century genocide par excellence."


title: Dzungar genocide

text: The Dzungars had conquered and subjugated the Uyghurs during the Dzungar conquest of Altishahr, after being invited by the Afaqi Khoja to invade. Heavy taxes were imposed upon the Uyghurs by the Dzungars, with women and refreshments provided by the Uyghurs to the tax collectors. Uyghur women were allegedly gang raped by the tax collectors when the amount of tax was not satisfactory.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: Anti-Dzungar Uyghur rebels from the Turfan and Hami oases submitted to Qing rule as vassals and requested Qing help for overthrowing Dzungar rule. Uyghur leaders like Emin Khoja 額敏和卓 were granted titles within the Qing nobility, and these Uyghurs helped supply the Qing military forces during the anti-Dzungar campaign. The Qing employed Khoja Emin in its campaign against the Dzungars and used him as an intermediary with Muslims from the Tarim Basin, to inform them that the Qing only sought to kill Oirats (Dzungars), and that they would leave the Muslims alone. To convince them to kill the Dzungars themselves and side with the Qing, the Qing noted the Muslims' resentment of their former Dzungar rulers at the hands of Tsewang Araptan.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: The Qing genocide against the Dzungars depopulated northern Xinjiang. The Qing sponsored the settlement of millions of ethnic Han Chinese, Hui, Central Asian oasis people (Uyghurs) and Manchu Bannermen in Dzungaria. Professor Stanley W. Toops noted that today's demographic situation is similar to that of the early Qing period in Xinjiang. In northern Xinjiang, the Qing brought in Han, Hui, Uyghur, Xibe, and Kazakh colonists after they exterminated the Dzungar Oirat Mongols in the region. As a result of these demographic changes, Xinjiang during the Qing period was made up of 62 percent Uyghurs concentrated in the south, 30 percent Han and Hui in the north, and 8 percent various other minorities.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: Xinjiang, as a unified, defined geographic identity, was created and developed by the Qing. The depopulation of northern Xinjiang led to the Qing settling Manchu, Sibo (Xibe), Daurs, Solons, Han Chinese, Hui Muslims, and Muslim Taranchis in the north, with Han Chinese and Hui migrants making up the greatest number of settlers. In Dzungaria, the Qing established new cities like Ürümqi and Yining. After the Qing defeated Jahangir Khoja in the 1820s, 12,000 Uyghur Taranchi families were deported by China from the Tarim Basin to Dzungaria to colonize and repopulate the area. The Dzungarian basin, which used to be inhabited by Dzungars, is currently inhabited by Kazakhs.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: Since the crushing of the Buddhist Öölöd (Dzungars) by the Qing led to promotion of Islam and the empowerment of the Muslim Begs in southern Xinjiang, and migration of Muslim Taranchis to northern Xinjiang, it was proposed by Henry Schwarz that "the Qing victory was, in a certain sense, a victory for Islam". It was Qing rule that led to the predominance of Islam in the region, which increased after the defeat of the Buddhist Dzungars. The Qing tolerated or even promoted Muslim culture and identity. The Qing gave the name Xinjiang to Dzungaria after conquering it, with 1 million mu (17,000 acres) being turned from steppe grassland to farmland from 1760 to 1820 by the new colonies of Han Chinese agriculturalists.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: While some have tried to represent Qing actions such as the creation of settlements and state farms as an anti-Uyghur plot to replace them in their land in light of the contemporary situation in Xinjiang with Han migration, Professor James A. Millward points out that the Qing agricultural colonies had nothing to do with Uyghurs and their land. The Qing actually banned the settlement of Han Chinese in the Uyghur populated Tarim Basin oases area, and in fact, directed Han settlers instead to settle in the non-Uyghur Dzungaria and the new city of Ürümqi. Of the state farms settled with 155,000 Han Chinese from 1760 to 1830, all were in Dzungaria and Ürümqi, where only an insignificant amount of Uyghurs lived.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: The Qianlong Emperor commemorated the Qing conquest of the Dzungars as having added new territory in Xinjiang to "China", defining China as a multi ethnic state, and rejecting the idea that China only meant Han areas in "China proper". According to the Qing, both Han and non-Han peoples were part of "China", which included the new territory of "Xinjiang" which the Qing conquered from the Dzungars. After the Qing conquered Dzungaria in 1759, they proclaimed that the land which formerly belonged to the Dzungars was now absorbed into "China" (Dulimbai Gurun) in a Manchu language memorial. The Qing expounded on their ideology that they were bringing together the "outer" non-Han Chinese (like the Inner Mongols, Eastern Mongols, Oirat Mongols, and Tibetans) together with the "inner" Han Chinese into "one family" united in the Qing state, showing that the diverse subjects of the Qing were all part of one family The Qing used the phrase "Zhong Wai Yi Jia" 中外一家 or "Nei Wai Yi Jia" 內外一家 ("interior and exterior as one family"), to convey this idea of unification. Xinjiang people were not allowed to be called foreigners (Yi, 夷) under the Qing. In the Manchu official Tulisen's Manchu language account of his meeting with the Torghut leader Ayuka Khan, it was written that, while the Torghuts were unlike the Russians, the "people of the Central Kingdom" (dulimba-i gurun 中國, Zhongguo) were like the Torghut Mongols, with the "people of the Central Kingdom" referring to the Manchus.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: The Qianlong Emperor rejected earlier ideas that only Han could be subjects of China and only Han land could be considered as part of China, instead he redefined China as multiethnic. In 1755 he said, "There exists a view of China (zhongxia), according to which non-Han people cannot become China's subjects and their land cannot be integrated into the territory of China. This does not represent our dynasty's understanding of China, but is instead that of the earlier Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties." The Manchu Qianlong Emperor rejected the views of Han officials who said Xinjiang was not part of China and that he should not conquer it, putting forth the view that China was multiethnic and did not just refer to Han. Han migration to Xinjiang was permitted by the Manchu Qianlong Emperor, who also gave Chinese names to cities to replace their Mongol names, instituting civil service exams in the area. He implemented the counties and prefectures of the Chinese style administrative system, and promoted Han migration to Xinjiang to solidify Qing control. A proposal was written in "The Imperial Gazetteer of the Western Regions" (Xiyu tuzhi) to use state-funded schools to promote Confucianism among Muslims in Xinjiang, by Fuheng and his team of Manchu officials and the Qianlong Emperor. Confucian names were given to towns and cities in Xinjiang by the Emperor, like "Dihua" for Ürümqi in 1760, and Changji, Fengqing, Fukang, Huifu, and Suilai for other cities in Xinjiang.


title: Dzungar genocide

text: The Qing Qianlong Emperor compared his achievements with that of the Han and Tang ventures into Central Asia. Qianlong's conquest of Xinjiang was driven by his mindfulness of the examples set by the Han and Tang. Qing scholars who wrote the official Imperial Qing gazetteer for Xinjiang made frequent references to the Han and Tang era names of the region. The Qing conqueror of Xinjiang, Zhao Hui, is ranked for his achievements with the Tang dynasty General Gao Xianzhi and the Han dynasty Generals Ban Chao and Li Guangli. Both aspects of the Han and Tang models for ruling Xinjiang were adopted by the Qing. The Qing system also superficially resembled that of nomadic powers like the Qara Khitay (Western Liao), but in reality the Qing system was different from that of the nomads, both in terms of territory conquered geographically and their centralized administrative system, resembling a Western style (European and Russian) system of rule. The Qing portrayed their conquest of Xinjiang in official works as a continuation and restoration of the Han and Tang accomplishments in the region. The Qing justified their conquest by claiming that the Han and Tang era borders were being restored, and identifying the Han and Tang's grandeur and authority with the Qing. Manchu and Mongol Qing writers who wrote about Xinjiang did so in the Chinese language, from a culturally Chinese point of view. Han and Tang era stories about Xinjiang were recounted and ancient Chinese places names were reused and circulated. Han and Tang era records and accounts of Xinjiang were the only writings on the region available to Qing era Chinese in the 18th century and had to be replaced with updated accounts by the literati.


title: Pradeep Rawat (actor)

text: Pradeep Rawat (born 21 January 1952) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil language films. Notable for playing villainous roles, Rawat's first appearance was in B.R. Chopra's "Mahabharat" as Ashwatthama. He appeared in "Yug" as a British police officer Marshal. He also played various roles in serial Jai Mata Di He was in memorable roles in Bollywood films such as "Sarfarosh" as Sultan, in "Lagaan" as Deva, in "Ghajini" (2005) as Ram and Lakshman, and in its Hindi remake "Ghajini" (2008) as the title character.


title: Pradeep Rawat (actor)

text: Rawat was introduced into Telugu cinema with the film "Sye". In Tamil cinema his memorable hit was "Ghajini" where he appeared in a double role. He debuted in Kannada cinema with "Parodi"; Malayalam cinema with "China Town"; Bengali cinema with "Hero 420" and Bhojpuri cinema with "Crack Fighter".


title: Theory of computation

text: In theoretical computer science and mathematics, the theory of computation is the branch that deals with what problems can be solved on a model of computation, using an algorithm, how efficiently they can be solved or to what degree (e.g., approximate solutions versus precise ones). The field is divided into three major branches: automata theory and formal languages, computability theory, and computational complexity theory, which are linked by the question: ""What are the fundamental capabilities and limitations of computers?"."


title: Theory of computation

text: In order to perform a rigorous study of computation, computer scientists work with a mathematical abstraction of computers called a model of computation. There are several models in use, but the most commonly examined is the Turing machine. Computer scientists study the Turing machine because it is simple to formulate, can be analyzed and used to prove results, and because it represents what many consider the most powerful possible "reasonable" model of computation (see Church–Turing thesis). It might seem that the potentially infinite memory capacity is an unrealizable attribute, but any decidable problem solved by a Turing machine will always require only a finite amount of memory. So in principle, any problem that can be solved (decided) by a Turing machine can be solved by a computer that has a finite amount of memory.


title: Theory of computation

text: The theory of computation can be considered the creation of models of all kinds in the field of computer science. Therefore, mathematics and logic are used. In the last century it became an independent academic discipline and was separated from mathematics.


title: Theory of computation

text: Some pioneers of the theory of computation were Ramon Llull, Alonzo Church, Kurt Gödel, Alan Turing, Stephen Kleene, Rózsa Péter, John von Neumann and Claude Shannon.


title: Theory of computation

text: Automata theory is the study of abstract machines (or more appropriately, abstract 'mathematical' machines or systems) and the computational problems that can be solved using these machines. These abstract machines are called automata. Automata comes from the Greek word (Αυτόματα) which means that something is doing something by itself.


title: Theory of computation

text: Automata theory is also closely related to formal language theory, as the automata are often classified by the class of formal languages they are able to recognize. An automaton can be a finite representation of a formal language that may be an infinite set. Automata are used as theoretical models for computing machines, and are used for proofs about computability.


title: Theory of computation

text: Language theory is a branch of mathematics concerned with describing languages as a set of operations over an alphabet. It is closely linked with automata theory, as automata are used to generate and recognize formal languages. There are several classes of formal languages, each allowing more complex language specification than the one before it, i.e. Chomsky hierarchy, and each corresponding to a class of automata which recognizes it. Because automata are used as models for computation, formal languages are the preferred mode of specification for any problem that must be computed.


title: Theory of computation

text: Computability theory deals primarily with the question of the extent to which a problem is solvable on a computer. The statement that the halting problem cannot be solved by a Turing machine is one of the most important results in computability theory, as it is an example of a concrete problem that is both easy to formulate and impossible to solve using a Turing machine. Much of computability theory builds on the halting problem result.


title: Theory of computation

text: Another important step in computability theory was Rice's theorem, which states that for all non-trivial properties of partial functions, it is undecidable whether a Turing machine computes a partial function with that property.


title: Theory of computation

text: Computability theory is closely related to the branch of mathematical logic called recursion theory, which removes the restriction of studying only models of computation which are reducible to the Turing model. Many mathematicians and computational theorists who study recursion theory will refer to it as computability theory.


title: Theory of computation

text: Complexity theory considers not only whether a problem can be solved at all on a computer, but also how efficiently the problem can be solved. Two major aspects are considered: time complexity and space complexity, which are respectively how many steps does it take to perform a computation, and how much memory is required to perform that computation.


title: Theory of computation

text: In order to analyze how much time and space a given algorithm requires, computer scientists express the time or space required to solve the problem as a function of the size of the input problem. For example, finding a particular number in a long list of numbers becomes harder as the list of numbers grows larger. If we say there are "n" numbers in the list, then if the list is not sorted or indexed in any way we may have to look at every number in order to find the number we're seeking. We thus say that in order to solve this problem, the computer needs to perform a number of steps that grows linearly in the size of the problem.


title: Theory of computation

text: To simplify this problem, computer scientists have adopted Big O notation, which allows functions to be compared in a way that ensures that particular aspects of a machine's construction do not need to be considered, but rather only the asymptotic behavior as problems become large. So in our previous example, we might say that the problem requires formula_1 steps to solve.


title: Theory of computation

text: Perhaps the most important open problem in all of computer science is the question of whether a certain broad class of problems denoted NP can be solved efficiently. This is discussed further at Complexity classes P and NP, and P versus NP problem is one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems stated by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000. The Official Problem Description was given by Turing Award winner Stephen Cook.


title: Theory of computation

text: Aside from a Turing machine, other equivalent (See: Church–Turing thesis) models of computation are in use.


title: Theory of computation

text: In addition to the general computational models, some simpler computational models are useful for special, restricted applications. Regular expressions, for example, specify string patterns in many contexts, from office productivity software to programming languages. Another formalism mathematically equivalent to regular expressions, Finite automata are used in circuit design and in some kinds of problem-solving. Context-free grammars specify programming language syntax. Non-deterministic pushdown automata are another formalism equivalent to context-free grammars. Primitive recursive functions are a defined subclass of the recursive functions.


title: Theory of computation

text: Different models of computation have the ability to do different tasks. One way to measure the power of a computational model is to study the class of formal languages that the model can generate; in such a way to the Chomsky hierarchy of languages is obtained.


title: The Mentalist (season 1)

text: The first season of "The Mentalist" premiered on September 23, 2008 and concluded on May 19, 2009. It consisted of 23 episodes.


title: The Mentalist (season 1)

text: In the UK, the first season aired on FIVE, on Thursdays at 9pm. The series premiered on March 26, 2009 and concluded on August 20, 2009, with a double-bill. Over the 23 episodes, the season averaged 2.84 million viewers, with the pilot being the most watched episode (4.21 million viewers), and "Red Brick and Ivy" being the least watched episode with 2.08 million viewers.


title: The Mentalist (season 1)

text: All 23 episodes of the season were included on the six disc complete first season set. It was released on September 22, 2009 in Region 1, March 8, 2010 in Region 2, and September 23, 2009 in Region 4. Special features included the featurettes "Evidence of a Hit Series" and "Cracking the Crystal Ball: Mentalist Vs. Psychic". "Cracking the Crystal Ball: Mentalist Vs. Psychic", was produced by Martin Fisher at DG Entertainment for CBS Television. This short film explored the use of psychics in law enforcement by interviewing former FBI, parapsychologist Dr. Barry E. Taff, and psychic detective Jack Rourke. Other cast members include Mark Llewellyn, Karl Sonnenberg, Jon Armstrong.


title: AAirpass

text: AAirpass was a membership-based discount program offered by American Airlines to frequent flyers launched in 1981. The program is best known for a previous offering of unlimited travel on American Airlines and unlimited access to Admirals Club locations. Pass holders were offered terms of five years or lifetime. Today the program no longer offers lifetime or unlimited travel focusing instead on pre-paid fares at a discounted, fixed price for frequent travellers. A minimum commitment of $10,000 per traveller, per year is required. Existing unlimited AAirpasses remain valid.


title: AAirpass

text: The program (now re-branded as AirPass) initially enabled passholders unlimited first class travel on any of the airline's flights worldwide. Lifetime membership was priced at $250,000, with the option to purchase a companion pass for an additional $150,000. A total of 66 AAirpasses are reported to have been sold under the unlimited travel conditions, with businessman Michael Dell, Mark Cuban, baseball player Willie Mays, and America's Cup-winner Dennis Conner among those who purchased the passes. The program was launched at a time when the airline was struggling financially and in need of a quick infusion of cash.


title: AAirpass

text: The cost of the pass was $250,000 when launched in 1981 (), this increased to $600,000 in 1990 (), and $1.01 million in 1993 (equivalent to $ million in ). The airline ended sales of the unlimited passes in 1994 except for a one-time offer in the 2004 Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog at a price of $3 million () for the pass and $2 million for a companion pass; none were sold.


title: AAirpass

text: In 2007, during a period of financial instability for the airline, American Airlines assigned a "revenue integrity unit" to investigate AAirpass holders. The airline's investigators concluded that two AAirpass holders, Steven Rothstein and Jacques Vroom, were costing the airline more than $1 million annually. The airline points to accumulation of air miles for flights which they received for free under the AAirpass, allowing some passengers to accumulate tens of millions of miles as well as taxes and airport fees paid for by the airline. The program has been called "a huge disaster" for the company. The two AAirpass holders including their companion passes were terminated from the program when the airline accused them of fraudulent activity.


title: AAirpass

text: Steven Rothstein, a financier then from Chicago, upgraded to a lifetime AAirpass for $233,509.93 on October 1, 1987, after a discount of $16,490.07 for the value of mileage on a previous AAirpass. He added a $150,000 companion pass two years later. Rothstein negotiated additions to the contract, including a provision for his companion to fly on flights immediately before or after his flight. Then American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall wrote Rothstein a letter on 13 January 1998 saying "I am delighted that you’ve enjoyed your AAirpass investment – you can count on us to keep the Company solid, and to honor the deal, far into the future." On December 13, 2008, Rothstein checked in at Chicago O'Hare International Airport with a friend for a flight to Bosnia. A letter from the airline was hand-delivered to him at the airport informing him that the pass had been terminated due to fraudulent behavior, specifically his history of approaching passengers at the gate and offering them travel on his companion seat and for using the companion program to purchase an adjacent empty seat under a fake name to keep them vacant, which was often used for privacy or extra carry-on luggage. Rothstein sued American Airlines in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, arguing that "American waived its rights to enforce the contract by not cracking down on Rothstein sooner" according to District Court Judge Virginia Mary Kendall who denied Rothstein's motion in 2011. Litigation was delayed due to the airline's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. By the end of 2012, the two parties appear to have settled their case out of court, with Rothstein's appeal dismissed and the airline's counterclaims dismissed with prejudice.


title: AAirpass

text: Jacques E. Vroom Jr., a Dallas-based marketing executive, paid $356,000 for his unlimited AAirpass and companion pass on December 28, 1989, traveling nearly 38 million miles. A letter was hand-delivered to Vroom by airline security personnel on July 30, 2008, during check-in at London Heathrow Airport informing him that his passes had been terminated for fraudulent activity. The airline sued Vroom in 2011, accusing him of selling his companion seat, a violation of the American Airlines 1994 Tariff Rule 744. Vroom countersued, arguing that the rule went into effect after purchase of the lifetime pass and accusing the airline of slander; American Airlines then filed for bankruptcy and the claims were never resolved.


title: Kiln House

text: Kiln House is the fourth studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 18 September 1970 by Reprise Records. This is the first album after the departure of founder Peter Green, and their last album to feature guitarist Jeremy Spencer. Christine McVie was present at the recording sessions and contributed backing vocals, keyboards and cover art, although she was not a full member of the band until shortly after the album's completion.


title: Kiln House

text: The album title is taken from the name of a converted oast house in Truncheaunts Lane, near Alton in Hampshire. The house was leased by the band, who lived there communally with their families for a six-month period in 1970. Mick Fleetwood married Jenny Boyd at the house on 20 June 1970.


title: Kiln House

text: Spencer, who played on only one track during the recording of the previous album, "Then Play On", played a much more active role during the "Kiln House" sessions. His retro 1950s homages and parodies dominate the album, although Danny Kirwan's songs are almost equally prominent. "Buddy's Song" is a partial cover of "Peggy Sue Got Married" with new lyrics listing a number of Buddy Holly song titles. The song is credited to Buddy Holly's mother, who received the writing credit after Buddy's funeral from the original composer, Waylon Jennings.


title: Kiln House

text: An early version of Kirwan's instrumental "Earl Gray", entitled "Farewell", was later released on the compilation "The Vaudeville Years".


title: Kiln House

text: The album reached 69, on the "Billboard" 200 album chart on 7 November 1970, and No. 67 in Canada's RPM Magazine, December 19, 1970.


title: Electronic band structure

text: In solid-state physics, the electronic band structure (or simply band structure) of a solid describes the range of energy levels that electrons may have within it, as well as the ranges of energy that they may not have (called "band gaps" or "forbidden bands").


title: Electronic band structure

text: Band theory derives these bands and band gaps by examining the allowed quantum mechanical wave functions for an electron in a large, periodic lattice of atoms or molecules. Band theory has been successfully used to explain many physical properties of solids, such as electrical resistivity and optical absorption, and forms the foundation of the understanding of all solid-state devices (transistors, solar cells, etc.).


title: Electronic band structure

text: The electrons of a single, isolated atom occupy atomic orbitals each of which has a discrete energy level. When two or more atoms join together to form a molecule, their atomic orbitals overlap and hybridize.


title: Electronic band structure

text: Similarly, if a large number "N" of identical atoms come together to form a solid, such as a crystal lattice, the atoms' atomic orbitals overlap with the nearby orbitals. Each discrete energy level splits into "N" levels, each with a different energy. Since the number of atoms in a macroscopic piece of solid is a very large number (N~10) the number of orbitals is very large and thus they are very closely spaced in energy (of the order of 10 eV). The energy of the adjacent levels is so close together that they can be considered as a continuum, an energy band.


title: Electronic band structure

text: This formation of bands is mostly a feature of the outermost electrons (valence electrons) in the atom, which are the ones involved in chemical bonding and electrical conductivity. The inner electron orbitals do not overlap to a significant degree, so their bands are very narrow.


title: Electronic band structure

text: Band gaps are essentially leftover ranges of energy not covered by any band, a result of the finite widths of the energy bands. The bands have different widths, with the widths depending upon the degree of overlap in the atomic orbitals from which they arise. Two adjacent bands may simply not be wide enough to fully cover the range of energy. For example, the bands associated with core orbitals (such as 1s electrons) are extremely narrow due to the small overlap between adjacent atoms. As a result, there tend to be large band gaps between the core bands. Higher bands involve comparatively larger orbitals with more overlap, becoming progressively wider at higher energies so that there are no band gaps at higher energies.


title: Electronic band structure

text: Band theory is only an approximation to the quantum state of a solid, which applies to solids consisting of many identical atoms or molecules bonded together. These are the assumptions necessary for band theory to be valid:


title: Electronic band structure

text: The above assumptions are broken in a number of important practical situations, and the use of band structure requires one to keep a close check on the limitations of band theory:


title: Electronic band structure

text: Band structure calculations take advantage of the periodic nature of a crystal lattice, exploiting its symmetry. The single-electron Schrödinger equation is solved for an electron in a lattice-periodic potential, giving Bloch electrons as solutions


title: Electronic band structure

text: where k is called the wavevector. For each value of k, there are multiple solutions to the Schrödinger equation labelled by "n", the band index, which simply numbers the energy bands.


title: Electronic band structure

text: Each of these energy levels evolves smoothly with changes in k, forming a smooth band of states. For each band we can define a function "E"(k), which is the dispersion relation for electrons in that band.


title: Electronic band structure

text: The wavevector takes on any value inside the Brillouin zone, which is a polyhedron in wavevector (reciprocal lattice) space that is related to the crystal's lattice.


title: Electronic band structure

text: Wavevectors outside the Brillouin zone simply correspond to states that are physically identical to those states within the Brillouin zone.


title: Electronic band structure

text: Special high symmetry points/lines in the Brillouin zone are assigned labels like Γ, Δ, Λ, Σ (see Fig 1).


title: Electronic band structure

text: It is difficult to visualize the shape of a band as a function of wavevector, as it would require a plot in four-dimensional space, "E" vs. "k", "k", "k". In scientific literature it is common to see band structure plots which show the values of "E"(k) for values of k along straight lines connecting symmetry points, often labelled Δ, Λ, Σ, or [100], [111], and [110], respectively. Another method for visualizing band structure is to plot a constant-energy isosurface in wavevector space, showing all of the states with energy equal to a particular value. The isosurface of states with energy equal to the Fermi level is known as the Fermi surface.


title: Electronic band structure

text: Although electronic band structures are usually associated with crystalline materials, quasi-crystalline and amorphous solids may also exhibit band gaps. These are somewhat more difficult to study theoretically since they lack the simple symmetry of a crystal, and it is not usually possible to determine a precise dispersion relation. As a result, virtually all of the existing theoretical work on the electronic band structure of solids has focused on crystalline materials.


title: Electronic band structure

text: The density of states function "g"("E") is defined as the number of electronic states per unit volume, per unit energy, for electron energies near "E".


title: Electronic band structure

text: In Fermi's Golden Rule, a calculation for the rate of optical absorption, it provides both the number of excitable electrons and the number of final states for an electron. It appears in calculations of electrical conductivity where it provides the number of mobile states, and in computing electron scattering rates where it provides the number of final states after scattering.


title: Electronic band structure

text: At thermodynamic equilibrium, the likelihood of a state of energy "E" being filled with an electron is given by the Fermi–Dirac distribution, a thermodynamic distribution that takes into account the Pauli exclusion principle:


title: Electronic band structure

text: The density of electrons in the material is simply the integral of the Fermi–Dirac distribution times the density of states:


title: Electronic band structure

text: Although there are an infinite number of bands and thus an infinite number of states, there are only a finite number of electrons to place in these bands.