title: Lancaster University

text: The university was established by royal charter in 1964. The charter stipulated that Princess Alexandra of Kent be the first chancellor. She was inaugurated in 1964. The ceremony also saw the granting of various honorary degrees to dignitaries including the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. Princess Alexandra retired as chancellor in 2004 and was the longest serving chancellor of any British university. On her departure, she gave approval for the Chancellor's Medal to be awarded for academic merit to the highest-performing undergraduates and postgraduates. Each year presentations are made to up to five graduates of taught masters' courses and up to six to the highest-performing undergraduates.


title: Lancaster University

text: The university accepted its first students in October 1964 and there were initially 13 professors, 32 additional members of teaching and research staff, 8 library staff and 14 administrators on academic grades. The motto, ""patet omnibus veritas"", ("Truth lies open to all"), was adopted. The first science students were admitted in 1965.


title: Lancaster University

text: The university was temporarily based in the city. A lecture theatre and the university's first Junior Common Room were based in Centenary Church, a former Congregational church beside the old factory premises of Waring & Gillow, which were used to accommodate the new students. Many new students were housed in Morecambe. The Grand Theatre was leased as a main lecture room and 112 and 114 in the St Leonard's Gate area became teaching and recreational rooms. The library occupied the old workshops of Shrigley and Hunt on Castle Hill.


title: Lancaster University

text: Bowland and Lonsdale were founded as the university's first two colleges, and all staff and students were allocated to one of the two, although the first college buildings would not be completed until 1966. The first students moved into residence and set up the first JCRs in October 1968.


title: Lancaster University

text: In 2014, Lancaster University celebrated its 50th anniversary with a series of events throughout the year, involving alumni, staff, students and local community members.


title: Lancaster University

text: The purpose-built campus occupies Bailrigg, a site donated by Lancaster City Council in 1963. The campus buildings are located on a hilltop, the lower slopes of which are landscaped parkland which includes Lake Carter duck pond and the university playing fields. The lake was created in the early 1900s and was later named Lake Carter after Charles Carter, the first Vice Chancellor of the university. The site is three miles (5 km) south of the city centre. Construction of the Bailrigg campus began in November 1965, with the first building completed a year later. The first on-campus student residences opened in 1968.


title: Lancaster University

text: In contrast to some of the other campus universities, Bailrigg was designed to integrate social, residential and teaching areas. Another major feature of the design was that there would not be a large central Students' Union building, but that the individual colleges would be the centre of social and recreational facilities. Vehicular and pedestrian traffic is separated: this is achieved by restricting motor vehicles to a peripheral road with a linking underpass running east–west beneath Alexandra Square. The underpass accommodates the Bailrigg bus station and was refurbished in autumn 2010. Car parking is arranged in cul-de-sacs running off the peripheral road.


title: Lancaster University

text: The campus buildings are arranged around a central walkway known as "The Spine". The walkway runs from north (County College) to south-west (Graduate College) and is covered for most of its length. The main architect was Gabriel Epstein of Shepheard and Epstein. On a barren hilltop on a windswept day in 1963 the two architectural partners surveyed the future site of the university, Peter Shepheard recalled that day:


title: Lancaster University

text: "We went up there on a windy day, and it was freezing cold. Every time we opened a plan it blew away. And we said Christ! What are we going to do with these students, where are they going to sit in the sun and all that? Well, we decided, it's got to be cloisters. All of the buildings have got to touch at the ground. We then devised this system and it had an absolutely firm principle: it had a great spine down the middle where everybody walked. That led everywhere. The cars were on the outside, on both sides. When you came into the spaces things were square, they were rectangular courtyards and they were all slightly different. There were two or three essentials: one was that the covered way had to be continuous, the buildings had to be three or four storeys high and connecting to the next one. I thought it worked very well."


title: Lancaster University

text: Between 2016 and 2018 the Spine was extensively remodelled in a project known as "Design The Spine", with the aim of replacing the decaying wooden canopy, widening bottlenecks, and creating new landscaped green spaces.


title: Lancaster University

text: Alexandra Square is the university's main plaza. Named after the first chancellor, Princess Alexandra and is situated at the centre of the original campus. On the west side of the square is University House as well as various banks and shops. To the south-east of the square is the tallest building on campus: the fourteen-storey Bowland Tower, which contains accommodation and disguises the boiler room chimney.


title: Lancaster University

text: One of the most distinctive of the Bailrigg buildings is the free-standing University Chaplaincy Centre. Opened on 2 May 1969, the architects were the Preston-based firm Cassidy & Ashton. The building has a trefoil plan with a central spire where the three circles meet. The university's former logo is based on the spire.


title: Lancaster University

text: A plan existed to have a twin campus with another eight colleges to the east of the M6 motorway at Hazelrigg. This would have been linked to Bailrigg by a flyover. The plan was abandoned in the 1970s during a period of financial difficulties.


title: Lancaster University

text: In the south-west corner sits the library designed in 1964 by Tom Mellor and Partners, the first phase opening in September 1966, the second in July 1968 and the third in January 1971. The library was extended in 1997 and underwent a phased refurbishment in 2014, which was completed in 2016. In 2021 the Library Extension Project was completed, which introduced additional student study space and 'living walls', exhibition and research space, a 'safepod' and digital studio.


title: Lancaster University

text: A distinctive feature of the library is the large tree that grows in the centre of the ground floor study area.


title: Lancaster University

text: Next to the library, and opened in 1998 is The Ruskin - Library, Museum and Research Centre, designed by Sir Richard MacCormac


title: Lancaster University

text: The university began expansion onto the lower slopes of Bailrigg with the development of new buildings for Graduate College in 1998, which is now part of South-West Campus. Development continued with the construction of InfoLab 21 and Alexandra Park which now houses Lonsdale College, Cartmel College and the en-suite rooms of Pendle College. The development of InfoLab 21 met objections with the proposed building being described as a ’Dalek factory’.


title: Lancaster University

text: Cartmel College is built around Barker House Farm, a listed 17th-century farmhouse and outbuildings that form the centre of the college.


title: Lancaster University

text: The university is building a ’Health Innovation Campus’ adjacent to the existing campus. The campus will create 2,000 jobs and boost the local economy by around £100 million. The £29.7 million contract for construction of the first building was awarded to BAM Construction in October 2017; construction began in December 2017 and was completed in Summer 2020. The building is 80,000 square feet and required the construction of an access road with a junction to the A6.


title: Lancaster University

text: The Bailrigg campus hosts a range of shops and services. Services on campus include Bailrigg post office, Barclays Bank, Santander Bank, a health centre, a pharmacy and a dental practice. Shops on campus include a SPAR supermarket, LUSU Central (a convenience store), a Subway, a WHSmith, a hairdressers, Greggs, Costa, Go Burrito, Wok In, Juicafe, Sultan of Lancaster, Wongs and an ice cream parlour open in the summer months. The campus also hosts Bailrigg Motors, providing vehicle repairs, services & MOT's as well as a filling station and car wash.


title: Lancaster University

text: At the north end of campus, the university's Great Hall Complex comprises three venues open to both students and the public; the Peter Scott Gallery, the Nuffield Theatre and the Lancaster International Concert Series. In 2009, these three organisations were combined as one department by the university – initially termed ‘The Public Arts’ but later renamed ‘Live at LICA’ – with Matt Fenton overseeing this unification. In August 2015 Live at LICA was rebranded to 'Lancaster Arts at Lancaster University' to avoid confusion with the department of LICA, then director Jamie Eastman stated that; "This new name and logo communicates who we are, where we are and what we’re offering."


title: Lancaster University

text: The Peter Scott Gallery is open to the public free of charge. The Gallery is located on the Bailrigg campus and houses the university's international art collection, which includes Japanese and Chinese art, antiquities, works by twentieth-century British artists including works by artists from the St Ives School, Sir Terry Frost, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Barbara Hepworth and William Scott. Among other British artists whose work is represented are Norman Adams, Patrick Caulfield, Elisabeth Frink, Kenneth Martin and Winifred Nicholson. Within the last fifteen years works by Andy Goldsworthy, Peter Howson and Albert Irvin have been acquired. The university collection also includes prints by significant European artists such as Dürer, Miró, Ernst and Vasarely.


title: Lancaster University

text: Lancaster International Concert Series is the main provider of classical music in north Lancashire and Cumbria. Concerts are held within the Great Hall. Between October and March each year the series offers a varied diet of music which includes: orchestral concerts, chamber music, events for young people, jazz, family concerts and world music. Under the leadership of Professor Tony McEnery, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, music as a subject for study at Lancaster was abandoned in 2009.


title: Lancaster University

text: The Nuffield Theatre, a black box theatre, is one of the largest and most adaptable professional studio theatres in Europe. It presents public performances in the fields of theatre, contemporary dance and live art from some of the best-known and respected companies from the UK and abroad. The focus of the work is new and experimental practice, a focus it shares with many of the teaching and research interest of Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA). The Nuffield presents up to 30 visiting professional shows a year, plus public performances by students from Theatre Studies, and the university's student theatre and dance societies and a range of local community organisations.


title: Lancaster University

text: The Ruskin - Library, Museum and Research Centre houses archive material related to the poet, author and artist John Ruskin. It is open to the public, although only a small part of the collection is on public display at once. The building was constructed in 1997 by architect Sir Richard MacCormac CBE PPRIBA RA FRSA (1938-2014). The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection housed in The Ruskin is the largest holding of books, manuscripts, photographs, drawings and watercolours by and related to John Ruskin in the world.


title: Lancaster University

text: In 2016 the university purchased the 165-acre Forrest Hills conference centre and golf course, located on the M6 opposite the main campus, which it continues to operate as a conference venue.


title: Lancaster University

text: The university has nine colleges. Formerly, these were quasi-autonomous bodies providing for accommodation, welfare, social-life and student discipline, but are currently centrally controlled. All members of the university are members of a college, although in recent years academic staff have had decreasing involvement. Most colleges have about eight or nine hundred members and all on-campus accommodation is linked to a college, with blocks or individual flats being linked to one college or another each year according to demand. The colleges were governed by a syndicate, including a principal (originally a senior academic but nowadays more usually a middle-ranking administrator or IT professional), a Dean and assistant deans (responsible for student discipline), together with a senior advisor, heading a team of College Advisors. These were previously known as Senior Tutor and College Tutors, but the titles were changed in 2011 to Advisor to avoid possible confusion with "Academic Advisors" in students' academic departments. Collectively, the colleges are run by their individual SCR (Senior Common Room) and JCR (Junior Common Room), the latter being made up of student members of the college.


title: Lancaster University

text: Prior to the founding of the ninth college, Graduate College, in 1992, the eight colleges housed both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Today all postgraduate students are members of Graduate, which was founded to specifically address the needs of postgraduates and provide year-round provision for courses with different term dates. Students on integrated master's degrees however are still considered undergraduates and therefore remain in their original colleges.


title: Lancaster University

text: Seven of the eight undergraduate colleges are named after regions of the traditional county of Lancashire, whilst County College is named after Lancashire County Council which financed its construction.


title: Lancaster University

text: The college buildings accommodate a number of academic departments, but are primarily social and accommodation facilities, each with its own bar, which forms part of the university's Commercial Services and is open when profitable.


title: Lancaster University

text: The university is divided into four faculties. Each faculty is led by a Dean, and each academic department by a Head of department.


title: Lancaster University

text: The various administrative and technical departments that exist outside of the four faculties are collectively known as Professional Services, and include Facilities, Admissions, and the Library.


title: Lancaster University

text: The council, chaired by the Pro-Chancellor, is the governing body, consisting of mainly lay members along with representatives of staff and students. It is responsible for the proper management and financial solvency of the university, with major policy decisions and corporate strategy being subject to its approval. The majority of Council members are "lay members"; neither staff nor students of the university.


title: Lancaster University

text: The Senate of the university, chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, is the principal academic authority. It oversees academic management and sets strategy and priorities, including the curriculum and maintenance of standards. Membership of the Senate consists mainly of the Faculty deans, heads of academic departments, and college principals.


title: Lancaster University

text: Formerly a body called the University Court provided a public forum where persons from within and outside Lancaster University could raise any matters regarding the university. A majority of the members of the Court represented the local community and other designated bodies with an interest in the work of the university. The final meeting of the Court took place in January 2018, with the university currently planning to replace it with an "Annual Public Meeting".


title: Lancaster University

text: The Visitor of the university was Queen Elizabeth II. The visitor is the final arbiter of any dispute within the university, except in those areas where legislation has removed this to the law courts or other ombudsmen. Student complaints and appeals were heard by the visitor until the Higher Education Act 2004 came into force. All student complaints are now heard by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education.


title: Lancaster University

text: Former Chancellor Sir Chris Bonington serves as the Chancellor's Ambassador, whilst Alistair Burt is the current Pro-Chancellor and chair of the University Council, succeeding Roger Liddle in October 2020.


title: Lancaster University

text: The Vice-Chancellor is the chief academic and executive officer of the university. The Vice-Chancellor is supported by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, three Pro Vice-Chancellors, and the Provost for Student Experience, Colleges and the Library. Andrew John Schofield was appointed Vice-Chancellor in November 2019, after the resignation of Mark Smith in September 2019. Andy took up the post of Vice-Chancellor on 1 May 2020, with Steve Bradley holding the position of Interim Vice-Chancellor during the interim period.


title: Lancaster University

text: In terms of average UCAS points of entrants, Lancaster ranked joint 25th in Britain in 2014. The average entry standard at Lancaster is around 159 UCAS points (new tariff system), with almost all courses requiring at least AAA or AAB at A-level as of 2017. The university gives offers of admission to over 90% of its applicants, the third highest in the UK.


title: Lancaster University

text: According to the 2017 "Times" and "Sunday Times" Good University Guide, approximately 10% of Lancaster's undergraduates come from independent schools. In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 66:10:23 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 51:49.


title: Lancaster University

text: In "The Sunday Times" 10-year (1998–2007) average ranking of British universities based on consistent league table performance, Lancaster was ranked joint 19th overall in the UK. As of recent years, the university has been placed within the top 10 by UK newspaper league tables and in the top 150 worldwide by the main global rankings (see information box for current rankings). It was also ranked the top university in the north-west of England for all ten years of recordings by "The Complete University Guide".


title: Lancaster University

text: In 2014, its 50th year, Lancaster University was ranked 10th in the "THE" 100 Under 50, a list of the world's best universities under 50 years old. It also appeared in the lists of QS 50 under 50 in all the years before 2014 when it was under 50 years old.


title: Lancaster University

text: Lancaster University partnered with Sunway University, Malaysia to offer dual awards undergraduate program since 2006.


title: Lancaster University

text: Lancaster University entered into a dual degree program with the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Lahore. It simultaneously offered two degrees, from CIIT and Lancaster University; graduates would be alumni of both universities. This was the first programme between a UK and a Pakistani university. However, the dual nature of the programme proved problematic and the relationship ended.


title: Lancaster University

text: A partnership in a new university venture, University Academy 92 was announced in 2017 and began operation in 2019. Lancaster now provides teaching in media, sport, business and psychology at a new campus in Trafford, Greater Manchester. The project was set up by the 'class of 92' Manchester United soccer players Phil Neville, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes. Lancaster wanted a base in Manchester. "Subtext", Lancaster's in house critical newsletter, asked: "Why are we taking a 40% financial stake and a 100% reputational share of what is essentially a new university set up with a group of retired footballers?" Local opinion on the project was also divided as reached the planning application stage.


title: Lancaster University

text: In October 2013, Lancaster University announced the opening of a branch campus in Accra, Ghana, to serve the population of Ghana and all of Africa, providing a British university-level education locally to those students. The campus is operated in partnership with Transnational Academic Group Ghana Limited, and offers undergraduate and graduate programmes in management, business, Economics & international relations, Politics & International Relations, Accounting & Finance, Marketing, computer science, law and psychology along with an EMBA programme.


title: Lancaster University

text: An additional small campus in Leipzig, Germany opened in 2019 to beat restrictions on employment and European research funding resulting from Brexit.


title: Lancaster University

text: Lancaster opened the Joint Institute for Environmental Research and Education (JIE) in Guangzhou, China in 2016, in partnership with the South China Agricultural University (SCAU). A joint Environmental Science undergraduate degree began in September 2016 with students spending two years at each institution.


title: Lancaster University

text: The Chinese Ministry of Education gave permission in April 2016 for Lancaster to establish Lancaster University College - Beijing Jiaotong University in Weihai, Shandong province.


title: Lancaster University

text: Lancaster's research income for 2015-16 was £38.3 million. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework assessment, Lancaster was ranked 18th out of 128 UK universities, including 13th for the percentage of world-leading research. The university places a particular focus on interdisciplinary research, encouraging collaborative research across academic departments.


title: Lancaster University

text: In 2012, Lancaster University announced a partnership with the UK's biggest arms company, (BAE Systems), and four other North-Western universities (Liverpool, Salford, UCLAN and Manchester) in order to work on the Gamma Programme which aims to develop "autonomous systems". According to the University of Liverpool when referring to the programme, "autonomous systems are technology based solutions that replace humans in tasks that are mundane, dangerous and dirty, or detailed and precise, across sectors, including aerospace, nuclear, automotive and petrochemicals".


title: Lancaster University

text: The International Foundation Year is a programme of academic subjects, study skills and English language preparation which is specifically designed to provide international students with a pathway to degree study at Lancaster University.


title: Lancaster University

text: Students select one pathway from one of six: Business and Management, Engineering and Computing, Law, Life Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics or Social Studies. Once the student completes the programme and achieve the required grades (usually 70% overall), then the student can enter the first year of their chosen undergraduate degree at Lancaster University.


title: Lancaster University

text: Lancaster University Students' Union (LUSU) is the representative body of students at the university. Unusually, there is no main union building. Instead, the union is organised through the eight college JCRs, each of which has its own social venues and meeting spaces. The union is, however, allocated an administration building by the university. "SCAN" (acronym for "Student Comments And News") is the union's newspaper and was established in 1967. LUSU owns a nightclub in Lancaster called The Sugarhouse (which survived an attempt to close it in 2019); operates a shop on campus, LUSU Central; and also an off campus housing agency LUSU Living.


title: Lancaster University

text: LUSU also helps to support LUSU Involve, a volunteering unit allowing Lancaster University students to become involved with communities locally and internationally.


title: Lancaster University

text: There are over 175 different societies operating within Lancaster University. Common areas include sports, hobbies, politics, academic, culture and religion. There are several fairs during the Freshers period in which various clubs and societies promote themselves.


title: Lancaster University

text: Chancellor's Wharf is off-campus student accommodation. It consists of three buildings by the Lancaster canal on Aldcliffe Road. The location near the city centre, opposite ‘the Water Witch’ pub and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. It is open to members of all of the university's colleges. Residents remain members of their various colleges, with Chancellor's Wharf itself being only a hall of residence.


title: Lancaster University

text: Every summer term the students take part in the Roses Tournament against the University of York, this is often described as the biggest varsity competition in Europe. The venue of the event alternates annually between Lancaster and York. The competition takes its name from the 15th-century civil war, the War of the Roses, and is organised by the universities' respective student unions, LUSU and YUSU.


title: Lancaster University

text: Lancaster University Athletics Club (LUAC) was formed in May 2011. The start of the 2011/12 academic year saw the first athletes join the club and by the end of the year receive awards for LUSU 'Society of the Year 2012' and were winners of the Lancaster Athletics Cup 2012. In the 2012/13 academic year the club was given the opportunity to compete in BUCS and Roses along with other sporting societies at Lancaster University.


title: Lancaster University

text: Lancaster University Swimming and Water Polo Club (LUSWP, formally known as LUST) competes in both BUCS and Roses in the sports swimming and water polo. The swimming team also competes in other charity galas, such as Quest for The Crest, held at Manchester Aquatics Centre. The BUCS swimming competitions include BUCS Short Course National Championships, BUCS Team Championships, and BUCS Long Course Championships, of which there has recently been attendance from Olympic swimmers such as James Guy and 50m & 100m World Champion Adam Peaty. In addition, the water polo team competes in the UPOLO league. LUSWP won the Lancaster University 'Club of the Year' in both academic years 2015/2016, and 2016/2017.


title: Lancaster University

text: A number of intercollegiate sporting events exist within the university. Leagues exist in football, netball, pool, darts and dominoes. Pool, darts and dominoes collectively form an overall "bar sports" league known as the George Wyatt Cup. The Carter Shield is contested between every college with bi-weekly matches open to all, and is intended as a light-hearted competition to promote lesser-known sports.


title: Lancaster University

text: Alongside sport, Lancaster University has a vast selection of arts societies across campus in the areas of performance, media and music. Examples of performance-based societies include Lancaster University Theatre Group (LUTG), the Comedy Institute, Lancaster University Film Production (LUFP), University of Lancaster Music society (ULMS) and Hiphop and Breakdance. There is also the Vagina Monolancs, a student-run group performing the Vagina Monologues, raising awareness of domestic violence against women and girls. In addition, the four established student media groups consist of the student radio station Bailrigg FM, the student newspaper SCAN established in 1967 and the student union's television station and Take 2 Cinema, an on-campus cinema, based in Bowland Main Lecture Theatre, established in 1964.


title: Lancaster University

text: The Lancaster University Chaplaincy Centre is located at the north end of campus incorporating various religious groups such as Christian (Anglicans, Catholics, Orthodox, Quakers), Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, as well as various religious societies such as the Bahá'í, the Chinese Christian Fellowship, the Postgrad and Mature Students Group and the Pagan society which hold regular events and meetings. The Islamic Prayer Rooms are located across from the Chaplaincy Centre, in Ash House.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: The Liberal Democratic Party, shortened as LDP, Liberal Democrats, or Lib Dems, is an Australian political party founded in Canberra in 2001. The party espouses smaller government and supports policies that are based on classical liberal, libertarian principles, such as lower taxes, opposing restrictions on civil liberties, decentralisation, utilising nuclear energy, and the relaxation of smoking laws.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: The LDP is a registered party in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia and is also registered for federal elections with the Australian Electoral Commission. As of May 2021, it has two representatives in the Victorian Legislative Council, Tim Quilty and David Limbrick, and elected representatives in some local governments. In April 2022, Senator Sam McMahon, sitting as an independent after resigning from the Country Liberal Party in January 2022, joined the Liberal Democrats, giving the party representation in the Australian Senate. However, she lost her seat in the 2022 federal election and the party was deregistered at the federal level on 19 July 2022.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: The Liberal Democratic Party was founded in 2001 as a political party registered in the Australian Capital Territory. It first contested elections in the 2001 ACT election, receiving 1 percent of the vote. The party also contested the 2004 ACT election, receiving 1.3 percent of the vote.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: In 2006, changes to the Electoral Act by the Howard government forced all parties without parliamentary representation to deregister and re-register under stricter naming rules. Advised by the Australian Electoral Commission that federal registration under the original name was uncertain given opposition by the Liberal Party of Australia, the party chose to register federally as the Liberty and Democracy Party in 2007. The Liberty and Democracy Party contested 2007 federal election, winning 17,048 votes (0.14 percent) in the lower house and 16,942 votes (0.13 percent) in the upper house.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: In 2008, the party successfully applied to the Australian Electoral Commission to change its federally registered name to Liberal Democratic Party. During this period, the party remained registered under its original name in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: In 2010, the party contests 2010 federal election, receiving 1.8 percent of the national senate vote and an average of 1.3 percent across the 21 lower house seats it contested, with a best of 5.52 percent in Gippsland.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: In 2012, the Liberal Democratic Party had its first successful election win. Jeff Pettett was elected as a Councillor to the Ku-ring-gai Council in northern metropolitan Sydney at the New South Wales local government elections, gaining 24 per cent of vote in the absence of Liberal Party candidates. Clinton Mead was elected as a Councillor to the Campbelltown Council in southern metropolitan Sydney at the New South Wales local government elections


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: Prior to the 2012 Ramsay and Port Adelaide state by-elections in South Australia, the polls in "The Advertiser" newspaper gave the LDP 23 percent and 14 percent of the vote respectively in the absence of Liberal Party candidates. The LDP ended up with votes of 13.3 percent and 7.3 percent respectively. The paper described the LDP as "a hardline liberal party that demands abolition of government welfare as well as the minimum wage, seatbelts and bike helmets. It backs legalisation of marijuana and increased freedom to access pornography".


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: At the 2013 federal election, LDP candidate David Leyonhjelm was elected to the Senate after polling the third highest vote in the state of New South Wales after the Liberal Party of Australia and the Australian Labor Party. According to Leyonhjelm, a portion of their vote probably came from their 'first position' on the long senate ballot paper and voters potentially being confused with his party and other contesting parties such as the Liberals, the Australian Democrats and the Christian Democratic Party. However, Leyonhjelm points to the fact that the Liberal Democrats' vote in South Australia, where they were fifth on the ballot, rose 3 percentage points. He also points to the fact that the donkey vote generally only produces swings of +1 or 2 percentage points to the party listed first on the ballot. Leyonhjelm organised preferences for several different, but closely entwined, political parties seeking election to the Senate, including the Outdoor Recreation Party, Smokers' Rights Party and the Republican Party of Australia. Australian Sex Party candidate Fiona Patten alleged Leyonhjelm intentionally failed to lodge ticket voting preferences forms, reneging on a preference deal, but Leyonhjelm claimed that there was a mistake entering the AEC fax number. The Liberal Democrats were not involved in Glenn Druery's Minor Party Alliance during the election which assisted in negotiating preference flows between minor parties. On 1 July 2014, David Leyonhjelm became the Liberal Democratic Party's first senator.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: Shortly after David Leyonhjelm's Senate victory, Liberal Democrats councillor Clinton Mead was elected Mayor of the City of Campbelltown in New South Wales.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: In 2015, the Liberal Democrats registered with the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC), and announced it would field upper-house candidates in the upcoming Victorian state election on 29 November 2014.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: In 2016, the Liberal Party sought to challenge the name of the party with the electoral commission, but ultimately abandoned the action.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: David Leyonhjelm was re-elected with a 3.1 percent (−6.4) primary vote, or 139,000 votes, at the 2016 double dissolution federal election. Gabriel Buckley, the LDP's lead candidate in Queensland, marginally misses out on a seat.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: WA elections were held 11 March 2017 where the states first LDP member, Aaron Stonehouse was elected.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: In May 2017, former Leader of the Opposition and political commentator Mark Latham left the Australian Labor Party and joined the LDP.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: In 2018 candidates Tim Quilty and David Limbrick were elected to the Victorian Legislative Council (state upper house). In the same year, Mark Latham left the party to become the leader of One Nation NSW division.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: In 2019, David Leyonhjelm announced that he will be quitting federal parliament in order to contest the New South Wales state election. This resulted in Duncan Spender being sworn in to fill Leyonhjelm's former seat until the next Federal election. David Leyonhjelm did not get elected in the 2019 New South Wales election securing only 0.46 of a seat quota. Duncan Spender also lost their Senate seat in the 2019 election.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: In the Victorian Local Government election of 2020 the party fielded 11 candidates state-wide. Two endorsed candidates were elected, Olga Quilty in Wodonga with a 5.83% first preference vote against 18 other candidates and Paul Barker in Torquay with a 11.67% first preference vote against 9 other candidates.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: On 18 May 2017, the Liberal Democratic Party formed a 'conservative bloc' with One Nation and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party in the Western Australia Legislative Council.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Victorian MPs Quilty and Limbrick became outspoken critics of the Victorian Parliament, the Federal Parliament, and Australia's COVID response in whole. On August 17, 2021, while the Victorian Parliament was closed due to restrictions, the two protested park closures on the steps of Parliament in the presence of armed police. They refused to comply with a vaccine mandate for MP's, with Limbrick publicly destroying his vaccination status card.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: In May 2021 the party founder Dr John Humphreys was re-elected to the position of National President.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: In July 2021, Campbell Newman, the former Premier of Queensland and Leader of the Liberal National Party of Queensland, resigned from the LNP, stating the LNP candidate in the 2021 Stretton state by-election was "let down by a party and leadership that never stands up for anything". In August 2021, he announced he had joined the LDP to run as the party's lead Senate candidate in Queensland at the 2022 Australian federal election.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: On 16 October 2021, Quilty, Limbrick, and other opposition MPs were ejected from Victorian Parliament for refusing to disclose their vaccination status. After two weeks of exclusion, the MP's submitted their vaccination status on October 28, 2021, in order to return to parliament to oppose the legislative agenda of the government.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: On 23 November 2021, the LDP announced a preference deal with the United Australia Party in the upcoming Australian elections where each party would encourage its members to choose the other as their second preference.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: On 24 November 2021 Krystle Mitchell, an acting Senior Sergeant of the Victorian Police who resigned after speaking publicly against enforcing health orders, announced she would be running for Federal Senate with the Liberal Democrats as their second in Victoria.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: According to The Age, between November 2018 and November 2021, the Liberal Democratic Party's Legislative Council members voted with the Andrews Government's position 22.1% of the time, which was less than the opposition Coalition (28.9%).


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: Due to changes in the "Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918" and a subsequent objection to the party's name by the Liberal Party, the Liberal Democratic Party applied to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) to change its name to the Liberty and Democracy Party in February 2022 in order to remain registered. The party then withdrew the name change application on 22 March 2022. On 1 April 2022, the AEC gave notice to the party that it would consider deregistering the latter, giving one month for the party to appeal the notice. However, as the writs for the May federal election were issued the following week on 11 April, the party register then would be "frozen" and this meant the party was allowed to contest the election with its current name.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: On 8 April 2022, Senator Sam McMahon joined the party after defecting from the Country Liberal Party in January. This gave the federal parliamentary representation to the Liberal Democratic Party. McMahon would also be the lead Senate candidate for the party at the May federal election. She was unsuccessful in her election and the party lost parliamentary representation. AEC's consideration to deregister the party continued after the writs for the election were returned in June, and the party was deregistered at the federal level on 19 July 2022.


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: The LDP states that it adheres to classical liberal, small government and "laissez-faire" principles coupled with what the party considers as a high regard for individual freedom and individual responsibility. LDP supported policies include:


title: Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)

text: The Australia Institute's 2019 report found that the Liberal Democratic Party had received political donations of $37,311 from pro-gun groups between July 2011 and March 2019. The report contextualises their donations as similar in value to the Nationals, Labor and Country Alliance, whilst being less than those to Katter's Australia Party, the Shooters Party, and the Liberal Party.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Rémy Martin () is a French firm that primarily produces and sells cognac. Founded in 1724 and based in the commune of Cognac, it is among the oldest cognac producers still in existence. and one of the "big four" cognac houses (along with Hennessy, Courvoisier and Martell), responsible for producing most of the world's cognac. The brand specialises in creating Cognac Fine Champagne.


title: Rémy Martin

text: The brand is owned by the spirits conglomerate Rémy Cointreau, which it co-founded in 1990. Rémy Martin typically represents around 90% of the group's operating profit, selling around 2.2 million nine-litre cases of cognac annually.


title: Rémy Martin

text: The name Rémy Martin comes from the company founder, born in 1695 near Rouillac in southwestern France. A vintner by trade, in 1724 he created a cognac trading house. On his death in 1773, the business passed to his grandson, also named Rémy. In 1841, Paul-Emile-Rémy Martin assumed control and oversaw great growth. He added a logo to the bottles and cases; a centaur after Sagittarius, Martin's own zodiac sign. The Rémy Martin logo continues; in China it's réntóumă (人头马), literally "man-headed horse".


title: Rémy Martin

text: In the interwar period, André Renaud, a lawyer, merchant, and partner in E. Rémy Martin & Co. since 1910, took the lead. In 1927, he launched VSOP Fine Champagne. Rémy Martin cognacs were then sold worldwide. After World War II, Rémy Martin continued to rise under André Hériard-Dubreuil, André Renaud's son-in-law. At the death of André Renaud in 1965, André Hériard-Dubreuil became president. His children joined him, notably his daughter Dominique Hériard-Dubreuil who became general manager in 1988, and president two years later. In 1991, the House of Rémy Martin incorporated Rémy Cointreau into the business.


title: Rémy Martin

text: In the 2010s Rémy Martin experienced a significant sales downturn after Chinese austerity measures targeted expensive gifts.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Rémy Martin cognacs have the Cognac Fine Champagne appellation, meaning they come only from a blend of "eaux-de-vie" from the Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne crus, with at least 50% Grande Champagne. Being from chalky soils, these "eaux-de-vie" have ageing potential and a particular aroma due to the "terroir". In the 1960s, l’Alliance Fine Champagne (the Fine Champagne Alliance) was created by André Hériard Dubreuil of the House of Rémy Martin. This cooperative brings together vintners from Petite Champagne and Grande Champagne, and supplies almost 90% of the "eaux-de-vie" of the House. Rémy Martin produces more than 80% of Fine Champagne cognacs.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Rémy Martin uses traditional distillation of the lees (sediment from grape fermentation) in small copper stills. Ageing takes place in oak barrels of the Limousin type, during which alcohol evaporates (the angels' share), blackening the walls of the cellar. The eau-de-vie evolves, punctuated by resting and changes of barrel. The exchanges of wood, oxygen and eaux-de-vie are constant.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Depending on which style is sought, cognac can age in young or old oak barrels, with stronger or finer grain in the staves. The oldest cognacs may be stored in glass demi-johns (also called "dame-jeannes") to prevent excessive evaporation. Finally, products from different aged spirits are mixed, to create a cognac.


title: Rémy Martin

text: The House’s current Cellar Master, Baptiste Loiseau, took the position in 2014, at 34, following André Renaud, André Giraud, Georges Clot, and Pierrette Trichet.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Created in 1927, Rémy Martin VSOP is the biggest selling VSOP Cognac worldwide. The frosted bottle was introduced in 1972.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Exclusive to European markets, VSOP Mature Cask Finish was created in 2011. Originating from the same terroirs of Grande and Petite Champagne, with the same specifications for distillation, after the final blending, this cognac spends another year in 20-year old oak barrels.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Launched in 1997 and named after the royal decree issued in 1738 when King Louis XV granted the Accord Royal to Rémy Martin in honor of his craftsmanship.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Exclusive to China, CLUB was created in 1986 and features an octagonal-shaped bottle. In 2015, Rémy Martin launched the CLUB Connected Bottle, the first NFC-enabled spirits bottle featuring high-security anti-counterfeiting measures.


title: Rémy Martin

text: A single barrel blend selected by the cellar master, with all eaux-de-vie being at least twenty years old.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Sold at an elevated price point, Centaure de Diamant uses only eaux-de-vie from the finest 10% of those available to Rémy Martin.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Exclusive to duty free locations, Cellar 16 (Prime Cellar Selection) and Cellar 28 (Reserve Cellar Selection) are selected by the Cellar Master from aging cellars with unique characteristics.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Louis XIII cognac is produced and aged in oak barrels for 40–80 years in the Grande Champagne region of Cognac.


title: Rémy Martin

text: In 2010, Rémy Martin introduced its first clear spirit, Rémy Martin V, in the US. Rather than using the oak barrel aging process, the liquid undergoes a proprietary filtration process, giving it a transparent color and subtle taste with hints of pear and a fresh minty aftertaste. It is not a cognac, but an "eau-de-vie de vin"


title: Rémy Martin

text: The House of Rémy Martin partners with artists to represent its cognacs. These include Californian actor Jeremy Renner, Chinese actor and singer Huang Xiaoming, and Taiwanese mandopop singer Jolin Tsai. In 2008, the American photographer and director David LaChapelle created a bottle design. In 2013, Rémy Martin teamed up with American-Canadian singer and producer Robin Thicke to launch a limited edition of VSOP.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Rémy Martin can also be found in the world of rap, especially in the United States. Fetty Wap has frequently mentioned the 1738 variety in his work.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Pete Townshend of rock band the Who wryly thanked Rémy Martin for saving his life "by making the bloody stuff so expensive" in the inner sleeve to his 1980 solo album "Empty Glass". He also referred to the drink in the lyrics to his single 'A Little Is Enough' by singing "I'm like a connoisseur of champagne cognac, the perfume nearly beats the taste." Townshend can also be seen drinking straight from a bottle of Rémy Martin in the music video to his song 'Keep on Working'.


title: Rémy Martin

text: Fellow Who member John Entwistle was also known for his love of the drink, and included the V.S.O.P. grading on the album cover to his 1973 solo album "Rigor Mortis Sets In." It is an inscription on an outdoor grave's footstone, which was either the front cover or the photo used on the inside of the gatefold depending on where the record was issued.


title: Rémy Martin

text: In 1980, at the beginning of the Chinese economic reform, Rémy Martin ventured into China with the Dynasty brand (Dynasty Wine Ltd), the first foreign wine maker and the second joint-venture in all China.


title: New Territories

text: The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it is the region described in the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory. According to that treaty, the territories comprise the mainland area north of Boundary Street on the Kowloon Peninsula and south of the Sham Chun River (which is the border between Hong Kong and Mainland China), as well as over 200 outlying islands, including Lantau Island, Lamma Island, Cheung Chau, and Peng Chau in the territory of HK.


title: New Territories

text: Later, after New Kowloon was defined from the area between the Boundary Street and the Kowloon Ranges spanned from Lai Chi Kok to Lei Yue Mun, and the extension of the urban areas of Kowloon, New Kowloon was gradually urbanised and absorbed into Kowloon.


title: New Territories

text: The New Territories now comprises only the mainland north of the Kowloon Ranges and south of the Sham Chun River, as well as the Outlying Islands. It comprises an area of 952 km (368 sq mi). Nevertheless, New Kowloon has remained statutorily part of the New Territories instead of Kowloon.


title: New Territories

text: The New Territories were leased from Qing China by the United Kingdom in 1898 for 99 years in the Second Convention of Peking (The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory). Upon the expiry of the lease, sovereignty was transferred to the People's Republic of China in 1997, together with the Qing-ceded territories of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula.


title: New Territories

text: In 2011, the population of the New Territories was recorded at 3,691,093. with a population density of 3,801 per square kilometer (9,845 per square mile).


title: New Territories

text: Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain in 1842 and Kowloon south of Boundary Street and Stonecutters Island in 1860. The colony of Hong Kong attracted a large number of Chinese and Westerners to seek their fortune in the city. Its population increased rapidly and the city became overcrowded. The outbreak of bubonic plague in 1894 became a concern to the Hong Kong Government. There was a need to expand the colony to accommodate its growing population. The Qing Dynasty's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War had shown that it was incapable of defending itself. Victoria City and Victoria Harbour were vulnerable to any hostile forces launching attacks from the hills of Kowloon.


title: New Territories

text: Alarmed by the encroachment of other European powers in China, Britain also feared for the security of Hong Kong. Using the most favoured nation clause that it had negotiated with Peking, the United Kingdom demanded the extension of Kowloon to counter the influence of France in southern China in June 1898. In July, it secured Weihaiwei in Shandong in the north as a base for operations against the Germans in Qingdao (Tsingtao) and the Russians in Port Arthur. Chinese officials stayed in the walled cities of Kowloon City and Weihaiwei.


title: New Territories

text: The extension of Kowloon was called the New Territories. The additional land was estimated to be 365 square miles (945 km) or 12 times the size of the existing Colonial Hong Kong at the time.


title: New Territories

text: Although the Convention was signed on the 9 June 1898 and became effective on 1 July, the British did not take over the New Territories immediately. During this period, there was no Hong Kong Governor and Wilsone Black acted as administrator. James Stewart Lockhart, the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong, was sent back from England to make a survey of New Territories before formal transfer. The survey found that the new frontier at Sham Chun River (Shenzhen river) suggested by Wilsone Black was far from ideal. It excluded the town of Shenzhen (Sham Chun), and the boundary would divide the town. There was no mountain range as a natural border. Lockhart suggested moving the frontier to the line of hills north of Shenzhen. This suggestion was not received favourably and the Chinese official suggested the frontier be moved to the hill much further south of the Sham Chun River. It was settled in March 1899 that the boundary remain at the Sham Chun River.


title: New Territories

text: The new Hong Kong Governor Henry Blake arrived in November 1898. The date for the takeover of the New Territories was fixed as 17 April 1899 and Tai Po was chosen as the administrative centre. However the transfer was not smooth and peaceful. Before the handover in early April, Captain Superintendent of Police, Francis Henry May and some policemen erected a flagstaff and temporary headquarters at Tai Po and posted the Governor's proclamation of the takeover date. Fearing for their traditional land rights, in the Six-Day War of 1899, a number of clans attempted to resist the British, mobilising clan militias that had been organised and armed to protect against longshore raids by pirates. The militia men attempted a frontal attack against the temporary police station in Tai Po that was the main British base but were beaten back by superior force of arms. An attempt by the clansmen at guerilla warfare was put down by the British near Lam Tsuen with over 500 Chinese men killed, and collapsed when British artillery was brought to bear on the walled villages of the clansmen. Most prominent of the villages in the resistance Kat Hing Wai, of the Tang clan, was symbolically disarmed, by having its main gates dismounted and removed. However, in order to prevent future resistance the British made concessions to the indigenous inhabitants with regards to land use, land inheritance and marriage laws; the majority of which remained in place into the 1960s when polygamy was outlawed. Some of the concessions with regard to land use and inheritance remain in place in Hong Kong to this day and is a source of friction between indigenous inhabitants and other Hong Kong residents.


title: New Territories

text: Lord Lugard was Governor from 1907 to 1912, and he proposed the return of Weihaiwei to the Chinese government, in return for the ceding of the leased New Territories in perpetuity. The proposal was not received favourably, although if it had been acted on, Hong Kong might have remained forever in British hands.


title: New Territories

text: Much of the New Territories was, and to a limited extent still is, made up of rural areas. Attempts at modernising the area did not become fully committed until the late 1970s, when many new towns were built to accommodate the population growth from urbanised areas of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Despite rapid development of the new towns, which now accommodate a population of over 3 million, the Hong Kong Government confines built-up areas to a few areas and reserves large parts of the region as parkland.


title: New Territories

text: As the expiry date of the lease neared in the 1980s, talks between the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China led to the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration (1984), in which the whole of Hong Kong would be returned, instead of only the New Territories.


title: New Territories

text: According to the 2011 census, the population of the New Territories was 3,691,093, representing 52.2% of Hong Kong's total population. 88.4% of the residents of New Territories use Cantonese as their main language. 4.3% of its residents use English, 1.2% use Mandarin Chinese, and 3.3% of New Territories' residents use other Chinese dialects. 95.1% of the district's population is of Chinese descent. The largest ethnic minority groups are Filipinos (31.5%), Indonesians (26.2%), South Asians (14.5%), Mixed (11.2%) and Whites (10.0%).


title: New Territories

text: New Kowloon covers the entirety of the Wong Tai Sin and Kwun Tong districts, as well as the mainland portion of the Sham Shui Po District (i.e. excluding the Stonecutters Island) and the northern portion of the Kowloon City District (portion to the north of Boundary Street/Prince Edward Road West, as well as reclaimed land including the Kai Tak Airport).


title: Elena Fisher

text: Elena Fisher is a fictional character in the "Uncharted" series, developed by Naughty Dog. Elena appears in four video games in the main series: "", "", "", and the final installment in the main series, "". While partially playable for short sections of the first game, Elena also acts as both a sidekick and love interest for Nathan Drake. Emily Rose both provided her voice and did the motion capture work for the character.


title: Elena Fisher

text: Though originally a brunette, Naughty Dog made her a blonde with a more severe chin before the first game's release. She is an independent, strong female who acts as an equal to the series' protagonist Drake. In the games, she is a reporter who accompanies Drake on his adventures. Reception of her character has been mostly positive. She has been called one of the strongest video game females and her equality with male characters has been praised; however, the character has drawn criticism for her unrealistic combat prowess.


title: Elena Fisher

text: Emily Rose, Elena's voice actor, also performed the motion capture work for the character, acting as if performing in a movie. Motion capture was done on a soundstage, and the dialog was recorded while the scenes were being performed. Elena was meant to act as both a sidekick and a romantic interest for the main series protagonist Nathan Drake.


title: Elena Fisher

text: Originally, Elena was presented as a brunette with a soft face. However, close to the release of the first game, "", her chin was further defined, and her hair made blonde. When questioned about the purpose of the change response, Sony said "they just preferred her blonde". Naughty Dog further elaborated on the reasons for the change, saying that towards the end of development the team's pixel shaders improved and when they added it to Elena's blonde hair, it looked considerably better paired than it did with brown, as it was originally. They stated that the change was purely cosmetic as she remained exactly the same character except now with blonde hair and that these changes are all part of game development.


title: Elena Fisher

text: Elena Fisher is a journalist, originally out to make a name for herself through documentary work, then later news broadcasting. Regarding her career, she has been described as a "spunky and nubile camerawoman". She proves herself a resourceful and capable ally to Drake.


title: Elena Fisher

text: Elena Fisher is the "female version of Drake", as creator Amy Hennig put it; she is just as charming, intelligent and tenacious as him, and can hold her own when climbing or under fire. Rose, the character's voice actor, commented that Elena matured between the first game and the sequel: "In the first game, she's a lot younger, she's a lot more naive, and she looks at things as being very possible, and in the second (game), has seen murders and adventure...the way that any person grows, you see that in her. She's a little bit more hesitant, a little more cynical".


title: Elena Fisher

text: In the first game, Elena wears a dirty purple tank-top and cargo shorts, with a white tank top underneath. For the remaining games, she wears a number of articles of clothing, including button up shirts, casual shirts, khaki pants, jeans, and a parka. Originally, Elena was a brunette, and Sony showed her this way in the original advertising, but shortly before the first game's release, her hair was changed to a dirty blonde tone.


title: Elena Fisher

text: In the 2007 game "", Elena follows Drake around, videotaping his findings for her cable television show. As the game opens, she and Drake uncover the coffin of Drake's ancestor Sir Francis Drake, which Drake located from coordinates inscribed on Francis's ring he wears around his neck. The coffin contains Sir Francis Drake's diary, which gives the location of El Dorado. Pirates attack and destroy Drake's boat, but Drake's friend Victor Sullivan rescues the two. Once safe, Sully and Drake decide to ditch Elena and go after the treasure, though she manages to rendezvous with Drake after he discovers that El Dorado is a giant gold idol. On the way to the island, anti-aircraft fire forces Elena and Drake to bail out of the airplane and they are separated. Once they meet, they discover that Sully, who appeared to die of a gunshot wound, is alive. After discovering that the statue is cursed and he must stop Atoq Navarro from using its power, and save Elena in the process. After doing so, she, Drake, and Sully drive off in a boat loaded with several chests of treasure.


title: Elena Fisher

text: In "", Drake stumbles upon Elena by accident in Nepal, where she now acts as an investigative journalist. She and a cameraman are attempting to prove that war criminal Lazarevic is alive, contrary to the beliefs of NATO. Drake is trying to stop Lazarević from finding the entrance to Shambhala and the legendary Cintamani stone. After she, Drake and the party find a temple (which conceals the secret map to Shambala), Elena and her cameraman are ambushed, and the cameraman, Jeff, is eventually executed by Lazarevic. Elena and Drake escape, and she helps him catch Lazarevic's train. The pair find each other in a remote mountain village in Tibet, where the two meet Karl Schäfer, a German who had led a Schutzstaffel expedition to Shambhala, who he ended up killing in order to stop them from obtaining the Cintamani Stone. Drake and Elena track Lazaravic to a monastery, where they find the entrance to Shambhala. Once inside, they discover that the monsters Drake has been seeing in the area are guardians of the city. Drake and Elena are apprehended by Lazaravic but escape him when the guardians attack. After battling through several guardians and many henchmen left behind by Lazaveric, she, Nate, and Chloe spot the Tree of Life, upon at that moment Flynn confronts Drake and attempts to kill the party (and himself) with a grenade. He fails, although he severely wounds Elena (as well as lightly wounding Drake and Chloe). After leaving Elena in Chloe's care, Drake confronts Lazaravic at the Tree of Life, the sap of which comprises the Cintamani stone. Drake wounds Lazaravic, leaving the guardians to kill him, and returns to the village, where he and Elena kiss and begin a relationship.


title: Elena Fisher

text: "" reveals that, between the events of "Uncharted 2" and "3", Elena and Drake had married each other but had eventually separated, though she still wears her ring. Since the events of "Uncharted 2", Elena has become an international news correspondent, and has been stationed in Yemen for some time. She assists Nate and Sully in entering Yemen and helps locate a cistern leading to catacombs that contains the coordinates to Iram of the Pillars. Elena tries in vain to deter Nate from continuing his search as she feels it is not worth it. After Nate is drugged and captured by Marlowe, he reunites with Elena who reveals Sully has also been kidnapped and that she has a plan to save him. They infiltrate a nearby airport where a plane is ready to make a supply drop to the enemy convoy Sully is in. Elena assists Drake in getting onto the plane, departing him as it takes off. After Nate and Sully return from Ubar, Elena is shown by Nate that he has started wearing his wedding ring again after Sully had kept it safe for him and they resume their relationship, leaving together on Sully's new plane.


title: Elena Fisher

text: In "," five years after the events of "Drake's Deception", Elena and Nate are living as a married couple in New Orleans. She continues to work as a journalist and often travels abroad writing articles, while Nate works as a salvager. Nate lies to Elena by claiming he has taken on a new salvaging job after his long-lost brother Sam returns to coax him back into uncovering the treasure of pirate Henry Avery. After escaping enemy forces in Madagascar, Nate returns to his hotel only to find Elena there, who confronts Nate about his lies and dismisses his explanations. Upset, confused, and angry, she returns home on her own. After some consideration, Elena later goes to Libertalia with Sully and rescues Nate, hoping that his dishonesty will help to make them more trusting of each other in the future, and in the end they reconcile with a kiss. The couple eventually find Sam, who insists that they go after the treasure before their opponents can find it but Nate, Elena, and Sully decline his request as they only came to rescue him. Nate is forced to leave Elena with Sully after Sam decides to go after the treasure alone. The four later reunite on Sully's plane, having escaped Libertalia alive. Sam later departs with Sully, Nate and Elena return to their lives and Elena decides to buy the 'Jameson Marine' salvage company, installing Nate as a co-owner to help them in their funding for their future adventures. Elena also expresses her desire to revive her old TV show.


title: Elena Fisher

text: 13–15 years after the events of "Uncharted 4" the two are still happily married and have settled down at a beach house with a daughter named Cassie and a dog called Vicky. The story then ends with Nate and Elena setting off on a sailing trip while beginning to tell Cassie about their previous adventures.


title: Elena Fisher

text: Elena also appears in the prequel comic "", agreeing to fund Nate's expedition to find Sir Francis Drake's coffin.


title: Elena Fisher

text: Reception to the character of Elena Fisher has been mainly positive. Blaine Kyllo of "The Georgia Straight" praised Rose's performance as Elena, calling it some of the best work in video gaming, while Meagan VanBurkleo of "Game Informer" called Elena one of her "favorite leading ladies". In its 2010 cover feature, "Game Informer" also named Elena as one of 30 characters "who defined a decade".


title: Elena Fisher

text: Some opined that Elena is a strong, female lead uncommon to video games. Dave Meikleham of "GamesRadar" UK called her one of the strongest females in gaming and wrote she provides a great playoff to Drake, and a good shot to aid the players through levels. However, he also criticized her for a lack of realism, finding it hard to believe that as a reporter who had never fired a gun before could so quickly become such an accurate, fearless shot. "IGN" named her the fourth best video game heroine, praising Naughty Dog for creating a female protagonist equal in every way to her male counterpart: "She won't let the camera stop rolling, she won't take Drake's crap, and she's not afraid to throw a punch. When you're pinned down by enemy fire, Elena will cap the bad guys for you. When Drake's trapped in the enemy camp, Elena will rip walls down to save her friend. When you're in need of a solid, fleshed-out character, Elena's there as a prime example". "Game Informer" named her one of the 30 characters who defined a decade. Similarly, GamesRadar's staff placed her at number 24 in a list of the 50 best game characters of the generation, commenting that "she may be a stereotypical twenty-something journalist at face value, but she's so convincingly written (and acted by Emily Rose) that she's one of the most believable and likeable characters in all of gaming". Kevin Wong of "Complex" included her to his "best supporting character in video games", and stated that "Serving as a perfect foil is reporter Elena Fisher, a modern April O'Neill who's in over her head. Despite this, however, she knows how to cover and shoot – she saves Nathan's hide more than once. Dumb blonde? Hell no – this gal's got brains."


title: Elena Fisher

text: The character has also garnered attention for her attractiveness. Bret Dawson of the "Toronto Star" compared Elena's appearance and mannerisms to those of Jennifer Aniston.


title: Michael Pfaff

text: Michael Pfaff is an American musician, best known as the current percussionist of heavy metal band Slipknot. He was also a member of the alternative rock band Dirty Little Rabbits as their keyboardist with fellow Slipknot band mate Shawn Crahan.


title: Michael Pfaff

text: Pfaff has been a lifelong friend of Slipknot bandmate Sid Wilson, who introduced him to Shawn Crahan in 2007. The two quickly hit it off where they formed a band together called Dirty Little Rabbits where he was the band's pianist. The band released two extended play's "Breeding" (2007) and "Simon" (2009) before releasing their debut and only eponymous album in 2010, before splitting up in 2012.


title: Michael Pfaff

text: Following the dismissal of longtime Slipknot percussionist Chris Fehn in March 2019 due to him filing a lawsuit against the band, Pfaff was quickly contacted by Crahan while working on his day job about potentially replacing Fehn, which he accepted. He took over percussion duties, joining the band shortly before the filming of the music video for "Unsainted", the lead single off of their sixth studio album "We Are Not Your Kind", released on 9 August 2019. Due to the appearance of his mask resembling a tortilla, Pfaff was quickly nicknamed "Tortilla Man" by fans and was known primarily by this title until the band finally revealed his identity in March 2022. Initially brought in as a touring member, Pfaff became an official full-time member of the band when they all went into the studio to record the seventh studio album "The End, So Far". Pfaff sustained an ankle injury while performing on the band's 2022 European Tour.


title: Michael Pfaff

text: Pfaff attended New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts and received a masters degree in music. He attended Lawrence University, in Appleton, Wisconsin, for his undergraduate degree, also in music. He also has a wife and they both have one child together.


title: Michael Pfaff

text: Pfaff has accepted the nickname Tortilla Man as of 2022 via his personal Instagram account name “tortillapfaff”.


title: Polearm

text: A polearm or pole weapon is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, thereby extending the user's effective range and striking power. Polearms are predominantly melee weapons, with a subclass of spear-like designs fit for both thrusting and throwing. Because many polearms were adapted from agricultural implements or other fairly abundant tools, and contained relatively little metal, they were cheap to make and readily available. When warfare would break out and the belligerents had a poorer class who could not pay for dedicated military weapons, leaders would often appropriate tools as cheap weapons. The cost of training was comparatively minimal, since these conscripted farmers had spent most of their lives using these "weapons" in the fields. This made polearms the favored weapon of peasant levies and peasant rebellions the world over.


title: Polearm

text: Polearms can be divided into three broad categories: those designed for extended reach and thrusting tactics used in pike square or phalanx combat; those designed to increase leverage (thanks to hands moving freely on a pole) to maximize angular force (swinging tactics) against cavalry; and those designed for throwing tactics used in skirmish line combat. The hook on weapons like the halberd were also used for pulling/grappling tactics. Because of their versatility, high effectiveness and cheap cost, polearms experimentation led to many variants and were the most frequently used weapons on the battlefield: bills, picks, dane axes, spears, glaives, guandaos, pudaos, poleaxes, halberds, harpoons, sovnyas, tridents, naginatas, bardiches, war scythes, and lances are all varieties of polearms.


title: Polearm

text: Polearms were common weapons on post-classical battlefields of Asia and Europe. Their range and impact force made them effective weapons against armored warriors on horseback, because they could be dismounted and/or penetrate said armor. The Renaissance saw a plethora of varieties. Polearms in modern times are largely constrained to ceremonial military units such as the Papal Swiss Guard or Yeomen of the Guard, or traditional martial arts. Chinese martial arts in particular have preserved a wide variety of weapons and techniques.


title: Polearm

text: The classification of polearms can be difficult, and European weapon classifications in particular can be confusing. This can be due to a number of factors, including uncertainty in original descriptions, changes in weapons or nomenclature through time, mistranslation of terms, and the well-meaning inventiveness of later experts. For example, the word "halberd" is also used to translate the Chinese ji and also a range of medieval Scandinavian weapons as described in sagas, such as the atgeir. As well, all polearms developed from three early tools (the axe, the scythe, and the knife) and one weapon, the spear.


title: Polearm

text: While men-at-arms may have been armed with custom designed military weapons, militias were often armed with whatever was available. These may or may not have been mounted on poles and described by one of more names. The problems with precise definitions can be inferred by a contemporary description of Royalist infantry which were engaged in the Battle of Birmingham (1643) during the first year of English Civil War (in the early modern period). The infantry regiment that accompanied Prince Rupert's cavalry were armed:


title: Polearm

text: The dagger-axe, or "gee" (Chinese: 戈; pinyin: gē; Wade–Giles: ko; sometimes confusingly translated "halberd") is a type of weapon that was in use from Shang dynasty until at least Han dynasty China. It consists of a dagger-shaped blade made of bronze (or later iron) mounted by the tang to a perpendicular wooden shaft: a common Bronze Age infantry weapon, also used by charioteers. Some dagger axes include a spear-point. There is a (rare) variant type with a divided two-part head, consisting of the usual straight blade and a scythe-like blade. Other rarities include archaeology findings with two or sometimes three blades stacked in line on top of a pole, but were generally thought as ceremonial polearms. Though the weapon saw frequent use in ancient China, the use of the dagger-axe decreased dramatically after the Qin and Han dynasties. The "ji" combines the dagger axe with a spear. By the post-classical Chinese dynasties, with the decline of chariot warfare, the use of the dagger-axe was almost nonexistent.


title: Polearm

text: The ji (Chinese: 戟) was created by combining the dagger-axe with a spear. It was used as a military weapon at least as early as the Shang dynasty until the end of the Northern and Southern dynasties.


title: Polearm

text: The ngao or ngau (ง้าว,ของ้าว) is a Thai polearm that was traditionally used by elephant-riding infantry and is still used by practitioners of krabi krabong. Known in Malay as a "dap", it consists of a wooden shaft with a curved blade fashioned onto the end, and is similar in design to the Korean woldo. Usually, it also had a hook (ขอ) between the blade and shaft used for commanding the elephant. The elephant warrior used the ngao like a blade from atop an elephant or horse during battle.


title: Polearm

text: The Dane axe is a weapon with a heavy crescent-shaped head mounted on a haft in length. Originally a Viking weapon, it was adopted by the Anglo-Saxons and Normans in the 11th century, spreading through Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. Variants of this basic weapon continued in use in Scotland and Ireland into the 16th century. A form of 'long axe'.


title: Polearm

text: In the 13th century, variants on the Danish axe are seen. Described in English as a "sparth" (from the Old Norse ) or "pale-axe", the weapon featured a larger head with broader blade, the rearward part of the crescent sweeping up to contact (or even be attached to) the haft.


title: Polearm

text: In Ireland, this axe was known as a "sparr axe". Originating in either Western Scotland or Ireland, the "sparr" was widely used by the galloglass. Although sometimes said to derive from the Irish for a joist or beam, a more likely definition is as a variant of sparth. Although attempts have been made to suggest that the sparr had a distinctive shaped head, illustrations and surviving weapons show there was considerable variation and the distinctive feature of the weapon was its long haft.


title: Polearm

text: A fauchard is a type of polearm which was used in medieval Europe from the 11th through the 14th centuries. The design consisted of a curved blade put atop a pole. The blade bore a moderate to strong curve along its length; however, unlike a bill or guisarme, the cutting edge was on the convex side.


title: Polearm

text: A guisarme (sometimes gisarme, giserne or bisarme) was a polearm used in Europe primarily between 1000 and 1400. It was used primarily to dismount knights and horsemen. Like most polearms it was developed by peasants by combining hand tools with long poles, in this case by putting a pruning hook onto a spear shaft. While hooks are fine for dismounting horsemen from mounts, they lack the stopping power of a spear especially when dealing with static opponents. While early designs were simply a hook on the end of a long pole, later designs implemented a small reverse spike on the back of the blade. Eventually weapon makers incorporated the usefulness of the hook in a variety of different polearms and "guisarme" became a catch-all for any weapon that included a hook on the blade. Ewart Oakeshott has proposed an alternative description of the weapon as a crescent shaped socketed axe.


title: Polearm

text: A glaive is a polearm consisting of a single-edged tapering blade similar in shape to a modern kitchen knife on the end of a pole. The blade was around long, on the end of a pole long. However, instead of having a tang like a sword or naginata, the blade is affixed in a socket-shaft configuration similar to an axe head, both the blade and shaft varying in length. Illustrations in the 13th century Maciejowski Bible show a short staffed weapon with a long blade used by both infantry and cavalry. Occasionally glaive blades were created with a small hook or spike on the reverse side. Such glaives are named glaive-guisarme.


title: Polearm

text: A voulge (occasionally called a pole cleaver) is a curved blade attached to a pole by binding the lower two-thirds of the blade to the side of the pole, to form a sort of axe. Looks very similar to a glaive.


title: Polearm

text: A svärdstav (literally sword-staff) is a Swedish medieval polearm that consists of a two-edged sword blade attached to a staff. The illustrations often show the weapon being equipped with sword-like quillons. The illustrations sometimes show a socket mount and reinforcing langets being used, but sometimes they are missing; it is possible this weapon was sometimes manufactured by simply attaching an old sword blade onto a long pole on its tang, not unlike the naginata.


title: Polearm

text: A naginata (なぎなた or 薙刀) is a Japanese polearm that was traditionally used by members of the samurai class. A naginata consists of a wood shaft with a curved blade on the end. Usually it also had a sword-like guard (tsuba) between the blade and shaft. It was mounted with a tang and held in place with a pin or pins, rather than going over the shaft using a socket. The naginata was developed based on the hoko yari from the 1st millennium AD or the tachi from the late Heian period (794ー1185). It was appreciated by samurai who fought on foot as a weapon to maintain optimal distance from the enemy in close combat, but after the Onin War in the 15th century, large groups of mobilized infantry called asigaru began to equip themselves with yari (spear) yumi (longbow) and tanegashima (gun), making naginata and tachi (long sword) obsolete on the battlefield and often replaced with nagamaki and katana. From the Edo period, naginata has been recognized as a martial art practiced by women in the samurai class.


title: Polearm

text: A yari (やり or 槍) is a Japanese polearm that was traditionally used by members of the samurai class. There are various types of yari, which have different names depending on the shape of the blade attached to the end of the wooden shaft. For example, 'Jumonji yari' refers to a yari with a cross-shaped blade, and 'Sasaho yari' refers to a yari with a blade shaped like a sasa leaf. During the Sengoku period, a large group of ashigaru in a formation used yari as one of their main weapons and exerted tremendous power on the battlefield. Honda Tadakatsu a vassal of Tokugawa Ieyasu, had gained a reputation as a master of one of the Three Great Spears of Japan, Tonbokiri.


title: Polearm

text: The Korean woldo was a variation of the Chinese guan dao. It was originally used by the post-classical Shilla warriors. Wielding the woldo took time due to its weight, but in the hands of a trained soldier, the woldo was a fearsome, agile weapon famous for enabling a single soldier to cut down ranks of infantrymen. The woldo was continually in use for the military in Korea with various modifications made over the decades. Unlike the Chinese with the guan dao, the Koreans found the woldo unwieldy on horseback, and thus, it was specifically tailored to the needs of infantrymen. The Joseon government implemented rigorous training regimens requiring soldiers to be proficient with swordsmanship, and the use of the woldo. Though it was never widely used as a standard weapon, the woldo saw action on many fronts and was considered by many Korean troops to be a versatile weapon. Recently, a contemporary revival in various martial arts in Korea has brought interest into the application of the woldo and its history.


title: Polearm

text: A guandao or kwan tou is a type of Chinese polearm. In Chinese, it is properly called a yanyue dao (偃月刀), 'reclining moon blade'. Some believed it comes from the late Han Era and was supposedly used by the late Eastern Han Dynasty general Guan Yu, but archaeological findings have shown that Han dynasty armies generally used straight, single-edged blades, and curved blades came several centuries later. There is no reason to believe their polearms had curved blades on them. Besides, historical accounts of the Three Kingdoms era describe Guan Yu thrusting his opponents down (probably with a spear-like polearm) in battle, not cutting them down with a curved blade. The guandao is also known as the "chun qiu da dao" ('spring autumn great knife'), again probably related to the depiction of Guan Yu in the Ming dynasty novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but possibly a Ming author's invention. It consists of a heavy blade mounted atop a wooden or metal pole with a pointed metal counter weight used for striking and stabbing on the opposite end.


title: Polearm

text: The blade is very deep and curved on its face, resembling a Chinese saber, or dao. Variant designs include rings along the length of the straight back edge, as found in the nine-ring guandao. The "elephant" guandao's tip curls into a rounded spiral, while the dragon head guandao features a more ornate design.


title: Polearm

text: A "podao", 'long-handled sabre', is a Chinese polearm, also known as the zhan ma dao ('horsecutter sabre'), which has a lighter blade and a ring at the end. A podao is an infantryman's weapon, mainly used for cutting the legs off oncoming charging horses to bring down the riders.


title: Polearm

text: In the Song dynasty, several weapons were referred to as "ji", but they were developed from spears, not from ancient "ji". One variety was called the "qinglong ji" (), and had a spear tip with a crescent blade on one side. Another type was the "fangtian ji" (), which had a spear tip with crescent blades on both sides. They had multiple means of attack: the side blade or blades, the spear tip, plus often a rear counterweight that could be used to strike the opponent. The way the side blades were fixed to the shaft differs, but usually there were empty spaces between the pole and the side blade. The wielder could strike with the shaft, with the option of then pulling the weapon back to hook with a side blade; or, he could slap his opponent with the flat side of the blade to knock him off his horse.


title: Polearm

text: A corseque has a three-bladed head on a haft which, like the partisan, is similar to the winged spear or spetum in the later Middle Ages. It was popular in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Surviving examples have a variety of head forms but there are two main variants, one with the side blades (known as flukes or wings) branching from the neck of the central blade at 45 degrees, the other with hooked blades curving back towards the haft. The corseque is usually associated with the rawcon, ranseur and runka. Another possible association is with the "three-grayned staff" listed as being in the armoury of Henry VIII in 1547 (though the same list also features 84 rawcons, suggesting the weapons were not identical in 16th century English eyes). Another modern term used for particularly ornate-bladed corseques is the "chauve-souris".


title: Polearm

text: A halberd (or Swiss voulge) is a two-handed polearm that came to prominent use during the 14th and 15th centuries but has continued in use as a ceremonial weapon to the present day. First recorded as "hellembart" in 1279, the word "halberd" possibly comes from the German words "Halm" (staff) or "Helm" (helmet), and "Barte" (axe). The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. It always has a hook or thorn on the back side of the axe blade for grappling mounted combatants. Early forms are very similar in many ways to certain forms of voulge, while 16th century and later forms are similar to the pollaxe. The Swiss were famous users of the halberd in the medieval and renaissance eras, with various cantons evolving regional variations of the basic form.


title: Polearm

text: In the 14th century, the basic long axe gained an armour-piercing spike on the back and another on the end of the haft for thrusting. This is similar to the pollaxe of 15th century. The poleaxe emerged in response to the need for a weapon that could penetrate plate armour and featured various combinations of an axe-blade, a back-spike and a hammer. It was the favoured weapon for men-at-arms fighting on foot into the sixteenth century.


title: Bullfighter

text: A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. "Torero" () or "toureiro" (), both from Latin "taurarius", are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activity of bullfighting as practised in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Peru, France, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and other countries influenced by Portuguese and Spanish culture. The main performer and leader of the entourage in a bullfight, and who finally kills the bull, is addressed as "maestro" (master), or with the formal title "matador de toros" (killer of bulls). The other bullfighters in the entourage are called "subalternos" and their suits are embroidered in silver as opposed to the matador's gold. They include the "picadores", "rejoneadores", and "banderilleros".


title: Bullfighter

text: Present since the sport's earliest history, the number of women in bullfighting has steadily increased since the late-19 century, both on foot and on horseback. Usually, toreros start fighting younger bulls ("novillos" or, more informally in some Latin American countries, "vaquillas"), and are called "novilleros". Fighting of mature bulls commences only after a special match, called "the Alternative". At this same bullfight, the "novillero" (junior bullfighter) is presented to the crowd as a "matador de toros".


title: Bullfighter

text: Bullfighting on foot became a means for poor, able-bodied men to escape poverty and achieve fame and fortune, similar to the role of boxing in other countries; this is reflected in the Spanish saying "más cornadas da el hambre" ("there's more goring from hunger"). Another frequent case for bullfighters is to be born in a family of bullfighters.


title: Bullfighter

text: In English, a "torero" is sometimes referred to by the term "toreador", which was popularized by Georges Bizet in his opera "Carmen". In Spanish, the word designates bullfighters on horseback, but is little used today, having been almost entirely displaced by "rejoneador". Bullfighting, historically, started more with nobles upon horseback, all lancing bulls with accompanying commoners on foot doing helper jobs. As time went by, the work of the commoners on foot gained in importance up to the point whereupon they became the main and only act. Bullfighting on horseback became a separate and distinct act called "rejoneo" which is still performed, although less often.


title: Bullfighter

text: The established term, "Maletilla" or "espontáneo", is attributed to those who illegally jump into the ring and attempt to bullfight for their sake and glory. While the practice itself is widely despised by many spectators and fans alike, some, such as "El Cordobés", started their careers in this way.


title: Bullfighter

text: A "matador de toros" (lit. "killer of bulls", from Latin "mactator", killer, slayer, from "mactare", to slay) is considered to be both an artist and an athlete, possessing agility and coordination. One of the earliest matadors was Juan Belmonte (1892–1962), whose technique in the ring fundamentally changed bullfighting and remains an established standard by which bullfighters are judged by "aficionados". The style of the matador was regarded as being equally important as to whether or not he kills the bull. The more successful "matadores" were treated like rock stars, with comparable financial incomes, cult followings and accompanied by tabloid stories about their romantic conquests with women.


title: Bullfighter

text: The danger associated with bullfighting added to the matador's performance; they are regularly injured by bulls and, concurrently, 533 professional bullfighters have been killed in the arena since 1700. Spanish bullfighter Manolete died from an injury in 1947. Matador Iván Fandiño died on 17 June 2017 in Aire-sur-l'Adour, France from a similar bullfighting injury. This hazard is said to be central to the nature and appeal of bullfighting.


title: Bullfighter

text: The American writer Ernest Hemingway was a bullfighting aficionado. In his 1926 fictional work, "The Sun Also Rises," the main storyline features a matador and scenes of bullfighting, as do his short stories "The Capital of the World" and "The Undefeated". Outside of fiction, he also wrote at length on the subject in "Death in the Afternoon" (1932) and "The Dangerous Summer" (1959).


title: Bullfighter

text: In 1962, Hollywood producer David Wolper produced "The Story of a Matador", documenting what it was like to be a matador. In this case, it was the Matador Jaime Bravo.


title: Bullfighter

text: A picador is a bullfighter who uses a special lance called "pica" while on horseback to test the bull's strength and to provide clues to the matador on which side the bull is favoring. They perform in the tercio de varas which is the first of the three stages in a Spanish bullfight. The shape of the lance or pica is regulated by Spanish law to prevent serious injury to the bull which was viewed as unfair cheating in the past. The bull will charge the horses in the ring and, at the moments prior to contact, the picador lances the bull in a large muscle at the back of the neck; thus begins the work of lowering his head. The picador continues to stab at the bull's neck leading to the animal's first major loss of blood. During this time, the bull's injured nape will fatigue—however, as a result of the enraged bull charging, the picador's horse will tussle with avoiding the bull throes at trying to lift the horse with its horns. The enduring loss of blood and exertion gradually weakens the bull further and makes it ready for the next stage.


title: Bullfighter

text: In order to protect the horse from the bull's horns, the horse is surrounded by a 'peto' – a mattress-like protection. Prior to 1928, horses did not wear any protection and a bull would frequently disembowel the opposing horse during this vulnerable stage.


title: Bullfighter

text: The "banderillero" is a torero who plants the "banderillas" (lit. little flags). These are colorful sticks, usually colored with the flag of the banderillero's birthplace, with a barbed point which are increasingly placed in the top of the bull's shoulder. Banderilleros attempt to place the sticks while running as close to the bull as possible. They are judged by the crowd on their form and bravery. Sometimes a matador, who was a particularly skillful banderillero before becoming a matador, will place some of the banderillas himself. Skilled banderilleros can correct faults in the manner in which the bull charges by lancing the bull in such a way that the bull ceases hooking to one side, and thereby removing a potential source of danger to the matador by limiting the bull's offensive movements.


title: Bullfighter

text: Because of the decorations and elaborateness of the costume, the Spanish refer to the torero's outfit as "traje de luces", meaning the "suit of lights". Matador costume structure provides great ease of movement.


title: Caveat emptor

text: Caveat emptor (; from "caveat", "may they beware", a subjunctive form of "cavēre", "to beware" + "ēmptor", "buyer") is Latin for "Let the buyer beware". It has become a proverb in English. Generally, "caveat emptor" is the contract law principle that controls the sale of real property after the date of closing, but may also apply to sales of other goods. The phrase "caveat emptor" and its use as a disclaimer of warranties arises from the fact that buyers typically have less information than the seller about the good or service they are purchasing. This quality of the situation is known as 'information asymmetry'. Defects in the good or service may be hidden from the buyer, and only known to the seller.


title: Caveat emptor

text: It is a short form of "Caveat emptor, quia ignorare non debuit quod jus alienum emit" ("Let a purchaser beware, for he ought not to be ignorant of the nature of the property which he is buying from another party.") I.e. the buyer should assure himself that the product is good and that the seller had the right to sell it, as opposed to receiving stolen property.


title: Caveat emptor

text: A common way that information asymmetry between seller and buyer has been addressed is through a legally binding warranty, such as a guarantee of satisfaction.


title: Caveat emptor

text: Under the principle of "caveat emptor", the buyer could not recover damages from the seller for defects on the property that rendered the property unfit for ordinary purposes. The only exception was if the seller actively concealed latent defects or otherwise made material misrepresentations amounting to fraud.


title: Caveat emptor

text: Before statutory law, the buyer had no express warranty ensuring the quality of goods. In the UK, common law requires that goods must be "fit for the particular purpose" and of "merchantable quality", per Section 15 of the Sale of Goods Act but this implied warranty can be difficult to enforce and may not apply to all products. Hence, buyers are still advised to be cautious.


title: Caveat emptor

text: The modern trend in the U.S. is that the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose applies in the real-estate context to only the sale of new residential housing by a builder-seller and that the "caveat emptor" rule applies to all other real-estate sale situations (e.g. homeowner to buyer). Other jurisdictions have provisions similar to this.


title: Caveat emptor

text: Under Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, the sale of new goods is governed by the "perfect-tender" rule unless the parties to the sale expressly agree in advance to terms equivalent to "caveat emptor" (such as describing the goods as sold "as is" and/or "with all faults") or other limitations such as the below-discussed limitations on remedies. The perfect-tender rule states that if a buyer who inspects new goods with reasonable promptness discovers them to be "nonconforming" (failing to meet the description provided or any other standards reasonably expectable by a buyer in his/her situation) and does not use the goods or take other actions constituting acceptance of them, the buyer may promptly return or refuse to accept ("reject") them and demand that the defect be remedied ("cured"). When goods fitting the same description and expectations are available for sale ("e.g.", when the vendor has other instances of the same mass-produced merchandise in stock inventory), either the vendor or the buyer may insist on an "even exchange" for other, "conforming" instances of the product. When conforming goods are not available in stock but are available for the dealer to purchase (usually on the open or "spot" market), the buyer may require that the seller obtain the goods elsewhere, even at a higher price, with the seller having to incur a loss equivalent to the price difference. If the vendor still does not or cannot provide the goods and the dispute proceeds to litigation (as opposed to renegotiation or settlement), then as in all cases of vendor breaches of contract, the buyer may recover only the damages that s/he would have suffered had s/he taken all feasible steps to minimize ("mitigate") his/her damages suffered.


title: Caveat emptor

text: As a default rule, the perfect-tender rule may be "contracted around" in ways that specify or limit a buyer's remedies (and that accordingly reduce the market price that rational buyers are willing to pay for the goods). In many cases, the vendor will not provide a refund but will provide store credit. In the cases of software, movies, and other copyrighted material, many vendors will offer only a direct exchange for another copy of the same title, with the effect that the initial transfer or license of intellectual-property rights is preserved. Most stores require proof of purchase and impose time limits on exchanges or refunds. Some larger chain stores, such as F.Y.E., Staples, Target, or Walmart, will, however, do exchanges or refunds at any time, with or without proof of purchase, although they usually require a form of picture identification and place per-transaction and/or per-person quantity or dollar limitations on such returns.