title: Music of My Mind

text: Wonder became interested in using synthesizers after hearing the music of electronic group Tonto's Expanding Head Band. Inspired after a meeting with the group's members, Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff, in May 1971, he began utilizing Arp and Moog synthesizers, stating that "the synthesizer has allowed me to do a lot of things I've wanted to do for a long time but were not possible till it came along." Margouleff and Cecil associate produced, engineered, and handled Moog programming for the album, and would go on to collaborate with Wonder on his next three albums. Wonder produced the album and played all of the instruments himself, except for the trombone on "Love Having You Around", which was played by Art Baron, and the guitar on "Superwoman", which was played by Howard "Buzz" Feiten.


title: Music of My Mind

text: When "Music of My Mind" was first released on March 3, 1972, it became a modest success with both black and white audiences in the United States, charting at number six and number 21 on the "Billboard" R&B and pop charts, respectively. Contemporary critics viewed it as Wonder's final step into artistic maturity. In "Rolling Stone", Vince Aletti said it showcased the ambitious use of Wonder's newfound artistic control and maturity as a songwriter, although he found some of the studio and vocal effects both gimmicky and self-indulgent. Robert Christgau of "Creem" believed that, like Ray Charles, Wonder transcended aesthetic sensibilities on "Music of My Mind", which he said featured "some of the most musical synthesizer improvisations yet", but whose individual songs were not as impressive as the "one-man album" concept. "Cash Box" particularly praised the Moog synthesizer work on the single "Keep on Running." Penny Valentine was more enthusiastic in her review for "Sounds", viewing the record as a milestone in modern music and a culmination of soul music's creative maturity. She especially praised Wonder's arrangement of "intriguing vocal patterns" on what she deemed "an album of explosive genius and unshackled self-expression".


title: Music of My Mind

text: The album was voted number 645 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums" (2000). In 2003, "Rolling Stone" ranked it number 284 on the magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time; it was number 285 on the 2012 version of the list, and 350 on the 2020 edition.


title: Music of My Mind

text: The songs "Sweet Little Girl" and "Evil" feature prominently at the beginning and end of "Teddy Perkins", the sixth episode of the second season of the acclaimed FX television show "Atlanta".


title: Jan-Erik Olsson

text: Jan-Erik "Janne" Olsson (born 1941) is a Swedish criminal, born and raised in Ekeby, outside Helsingborg. He was the main culprit in the 1973 Norrmalmstorg robbery in Stockholm, from which the term Stockholm syndrome was coined.


title: Jan-Erik Olsson

text: Olsson met the known criminal Clark Olofsson at the Swedish correctional facility in Kalmar, and they became friends. Olsson was fascinated by Clark Olofsson's criminal past as a bank robber. After Olsson later disappeared during a furlough, he carried out a failed rescue attempt of Clark Olofsson on 7 January 1973, attempting to blow up the wall with dynamite that he had smuggled in earlier. Olsson sat in a car outside during the attempt. However, Olofsson failed to detonate the dynamite, which caused the rescue attempt to fail.


title: Jan-Erik Olsson

text: Olsson was the main culprit at the Norrmalmstorg robbery in Stockholm on 23–28 August 1973. On 23 August 1973, he was inside the Pressbyrån store in central Stockholm, where he masked himself. He then entered Kreditbanken with a submachine gun under his jacket and took four people hostage, demanding that Clark Olofsson be brought to him along with 3 million Swedish krona. Olofsson was a repeat offender who had committed several armed robberies and acts of violence, the first at the age of 16. During the robbery, Olsson fired multiple times at the police, injuring one officer in the hand and another in the face and arms. He spoke twice with Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. The robbery ended on 28 August after the police deployed gas. Olsson, as well as the hostages and Clark Olofsson, all survived unharmed. Olsson was sentenced to ten years in prison; he was released in the early 1980s.


title: Jan-Erik Olsson

text: Since the robbery, Olsson has not been convicted of any other crimes. He lived in Thailand for 15 years with his wife and son, where they ran a supermarket. He has since returned to Helsingborg, where he has operated an automobile repair shop, and is now retired. Olsson has shown remorse for his actions as a habitual offender and has openly apologised for the hostage situation in Norrmalmstorg.


title: First normal form

text: First normal form (1NF) is a property of a relation in a relational database. A relation is in first normal form if and only if no attribute domain has relations as elements. Or more informally, that no table column can have tables as values (or no repeating groups). Database normalization is the process of representing a database in terms of relations in standard normal forms, where first normal is a minimal requirement. SQL-92 does not support creating or using table-valued columns, which means that using only the "traditional relational database features" (excluding extensions even if they were later standardized) most relational databases will be in first normal form by necessity. Database systems which do not require first normal form are often called no sql systems. Newer SQL standards like have started to allow so called non-atomic types, which include composite types. Even newer versions like allow json.


title: First normal form

text: In a hierarchical database like the IBM Information Management System, a record can contain sets of child records ― known as repeating groups or table-valued attributes. If such a data model is represented as relations, a repeating group would be an attribute where the value is itself a relation. First normal form eliminates nested relations by turning them into separate "top-level" relations associated with the parent row through foreign keys rather than through direct containment.


title: First normal form

text: The purpose of this normalization is to increase flexibility and data independence, and to simplify the data language. It also opens the door to further normalization, which eliminates redundancy and anomalies.


title: First normal form

text: Most relational database management systems do not support nested records, so tables are in first normal form by default. In particular, SQL does not have any facilities for creating or exploiting nested tables. Normalization to first normal form would therefore be a necessary step when moving data from a hierarchical database to a relational database.


title: First normal form

text: First normal form was introduced by E.F. Codd in the paper "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks", although it was initially just called "Normal Form". It was renamed to "First Normal Form" when additional normal forms were introduced in the paper Further Normalization of the Relational Model


title: First normal form

text: The following scenarios first illustrate how a database design might violate first normal form, followed by examples that comply.


title: First normal form

text: Such a design can be represented in a Hierarchical database but not a SQL database, since SQL does not support nested tables.


title: First normal form

text: The automated evaluation of any query relating to customers' transactions would broadly involve two stages:


title: First normal form

text: For example, in order to find out the monetary sum of all transactions that occurred in October 2003 for all customers, the system would have to know that it must first unpack the "Transactions" group of each customer, then sum the "Amounts" of all transactions thus obtained where the "Date" of the transaction falls in October 2003.


title: First normal form

text: One of Codd's important insights was that structural complexity can be reduced. Reduced structural complexity gives users, applications, and DBMSs more power and flexibility to formulate and evaluate the queries. A more normalized equivalent of the structure above might look like this:


title: First normal form

text: To bring the model into the first normal form, we can perform normalization. Normalization (to first normal form) is a process where attributes with non-simple domains are extracted to separate stand-alone relations. The extracted relations are amended with foreign keys referring to the primary key of the relation which contained it. The process can be applied recursively to non-simple domains nested in multiple levels.


title: First normal form

text: In this example, "Customer ID" is the primary key of the containing relations and will therefore be appended as foreign key to the new relation:


title: First normal form

text: In the modified structure, the primary key is {Customer ID} in the first relation, {Customer ID, Transaction ID} in the second relation.


title: First normal form

text: Now each row represents an individual credit card transaction, and the DBMS can obtain the answer of interest, simply by finding all rows with a Date falling in October, and summing their Amounts. The data structure places all of the values on an equal footing, exposing each to the DBMS directly, so each can potentially participate directly in queries; whereas in the previous situation some values were embedded in lower-level structures that had to be handled specially. Accordingly, the normalized design lends itself to general-purpose query processing, whereas the unnormalized design does not.


title: First normal form

text: It is worth noting that this design meets the additional requirements for second and third normal form.


title: First normal form

text: Edgar F. Codd's definition of 1NF makes reference to the concept of 'atomicity'. Codd states that the "values in the domains on which each relation is defined are required to be atomic with respect to the DBMS." Codd defines an atomic value as one that "cannot be decomposed into smaller pieces by the DBMS (excluding certain special functions)" meaning a column should not be divided into parts with more than one kind of data in it such that what one part means to the DBMS depends on another part of the same column.


title: First normal form

text: Hugh Darwen and Chris Date have suggested that Codd's concept of an "atomic value" is ambiguous, and that this ambiguity has led to widespread confusion about how 1NF should be understood. In particular, the notion of a "value that cannot be decomposed" is problematic, as it would seem to imply that few, if any, data types are atomic:


title: First normal form

text: Date suggests that "the notion of atomicity "has no absolute meaning"": a value may be considered atomic for some purposes, but may be considered an assemblage of more basic elements for other purposes. If this position is accepted, 1NF cannot be defined with reference to atomicity. Columns of any conceivable data type (from string types and numeric types to array types and table types) are then acceptable in a 1NF table—although perhaps not always desirable; for example, it may be more desirable to separate a Customer Name column into two separate columns as First Name, Surname.


title: First normal form

text: According to Date's definition, a table is in first normal form if and only if it is "isomorphic to some relation", which means, specifically, that it satisfies the following five conditions:


title: First normal form

text: Violation of any of these conditions would mean that the table is not strictly relational, and therefore that it is not in first normal form.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Momofuku is a culinary brand established by chef David Chang in 2004 with the opening of Momofuku Noodle Bar. It includes restaurants in New York City, Sydney, Toronto, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles (Noodle Bar, Ssäm Bar, Ko, Má Pêche (defunct), Seiōbo, Noodle Bar Toronto, Kōjin, Fuku, Fuku+, CCDC, Nishi, Ando, Las Vegas, Fuku Wall St, Kāwi), a bakery established by pastry chef Christina Tosi (Milk Bar), a bar (Nikai), and a quarterly magazine ("Lucky Peach"). The restaurants are notable for their innovative take on cuisine while supporting local, sustainable and responsible farmers and food purveyors.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Chang has written that the name "Momofuku" is "an indirect nod" to Momofuku Ando, the Japanese-Taiwanese inventor of instant ramen. Chang has suggested it is not an accident that he chose a word that sounds similar to the curse word "motherfucker".


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: With experience in restaurants in New York City, Chef David Chang opened up his first restaurant in 2004, Momofuku Noodle Bar. It was influenced by his time spent working in Japan and visiting ramen shops. After about a year of trials, Noodle Bar took off as a success when the chefs began cooking what they felt like — more adventurous dishes with better ingredients. Growing, Noodle Bar eventually moved up the street, and Momofuku Ko took over the space.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Momofuku Ssäm Bar opened after Noodle Bar and originally had the concept of an Asian-style burrito bar ("ssam" is Korean for wrap). After experiencing troubles, Chang and his cohorts decided to change the style of the menu, away from the burrito-centered cuisine. This change led Ssäm Bar to success, as it received two stars (eventually three) from "The New York Times".


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: The third restaurant to open was Momofuku Ko. Chang describes the idea behind Ko as a "cook-centric restaurant with just a few stools, a collaborative kitchen, and a constantly changing menu." Má Pêche was the fourth restaurant to open and the first to open outside of the East Village neighborhood.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Momofuku Seiōbo in October 2011 was the first restaurant to open outside of the U.S. In January 2012, Momofuku opened the cocktail bar Booker & Dax in the back of Ssäm Bar in collaboration with Dave Arnold. Momofuku Toronto followed in 2012 alongside the opening of the Shangri-La Hotel. Fuku, a chicken sandwich restaurant, opened in the original Noodle Bar location in June 2015.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Doing office work for Ssäm Bar at the time, pastry chef Christina Tosi began the desserts program at the three Momofuku restaurants, first at Ssäm Bar, then Noodle Bar, and then Ko.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: The first Momofuku Milk Bar started in the laundromat next to Ssäm Bar. After a year and a half, a second Milk Bar opened in Midtown, in the Chambers Hotel. In November 2010 the Williamsburg, Brooklyn kitchen opened to accommodate the growth of Milk Bar. On September 24, 2011, Milk Bar opened its fourth location on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. In March 2012, Milk Bar opened a fifth location in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and its most recent, sixth, location opened in SOHO in September 2014.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: In April 2018, Momofuku signed a deal with Kraft Heinz to start selling their chili sauce in American grocery stores.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Momofuku Noodle Bar was the first Momofuku restaurant; it opened in August 2004. It serves ramen, seasonal dishes, and a variety of buns.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Since opening in 2006, Momofuku Ssäm Bar has been listed as one of The World's 50 Best Restaurants for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012. Weekday lunches feature an all-rotisserie duck menu. Booker and Dax (the bar at Ssäm) is open late serving drinks made with new techniques and technologies.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Momofuku Ko opened in March 2008. At Momofuku Ko (ko means "child of"), guests sit along a kitchen counter and are served by the cooks. Dinner is a set tasting menu devised by the chef, Sean Gray, and his aides-de-cuisine. It is usually about 10 courses long; at lunch the menu stretches out to 16 courses. Since opening in 2008, Momofuku Ko has earned two Michelin stars, which it has retained for eleven years. Ko is No. 70 on the San Pellegrino World's Best Restaurants list.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Má Pêche ("mother peach") is in Midtown Manhattan in the Chambers Hotel. Má Pêche opened in 2010 with co-owner and executive chef, Tien Ho, with Chef Paul Carmichael taking the reins in October 2011. This change prompted a shift in Má Pêche's cuisine from French-Vietnamese to American. Má Pêche includes a midtown outpost of Christina Tosi's bakery, Momofuku Milk Bar.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Fuku is a casual chicken concept by Momofuku. Originally started as a fried chicken sandwich joint, Fuku has since grown to serve various chicken and seasonal offerings, along with beer, slushies, and more. Fuku has locations in the East Village, Wall St, Madison Square Garden, Citi Field, T-Mobile Park in Seattle, and the Seaport in South Boston.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Seiōbo is Momofuku's first restaurant outside of New York City. In Sydney, it opened at The Star Casino in late October 2011. "Seiōbo" () is the Japanese pronunciation for the traditional Chinese "goddess of the West", who is known in mythical stories, such as "Journey to the West", as owning the celestial peach orchards. Momofuku Seiōbo has two hats from "The Sydney Morning Herald" Good Food Guide and was named Best New Restaurant.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: In 2012, David Chang opened Momofuku Toronto, Momofuku's first location in Canada. It is in a three-story glass cube on University Avenue in Downtown Toronto and is home to Noodle Bar, Nikai, Daishō and Shōtō.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Noodle Bar is on the ground floor and is a sister-restaurant to the one the same name in New York City. The menu features bowls of ramen and a roster of dishes like steamed buns and rice cakes. The restaurant is home to a custom piece of art created by Steve Keene.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Nikai is a bar and lounge on the second floor of Momofuku Toronto. The menu features cocktails, beer, wine, and sake. Guests can order items from both the Noodle Bar and Daishō menus.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Daishō is on the third floor. The menu features large-format meals meant for parties of 4–10 guests and an à la carte menu that includes dishes to share. Shōtō is in the Daishō dining room on the third floor. Shōtō serves a roughly 10-course tasting menu that is based on market availability. Guests are seated along the counter and served by the chefs.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Chang opened Momofuku CCDC, his first restaurant in the Washington, D.C. area in October 2015 in the downtown CityCenterDC development. The restaurant included a Milkbar location.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Momofuku Milk Bar, under the direction of pastry chef Christina Tosi, is based in New York City and has several locations in the cities of Washington and Toronto.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Momofuku Nishi (which means "west") opened in January 2016 and is Momofuku's first restaurant on the west side. In New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, guests can choose from à la carte offerings for lunch or dinner.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Momofuku Las Vegas is Momofuku's first restaurant in the western U.S. It is inside of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. The menu draws influence from all over the world, including the U.S., Korea, and Japan. The constantly evolving menu features steamed buns, noodles, and meat and seafood meant for sharing.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: In 2009, David Chang, Peter Meehan, Gabriele Stabile and the Momofuku team produced the "Momofuku" cookbook. It features recipes and photographs from Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssam Bar, Momofuku Ko, and Milk Bar. The cookbook was a "New York Times" Best Seller.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: Written by Christina Tosi with a foreword by David Chang, the "Momofuku Milk Bar" cookbook was released in October 2011. Christina Tosi included her recipes for Cereal Milk, Crack Pie, the Compost Cookie, and other popular Milk Bar desserts.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: "Scraps" is a limited edition collection of outtakes and artwork from the "Momofuku" cookbook photographer, Gabriele Stabile.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: From 2011 to November 2013, "Lucky Peach", a quarterly journal of food writing, was published by McSweeney's. Since then, it has been self-published. "Lucky Peach" was then created by David Chang, Peter Meehan, and Zero Point Zero production.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: The first issue of "Lucky Peach" centered on ramen. The second issue, "The Sweet Spot", included articles on the neurobiology of how the brain detects sweet foods. This issue was a "New York Times" Best Seller. The third issue, "Chefs and Cooks", was also a "New York Times" Best Seller.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: The fourth issue of "Lucky Peach" was about American food. The fifth issue was about Chinatown and was released in November 2012. The sixth issue was centered on the theme of the apocalypse and was published in January 2013. The seventh issue of "Lucky Peach" was about travel. Released in May 2013, the issue featured one of Christopher Boffoli's "Big Appetites" photographs as its cover image. The eighth issue centered on the idea of gender in the food world.


title: Momofuku (restaurants)

text: In March 2017, "Lucky Peach" announced it would cease publication after printing a double issue in the fall of 2017. Meehan stated that the shuttering of the publication was due to its partners' differences in creative direction and financial strategy.


title: Galium aparine

text: Galium aparine, with common names including cleavers, clivers, catchweed and sticky willy among others, is an annual, herbaceous plant of the family Rubiaceae.


title: Galium aparine

text: "Galium aparine" is known by a variety of common names in English. They include "hitchhikers", "cleavers", "clivers", "bedstraw", "(small) goosegrass" (not to be confused with other plants known as "goosegrass"), "catchweed", "stickyweed", "sticky bob", "stickybud", "stickyback", "sticky molly", "robin-run-the-hedge", "sticky willy", "sticky willow", "stickyjack", "stickeljack", "grip grass, sticky grass, bobby buttons, whippysticks", and "velcro plant".


title: Galium aparine

text: "Galium" is Dioscorides’ name for the plant. It is derived from the Greek word for ‘milk’, because the flowers of "Galium verum" were used to curdle milk in cheese making. "Aparine" is a name used by Theophrastus. It means 'clinging' or 'seizing', and is derived from the Greek 'lay hold of, seize', itself coming from 'from' + 'pull to lift'.


title: Galium aparine

text: Cleavers are annuals with creeping straggling stems which branch and grow along the ground and over other plants. They attach themselves with the small hooked hairs which grow out of the stems and leaves. The stems can reach up to three feet or longer, and are angular or square shaped. The leaves are simple, narrowly oblanceolate to linear, and borne in whorls of six to eight.


title: Galium aparine

text: Cleavers have tiny, star-shaped, white to greenish flowers, which emerge from early spring to summer. The flowers are clustered in groups of two or three, and are borne out of the leaf axils. The corolla bears 4 petals. The globular fruits are burrs which grow one to three seeds clustered together; they are covered with hooked hairs which cling to animal fur and human clothing, aiding in seed dispersal.


title: Galium aparine

text: The species is native to a wide region of Europe, North Africa and Asia from Britain and the Canary Islands to Japan. It is now naturalized throughout most of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, some oceanic islands and scattered locations in Africa. Whether it is native to North America is a question of some debate, but it is considered to be native there in most literature. It is considered a noxious weed in many places.


title: Galium aparine

text: For some people, skin contact with "Galium aparine" causes an unpleasant localized rash known as contact dermatitis.


title: Galium aparine

text: Chemical constituents of "Galium aparine" include: iridoid glycosides such as asperulosidic acid and 10-deacetylasperulosidic acid; asperuloside; monotropein; aucubin; alkaloids such as caffeine; flavonoids; coumarins; organic acids such as citric acid and a red dye; phenolics such as phenolic acid; and anthraquinone derivatives such as the aldehyde nordamnacanthal (1,3-dihydroxy-anthraquinone-2-al).


title: Galium aparine

text: "Galium aparine" is edible. The leaves and stems of the plant can be cooked as a leaf vegetable if gathered before the fruits appear. However, the numerous small hooks which cover the plant and give it its clinging nature can make it less palatable if eaten raw. Geese frequently consume "G. aparine", hence one of its other common names, "goosegrass". Cleavers are in the same family as coffee. The fruits of cleavers have often been dried and roasted, and then used as a coffee substitute which contains less caffeine.


title: Galium aparine

text: Poultices and washes made from cleavers were traditionally used to treat a variety of skin ailments, light wounds and burns. As a pulp, it has been used to relieve poisonous bites and stings. To make a poultice, the entire plant is used, and applied directly to the affected area.


title: Galium aparine

text: Making a tea with the dried leaves is most common. It can be brewed hot or cold. For a cold infusion, steep in water and refrigerate for 24–48 hours.


title: Galium aparine

text: Dioscorides reported that ancient Greek shepherds would use the barbed stems of cleavers to make a "rough sieve", which could be used to strain milk. Carl Linnaeus later reported the same usage in Sweden, a tradition that is still practiced in modern times.


title: Galium aparine

text: In Europe, the dried, matted foliage of the plant was once used to stuff mattresses. Several of the bedstraws were used for this purpose because the clinging hairs cause the branches to stick together, which enables the mattress filling to maintain a uniform thickness. The roots of cleavers can be used to make a permanent red dye.


title: Galium aparine

text: Children in the British Isles have historically used cleavers as a form of entertainment. The tendency for the leaves and stems to adhere to clothing is used in various forms of play, such as mock camouflage and various pranks.


title: Galium aparine

text: "G. aparine" prefers moist soils and can exist in areas with poor drainage. It reportedly flourishes in heavy soils with above-average nitrogen and phosphorus content, and prefers soils with a pH value between 5.5 and 8.0. "G. aparine" is often found in post-fire plant communities in the United States, likely developing from onsite seed and therefore rendering controlled burns as an ineffective means of removing "G. aparine" in areas where it is considered a noxious weed.


title: Galium aparine

text: The anthraquinone aldehyde nordamnacanthal (1,3-dihydroxy-anthraquinone-2-al) present in "G. aparine" has an antifeedant activity against "Spodoptera litura", the Oriental leafworm moth, a species which is considered an agricultural pest. The mite "Cecidophyes rouhollahi" can be found on "G. aparine".


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: The coins of Canada are produced by the Royal Canadian Mint and denominated in Canadian dollars ($) and the subunit of dollars, cents (¢). An effigy of the reigning monarch always appears on the obverse of all coins. There are standard images which appear on the reverse, but there are also commemorative and numismatic issues with different images on the reverse.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: There are six denominations of Canadian circulation coinage in production: 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, $1, and $2. Officially they are each named according to their value (e.g. "10-cent piece"), but in practice only the 50-cent piece is known by that name. The three smallest coins are known by the traditional names "nickel" (5¢), "dime" (10¢), and "quarter" (25¢), and the one-dollar and two-dollar coins are called the "loonie" (for the loon depiction on the reverse) and the "toonie" (a portmanteau of "two" and "loonie") respectively. The production of the Canadian 1-cent piece (known as the "penny") was discontinued in 2012, as inflation had reduced its value significantly below the cost of production.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Canadian coins have medallic orientation, like British or euro coins, and unlike U.S. coins, which have coin orientation.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: The 50¢ piece is far less circulated than other Canadian coins. Between the years 2000 and 2007 the Royal Canadian Mint struck less than 16 million of them; in comparison, during the same period over 2.25 billion quarters were released. This coin is sometimes called a "half-dollar".


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Other than the $2 coin (for which there is no United States analog), the denominations of Canadian coinage correspond to those of United States coinage. The sizes of the coins other than the 50¢ piece are roughly equal to those of current U.S. coins, though this was not always the case. They have a different metallic composition and most of them are thinner, and thus weigh slightly less, than the analogous U.S. coins. The U.S. penny settled on its current size in 1857, whereas the Canadian penny was much larger () until 1920. Because they are easily mistaken for each other, U.S. and Canadian coins worth 5 cents, 10 cents and 25 cents sometimes circulate in the other country. Due to the usually higher value of the U.S. dollar, it is common in Canada to accept U.S. coins at par or face value. Canadian coins are not commonly accepted in the U.S. but are more often in states that see many Canadian visitors. Their differing physical characteristics prevent them from being accepted interchangeably by most coin-operated machines.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: There was formerly some correspondence between the size of Canadian coins and British coins of similar value. For example, the large Canadian penny was identical in size and value to the contemporary British half-penny, which was in the Edward VII version, and slightly larger during Victoria's reign. Likewise, the Canadian quarter (23.81 mm diameter) was virtually identical in size and value to the British shilling – worth 12 British pence or about 24 Canadian cents, with a diameter. The Canadian 5¢ coins, until the larger nickel coins of 1922, were 15 mm silver coins quite different from the U.S. "Liberty head" nickels of 1883 to 1913, which were 21.2 mm and copper-nickel alloy, but more like the older U.S. half dimes.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: The most significant recent developments in Canadian coinage were the introduction of $1 and $2 coins and the withdrawal of the one cent piece. The $1 coin (the "loonie") was released in 1987. The $1 banknote remained in issue and in circulation alongside the one-dollar coin for the next two years, until it was withdrawn in 1989. The coin was to be the voyageur-design silver (then nickel) dollar coins that had previously been in limited circulation. The dies were lost or stolen in November 1986, requiring a redesign. The new coin is colloquially called the "loonie", for the common loon on its reverse, and the name is frequently applied to the currency unit as well. It is made of nickel plated with aureate bronze. The $2 coin, carrying a polar bear, was introduced in 1996. It is usually called the "toonie" and is bimetallic. The $2 banknote was withdrawn at the same time that the coin was released. Unlike several U.S. attempts to introduce a dollar coin, the new coins were quickly accepted by the public, owing largely to the fact that the Bank of Canada and the government forced the switch by removing the $1 and $2 bills from circulation.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Between 1997 and 2001, the $1 loon coin was not issued for general circulation. Due to the high demand for the $2 polar bear coin (mintages between 1997 and 2001 were as high as 29 million in 2000 alone), the $1 coin was only produced for the standard collector sets that were made available on an annual basis, such as the Uncirculated, O Canada, Specimen and Proof sets.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: On March 29, 2012, the Canadian government announced that the 1¢ coin would be retired. The Royal Canadian Mint stopped producing 1¢ coins in May 2012, and in February 2013 the Bank of Canada stopped distributing them, but the coins remain legal tender. Cash transactions are rounded to the nearest 5¢, while non-cash transactions (using cheques, credit cards, or debit cards) will continue to be rounded to the nearest 1¢.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Canadian coins are issued by the Royal Canadian Mint and struck at their facilities in Winnipeg. All special wording on commemorative coins appears in both of Canada's languages, English and French. All of the standard wording on the reverse sides of non-commemorative coins is identical in both languages. On the obverse sides, the name and title of the Canadian Monarch appear in an abbreviated-Latin circumscription. Currently, this reads "". The initials stand for ""; the entire phrase means "Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, Queen".


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics commemorative quarters do not have the inscription "", and they read "CANADA ELIZABETH II", along with the date of issue and Ilanaaq, the emblem of the games.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Beginning in 1858, various colonies of British North America started issuing their own coins denominated in cents, featuring the likeness of Queen Victoria on the obverse. These replaced the sterling coins previously in circulation. The Province of Canada was the first to issue decimal coins. They were based on the value of the American dollar, due to an influx of American silver. Denominations issued were 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, and 20¢. The 1¢ coin was issued again in 1859, but it was very unpopular due to its extremely light weight. The coins had to be discounted by around 20% to get them into circulation. Other colonies that issued decimal coinage were New Brunswick and Nova Scotia both starting in 1861, Newfoundland in 1865, and Prince Edward Island in 1871. Many examples can be seen online via the Canadian Currency Museum.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In 1867, the British parliament passed "The British North America Act, 1867" (now known as the "Constitution Act, 1867"), uniting the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a single country. Coins of the three former colonies continued to circulate until 1870, with all being legal tender throughout the country. As other colonies subsequently entered confederation, they dropped their colonial coinage and adopted the national Canadian currency.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In 1870, the first national coinage of the Dominion of Canada was issued in denominations of 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, and 50¢. A 1¢ coin was not issued until 1876. The designs were standardized with the head of Queen Victoria on the obverse, value and date with a crowned maple wreath reverse, except for the 1¢ coin, which had on its reverse a maple vine circlet.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In 1902, the first coins of King Edward VII's coinage was issued. The 1902 5¢ coin is of interest to collectors, as its design includes the outmoded St. Edward's Crown instead of the Imperial State Crown. These coins were hoarded upon being issued, as the public believed that an error had been made. In 1903, the design on the 5¢ was modified accordingly.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In 1907, Heaton's Mint struck its last issue of Canadian coins—the 1907H 1¢, which is quite scarce. In 1908, the Royal Canadian Mint at Ottawa was opened. At that time the Ottawa mint was known as the Royal Mint, Ottawa branch. The name "Royal Canadian Mint" was first used in 1931.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Edward VII died in 1910 and was succeeded by his son, King George V. His effigy appeared on all coins minted in Canada afterwards, as soon as new dies were obtained.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: The initial issue of George V coinage is known as the "Godless" coinage, because the abbreviation "DEI GRA", (for "DEI GRATIA" or "[king] by the grace of God"), was omitted from King George V's titles. When the public noticed this, there was a huge outcry at this breach of tradition, and the phrase was later restored. All the coins from the 1¢ to 50¢ were issued. The 50¢ is the scarcest of all the coins minted in 1911 with a mintage of 209,972. The Canadian Coin News publication printed an article showing a well-worn 1911 50¢ example that did have the "DEI GRA" abbreviation. This coin has not yet been certified as genuine, having been rejected by ICCS, the popular Canadian grading company. The 1911 pattern dollar coin was produced with the 'DEI GRA' abbreviation on the two known silver examples and the one known example in lead.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In 1920, the fineness of the silver coins was changed from .925 fine silver to .800 fine silver, and the size of the cent was reduced. In 1921, the last silver 5¢ coins were struck. These are extremely rare, numbering less than 400. These were replaced in 1922 by a larger nickel coin, copying an earlier change in the United States, and building on the fact that Canada was the world's leading source of nickel ore.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: There are a few scarce dates, especially the 1925 and the 1926. There are two types of the 1926: the "near 6" type, which has the tail of the 6 lower down and near to the maple leaf, and the rarer "far 6" type. The 1921 50¢ is also an extremely rare coin. It is the rarest of the King George V series.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: The first Canadian silver $1 coin was issued as a commemorative coin in 1935 to commemorate King George V's Silver Jubilee. The portrait of the King on this coin was the same as that of the coins of several other countries. This coin also bears the famous coureur des bois design, which was designed by Emmanuel Hahn. This coin, and others issued since with this reverse design, have the affectionate nickname of "voyageur dollars".


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: King George V died on January 20, 1936 and was succeeded by King Edward VIII. Because his abdication occurred before production of any Canadian coinage with his likeness could commence, no Canadian coins bear his image.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In 1937, there was a pressing demand for 1¢, 10¢, and 25¢ coins, but, as the Royal Canadian Mint was waiting for new tools and matrices to arrive from the Royal Mint, the decision was made to strike coins dated 1936, but a dot would be added in the area near the date to indicate that the coins were struck in 1937. The 1¢ and 10¢ coins with the dot are exceedingly rare; so rare, in fact, that only four or five specimens are known. In 2004, a "Dot cent", as they are sometimes called, sold at auction for $207,000. The one cent coin was sold again in the Canadiana sale for $400,000 while an example of the ten cent piece with the dot sold for $184,000. The 25¢ coin, while not as rare as the one-cent and ten-cent pieces, is still a very difficult coin to find.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Gold coins for circulation were issued from 1912 to 1914 only (earlier rejected "for fear of committing a breach of the Royal Prerogative"), in $5 and $10 denominations, though sovereigns, to British standards, were issued in small quantities for some years. The minting of gold coins for circulation ceased due to the onset of the first world war, when the government of Canada recovered the majority of circulating gold coins to finance the war. Reissue plans were dropped in 1928. According to the Mint, a large quantity of the 1912–1914 gold coins were stored by the Bank of Canada for over 75 years. In 2012, the Mint offered 30,000 coins from the collection for sale to the public through its retail channels and stated that it would melt and refine the remainder of the 245,000 coins to sell the gold content.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Of the 659,693 coins minted, 245,000 were held by the Bank of Canada until 2012, at which time 30,000 hand selected specimens were offered for sale by the Royal Canadian Mint, and the rest reportedly melted.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In late 1937, the tools and matrices finally arrived from London, so the issue of the new coins of the reign of King George VI was struck immediately. The coins' current designs date from this period. The coins were as follows:


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: There was also a silver $1 that was issued in 1939 to commemorate the Royal Visit. The obverse has the usual portrait of George VI while the reverse depicts the Canadian Houses of Parliament in Ottawa. This was also designed by Emmanuel Hahn.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: During World War II, the demand for nickel for the war effort was great enough for the 5¢ coin to be issued in tombac instead.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: While all Canadian George VI coins remain legal tender, the nickels are the only remaining George VI coinage in any nation that have been neither demonetized nor effectively withdrawn from circulation due to precious metal content (or, in the case of the penny, been withdrawn from circulation).


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Through 1947 the George VI coins bore the inscription ("Georgius VI, Dei Gratia, Rex et Indiae Imperator", or "George VI, by the grace of God, King and Emperor of India"). As India became independent that year as the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, "Emperor of India" needed to be dropped from the coinage. However, there was a demand for coinage. While waiting for the new tools and matrices to arrive from the Royal Mint, the decision was made to strike 1947-dated coinage, but a maple leaf symbol would be added next to the date to indicate that the coins were struck in 1948.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: The silver $1 exists in two types: "tall 7" and "short 7". The voyageur $1 is also the rarest coin. The 1¢ is the most common coin. The 1¢ exists as two varieties, "blunt 7" and "pointed 7". The blunt 7 is scarcer and thus more valuable. The upper part of the 7 near the maple twig is slightly blunted compared to the normally found pointed variety. The pointed 7 is the same as used on the 1947 regular-issue 1¢. The 50¢ coin also exists with two "7" varieties. While fairly scarce, the curved left (or straight) 7 is much more common than the curved right 7. The regular 1947 50¢ coins also came with left and right curved 7 numerals. These 1947 varieties without the maple leaf are similarly valued except for the curved right 7 in extremely high grade.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: The new tools and matrices arrived from London, so the issuing of the Maple Leaf coinage ceased as a result. The obverse of the coins is inscribed (George VI by the Grace of God, King). During the issue of this coinage, a commemorate silver $1 was struck in 1949 to commemorate Newfoundland becoming the tenth province of Canada. The 1948 coins are very scarce, especially the 50¢ and the silver $1. This is due to the slow delivery of the modified tools and matrices from London.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In this coinage, there are several notable varieties. The first of these is the 1950 "no lines in 0" 50¢ coin. The most famous variety of this series is the "Arnprior dollar", which has one and a half waterlines near the bow of the canoe instead of the normal three waterlines. This variety is named after the town of Arnprior, Ontario, where this variety was discovered.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Several series of coins have been issued under the reign of Elizabeth II, including the current series. The first was the 1953–1964 coins, which featured an effigy of the Queen designed by Mary Gillick, with a wreath of laurel in her hair. In 1959, the reverse of the 50-cent piece was redesigned. In 1957, the coat of arms of Canada had been simplified. The Queen had suggested that the Tudor crown be replaced by the crown of Edward the Confessor. The changes were reflected in the 1959 50-cent piece. The new reverse was modelled and designed by Thomas Shingles, updating the Canadian coat-of-arms.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In 1965, a new obverse was sculpted by Arnold Machin, showing a more mature Queen wearing a tiara. The legend on the obverse was also modified, by shortening the phrase "Dei Gratia" to "D.G." to save space. In 1968, the 10¢ and higher denominations were debased, their silver alloy being replaced by nickel. The dime of 1969 has two varieties, a large 9 (rare) and small 9 (common). In 1973, an RCMP quarter came out; it also has two varieties: a large bust (rare) and small bust (common).


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In 1987, the loonie was introduced, replacing the voyageur dollar with a new design, new colour, and smaller size. This coin also replaced the $1 bill, which was subsequently withdrawn from circulation by the Bank of Canada. In February 1996, the $2 coin, or toonie, was released; it currently has three varieties. (Early examples had problems with the centres being punched out in circulation.) The toonie replaced the $2 bill. To date there have been four different obverse portraits of the Queen used on Canadian coinage, with new portraits introduced in 1953, 1965, 1990 and 2003. Prior to 1990, the Queen's portraits (1953 by Mary Gillick and 1965 by Arnold Machin) were designed by the British Royal Mint, and were similar to those used on British, Australian and New Zealander coinage. The 1990 and 2003 portraits are designed by Canadian artists, 1990 effigy by Dora dePedery-Hunt and 2003 effigy by Susanna Blunt, and are unique to Canadian coinage.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In 2000 all coins below $1 were changed to steel with copper or nickel plating; in 2012 this was extended to the $1 and $2 coins as well. The 50¢ piece is regularly minted, but not in large quantities; it is very rare to come across this coin in circulation, although an unsuccessful attempt was made by the Mint to promote the use of the coin when a special edition was released in 2002 marking the 50th anniversary of Elizabeth II ascending the throne.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Coins issued in 2002 do not have the usual mint date, which normally appears on the reverse side. Instead, the 2002 coins have a commemorative double-date on the obverse side: "1952–2002", to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Queen's reign.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Although the Mint has produced many special edition coins in recent years, Canada does have a history of such coins. From 1943 to 1945, the Mint issued the "Victory nickel" to promote the Canadian war effort. In 1951 a circulating commemorative coin, a 5-cent piece for the bicentennial of the discovery of the element nickel, was released. In 1967, all Canadian coins were issued with special reverses to celebrate the Canadian centennial. Six years later, a "Mountie quarter" was issued in 1973 to commemorate the centennial of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In recent years, the Mint has issued several series of coins with special reverses. Most of them have been 25¢ coins, particularly in the years 1999–2001. There were also versions of the $2 coin commemorating the founding of Nunavut, and another with a family of polar bears; there have been several variants of the $1 coin, one of which featured the Canadian peacekeepers' monument in Ottawa to commemorate the award of the Nobel Peace Prize. A commemorative Terry Fox $1 coin began circulating on April 4, 2005.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: On October 21, 2004, the Royal Canadian Mint unveiled a 25¢ poppy coin. This coin features a red poppy ("Papaver rhoeas") that is coloured red, embedded in the centre of a maple leaf above a banner reading "Remember – "Souvenir"". It is the world's first coloured coin. While some countries' mints have produced colourized coins for market to collectors, this is the first colourized coin in general circulation in the world.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: The Mint states that, with normal wear and tear, the colour should remain for a number of years, although this claim was quickly disproved. The colouration compounds are attached to the metal on a specially prepared 'dimpled' section of the coin and seem to come off easily if deliberately rubbed. The coin will retain its full value even if the red poppy has worn off or been removed; however, it is now expected that fully coloured specimens will become collectible in the future.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In an isolated incident in the United States these coins were briefly reported as a possible 'spy tool' by some US Defense Contractors unfamiliar with the odd-seeming coin and raised espionage warnings until the situation was clarified.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: On May 4, 2005 the Mint unveiled a new "Victory nickel", reminiscent of the original issued during the Second World War. The new coin commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory in World War II. A mintage of 59,258,000 Victory nickels were produced and treated as regular circulation coins.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In 2005, 25¢ and $5 coins commemorating the centennial of two of Canada's provinces were released: the coin for Alberta represents oil exploration in that province; the coin for Saskatchewan depicts a singing meadowlark and a grain elevator. Later the same year, the Mint later issued a "Year Of The Veteran" coin to honour military veterans, again in the 25¢ denomination.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: On February 21, 2007, the mint announced that they would be producing a 100-kilogram coin the size of a large pizza with a face value of $1 million. This new coin bears the highest face value in the world, using approximately $2 million of 99.999% pure bullion, and five were produced and sold to investors.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: 1953 – The coronation of a new monarch meant a new effigy. Due to an issue with the portrait model for the new Queen Elizabeth, two obverse varieties, termed the "no shoulder fold" and the "should fold" obverses were found in circulation during 1953. The portrait model was prepared in England by a sculptress, Mary Gillick. The relief of this model was too high. This affected the new effigy because the centre portion containing two lines on the shoulder (representing a fold in the Queen's gown) did not strike up well on the coins. This obverse had been termed the "no shoulder strap" variety by numismatists.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Later in 1953, Mint authorities decided to correct the defects in the obverse design. Thomas Shingles, chief engraver of the RCM, was summoned to lower the relief of the model. The result was that he had strengthened the shoulder and hair detail. This revised obverse (often called "the shoulder strap" variety due to the resemblance of the lines to a strap) was introduced before the end of the year. This was accepted as the standard obverse. The no shoulder fold obverse was used to produce some of the 1954 cents for the proof-like sets and a small quantity of 1955 cents for circulation. The 1955 no shoulder fold variety is the most desired with collectors.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: 1965 – Starting in 1965, the effigy of the Queen underwent the first of three changes. This new obverse featured the Queen with more mature facial features. The wearing of a tiara was the other aspect of the new effigy.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: 1990 – A new obverse debuted with the Queen now wearing a diamond diadem and jewellery. Although the effigy changed in 2003, this portrait with diadem is still used on all Chinese Lunar New Year coins.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: 2003 – To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the coronation of the Queen, a new obverse was introduced. The unique feature of this effigy is that the Queen is without headdress. This marked the first time that the effigy of a monarch did not wear headdress since Elizabeth's father, King George VI, a half-century earlier.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In an effort to build the brand, the Royal Canadian Mint implemented a policy in which all its circulation and collector coins would bear a new mint mark. Unveiled at the Canadian Numismatic Association convention in Niagara Falls, Ontario, in July 2006, the mint mark was a reproduction of the Royal Canadian Mint logo.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: The first circulation coin to bear the new mint mark was the 10th anniversary $2 coin, illustrated by Tony Bianco. This meant that the "P" mint mark which recognized the plating technology would no longer be used. For collectors, the first collector coin to feature the new mint mark was the Snowbirds coin and stamp set.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: In the Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Coins, the 1911 $1 coin is valued at $1,250,000. There are only 2 known specimens in sterling silver, and one specimen in lead. One of the silver specimens and the lead specimen are located at the Bank of Canada's currency museum, while the other is in a private collection. The rarity stems from the fact the federal government chose not to proceed with producing a "silver dollar" in 1911. The 1911 coin sets were originally planned to include the $1, but the sets came with an empty gap where the $1 coin was supposed to be. Canada didn't issue a $1 circulation coin until 1935, when it issued a circulating dollar commemorating George V's Silver Jubilee.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Among numismatists, the 1921 50-cent coin is considered the rarest Canadian circulation coin and is known as The King of Canadian coins. As of 2012, a 1921 50-cent piece in MS-65 condition is valued at $250,000 to $350,000. Despite a mintage of 206,398 coins, there was a very low demand for 50-cent coins in the 1920s. The belief is that most of the 50-cent coins from 1920 and 1921 were melted (amounting to approximately 480,392 coins). The reason for the melting was that new coins were needed for 1929 and if coins from 1920 and 1921 were released into circulation, people would suspect counterfeit coins. According to legend, only 50 of these coins still exist (with only 3 known in mint state), and most of those are from Specimen Sets that were sold to people who visited the RC Mint.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: The 5-cent piece underwent a design change for the first time since 1937 when the Beaver was first introduced. The new reverse featured a striking V design. In the interest of promoting the war effort, the famous V sign from Winston Churchill was adopted. Perhaps, the most unusual aspect of this coin was the Morse Code. The meaning was "We Win When We Work Willingly". The edges of the steel versions of the Victory nickel were known to rust.


title: Coins of the Canadian dollar

text: Due to high demands for copper and zinc during the war effort, the use of Tombac was suspended. A new composition of steel with .0127 mm plating of nickel and .0003 mm plating of chromium became the norm. The plating process of these coins meant that strips had to be plated before blanks were punched out. The end result was that the edges of the blanks were unplated. Although the RCM returned to nickel after WWII, the Korean war effort resulted in the use of steel again in 1951. Some of the steel coins were later discovered to have only the nickel plating and had a grey rather than the usual "bluish" appearance. Until recently, this variety did not command a premium price from collectors, but the fact that some years are rarer than others has started to generate interest in this variety.


title: Shelf life

text: Shelf life is the length of time that a commodity may be stored without becoming unfit for use, consumption, or sale. In other words, it might refer to whether a commodity should no longer be on a pantry shelf (unfit for use), or no longer on a supermarket shelf (unfit for sale, but not yet unfit for use). It applies to cosmetics, foods and beverages, medical devices, medicines, explosives, pharmaceutical drugs, chemicals, tyres, batteries, and many other perishable items. In some regions, an advisory "best before", mandatory "use by" or "freshness date" is required on packaged perishable foods. The concept of expiration date is related but legally distinct in some jurisdictions.


title: Shelf life

text: Shelf life is the recommended maximum time for which products or fresh (harvested) produce can be stored, during which the defined quality of a specified proportion of the goods remains acceptable under expected (or specified) conditions of distribution, storage and display.


title: Shelf life

text: According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), "canned foods are safe indefinitely as long as they are not exposed to freezing temperatures, or temperatures above 90 °F (32.2° C)". If the cans look okay, they are safe to use. Discard cans that are dented, rusted, or swollen. High-acid canned foods (tomatoes, fruits) will keep their best quality for 12 to 18 months; low-acid canned foods (meats, vegetables) for 2 to 5 years.


title: Shelf life

text: "Sell by date" is a less ambiguous term for what is often referred to as an "expiration date". Most food is still edible after the expiration date. A product that has passed its shelf life might still be safe, but quality is no longer guaranteed. In most food stores, waste is minimized by using stock rotation, which involves moving products with the earliest sell by date from the warehouse to the sales area, and then to the front of the shelf, so that most shoppers will pick them up first and thus they are likely to be sold before the end of their shelf life. Some stores can be fined for selling out of date products; most if not all would have to mark such products down as wasted, resulting in a financial loss.


title: Shelf life

text: Shelf life depends on the degradation mechanism of the specific product. Most can be influenced by several factors: exposure to light, heat, moisture, transmission of gases, mechanical stresses, and contamination by things such as micro-organisms. Product quality is often mathematically modelled around a parameter (concentration of a chemical compound, a microbiological index, or moisture content).


title: Shelf life

text: For some foods, health issues are important in determining shelf life. Bacterial contaminants are ubiquitous, and foods left unused too long will often be contaminated by substantial amounts of bacterial colonies and become dangerous to eat, leading to food poisoning. However, shelf life alone is not an accurate indicator of how long the food can safely be stored. For example, pasteurized milk can remain fresh for five days after its sell-by date if it is refrigerated properly. However, improper storage of milk may result in bacterial contamination or spoilage before the expiration date.


title: Shelf life

text: The expiration date of pharmaceuticals specifies the date the manufacturer guarantees the full potency and safety of a drug. Most medications continue to be effective and safe for a time after the expiration date. A rare exception is a case of renal tubular acidosis purportedly caused by expired tetracycline. A study conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration covered over 100 drugs, prescription and over-the-counter. The study showed that about 90% of them were safe and effective as long as 15 years past their expiration dates. Joel Davis, a former FDA expiration-date compliance chief, said that with a handful of exceptions - notably nitroglycerin, insulin and some liquid antibiotics - most expired drugs are probably effective.


title: Shelf life

text: Shelf life is not significantly studied during drug development, and drug manufacturers have economic and liability incentives to specify shorter shelf lives so that consumers are encouraged to discard and repurchase products. One major exception is the Shelf Life Extension Program (SLEP) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which commissioned a major study of drug efficacy from the FDA starting in the mid-1980s. One criticism is that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused to issue guidelines based on SLEP research for normal marketing of pharmaceuticals even though the FDA performed the study. The SLEP and FDA signed a memorandum that scientific data could not be shared with the public, public health departments, other government agencies, and drug manufacturers. State and local programs are not permitted to participate. The failure to share data has caused foreign governments to refuse donations of expired medications. One exception occurred during the 2010 Swine Flu Epidemic when the FDA authorized expired Tamiflu based on SLEP Data. The SLEP discovered that drugs such as Cipro remained effective nine years after their shelf life, and, as a cost-saving measure, the US military routinely uses a wide range of SLEP tested products past their official shelf life if drugs have been stored properly.


title: Shelf life

text: Preservatives and antioxidants may be incorporated into some food and drug products to extend their shelf life. Some companies use induction sealing and vacuum/oxygen-barrier pouches to assist in the extension of the shelf life of their products where oxygen causes the loss.


title: Shelf life

text: The total period of time beginning with the date of manufacture, date of cure (for elastomeric and rubber products only), date of assembly, or date of pack (subsistence only), and terminated by the date by which an item must be used (expiration date) or subjected to inspection, test, restoration, or disposal action; or after inspection/laboratory test/restorative action that an item may remain in the combined wholesale (including manufacture's) and retail storage systems and still be suitable for issue or use by the end user. Shelf-life is not to be confused with service-life (defined as, A general term used to quantify the average or standard life expectancy of an item or equipment while in use. When a shelf-life item is unpacked and introduced to mission requirements, installed into intended application, or merely left in storage, placed in pre-expended bins, or held as bench stock, shelf-life management stops and service life begins.)


title: Shelf life

text: Shelf life is often specified in conjunction with a specific product, package, and distribution system. For example, an MRE field ration is designed to have a shelf life of three years at and six months at .


title: Shelf life

text: Nearly all chemical reactions can occur at normal temperatures (although different reactions proceed at different rates). However most reactions are accelerated by high temperatures, and the degradation of foods and pharmaceuticals is no exception. The same applies to the breakdown of many chemical explosives into more unstable compounds. Nitroglycerine is notorious. Old explosives are thus more dangerous (i.e. liable to be triggered to explode by very small disturbances, even trivial jiggling) than more recently manufactured explosives. Rubber products also degrade as sulphur bonds induced during vulcanization revert; this is why old rubber bands and other rubber products soften and get crispy, and lose their elasticity as they age.


title: Shelf life

text: The often quoted rule of thumb is that chemical reactions double their rate for each temperature increase of because activation energy barriers are more easily surmounted at higher temperatures. However, as with many rules of thumb, there are many caveats and exceptions. The rule works best for reactions with activation energy values around 50 kJ/mole; many of these are important at the usual temperatures we encounter. It is often applied in shelf life estimation, sometimes wrongly. There is a widespread impression, for instance in industry, that "triple time" can be simulated in practice by increasing the temperature by , e.g., storing a product for one month at simulates three months at . This is mathematically incorrect (if the rule was precisely accurate the required temperature increase would be about ), and in any case the rule is only a rough approximation and cannot always be relied on. Chemists often use the more comprehensive Arrhenius equation for better estimations.


title: Shelf life

text: The same is true, up to a point, of the chemical reactions of living things. They are usually catalyzed by enzymes which change reaction rates, but with no variation in catalytic action, the rule of thumb is still mostly applicable. In the case of bacteria and fungi, the reactions needed to feed and reproduce speed up at higher temperatures, up to the point that the proteins and other compounds in their cells themselves begin to break down, or denature, so quickly that they cannot be replaced. This is why high temperatures kill bacteria and other micro-organisms: 'tissue' breakdown reactions reach such rates that they cannot be compensated for and the cell dies. On the other hand, 'elevated' temperatures short of these result in increased growth and reproduction; if the organism is harmful, perhaps to dangerous levels.


title: Shelf life

text: Just as temperature increases speed up reactions, temperature decreases reduce them. Therefore, to make explosives stable for longer periods, or to keep rubber bands springy, or to force bacteria to slow down their growth, they can be cooled. That is why shelf life is generally extended by temperature control: (refrigeration, insulated shipping containers, controlled cold chain, etc.) and why some medicines and foods "must" be refrigerated. Since such storing of such goods is temporal in nature and shelf life is dependent on the temperature controlled environment, they are also referred to as cargo even when in special storage to emphasize the inherent time-temperature sensitivity matrix.


title: Shelf life

text: Temperature data loggers and time temperature indicators can record the temperature history of a shipment to help estimate their remaining shelf life.


title: Shelf life

text: Passive barrier packaging can often help control or extend shelf life by blocking the transmission of deleterious substances, like moisture or oxygen, across the barrier. Active packaging, on the other hand, employs the use of substances that scavenge, capture, or otherwise render harmless deleterious substances. When moisture content is a mechanism for product degradation, packaging with a low moisture vapor transmission rate and the use of desiccants help keep the moisture in the package within acceptable limits. When oxidation is the primary concern, packaging with a low oxygen transmission rate and the use of oxygen absorbers can help extend the shelf life. Produce and other products with respiration often require packaging with controlled barrier properties. The use of a modified atmosphere in the package can extend the shelf life for some products.


title: Shelf life

text: According to the UK Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), 33% of all food produced is wasted along the cold chain or by the consumer. At the same time, a large number of people get sick every year due to spoiled food. According to the WHO and CDC, every year in the USA there are 76 million foodborne illnesses, leading to 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.


title: Shelf life

text: According to former UK minister Hilary Benn, the use by date and sell-by dates are old technologies that are outdated and should be replaced by other solutions or disposed of altogether. The UK government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs revised guidance in 2011 to exclude the use of sell-by dates. The guidance was prepared in consultation with the food industry, consumer groups, regulators, and Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP). It aims to reduce the annual £12bn of wasted supermarket food.


title: Shelf life

text: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency produces a " Guide to Food Labelling and Advertising" which sets out a "Durable Life Date". The authority for producing the guide comes from the Food and Drugs Act. The guide sets out what items must be labelled and the format of the date. The month and day must be included and the year if it is felt necessary and must be in the format year/month/day. However, there is no requirement that the year be in four digits.


title: Shelf life

text: In the EU food quality dates are governed by Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, "On the Provision of Food Information to Consumers".


title: Shelf life

text: In Germany, practices differentiate between the "Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum" (MHD), roughly minimum shelf-life and "Verbrauchsdatum", which is more in line with the common expiry date. Products that spoil quickly, such as minced meat, have to be given a Verbrauchsdatum and are barred from sale upon expiry. Other products are given Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum, which is set by the individual producers of said product and do not bar the product from being sold past the date determined. Products with an expired MHD may be sold if the seller is satisfied that the goods are in perfect condition. Accordingly, it follows that the customer is not entitled to compensation if he unintentionally acquires a product with an expired shelf life, provided that the product can still be regarded as faultless. Neither the MHD nor the Verbrauchsdatum provide legal rights if a product is no longer fit for consumption before the indicated date and the manufacturer can prove the credibility of his claims.


title: Shelf life

text: The MHD has been criticized for possibly causing food waste. For example, the then Minister Christian Schmidt complained that many still edible foods with an expired MHD would be thrown away by consumers who would misunderstand the MHD as an expiration date.


title: Shelf life

text: In Hong Kong, prepackaged food which from the microbiological point of view is highly perishable and is therefore likely after a short period to constitute an immediate danger to human health, are required to use the 'Use by' label instead of the 'Best before' label. Examples include pasteurised fresh milk, packed egg and ham sandwiches, etc. Dates are usually presented in the DD MM YY (or YYYY) format.


title: Shelf life

text: According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, dates must be in the day/month or day/month/year format. Technical expertise should be hired for regular end of shelf life safety and quality testing. Shelf life trials should be conducted using the same ingredients, equipment, procedures and manufacturing environment as will be used during the actual production.


title: Shelf life

text: Sale of expired food products, "per se", is lightly regulated in the US. Some states restrict or forbid the sale of expired products, require expiration dates on all perishable products, or both, while other states do not. However, sale of contaminated food is generally illegal, and may result in product liability litigation if consumption of the food results in injury.


title: Shelf life

text: After losing a lawsuit, pharmacy chain CVS implemented a system that causes its registers to recognize expired products and avert their sale.


title: Shelf life

text: Voluntary industry guidelines announced in 2017 from the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Food Marketing Institute recommend using only "best if used by" or "use by", to avoid confusion that leads to food waste. In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration urged food manufacturers to adopt the voluntary standards.


title: Shelf life

text: The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates packaged foods and drugs, only requires a use-by, or expiration, date on infant formula and some baby foods, because formula must contain a certain quantity of each nutrient as described on the label. If formula is stored too long, it may lose its nutritional value.


title: Shelf life

text: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which regulates fresh poultry and meats, only requires labeling of the date when poultry is packed. However, many manufacturers also voluntarily add sell-by or use-by dates.


title: Shelf life

text: The DoD Shelf-Life Program operates under the DoD Regulation 4140.1-R, DoD Material Management Regulation, ()


title: Shelf life

text: A "freshness date" is the date used in the American brewing industry to indicate either the date the beer was bottled or the date before which the beer should be consumed.


title: Shelf life

text: Beer is perishable. It can be affected by light, air, or the action of bacteria. Although beer is not legally mandated in the United States to have a shelf life, freshness dates serve much the same purpose and are used as a marketing tool.


title: Shelf life

text: General Brewing Company of San Francisco marketed their Lucky Lager Beer as "Age Dated" as early as late 1935. They stamped a date on each can lid to indicate that the beer was brewed before that date. This was not to ensure that the beer was "fresh" but to ensure that it had been aged properly. So many breweries had rushed beer to market before it was ready when Prohibition ended, that customers were wary of getting "green" beer.


title: Shelf life

text: The Boston Beer Company, maker of Samuel Adams, was among the first contemporary brewers to start adding freshness dates to their product line in 1985. For ten years there was a slow growth in brewers adding freshness dates to their beer. The practice grew in popularity after the Anheuser-Busch company's "Born-On dates" starting in 1996. Many other brewers have started adding freshness dates to their products, but there is no standard for what the date means. For some companies, the date on the bottle or can will be the date that the beer was bottled; others have the date by which the beer should be consumed.


title: Shelf life

text: The concept of shelf life applies to other products besides food and drugs. Gasoline has a shelf life, although it is not normally necessary to display a sell-by date. Exceeding this time-frame will introduce harmful varnishes, etc. into equipment designed to operate with these products, i.e. a gasoline lawn mower that has not been properly winterized could incur damage that will prevent use in the spring, and require expensive servicing to the carburetor.


title: Shelf life

text: Some glues and adhesives also have a limited storage life, and will stop working in a reliable and usable manner if their safe shelf life is exceeded.


title: Shelf life

text: Rather different is the use of a time limit for the use of items like vouchers, gift certificates and pre-paid phone cards, so that after the displayed date the voucher etc. will no longer be valid. Bell Mobility and its parent company, BCE Inc. have been served with notice of a $100-million class-action lawsuit alleging that expiry dates on its pre-paid wireless services are illegal.


title: Sarandë

text: Sarandë (; ; ) is a city in the Republic of Albania and seat of Sarandë Municipality. Geographically, the city is located on an open sea gulf of the Ionian Sea within the Mediterranean Sea. Stretching along the Albanian Ionian Sea Coast, Saranda has a Mediterranean climate with over 300 sunny days a year.


title: Sarandë

text: Sarandë is known for its blue deep waters of the Mediterranean. Near Sarandë are the remains of the ancient city of Butrint, a UNESCO World Heritage site. In recent years, Saranda has seen a steady increase in tourists, many of them coming by cruise ship. Visitors are attracted by the natural environment of Saranda and its archaeological sites. Sarandë is inhabited by a majority of ethnic Albanians, and also has a minority Greek community and as such it has been considered one of the two centers of the Greek minority in Albania.


title: Sarandë

text: "Saranda" is from the name of the Byzantine monastery of the "Agioi Saranda" (), meaning the "Forty Saints" in the Greek language, in honor of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. Under Ottoman rule, the town in the Turkish language became known as "Aya Sarandi" and then "Sarandoz". Owing to Venetian influence in the region, it often appeared under its Italian name "Santi Quaranta" on Western maps. This usage continued even after the establishment of the Principality of Albania, owing to the first Italian occupation of the region. During the Italian occupation of Albania in World War II, Benito Mussolini changed the name to "Porto Edda", in honor of his eldest daughter. Following the restoration of Albanian independence, the city employed its Albanian name "Saranda".


title: Sarandë

text: Due to the archaic features found in the Ancient Greek name of the city: Onchesmus () and the toponyms of the surrounding region it appears that the site was part of the proto-Greek area of late 3rd-early 2nd millennium BC Bronze Age tools typical of Mycenaean Greece have been unearthed in Sarandë which date c. 1400-1100 BC. In antiquity the city was known by the name of "Onchesmus" or "Onchesmos" and was a port-town of Chaonia in ancient Epirus, opposite the northwestern point of Corcyra, and the next port upon the coast to the south of Panormus. It was inhabited by the Greek-speaking tribe of the Chaonians. Onchesmos flourished as the port of the Chaonian capital Phoenice (modern-day Finiq). It seems to have been a place of importance in the time of Cicero, and one of the ordinary points of departure from Epirus to Italy, as Cicero calls the wind favourable for making that passage an "Onchesmites". According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus the real name of the place was the Port of Anchises (Ἀγχίσου λιμήν), named after Anchises, the father of Aeneas; and it was probably owing to this tradition that the name Onchesmus assumed the form of "Anchiasmus" or "Anchiasmos" () under the Byzantine Empire.


title: Sarandë

text: Saranda, then under the name of Onchesmos, is held to be the site of Albania's first synagogue, which was built in the 4th or 5th century. It is thought that it was built by the descendants of Jews who arrived on the southern shores of Albania around 70 CE. Onchesmos' synagogue was supplanted by a church in the 6th century.


title: Sarandë

text: The city was probably raided by the Ostrogoths in 551 AD, while during this period it became also the target of piratic raids by Gothic ships. In a medieval chronicle of 1191 the settlement appears to be abandoned, while its former name (Anchiasmos) isn't mentioned any more. From that year, the toponym borrows the name of the nearby Orthodox basilica church of "Agioi Saranta", erected in the 6th century, ca. southeast of the modern town.


title: Sarandë

text: In the early 19th century during the rule of Ali Pasha, British diplomat William Martin Leake reported that there existed a small settlement under the name Skala or Skaloma next to the harbor. Following the Ottoman administrative reform of 1867, a müdürluk (independent unit) of Sarandë consisting of no other villages was created within the kaza (district) of Delvinë. Sarandë in the late Ottoman period until the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) consisted of only a harbour being a simple commercial station without permanent residents or any institutional community organisation. The creation of the Saranda müdürluk was related to the desires of Ottoman authorities to upgrade the port and reduce the economic dependence of the area on Ioannina and Preveza. In 1878, a Greek rebellion broke out, with revolutionaries taking control of Sarandë and Delvinë. This was suppressed by Ottoman troops, who burned twenty villages in the region. One of the earliest photographs of Saranda dates from 3 March 1913 and shows Greek soldiers in the main street during the course of the Second Balkan War. Saranda was a major centre of the short-lived Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus.


title: Sarandë

text: Greek troops occupied it during the Balkan Wars. Later, the town was included in the newly formed Albanian state on 17 December 1913 under the terms of the Protocol of Florence. The decision was rejected by the local Greek population, and as the Greek army withdrew to the new border, the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus was established. In May 1914, negotiations were started in Sarandë between representative of the provisional government of Northern Epirus and that of Albania which continued in nearby Corfu and ended up with the recognition of the Northern Epirote autonomy inside the newly established Albanian state.


title: Sarandë

text: It was then occupied by Italy between 1916 and 1920 as part of the Italian Protectorate on southern Albania. Throughout 1926–1939 of the interwar period, Italy financed extensive improvements to the harbour at Sarandë. A small Romanian Institute was established in 1938. Sarandë was again occupied by Italian forces in 1939, and was a strategic port during the Italian invasion of Greece. During this occupation, it was called "Porto Edda" in honor of the eldest daughter of Benito Mussolini.


title: Sarandë

text: During the Greco-Italian War, the city came under the control of the advancing Greek forces, on 6 December 1940. The capture of this strategic port further accelerated the Greek penetration to the north. As a result of the German invasion in Greece in April 1941, the town returned to Italian control. On 9 October 1944 the town was captured by a group of British commandos under Brigadier Tom Churchill and local partisans of LANÇ under Islam Radovicka. The actions of the British troops was viewed with suspicion by LANÇ as they suspected that the British would occupy the town to use as a base and provide aid to their allies in the Greek resistance in the area as British documents indicated that EDES forces also joined the operation. However, the British troops soon withdrew from the region, leaving the region to the Albanian communist forces.


title: Sarandë

text: As part of the People's Republic of Albania (1945-1991) policies a number of Muslim Albanians were settled from northern Albania in the area and local Christians are no longer the only community in Saranda. During this period as a result of the atheistic campaign launched by the state the church of Saint Spyridon in the harbor of the city was demolished. After the restoration of democracy in Albania (1991) a small shrine was erected at the place of the church.


title: Sarandë

text: In 1992, with the escalation of violence against ethnic Greek communities in southern Albania, Greek shops in the city were burnt down and the headquarters of the Omonoia organization was destroyed (the latter being the political party of the Greeks in the country).


title: Sarandë

text: During the Albanian Civil War of 1997, units comprised by the local Greek minority were able to achieve the first military success for the opposition through the capture of a government tank.


title: Sarandë

text: Part of the Albanian Riviera, Sarandë is situated on the arch-shaped bay of Sarandë between the Gormarti and Berdeneshi Hills and the Albanian Ionian Sea Coast in southwestern Albania. Sarandë Municipality is encompassed in Vlorë County as part of the Southern Region of Albania and consists of the adjacent administrative units of Ksamil and Sarandë. Its total area is 58.96 km.


title: Sarandë

text: Given its coastal access and Mediterranean climate, Sarandë has become an important tourist attraction since the fall of communism in Albania. Saranda as well as the rest of the Albanian Riviera, according to "The Guardian", "is set to become the new "undiscovered gem" of the overcrowded Med." Tourism is thus the major economic resource, while other resources include services, fisheries and construction.


title: Sarandë

text: The unemployment rate according to the population census of 2008 was 8.32%. It has been suggested that family tourism and seasonal work during the summer period help mitigate the real unemployment rate. Recently, the town has experienced an uncontrolled construction boom which may hamper the city's future tourism potential.


title: Sarandë

text: Since 2012, the Port of Saranda is undergoing an expansion to accommodate cruise ships at its terminal.


title: Sarandë

text: Sarandë is viewed as the unofficial capital of the Albanian Riviera, and can be used as a base for excursions along it.


title: Sarandë

text: The region is prosperous with varied attractions and activities relating to nature and wildlife. Notable sights include the ancient archaeological site of Butrint and the Blue Eye Spring. Ksamil is notable for its beaches and islets.


title: Sarandë

text: During the late Ottoman period until the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) Sarandë consisted of only a harbour and was without permanent residents. In 1912, right after the Albanian Declaration of Independence, the settlement had only 110 inhabitants. At the 1927 census, it had 810 inhabitants, but was not yet a town. In the 1930s, it had a good demographic development, and it is in this period that the first public buildings and the main roads were constructed. In 1957, the city had 8,700 inhabitants and was made the center of a district. The population of Sarandë was exclusively Christian. A Muslim community was settled in the city as part of the resettlement policies during the People's Republic of Albania (1945–1991). The total population is 20,227 (2011 census), in a total area of 70.13 km. The population of the former municipality at the 2011 census was 17,233; however, the population according to the civil offices is 41,173 (2013 estimate).


title: Sarandë

text: According to a survey by the Albanian Helsinki Committee, in 1990 Sarandë numbered 17,000 inhabitants, of whom 7,500 belonged to the Greek minority. The members of the Greek minority of the city, prior to the collapse of the socialist regime (1991), were deprived from their minority rights, since Sarandë did not belong to the "minority areas". In fieldwork undertaken by Greek scholar Leonidas Kallivretakis in the area during 1992 noted that Saranda's mixed ethno-linguistic composition (total population in 1992: 17,555) consisted of 8,055 Muslim Albanians, 6,500 Greeks and an Orthodox Albanian population of 3,000. Statistics from the same study showed that, including the surround villages, Sarande commune had a population consisting of 43% Albanian Muslims, 14% Albanian Christians, 41% Greek Christians, and 2% Aromanian Christians. In the early 1990s, the local Orthodox Albanian population mainly voted for political parties of the Greek minority based in the Saranda area.


title: Sarandë

text: Sarandë is considered one of the two centers of the Greek minority in Albania, Gjirokastër being the other. According to the representatives of the Greek minority 42% of the town's population belong to the local Greek community. Since the 1990s the population of Sarandë has nearly doubled. According to official estimation in 2013, the population of the city is 41,173. According to a survey conducted by the Albanian Committee of Helsinki, in 2001 the Albanian population numbered about 26,500, while Greeks formed the rest with about 3,400 alongside a small number of Vlachs and Roma. The city, according to the Albanian Committee of Helsinki, has lost more than half of its ethnic Greeks from 1991 to 2001, because of heavy emigration to Greece. According to official estimates of 2014 the number of the Greek community in the former municipality is 7,920, not to count those who live in the wider current municipality (including additionally 4,207 in Ksamil). Seven schools/classes in Greek attended by a total of 359 students existed in the Saranda municipality as of 2014. Other minorities include Aromanians, Roma and Ashkali.


title: Tommy Pistol

text: Tommy Pistol (born July 2, 1976) is the stage name of American adult film actor and director Aramis Sartorio. He is known for his porn parody work, most notably as the lead actor in "Evil Head", "Pee-Wee's XXX Adventure: A Porn Parody", "Taxi Driver: A XXX Parody", and "Suicide Squad: An Axel Braun Parody."


title: Tommy Pistol

text: Pistol started his career in Queens, New York, as a stage actor with sketch comedy group Cheese Theater, with whom he acted for more than a decade. He also appeared in several short and feature films. Pistol was also once a singer for the metalcore band AmoreA.


title: Tommy Pistol

text: He entered the pornography business in late 2005, after meeting with Joanna Angel, founder of the alt-porn company Burning Angel; this led to Pistol becoming the first male performer on BurningAngel.com. Angel was also responsible for choosing the moniker Tommy Pistol, after nixing A-Mac, Pistol's original name idea. Credited under his given name, Pistol wrote, directed, and portrayed the title role in the 2010 independent horror-comedy film "The Gruesome Death of Tommy Pistol"; he also performed as DJ Tommy Pistol on the film's soundtrack. Pistol continued to direct, and in 2013, he directed the feature horror-porn "Beyond Fucked: A Zombie Odyssey". In 2014, Pistol won AVN's Best Actor Award for his role as Ash Williams in Burning Angel's "Evil Head", the porn parody of the "Evil Dead" franchise. Pistol went on to star as The Joker in Axel Braun's "Suicide Squad: An Axel Braun Parody", and other lead roles, including his 2018 AVN Best Actor Win for "Ingenue".


title: Tommy Pistol

text: In 2015, Pistol became the first male performer in twenty years to host the annual AVN Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada, alongside Alexis Texas.


title: Tommy Pistol

text: Pistol has made several appearances under his given name in independent films, including "Bethany", "Jurassic City", and the lead role in "Frankie in Blunderland". Since 2016, he has participated in the annual WIH Massive Blood Drive PSA, a collaboration between the international grassroots initiative Women in Horror Month and Twisted Twin Productions.


title: Tommy Pistol

text: Pistol enjoyed mainstream recognition when his minor role as "The Cook" in Brazzers' "Tatas Under Siege: An XXX Parody" went viral on Twitter. Pistol has also been featured on BuzzFeed, Uproxx, and most recently, Elle.com, after a tweet mocking Donald Trump was liked by Trump's daughter, Ivanka.


title: Tommy Pistol

text: In September 2022, Canadian horror directors the Soska Sisters announced the premiere of their new film "On the Edge", co-starring Pistol, to take place at the London FrightFest Halloween festival on October 29. The film was shot and produced in Canada and also co-stars Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska and Mackenzie Gray. The festival synopsis of the film reads, "Family man Peter gets more than he paid for when he books a 36-hour session with the sadistic Mistress Satana who seems more intent on making him suffer for his sins. Is it blackmail? Is it torture? Or is it the Devil come for his soul? Will Peter’s faith save him from his own personal Hell or is he already damned? A brilliant depiction of how Kink Culture can heal past trauma and be a source for shocking redemption."


title: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

text: Half-Life 2: Episode Two is a 2007 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. Following "" (2006), it is the second of two shorter episodic games that continue the story of "Half-Life 2" (2004). Players control Gordon Freeman, who travels through the mountains surrounding City 17 to a resistance base with his ally Alyx Vance. Like previous games in the series, "Episode Two" combines shooting, puzzle-solving and narrative elements, but adds expansive environments and less linear sequences.


title: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

text: "Episode Two" was released on 10 October, 2007, for Windows on Valve's distribution service Steam, and as a part of "The Orange Box", a compilation of Valve games for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The PlayStation version was produced by Electronic Arts. "Episode Two" received positive reviews.


title: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

text: "" was announced for Christmas 2007, but was canceled as Valve abandoned episodic development. In 2020, after canceling several further "Half-Life" projects, Valve released "".


title: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

text: As with previous "Half-Life" games, "Episode Two" is played in the first person as Gordon Freeman against transhuman troops, known as the Combine, and other hostile alien creatures. Levels are linear but add a more open environment, consisting of puzzles and first-person shooter game-play. Sequences involving vehicles are interspersed throughout the game, breaking up moments of combat.


title: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

text: One of the focal points of "Episode Two" was meant to be increased use of vehicles in open areas. However, the game retains its original linear style until the final battle. "Episode Two" has more puzzles than "", including the biggest physics puzzle yet in the series—a damaged bridge. As in the previous two games, "Episode Two" features numerous "achievements" (similar to PlayStation 3's Trophies and Xbox Live's Achievements) for carrying out certain tasks. Some are essential to game progress, such as helping fight off an antlion invasion, or defeating the first Hunters. Others are optional tricks or feats the player can perform, such as killing a Combine soldier with their own grenade or running down a certain number of enemies with the car.


title: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

text: "Episode Two" featured a new Hunter enemy, which had just been seen briefly in a recorded message in "Episode One". The Hunter serves as one of the most dangerous enemies within the game and as means of emotional development for Alyx Vance. The Hunter is a powerful and resilient enemy which players must often run from while seeking a means to fight back; "Episode Two"s environments are designed with this in mind.


title: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

text: An interview in the August 2006 issue of "PC Gamer" magazine revealed that the Hunter stands tall. Erik Johnson, the game's project lead, states that the Hunters are "big and impressive, but they can go anywhere the player can go", as the player can encounter them both indoors and outdoors. Ted Backman, senior artist for Valve, talks about how the Hunter can express emotions, being a somewhat non-human character. "We want the Hunter to be able to express nervousness or aggression, [to show you] whether it's aggressive, hurt, or mad." Hunters are very aggressive and they tend to operate in packs, but can also be found supporting other Combine troops. Late in the game, they can be found escorting Striders, using their flechette guns to protect the Striders that the player is trying to attack.


title: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

text: Hunters primarily attack the player by bracing themselves and firing bursts from their flechette cannon. Four flechettes can vaporize an ordinary human soldier. If they do not strike a living target, the flechettes charge up for several seconds and then explode, dealing minor damage to everything nearby. Hunters may also conduct a charging attack or strike with their legs if the player gets too close. Hunters are vulnerable to all weapons, but to compensate, are still quite resilient, making explosives and the pulse rifle's charged energy ball the most attractive options. Objects thrown with the gravity gun are also effective, especially if the player catches some of their flechettes with the object before hurling it. In outdoor environments, they can be run over with a vehicle.


title: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

text: "Episode Two" features no additions to Gordon Freeman's weapons inventory. Instead, Valve chose to further explore uses for the gravity gun, with which the player can pick up and throw large objects. They introduced more varied Gravity Gun "ammunition", such as logs, flares, and half-height butane tanks, which are easier to aim than full-size fuel drums.


title: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

text: Near the end of the game, the player uses "Magnusson Devices", which designer Dario Casali described as a "sticky bomb that you fire at a Strider's underbelly that will draw power from the Strider's internal power source". The player uses the gravity gun to attach the bombs to tripodal enemy Striders; the bombs detonate when fired upon with any other of the player's weapons, instantly destroying the target. The Hunter escorts prioritize them as targets, either destroying them in the player's grasp or shooting already-attached ones off.


title: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

text: Large sections of the game feature a car which resembles a gutted-and-rebuilt 1969 Dodge Charger. It appears to have been tuned for performance. A radar system is installed later in the game, allowing the player to locate Rebel supply caches. In the final battle, a rear-mounted storage rack for Magnusson Devices is added and the radar is adjusted to track enemies and Magnusson Device dispensers. A homing unit is also installed so the player can quickly locate the car in the chaos of the final battle via a readout in the Hazardous Environment suit.


title: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

text: The Combine, a multidimensional empire which has enslaved Earth, has used the destruction of their Citadel to open a massive portal. This will allow them to summon reinforcements and destroy the Resistance. In the mountains outside City 17, Resistance fighters Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance escape the wreckage of the train they used to escape the city. At an old transmission station, they establish communication with resistance scientists Dr. Kleiner and Eli Vance at the White Forest base. They learn that the Resistance may be able to close the portal using a copy of a Combine transmission Alyx is carrying.