title: Otto, King of Bavaria

text: Accordingly, the constitution of Bavaria was amended on 4 November 1913 to include a clause specifying that if a regency for reasons of incapacity lasted for ten years, with no expectation that the King would ever be able to reign, the Regent could end the regency, depose the King and assume the crown himself with the assent of the legislature. The following day, Prince Regent Ludwig ended the regency and proclaimed his own reign as Ludwig III. The parliament assented on 6 November, and Ludwig III took the constitutional oath on 8 November. King Otto was permitted to retain his title and honours for life.


title: Otto, King of Bavaria

text: Otto died unexpectedly on 11 October 1916 from a volvulus (an obstruction of the bowel). His remains were interred in the crypt of the "Michaelskirche" in Munich. In accordance to Bavarian royal tradition, the heart of the king was placed in a silver urn and sent to the (Shrine of Our Lady of Altötting) in Altötting, beside those of his brother, father and grandfather.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: Berks County (Pennsylvania German: "Barricks Kaundi") is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 428,849. The county seat is Reading.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: The Schuylkill River, a tributary of the Delaware River, flows through Berks County. The county is part of the Reading, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which is included in the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD Combined Statistical Area (CSA).


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: Reading developed during the 1740s when the inhabitants of northern Lancaster County sent several petitions requesting that a separate county be established. With the help of German immigrant Conrad Weiser, the county was formed on March 11, 1752, from parts of Chester County, Lancaster County, and Philadelphia County.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: It was named after the English county in which William Penn's family home lay, Berkshire, which is often abbreviated to Berks. Berks County began much larger than it is today. The northwestern parts of the county went to the founding of Northumberland County in 1772 and Schuylkill County in 1811, when it reached its current size. In 2005, Berks County was added to the Delaware Valley Planning Area due to a fast-growing population and close proximity to the other communities.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: In 2016, former Strausstown borough merged with Upper Tulpehocken township. Strausstown is now a village within Upper Tulpehocken Township.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.1%) is water. Most of the county is drained by the Schuylkill River, but an area in the northeast is drained by the Lehigh River via the Little Lehigh Creek and areas are drained by the Susquehanna River via the Swatara Creek in the northwest and the Conestoga River (which starts in Berks County between Morgantown and Elverson) in the extreme south. It has a humid continental climate ("Dfa" except for some "Dfb" on Blue Mountain at the northern boundary and on Mount Penn) and the hardiness zone is mostly 6b, with 6a in some higher areas, and 7a along the Schuylkill in the southeastern part of the county.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: As of the 2010 census, the county was 76.9% White non-Hispanic, 4.9% Black or African American, 0.3% Native American, 1.3% Asian, and 2.5% were two or more races. 16.4% of the population was of Hispanic or Latino ancestry. Historically there is a large Pennsylvania Dutch population. It is known as part of Pennsylvania Dutch Country.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 411,442 people, 154,356 households, and 106,532 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 164,827 housing units at an average density of .


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: There were 154,356 households, out of which 33.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.1% were married couples living together, 12.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.0% were non-families. 24.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.08.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: In the county, the population was spread out, with 23.9% under the age of 18, 9.9% from 18 to 24, 24.4% from 25 to 44, 27.3% from 45 to 64, and 14.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.1 years. For every 100 females there were 95.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.70 males.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: Berks County is home to an Old Order Mennonite community consisting of about 160 families, located in the East Penn Valley near Kutztown and Fleetwood. The Old Order Mennonites first bought land in the area in 1949. In 2012, Old Order Mennonites bought two large farms in the Oley Valley. The Old Order Mennonites in the area belong to the Groffdale Conference Mennonite Church and use the horse and buggy as transportation. There are several farms in the area belonging to the Old Order Mennonite community and meetinghouses are located near Kutztown and Fleetwood.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: The U.S. Office of Management and Budget has designated Berks County as the Reading, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As of the 2010 U.S. Census the metropolitan area ranked 10th most populous in the State of Pennsylvania and the 128th most populous in the United States with a population of 413,491. Berks County is also a part of the larger Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD Combined Statistical Area (CSA), which combines the populations of Berks County as well as several counties around Philadelphia and in the states of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. The Combined Statistical Area is the largest in the State of Pennsylvania and 8th most populous in the United States with a population of 7,067,807.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: The first time since 1964 that a Democrat carried Berks in a Presidential election occurred in November 2008, with Barack Obama receiving 53.9% of the vote to John McCain's 44.7%. The other three statewide winners (Rob McCord for treasurer, Jack Wagner for auditor general, and Tom Corbett for attorney general) also carried it. While Republicans have controlled the commissioner majority most of the time and continue to control most county row offices, Democrats have become more competitive in Berks in recent years. In the 2012 Presidential election, Mitt Romney carried the county by approximately a one-percent margin, 49.6% to 48.6%, however, in 2016, Donald Trump carried Berks by a much larger margin of 52.9% to 42.7%.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: The Reading Buccaneers Drum and Bugle Corps are an all-age drum corps based in Berks County. The corps, founded in 1957, is a charter member Drum Corps Associates and an 11-time DCA World Champion.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: Reading is home to one opera company, Berks Opera Company, founded in 2007 as Berks Opera Workshop. They were named Arts and Entertainment Newsmaker of the Year in 2015.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: The Old Morlatton Village in Douglassville is maintained by the Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County. The village is composed of four historic structures: White Horse Inn, George Douglass Mansion, Bridge keeper's House, and the Mouns Jones House, constructed in 1716, which is the oldest recorded building in the county.


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: Under Pennsylvania law, there are four types of incorporated municipalities: cities, boroughs, townships, and towns. The following cities, boroughs and townships are located in Berks County:


title: Berks County, Pennsylvania

text: Census-designated places are geographical areas designated by the U.S. Census Bureau for the purposes of compiling demographic data. They are not actual jurisdictions under Pennsylvania law. Other unincorporated communities, such as villages, may be listed here as well.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Salute Your Shorts is an American television sitcom created by Steve Slavkin and produced by Propaganda Films, which aired on Nickelodeon from July 4, 1991, to September 12, 1992.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Focused around the life of young campers at the fictional Camp Anawanna, the show was based on Slavkin's 1986 book "Salute Your Shorts: Life at Summer Camp" that he co-wrote with Thomas Hill.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Despite its short run and limited availability on home media, the show was consistently one of the highest-rated cable programs.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The series is set at the fictional summer camp, Camp Anawanna (a play on the exclamation "I don't want to"). It focuses on teenage campers, their strict and bossy counselor, and the various capers and jocularities they engage in.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The first season focused on the power struggle between upstanding newcomer Michael Stein (Erik MacArthur) and camp bully Robert "Bobby" Budnick (Danny Cooksey) as they vied for the attention of girls at Camp Anawanna. Ronald "Ronnie" Foster Pinsky (Blake Soper) replaced Michael as the main protagonist in the second season, countering Budnick as a suave, preppie ladies-man.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The title of the show comes from a common prank campers play on each other: a group of children steal a boy's boxer shorts and raise them up a flagpole. Hence, when people see them waving like a flag, other children salute them as part of the prank. In the first episode of the series, Michael falls victim to this prank.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Kevin "Ug" Lee (Kirk Baily) served as antagonist to all the children as their dim-witted camp counselor. Dr. Kahn (Steve Slavkin) provided announcements to the campers and staff over the public address system as the unseen camp director. Mona Tibbs (Christine Cavanaugh) made recurring appearances as Ug's love interest.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Peripheral campers included Budnick's overweight accomplice Eddie C. "Donkey Lips" Gelfand (Michael Bower), child genius Sponge Harris (Tim Eyster), stuck-up princess Dina Alexander (Heidi Lucas), tomboy Telly Radford (Venus DeMilo), and nature-loving Z.Z. Ziff (Megan Berwick).


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Steve Slavkin was commissioned by Nickelodeon to write a television pilot based on his 1986 book "Salute Your Shorts: Life at Summer Camp" that he co-wrote with Thomas Hill.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Nickelodeon was under pressure in 1990 to create original programming that could compete with The Disney Afternoon, while also shedding its image as "the game show network". "Double Dare" had been a major success for the network since its premiere in 1986, but the channel lacked in-house narrative programming and in-house animation. "Camp Candy" launched on NBC in 1989 and showed there was an audience for children's programming about summer camp.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Randall Miller directed the pilot episode of the series, which was filmed at Griffith Park Boys Camp in March 1990. It starred Ian Giatti as Michael, Danny Cooksey as Budnick, Kirk Baily as Ug, Michael Bower as Donkey Lips, David Tom as Sponge, Kelley Parker as Dina, Teri Johnston as Telly, and Alexandra Kurhan as Z.Z. Miller had previously directed Bower, Johnston and Parker in his short-film "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School". The pilot aired Saturday, October 6, 1990, at 5:30pm EST on Nickelodeon as the television special "Salute Your Shorts".


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The show was re-cast after being picked up to series in February 1991, as many of the young actors had outgrown their roles since the pilot was filmed. The only cast members retained from the pilot were Danny Cooksey, Kirk Baily and Michael Bower. Bower's character of Donkey Lips was the antagonist of the pilot, with Cooksey playing his sidekick Budnick. Their roles were reversed for the series after Cooksey had grown taller than Bower.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Filming of the first season's initial order of 6 episodes took place in April and May 1991. The series was allotted $180,000 per episode, which was considered low-budget. Interiors for the show were filmed inside a soundstage on Lankershim Boulevard in Sun Valley. Exteriors were filmed at Franklin Canyon Park and the Griffith Park Boys Camp. Some exterior shots of the bunks were done using three-foot high miniatures.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The show's music was composed by Ed Alton, who had previously composed the music for "Head of the Class". The opening theme song was a mock Camp Anawanna alma mater composed by Alton, with lyrics by Steve Slavkin. The cast sang the opening theme live over a pre-recorded track of Alton playing the piano.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The first season premiered with a special primetime broadcast on Thursday, July 4, 1991 (Independence Day), with new episodes airing Saturdays at 5:30pm EST thereafter. Filming for the remaining 7 episodes of the first season took place in August and September 1991. The series was renewed for a 13-episode second season in October 1991.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Cast members were flown to Orlando for promotional appearances at Nickelodeon Studios in December 1991. Danny Cooksey and Michael Bower defeated Heidi Lucas and Megan Berwick on an episode of "Nick Arcade". Kirk Baily also joined Berwick, Bower, Cooksey and Lucas for an outdoor autograph signing. Cooksey has said this trip is when he realized how popular the series had become, with fans singing the show's theme song upon seeing the cast.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Erik MacArthur left the show just before second season filming began in April 1992, so his character of Michael was written out and replaced with Blake Soper as Pinsky. Soper was scheduled to play Scotty Rex in the episode "Telly and the Tennis Match" before producers asked him to join the series full-time.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Steve Slavkin walked out of filming to protest Nickelodeon denying the cast raises for potential third and fourth seasons. Nickelodeon was infamous for underpaying its child actors, with Ryan Reynolds admitting the network only paid him $150 per episode while starring in "Fifteen". Slavkin never returned, and the final two weeks of second season filming were completed without him.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The second season premiered with a special primetime broadcast on Friday, June 26, 1992, with new episodes airing Saturdays at 6:00pm EST thereafter.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The series was not renewed for a third season after the network wanted production moved to Nickelodeon Studios, but most of the cast was unwilling to relocate from Los Angeles to Orlando. Nickelodeon was under pressure by parent company Viacom to reduce its budget so that MTV could fund production of "Beavis and Butt-Head".


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Craig Tomashoff of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the series premiere a rating of B+, comparing it favorably to "Meatballs".


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Lynn Heffley of "Los Angeles Times" described the series premiere as, "...a general celebration of crudity, stupidity and irrelevance."


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The Twizard ranked the first season episode "The Clinic" as the best of the series, further explaining that the episode, "...breaks down the psychology of Budnick’s aggression and shows him at his most vulnerable".


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Randall Colburn of "The A.V. Club" praised the second season addition of Blake Soper as Pinsky, arguing that while he was not a clear protagonist like Michael was during the first season, his neutrality strengthened the ensemble.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The show was nominated for Outstanding Young Ensemble Cast in a Television Series at the 13th Youth in Film Awards on December 1, 1991.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Danny Cooksey was nominated for Best Young Actor Starring in a Cable Series at the 14th Youth in Film Awards on January 16, 1993.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Michael Bower won Best Young Actor Co-Starring in a Cable Series at the 14th Youth in Film Awards on January 16, 1993. Trevor Eyster was nominated in the same category.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Heidi Lucas won Best Young Actress Co-Starring in a Cable Series at the 14th Youth in Film Awards on January 16, 1993. Megan Berwick and Venus DeMilo were nominated in the same category.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The show was the second highest-rated cable television series with children aged 6–11 at the start of its second season in 1992.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Despite being in reruns for four years, the show finished as one of the 15 highest-rated basic cable series of 1996.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The show last aired on Nickelodeon June 7, 2004, after winning a fan vote as part of the network's 25th-anniversary U-Pick Live programming.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Paley Center for Media has preserved the first season episode "Sponge Saga" in its New York archive. The museum curates select television programming for its, "artistic achievement, social impact, or historic significance".


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Danny Cooksey recorded the album "Refugee" with his band Bad4Good during filming of the second season in 1992. The song "Devil in the Angel" was written by Cooksey and Steve Vai for the two-part episode "Budnick and Dina in Love", but was left out of the show due to time constraints. Blake Soper and Michael Bower sang backing vocals on the album.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Following the show's cancellation, NBC offered Steve Slavkin the opportunity to write and produce "Running the Halls", which aired as part of their Saturday Morning TNBC block in 1993. Ed Alton composed the show's music, Randall Miller served as director, and Michael Bower guest starred in "The Big Kiss".


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Blake Soper wrote and performed the song "Spectacular Views (Salute My Shorts!)" with his band Rilo Kiley, which was featured as a hidden track on the vinyl release of "Take Offs and Landings" in 2001. Cooksey sang backing vocals on the album.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Awful Waffle is a ska punk band that was formed in Brick Township, New Jersey, in 2006. That same year, professional wrestler Chuck Taylor innovated a piledriver called the Awful Waffle as his finishing move. Both are references to a prank of the same name from the first season episode "First Day".


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Cooksey reprised his role of Budnick in 2007 for the "All My Friends" music video, which was the first single from "A Few More Published Studies" by The XYZ Affair. Jason Zimbler ("Clarissa Explains It All"), Marc Summers ("Double Dare") and Michael Maronna ("The Adventures of Pete & Pete") co-starred in the video.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: The show's theme song was sampled in the track "Salute Your Shorts" on the 2009 album "Snick @ Nite" by Curtiss King.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: "Anawanna Blues" is a song referencing the show and its characters from the 2012 album "This American Way of Life" by The Downrights.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Cooksey, Bower, Slavkin and Venus DeMilo were featured in the 2018 documentary "The Orange Years", sharing their experiences on the show and exploring its place in Nickelodeon history.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: A retrospective documentary about the series titled "Forever Anawanna" is in production, and will feature new interviews with the original cast and crew.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Members of the cast and crew reunited on September 15, 2012, for a Comikaze Expo panel at Los Angeles Convention Center. In attendance were Andrea Sherman (script supervisor), Danny Cooksey, Ed Alton (composer), Erik MacArthur, Kirk Baily, Larry Shapiro (associate producer), Michael Bower, Steve Slavkin, Tim Eyster and Venus DeMilo. Megan Berwick did not attend and sent a video message.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: A 25th-anniversary reunion occurred on May 28, 2015, during Everything Is Festival at Hollywood Theatre. In attendance were Erik MacArthur, Heidi Lucas, Kirk Baily, Megan Berwick, Michael Bower, Steve Slavkin, Tim Eyster and Venus DeMilo. Danny Cooksey did not attend as he was recording an album with the band Shelter Dogs.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Danny Cooksey and Steve Slavkin appeared on June 9, 2017, as part of the NickSplat panel at ATX Television Festival.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Members of the cast reunited on August 20, 2019, for a "Salute Your Shorts" trivia night at Nickelodeon's "Good Burger" pop-up restaurant in Los Angeles. In attendance were Danny Cooksey, Kirk Baily, Megan Berwick, Michael Bower, Steve Slavkin and Venus DeMilo.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Michael Bower and Venus DeMilo appeared on October 12, 2019, as part of the L.A. Comic Con after party at Globe Theatre. They performed the "Salute Your Shorts" theme song onstage with The Flux Capacitors.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: Nickelodeon in the United Kingdom aired reruns of the show from 1993 to 1994. Nickelodeon GAS aired reruns of the show in 2003 as part of Camp GAS. TeenNick aired reruns of the show from 2011 to 2015 as part of The '90s Are All That.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: When TVShowsOnDVD.com shut down their website in May 2018, "Salute Your Shorts" was the #1 user-voted television show that had yet to see a physical release on DVD or Blu-ray. Tim Eyster attempted to work with the rightsholder on a DVD release, but it was determined the cost of music licensing and royalty payments to the cast would make such a release unprofitable.


title: Salute Your Shorts

text: As of 2022, Amazon has twelve episodes of the show available for online purchase. iTunes and Paramount+ offer ten of those same episodes.


Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is the first season of the American true crime anthology series, "Monster", created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan for Netflix, which was released on September 21, 2022. Murphy also serves as showrunner and is an executive producer along with Brennan.


title: Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

text: "Dahmer" is about the life of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters). Other main characters include Dahmer's father Lionel (Richard Jenkins), stepmother Shari (Molly Ringwald), suspicious neighbor Glenda (Niecy Nash), and grandmother Catherine (Michael Learned).


text: "Dahmer" reached the number-one spot on Netflix in the first week of its release. It became Netflix's second most-watched English-language series of all time within 28 days, and the third Netflix series to pass 1 billion views in 60 days. The series reached number one on the Nielsen Top 10 streaming chart in the first week of its release, and placed No. 7 on Nielsen's all-time list for single-week viewership in its second week. The series received four Golden Globe nominations.


text: The series is about the life of Jeffrey Dahmer, and how he became one of the most notorious serial killers in America. His murders were executed in Bath Township, Ohio, West Allis, Wisconsin, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin between 1978 and 1991. The series dramatizes instances where Dahmer was nearly apprehended until his ultimate conviction and death. It also explores how police incompetence and apathy contributed to enabling his crimes.


text: The score for the series was composed and performed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. The soundtrack album was released the same day as the series.


text: The series rose to the number-one spot on Netflix in the first week of its release. In the second week of its release, Netflix announced that "Dahmer" was its ninth most popular English-language TV show of all time, with 56 million households having viewed all 10 episodes. The series remained number-one for weeks and became Netflix’s second most-viewed English Netflix series of all time, and the fourth highest across any language with 701.37 million hours viewed in 21 days. The series amassed more than 865 million hours viewed in the first 28 days of its release. In 60 days it became the third Netflix series to pass 1 billion views.


text: "Dahmer" debuted at number-one on the Nielsen Top 10 streaming chart by garnering more than 3.6 billion minutes of viewing for the week of September 19–25, placing it 10th on the all-time list for single-week viewership. The following week, it jumped to No. 7 on the all-time list with 4.4 billion minutes viewed. The series topped Nielsen's streaming chart for the third consecutive week with 2.3 billion viewing minutes.


text: Jermey Dick of "MovieWeb" stated that on "October 3rd through the 9th the views of the Dahmer series made up to 205 million hours streamed" into watching the show for that time period, overall making it up to "701 million hours watched globally".


text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 57% approval rating with an average rating of 6.3/10, based on 28 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "While "Monster" is seemingly self-aware of the peril in glorifying Jeffrey Dahmer, creator Ryan Murphy's salacious style nevertheless tilts this horror story into the realm of queasy exploitation." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 46 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


text: Kayla Cobb at "Decider" said the show "isn't just well directed, written, and acted. It's rewriting what a crime drama can look like if we stop glorifying murderers and start focusing more on systematic failures." Caroline Framke of "Variety" argues that the show "simply can't rise to its own ambition of explaining both the man and the societal inequities his crimes exploited without becoming exploitative in and of itself." Malik Peay of the "Los Angeles Times" stated that people felt like the show was for the purposes of "entertainment industry's commercialization of tragedy". Dan Fienberg of "The Hollywood Reporter" praises episode 6 ("Silenced") as "easily the best episode of the series, an uncomfortably sweet and sad hour of TV that probably should have been the template for the entire show [and]...in placing a Black, deaf, gay character at the center of the narrative, the series is giving voice to somebody whose voice has too frequently been excluded from gawking serial killer portraits."


text: The series also received backlash from the families of Dahmer's victims, accusing Netflix of profiting off their traumatic experiences and "retraumatizing [the families] all over again". Eric Perry, a relative of victim Errol Lindsey, stated that "I want people to understand this is not just a story or historical fact, these are real people’s lives. [Lindsey] was someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s father, someone’s friend that was ripped from [our] lives".


text: Production assistant Kim Alsup alleged mistreatment while on set. She stated she was one of two black crew members below the line on "Dahmer", adding that "I was always being called someone else’s name, the only other Black girl who looked nothing like me, and I learned the names for 300 background extras". Alsup also alleged an "exhausting" and "unsupportive environment," stating that there were no therapists on set. A spokesperson for Netflix countered this allegation, stating that everyone on set had access to free health and wellness sources, including access to a therapist.


text: Having initially ordered the program in 2020 as a limited series, Netflix announced on November 7, 2022, that it had renewed "Monster" as an anthology series, with two further editions based on the lives of "other monstrous figures" to be announced.


title: The Medallion

text: The Medallion () is a 2003 action comedy film directed by Hong Kong film director Gordon Chan in his first English-language film, who also wrote the screenplay with Bey Logan, Paul Wheeler, Bennett Joshua Davlin and Alfred Cheung


title: The Medallion

text: Who also produced. The film stars Jackie Chan, Lee Evans, Claire Forlani, and Julian Sands. It was much less successful than Chan's other American films such as the "Rush Hour" film series, "Shanghai Noon" and its sequel, "Shanghai Knights". The film was theatrically released on 15 August 2003 in Hong Kong and 22 August 2003 in the United States by TriStar Pictures.


title: The Medallion

text: In the story, Eddie (Chan) is a Hong Kong police officer hired by Interpol to capture a crime lord known as Snakehead (Sands) and prevent him from kidnapping a chosen boy with special powers and a medallion that gives superhuman power and immortality.


title: The Medallion

text: Much of the film features supernatural and mystical themes, though it is filled with action and comedy. The film received negative reviews from critics. Even though the film's United States box office result was strong enough for Sony/TriStar Pictures to make profit, the film only grossed $34 million in worldwide box office against $41 million production budget.


title: The Medallion

text: Eddie Yang is a Hong Kong police inspector co-operating with Interpol in the capture of a crime lord named AJ "Snakehead" Staul. Snakehead procures an ancient book from a Chinese bookstore keeper, which tells the story of a boy being chosen every thousand years to bind the two halves of a legendary medallion. In Hong Kong, Eddie and Interpol agent Arthur Watson lead a raid to capture Snakehead and his men, who are about to kidnap the boy, named Jai. Eddie and the agents fight off Snakehead's men, infiltrating the temple containing Jai. The agents save Jai, but Snakehead eludes them. Two weeks later, Snakehead captures Jai aboard a cargo boat in Hong Kong. Eddie and a team of Hong Kong police engage and defeat several of Snakehead's men, but Snakehead escapes with Jai to Dublin, Ireland.


title: The Medallion

text: In Ireland, Eddie is assigned to help Interpol with the investigation, much to Watson's annoyance. Eddie also reunites with his girlfriend, a British Interpol agent named Nicole James. By chance, Eddie later encounters and apprehends one of Snakehead's top men, who confesses Jai is being held in the harbor. Eddie, Watson, and Nicole move to rescue Jai, defeating several Snakehead agents in the process. Eddie and Jai end up trapped inside a container, which is knocked into the water by one of Snakehead's men before they can be released. Eddie keeps Jai alive by finding an inflatable tent, and securely putting Jai inside, but Eddie dies from drowning. After being rescued, Jai uses his medallion on Eddie's body.


title: The Medallion

text: In the morgue, Watson grieves over Eddie's body and prepares to say his last words, when Eddie suddenly appears beside him. Eddie realizes Jai used the medallion to resurrect him, and his former body vanishes into dust. Jai splits the medallion into its two-halves, giving one of them to Eddie. Snakehead's men appear in the hospital to recapture Jai, and during the fight, Eddie discovers the medallion has also granted him superhuman strength and immortality.


title: The Medallion

text: Nicole looks after Jai, but he is captured again by Snakehead. At his castle hideout, Snakehead forces Jai to activate the medallion so he can gain its power, but with only one half of it, Snakehead only gains superhuman strength and remains mortal. To steal the other half, Snakehead and his men attack Watson's family. Watson's Chinese wife reveals herself to be a police operative like him, much to Watson's surprise as he kept his job secret from his family. Together they fight off the attack from Snakehead's men.


title: The Medallion

text: Eddie, Watson, and Nicole learn the location of Snakehead's castle lair and go to finish him once and for all. The operation runs smoothly at first, but Snakehead kills Nicole and becomes immortal. He and Eddie engage in a vicious fight until Eddie uses the medallion to take away the life it gave, which leads to the serpent and fish from the medallion appearing and taking Snakehead, which traps him in the medallion. Jai allows Eddie to use the medallion to resurrect Nicole, who also gains super-strength and immortality. The two then run at superhuman speed into the distance as Jai enters another dimension through a portal, frightening Watson.


title: The Medallion

text: With a projected budget of $35 million, the film was at the time the most expensive Hong Kong production ever.


title: The Medallion

text: "Highbinders" was the film's working title. In the original plot, those who were given power by the medallion became Highbinders, and Snakehead's goal was to create a Highbinder army at his disposal.


title: The Medallion

text: According to the editors' commentary, "The Medallion" wasn't American-made. However, Columbia-TriStar bought the distribution and editing rights worldwide except in Japan, France, and Hong Kong (but these three countries retain the American cut of the film, the only cut ever made). The original cut was meant to be around 108 minutes. The plot of the film explained Snakehead's crime syndicate of human smuggling, the deaths that occurred from it, and his desire to create an army of Highbinders to aid his organization. These details were all cut to focus on the medallion. As a result of several scene cuts, some original dialogue was overdubbed, including a small amount of Cantonese dialogue.


title: The Medallion

text: Over 20 minutes of these deleted scenes can be viewed on the U.S. DVD. Among these scenes are alternate endings where Eddie prevents Nicole's death, an extended fight sequence between Eddie and Snakehead's men, and an alternate ending to the chase sequence between Eddie and Giscard.


title: The Medallion

text: Filming took place in August 2001 in Dublin, Ireland. Production took a break while Jackie Chan shot 'The Tuxedo', and production resumed in Asia later that year. Filming took place in Dublin Castle, and in the Wicklow countryside. The filmmakers had initially planned to shoot scenes in Australia but were convinced to film in Dublin instead.


title: The Medallion

text: In its US release, "The Medallion" was No. 5 at the box office on its opening weekend and fell steadily lower during its 10-week release. Overall, it has earned $22.2 million, ranking No. 42 among all martial arts films released in the US and eighth among the Jackie Chan films distributed in the US. The US box office performance had exceeded Sony/TriStar Pictures' profitability target ('mid-teens' box office target).


title: The Medallion

text: The film received generally negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 17% based on reviews from 125 critics. The site's consensus states: "The use of special effects diminishes some of Chan's appeal in this disposable picture."


title: The Medallion

text: On Metacritic the film has a score of 38% based on reviews from 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: The Masterplan (album)

text: The Masterplan is a compilation album by English rock band Oasis. It was released on 2 November 1998 by Creation Records, the band's final release through the label. It comprises B-sides which never made it onto an album up to that point. Originally intended for release only in areas such as the United States and Japan, where the tracks were previously only available on expensive European-import singles, "The Masterplan" reached number 2 in the UK, where it initially went platinum, and number 51 in the United States. However, it did reach the Top 20 in various charts around the world, going on to sell 3 million copies. It has since been certified triple platinum in the UK. Four songs from the album appear on the 2006 compilation album "Stop the Clocks".


title: The Masterplan (album)

text: "The Masterplan" received mixed reviews from music critics on release. Reviewing in "Rolling Stone", Barney Hoskyns criticised the collection as containing unimaginative songs, save for "Half the World Away" and "Headshrinker". Similarly, Matt Diehl of "Entertainment Weekly" considered the compilation "struttingly inconsistent", further criticising the band's consistent use of Beatles influences. On the other hand, Robert Hilburn in the "Los Angeles Times" was more favourable, writing: "virtually all the tunes on "The Masterplan" are appealing enough to have deserved a spot on one of Oasis' regular albums, and the best rank with the group's finest moments." James Oldham in "NME" expressed similar sentiments, finding that many of the collection's B-sides were better than the A-sides they were supporting. He continues that the collection further showcases the group's influences, overall considering it the band's "third best album". Reviewing the compilation in 2000, Michael Sandlin of "Pitchfork" gave the album an unfavourable review. He found that while some tracks, naming "Fade Away" and "Headshrinker" were better than some of their studio album tracks, the collection overall contained outtakes that were overall forgettable, stating "some outtakes are initially scrapped for good reason".


title: The Masterplan (album)

text: Retrospectively, "The Masterplan" has received positive reviews, with many considering it one of Oasis' finest. In 2008, "Spin" magazine's David Marchese praised "The Masterplan" as a "greatest hits" collection, featuring "swirling epics, pop-rock confections, [and] headbutt hard rockers". Writing for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave immense praise to "The Masterplan", stating: "Apart from the sludgy instrumental "The Swamp Song", there isn't a weak track here, and the brilliant moments are essential not only for Oasis fans, but any casual follower of Britpop or post-grunge rock & roll." On the eve of the collection's 20th anniversary in 2018, Ian King of "Stereogum" also praised "The Masterplan". While he likewise found "The Swamp Song" the collection's weak point, he wrote that the collection features many of the band's best songs. As the band would feature personnel changes following its release, King considers the compilation "the last refuge of the band's dreaming, climbing past; Manchester, Britpop, and all". In 2017, Henry Yates of "NME" ranked "The Masterplan" as Oasis' third best album, writing, "by the time this compilation arrived in '98, it came laced with forehead-slapping frustration that Noel didn't hold [these tracks] for a great third album."


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: The 2014 Vizio BCS National Championship Game was the national championship game of the 2013 college football season, which took place on Monday, January 6, 2014. The game featured the Auburn Tigers and Florida State Seminoles. It was the 16th and last time the top two teams would automatically play for the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) title before the implementation of a four-team College Football Playoff system. The game was played at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, kicking off at 8:30 p.m. ET. The game was hosted by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, the organizer of the annual Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game on New Year's Day. The winner of the game, Florida State, was presented with the American Football Coaches Association's "The Coaches' Trophy", valued at $30,000. Pre-game festivities began at 4:30 p.m. PT. Face values of tickets were $385 and $325 (end zone seats) with both teams receiving a total of 40,000 tickets.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Starting immediately after the 2014 Rose Bowl Game, a fresh field was placed on top of the existing field. The field was laid on Thursday, and painting of the field began Friday. The field was completed Saturday in time for it to rest on Sunday for the game on Monday.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Florida State scored first on a 35-yard field goal to take an early 3–0 lead. Auburn responded with a touchdown in the first quarter and two in the second to storm out to a 21–3 lead. After a successful punt fake, the Seminoles managed a touchdown late in the second quarter, making it a 21–10 game in Auburn's favor going into halftime. Both teams dominated on defense in the third quarter with the Seminoles hitting a field goal to cut Auburn's lead to eight. In the fourth quarter, Florida State scored a touchdown early to make it a one-point game. Auburn extended its lead to 24–20 on a field goal, but Florida State took the lead 27–24 when Levonte Whitfield took the ensuing kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. Auburn then retook the lead 31–27 with 1:19 remaining in the game, but Florida State was able to respond, winning the game 34–31 with a Kelvin Benjamin touchdown with 13 seconds left on the clock.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: For their performances in the game, quarterback Jameis Winston and defensive back P. J. Williams were named the game's most valuable players.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Teams playing in this game were officially selected on Selection Sunday, December 8, 2013. They are the No. 1 and No. 2 nationally ranked teams in the final BCS standings. In the final BCS Standings, Florida State ended up ranked No. 1 and Auburn ended up ranked No. 2. Auburn and Florida State have played 17 times before, with Auburn leading the series, 13–4. Their last meeting was in 1990 at Auburn, Auburn winning 20–17.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: The teams were housed in Newport Beach, Orange County. They held practices at UC Irvine (Auburn) in Irvine, CA and Orange Coast College (Florida State) in Costa Mesa, CA. On game day, Auburn wore its white away jerseys and used the west bench while Florida State wore its dark home jerseys and used the east bench.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: The Auburn Tigers staged a large turnaround in 2013, improving from a 3–9 record in 2012 to a 12–1 record in 2013. Auburn was coached by Gus Malzahn, who was in his first season at Auburn. The Tigers began the season unranked and were picked to finish fifth in the SEC West in the SEC Media Poll. The Tigers won their first three games of the season, before losing to LSU 21–35. The Tigers then won the final eight games of the regular season to move to an 11–1 record and a SEC West division title. Auburn's regular season was capped off by two improbable victories: the Prayer at Jordan–Hare and the Kick Six (Chris Davis' game-winning touchdown with a 109-yard return of a missed 57-yard field goal attempt). In the 2013 SEC Championship Game, the Tigers defeated Missouri 59–42. It was with the improbable finishes and the single-season turnaround that the Auburn Tigers were dubbed "a team of destiny." After Auburn's victory over Missouri in the SEC Championship, #10 Michigan State defeated #2 Ohio State 34–24 in the 2013 Big Ten Football Championship Game, keeping Ohio State out of the BCS Championship Game, while Auburn moved up to take Ohio State's spot.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: The Tigers led the nation in rushing (335.69 yards per game). Auburn's rushing attack was led by Tre Mason, who rushed for 1,621 yards and 22 touchdowns. Wide receiver Sammie Coates had 38 catches for 841 yards and seven touchdowns, which was good enough to rank him second in the nation on yards per reception (21.3). Quarterback Nick Marshall threw for 1,759 yards, 12 touchdowns and five interceptions. Marshall also ran for 1,023 yards and 11 touchdowns.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Defensively, the Tigers were led by Dee Ford, who came into the game with 8.5 sacks. Auburn's defense as a whole had allowed 24.0 points per game in the season.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Florida State entered the 2013 season ranked #11 in the AP Poll. Despite losing 11 starters to the 2013 NFL Draft, the Seminoles were dominant during the 2013 season, winning by an average of 42.3 points en route to a 13–0 record. FSU's closest game was a 48–34 victory over Boston College. FSU's offense averaged 53 points per game, while the defense allowed only 10.7 points per game. The Noles’ second closest game was a 27-point win over Miami. However, the Seminoles schedule was rather weak, and was ranked just #62 in the country by Jeff Sagarin even after the BCS championship game. The team was coached by Jimbo Fisher, who was in his fourth season at Florida State.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Offensively, the Seminoles were led by Heisman Trophy winner, redshirt freshman quarterback Jameis Winston, who turned 20 years old on game day. Winston completed 237 of 349 passes with 3,820 yards for 38 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. The offense was also led by wide receivers Rashad Greene, Kenny Shaw and Kelvin Benjamin, who each had over 900 receiving yards. FSU's rushing attack was led by Devonta Freeman, who rushed for 943 yards. Roberto Aguayo lead the team in scoring with 147 points (perfect 90 PAT and 19 out of 20 field goal attempts).


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Defensively, the Seminoles allowed 268.5 yards per game. Senior linebacker Telvin Smith led the team in tackles with 75, while safety Lamarcus Joyner led the team in sacks with 5.0.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: The 2014 BCS National Championship Game kicked off at 8:30 p.m. EST at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. A crowd of 94,208 people attended the game. The game was televised by ESPN, with Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit as commentators. Other ESPN networks (including ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN Classic, ESPNU, and ESPN3) provided supplemental coverage with analysis and additional perspectives of the game, which the network branded as the "BCS Megacast". An estimated 26,061,000 people watched the game on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNEWS, for a combined Nielsen rating of 14.8.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: The opening kickoff went for a touchback, thus Auburn began its opening drive at its 25-yard line. On a third and 7 situation, the Tigers had a chance to score first when Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall threw a pass to an open Ricardo Louis. Marshall's pass fell short, however, forcing the Tigers to punt the ball away to FSU. On the Seminoles' first drive of the game, Florida State was able to drive to Auburn's red zone. However, on a third and 8 situation at Auburn's 16-yard line, Jameis Winston was sacked by Nosa Eguae, forcing the Seminoles to settle for a 35-yard field goal from Roberto Aguayo to give the Seminoles a 3–0 lead.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: The ensuing Auburn drive ended in a punt. However, the Tigers were able to down the punt at FSU's 2-yard line. Auburn's defense then forced a three-and-out, forcing the Seminoles to punt from the endzone. Auburn's Chris Davis returned the punt 22 yards to Florida State's 25-yard line. Taking advantage of the good field position, Auburn went up 7–3 on a 12-yard touchdown pass to Tre Mason. On the ensuing Florida State drive, the Seminoles stalled at their 26-yard line after Winston was sacked by Dee Ford. On the punt return, Auburn was called for a roughing the kicker penalty, giving FSU a first down at the Seminoles' 41-yard line.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Florida State opened the second quarter with an incomplete pass to Rashad Greene, forcing the Seminoles to punt on fourth down. On the first play of Auburn's drive, Mason rushed for a 23-yard gain. On the next play, Auburn's Corey Grant was stopped for a three-yard loss. However, FSU received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, bring Auburn midfield. On the next play, Marshall connected to Melvin Ray for a 50-yard touchdown reception, giving Auburn a 14–3 lead. The next Florida State drive ended in a three-and-out, giving Auburn the ball back once again. Auburn was able to drive deep into Florida State territory. However, the Tigers came up empty after Cody Parkey missed a 33-yard field goal. Florida State did not hold on to the football long, however, when Winston fumbled at FSU's 27-yard line. Taking advantage of the turnover, Auburn went up 21–3 on a 4-yard touchdown run from Marshall.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: On the following Florida State drive, the Seminoles faced a fourth and 4 situation at its own 40-yard line. FSU went for a fake punt, which was successfully converted after Karlos Williams ran seven yards for a first down. Six plays later, facing a third and 7 situation at Auburn's 24-yard line, Winston ran 21 yards for a first down. On the next play, the Seminoles made it a 21–10 game on a 3-yard Devonta Freeman rushing touchdown. The game remained 21–10 going into the half.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Florida State received the opening kickoff of the second half. The Seminoles went three-and-out on their first drive of the quarter, forcing the Seminoles to punt. Auburn received the punt at its 37-yard line and drove to Florida State territory. On a third and 8 play at FSU's 36-yard line, the Tigers were called for a holding penalty. On the next play, Nick Marshall's pass fell incomplete, forcing the Tigers to punt. The Seminoles began their second drive of the quarter at their 9-yard line and drove to Auburn's 24-yard line. Florida State was unable to convert a third and 8 situation, however, forcing to the Seminoles to settle for a 41-yard field goal. The field goal was successful, making it a 21–13 game. The game remained 21–13 in Auburn's favor going into the fourth quarter.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Florida State opened the fourth quarter punting the ball away to Auburn. On the ensuing Auburn drive, P. J. Williams intercepted Nick Marshall at FSU's 40-yard line. Willams fumbled the interception, but the fumble was recovered by teammate Lamarcus Joyner. Taking advantage of the turnover, the Seminoles cut into the Tigers' lead on an 11-yard touchdown pass to Chad Abram. Florida State's Devonta Freeman was called for a taunting penalty, pushing Florida State 15-yards back on the conversion attempt. In turn, Seminoles had to settle for an extra point instead of a two-point conversion, cutting FSU's deficit to 21–20. Auburn responded on its next drive with a 22-yard field goal from Cody Parkey to give Auburn a 24–20 lead with 4:42 remaining in the game. On the ensuing kickoff, FSU's Levonte Whitfield returned the kickoff 100 yards to give Florida State a 27–24 lead. Auburn retook the lead on a 37-yard rushing touchdown by Tre Mason to give Auburn a 31–27 lead with 1:19 remaining in the game. Levonte Whitfield received the kickoff again, but this time was only able to return the kickoff 17 yards to Florida State's 20-yard line.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Needing to go 80-yards for the win, Winston completed five of his first six passes of the drive, including a 49-yard pass to Rashad Greene, to take the Seminoles to Auburn's 5-yard line. After receiving a delay of game penalty, Florida State faced a third and 8 situation at Auburn's 10-yard line. On the next play, Winston's pass fell incomplete. However, Auburn's Chris Davis was called for a pass interference penalty in the endzone, giving FSU the ball at Auburn's 2-yard line. On the next play, Florida State took a 34–31 lead on a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds remaining in the game. Auburn had one more chance to win the game. On the final play of the game, Auburn attempted several laterals in an effort to reach the endzone. However, Tre Mason was tackled at Auburn's 37-yard line with no time remaining, giving Florida State the victory and the National Championship.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Florida State's deficit of 18-points was the largest ever overcome to win the BCS championship. FSU's win also ended the Southeastern Conference's seven-year winning streak in the national championship game. Texas was the last non-SEC school to win a National Championship (2006).


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Quarterback Jameis Winston was named the game's offensive MVP. Winston completed 20 of his 35 passes for 2 touchdowns and 237 yards.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Auburn outgained FSU 449–385 in total yards. Auburn was also more efficient in converting third downs, converting 10 of 18 opportunities. FSU only went 2 for 12 on third downs.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Tigers quarterback Nick Marshall completed 14 of his 27 passes for 217 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Marshall also had 45 rushing yards and 1 rushing touchdown. Tre Mason was Auburn's leading rusher, rushing for 195 yards on 34 carries for 1 touchdown. Sammie Coates was Auburn's leading receiver, catching 4 passes for 61 yards.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Florida State's leading rusher was Devonta Freeman, who rushed for 73 yards on 11 carries. Rashad Greene was the Seminole's leading receiver, catching 9 passes for 147 yards. Kelvin Benjamin was Florida State's second leading receiver, catching 4 passes for 54 yards and a touchdown.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: By scoring 34 points in the game, Florida State set the all-time FBS record for scoring in a single season, with 723 points. The previous record was held by Oklahoma, who scored 716 points in 2008.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Florida State's victory earned it the 2014 BCS national championship and brought the Seminoles' season to an end with an undefeated 14–0 record. This was FSU's third national title in school history. With the loss, Auburn ended its season with a 12–2 record and a #2 ranking in the AP and Coaches polls.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: The 2014 BCS National Championship Game has been described as a classic. One writer described the game as the "perfect ending for the BCS." The game's back-and-forth nature and dramatic finish merited high praise for the game.


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: In the first half of the game Florida State had come to believe that Auburn assistant coach Dameyune Craig, who had spent the previous three seasons as FSU's quarterbacks coach, was helping Auburn identify FSU's offensive signals. After Kelvin Benjamin was recorded on broadcast yelling "Dameyune calling [out] all the plays" to Jimbo Fisher and Jameis Winston in the second quarter, FSU began using towels to shield their signals from Auburn. Before the towels were used FSU was gaining 4.14 yards per play on its first seven possessions, and afterwards this jumped by over 75% to 7.32 yards per play. Fisher stated in the press conference the next morning that "They had a couple of our signals a couple times and were getting to them...That’s part of the game. I don’t have a problem with that."


title: 2014 BCS National Championship Game

text: Several players on each team announced that they would leave early to enter the 2014 NFL Draft. From Auburn, Greg Robinson and Tre Mason announced their intentions to leave early. From Florida State, Timmy Jernigan, James Wilder, Jr., Kelvin Benjamin and Devonta Freeman declared for the draft.


title: Treasure (company)

text: Treasure grew a cult following for their action games developed during the 1990s, and though initially exclusive to Sega platforms, they expanded to other platforms in 1997. The company earned recognition from critics, being called one of the best Japanese indie studios and 2D game developers. The company's output decreased in the 2010s, with their most recent release being "Gaist Crusher God" in 2014.


title: Treasure (company)

text: Treasure founder and president Masato Maegawa dreamed of working in the video game industry when he was young and began learning computer programming in junior high school. He studied programming in college and was hired by developer and publisher Konami after graduating. At Konami, Maegawa and associates that would later establish Treasure worked on a variety of games including arcade titles "The Simpsons" (1991) and "Bucky O'Hare" (1992), and Super NES games "Super Castlevania IV" (1991), "" (1992), and "Axelay" (1992). In 1991, Maegawa and several other Konami employees began planning an original game that would become "Gunstar Heroes" (1993)"," but their concept was rejected by Konami. Maegawa and his team were growing frustrated with Konami's growing reliance on sequels to established franchises such as their "Castlevania" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" series. The team felt consumers wanted original games, and so they left Konami in 1992 to establish Treasure and continue development on "Gunstar Heroes".


title: Treasure (company)

text: Treasure was founded on June 19, 1992; the company name came from wanting to be a "treasure" to the industry. Around the time of founding, the company had just over ten people. Even though most of the staff made games for the Super NES at Konami, they wanted to develop "Gunstar Heroes" for the Sega Genesis because the system's Motorola 68000 microprocessor was necessary for the visuals and gameplay they were striving for. Treasure approached Sega for a publishing contract. At first, they were not granted approval because they lacked a track record, but Sega instead contracted them to develop "McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure" (1993). Several months into development, they were granted approval to work on "Gunstar Heroes". Treasure staff was split into two teams to work on both games in parallel. They had a staff of around 18 people at the time, most being ex-Konami programmers. The staff felt they had more freedom working under Sega than Konami.


title: Treasure (company)

text: "McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure" was completed first, but Treasure decided to finish and release "Gunstar Heroes" first because they wanted their debut to be an original game. North American magazine "GameFan" were enthralled with the game and secured the first English language interview with Treasure that year. "McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure" was released next, initiating a trend for Treasure of developing games based on licensed properties. As a small studio, Treasure required the revenue from licensed games to develop original projects. Treasure continued to develop games for the Genesis for the remainder of the 16-bit era because of the system's smooth sprite movement, and grew a following among Sega fans. After "Gunstar Heroes", Treasure was divided into four teams to develop (in order of release): platformer "Dynamite Headdy" (1994), fighting game "Yu Yu Hakusho Makyō Tōitsusen" (1994), run and gun "Alien Soldier" (1995), and action-adventure "Light Crusader" (1995). The variety among these games illustrated unevenness and unpredictability in Treasure's output that would become characteristic of them.


title: Treasure (company)

text: In 1994, Sega introduced the Sega Saturn technology to Treasure. Treasure were impressed with the system's ability to handle a large number of sprites. They also knew their fan base consisted entirely of Sega gamers, so as the 32-bit era began, they moved development to the Saturn. Even though the Saturn was capable of 3D graphics, they continued to develop 2D games because they had built up 2D sprite know how. They were not concerned with competing with 3D games. First on Saturn was "Guardian Heroes" (1996), a beat 'em up that combines elements from fighting games and RPGs. Treasure worked on their next two releases concurrently, side-scrolling platformers "Mischief Makers" (1997) and "Silhouette Mirage" (1997). "Mischief Makers" was released on the Nintendo 64 and published by Enix, Treasure's first game published by a company other than Sega and released on non-Sega hardware. Treasure chose to develop for the Nintendo 64 because they were interested in the hardware's capabilities. Enix had heard of Treasure's reputation for action games and requested to publish for them in the past, but it was not until Treasure was developing for a non-Sega platform that they sought Enix's cooperation. "Mischief Makers" was followed by "Silhouette Mirage", which was initially released on the Saturn then ported to the PlayStation in 1998.


title: Treasure (company)

text: In 1998, Treasure released their first arcade game, the shoot 'em up "Radiant Silvergun". Treasure had been hesitant to develop an arcade game for years because of concerns with their commercial viability, but the staff felt "Radiant Silvergun" had potential and they were eager to develop it. The game was ported to the Saturn later that year. Enix published Treasure's next game for the PlayStation, fighting game "Rakugaki Showtime" (1999), but had to pull it from shelves shortly after release because of a lawsuit filed against them. This was followed by the multidirectional shooter "Bangai-O" (1999) which received a limited release on the Nintendo 64, but was later modified and re-released for the Dreamcast. By 1999, most of the founding Treasure staff were still with the company.


title: Treasure (company)

text: Treasure began the 2000s with some early troubles. "Gun Beat", a racing game they were developing for Sega's NAOMI arcade platform, was canceled with little explanation. Also, "" (2000) and "Stretch Panic" (2001) for the PlayStation 2 were both critically panned. Despite these hiccups, Treasure did find success with "Sin and Punishment" (2000), a rail shooter co-developed with Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 and later released on the iQue in China. The game was not released in western territories but grew a cult following among import gamers. While "Sin and Punishment" was still in development, Treasure started development on a spiritual sequel to "Radiant Silvergun" titled "Ikaruga" (2001). The arcade shooter was co-developed with G.rev, and ported to the Dreamcast and saw a worldwide release on the GameCube.


title: Treasure (company)

text: Treasure next embarked on a series of licensed projects. Two of these were based on the "Tiny Toon Adventures" franchise, "" (2002) for the Game Boy Advance and the unreleased "" for the PlayStation 2. Other licensed games during this period included Game Boy Advance games "Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting!" (2003) and "" (2003), as well as GameCube games "Wario World" (2003) and "" (2003). "Astro Boy: Omega Factor" was co-developed with Hitmaker and was critically praised for returning to Treasure's classic side-scrolling action style that had been missing from their recent output. Their next game was "Gradius V" (2004) which like "Ikaruga" before it, was co-developed with G.rev. The companies worked under contract for Konami, and the game helped cement Treasure's return to critical successes following a slew of mediocre licensed games.


title: Treasure (company)

text: Treasure developed sequels on the Game Boy Advance for their earlier successes, "Advance Guardian Heroes" (2004) and "Gunstar Super Heroes" (2005). Treasure followed this with a series of licensed "Bleach" games for the Nintendo DS. Maegawa explained that his company experiences challenges in developing games based on licensed properties like "Bleach", saying that the staff wants to be original but cannot detract too far from the source material and risk disappointing fans. By 2009, the company had 20-30 employees.


title: Treasure (company)

text: The number of employees at Treasure had dropped to 16 by 2011, and to less than 10 by 2022. In a 2011 interview, Maegawa explained that Treasure now uses middleware to develop games, no longer using custom programming to push the hardware to their maximum levels. The company was also putting an increased focus on rereleasing their back catalog as downloadable games on the Virtual Console, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live. Treasure has not released any new games since 2014 apart from re-releases of games like "Ikaruga". On June 19, 2022, its 30th anniversary, Treasure announced it was working on a "highly requested" game.


title: Treasure (company)

text: Treasure does not have a rigid hierarchy. Maegawa explained that Treasure operates differently from other companies by not assigning lead designers. While a project leader may create a project plan, most of the game design is done collaboratively between the programmers and artists. Most permanent employees and part-time contractors drift in and out of projects as required. Some individuals have been important figures in Treasure's history:


title: Treasure (company)

text: Treasure places emphasis on creating original games in the action, platform, and shooter genres. They do not have a preference on gaming platforms or 2D vs. 3D gameplay, preferring to choose the most suitable depending on the game they are designing. The company has never viewed sales as much of a concern. They would prefer making the games they want to make, and not what will more likely sell well. Maegawa has preferred to always keep the company small to keep an "independent-minded" mentality, and help the developers' personalities shine through their games.


title: Treasure (company)

text: They expressed disinterest in sequels early in their history, but became more open to it later. They pride themselves in creating original ideas and avoiding imitating other works or being associated with games already on the market. They have made games based on licensed properties to generate revenue to pursue original projects. Explaining the Treasure design philosophy, Megawa said it "simply, to create the games we want to make" and "creating the things we love in the way we like." The company has generally employed around 20 to 30 people at any given time.


title: Treasure (company)

text: Treasure was one of the most celebrated developers of the 16-bit era and grew a cult following during the period. "USgamer" called them "one of Japan's pioneering indie developers" and explained the "sense of integrity" in their 1990s work that was not seen in other games of the era. "Maximum: The Video Game Magazine" called them "one of the most respected programming houses in the world" in 1996. "Gamers' Republic" agreed in 1998, writing: "Any action or platform gamer worth his salt recognizes Treasure as one of the finest development houses in the world." In 2005, "1UP.com" called Treasure "one of Japan's most famous independent development houses [...] releasing some of the most finely crafted, creative, and offbeat action games the world has ever seen." Treasure did not have any large commercial successes, which influenced "Retro Gamer" to describe their output as "critically acclaimed yet commercially unsuccessful." Because of the loyal fan base but low sales, prices of Treasure games such as "Rakugaki Showtime" and "Radiant Silvergun" have climbed on the secondary market.


title: Treasure (company)

text: The company established a signature style early on that became consistent across their work. Their first game, "Gunstar Heroes", established what "1UP.com" called Treasure's key themes: "creativity, weirdness, and a tendency toward completely absurd levels of action." "Wireframe" called their style "fast, aggressive [...] featuring bold graphics and surreal dashes of humour." "Retro Gamer" wrote that they have "consistently excellent art direction" and are renowned for their "action-packed" and "explosive" gameplay. They explained that Treasure is "at the very cutting edge of artistic freedom, forging its own very particular path and creating a softography guided by nothing other than the whims of the creators." The company is known for taking risks within established genres, borrowing conventional ideas and adding their own creative touches to create something new and innovative. They became recognized for their prowess in 2D game design, with "Gamers' Republic" calling their output "the finest 2D platform games on the planet." Treasure is also known for technological innovation; several of their games pushed the hardware to their limits.


title: Competitive advantage

text: In business, a competitive advantage is an attribute that allows an organization to outperform its competitors.


title: Competitive advantage

text: A competitive advantage may include access to natural resources, such as high-grade ores or a low-cost power source, highly skilled labor, geographic location, high entry barriers, and access to new technology and to proprietary information.


title: Competitive advantage

text: The term "competitive advantage" refers to the ability gained through attributes and resources to perform at a higher level than others in the same industry or market (Christensen and Fahey 1984, Kay 1994, Porter 1980 cited by Chacarbaghi and Lynch 1999, p. 45). The study of this advantage has attracted profound research interest due to contemporary issues regarding superior performance levels of firms in today's competitive market. "A firm is said to have a competitive advantage when it is implementing a value creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential player" (Barney 1991 cited by Clulow et al.2003, p. 221).


title: Competitive advantage

text: Competitive advantage is the leverage a business has over its competitors. This can be gained by offering clients better and greater value. Advertising products or services with lower prices or higher quality piques the interest of consumers. This is the reason behind brand loyalty, or why customers prefer one particular product or service over another. Value proposition is important when understanding competitive advantage. If the value proposition is effective, that is, if the value proposition offers clients better and greater value, it can produce a competitive advantage in either the product or service.


title: Competitive advantage

text: Competitive strategy is defined as the long term plan of a particular company in order to gain competitive advantage over its competitors in the industry. It is aimed at creating defensive position in an industry and generating a superior ROI (return on investment ).


title: Competitive advantage

text: Michael Porter defined the two ways in which an organization can achieve competitive advantage over its rivals: cost advantage and differentiation advantage. Cost advantage is when a business provides the same products and services as its competitors, albeit at a lesser cost. Differentiation advantage is when a business provides better products and services as its competitors. In Porter's view, strategic management should be concerned with building and sustaining competitive advantage.


title: Competitive advantage

text: Competitive advantage seeks to address some of the criticisms of comparative advantage. Competitive advantage rests on the notion that cheap labor is ubiquitous and natural resources are not necessary for a good economy. The other theory, comparative advantage, can lead countries to specialize in exporting primary goods and raw materials that trap countries in low-wage economies due to terms of trade. Competitive advantage attempts to correct this issue by stressing on maximizing scale economies in goods and services that garner premium prices (Stutz and Warf 2009).


title: Competitive advantage

text: Successfully implemented strategies will lift a firm to superior performance by facilitating the firm with competitive advantage to outperform current or potential players (Passemard and Calantone 2000, p. 18). To gain competitive advantage, a business strategy of a firm manipulates the various resources over which it has direct control, and these resources have the ability to generate competitive advantage (Reed and Fillippi 1990 cited by Rijamampianina 2003, p. 362). Superior performance outcomes and superiority in production resources reflect competitive advantage (Day and Wesley 1988 cited by Lau 2002, p. 125).


title: Competitive advantage

text: The quotes above signify competitive advantage as the ability to stay ahead of present or potential competition. Also, it provides the understanding that resources held by a firm and the business strategy will have a profound impact on generating competitive advantage. Powell (2001, p. 132) views business strategy as the tool that manipulates resources and creates competitive advantage. Hence, viable business strategy may not be adequate unless it possesses control over unique resources that have the ability to create such a relatively unique advantage.


title: Competitive advantage

text: Johnson and Foss have provided a formal account of what constitutes an optimal business strategy. According to well-established variational methods, a business pursuing an optimal strategy will follow the shortest economic path that makes the most efficient use of resources.


title: Competitive advantage

text: Michael Porter, a professor at Harvard Business School, wrote a book in 1985 which identified three strategies that businesses can use to tackle competition. These approaches can be applied to all businesses whether they are product-based or service-based. He called these approaches generic strategies. They include cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. These strategies have been created to improve and gain a competitive advantage over competitors. These strategies can also be recognized as the comparative advantage and the differential advantage.


title: Competitive advantage

text: Cost leadership is a business's ability to produce a product or service that will be at a lower cost than other competitors. If the business is able to produce the same quality product but sell it for less, this gives them a competitive advantage over other businesses. Therefore, this provides a price value to the customers. Lower costs will result in higher profits as businesses are still making a reasonable profit on each good or service sold. If businesses are not making a large enough profit, Porter recommends finding a lower-cost base such as labor, materials, and facilities. This gives businesses a lower manufacturing cost over those of other competitors. The company can add value to the customer via transfer of the cost benefit to them.


title: Competitive advantage

text: A differential advantage is gained when a business's products or services are different from its competitors. In his book, Michael Porter recommended making those goods or services attractive to stand out from their competitors. The business will need strong research, development, and design thinking to create innovative ideas. These improvements to the goods or service could include delivering high quality to customers. If customers see a product or service as being different from other products, consumers are willing to pay more to receive these benefits.


title: Competitive advantage

text: Focus strategy ideally tries to get businesses to aim at a few target markets rather than trying to target everyone. This strategy is often used for smaller businesses since they may not have the appropriate resources or ability to target everyone. Businesses that use this method usually focus on the needs of the customer and how their products or services could improve their daily lives. In this method, some firms may even let consumers give their inputs for their product or service.


title: Competitive advantage

text: This strategy can also be called the segmentation strategy, which includes geographic, demographic, behavioral, and physical segmentation. By narrowing the market down to smaller segments, businesses are able to meet the needs of the consumer. Porter believes that once businesses have decided what groups they will target, it is essential to decide if they will take the cost leadership approach or differentiation approach. Focus strategy will not make a business successful. Porter mentions that it is important to not use all 3 generic strategies because there is a high chance that companies will come out achieving no strategies instead of achieving success. This can be called "stuck in the middle", and the business won't be able to have a competitive advantage.


title: Competitive advantage

text: When businesses can find the perfect balance between price and quality, it usually leads to a successful product or service. A product or service must offer value through price or quality to ensure the business is successful in the market. To succeed, it is not enough to be "just as good as" another business. Success comes to firms that can deliver a product or service in a manner that is different, meaningful, and based on their customers' needs and desires. Deciding on the appropriate price and quality depends on the business's brand image and what they hope to achieve in relation to their competition.


title: Competitive advantage

text: Positioning is an important marketing concept. The main purpose of positioning is often to create the right perceptions in comparison to competitors. Thus, it creates competitive advantage. This positioning, or competitive advantage, is based on creating the right "image" or "identity" in the minds of the target group. This positioning decision exists of selecting the right core competencies to build upon and emphasize.


title: Competitive advantage

text: Therefore, both corporate identity and core competencies are underlying internal factors of competitive advantage.


title: Competitive advantage

text: The operational model for managing corporate reputation and image of Gray and Balmer (1998) proposes that corporate identity, communication, image, and reputation are the fundamental components of the process of creating competitive advantage. Corporate identity through corporate communication creates corporate image and reputation, with an end result of competitive advantage.


title: Competitive advantage

text: Corporate identity is the reality of an organization. It refers to the distinct characteristics or core competencies of the organization. It is the mental picture of the company held by its audiences. Corporate communication refers to all the official and informal communication sources, through a variety of media, by which the company outsources its identity to its audiences or stakeholders. Corporate communication is the bridge between corporate identity and corporate image or reputation.


title: Competitive advantage

text: The above-stated process has two main objectives, namely to create the intended image in the minds of the company's principal constituents and managing the process to create a favourable reputation in the minds of the important stakeholders. Gray and Balmer (1998) say that a strong image can be built through a coordinated image-building campaign and reputation, on the other hand, requires a praiseworthy identity that can only be shaped through consistent performance.


title: Competitive advantage

text: A core competency is a concept introduced by Prahalad and Hamel (1990). Core competencies are part of the corporate identity; they form the foundation of corporate competitiveness. Core competencies fit within the "resource-based view of the firm" Resources can be tangible or intangible.


title: Competitive advantage

text: A firm's knowledge assets are an important intangible source of competitive advantage. For firm knowledge to provide a competitive advantage, it must be generated, codified, and diffused to others inside of the organization. Many different types of knowledge can serve as a resource-based advantage: manufacturing processes, technology, or market-based assets such as knowledge of customers or processes for new product development. Firms with a knowledge-based core competency can increase their advantage by learning from "contingent workers" such as technical experts, consultants, or temporary employees. Those outsiders bring knowledge inside of a firm—e.g., understanding of competing technologies. Moreover, interactions with contingent workers can provoke the firm to codify knowledge that was tacit in order to communicate with the temporary employees. The benefits of these interactions with outsiders increases with the "absorptive capacity" of the firm. However, there is some risk that these interactions cause leakage or dilution of knowledge assets to others who later hire the same temporary employees. Modern knowledge management theory now suggests that serendipity can be tapped as a strategic advantage for building a core competency.


title: Competitive advantage

text: The competitiveness of a company is based on the ability to develop core competencies. A core competency is, for example, a specialised knowledge, technique, or skill. Yang (2015) concluded, with the examination of a long-term development model, that developing core competencies and effectively implementing core capabilities are important strategic actions for any enterprise in order to pursue high long-term profits. In the end, real advantage can be created by the management's ability to unify corporate-wide technologies and production skills into competencies that capacitate individual businesses to adapt quickly to changing opportunities.


title: Competitive advantage

text: To sustain leadership in a chosen core competency area, companies should seek to maximize their competency factors in the core products like being important in positioning its values, distinctive (differentiated), superior, communicable (visibility), unique, affordable, and profitable. When a company achieves this goal, it allows it to shape the evolution of an end market.


title: Competitive advantage

text: An unfair competitive advantage may arise to the benefit of one or more businesses operating within a competitive context, for example in public procurement if one bidder has access to information not available to other bidders.


title: Clavichord

text: The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras.


title: Clavichord

text: Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces sound by striking brass or iron strings with small metal blades called tangents. Vibrations are transmitted through the bridge(s) to the soundboard.


title: Clavichord

text: The name is derived from the Latin word "clavis", meaning "key" (associated with more common "clavus", meaning "nail, rod, etc.") and "chorda" (from Greek χορδή) meaning "string, especially of a musical instrument". An analogous name is used in other European languages (It. "clavicordio", "clavicordo"; Fr. "clavicorde"; Germ. "Klavichord"; Lat. "clavicordium"; Port. "clavicórdio"; Sp. "clavicordio"). Many languages also have another name derived from Latin "manus", meaning "hand" (It. "manicordo"; Fr. "manicorde", "manicordion"; Sp. "manicordio", "manucordio"). Other names refer to the monochord-like nature of a fully fretted clavichord (It. "monacordo" or "monocordo"; Sp. "monacordio"). Italian also used "sordino", a reference to its quiet sound (sordino usually designates a mute).


title: Clavichord

text: The clavichord was invented in the early fourteenth century. In 1404, the German poem "" mentions the terms "clavicimbalum" (a term used mainly for the harpsichord) and "clavichordium", designating them as the best instruments to accompany melodies.


title: Clavichord

text: One of the earliest references to the clavichord in England occurs in the privy-purse expenses of Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII, in an entry dated August 1502:


title: Clavichord

text: Item. The same day, Hugh Denys for money by him delivered to a stranger that gave the queen a payre of clavycordes. In crowns form his reward iiii libres.


title: Clavichord

text: The clavichord was very popular from the 16th century to the 18th century, but mainly flourished in German-speaking lands, Scandinavia, and the Iberian Peninsula in the latter part of this period. It had fallen out of use by 1850. In the late 1890s, Arnold Dolmetsch revived clavichord construction and Violet Gordon-Woodhouse, among others, helped to popularize the instrument. Although most of the instruments built before the 1730s were small (four octaves, four feet long), the latest instruments were built up to seven feet long with a six octave range.


title: Clavichord

text: Until electronic amplification in the twentieth century, it was impossible to use the quiet clavichord in anything but a small room. However, during the clavichord's heyday, evenings of music-making in the home formed the largest part of people's musical experiences. In the home the clavichord was the ideal instrument for solo keyboard music and instrumental accompaniment.


title: Clavichord

text: Today clavichords are played primarily by Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical music enthusiasts. They attract many interested buyers, and are manufactured worldwide. There are now numerous clavichord societies around the world, and some 400 recordings of the instrument have been made in the past 70 years. Leading modern exponents of the instrument have included Christopher Hogwood and Thurston Dart.


title: Clavichord

text: The clavichord has also gained attention in other genres of music, in the form of the Clavinet, which is a solid body electric clavichord with magnetic pickups that plug into an amp. Stevie Wonder uses a Clavinet in many of his songs, such as "Superstition" and "Higher Ground". A Clavinet played through an instrument amplifier with guitar effect pedals is often associated with funky, disco-infused 1970s rock.


title: Clavichord

text: Guy Sigsworth has played clavichord in a modern setting with Björk, notably on the studio recording of "All Is Full of Love". Björk also made extensive use of and even played the instrument herself on the song "My Juvenile" of her 2007 album "Volta".


title: Clavichord

text: Tori Amos uses the instrument on "Little Amsterdam" from the album "Boys for Pele" and on the song "Smokey Joe" from her 2007 album "American Doll Posse". Amos also featured her use of the Clavinet on her 2004 recording "Not David Bowie", released as part of her 2006 box set, "".


title: Clavichord

text: In 1976 Oscar Peterson played (with Joe Pass on acoustic guitar) songs from "Porgy And Bess" on the clavichord. Keith Jarrett also recorded an album entitled "Book of Ways" (1986) in which he plays a series of clavichord improvisations. The Beatles' "For No One" (1966) features Paul McCartney playing the clavichord. Rick Wakeman plays the Clavinet in the track "The Battle" from the album "Journey to the Centre of the Earth".


title: Clavichord

text: In the clavichord, strings run transversely from the hitchpin rail at the left-hand end to tuning pegs on the right. Towards the right end they pass over a curved wooden bridge. The action is simple, with the keys being levers with a small brass tangent, a small piece of metal similar in shape and size to the head of a flat-bladed screwdriver, at the far end. The strings, which are usually of brass, or else a combination of brass and iron, are usually arranged in pairs, like a lute or mandolin. When the key is pressed, the tangent strikes the strings above, causing them to sound in a similar fashion to the "hammering" technique on a guitar. Unlike in a piano action, the tangent does not rebound from the string; rather, it stays in contact with the string as long as the key is held, acting as both the nut and as the initiator of sound. The volume of the note can be changed by striking harder or softer, and the pitch can also be affected by varying the force of the tangent against the string (known as "Bebung"). When the key is released, the tangent loses contact with the string and the vibration of the string is silenced by strips of damping cloth.


title: Clavichord

text: The action of the clavichord is unique among all keyboard instruments in that one part of the action simultaneously initiates the sound vibration while at the same time defining the endpoint of the vibrating string, and thus its pitch. Because of this intimate contact between the player's hand and the production of sound, the clavichord has been referred to as the most intimate of keyboard instruments. Despite its many (serious) limitations, including extremely low volume, it has considerable expressive power, the player being able to control attack, duration, and volume, and even provide certain subtle effects of swelling of tone and a type of vibrato unique to the clavichord.


title: Clavichord

text: Since the string vibrates from the bridge only as far as the tangent, multiple keys with multiple tangents can be assigned to the same string. This is called "fretting". Early clavichords frequently had many notes played on each string, even going so far as the keyed monochord—an instrument with only one string—though most clavichords were triple- or double-fretted. Since only one note can be played at a time on each string, the fretting pattern is generally chosen so that notes rarely heard together (such as C and C) share a string pair. The advantages of this system compared with unfretted instruments (see below) include relative ease of tuning (with around half as many strings to keep in tune), greater volume (though still not really enough for use in chamber music), and a clearer, more direct sound. Among the disadvantages: temperament could not be re-set without bending the tangents; and playing required a further refinement of touch, since notes sharing a single string played in quick succession had to be slightly separated to avoid a disagreeable deadening of the sound, potentially disturbing a legato line.


title: Clavichord

text: Some clavichords have been built with a single pair of strings for each note. The first known reference to one was by Johann Speth in 1693 and the earliest such extant signed and dated clavichord was built in 1716 by Johann Michael Heinitz. Such instruments are referred to as "unfretted" whereas instruments using the same strings for several notes are called "fretted". Among the advantages to unfretted instruments are flexibility in tuning (the temperament can be easily altered) and the ability to play any music exactly as written without concern for "bad" notes. Disadvantages include a smaller volume, even though many or most unfretted instruments tend to be significantly larger than fretted instruments; and "many" more strings to keep in tune. Unfretted instruments tend to have a sweeter, less incisive tone due to the greater load on the bridge resulting from the greater number of strings, though the large, late (early 19th century) Swedish clavichords tend to be the loudest of any of the historic clavichords.


title: Clavichord

text: While clavichords were typically single manual instruments, they could be stacked, one clavichord on top of another, to provide multiple keyboards. With the addition of a pedal clavichord, which included a pedal keyboard for the lower notes, a clavichord could be used to practice organ repertoire. Most often, the addition of a pedal keyboard only involved connecting the keys of the pedalboard to the lower notes on the manual clavichord using string so the lower notes on the manual instrument could be operated by the feet. In the era of pipe organs, which used man-powered bellows that required several people to operate, and of churches only heated during church services if at all, organists used pedal harpsichords and pedal clavichords as practice instruments (see also: pedal piano). There is speculation that some works written for organ may have been intended for pedal clavichord. An interesting case is made by that Bach's "Eight Little Preludes and Fugues", now thought spurious, may actually be authentic. The keyboard writing seems unsuited to organ, but Speerstra argues that they are idiomatic on the pedal clavichord. As Speerstra and also note, the compass of the keyboard parts of Bach's six trio sonatas for organ (BWV 525–530) rarely go below the tenor C, so they could have been played on a single manual pedal clavichord, by moving the left hand down an octave, a customary practice in the 18th century.


title: Clavichord

text: Much of the musical repertoire written for harpsichord and organ from the period circa 1400–1800 can be played on the clavichord; however, it does not have enough (unamplified) volume to participate in chamber music, with the possible exception of providing accompaniment to a soft baroque flute, recorder, or single singer. J. S. Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a great proponent of the instrument, and most of his German contemporaries regarded it as a central keyboard instrument, for performing, teaching, composing and practicing. The fretting of a clavichord provides new problems for some repertoire, but scholarship suggests that these problems are not insurmountable in Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Among recent clavichord recordings, those by Christopher Hogwood ("The Secret Bach", "The Secret Handel", and "The Secret Mozart"), break new ground. In his liner notes, Hogwood pointed out that these composers would typically have played the clavichord in the privacy of their homes. In England, the composer Herbert Howells (1892–1983) wrote two significant collections of pieces for clavichord ("Lambert's Clavichord" and "Howells' Clavichord"), and Stephen Dodgson (1924–2013) wrote two clavichord suites.


title: Red dot sight

text: A red dot sight is a common classification for a type of non-magnifying reflector (or reflex) sight for firearms, and other devices that require aiming, that gives the user a point of aim in the form of an illuminated red dot. A standard design uses a red light-emitting diode (LED) at the focus of collimating optics which generates a dot-style illuminated reticle that stays in alignment with the weapon the sight is attached to, regardless of eye position (nearly parallax free). They are considered to be fast-acquisition and easy-to-use gun sights for civilian target shooting, hunting, or in police and military applications. Aside from firearm applications, they are also used on cameras and telescopes. On cameras they are used to photograph flying aircraft, birds in flight, and other distant, quickly moving subjects. Telescopes have a narrow field of view and therefore are often equipped with a secondary "finder scope" such as a red dot sight.


title: Red dot sight

text: The typical configuration for a red dot sight is a tilted spherical mirror reflector with a red light-emitting diode (LED) at its off axis focus. The mirror has a partially silvered multilayer dielectric dichroic coating designed to reflect just the red spectrum allowing most other light to pass through it. The LED used is usually deep red 670 nanometre wavelength since they are very bright, are high contrast against a green scene, and work well with a dichroic coating since they are near one end of the visible spectrum. The size of the dot generated by the LED is controlled by an aperture hole in front of it made from metal or coated glass. The LED as a reticle is an innovation that greatly improves the reliability and general usefulness of the sight. There is no need for other optical elements to focus light behind a reticle. The LED itself is solid state and consumes very little power, allowing battery powered sights to run for hundreds and even tens of thousands of hours. Using a "dot" shaped reticle also greatly simplifies the sight since the small diameter image does not require a sophisticated optical reflector to focus it. More complex reticle patterns such as crosshairs or concentric circles can be used but need more complex aberration free optics.


title: Red dot sight

text: Like other reflector sights, the collimated image of the red dot is truly parallax free only at infinity, with an error circle equal to the diameter of the collimating optics for any target at a finite distance. This is compensated for by keeping the dot in the middle of the optical window (sighting down the sight's optical axis). Some manufacturers modify the focus of the LED/optical collimator combination, making models with the optical collimator set to focus the dot at a finite distance. These have a maximum amount of parallax due to eye movement, equal to the size of the optical window, at close range, diminishing to a minimal amount at the set distance (somewhere around a desired target range of 25–50 yards).


title: Red dot sight

text: Sights may also use a more sophisticated optical system that compensates for off axis spherical aberration, an error that can cause the dot position to diverge off the sight's optical axis with change in eye position. The optics used is a type of Mangin mirror system, consisting of a meniscus lens corrector element combined with the semi-reflective mirror, sometimes referred to in advertising as a "two lens" or "double lens" system. Although these are referred to as "parallax free" sights, the system keeps the aiming dot in alignment only with the sight itself and does not compensate the inherent parallax errors induced by a collimated sight.


title: Red dot sight

text: Red dot sights generally fall into two categories, "tube" or "open" designs. "Tube sights" look similar to a standard telescopic sight, with a cylindrical tube containing the optics. Tube sights offer the option of fitted dust covers and the ability to add filters, such as polarizing or haze filters, and glare reducing sunshades. Since a reflector sight really needs only a single optical surface, the "reflector", the tube is not needed. This allows for non-tubed "open sights" that consist of a flat base, with a single loop of material to support the reflective optics.


title: Red dot sight

text: Most red dot sights have either active or passive adjustments for the dot brightness, allowing a very bright dot for high visibility in bright conditions, and a very dim dot to prevent loss of night vision in low light conditions.


title: Red dot sight

text: The idea of attaching a reflector (or "reflex") sight to a firearm has been around since the sight's invention in 1900. Many different types of reflector sights specifically designed for firearms have been marketed, some lit by batteries and some lit by ambient light. The Weaver Qwik-Point presented the viewer with a red aiming dot generated by a red plastic "light pipe" used to collect ambient light. All had the reticle illumination drawback common with reflector sights small enough for a firearm: proper ambient lighting could not be depended on and incandescent light bulbs could drain a battery in a few hours.