title: Kara Thrace

text: I was at home, looking at old tapes of auditions, just bemoaning the fact that we didn't have a Starbuck. It was the most talked-about role; this was not the role to fall on our faces with. Jenny, my wife, happened to be in the room when Katee was reading, and in an off-hand kind of way said, "What's the matter with you, she's right there!" I was like, "Really?" We brought [Katee] back, and it was like, "Oh! She's right!"


title: Kara Thrace

text: Executive producer Ronald D. Moore wrote, "Katee auditioned for the role along with many other actresses, and simply blew them all away. Sometimes we get lucky."


title: Kara Thrace

text: For Sackhoff, the reaction to the reimagined role was difficult at first. "At the start, I was young; I was stupid," said Sackhoff. "I let the fact that people questioned whether or not a woman could play a man's role dictate how I was going to play her." Fans opposed to the casting of a female in the popular role expressed their discontent during production on the miniseries, and Sackhoff even received a death threat before the start of filming. During the 2004 San Diego Comic Con, the actress was booed:


title: Kara Thrace

text: I was booed. It was lovely. At that point, I'd seen the miniseries and I knew I'd done a good job. I had my confidence back. I didn't care anymore.


title: Kara Thrace

text: Despite the initial backlash, even by original male portrayer Dirk Benedict, Katee Sackhoff's Starbuck has become one of the show's most popular characters.


title: Kara Thrace

text: "Seattle Post-Intelligencer's" Melanie McFarland notes: "[Starbuck], played with a tomboyish swagger by Katee Sackhoff, is fast becoming the latest in a long line of feminist television icons." "Wired"'s Hugh Hart praises Sackhoff's portrayal: "The actress's rough-and-tumble take on the fleet's most mesmerizing fighter jock will doubtless continue to render gender utterly irrelevant." "Entertainment Weekly's" Jeff Jensen states: "Sackhoff has set TV's new standard for action-heroine cool and complexity." Mary McNamara of the "Los Angeles Times" praised Sackhoff for creating one of the most fabulous female characters on television.


title: Kara Thrace

text: In 2005, Sackhoff won the Saturn Award for Best Television Supporting Actress. "Slate" magazine named the character as one of the reasons they were looking forward to the return of the show in fall 2007.


title: Kara Thrace

text: In a TV special to familiarize viewers with the series, Benedict and Sackhoff appeared together to discuss her character. Benedict offered an olive branch, saying, "Can a Starbuck buy a Starbuck a Starbuck?"


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: The 1991 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1990–91 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Chicago Bulls defeating the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals. Michael Jordan was named NBA Finals MVP.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: The Lakers reached the Finals despite not being the top seed in the Western Conference for the first time since 1981, and for just the second time since drafting Magic Johnson first overall in 1979.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: After the Pistons had ended their season the last three years, the Bulls got revenge in the Eastern Conference Finals by sweeping the two-time defending NBA champions. It was the first time the Bulls won a playoff series over the Pistons since 1974, when both teams were still part of the Western Conference. Game 4 ended with some of the Pistons walking off the court before time expired, refusing to shake the Bulls' hands. The Pistons were vilified for this. In the 1989 NBA Finals, the Pistons themselves had swept the two-time defending champion Lakers. Detroit did not reach the conference finals again until 2003.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: The seventh seeded Golden State Warriors stunned the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs, defeating them 3 games to 1. It would be Golden State's last playoff series win until 2007.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: The 76ers and the Bucks met in the first round of the playoffs where the 76ers swept the series. It would be both teams last playoff appearance until 1999.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: The Spectrum hosted its final NBA playoff game in Game 4 of the Bulls–76ers series. When the 76ers returned to the playoffs in 1999, they had moved to the CoreStates Center, their home since the 1996–97 season.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the third playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Bulls winning the first two meetings.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the sixth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Hawks winning three of the first five meetings.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the eighth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the 76ers winning four of the first seven meetings.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the SuperSonics winning two of the first three meetings.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Rockets winning two of the first three meetings.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the third playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Suns winning the first two meetings.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Bulls winning the first meeting.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the sixth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Celtics winning three of the first five meetings.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Jazz winning the first meeting.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the seventh playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Lakers winning five of the first six meetings.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the fifth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Pistons winning three of the first four meetings.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the fifth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Lakers winning three of the first four meetings.


title: 1991 NBA playoffs

text: This was the fifth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Lakers winning the first four meetings.


title: Malik Sealy

text: Malik Sealy (February 1, 1970 – May 20, 2000) was an American professional basketball player, active from 1992 until his death in an automobile accident at the age of 30. Sealy played eight seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves.


title: Malik Sealy

text: A native of the Bronx, New York, Sealy was named after noted African-American social activist Malik Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X, for whom Sealy's father had been a bodyguard. In his senior year at Tolentine High School, Sealy, along with future collegians Brian Reese, and Adrian Autry, went 30–1 and won the state title.


title: Malik Sealy

text: Sealy played college basketball at St. John's University, finishing his college career with 2,401 points, good for second all-time in St. John's history.


title: Malik Sealy

text: Over the course of his NBA career, Sealy averaged 10.1 points per game in 23.8 minutes. As a rookie, he lost his playbook, which was turned over to WFAN radio personality Don Imus, whom Sealy contacted on the air in an attempt to have it returned. His final season's highlights included making a game-winning reverse putback shot at the buzzer against the Orlando Magic on December 27, 1999, which gave the Timberwolves a 107–105 road win. He also made a game-winning 3-pointer off the glass as time expired in a 101–100 Timberwolves win over the Indiana Pacers on January 17, 2000.


title: Malik Sealy

text: Sealy was also an aspiring actor, and had a major role as the talented but selfish basketball player 'Stacey Patton' in the 1996 motion picture "Eddie" starring Whoopi Goldberg. He also made appearances on TV shows such as "The Sentinel" and "". In addition to this, Sealy designed ties and clothing and owned "Malik Sealy XXI, Inc."


title: Malik Sealy

text: Sealy was killed in St. Louis Park, Minnesota on May 20, 2000. He was driving home from a birthday celebration for teammate and best friend Kevin Garnett in downtown Minneapolis when his sport utility vehicle was struck by a pickup truck traveling the wrong way down the highway. The truck was driven by 43-year-old Souksangouane Phengsene, who survived the accident with head and chest injuries. Neither driver was wearing a seatbelt. Phengsene's airbag deployed, but Sealy's SUV did not have one.


title: Malik Sealy

text: Blood tests indicated that at the time of the accident, Phengsene had been driving drunk; his blood alcohol content was 0.19%. The legal limit in Minnesota at the time was 0.1%. He pleaded guilty to a charge of vehicular manslaughter, was given a four-year prison term, and was released from prison in 2003. In April, 2008, Phengsene was given an eight year sentence for a subsequent drunk driving conviction.


title: Malik Sealy

text: In Sealy's honor, the Minnesota Timberwolves retired his #2 jersey. Kevin Garnett also paid a tribute to him, having written "2MALIK" in the inside of the tongue on the Adidas Garnett 3 shoes. Garnett has a tattoo honoring Sealy's name on his right arm. Upon being traded from the Boston Celtics to the Brooklyn Nets in July 2013, Garnett changed his uniform number to #2 in honor of Sealy. In his homecoming to Minnesota on February 25, 2015, Kevin Garnett wore a #2 sweatband on his left forearm in memory of his best friend.


title: Windsurfing

text: Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing gained a popular following across Europe and North America by the late 1970s and had achieved significant global popularity by the 1980s. Windsurfing became an olympic sport in 1984.


title: Windsurfing

text: Newer variants include windfoiling, kiteboarding and wingfoiling. Hydrofoil fins under the board allow the boards to safely lift out of the water and fly silently and smoothly above the surface even in lighter winds.


title: Windsurfing

text: Windsurfing is a recreational, family friendly sport, most popular at flat water locations around the world that offer safety and accessibility for beginner and intermediate participants. Technique and equipment have evolved over the years


title: Windsurfing

text: Major competitive disciplines include slalom, wave and freestyle. Increasingly, "foiling" is replacing traditional events and the IQfoil class is the new olympic windsurfing racing class for France in 2024.


title: Windsurfing

text: Jim Drake invented and co-patented windsurfing in California between 1967 and 1970. Alternative concepts by European Peter Chilvers and American Newman Darby are recognized as earlier sailboards. Drake was educated and trained as an aeronautical engineer at Stanford University. He spent his early years surfing, sailing and skiing. He conceived windsurfing to combine the simplicity of skiing with the pleasures of sailing. Mr. Drake is known historically as "The Father of Windsurfing." Drake's patented invention was marketed and sold under the brand name "Windsurfer" for over 20 years by a company he cofounded with Hoyle Schweitzer called Windsurfing International.


title: Windsurfing

text: Windsurfing's popularity saw explosive growth in the 1970s and 1980s. Initially in Europe, then in North America. The sport began to take off in popularity around 1972 and by the end of the 1970s it was the fastest growing sport in the world. Originally, all windsurfing boards were "long boards". This type of board went relatively slower through the water, but worked well in low wind conditions. Light air, long board windsurfing was enjoyed by a wide range of participants including families with young children.


title: Windsurfing

text: During the 1980s a global community consisting of equipment designers, manufacturers, athletes, travel professionals and journalists worked together to propel windsurfing forward. Innovation allowed for the development of stiff, light weight planing short boards, foot straps, harnesses and more stable sails. Windsurfing shattered the world speed sailing record. Windsurfing's retail momentum eventually slowed with the arrival of newer action sports. By the 1990s closely related action sports such as mountain biking, snowboarding, stand up paddle boarding (SUP) and kite boarding all directly competed for popularity with windsurfing. Many windsurfing schools closed, or switched to teaching kite boarding and currently teach mostly wing foiling.


title: Windsurfing

text: After some lean years in the 2000s, the sport has seen a steady revival through the explosion of foiling.


title: Windsurfing

text: Modern windsurfing, as a sport and recreational activity, did not emerge until the latter half of the 20th century. The earliest version of a sailboard design utilizing a freely articulating sail on top of a board was created in 1962 by American Newman Darby. Independently, engineer Jim Drake invented and co-patented the version we all know today and called it Windsurfing- a new new concept in sailing.


title: Windsurfing

text: Long before this modern moment, there were small scale sailing craft that have used wind as the driving force, many of them sourced to the Polynesians who have been riding the wind and waves for centuries. Early accounts suggest island peoples were undertaking day trips over oceans standing upright on a solid board with a vertical sail. In the early 19th century, people in logging communities around western Lake Michigan were purportedly fixing sails to logs as part of log float control and for recreation.


title: Windsurfing

text: In 1948, 20-year-old Newman Darby was the first to conceive the idea of using a handheld sail and rig mounted on a universal joint so that he could control his small catamaran—the first rudderless sailboard ever built that allowed a person to steer by shifting his or her weight in order to tilt the sail fore and aft. Darby filed for a patent but lacked the funds to resubmit. However, he is widely recognized as its inventor as well as the first to conceive, design, and build a sailboard with a universal joint. In his own words, Darby experimented throughout much of the 1950s and 1960s and it was not until 1963 that an improved sailboard with a conventional stayed sloop rig sail arrangement made it more stable than the one built in 1948. S. Newman Darby created his first product for a wider market in 1964 that he called the "Darby sailboard" on the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, United States. While Darby's "sailboard" incorporated a pivoting rig, it was "square rigged" or "kite rigged" and was subject to the associated limitations. The sailboard was operated with the sailor's back to the lee side of a kite-shaped sail. Darby's article stated that "you can learn to master a type of maneuvering that's been dead since the age of the picturesque square riggers". He began selling his sailboards in 1964. The main focus of his company, Darby Industries, was to sell plans such that any school-age child could build one for under $50. Rather than building personal wealth, his focus was to introduce youth to the sport of sailing in even very shallow water. A promotional article by Darby was published in the August 1965 edition of "Popular Science" magazine. Darby died in 2016 reportedly feeling pleased with the recognition he received for having played a key role in the start of windsurfing.


title: Windsurfing

text: One evening at a small house party in Santa Monica, California in 1966 Stanford educated Aeronautical engineer Jim Drake shared his idea of creating a sail powered surfboard with a neighborhood friend named Hoyle Schweitzer. Drake, together with fellow aeronautical engineer Fred Payne, had come up with the idea 4 years earlier and were still thinking through some of the engineering details and had not yet built a working prototype. Drake's interest in creating windsurfing was based on solving an engineering puzzle. His goal was to design a portable wind propelled personal water craft that was like waterskiing without a boat. He envisioned it being used by his whole family during their spare time, which was often spent waterskiing, sailing and surfing. His design challenge was creating a new type of lightweight portable sail craft, whereby the sailor stood upright on a large surfboard while holding directly onto a small sail. Originally he designed it to be propelled by a hand held kite wing rather than a sail, but soon decided a movable sail was more practical.


title: Windsurfing

text: After learning of Drake's revolutionary sailing concept, Schweitzer became quite interested in its potential for profitability. He encouraged Drake to build a functional prototype for testing. From the outset, the two men were motivated by different forces. Drake agreed to allow Schweitzer to join him on a shared patent mainly because Schweitzer agreed to pay 100% of the application fees and legal costs as well as finance most of the prototype's construction materials. Drake and Schweitzer collaborated more as friends than business partners, as no formal business partnership was ever signed. Drake incorrectly assumed that because they were joined on the patent, they were automatically joined legally in business. As a team, Drake came up with the original concept, designed, hand built and tested the first windsurfers and can be wholly credited as the sports inventor. Schweitzer's role was different. He was not directly involved in the sport's original conception and played no substantive role in the engineering either - he was the business engine that fueled its early growth. Although both men's names appear on the patent, Schweitzer's role was more co-patent holder rather than co-inventor. He was the aggressive businessman who pushed Drake early on in the process to complete the design project, got it successfully patented and began marketing and selling it for profit. Drake can be well regarded as the sport's inventor, while Schweitzer can be regarded for his role in widely promoting the Windsurfer brand, creating a successful one design racing class and helping create the nascent windsurfing industry.


title: Windsurfing

text: Years later, in 2002, when the Professional Windsurfing Association (PWA) inducted both Drake and Schweitzer into the Windsurfing Hall of Fame, they called Drake "The Father of Windsurfing" for his role as inventor and egalitarian figure head throughout his lifetime, and called Schweitzer "the man who brought windsurfing to the masses" based on his efforts to promote the Windsurfer brand's popularity. It was a brief but productive collaboration between a talented engineer and a motivated businessman that together created the modern sport of windsurfing. Drake has stated in various interviews that he recognizes Darby and Chilvers as early sailboard pioneers and sees himself as the sports "re-inventor".


title: Windsurfing

text: Drake is known historically as one of the world's top aeronautical engineers. He was also an expert craftsman in his spare time. He combined both skills to conceive and build the world's first windsurfer prototype. First, he carefully engineered a mathematical simulation of his concept based on the physics of windsurfing. He then crafted nearly all of the windsurfer prototype components by hand in his Santa Monica, California home garage in January 1967. He built the wishbone boom, daggerboard and mast foot from laminated strips of teak wood. He custom designed and built a wood press jig for shaping the curve into the wishbone boom. The universal joint was built by reconfiguring a commercially available sailboat swivel joint constructed from heavy duty marine stainless steel with additional teflon components. Drake engineered the custom sail, which was made from Dacron sail cloth and cut and sewn by sail maker Bob Broussard into a triangular Bermuda rig. The custom board Drake engineered required a greater amount of displacement volume for floatation than was found in a traditional surfboard so an extra large custom built foam blank was constructed by Gordon "Grubby" Clark of Clark foam and shaped by Jim Drake and Gary Seaman at the Con Surfboard factory in Santa Monica, California. A repurposed hollow fiberglass mast was taken from a small "Flipper" racing dingy rig.


title: Windsurfing

text: To gather the needed materials, Drake carefully instructed Schweitzer what raw materials to purchase such as an extra large foam blank to build the board and a hollow fiberglass mast for the sail. Drake completed construction of the prototype in his own garage during his spare time within a few months.


title: Windsurfing

text: Drake's question came down to simple operation of how a standing person could control both the power of the sail as well as the direction of the craft without a rudder. Drake discovered that one's ability to rotate the sail's position relative to the board could allow control of both power and direction. Experimenting with a rotational design, he invented the concept for the universal joint. Drake completed his engineering concept with a wishbone boom, a daggerboard, mast, mast foot, triangular sail and fin. Interestingly, because Drake always envisioned in his mind the sailor standing on the board with the sail in their hands, he originally forgot to include a rope, now called an uphaul, which allows the sailor to pull the sail from the water. His first day on the water was made more difficult without this essential item, but by the second day he had invented that part as well.


title: Windsurfing

text: On May 21, 1967, Jim Drake, along with his wife Wendy and daughter Stephanie, went to Marina del Rey's Jamaica Bay to make history with the world's first modern sailboard.


title: Windsurfing

text: Returning to Marina del Rey one week later, this time with the skeg and uphaul, Drake succeeded at sailing the board the way he designed it to be used. With his confidence buoyed from multiple days of practice in the protected bay, Drake next took his sailboard onto the open ocean at Will Rogers State Beach in Santa Monica, California. Drake subsequently taught Schweitzer how to windsurf and soon the sport was launched.


title: Windsurfing

text: Originally Drake and Schweitzer wanted to name their new sailboard concept "Skate" (SK8), however changed the name to "Baja Board" in early 1968. Schweitzer was marketing a prototype of the Baja Board in Seattle, when Bert Salisbury stopped his car to have a look, and commented: "Gee I have the perfect name for it! Windsurfing!" The name was soon changed to Windsurfer, sold by the company Windsurfing International.


title: Windsurfing

text: The details of Jim Drake's original windsurfing concept were published in 1969 by Drake's employer at the time, the RAND Corporation, in a technical paper written and presented by him titled Windsurfing - A New Concept in Sailing." Further details can be read in published interviews. Despite forty years of subsequent development, the design is still remarkably similar to today's windsurfing equipment, and the word "windsurfer" has become synonymous with the sport itself.


title: Windsurfing

text: Jim Drake and Hoyle Schweitzer started the sport's first company, Windsurfing International, in late 1968 out of Drake's Santa Monica, California home. Both men were employed full time outside of their startup windsurfing business and so windsurfing was little more than an experimental hobby for them at that time. Drake and his wife Wendy, along with Schweitzer and his wife Diane worked closely together in their spare time to create a marketable framework for their new sport. Jim and Wendy created the business's name and iconic logo while Diane and Hoyle started a magazine and launched a one design racing class. Very soon afterward Drake was called away from his home in California during the height of the Cold War "to serve his country" 2000 miles away in Washington DC. Around this same time Schweitzer's computer programming career crashed.


title: Windsurfing

text: While temporarily relocated to the East Coast, Drake led team of top level military specialists and aeronautical engineers at The Pentagon. He found himself tasked with creating a new global missile defense system and designing some of the world's first experimental rocket planes. While Drake was away for two years immersed in his top secret work on the other side of the country, Schweitzer seized upon the opportunity to produce windsurfers as his new career. He quickly worked to forge a profitable windsurfing business back on the West Coast without including his partner Drake. Once the co-patent was granted, Schweitzer quietly chose to unilaterally incorporate Windsurfing International and began collecting licensing fees for the production of over 100,000 boards in Europe without ever informing Drake. Schweitzer concealed from Drake the somewhat large profits he was beginning to make from selling the boards Drake had invented. Observers believe it was always Schweitzer's plan to keep Drake uniformed of the large profit potential long enough to misrepresent and under value the real worth of the patent so that Schweitzer could buy out Drake's half of the patent for as little as possible. When Drake discovered Schweitzer's unkind actions he was deeply confused and angered. Drake, who trusted him as a close family friend was shocked that Schweitzer would deceive him in this way. Drake somehow wanted to believe that Schweitzer and his family were still trusted friends and Drake was not interested in forfeiting his half of the patent. However Schweitzer and his attorneys would continue for 5 years to aggressively pressure Drake to sell his half of the patent to Windsurfing International in order to secure a lucrative monopoly on future royalties.


title: Windsurfing

text: By 1973, Drake, finding himself consumed with a high level aeronautical engineering career, raising six children, and having little time and energy to dedicate to broken friendships or the business of windsurfing, reluctantly sold his half of the patent to Windsurfing International in 1974 for the sum of $36,000 This allowed Schweitzer to continue building a profitable windsurfing empire for himself and for Drake to concentrate fully on family, and his work related to protecting the United States' national defense interests.


title: Windsurfing

text: Windsurfing International, registered the term "Windsurfer" as a trademark at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1973, launching the craft as a popular international one-design racing class. Going one-design was influenced by the desire to provide a fleet of racers with a uniformly constructed "boat" so that rider skill, rather than equipment choice, would determine competitive results. The Windsurfer one design class was based the success of the Laser and Hobie Cat classes. Each Windsurfer had an identical computer-cut sail, a technology new at that time and pioneered by Ian Bruce.


title: Windsurfing

text: On March 27, 1968, Jim Drake, an aeronautical engineer, and Hoyle Schweitzer, a businessman filed the very first windsurfing patent, which was granted by the USPTO in 1970.


title: Windsurfing

text: Through the seventies, and early eighties windsurfing was the fastest growing sport on earth. Schweitzer aggressively protected his patent around the world through Sub-licensing the rights to anyone who wanted to manufacture and sell sailboards. Windsurfing International's usurious royalty fee charges, which its competitors were forced to pay, were so high that many observers felt it needlessly limited the growth of the sport. Mr. Schweitzer claimed this was to promote his brand and the Windsurfer One Design racing class, but most believed it was so he could maximize his own profits. The sport underwent very rapid growth however, particularly in Europe after the sale of a sub-license sold to Ten Cate Sports in the Netherlands. In 1975 Ten Cate Sports sold 45,000 boards in Europe.


title: Windsurfing

text: At the same time, Schweitzer also sought to defend his patent rights vigorously against unauthorized manufacturers. This led to a host of predating windsurfer-like devices being presented to courts around the world by companies disputing Windsurfing International's rights to the invention.


title: Windsurfing

text: In 1979, Schweitzer licensed Brittany, France-based company Dufour Wing, which was later merged with Tabur Marine – the precursor of Bic Sport. Europe was now the largest growing market for windsurfers, and the sub-licensed companies – Tabur, F2, Mistral – wanted to find a way to remove or reduce their royalty payments to Windsurfing International.


title: Windsurfing

text: Tabur lawyers found prior art, in a local English newspaper which had published a story with a picture about Peter Chilvers, who as a young boy on Hayling Island on the south coast of England, assembled his first board combined with a sail, in 1958. This board used a universal joint, one of the key parts of the Windsurfing International's patent. They also found stories published about the 1948 invention of the sailboard by Newman Darby and his wife Naomi in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.


title: Windsurfing

text: In "Windsurfing International Inc. v Tabur Marine (GB) Ltd. 1985 RPC 59" with Tabur backed financially by French sailing fan Baron Marcel Bich, British courts recognized the prior art of Peter Chilvers. It did not incorporate the curved wishbone booms of the modern windsurfer, but rather a "straight boom" that became curved in use. The courts found that the Schweitzer windsurfer boom was "merely an obvious extension". This court case set a precedent for patent law in the United Kingdom, in terms of inventive step and non-obviousness; the court upheld the defendant's claim that the Schweitzer patent was invalid, based on film footage of Chilvers. Schweitzer then sued the company in Canada, where the opposition team again financially backed by Bic included Chilvers and Jim Drake, and Schweitzer lost again. After the cases, no longer obliged to pay Windsurfing International any royalty payments, the now renamed Bic Sport became one of the world's larger producers of windsurfing equipment, with an annual production of 15,000 boards.


title: Windsurfing

text: There is no evidence that Schweitzer or Drake had knowledge of any prior inventions similar to theirs. Drake accepted in retrospect that, although he can be credited with the invention, he was "probably no better than third," behind mid-west based Newman Darby and Englishman Peter Chilvers. The battle over the origin story of the sport would go on to cause much legal grief for the global sporting phenomenon for much of the 1980s.


title: Windsurfing

text: In 1983, Schweitzer sued. Swiss board manufacturer Mistral and lost. Mistral's defense hinged on the work of US inventor Newman Darby, who by 1965 conceived the "sailboard": a hand-held square rigged "kite" sail on a floating platform for recreational use.


title: Windsurfing

text: Eventually US courts recognized the Schweitzer windsurfer as an obvious step from Darby's prior art. Schweitzer had to reapply for a patent under severely limited terms, and finally it expired in 1987. Shortly thereafter, having lost its license royalty income, Windsurfing International ceased operations.


title: Windsurfing

text: In 1984, Australian courts determined a patent case: "Windsurfing International Inc & Anor v Petit & Anor" (also part reported in 3 IPR 449 or [1984] 2 NSWLR 196), which attributed the first legally accepted use of a split boom to an Australian boy, Richard Eastaugh. Between the ages of ten and thirteen, from 1946 to 1949, aided by his younger brothers, he built around 20 galvanized iron canoes and hill trolleys which he equipped with sails with split bamboo booms. He sailed these in a sitting position and not as a windsurfer standing up, near his home on the Swan River in Perth. The judge noted that, ""Mr Eastaugh greatly exaggerated the capacity of his galvanised iron canoes to sail to windward"" and that, ""There is no corroboration of Mr Eastaugh's experiences by any other witness. Neither of his brothers or his father was called"".


title: Windsurfing

text: It is acknowledged in the courts that the separate Eastaugh (1946–1949), Darby (1965) and Chilvers (1958) inventions pre-dated the Schweitzer/Drake patent (1968).


title: Windsurfing

text: By the late 1980s the sport was massive and in the midst of a full-blown marketing and legal battle between the original market in the US, and the exploding European markets. This epic legal battle laid the ground for a still running rivalry between the European and American hemispheres.


title: Windsurfing

text: Windsurfing International briefly claimed trademark rights with respect to the word "windsurfer". While this was registered in the United States for some years, it was not accepted for registration in many jurisdictions as the word was considered too descriptive. Registration was ultimately lost in the United States for the same reason. Eventually the sport became known widely as either sailboarding or windsurfing.


title: Windsurfing

text: Windsurfers are often classified as either shortboards or longboards. Longboards are usually longer than 3 meters, with a retractable daggerboard, and are optimized for lighter winds or course racing. Shortboards are less than 3 meters long and are designed for planing conditions.


title: Windsurfing

text: While windsurfing is possible under a wide range of wind conditions, most intermediate and advanced recreational windsurfers prefer to sail in conditions that allow for consistent planing with multi-purpose, not overly specialized, free-ride equipment. Larger (100 to 140 liters) free-ride boards are capable of planing at wind speeds as low as if rigged with an adequate, well-tuned sail in the six to eight square meter range. The pursuit of planing in lower winds has driven the popularity of wider and shorter boards, with which planing is possible in wind as low as , if sails in the 10 to 12 square meter range are used.


title: Windsurfing

text: Modern windsurfing boards can be classified into many categories: The original "Windsurfer" board had a body made out of polyethylene filled with PVC foam. Later, hollow glass-reinforced epoxy designs were used. Most boards produced today have an expanded polystyrene foam core reinforced with a composite sandwich shell, that can include carbon fiber, kevlar, or fiberglass in a matrix of epoxy and sometimes plywood and thermoplastics. Racing and wave boards are usually very light (5 to 7 kg), and are made out of carbon sandwich. Such boards are very stiff, and veneer is sometimes used to make them more shock-resistant. Boards aimed at the beginners are heavier (8 to 15 kg) and more robust, containing more fiberglass.


title: Windsurfing

text: Modern windsurfing sails are often made of monofilm (clear polyester film), dacron (woven polyester) and mylar. Areas under high load may be reinforced with kevlar.


title: Windsurfing

text: Two designs of a sail are predominant: camber induced and rotational. Cambered sails have 1–5 camber inducers - plastic devices at the ends of battens which cup against the mast. They help create a rigid aerofoil shape for faster speed and stability, but at the cost of maneuverability and how light the sail feels. The trend is that racier sails have camber inducers while wave sails and most recreational sails do not. The rigidity of the sail is also determined by a number of "battens".


title: Windsurfing

text: Beginners' sails often do not have "battens", so they are lighter and easier to use in light winds. However, as the sailor improves, a battened sail will provide greater stability in stronger winds.


title: Windsurfing

text: Rotational sails have "battens" which protrude beyond the back aspect of the mast. They flip or "rotate" to the other side of the mast when tacking or jibing, hence the rotation in the name. Rotational sails have an aerofoil shape on the leeward side when powered, but are nearly flat when sheeted out (unpowered). In comparison with cambered sails, rotational designs offer less power and stability when sailing straight, but are easier to handle when maneuvering. Rotational sails are usually lighter and easier to rig.


title: Windsurfing

text: A windsurfing sail is tensioned at two points: at the tack (by downhaul), and at the clew (by outhaul). There is a set of pulleys for downhauling at the tack, and a grommet at the clew. Most shape is given to the sail by applying a very strong downhaul, which by design bends the mast. The outhaul tension is relatively weak, mostly providing leverage for controlling the sail's angle of attack.


title: Windsurfing

text: The sail is tuned by adjusting the downhaul and the outhaul tension. Generally, a sail is trimmed more (flatter shape) for stronger winds. More downhaul tension loosens the upper part of the leech, allowing the top of the sail to twist and "spill" wind during gusts, shifting the center of effort (strictly, the center of pressure) down. Releasing downhaul tension shifts the center of effort up. More outhaul lowers the camber/draft, making the sail flatter and easier to control, but less powerful; less outhaul results in more draft, providing more low-end power, but usually limiting speed by increasing aerodynamic resistance.


title: Windsurfing

text: The disciplines of windsurfing (wave, freestyle, freeride) require different sails. Wave sails are reinforced to survive the surf, and are nearly flat when depowered to allow riding waves. Freestyle sails are also flat when depowered, and have high low-end power to allow quick acceleration. Freeride sails are all-rounders that are comfortable to use and are meant for recreational windsurfing. Race sails provide speed at the expense of qualities like comfort or maneuverability.


title: Windsurfing

text: The size of the sail is measured in square meters and can be from 3 m to 5.5 m for wave sails and 6 m to 15 m for race sails, with ranges for freestyle and freeride sails spanning somewhere between these extremes. Learning sails for children can be as small as 0.7 m and race sails up to 15 m.


title: Windsurfing

text: A sailboard is powered and controlled by the coordinated movements of the sail about its uni-joint and of the sailor around the board. This is achieved by balancing the weight of the sailor against the wind pressure in the sail, while adjusting both factors relative to the board. Learning this involves the development of reflexes and "muscle memory" similar to the process of learning to ride a bicycle. These skills are typically and optimally done on large, buoyant boards in light winds on flat water. Depending on wind conditions and the skill or intentions of the rider, at some point the sailboard will begin planing, resulting in a rapid increase in speed. This higher speed requires the learning of new skills as the apparent wind changes and the board becomes steerable like a surfboard.


title: Windsurfing

text: Learning is a strenuous activity with many falls into the water, climbs back onto the board and repeating. The time taken to reach the point of significant enjoyment varies greatly.


title: Windsurfing

text: Windsurfing is suitable for children as young as 5, with several board and sail brands producing "Kids Rigs" to accommodate these short and light weight windsurfers. In some countries, organisations exist to provide entry into the sport in a semi-formal or club-style environment (i.e. The RYA's Team 15 scheme). Robert (Robby) Naish took up the fledgling sport of windsurfing at the age of 11, and in 1976 won his first overall World Championship title at the age of 13.


title: Windsurfing

text: The board moves through the water – much like a sailing boat does – using an extendable centreboard (if available) and fin or skeg for stability and lateral resistance. The centreboard is retracted at broad points of sail, again similarly to a sailing boat, to allow for jibing control. In these conditions windsurf boards also tack and jibe like a sailing boat.


title: Windsurfing

text: Directional control is achieved by moving the rig either forward (turning away from the wind) or aft (turning towards the wind). When jibing, the clew of the sail is let around and allowed to rotate out and around the mast.


title: Windsurfing

text: Fall recovery: The rider climbs onto the board, grabs the pulling rope ("uphaul"), makes sure the mast foot is placed between his/her two feet, pulls the sail about one third out of the water, lets the wind turn the sail-board combination until he/she has the wind right in the back, pulls the sail all the way out, places the "mast hand" (hand closest to the mast) on the boom, pulls the mast over the center line of the board, places the "sail hand" (hand furthest from the mast) on the boom, then pulling on it to close the sail and power it.


title: Windsurfing

text: In planing conditions a harness is typically worn to more efficiently use the rider's weight to counter the force in the sail. As the wind increases, the rider continues to sheet the sail, the fin generates more lift, and the board gains speed, transitioning onto a "plane". The volume of board in the water ("displacement") decreases, and the rider moves rearward, stepping into the footstraps for improved control. When planing, the board skims on the surface rather than displacing water as it moves. Planing can be achieved at different wind speeds depending on the rider's weight, sail and fin size, wave conditions, and rider ability. With modern equipment planing can normally be achieved at a wind speed of around . The transition from displacement motion to planing requires a jump in energy, but once planing, water resistance decreases dramatically. This means that it is possible to continue to plane, although the wind has dropped below a level that would be required to transition to plane. A board in plane can be much smaller than a board moving by displacement (thereby gaining an advantage in gear weight and board control). Lateral resistance to the wind is provided by the fin alone (generating more lift at higher speeds) and a centreboard is no longer used (smaller boards do not have one). A fin generates lift, transferring a strong load to the board, and so is usually constructed of carbon fiber for accurate shape and strength. A low-pressure area develops on the windward side of the fin, which can lead to cavitation, leading to a sudden loss of lift, called "spin-out" (equivalent to "stalling" in flight terminology). Ideal planing conditions for most recreational riders is of wind, but experts can windsurf in much windier conditions. Planing is considered one of the most exhilarating aspects of the sport.


title: Windsurfing

text: Steering is mainly achieved by changing the center of lateral resistance located along the daggerboard or fin through rotating the sail either fore and aft. Unlike fixed mast sail a boat, windsurfing is rudderless and uses the universal joint to allow steering the board with the sail alone. Jibing is done at full speed (a so-called "carve jibe", "power jibe" or "planing jibe"), whereby the rider turns downwind by leaning the sail forward, sheeting and applying pressure to the inside rail. Leaning into the turn much like a snowboarder making a toe-side turn. Pressure is released from the sail as the board turns downwind, allowing for the sail to be jibed. Tacking is turning around going upwind, and at higher speed has become an advanced maneuver, requiring quick movements and good balance. A heel-side turn while planing (called a "cut-back") is usually only executed in wave riding.


title: Windsurfing

text: Water-start: In strong winds it is difficult to uphaul the sail (pulling it out of the water while standing on the board) so "waterstarting" is necessary. This is done (while water treading) by positioning the mast perpendicular to the wind, lifting the luff out of the water to allow the wind to catch the sail, and then having the sail pull the sailor onto the board. As the sail becomes powered, it is then trimmed to bring the rider, board, and sail back onto a plane. Occasionally a rider may be unable to waterstart if the wind has dropped. If this happens the rider can wait for a gust and ""pump"" the sail to get back on the board. If this becomes hopeless uphauling the sail will be necessary.


title: Windsurfing

text: Windsurfing has been one of the Olympic sailing events at the Summer Olympics since 1984 for men and 1992 for women. Olympic Windsurfing uses 'One Design' boards, with all sailors using the same boards, daggerboards, fins and sails. The equipment is chosen to allow racing in a wide range of sailing conditions The former Olympic class, the was used for the first time in the 2008 Summer Olympics. For 2024 the new Olympic Class windsurfer will use advanced foil technology with the radical new iQFoil one design class.


title: Windsurfing

text: These offer hugely popular class racing around the world thanks to relative low cost, the same gear is competitive for many years with no class changes, added fun of competition that allows intermediates to race on the same gear as the best athletes and thus these are the most social of all racing classes. The most popular one design classes are the original WINDSURFER class, the long running Mistral One Design, the Youth development class Bic-Techno and the rapidly expanding new iQFoil.


title: Windsurfing

text: Formula windsurfing has developed over the last 15 years in order to facilitate high-performance competition in light and moderate winds. Formula is now a class of windsurfing boards controlled by World Sailing that has the principal characteristic of a maximum 1m width. They have a single fin of maximum length 70 cm and carry sails up to 12.5 m. Class rules allow sailors to choose boards produced by multiple manufacturers, as long as they are certified as Formula boards and registered with ISAF, and use fins and sails of different sizes. With the sail, fin and board choices, the equipment is able to be tailored to suit sailors of all body shapes and formula windsurfing presents one of the fastest course-racing sailing craft on the water. Formula Windsurfing is popular in many locations around the globe with predominantly light winds and flat water.


title: Windsurfing

text: Large sails in combination with the 'wide-style' design allow planing in very low wind conditions as well as control and usability in high winds and bigger sea conditions. Non-planing sailing is very difficult with this design and racing is only conducted with a strict wind minimum in place. Formula boards are used on "flat water" as opposed to coastal surf, but racing is still held in windy conditions involving swell and chop. In 2008, a Formula Windsurfing Grand-Prix World Tour began, with events in Europe and South America complementing the single-event World Championships as a professional tour for the Formula class.


title: Windsurfing

text: Formula boards have excellent upwind and downwind ability, but are not as comfortable on a beam reach unless fin sizes are reduced. This explains why the course is usually a box with longer upwind and downwind legs, or just a simple upwind-downwind return course.


title: Windsurfing

text: Raceboards are longer windsurf boards with a daggerboard and movable mast rail allowing the sailor to be efficient on all points of sail. Excellent upwind ability is combined with good reaching and even downwind ability typically sailed in an Olympic triangle course. Whilst in decline in manufacture since the advent of shortboard course racing (which evolved into Formula) there remains some models in production and most notably the IMCO One Design remains popular amongst amateur racing clubs.


title: Windsurfing

text: Slalom boards are small and narrow, and require high winds. Funboard class racing rules require winds of for the slalom event to take place.


title: Windsurfing

text: There are 3 major Ocean Slalom Marathons in the world: The Defi-Wind in France, The Lancelin Ocean Classic in Western Australia, and the Hatteras Marathon in the USA.


title: Windsurfing

text: This discipline is a cross between freestyle and slalom. Competitors race on a short downwind slalom course, must duck jibe on all turns, and are required to perform several tricks along the way. Competitors are required to wear protective equipment. The Super X discipline was short lived and is now largely unpracticed; it reached its peak in the early 2000s,


title: Windsurfing

text: Speedsailing takes place in several forms. The International Speed Windsurfing Class (ISWC) organizes (under the umbrella of World Sailing) competitions in various locations around the world known for conditions suitable for good speeds. The events are made up of heats sailed on a 500m course. The average of each sailor's best 2 speeds on the 500m course, which is typically open for 2 hours per heat, is their speed for that heat. As such it is possible for the sailor with the outright fastest time not to win the heat if his second best time pulls his average down. Points are given for the placings in the heats and the overall event winner is the sailor with the best point score (again not necessarily the fastest sailor). Likewise points are given for places in the events and at the last event a World Speedsurfing Champion is crowned.


title: Windsurfing

text: On record attempts controlled by the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) competitors complete timed runs on a 500m or 1 nautical mile (1,852m) course. The current 500m record (for Windsurfers) is held by French windsurfer Antoine Albeau. The women's 500m Record is held By Zara Davis, from England, also in Luderitz. The Men's nautical mile record is held by Bjorn Dunkerbeck and the women's mile record is held by Zara Davis both set in Walvis Bay, Namibia


title: Windsurfing

text: With the advent of cheap and small GPS units and the website www.gps-speedsurfing.com, Speedsurfers have been able to organise impromptu competitions amongst themselves as well as more formal competitions such as the European Speed Meetings and Speedweeks/fortnights in Australia. With over 5000 sailors registered it is possible for windsurfers all over the world to compare speeds.


title: Windsurfing

text: "In 1990 indoor windsurfing was born with the Palais Omnisports de Paris – Bercy making its spectacular debut. It was during this first indoor event that Britain's Nik Baker, from the south coast, flourished and went on to add a whopping x6 Indoor World Championships to his name".


title: Windsurfing

text: Indoor windsurfing competitions are held, especially in Europe, during winter. Powerful fans lined up along the side of a large pool, propel the windsurfers. Indoor competition disciplines include slalom style races and ramp jumping competitions. It is extremely dangerous because the pool is barely one meter deep and is surrounded by concrete.


title: Windsurfing

text: World Champion Jessica Crisp has had arguably the worst injury in the history of the indoor events when, during a warm up session jumping the ramp, she snapped her leg and had to have emergency surgery in a French hospital. This was at the height of her professional career and fame across Europe.


title: Windsurfing

text: The most famous indoor champions include Robert Teriitehau, Jessica Crisp, Robby Naish, Nick Baker, Eric Thieme, and Nathalie LeLievre.


title: Windsurfing

text: Wave sailing took off during the rapid development of windsurfing on the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Maui. It can be seen as comprising two distinct (but related) parts, wave riding and wave jumping.


title: Windsurfing

text: A typical wave contest will score two jumps going out and two wave rides coming in. A high scoring heat would consist of a double clean forward rotating jump, a high one foot backward rotating jump, a long wave ride with flowing bottom turns, radical top turns, a series of aerials and a 360 aerial manoeuvre on the face of the waves such as a 'goiter', 'taka', wave 360, planing forward or clean flowing back-loop. Depending on the conditions at the location, some competitions will focus more on jumping while others focus more on the wave-riding aspects.


title: Windsurfing

text: The most famous wave riding locations on earth include: Ho'okipa on the north shore of Maui, Diamond Head on Oahu, Klitmøller in Denmark, Pozo and Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Cabo Verde off the north west coast of Africa, Moulay in Morocco, Margaret River in Western Australia, Pacasmayo in Peru, Topocalma in Chile, and Omaezaki in Japan.


title: Windsurfing

text: The World Cup Wavesailing competitions crown the professional world champions each year. One of the most prestigious events in the windsurfing world is called The Aloha Classic at Ho'okipa Beach on the north shore of Maui, Hawaii.


title: Windsurfing

text: The Aloha Classic held at Ho'okipa Beach Park on the north shore of Maui, takes place each year in late October and early November for the best wind and wave conditions and it is common to have 15–20 foot wave faces during the contest. Since 2011 the event has been run by the International Windsurfing Tour (IWT)[3] as the Grand Final of the IWT Wave Tour. The IWT is the Hawaiian-based organisation for the wave riders of the Asia Pacific hemisphere. The Aloha Classic has often been the final event of the Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA)[4] crowning the PWA Wave World Champions.


title: Windsurfing

text: Wave riding is a form of surfing with the extra speed and power afforded by the sail. It is strongly connected to its roots in surfing in style and culture. It involves the rider performing a series of bottom turns, top turns, and cutbacks whilst riding an unbroken wave back to the shore. Top wave sailors are able to incorporate aerial moves into their wave riding and will use overhanging wave lips to launch themselves out in front of the wave in spectacular giant aerials.


title: Windsurfing

text: Wave jumping involves stunts of varying levels of difficulty which are performed after the rider has jumped from the peak of an unbroken wave. These are commonly referred to as aerial moves and include both forward rotation and backward rotations. The rider and his equipment rotate, doing single & double rotations and jumps where the sailor contorts his or her body and equipment. Recent innovations have included combining moves whilst airborne and, for the first time in 2008, one professional sailor, Ricardo Campello, has made attempts at a triple forward loop during a 2008 PWA competition.


title: Windsurfing

text: At the most extreme end of the sport is big wave riding which means riders on waves faces over 30 feet high. The most popular place for this is on the north shore of Maui at place called Pe'ahi to the local Hawaiians, and known as JAWS to the rest of the world. The biggest waves here can be up to 60 foot faces. It breaks only in the winter months from late October to March. Other famous big wave locations include Nazaré in Portugal. Famous contemporary big wave riders include Kai Lenny, Marcilio Browne, Robby Swift, Sarah Hauser, Jason Polakow, and Robby Naish. The inaugural Big Wave Challenge annojunced the first ever winners in this category on April 10, 2020.


title: Windsurfing

text: The most famous storm riding event is known as The Red Bull Storm Chase. It occurs only when there is a massive storm forecast with winds over 60 knots and giant waves over 20 feet. It is an invitational event and is extremely dangerous. The most recent winner was West Australian Jaeger Stone.


title: Windsurfing

text: Freestyle is a timed event which is judged. The competitor who has the greatest repertoire, or manages to complete most stunts, wins. Freestyle is about show and competitors are judged on their creativity. Both the difficulty and the number of tricks make up the final score. Sailors who perform tricks on both tacks (port and starboard), and perform the tricks fully planing score higher marks. High scoring moves include Shifty (Shaka Pushloop), Double Air-Culo, Air-Kabikuchi, Air-Skopu and double Power-Moves, for example Air-Funnel Burner and Double Culo. The latest freestyle windsurfing is well documented and gets constantly updated on Continentseven. For novice windsurfers, low-wind freestyle tricks are an appropriate start, such as sailing backwards with the fin out of the water, or transitioning from a sailing stance to sitting on the board while continuing to sail.


title: Windsurfing

text: Competitors compete to see who can record the highest jump or maneuver. A 3D accelerometer is worn to measure and record heights of the jumps. Xensr is a manufacturer of 3D accelerometers and promoter of the Big Air competition. It is a popular discipline on the Columbia River near the town of Hood River, Oregon, USA.


title: Windsurfing

text: Kiteboarding uses a large kite (around 9 to 20qsm) on 20+m lines for wind power. Due to the strong possible upward lift, smaller boards with no significant buoyancy are used.


title: Windsurfing

text: Wingsurfing or wing foiling uses a hand-held wing, a smaller version of a kite, to replace the sail. To offset the low wind power resulting from the comparatively small wing size (around 3 to 9 sqm), a Foilboard can be used.


title: Windsurfing

text: Windfoiling mounts in the fin box a hydrofoil which lifts the board off the water and improves speeds due to reduced drag.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: Saint Charles (commonly abbreviated St. Charles) is a city in, and the county seat of, St. Charles County, Missouri, United States. The population was 65,794 at the 2010 census, making St. Charles the ninth-largest city in Missouri. Situated on the Missouri River, St. Charles, Missouri is a northwestern suburb of St. Louis.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The city was founded circa 1769 as "Les Petites Côtes", or "The Little Hills" in French, by Louis Blanchette, a French-Canadian fur trader. This former French area west of the Mississippi River was nominally ruled by Spain following France's defeat in the Seven Years' War. France had ceded its eastern territories to Great Britain. St. Charles is the third-oldest city in Missouri. For a time, it played a significant role as a river port in the United States' westward expansion, including trade with Native American tribes on the upper Missouri River. It was the starting point of the Boone's Lick Road to the Boonslick.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: St. Charles was settled primarily by French-speaking colonists from Canada in its early days. In 1804 the Lewis and Clark Expedition considered this settlement the last "civilized" stop before they headed upriver to explore the western territory that the United States acquired from France in the Louisiana Purchase.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The city served as the first Missouri capital from 1821 to 1826. It is the site of the Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne shrine.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: Native American peoples inhabited the area at least as early as 11,000 B.C. When European colonists arrived, the area was inhabited by the historic Ilini, Osage and Missouri tribes.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: According to Hopewell's "Legends of the Missouri and Mississippi", Blanchette met another French Canadian (Bernard Guillet) at this site in 1765. Blanchette, determined to settle there, asked if Guillet, who had become an honorary chief of a Dakota band, had chosen a name for it.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: Blanchette settled there "circa" 1769 under the authority of the Spanish governor of Upper Louisiana (the area had been ceded by France to Spain under an agreement with Great Britain following French defeat in the French and Indian Wars). He was appointed as the territory's civil and military leader, serving until his death in 1793. Although the settlement was under Spanish jurisdiction, the settlers were primarily Native American and French Canadians who had migrated from northern territories. Most settlers spoke French.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: Considered to begin in St. Charles, the Boone's Lick Road along the Missouri River was the major overland route for European-American settlement of central and western Missouri. This area became known as the Boonslick or "Boonslick Country." At Franklin, the trail ended. Westward progress continued on the Santa Fe Trail.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The first church, built in 1791, was Catholic and dedicated to the Italian saint Charles Borromeo, under the Spanish version of his name, San Carlos Borromeo. The town became known as "San Carlos del Misuri" ("St. Charles of the Missouri"). The original location of the church is not known but a replica has been built just off Main Street. The fourth St. Charles Borromeo Church now stands on Fifth Street.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The Spanish Lieutenant-Governor Carlos de Hault de Lassus appointed Daniel Boone as commandant of the Femme Osage District. He served in this role until the United States government acquired control in 1804 following the Louisiana Purchase from France.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The name of the town, San Carlos, was anglicized to St. Charles. William Clark arrived in St. Charles on May 16, 1804. With him were 40 men and three boats; they made final preparations for their major cross-country expedition, as they waited for Meriwether Lewis to arrive from St. Louis. They attended dances, dinners, and a church service during this time. Excited to be part of the national expedition, the townspeople were very hospitable to the explorers. Lewis arrived via St. Charles Rock Road on May 20. The expedition launched the next day in a keel boat at 3:30 pm. St. Charles was the last established European-American town that the expedition visited for more than two and a half years.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: When Missouri was granted statehood in 1821, the legislature decided to build a "City of Jefferson" to serve as the state capital, in the center of the state, overlooking the Missouri River. Since this land was undeveloped at the time, a temporary capital was needed. St. Charles was chosen over eight other cities in a competition to house the temporary capital. It offered free meeting space for the legislature in rooms located above a hardware store. This building is preserved as the First Missouri State Capitol State Historic Site and may be toured. The Missouri government continued to meet there until buildings were completed in Jefferson City in 1826.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: Gottfried Duden was a German who visited in the area in 1824. Travelling under the guidance of Daniel M. Boone, he wrote extensive accounts of life in St. Charles County during his year there. He published these after returning to Germany in 1829, and his favorable impressions of the area led to the immigration of a number of Germans in 1833. The first permanent German settler in the region was probably Louis Eversman, who had arrived with Duden but decided to stay.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: In the post World War II era, the federal government undertook a major program of interstate highway construction. St. Charles is where the first claimed interstate project was started in 1956. A state highway marker is displayed with a logo and information regarding this claim, off Interstate 70 going westbound, to the right of the First Capitol Drive exit. Kansas and Pennsylvania also claim to have had the first interstate project.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: St. Charles is a charter city under the Missouri Constitution, with a City Council as the governing body. One member is elected for each of the ten wards, in an arrangement known as single-member districts, and each serves a three-year term.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The executive head of the City government is the Mayor for all legal and ceremonial purposes. Elected at-large for a four-year term, the Mayor appoints the members of the various Boards, Commissions, and Committees created by ordinance. The current mayor is Dan Borgmeyer; he was sworn in on May 7, 2019.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The City of St. Charles School District has six elementary schools, two middle schools, two high schools, and the Lewis & Clark Career Center located at 2400 Zumbehl Road. St. Charles High School (sometimes called SCHS or simply "High") was the first built (1895) of the two high schools. It first operated as a private military academy for boys.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: In the 1950s, it was acquired by the city and adapted as a public high school. St. Charles West (SCW or simply "West") was constructed in the late 1970s in response to the city's growing population. St. Charles West had its first graduation in 1979. St. Charles High School underwent renovation in 1995 to improve both the exterior and interior of the building. St. Charles West was renovated in 2005, and a new library and auxiliary gym were built. The city is also served by Jefferson Intermediate, which has all 5th and 6th grade classes, and Hardin Middle School, which has all 7th and 8th grade classes.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: A variety of private schools also operate here, each affiliated with a religious denomination. These include Immanuel Lutheran (Pre-K to 8), Zion Lutheran (Pre-K to 8), St. Charles Borromeo, St. Peter's, St. Cletus (K-8), Academy of the Sacred Heart (founded by Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, and the site of her shrine), Duchesne High School (formerly named St. Peter High school), and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton-St. Robert Bellarmine (K-8).


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: Other schools are associated with the Francis Howell and the Orchard Farm school districts, which also serve parts of St. Charles. Many students who live on the southern edge of St. Charles City attend Henderson, Becky David, or Harvest Ridge elementary schools, Barnwell Middle, and Francis Howell North High School. To the North, the Orchard Farm School District also serves St. Charles. Like the Francis Howell School District, it is based outside the city limits, and has two elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: Lindenwood University is located on Kingshighway, near downtown St. Charles and St. Charles High. Founded by Major George Sibley and his wife Mary in 1827 as a women's school named Lindenwood School for Girls, the institution is the second-oldest higher-education institution west of the Mississippi River. The private university is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: In the 21st century, LU is one of the fastest-growing universities in the Midwest. It enrolls close to 15,000 students. In 2006 it briefly attracted publicity when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals staged a small protest against its unusual tuition fee policies: in an effort to help rural students pay for higher education, LU allowed families to sell livestock to the school. The animals were slaughtered and processed for serving at campus dining halls. Lindenwood hosts 89.1 The Wood (KCLC), a commercial-free student-driven radio station.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: St. Charles was also home to the now defunct St. Charles College (which should not be confused with St. Charles Community College), and Vatterott College.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: According to the city's 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: Pharma Medica, a contract research and biotechnology corporation, opened its first U.S. location in 2013 in St. Charles. It began conducting clinical trials in February 2014. Its goal was to create 320 high tech jobs by early 2017.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: St. Charles lies near the eastern end of the Katy Trail, a long state park that was adapted from railroad right-of-way.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: Since the late 1970s, there has been rapid new home construction, commercial and population growth in the St. Charles area. The phrase "Golden Triangle" was coined by developers of this area in the 1980s, referring to the St. Charles County region bordered by highways Interstate 70, Interstate 64, and Route 94.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: St. Charles has a historic shopping district on Main Street. Numerous restored buildings house such tourist destinations as restaurants and various specialty stores. Since 2015, walking food tours on Historic Main Street can be taken through the company Dishing Up America. These tours take customers to the locally famous restaurants in the city.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The city has many special events and features related to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In 2007, St. Charles welcomed men's professional road bicycle racing riders and fans, as it served as the stage 5 final for the 2007 Tour of Missouri.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: While it does not offer a public golf course, the St. Charles Parks and Recreation System opened a dog park on the north side of the city as a part of DuSable Park-Bales Area in November 2006. This off-leash dog area has two sections – one for smaller dogs, one for larger.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The St. Charles Convention Center brings visitors, meetings and events to the city. The Family Arena, a county-owned 11,000-seat venue, was built in 1999 near the Missouri River. It is used by minor league sports franchises and hosts concerts and events.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The city has been home to several minor league sports teams. The Missouri River Otters hockey team of the United Hockey League, played from 1999 until the team folded in 2006. The River Otters played at the 11,000-seat Family Arena. The St. Louis Ambush is a professional indoor soccer team that plays in the Family Arena. The RiverCity Rage professional indoor football team played in St. Charles from 2001 until 2005, and from 2007 to 2009 before suspending operations for 2010. Since 2014 there is a new minor league soccer team in town, the St. Louis Ambush at the Family Arena.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The Riverfront and Main Street area in the St. Charles Historic District is a central gathering place and focal point for the community. The primary features of the riverfront and Historic Main Street are residences and businesses. Each block features shops, restaurants, and offices frequented by visitors and locals. Much is planned for the development and improvement of the area, including a northward extension of the Katy Trail, residential and commercial development, parking garage expansion, casino expansion, and development of hotels.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The "Christmas Traditions Festival", one of the nation's largest Christmas festivals, takes place on the streets of St. Charles annually. It starts the day after Thanksgiving and continues until the Saturday after Christmas. Over 30 costumed Legends of Christmas stroll the streets and interact with guests, while Victorian Era Christmas Carolers fill the air with old-fashioned carols. Every Saturday and Sunday, the Legends of Christmas and the Lewis & Clark Fife and Drum Corps take part in the Santa Parade as it heads up Historic South Main Street to the site of the First Missouri State Capitol.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: On the Fourth of July fireworks displays draw large numbers on two nights, July 4 and another night before or after the Fourth. Many bring blankets to sit near the riverfront. Others opt to view the festivities from the Old Courthouse. The festival, named Riverfest, has been sponsored by the city of St. Charles and organized by a volunteer committee formed of city residents and sponsoring private organization (like the Jaycees) leaders.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The Festival of the Little Hills is a historic St. Charles tradition that takes place every year in August, the third full weekend of the month. Started in 1971, this festival is known nationally as one of the top ten craft fairs. It runs through an entire weekend featuring great food, live entertainment, craft sales, and shows for kids. The festival is related to the famous Lewis & Clark expedition: many participants don clothing from the era and re-enact historic events. The city also encourages individuals to bring homemade crafts, jewelry, paintings, clothing and other items to sell at the festival.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: Oktoberfest, held near the river, celebrates the historic German influence on the city. Many vendors sell beer and other German goods. It includes a parade. Missouri Tartan Day is a celebration of Scottish American Heritage and Culture held each spring, coinciding as closely as possible with April 6. This is the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320. The Founding Fathers are said to have drawn from this document in drafting our own Constitution. The event features a parade with marching bagpipers from around the World and region, Scottish heavy athletics (caber toss, hammer throw, etc.), musical entertainment, traditional and contemporary foods and much fun. Highlights include the Kirkin' o' the Tartans (ceremony of blessing for the Scottish clans), displays of traditional Scottish clan Tartans, and demonstrations of traditional Scottish activities and games.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The Fete de Glace is an ice-carving competition and demonstration held on North Main Street in mid-January. The Missouri River Irish Festival is held every September in Frontier Park and on Main Street to celebrate Irish Heritage with music, dancing, storytelling, athletics, food, and fun. During Quilts on Main Street, hundreds of quilts are displayed outside the shops on storefronts and balconies. This event is held annually in September. The Bluegrass Festival in Frontier Park on the big stage of Jaycee's pavilion is held early in September every year, featuring local and regional acts. The MOSAICS Fine Art Festival is also held on Historic Main Street each September to showcase local, regional and national artists. LGBTQ+ organization Pride St. Charles holds an annual pride festival yearly in June, formerly at Blanchette Park and most recently at the St. Charles Family Arena.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: According to the FHA, St. Charles was the site of the first interstate highway project in the nation. Major highways include Interstates 64 and 70, Missouri 370, Missouri 94, and Missouri 364. Also see: St. Charles Area Transit


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The "St. Charles City Streetcar" was a proposed new heritage streetcar line to be built connecting the New Town, Missouri residential development to the heart of the city of St. Charles. This is a joint effort between Whittaker Builders, Inc, and the City of St. Charles and St. Charles Area Transit. A minimum of nine vintage PCC streetcars (not to be confused with cable cars), had been purchased from the San Francisco area by Whittaker Builders for use and spare parts. The project stalled, and in 2012, the streetcars purchased by Whittaker Builders were scrapped following a fire. Whittaker, a developer of the New Town project and principal partner with the city on the streetcar project, has since gone bankrupt, sealing the project's doom.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: St. Charles is located about 20 miles northwest of St. Louis. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: Saint Charles has a Köppen humid subtropical climate, with warm and humid summers (eventual hot days) and cool winters (with short cold spells possible sometimes). Precipitation is mostly light to moderate, with occasional stormy weather. Spring is the wettest season on average.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 65,794 people, 26,715 households, and 16,128 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 28,590 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 87.5% White, 5.9% African American, 0.3% Native American, 2.5% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.8% from other races, and 1.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.2% of the population.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: There were 26,715 households, of which 27.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.4% were married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.2% had a male householder with no wife present, and 39.6% were non-families. 31.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.90.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The median age in the city was 36.6 years. 19.7% of residents were under the age of 18; 13.8% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 25.9% were from 25 to 44; 26.6% were from 45 to 64; and 13.9% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.0% male and 51.0% female.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: According to 2014, American Community Survey 5-year Estimates the median income for a household in the city was $56,622, and the median income for a family was $73,234. Males had a median income of $51,477 versus $40,311 females. The per capita income for the city was $29,645. 8.8% of families and 11.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.7% of those under age 18 and 6.0% of those age 65 or over.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 60,321 people, 24,210 households, and 15,324 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 25,283 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 93.28% White, 3.48% African American, 0.27% Native American, 1.01% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.73% from other races, and 1.19% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.97% of the population.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: There were 24,210 households, out of which 30.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.4% were married couples living together, 10.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.7% were non-families. 29.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 2.98.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 23.4% under the age of 18, 12.0% from 18 to 24, 30.5% from 25 to 44, 22.0% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.7 males.


title: St. Charles, Missouri

text: The median income for a household in the city was $47,782, and the median income for a family was $60,175. Males had a median income of $40,827 versus $27,778 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,607. About 4.6% of families and 6.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.1% of those under age 18 and 5.9% of those age 65 or over.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: Bruce Rankin Matthews (born August 8, 1961) is an American former professional football player who played as guard, center, offensive tackle and long snapper in the National Football League (NFL) for 19 seasons, from 1983 to 2001. He spent his entire career playing for the Houston / Tennessee Oilers / Titans franchise. Highly versatile, throughout his NFL career he played every position on the offensive line, starting in 99 games as a left guard, 87 as a center, 67 as a right guard, 22 as a right tackle, 17 as a left tackle, and was the long snapper on field goals, PATs, and punts. Having never missed a game due to injury, his 293 NFL games started is the third most of all time, behind quarterbacks Brett Favre and Tom Brady.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: Matthews played college football for the University of Southern California, where he was recognized as a consensus All-American for the USC Trojans football team as a senior. He was selected in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft by the Oilers. He was a 14-time Pro Bowl selection, tied for the second-most in NFL history, and a nine-time first-team All-Pro. Matthews was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007, and his number 74 jersey is retired by the Titans.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: After retiring as a player, Matthews served as an assistant coach for the Houston Texans and Titans. A member of the Matthews family of football players, he is the brother of linebacker Clay Matthews Jr.; father of center Kevin Matthews and tackle Jake Matthews; and uncle of linebacker Clay Matthews III and linebacker Casey Matthews.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: Bruce Rankin Matthews was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Clay Matthews Sr. and Daisy Matthews. His father was a defensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers in the 1950s. His family moved to Arcadia, California, when he was young. Bruce played football at Arcadia High School in Arcadia, California. He was an immediate football standout on the offensive and defensive line, along with doing well in high school wrestling. As a junior in 1977, he was named to the All-California Interscholastic Federation third-team, and as a senior Matthews played in the Shrine All-Star Football Classic alongside John Elway. Arcadia High later retired his No. 72 jersey.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: Matthews attended the University of Southern California, where he played all offensive line positions at various times for the USC Trojans football team. As a senior in 1982 he was shifted from weakside to strongside guard to replace departing Roy Foster as the principal blocker in the "Student Body Right" play. He was named to the first-team All-Pacific-10 Conference team after his junior and senior seasons. As a senior, he earned consensus All-America honors and won the Morris Trophy, which is awarded to the best lineman in the conference.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: Matthews is considered to be one of the most versatile offensive linemen to play in the NFL. He started in 99 games as a left guard, 67 as a right guard, 87 as a center, 22 as a right tackle, 17 as a left tackle, and was the snapper on field goals, PATs, and punts. He was selected to 14 Pro Bowls, which at the time tied a league record set by Merlin Olsen. Matthews was also named a first-team All-Pro nine times and an All-American Football Conference selection 12 times. An extremely durable player, Matthews retired after the 2001 season having played more games (296) than any NFL player, excluding kickers and punters, and played in more seasons (19) than any offensive lineman. He never missed a game due to injury, and started 229 consecutive games. Matthews is the only player who played against the Baltimore Colts in their last game at Memorial Stadium in 1983 and against the Baltimore Ravens in their last game at Memorial Stadium in 1997.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: The Houston Oilers drafted Matthews with the ninth overall pick in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft. During his first two seasons, he blocked for future Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell. As a rookie he played guard and was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team. Before his second season Matthews was moved from right guard to center, snapping to rookie quarterback Warren Moon, but due to injuries on the offensive line he played multiple positions that season; at one point he played center, guard, and tackle in successive weeks. In 1985 and 1986, Matthews alternated between right and left tackle.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: Matthews sat out the first eight games of the 1987 season due to a contract dispute. When he returned, he was moved back to right guard. He remained at the right guard position in 1988, 1989, and 1990, and was invited to the Pro Bowl each season. He also earned first-team All-Pro recognition each year from the Associated Press (AP), "Pro Football Weekly", and "The Sporting News". Matthews thrived in the run and shoot offensive scheme adopted by the Oilers around this time, which required linemen to be exceptionally agile. The holes he opened up helped running back Mike Rozier to consecutive Pro Bowls in 1987 and 1988.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: The Oilers placed Matthews at center for the final game of the 1990 season in an effort to bolster the team's running game. Of the move, Matthews said, "I'd like to stay at guard, but forces greater than myself make these adjustments." Behind blocking by Matthews and fellow future Hall of Fame guard Mike Munchak, Oilers quarterback Warren Moon led the league in passing yards in 1990 and 1991, and running back Lorenzo White was a 1992 Pro Bowl selection. Matthews remained the team's center through the 1994 season, being named to the Pro Bowl each year.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: Prior to the 1995 season, Matthews signed a four-year, $10.3 million contract extension with the Oilers. That year, the Oilers signed free agent center Mark Stepnoski, and as a result Matthews moved to left guard. He spent the majority of the rest of his career at the position, occasionally filling in for injured players along the offensive line. During this time, the Oilers left Houston for Tennessee after the 1996 season. His blocking helped running back Eddie George to four straight Pro Bowl seasons. In 1999, at age 37, Matthews signed another four-year contract to remain with the Oilers. That season, the Oilers rebranded as the Tennessee Titans. The team won 13 games, plus three more in the playoffs before losing to the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV. Matthews retired from football prior to the 2002 season at age 40.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: On February 27, 2009, Matthews returned to Houston where he was signed on as an offensive assistant with the Houston Texans after volunteer coaching at his children's high school, Elkins High School.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: On February 9, 2011, Matthews was hired as offensive line coach by new Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Munchak. Both were Hall of Fame linemen for the Houston Oilers. Regarding his new job, Matthews stated, "For me this is an opportunity of a lifetime. It is such a unique opportunity to work with Mike because I think he will do a great job. It is just one of those things I couldn't pass up."


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: After finishing the 2013 season with a 7–9 record, Titans general manager Ruston Webster and Tommy Smith met with Munchak and gave him the option to fire a large contingent of assistant coaches, which included Matthews, in exchange for an extension and a raise, or lose his job as head coach. Munchak was not willing to fire everyone they were ordering him to fire, so Munchak parted ways with the Titans, along with Matthews and the other assistant coaches they wanted him to fire.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: In his first year of eligibility, Matthews was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2007. He was inducted during the Enshrinement Ceremony on August 5, 2007, with the unveiling of his bust, sculpted by Scott Myers. He was the first player from the Tennessee Titans to be given this honor since the relocation from Houston. He was the fifth player from the 1983 NFL draft class to be enshrined, joining Dan Marino, Eric Dickerson, John Elway, and Jim Kelly; Darrell Green, Richard Dent, and Jim Covert later became the sixth, seventh, and eighth members. Matthews was selected as a guard on the NFL's All-Decade Team of the 1990s. In 2010, he was ranked 78th on "" by the NFL Network. At the 2020 Super Bowl, Matthews was named to the NFL 100 All-Time Team as one of the top 100 players of the first 100 years of the NFL.


title: Bruce Matthews (American football)

text: Matthews comes from a football family. A devout Christian as evidenced in his Hall of Fame Speech, he is the son of Clay Matthews Sr., who played in the NFL in the 1950s. His brother, Clay Jr., also played 19 seasons in the NFL. Bruce is the uncle of linebacker Clay Matthews III, former NFL linebacker Casey Matthews, and Kyle Matthews of USC football. Bruce and his wife, Carrie, have seven kids: Steven, Kevin, Marilyn, Jake, Mike, Luke, and Gwen. His son Kevin played center for Texas A&M until the 2009 football season and then played in the NFL for five years as a member of the Titans and Carolina Panthers. Jake Matthews played offensive tackle for Texas A&M and is currently the starting left tackle of the Atlanta Falcons. His son Mike played on the offensive line for Texas A&M, where he was the starting center. His youngest son, Luke, is currently a senior at Texas A&M. Matthews is the uncle of tight end Troy Niklas by way of his wife's sister.


title: Agent Provocateur (album)

text: Agent Provocateur is the fifth studio album by the British-American rock band Foreigner, released on December 7, 1984. The album was the band's first and only number one album in the United Kingdom, and it reached the top 5 in the United States. Although album sales were lower than their previous work in the US, it contains the band's biggest hit single, "I Want to Know What Love Is", which is their only #1 single in the UK and the US, staying at the top spot for three and two weeks, respectively. The follow-up single, "That Was Yesterday", also proved to be a sizeable hit, peaking at #12 in the US The album was certified Platinum in the UK by the BPI, and triple Platinum in the US by the RIAA.


title: Agent Provocateur (album)

text: Within nearly two years of releasing "4", writing and preproduction for this album began as early as June 1983 in New York, with producer Trevor Horn. Then, once writing had been completed in September that year, official recording began in early October in London with Horn. Eventually, things started to fall apart around the time of the Christmas holidays – even though co-producer & guitarist Mick Jones recalled that it began after a day of recording – due to Horn being more concerned about the performance of the singles he had produced in Europe (for bands such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood) than the Foreigner record. Eventually, another month was spent trying to look for another producer to fill his shoes, subsequently hiring Alex Sadkin, who was busy finishing the Thompson Twins' "Into the Gap" album. Sadkin helped rekindle the project when it was on the verge of total collapse, but despite that, according to Jones, recording still never seemed to end: the sessions had been dogged from the very start and continued to remain unfocused. Sadkin agreed when reminiscing on the project in 1987:


title: Agent Provocateur (album)

text: Even though the extent of Horn's contributions to the record is unclear, he claims to have done most of the backing tracks, including for "I Want To Know What Love Is". According to singer Lou Gramm, owing to the difference in production styles between Sadkin and Horn, only two of the tracks that had been cut with the latter were kept on the record, though it is unclear which ones. A total of nine months had been spent on recording the album.


title: Agent Provocateur (album)

text: By the time of "Agent Provocateur", Foreigner was frequently savaged by the contemporary rock music press. A review in "Creem" read: "On this, their latest excursion into the gaping jaws of pulverizing mediocrity, our boys continue to wrestle with an all-too-turgid identity crisis — they still can't decide whether it's stupider to aspire to poor man's Led Zep status or settle for being a weightier version of Chicago. Some swinging choice, huh? Either way they lose and this record is simply jammed with one dull defeat after another."


title: Agent Provocateur (album)

text: "Ultimate Classic Rock" critic Eduardo Rivadavia rated "A Love in Vain" as Foreigner's fifth-most underrated song, calling it a "synth-powered cry of desperation" and a "dark-horse favorite of fans."


title: Agent Provocateur (album)

text: "Classic Rock" critic Malcolm Dome rated two songs from "Agent Provocateur" as being among Foreigner's 10 most underrated – "Stranger in My Own House" at #6 and "Tooth and Nail" – which he describes as "the antidote to 'I Want to Know What Love Is'" – at #2.


title: Sustainable Development Goal 12

text: Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12 or Global Goal 1), titled "responsible consumption and production", is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015. The official wording of SDG 12 is "Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns". SDG 12 is meant to ensure good use of resources, improving energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and providing access to basic services, green and decent jobs and ensuring a better quality of life for all. SDG 12 has 11 targets to be achieved by at least 2030 and progress toward the targets is measured using 13 indicators.


title: Sustainable Development Goal 12

text: Sustainable Development Goal 12 has 11 targets. The first 8 are "outcome targets", which are: implement the 10‑Year Framework of Programs on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns; achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources; reducing by half the per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and the reduction of food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses; achieving the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle; reducing waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse; encourage companies to adopt sustainable practices; promote public procurement practices that are sustainable; and ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development. The three "means of achievement" targets are: support developing countries to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity; develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts; and remove market distortions, like fossil fuel subsidies, that encourage wasteful consumption.


title: Sustainable Development Goal 12

text: According to the United Nations Environment Programme, Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) refers to “the use of services and related products, which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations”.


title: Sustainable Development Goal 12

text: The growing global population combined with unsustainable uses of natural resources is causing devastating impacts on the planet — propelling climate change, destroying ecosystems, and rising pollution levels. As a result of these growing challenges, sustainable consumption and production aims to inspire governments, businesses, and citizens to do more and better with less, as it promotes economic growth without environmental degradation. Also, increases resource efficiency promotes sustainable lifestyles. In addition, sustainable consumption and production can also contribute to poverty alleviation and the transition towards low-carbon and green economies. Therefore, the United Nations invites all initiatives that address any of the targets and its indicators, including the use of eco-friendly production methods and reducing the amount of waste. By 2030, national recycling rates should increase, as measured in tons of material recycled. Further, companies should adopt sustainable practices and publish sustainability reports.


title: Sustainable Development Goal 12

text: Economic and social progress over the last century has caused environmental degradation that is endangering ecosystems and the future of the world. One component of the social and economic progress is the increasing worldwide consumption and production of all resources for the global economy, which rely on the use of the natural environment and resources in ways that continue to have negative impacts on the planet. According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2019), the global population could grow to approximately 9.7 billion in 2050. The equivalent of almost three planets could be required to provide the natural resources needed to sustain current lifestyles.


title: Sustainable Development Goal 12

text: Changes in consumption and production patterns can help to promote the decoupling of economic growth and human well-being from resource use and environmental impact. They can also trigger the transformations envisaged in global commitments on biodiversity, the climate, and sustainable development in general. However, it is one of the most critical and complex challenges facing humanity today. Urgent action is needed to ensure that current material needs do not lead to the over-extraction of resources to the degradation of environmental resources. It would also require policies that create a conducive environment for changes in social and physical infrastructure and markets, transformations in business practices along global value chains, and major shifts in consumer behaviour and lifestyle.


title: Sustainable Development Goal 12

text: By 2019, 79 countries and the European Union have reported on at least one national policy instrument to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns. This was done to work towards the implementation of the "10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns". Global fossil fuel subsidies in 2018 were $400 billion. This was double the estimated subsidies for renewables and is detrimental to the task of reducing global carbon dioxide emissions.]