title: Dead end (street)

text: The use of culs-de-sac reduces the amount of car traffic on residential streets within the subdivision, thus reducing noise, air pollution and the probability of accidents. Ben-Joseph (1995), and Lovegrove and Sayed (2006), indicate a substantially lower collision rate for street networks based on the cul-de-sac street type. Dumbaugh and Rae (2009) suggest that land-use patterns play a significant role in traffic safety and should be considered in conjunction with the network pattern. While all intersection types in general increase the incidence of fatal crashes, four-way intersections, which rarely occur in a network with cul-de-sac or loop streets, increase total and injurious crashes significantly. The study recommends hybrid street networks with dense concentrations of T-intersections and concludes that a return to the 19th century gridiron is undesirable.


title: Dead end (street)

text: The decrease in traffic, in turn, is thought to lower the incidence of crime and increase desirability, because in most cases the people who traverse the cul-de-sac either live there or are guests of those who do. CPTED planning principles suggest increased natural surveillance and sense of ownership as a means of fostering security in a neighbourhood. Both of these phenomena occur naturally on a cul-de-sac street as does social networking. Design guidelines based on the CPTED perspective recommend its use for those reasons.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Cul-de-sac streets increase spontaneous outdoor activity by children. A study in California examined the amount of child play that occurred on the streets of neighbourhoods with different characteristics; grid pattern and culs-de-sac. The findings indicate that culs-de-sac showed substantial increase in play activity than the open grid street pattern. Culs-de-sac reduce perceived danger from traffic, thereby encouraging more outdoor play.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Similar studies in Europe and Australia found that children's outdoor play is significantly reduced on through roads where traffic is, or perceived by parents to be, a risk. In addition, they confirmed the results of the seminal Donald Appleyard 1982 study, which showed the negative correlation between amount of traffic and social networks. The inverse correlation between amounts of traffic and sociability of streets was reconfirmed by a newer study that repeated Appleyard's San Francisco analysis in Bristol, UK. It showed that the cul-de-sac street with the lowest traffic of the three streets had the highest level of social interaction.


title: Dead end (street)

text: The studies recommend the use of the cul-de-sac or strong traffic calming measures. When culs-de-sac are interconnected with foot and bike paths, as for example in Vauban, Freiburg and Village Homes in Davis, California, they can increase active modes of mobility among their residents.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Real estate developers prefer culs-de-sac because they allow builders to fit more houses into oddly-shaped tracts of land and facilitate building to the edges of rivers and property lines. They also choose these discontinuous network patterns of cul-de-sac and loop streets because of the often significant economies in infrastructure costs compared to the grid plan.


title: Dead end (street)

text: From an environmental perspective, culs-de-sac allow greater flexibility than the common grid in adapting to the natural grades of a site and to its ecologically sensitive features, such as streams, creeks, and mature forest growth.


title: Dead end (street)

text: The desirability of the cul-de-sac street type among home buyers is implied by the evidence that they often pay up to a 20% premium for a home on such a street, according to one study. That could be because there is considerably less passing traffic, resulting in less noise and reduced actual or perceived risk, increasing the sense of tranquility. A survey of residents on three types of streets: cul-de-sac, loop, and through (grid) recorded their preferences among these types. It found that 82% of cul-de-sac residents preferred their own street type, 18% preferred a loop, and 0% the grid. Only 13% of grid street residents preferred their own type and 54% would choose a cul-de-sac.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Two other studies, reported in 1990 and 2009 respectively, confirmed the upward trend and determined the premium that cul-de-sac streets command. The first found a 29% premium over the streets in a grid. The second, focused on trails and greenbelts, found that other amenities including cul-de-sac streets add significantly to the home value.


title: Dead end (street)

text: The positive feelings that a cul-de-sac street could evoke, that residents value, are expressed vividly by Allan Jacobs in describing Roslyn Place, a short (), narrow (), densely built (), and wood-paved cul-de-sac in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: "Step into Roslyn Place and you are likely to sense, immediately, that you are in a "place", a special place, a handsome place, a safe place, a welcoming place, a place where you might wish to live." "narrowness and enclosure and intimacy bring a feeling of safety to Roslyn Place... 'Stay on our street' is all the kids have to know".


title: Dead end (street)

text: Gated communities, whose numbers steadily increase worldwide, use cul-de-sac and loop street networks because the dendrite structure reduces the number of through roads and thus the corresponding number of entries and exits that need to be controlled.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Dead ends are traditionally considered safer traffic environments for children than normal streets, but research shows that areas with many dead ends in fact have higher rates of traffic accidents involving young children.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Culs-de-sac are criticised by urban designers like those of the Foundation for the Built Environment in the UK for encouraging car transport for even short distances, as more direct connections are precluded by the geometry, which necessitates long travel distances even to physically-nearby locations. This increases fuel consumption and vehicle emissions and has negative effects on health by reducing walking and cycling rates. Related research in the United States by Richard Jackson has shown that people in car-based (cul-de-sac heavy) communities weigh on average more than those in traditional towns (with open grid networks).


title: Dead end (street)

text: An extensive analysis of the research evidence by TRB, however, shows only an association between the built environment and physical activity levels, not causal connections. The evidence also does not identify with certainty which characteristics of the built environment are most closely associated with physical activity behaviour. The study also warns against confusing inadequate physical activity with obesity which is the outcome of an energy imbalance. Many contemporary lifestyle trends, some inevitable (sedentary work) and some avoidable (frequent energy-rich food consumption or the watching of television [four hours per day]), contribute to the imbalance and must be considered in understanding and combating obesity.


title: Dead end (street)

text: The impermeability deficiency of the typical cul-de-sac street can be addressed by applying a modified, improved version of it, mentioned above, that enables pedestrian and bicycle through-movement. While this more permeable version can be applied in new developments easily, modifying existing impermeable cul-de-sac streets is problematic as it encounters property ownership issues. Efforts in that direction are, however, being made. Because of the complicated legal process and the sheer number of existing cul-de-sac streets, however, such efforts would be slow to produce results and may have little impact in changing the landscape of existing districts. Conversely, transforming existing streets that are part of a grid plan into permeable, linked culs-de-sac, as was done in Berkeley, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia, is physically and administratively easy due to the public ownership of the street right-of-way. However, residents on adjacent through roads may resent the potential traffic increase and delay the process. In Berkeley, the barriers used were permeable to both pedestrian and bicycle traffic and became the backbone of the bicycle boulevard system in that region.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Increases in pedestrian and bicycle permeability may result in a displacement of local car trips for short-distance destinations and consequently a reduction in neighbourhood vehicle emissions. The impermeable cul-de-sac not only discourages walking and biking but also increases the length of car trips by the circuitous geometry of the dendrite network structure of which it is a part. Research studies examined the influence of several variables on the amount of car travel that residents of several types of districts recorded. Results vary considerably among them, but there is general agreement on a number of key correlations: a) the wealthier and the larger the family is, the more cars they own, and the more they drive, b) the farther away a family lives from the city centre, and the fewer the jobs in the vicinity, plus a slow bus service, the more they drive, and c) street patterns may add a 10% length to local trips, but the total VKTs are affected more by the "macro" urban than the "micro" neighbourhood structure.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Culs-de-sac, especially those that also limit pedestrian routes instead of only road-traffic routes, have also been criticised for negative effects on safety because they decrease the amount of through-traffic (vehicular or pedestrian) that might notice an accident or crime victim in need of help. Proponents of culs-de-sac and gated communities have in turn countered that the reduction in through-traffic makes any "stranger" much more recognisable in the closed local environment and thus reduces crime danger. That view has in turn been characterized as unrealistic. It is argued that, since only very few of all non-locals passing through the area are potential criminals, increased traffic should increase rather than decrease safety.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Research has expanded the discussion on the disputed issue. A 2008 study did extensive spatial analysis and correlated several building, site plan and social factors with crime frequencies and identified subtle nuances to the contrasting positions. The study looked at, among others, a) dwelling types, b) unit density (site density) c) movement on the street, d) culs-de-sac or grids, and e) the permeability of a residential area. Among its conclusions are, respectively, that a) flats are always safer than houses and the wealth of inhabitants matters, b) density is generally beneficial but more so at ground level, c) local movement is beneficial but larger-scale movement not so, d) relative affluence and the number of neighbours has a greater effect than either being on a cul-de-sac or being on a through-street. It also established again that simple, linear culs-de-sac with good numbers of dwellings that are joined to through streets tend to be safe. As for permeability, it suggests that residential areas should be permeable enough to allow movement in all directions but no more. The overprovision of poorly-used permeability is a crime hazard.


title: Dead end (street)

text: More generally, the New Urbanism movement has offered criticism of the cul-de-sac and crescent (loop) street types not intended to network with each other. It has been suggested that such street layouts can cause increased traffic on the collector streets. It is recognized that culs-de-sac and looped streets inherently remove car traffic through them and restrict access to residents only. Resident traffic is naturally channelled to minor residential collectors and to arterials that provide inter-neighbourhood and inter-district connectivity. A study, reported in 1990, compared the traffic performance in a development that was laid out using two approaches, one with and the other without hierarchy or cul-de-sac streets. It concluded that the non-hierarchical, traditional layout generally shows lower peak speed and shorter, more frequent intersection delays than the hierarchical pattern. The traditional pattern is not as conducive to long trips as the hierarchical but more conducive to short trips. Local trips in it are shorter in distance but about equivalent in time with the hierarchical layout. A later similar comparative traffic study of about concluded that all types of layouts perform adequately in most land-use scenarios and that a refined hierarchical, dendrite network can improve traffic performance.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Anecdotal and research evidence suggests that navigation (especially on foot) in a disconnected network of cul-de-sac and looped streets is inconvenient and non-intuitive, particularly when combined with curvilinear geometry. Loss of orientation and sense of direction is also a common experience in older cities with cul-de-sac streets (Medina of Arab cities or Mediterranean hill towns) as well as in cities with highly-irregular block geometries and sizes and corresponding street alignments that produce a labyrinthine effect. The long history of such cities implies that an irregular, complicated street network that appears entirely illegible to a visitor is well understood and used by the inhabitants. More convincing about its workability for their permanent residents are the case histories of cities such as Regensburg that show a gradual transformation of an imported or imposed orthogonal, "legible" grid to the traditional "confusing" street networks.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Cul-de-sac and loop streets can reduce the size of any given neighbourhood to a single street. Neighbourhoods can be defined by geographic boundaries but more often it is shared ethnic, socioeconomic and cultural characteristics that produce social cohesion irrespective of apparent physical "boundaries". Mehaffy "et al." (2010), who propose a model for structuring an urban network, suggest that neighbourhoods cannot be designed into being. "Community" is viewed as a dynamic social and cultural construct, especially in contemporary, open, multicultural cities. Residential area street configuration can assist its emergence only by reducing through-traffic and increasing local pedestrian movementa design goal for which connected cul-de-sac and looped streets are suited.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Issues of pedestrian trip length and isolation are very evident in the back-to-front housing arrangement where the front of the house fronts onto the cul-de-sac street while the rear fronts onto the main roads. Some of the problems can be mitigated by the newer practice of connecting the neighbouring roads and culs-de-sac with public pedestrian or cycle paths. In effect, this removes the discontinuity aspect for these modes of transport. Built examples of such connected culs-de-sac can be found in the United States (such as Radburn, New Jersey, and Village Homes, California), England (such as Milton Keynes), and Greece (such as Papagou, a suburb of Athens). Acknowledging their use, Germany, under the 2009 amendment to the Road Traffic Act, introduced an additional sign for culs-de-sac that are permeable to pedestrians and cyclists (see under signage below). A new system for organizing connected, permeable culs-de-sac into complete neighbourhoods, the fused grid, has been developed by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.


title: Dead end (street)

text: In the development context and planning literature of North America, culs-de-sac have been associated with low-density residential development. Sustainable development theorists and proponents claim that to be, in some undefined way, inefficient. The increased prevalence of cul-de-sac streets occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, a period of rapid economic and city expansion, when a detached house on a large lot meant an ideal form of habitation. The temporal coincidence of the wide adoption of a street type and an increasing demand for large lots and houses suggests a necessary relationship between street type and unit density. Historically, however, the earliest systematic application of the cul-de-sac street type by Raymond Unwin (1909) had a unit density between , considerably higher than mid-to-late 20th century. Even in the 21st century, developments rarely achieve densities above in the suburbs. Conversely, early 1950s suburban developments that were laid out on a grid exhibit similar low densities. Evidently, street, network type and density are not linked causally; other factors, such as land scarcity and income, influence the outcome as, for example, in cities that are landlocked or that have low average incomes.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Another concern is often voiced by emergency services, which can have difficulty locating streets when a community consists of a large number of similarly named culs-de-sac; also, large fire response vehicles, in particular, can have great difficulty with turning around in a cul-de-sac. However, confusing street naming is not a necessary outcome of street network design and can be improved. The practice of naming orthogonal networks by numbers and letters in the corresponding cardinal directions has been criticized by Camilo Sitte as lacking imagination. Nonetheless, police and fire departments now use advanced GPS systems that quickly locate the destination and the shortest path to follow.


title: Dead end (street)

text: School buses can also have a hard time turning around, which means that children who live in a cul-de-sac must often walk to a bus stop on a main through-road. However, recent research on obesity and urban planning suggests that to be a possible advantage because it enables children to get daily physical activity. Longer walking distances, however, reduce interest to use buses especially when a car is available. This disincentive to walking to a school bus-stop can be overcome in planned cul-de-sac streets by regulating their maximum length to about , as was recommended and practiced by R. Unwin and others.


title: Dead end (street)

text: Weighing available evidence has led a few US cities including Austin, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Portland, Oregon, to restrict and regulate the inclusion of cul-de-sac streets in new suburbs. However, a 2010 study on sprawl in North America by a legal expert concludes that "neighborhoods dominated by culs-de-sac are less walkable than those that include street grids... On the other hand, culs-de-sac do have a countervailing public benefit: because of their very inaccessibility, they tend to have less automobile traffic. Given the existence of important public policy goals on both sides, a city seeking to maximize walkability should not favor culs-de-sac over grids, but should also allow some culs-de-sac as a legitimate residential option... In addition, there are "middle ground" alternatives between prohibiting culs-de-sac and mandating them. For example, a city could encourage culs-de-sac combined with pedestrian walkways." This design combination is shown in the Village Homes layout and is an integral part of the Fused Grid.


title: Dead end (street)

text: George Orwell wrote in his 1946 article "Politics and the English Language" that the term "cul de sac" is another foreign word used in English as pretentious diction and is unnecessary.


title: Dead end (street)

text: The word "cul-de-sac" and its synonyms or near synonyms "dead end" and "no exit" have inspired metaphorical uses in literature and in culture, often with the result that a word or phrase seeming to have a negative connotation is replaced in street signs with a new coinage ("no outlet" is another alternative name used on street signs).


title: Dead end (street)

text: The expression "cul-de-sac" comes from French, where it originally meant "bottom of a sack". It was first used in English in anatomy (since 1738). It was used for dead-end streets since 1800 in English (since the 14th century in French). The often-heard erroneous folk etymology "arse/ass [buttocks] of the sack" is based on the modern meaning of "cul" in French, Catalan, and Occitan, but "cul" does not have that meaning in "cul-de-sac", which is still used to refer to dead ends in modern Frenchalthough the terms and are more common.


title: Dead end (street)

text: J. R. R. Tolkien used the name Bag End as a translation of "cul-de-sac" to poke fun at the British use of French terms.


title: Dead end (street)

text: In Australia, dead-end streets are signposted as and often referred to as a "No Through Road". Suffixes for these types of streets include "court", "close" or "place". The term "cul-de-sac" generally only refers to a reasonably short street with a bulbous end, or even only to the end portion. A long road that is a no-through road and terminates abruptly is usually called a dead end.


title: Dead end (street)

text: In Canada, "cul-de-sac" is commonly used in speech but "no exit" or "no through road" is more common in road signs, especially in western Canada. In Quebec and Newfoundland, "Cul-de-Sac" is in far more common use, although Quebec is using "Impasse" too.


title: Dead end (street)

text: In New Zealand, dead-end streets are sometimes signposted as "No Exit", but are often not signposted at all. The terms 'cul-de-sac' and 'dead end' have the same senses as in Australia. Similarly to Australia, residential cul-de-sacs with bulbous ends are often suffixed with "Place", abbreviated to "Pl" on street signs.


title: Dead end (street)

text: In British English, the phrase "close" is generally used as a prefix for residential cul-de-sac roads, although several variants exist similar to those used in Commonwealth countries.


title: Dead end (street)

text: U.S. Federal Highway Administration rules state: "The "Dead End" sign may be used at the entrance of a single road or street that terminates in a dead end or cul-de-sac. The "No Outlet" sign may be used at the entrance to a road or road network from which there is no other exit." There is no federal regulation on "no exit".


title: Dead end (street)

text: The phrase "No Exit" is also preferred for Chicago signs, although "dead end" is still used there. New York City has favored "dead end" since at least the 1930s, when Sidney Kingsley used the phrase to title his Broadway play about poor, tough East Side youths with lives of little promise, in contrast to the dead-end streets of the nearby Sutton Place neighborhood. (Similarly, French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre titled a play about three damned sinners, "Huis Clos", translated into English as "No Exit".) Kingsley's play was later made into a movie, "Dead End", which proved so popular that it spawned similar movies, many starring a group of recurring characters known as the Dead End Kids. The play and movies produced such a strong image of bleak futures and an unfair society that some municipalities changed the sign terminology for culs-de-sac, often to "no outlet" or "no exit". (The "dead end" signs currently at Sutton Place are bright yellow with black lettering.)


title: Dead end (street)

text: In New York City, as of 2008, there were 4,659 "dead end" traffic signs, along with 160 "no outlet" signs. The city records, which go back to the 1960s, show only a couple of "no exit" signs once existing near the approaches to the Midtown Tunnel, and which are no longer there. New York City Commissioner of Transportation Janette Sadik-Khan said in 2008: "We hear that some towns use 'no outlet' instead of 'dead end' because they think it sounds less morbid." "We tell New Yorkers the truth: it's a 'dead end', and we think that motorists get the point quickly."


title: Dead end (street)

text: California uses the phrase "Not a Through Street" or "Not a Through Road" to mark roads or road systems that end in culs-de-sac. More recently, "No Outlet" has been shown on some signs as well (an example being Meyers Avenue south of Eureka Street in the Pine Hills area).


title: Dead end (street)

text: In military parlance, a "cul-de-sac" refers to a situation where an army is ""hemmed in on all sides but behind"". "Cul-de-sac" is also used metaphorically to mean a line of thought or action that leads nowhere.


title: Dead end (street)

text: In medicine, the expression is used to refer to the recto-uterine pouch, also known as the Pouch of Douglas, the deepest point of the female peritoneal cavity.


title: Avialae

text: Avialae ("bird wings") is a clade containing the only living dinosaurs, the birds. It is usually defined as all theropod dinosaurs more closely related to birds (Aves) than to deinonychosaurs, though alternative definitions are occasionally used (see below).


title: Avialae

text: "Archaeopteryx lithographica", from the late Jurassic Period Solnhofen Formation of Germany, is possibly the earliest known avialan which may have had the capability of powered flight, though it might have been a deinonychosaur instead. Several older (but non flight-capable) avialans are known from the late Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of China, dated to about 160 million years ago.


title: Avialae

text: Most researchers define Avialae as branch-based clade, though definitions vary. Many authors have used a definition similar to "all theropods closer to birds than to "Deinonychus"." A nearly identical definition, "the theropod group that includes all taxa closer to "Passer" than to "Dromaeosaurus"", was used by Agnolín and Novas (2013) for their clade Averaptora, operating under the assumption that troodontids and birds were more closely related to each other than to dromaeosaurs. They also redefine Avialae as the smallest clade containing "Archaeopteryx" and modern birds.


title: Avialae

text: Additionally, beginning in the late 2000s and early 2010s, several groups of researchers began adding the genus "Troodon" as an additional specifier in the definition of Avialae. "Troodon" had long been considered a close relative of the dromaeosaurids in the larger group Deinonychosauria, though some contemporary studies found it and other troodontids more closely related to modern birds, and so it has been specifically excluded from Avialae in more recent studies.


title: Avialae

text: Avialae is also occasionally defined as an apomorphy-based clade (that is, one based on derived characteristics that were not present among lineage predecessors). Jacques Gauthier, who named Avialae in 1986, re-defined it in 2001 as all dinosaurs that possessed feathered wings used in flapping flight, and the birds that descended from them.


title: Avialae

text: Gauthier and de Queiroz (page 34) identified four conflicting ways of defining the term "Aves", which is a problem since the same biological name is being used four different ways. They proposed a solution, number 4 below, which is to reserve the term Aves only for the crown group, the last common ancestor of all living birds and all of its descendants. Other definitions of Aves found in literature were reassigned to other clade names.


title: Avialae

text: Under the fourth definition "Archaeopteryx" is an avialan, and not a member of Aves. Gauthier's proposals have been adopted by many researchers in the field of paleontology and bird evolution, though the exact definitions applied have been inconsistent. Avialae, initially proposed to replace the traditional fossil content of Aves, is sometimes used synonymously with the vernacular term "bird" by these researchers.


title: Avialae

text: The earliest known avialans come from the Tiaojishan Formation of China, which has been dated to the late Jurassic period (Oxfordian stage), about 160 million years ago. The avialan species from this time period include "Anchiornis huxleyi" and "Aurornis xui". "Xiaotingia zhengi" used to be considered a member, but was later classified within the clade Dromaeosauridae. The well-known "Archaeopteryx" dates from slightly later Jurassic rocks (about 155 million years old) from Germany. Many of these early avialans shared unusual anatomical features that may be ancestral to modern birds, but were later lost during bird evolution. These features include enlarged claws on the second toe which may have been held clear of the ground in life, and long feathers or "hind wings" covering the hind limbs and feet, which may have been used in aerial maneuvering. It is also thought that early avialans were either cranially akinetic or had otherwise limited cranial kinesis.


title: Avialae

text: Avialans diversified into a wide variety of forms during the Cretaceous Period. Many groups retained primitive characteristics, such as clawed wings and teeth, though the latter were lost independently in a number of avialan groups, including modern birds (Aves). While the earliest forms, such as "Archaeopteryx" and "Shenzhouraptor", retained the long bony tails of their ancestors, the tails of more advanced avialans were shortened with the advent of the pygostyle bone in the group Pygostylia. In the late Cretaceous, around 95 million years ago, the ancestor of all modern birds also evolved a better sense of smell.


title: Avialae

text: The following cladogram is based on the analysis by Hartman "et al". (2019), which found flight likely evolved five separate times among paravian dinosaurs, two of those among Avialae (in Scansoriopterygids and other avialans). "Archaeopteryx" and "anchiornithids" were placed in Deinonychosauria, Avialae's sister group.


title: Pusher (film series)

text: The Pusher film trilogy by the Danish film director Nicolas Winding Refn illustrates and explore the violent criminal underworld of Copenhagen in gritty realism. The films have been highly praised by critics and hold respective scores of 83%, 100% and 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.


title: Pusher (film series)

text: Each film is led by a different lead character; Frank (Kim Bodnia), a mid-level drug dealer in the first, his friend and associate Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen), in the second, and their boss Milo (Zlatko Burić), a Serbian gang leader, in the third. Milo is the only character to appear in all three films.


title: Pusher (film series)

text: The first film follows Frank for a week, a mid-level drug dealer who becomes indebted to his supplier, Milo. It depicts his depravity and how his actions force him further and further out on thin ice while revealing the bittersweet relationship he has with his girlfriend, Vic.


title: Pusher (film series)

text: The movie was a success, not only in Denmark, but internationally, and launched both Refn's and Mads Mikkelsen's careers.


title: Pusher (film series)

text: The second film follows Frank's low-level criminal sidekick, Tonny. It illustrates how Tonny is rooted in an evil spiral of crime and drugs, his relationship towards his notorious, cynical father and how he adapts to the consequence of becoming a father himself. According to film critic Robert Abele of the "Los Angeles Times" "in Refn's skilled street-realist hands, the child becomes a potent, wailing metaphor for Tonny's own dilemma of rudderless need."


title: Pusher (film series)

text: The third film depicts a day in the life of Serbian drug lord Milo. Milo, who was a feared and respected man in the first two movies, has since aged. He does not have the same grip on the underworld that he used to and is now slowly losing the battle against a younger generation of immigrants, who now want a piece of the action. The film shows Milo's downfall and his desperate attempt to reclaim the throne.


title: Pusher (film series)

text: Writing for "The New York Times", critic Nathan Lee said of the trilogy: "From the mean streets of Copenhagen—they evidently exist—comes the Pusher trilogy, a pungent dose of Denmark rot. Written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, this tough trio of underworld thrillers sticks so close to its rogues’ gallery of gangsters, suckers and murderous megalomaniacs that you can almost taste the hate and smell the stomach wounds. Given an appetite for grisly crime flicks, they make for a delectably nasty epic."


title: Welles Crowther

text: Welles Remy Crowther (May 17, 1977 – September 11, 2001) was an American equities trader and volunteer firefighter known for saving as many as 18 lives during the September 11 attacks in New York City, during which he lost his own life.


title: Welles Crowther

text: Welles Remy Crowther was the first born of three children. His parents, Jefferson and Allison, raised him and his two sisters, Honor and Paige, in the New York City suburb of Nyack, New York. Through his father, he was a grandson of Bosley Crowther, film critic of "The New York Times" from 1940 to 1967. As a child, Crowther saw his father getting dressed for church and wrapping a small comb in a blue or red bandana he kept in his right hip pocket. When Welles was six years old, his father gave him a red bandana that would become Crowther's trademark, one that Crowther would wear under all of his sports uniforms in high school.


title: Welles Crowther

text: At 16, Crowther joined his father as a volunteer firefighter, becoming a junior member of the Empire Hook and Ladder Company. He later attended Boston College, where he played lacrosse. In 1999, Crowther graduated with honors with a degree in economics. He subsequently moved to New York City, taking a job as an equities trader for Sandler O'Neill and Partners, settling into an office on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He later entertained dreams of joining the FDNY or the FBI or CIA.


title: Welles Crowther

text: On September 11, 2001, nine minutes after United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower between floors 77 and 85 at 9:03 a.m., Crowther called his mother from his office at 9:12 a.m., leaving the message, "Mom, this is Welles. I wanted you to know that I'm okay." Crowther made his way to the 78th-floor sky lobby, where he encountered a group of survivors, including a badly burned Ling Young, who worked on the 86th floor in New York's Department of Taxation and Finance. Young had been one of about 200 people waiting at a bank of elevators to evacuate when the plane hit the tower and was one of the few survivors. Crowther, carrying a young woman on his back, directed them to the one working stairway. The survivors followed him 17 floors down, where he dropped off the woman he was carrying before heading back upstairs to assist others. By the time he returned to the 78th floor, he had a bandana around his nose and mouth to protect him from smoke and haze. He found another group of survivors, which included AON Corp. employee Judy Wein, who worked on the 103rd floor and was in pain from a broken arm, cracked ribs and a punctured lung. According to Wein, Crowther assisted in putting out fires and administering first aid. He then announced to that group, "Everyone who can stand, stand now. If you can help others, do so." He directed this group downstairs as well. As occupants of the Tower headed for the street, Crowther returned up the stairs to help others. He was last seen doing so with members of the FDNY before the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m.


title: Welles Crowther

text: Crowther's body was found in March 2002, alongside several firefighters and emergency workers bunched in a suspected command post in the South Tower lobby. The New York medical examiner's office said his body was found intact, with no signs of burns, and that authorities speculated that he was aiding the rescue effort as a civilian usher when the building collapsed. Crowther's family was unaware of the details of his activities between his last phone call to his mother and his death, until Allison Crowther read Judy Wein's firsthand account in "The New York Times" of being saved by a man in a red bandana, which led to Allison meeting with the people Welles had saved, including Wein and Young. They confirmed from photographs the identity of the man who aided them. A mostly completed New York City Firefighter application was discovered in his home after his death. According to survivor accounts, Crowther saved as many as 18 people following the attacks.


title: Welles Crowther

text: Crowther's parents, with the support of a Michigan foundation, created the Red Bandana Project, a character-development program for classrooms, sports teams, camps and youth programs. The family also established the Welles Remy Crowther Charitable Trust, with which they fund charitable work.


title: Welles Crowther

text: The Welles Remy Crowther Red Bandana Run, a 5-kilometer road race, is held every October at Boston College.


title: Welles Crowther

text: In 2006, Crowther was posthumously named an honorary New York City firefighter by Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.


title: Welles Crowther

text: That same year, Crowther's Boston College lacrosse teammate, Tyler Jewell, wore a red bandana in honor of Crowther when he competed as a member of the United States snowboarding team in the 2006 Winter Olympics.


title: Welles Crowther

text: During the September 10, 2011, UCF-Boston College football game in Orlando, Florida, a day before the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, both schools honored Crowther. Boston College players wore helmet stickers featuring Crowther's signature red bandana during the game, and Crowther's sisters, Honor Fagan and Paige Crowther, were introduced to the crowd during the third quarter. On September 13, 2014, Boston College played the University of Southern California (USC) and the team wore uniforms symbolizing Crowther's red bandana, including a helmet stripe, cleats and gloves with a red bandana pattern.


title: Welles Crowther

text: In 2013, Crowther's sister, Honor Crowther Fagan, published a children's book about Welles's actions during the September 11 attacks called "The Man In the Red Bandanna" with illustration by his uncle John M. Crowther.


title: Welles Crowther

text: At the National 9/11 Memorial, Crowther is memorialized at the South Pool, on Panel S-50. President Barack Obama, during his May 15, 2014, dedication of the museum, said of Crowther, "They didn't know his name. They didn't know where he came from. But they knew their lives had been saved by the man in the red bandana. He called for fire extinguishers to fight back the flames. He tended to the wounded. He led those survivors down the stairs to safety, and carried a woman on his shoulders down 17 flights. Then he went back. Back up all those flights. Then back down again, bringing more wounded to safety. Until that moment when the tower fell." One of Crowther's bandanas is on display at the museum.


title: Welles Crowther

text: He was the subject of the 2017 feature documentary "Man in Red Bandana". The film was narrated by Gwyneth Paltrow.


title: Welles Crowther

text: The Premier Lacrosse League honors him though the Welles Crowther Humanitarian Award. The award is given to a player in the league who has made a meaningful impact in their community.


title: Molkki

text: Molkki () was an Indian Hindi-language television drama series produced by Ekta Kapoor under Balaji Telefilms. It was broadcast on Colors TV and ran from 16 November 2020 to 11 February 2022. It starred Priyal Mahajan, Amar Upadhyay.


title: Molkki

text: The story revolves around Purvi, a 19-year-old girl who becomes the molkki bride of 42-year-old chief Virendra Pratap Singh, a widower and father of two children. She fights for her and other molkki brides' rights, as well as fulfil her responsibilities as wife, daughter-in-law, mother, and chieftess of Rewari.


title: Molkki

text: "Molkki" is an Indian tradition that involves marrying off poor girls to a wealthy man in exchange for money. The storyline of the series revolves around a poor girl named Purvi who is made a Molkki bride for money.


title: Molkki

text: Purvi marries Virendra Pratap Singh, a widowed father of two children and head of a village in Haryana's Rewari district. The initially tense relationship between Virendra's kids and Purvi eases after a while and Purvi makes repeated efforts to bring them and their father closer. While the family is on a picnic Vaibhav, Virendra's half-brother, rapes Priyashi, Purvi's sister, for revenge for a past incident and Anjali, Purvi's and Virendra's sister-in-law records the event. A series of incidents leads to Virendra losing his trust in Purvi and he initially refuses to believe her allegations against his brother, however, she eventually succeeds in exposing Vaibhav's doings. Virendra asks Priyu to decide the punishment but she decides to marry Vaibhav instead. Virendra enforces her wish and arranges the marriage, despite Anjali's plotting to prevent the event. From then on, Vaibhav wants to take revenge on his brother and hires a hitman to shoot him during a land auction. Purvi manages to save Virendra, but he is later attacked by goons who were likewise hired by his brother. Priyu finds out about Vaibhav's intentions during their honeymoon and informs Purvi, leading to the hired goons being caught. After this, Purvi, in a desire to receive better education, enrolls in a nearby college where she has to conceal her wealthy status to avoid ridicule. Meanwhile, Vaibhav decides to punish Priya for her betrayal but, with the intent to scare her, accidentally kills her by pushing her from a cliff. Purvi suspected that Vaibhav planned to hurt his sister and finds strong indications for this in his house and through witnesses. When they confront him, Vaibhav purposefully provokes Virendra to shoot him for his murderous act, hoping that his brother is imprisoned. He succeeds and Virendra is imprisoned, while Vaibhav, wearing a bulletproof jacket, manages to escape with a disguise and attempts to leave the country with the help of Anjali. However, Purvi uncovers her brother-in-law's scheming and thereby frees her husband from imprisonment. But Priyu is still alive and reveals that it has been her plan all along to have Vaibhav accused of her murder. Priyu shoots Vaibhav. Prakashi then swears to wreak havoc in Purvi's life for ruining Vaibhav's life. She with Anjali repeatedly tries to separate Purvi from Virendra but fails. Purvi is horrified by the visual she gets while flying a drone and is angered when she learns that Anjali is the perpetrator of the crime. After Purvi visits the cave, she feels restless and wakes up in the middle of the night due to a nightmare where she sees a woman in chains. She swears to expose her but fails. It is revealed that the woman in chains is none other than Virendra's first wife Sakshi who was assumed dead five years ago. Virendra soon falls in love with Purvi and so does she. Virendra and his family travel to Goa for his destination wedding with Purvi. On the other hand, Prakashi knits a devious plan to ruin their wedding day. As an ecstatic Purvi and Virendra take their wedding vows, the two are taken aback when Juhi and Manas notice Sakshi at the wedding venue and rush towards her. Purvi is shocked to find Sakshi during her wedding with Virendra and is devastated when the wedding is cancelled. Virendra is caught between two worlds as Sakshi's return changes the dynamics of the whole family, leaving Purvi to pretend to be a helper in the house and Virendra seeing Purvi in such a light. Virendra explains to Sakshi everything that happened during her absence and how he ended up marrying Purvi. Purvi prepares to leave, but Sakshi asks her to stay and thanks her for looking after the family in her absence. Further, Sakshi realises that Purvi is not wrong and rather a victim of fate. Purvi pushes Virendra away from her when he tries to get closer to her. Elsewhere, Sakshi takes a big decision in front of the Panchayats and announces that Purvi will share the same position as hers. While Virendra is away on business, Sakshi makes Purvi perform some strange rituals that end up making her feel dirty, hurt, and humiliated. An infuriated Virendra stops the ritual and prevents Purvi from being subjected to further embarrassment. Disturbed by his outburst, Sakshi confronts him regarding his feelings for Purvi. He says that he has started liking Purvi. So Sakshi cuts her wrist. Purvi asks Virendra to continue his life with Sakshi and leave her alone, but Virendra rejects to do so. So Purvi demands a divorce.


title: Molkki

text: Purvi finds herself in a dilemma when Sakshi persuades her to marry Vipul in a bid to make Virendra overcome his feelings for Purvi. When Sakshi asks for Vipul's opinion, he gives his consent to marry Purvi. As Purvi's Haldi ceremony begins, Virendra wins the competition against Vipul, earning the first chance to apply Haldi on her. However, the ceremony comes to a shocking halt when her father refuses to bless the marriage. Purvi expresses her love for Vipul as he takes a firm stand for her. Later, Virendra prevents Purvi from applying turmeric on Vipul. During the wedding ceremony of Purvi, an intoxicated Virendra attempts to confront her and Vipul. In a shocking turn of events, Virendra meets with a tragic accident and falls unconscious. After Purvi signs the divorce papers, Virendra helps her prepare for the wedding. Later, Virendra learns that the divorce process is delayed, and he rushes back to the wedding venue and carries Purvi away. After Virendra stops Purvi's wedding to Vipul, she decides to run away from her home, but Virendra stops her. Considering the recent developments, Purvi makes a heartfelt confession. Sakshi discloses the hard-hitting truth about her return after five long years and reveals that she conspired with Prakashi and Anjali to throw Purvi out of the house. She gave Prakashi and Anjali her property to throw Purvi out of the house. Virendra abandons Sakshi and tells her she is not the same person he knew five years ago. He abandons Sakshi, Prakashi, and Anjali and takes all the property back. Purvi leaves the house, but unfortunately, she meets with an accident and loses her memory.


title: Molkki

text: Purvi is now living with Daksh and his family. Daksh loves Purvi and wants to marry her. Virendra is now the business partner of Daksh and assumes Purvi dead. He while in Delhi hears Purvi's voice in Daksh's phone, he being sure it was Purvi decides to somehow meet her. He sees Purvi busy in the arrangements of her wedding with Daksh and tries to console her to return back with him but Purvi claims to not recognise him and faints. Virendra then learns that 6 months earlier Purvi left the house and got hit by Daksh's car where she lost her memory and is now known by her new name Dhwani. Doctor warns everyone to not force her to remember her past or she would die of brain stroke. Virendra is devastated and decides to anyhow get Purvi's memory back. He manages to pursue Daksh and Dhwani to return back to Rewari and conduct the marriage ceremony there, to which the duo agrees. Virendra tries all means but Anjali and Prakashi lies about Virendra and forces Daksh to return back to Delhi. Priyu wanting Purvi dead plays the marriage video of Purvi and Virendra in the marriage hall. But her plan fails and Purvi regains her memory. She decides neither to stay with Virendra nor with Daksh. The same night Daksh tries to rape her wanting to win over by force but Virendra reaches on time points a gun on him and shoots on him which touches his hand but simultaneously one more bullet touches his heart and Daksh died. Virendra is then arrested for murder. Later in court Arjun the lawyer proves Virendra innocent on the cost of marrying Purvi, to which Purvi agrees (it is later revealed that it was all part of Sakshi's plan). He kidnaps Juhi and Manas and demands 10cr but while saving them a building falls over Manas to which he gets a spine damage and needs a bone marrow transfer. Sakshi decides to have another child but now is not efficient to take the baby. Purvi decides a semen transfer and is now pregnant.


title: Molkki

text: "ThePrint" stated the series tackled the issue of brides for sale when Purvi is forced into marriage with the sarpanch who is twice her age for money. "ThePrint" also said that the series was "as real as it gets" and that "the serial is set in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh where such marriage transactions are only too often the tragedy".


title: Molkki

text: On 15 June 2021, the villagers of a small village in Rajasthan were inspired after seeing the series, and they banned "molkki pratha" in their village. Actor Amar Upadhyay later confirmed the same and was proud to change the thinking of people with their show.


title: Westerlies

text: The westerlies, anti-trades, or prevailing westerlies, are prevailing winds from the west toward the east in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees latitude. They originate from the high-pressure areas in the horse latitudes and trend towards the poles and steer extratropical cyclones in this general manner. Tropical cyclones which cross the subtropical ridge axis into the westerlies recurve due to the increased westerly flow. The winds are predominantly from the southwest in the Northern Hemisphere and from the northwest in the Southern Hemisphere.


title: Westerlies

text: The westerlies are strongest in the winter hemisphere and times when the pressure is lower over the poles, while they are weakest in the summer hemisphere and when pressures are higher over the poles. The westerlies are particularly strong, especially in the Southern Hemisphere (called also 'Brave West winds' at striking Chile, Tasmania and New Zealand), in areas where land is absent, because land amplifies the flow pattern, making the current more north-south oriented, slowing the westerlies. The strongest westerly winds in the middle latitudes can come in the roaring forties, between 40 and 50 degrees latitude. The westerlies play an important role in carrying the warm, equatorial waters and winds to the western coasts of continents, especially in the southern hemisphere because of its vast oceanic expanse.


title: Westerlies

text: If the Earth were tidally locked to the Sun, solar heating would cause winds across the mid-latitudes to blow in a poleward direction, away from the subtropical ridge. However, the Coriolis effect caused by the rotation of Earth tends to deflect poleward winds eastward from north (to the right) in the Northern Hemisphere and eastward from south (to the left) in the Southern Hemisphere. This is why winds across the Northern Hemisphere tend to blow from the southwest, but they tend to be from the northwest in the Southern Hemisphere. When pressures are lower over the poles, the strength of the westerlies increases, which has the effect of warming the mid-latitudes. This occurs when the Arctic oscillation is positive, and during winter low pressure near the poles is stronger than it would be during the summer. When it is negative and pressures are higher over the poles, the flow is more meridional, blowing from the direction of the pole towards the Equator, which brings cold air into the mid-latitudes.


title: Westerlies

text: Throughout the year, the westerlies vary in strength with the polar cyclone. As the cyclone reaches its maximum intensity in winter, the westerlies increase in strength. As the cyclone reaches its weakest intensity in summer, the Westerlies weaken. An example of the impact of the westerlies is when dust plumes, originating in the Gobi desert combine with pollutants and spread large distances downwind, or eastward, into North America. The westerlies can be particularly strong, especially in the Southern Hemisphere, where there is less land in the middle to cause the progression of west to east winds to slow down. In the Southern hemisphere, because of the stormy and cloudy conditions, it is usual to refer to the westerlies as the roaring forties, furious fifties, or shrieking sixties according to the varying degrees of latitude.


title: Westerlies

text: Due to persistent winds from west to east on the poleward sides of the subtropical ridges located in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, ocean currents are driven in a similar manner in both hemispheres. The currents in the Northern Hemisphere are weaker than those in the Southern Hemisphere due to the differences in strength between the westerlies of each hemisphere. The process of western intensification causes currents on the western boundary of an ocean basin to be stronger than those on the eastern boundary of an ocean. These western ocean currents transport warm, tropical water polewards toward the polar regions. Ships crossing both oceans have taken advantage of the ocean currents for centuries.


title: Westerlies

text: The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), or the West Wind Drift, is an ocean current that flows from west to east around Antarctica. The ACC is the dominant circulation feature of the Southern Ocean and, at approximately 125 Sverdrups, the largest ocean current. In the northern hemisphere, the Gulf Stream, part of the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, has led to the development of strong cyclones of all types at the base of the Westerlies, both within the atmosphere and within the ocean. The Kuroshio (Japanese for "Black Tide") is a strong western boundary current in the western north Pacific Ocean, similar to the Gulf Stream, which has also contributed to the depth of ocean storms in that region.


title: Westerlies

text: An extratropical cyclone is a synoptic scale low-pressure weather system that has neither tropical nor polar characteristics, being connected with fronts and horizontal gradients in temperature and dew point otherwise known as "baroclinic zones".


title: Westerlies

text: The descriptor "extratropical" refers to the fact that this type of cyclone generally occurs outside of the tropics, in the middle latitudes of the planet, where the Westerlies steer the system generally from west to east. These systems may also be described as "mid-latitude cyclones" due to their area of formation, or "post-tropical cyclones" where extratropical transition has occurred, and are often described as "depressions" or "lows" by weather forecasters and the general public. These are the everyday phenomena which along with anticyclones, drive the weather over much of the Earth.


title: Westerlies

text: Although extratropical cyclones are almost always classified as baroclinic since they form along zones of temperature and dewpoint gradient, they can sometimes become barotropic late in their life cycle when the temperature distribution around the cyclone becomes fairly uniform along the radius from the center of low pressure. An extratropical cyclone can transform into a subtropical storm, and from there into a tropical cyclone, if it dwells over warm waters and develops central convection, which warms its core and causes temperature and dewpoint gradients near their centers to fade.


title: Westerlies

text: When a tropical cyclone crosses the subtropical ridge axis, normally through a break in the high-pressure area caused by a system traversing the Westerlies, its general track around the high-pressure area is deflected significantly by winds moving towards the general low-pressure area to its north. When the cyclone track becomes strongly poleward with an easterly component, the cyclone has begun "recurvature," entering the Westerlies. A typhoon moving through the Pacific Ocean towards Asia, for example, will recurve offshore of Japan to the north, and then to the northeast, if the typhoon encounters southwesterly winds (blowing northeastward) around a low-pressure system passing over China or Siberia. Many tropical cyclones are eventually forced toward the northeast by extratropical cyclones in this manner, which move from west to east to the north of the subtropical ridge. An example of a tropical cyclone in recurvature was Typhoon Ioke in 2006, which took a similar trajectory.


title: Tata Harrier

text: The Tata Harrier is a five-seater, diesel-engined compact crossover SUV produced by the Indian automaker Tata Motors Limited. It was launched in Indian market on 23 January 2019 and is positioned between the subcompact Tata Nexon and the mid-size Tata Safari.


title: Tata Harrier

text: Known with the project code "Q501" during the development phase, this mid-size SUV was previewed as the Tata H5X concept car. The reduction name 'Harrier' was announced by the parent company in the summer of 2018. The car is a C-segment SUV based on the "OmegaArc" platform, an essentially re-engineered version of the Jaguar Land Rover D8 platform adopted by models such as Range Rover Evoque, Discovery Sport and Jaguar E-Pace. OMEGARC stands for Optimal Modular Efficient Global Advanced Architecture - Derived from Land Rover's Legendary D8 Platform. This is a Monocoque construction with optimized torsional and bending stiffness for exemplary driving dynamics. It has efficiently designed crumple zones for absolute safety. Extensive use of advanced high strength steel and tailor welded blanks for high strength and reduced weight. The "OmegaArc" compared to the original "D8" has been redesigned to lower production costs by adopting different alloys and rear suspension with twist-beam scheme and panhard rod with coil spring, cheaper than the multilink of the Jaguar Land Rover models, while the front axle maintains the same MacPherson strut with coil spring and anti roll bar. The body has smaller amounts of high-strength steel.


title: Tata Harrier

text: Change also include engines and transmissions. The Harrier has front-wheel drive, four-wheel drive is not yet available, the braking system uses ventilated discs at the front, while the rear uses drums. The engine is the 2.0 litre. Multijet 16-valve four-cylinder turbo diesel with common rail direct injection, variable-geometry turbocharger, delivering and of torque, produced by Fiat (FCA India) in Pune. The same power plant is also utilised by the Jeep Compass and MG Hector in the Indian market. In the Harrier, Tata Motors uses the commercial name "Kryotec" for the engine instead.


title: Tata Harrier

text: Internally, the Harrier introduces a new 8.8-inch touchscreen infotainment system equipped with Android Auto, the instrument cluster has a 7-inch TFT display. Top trims are equipped with six airbags, ESP stability control, and traction control as standard. Three driving modes (Eco, City, and Sport), and a Terrain Response System (inherited from Land Rover) with three selectable modes (Normal, Wet, and Rough) are also on offer.


title: Tata Harrier

text: In October 2019, Tata Motors launched Tata Harrier #Dark edition. As the name suggests, the interiors and exteriors of the car are full black. Apart from it, there are no changes in the mechanical front.


title: Tata Harrier

text: In February 2020, the Harrier received feature updates including a panoramic sunroof, increased power output and an automatic transmission sourced from Hyundai. Although the horsepower was increased to .


title: Tata Harrier

text: In November 2020, the Harrier again received feature updates as they launched the Tata Harrier Camo edition, with military-style visuals. Feature update include roof rails, side steps and front parking sensors. The cabin gets back seat organizer, sunshades, 3D molded mats and 3D trunk mats, and anti-skid dash mats.


title: Tata Harrier

text: At the 89th Geneva International Motor Show in 2019, the Buzzard was showcased as the 7-seater version of the Harrier, along with the new Altroz subcompact hatchback, H2X subcompact SUV concept car, and Buzzard Sport which is a rebadged Harrier for exhibition purpose as the Harrier name is globally trademarked by Toyota. The name Gravitas was announced as its name for Indian market in the fall of 2019. Gravitas featured a longer body to accommodate the third row seats while keeping the same wheelbase as the Harrier. It is intended to replace the Hexa as Tata's three-row SUV offering.


title: Tata Harrier

text: In January 2021, the name "Safari" was resurrected and announced as the three-row SUV version of the Harrier to replace the temporary Gravitas name. The nameplate was previously used on Tata's midsize SUV produced till 2019.


title: Tata Harrier

text: At the 2019 Geneva International Motor Show along with the Buzzard, Tata Motors presented the Harrier for the export market, rebadged as the Buzzard Sport, and announced plans to sell the car in Europe. The name 'Buzzard Sport' was selected, as 'Harrier' - on the European and Asian markets - is already registered by Toyota.


title: Tata Harrier

text: The Harrier was launched in Nepal on 27 August 2019, rebadged as the Tata H5, deriving its name from the Tata H5X concept car.


title: Placekicker

text: Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. In many cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist or punter.


title: Placekicker

text: The kicker initially was not a specialized role. Prior to the 1934 standardization of the prolate spheroid shape of the ball, drop kicking was the prevalent method of kicking field goals and conversions, but even after its replacement by place kicking, until the 1960s the kicker almost always doubled at another position on the roster. George Blanda, Lou Groza, Frank Gifford and Paul Hornung are prominent examples of players who were stars at other positions as well as being known for their kicking abilities. When the one-platoon system was abolished in the 1940s, the era of "two-way" players gave way to increased specialization, teams would employ a specialist at the punter or kicker position. Ben Agajanian, who started his professional career in 1945, was the first confirmed place-kicking specialist in the NFL, kicking for ten teams. (There is some evidence that Ken Strong and Phil Martinovich, both in 1939, and Mose Kelsch, in 1933 and 1934, may have preceded Agajanian as players who spent their seasons doing nothing but kicking.)


title: Placekicker

text: Because of the difference in techniques needed, to avoid leg fatigue, and to reduce the risk of injury, on the professional level most teams employ separate players to handle the jobs. The placekicker usually will only punt when the punter is injured, and vice versa. (One player often handles both jobs in the Canadian Football League, which has smaller active rosters than in the NFL.) A professional team will occasionally even have a kickoff specialist who handles only the kickoffs and serves as a backup to the kicker who handles field goals and extra points. This is typically done to further protect a premier point-scoring kicker from injury or if he, while accurate, does not have sufficient distance on kickoffs.


title: Placekicker

text: Amateur teams (e.g., college or high school) often do not differentiate between placekickers and punters, have different players assume different placekicking duties (for example, one person handles kicking off, another kicks long field goals, and another kicks from shorter distances), or have regular position players handle kicking duties. The last option is quite common on high school teams, when the best athletes are often the best kickers. Before the modern era of pro football, this was also the case for professional teams, particularly when most placekicks were still made in the "straight on" style outlined below.


title: Placekicker

text: Although kickers are protected from direct physical contact on field goal attempts, this is not generally true on kickoffs, and a kicker can see significant contact during a kick return. Kicker Björn Nittmo notably suffered severe brain damage from a hit he sustained on a kickoff in 1997.


title: Placekicker

text: Still, due to their lack of plays in games and lack of contact compared to other positions, the top kickers in the NFL have often had extremely long careers, far beyond that of a typical NFL player. Place kicker is one of the few positions where it is not uncommon for players to be beyond the age of 40. Of the eight players in NFL history who have played beyond the age of 45, six of them are kickers: Morten Andersen, Gary Anderson, John Carney, Ben Agajanian, Adam Vinatieri, and George Blanda. Blanda was the oldest player in NFL history, playing until the age of 48.


title: Placekicker

text: It is not uncommon for placekickers to be some of the smallest members of their team. However, "The New York Times" in 2011 wrote that NFL kickers had adopted year-round weight training and strict diets. Sebastian Janikowski that year was a and kicker. Kicker Rob Bironas, who was and , noted, "I might be bigger than some wide receivers and cornerbacks."


title: Placekicker

text: The presence of foreign born-and-raised players in the highest levels of gridiron football has largely been limited to placekickers, and more recently to punters from Australia as well. Occasionally, these players come from outside the traditional American high school or college football systems—and all but one of the women to have played men's American football at the college level were placekickers while the lone exception was a placekick holder. Notably Tom Landry recruited several soccer players from Latin America, such as Efren Herrera and Raphael Septien, to compete for the job of placekicker for the Dallas Cowboys. Cypriot Garo Yepremian was renowned as much for his kicking proficiency as he was for his complete lack of awareness of the sport early in his career. British-born kicker Mick Luckhurst was one of the first British players in the NFL to have a long career, playing 7 seasons for the Atlanta Falcons during the 1980s and retiring as Atlanta's all time leading scorer. Mexican kicker Raul Allegre played 9 seasons in the NFL and won a Super Bowl in 1986. These anecdotes increase the perception of the placekicker as an outsider.


title: Placekicker

text: As of 2017, only four kickers have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: George Blanda, Lou Groza, Jan Stenerud and Morten Andersen, and among them, Stenerud and Andersen are the only ones who did not also play another position. There is only one special teams player (including punters, return specialists and long snappers) to ever win the NFL's MVP – Mark Moseley in 1982.


title: Placekicker

text: Nevertheless, due to their duties in kicking both field goals and extra points placekickers are usually responsible for scoring more points than any other player on a team, and very often entire football games may come down to a single kick. The top 25 players in NFL history in career scoring are all placekickers.


title: Placekicker

text: In the NFL, placekickers, along with punters and quarterbacks, are among the only players allowed to wear single-digit uniform numbers; kickers can also wear numbers between 10 and 19.


title: Placekicker

text: In college and high school football, kickers can wear any number and usually wear one of an eligible receiver (1 to 49 or 80 to 99). Because kickers are generally less prominent on team rosters, and low uniform numbers are much more widely used among other positions at those levels, kickers are often given high jersey numbers that go unused by other players (such as numbers in the 40s or 90s). The two players in documented football history to have worn the uniform number 100, Chuck Kinder and Bill Bell, were both placekickers.


title: Placekicker

text: Perhaps surprisingly, despite a higher share of kickers in the NFL being foreign nationals than on any other position (except Punter), the kicking game is not always the strong suit of teams outside North America. The NFL Europe was notable for employing former professional association football players as placekickers, some of them becoming fan favorites, like Manni Burgsmüller. The European League of Football in its inaugural 2021 season had a relatively high share of Point after Touchdown attempts miss or be blocked and had a notably higher share of Two Point Conversion attempts even than the contemporary 2021 German Football League. The Cologne Centurions (ELF) and the Leipzig Kings even had all their Field Goal attempts that season fail (0-1 and 0-3 respectively in a ten game season). The Barcelona Dragons (ELF) hired NFL alumn Giorgio Tavecchio late in the season to improve their kicking game while the Hamburg Sea Devils (ELF) got lucky with journeyman placekicker making 17 out of 18 attempts during the regular season, including a game winning one in the league opener against Frankfurt Galaxy (ELF).


title: Placekicker

text: Placekickers today are predominantly "soccer-style" kickers, approaching the ball from several steps to the left of it [for a right-footed kicker, or vice versa] and several steps behind, striking the ball with the instep of the foot; all current National Football League kickers use this style. This method of kicking was introduced in 1957 by Fred Bednarski and popularized in the 1960s by kickers like Pete Gogolak and his younger brother Charlie, the first placekicker to be drafted in the first round.


title: Placekicker

text: Previously, most placekickers used a "straight on" style, which required the use of a special shoe that is extremely rigid and has a flattened and slightly upturned toe. In the straight on style, also known as "straight-toe" style, the kicker approaches the ball from directly behind, rather than from the side, and strikes the ball with the toe. The last full-time straight on placekicker in the NFL was Mark Moseley who retired from the Cleveland Browns after the 1986 season, and the last straight-on kicker drafted into the NFL was Manny Matsakis from Capital University by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1984, who went on to become a successful college and CFL Coach.


title: Placekicker

text: The Minnesota Vikings were the last NFL team to begin employing a soccer-style kicker, bringing in Benny Ricardo in 1983.


title: Placekicker

text: Straight on kickers are relatively uncommon in major college football due to the control and power disadvantages, but straight-on kickers are still seen on high school, small-college, semi-pro and amateur teams. However, both of college football's top awards for kickers are named after former conventional kickers Fred Mitchell and Lou Groza even though the winners are soccer style players.


title: Placekicker

text: There are variations between soccer style kicking in fact, many of the early soccer style NFL kickers look somewhat different than most of all today's soccer style kickers and there is a difference between the college / preps vs most of the preps taught between kicking schools. Kicking Coach Paul Assad started teaching in the early 2000s what is termed "The Power X System" method used by most all of his over 51 NFL starting Specialist students such as noteworthy, NFL greats like (Mason Crosby, Sebastian Janikowski, Matt Bryant among others) where there is a notable, differentials of leg alignment, foot position at impact, upper body positioning and sequence as well as "Plant Foot" positioning.


title: Placekicker

text: Placekickers in the modern game usually wear specialized shoes (soccer boots). The reason for this is that, as compared to regular football cleats which use tougher and stiffer plastic, soccer cleats are primarily made out of leather. Kickers will also, in certain situations, wear two different cleats. One is their kicking cleat and the other is referred to as their plant foot. The reason that kickers will wear a football cleat on their plant foot as opposed to a soccer cleat is because the stiffer material will help the plant foot have a firm grip in the ground and hold the kicker’s ankle in a tight position. In very rare circumstances, though, some prefer to kick barefoot. Tony Franklin was one such barefoot kicker, who played in Super Bowls for the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots. Another was Rich Karlis, who once shared two kicking records - the record for longest field goal in Super Bowl history, kicking a 48-yard field goal in Super Bowl XXI to tie Jan Stenerud and also for the most field goals in a game, seven for Minnesota in 1989, tying Jim Bakken's record of the time, a record since broken by Rob Bironas. Englishman Rob Hart kicked barefoot during his 7-year NFL Europe career. John Baker also used the style in the 1990s in the Canadian Football League, as did José Cortéz in the XFL. The last person to kick barefoot in an NFL game was Jeff Wilkins in 2002.


title: Placekicker

text: A unique shoe was worn by New Orleans Saints kicker Tom Dempsey; Dempsey had a deformed kicking foot that left him with a flat kicking surface at the front of his foot, and he wore a shoe that accommodated it. After Dempsey kicked a record-setting 63-yard field goal using the special shoe in 1970, the league instituted a rule change establishing standards for kicking shoes in 1977, informally known as the "Tom Dempsey Rule", that "any shoe that is worn by a player with an artificial limb on his kicking leg must have a kicking surface that conforms to that of a normal kicking shoe." Dempsey played for two more years after the rule's institution, retiring in 1979.


title: Placekicker

text: Barefoot kickers are banned in the vast majority of high school games, due to a rule by the National Federation of State High School Associations, which requires all players to wear shoes. Texas plays by NCAA rules, and therefore barefoot kickers are legal in Texas.


title: Star Wars Day

text: "Star Wars" Day is an informal commemorative day observed annually on May4 to celebrate the "Star Wars" media franchise created by founder and former chairman and CEO of Lucasfilm, George Lucas. Observance of the day spread quickly through media and grassroots celebrations since the franchise began in 1977.


title: Star Wars Day

text: The date originated from the pun ""May the Fourth" be with you", a variant of the popular "Star Wars" catchphrase "May the Force be with you". Even though the holiday was not created or declared by Lucasfilm, many "Star Wars" fans around the world have chosen to celebrate the holiday. It has since been embraced by Lucasfilm and parent company Disney as an annual celebration of "Star Wars".


title: Star Wars Day

text: Additionally, the release date of the original "Star Wars" movie on May 25, 1977 is also celebrated as Geek Pride Day.


title: Star Wars Day

text: The first recorded reference of the phrase being used was on May 4, 1979, the day after Margaret Thatcher was elected as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Her political party, the Conservatives, placed a congratulatory advertisement in the "London Evening News" saying "May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations."


title: Star Wars Day

text: In the 1988 episode of "Count Duckula", "The Vampire Strikes Back", a space-faring superhero, Tremendous Terrance, asks Duckula the date and is told, "May the Fourth". As Terrance departs, he tells all below, "May the Fourth be with you."


title: Star Wars Day

text: Astrophysicist and author Jeanne Cavelos used the saying on page 94 of her 1999 book "The Science of Star Wars".


title: Star Wars Day

text: In 2008, the first Facebook groups appeared, celebrating "Luke Skywalker Day", with the same catchphrase.


title: Star Wars Day

text: In 2011, the first organized celebration of "Star Wars" Day took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the Toronto Underground Cinema. Produced by Sean Ward and Alice Quinn, festivities included an original trilogy trivia game show; a costume contest with celebrity judges; and the web's best tribute films, mash-ups, parodies, and remixes on the big screen. The second annual edition took place on Friday, May 4, 2012.


title: Star Wars Day

text: Fans (even government officials, such as Boris Johnson) have celebrated "Star Wars" in a variety of ways in social media and on television.


title: Star Wars Day

text: Major League Baseball, association football, and college sports teams have paid tribute to Star Wars in different ways. Minor League Baseball teams such as the Toledo Mud Hens and the Durham Bulls have worn special uniforms as part of "Star Wars" Day promotions.


title: Star Wars Day

text: On "Star Wars" Day 2015, astronauts in the International Space Station watched "Star Wars". Also in 2015, the carillon bells inside the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada played "The Imperial March" theme from "Star Wars", among other space-related tunes.


title: Star Wars Day

text: Since 2013, The Walt Disney Company has officially observed the holiday with several "Star Wars" events and festivities at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Disney had purchased Lucasfilm, including the rights to "Star Wars", in late 2012.


title: Star Wars Day

text: The finale of "" was made available on Disney+ on May 4, 2020. "", as well as the documentary series "Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian", were also made available on Disney+ the same day. The animated series "" also premiered on Disney+ on Star Wars Day in 2021. The second official trailer for "Obi-Wan Kenobi" was officially released on May 4, 2022 as well as "".


title: Star Wars Day

text: Some recognize the day after, May 5, as "Revenge of the Fifth", a play on "" and celebrate the Sith Lords and other villainous characters from the "Star Wars" series rather than the Jedi. Others celebrate this one day later, on May 6, citing "Revenge of the Sixth" as a better play on "Sith", while others refer to the 6th as "Return of the 6th" as a play on "Return of the Jedi" and the trilogy aspect of the "Star Wars" films.


title: Star Wars Day

text: In honor of the 30th anniversary release date of "Star Wars" on May 25, 1977, the Los Angeles City Council declared May 25, 2007 as "Star Wars" Day. A separate initiative for observing Geek Pride Day on May 25 is based on the "Star Wars" connection along with ties to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (Towel Day) and "Discworld". "" was also released on May 25, 2018, 41 years after the original "Star Wars".


title: Capcom Fighting Collection

text: Capcom Fighting Collection is a fighting game compilation by Capcom in celebration of the "Street Fighter" series' 35th anniversary. The collection includes arcade versions of ten fighting games originally released by Capcom between 1994 and 2003, including all five "Darkstalkers" games. It was released on June 24, 2022 on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.


title: Capcom Fighting Collection

text: "Capcom Fighting Collection" is a compilation of arcade versions of ten fighting games originally developed and published by Capcom. Most prominently, all five arcade entries in the "Darkstalkers" franchise are included, marking the first time the full series will be made available outside Japan. The collection also includes "Red Earth" for its first ever release outside arcades. The compilation features online play with rollback netcode, training and spectator modes, save states, concept art, design documents, and a music player. Similar to "Darkstalkers Resurrection", the compilation will not have the extra/boss playable characters featured from the home console versions, unlike the Japanese-only release "".


title: Capcom Fighting Collection

text: The game was released on June 24, 2022 on Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. A special physical edition will include "Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection" in Japan.


title: Capcom Fighting Collection

text: On September 27, 2022, a free update was released for all versions. This update includes adding quality of life features, making existing features more robust, bug fixes both for the collection as a whole and the original games, and some console exclusive changes like ID tags on PlayStation 4 and a bug involving the online leaderboard on Nintendo Switch.


title: Capcom Fighting Collection

text: "Capcom Fighting Collection" received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.


title: Capcom Fighting Collection

text: "GameSpot" and "Hardcore Gamer" praised the approachability of the added mechanics, "perfect" port quality of the compilation, and "Red Earth"'s inclusion, but felt the compilation lacked variety with the overrepresentation of the "Darkstalkers" franchise, and lamented the exclusion of more forgotten Capcom fighting games. "IGN" gave heavy praise to the modern rollback netcode and the inclusion of "an impressive museum filled with interesting art and music, and a snappy UI linking everything together", but took minor issue with the absence of cross-platform play and the exclusion of "Street Fighter III". "Nintendo Life" lauded the compilation's "excellent, polished, and accurate" presentation, inclusion of the "Darkstalkers" franchise and "Red Earth", and the "excellent" online net-code. The site also criticized the exclusion of inaccessible titles and the lack of both in-game soft resets and untranslated text in the "Vampire Savior" games. "Push Square" was similarly impressed by the game, giving it 9 stars out of 10, but thought the gallery content lacked contextualization and that "Cyberbots" was a poor inclusion. "Shacknews" liked the additions made to the game, including online play, a lobby system, training modes, and save states, but noted the exclusion of quality of life features from certain games, lack of crossplay, and that some games were "arcade-hard" by default. "TouchArcade" felt that the Switch version of the compilation included "a pretty good collection of games" but noted that "The overlap with other collections and my bad experiences with the online play keep me from recommending this too enthusiastically...this is still worth picking up for fans of Capcom's fighters."


title: Capcom Fighting Collection

text: The Nintendo Switch version of "Capcom Fighting Collection" sold 3,433 physical copies in Japan during its first week of release, making it the fourteenth bestselling retail game of the week in the country. The PlayStation 4 version sold 2,798 physical copies in Japan throughout the same week, making it the sixteenth bestselling retail game in Japan throughout the week.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (; 24 March 1607 – 29 April 1676) was a Dutch admiral. Widely celebrated and regarded as one of the most skilled admirals in history, De Ruyter is arguably most famous for his achievements with the Dutch Navy during the Anglo-Dutch Wars. He fought the English and French forces and scored several critical victories, with the Raid on the Medway being the most famous among them.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: Often dubbed a Dutch folk hero, De Ruyter is one of a few select officers in the history of the Dutch navy to hold the title of the lieutenant admiral (). Reportedly beloved by his subordinates and seamen, De Ruyter was commonly nicknamed "Bestevaêr" (Middle Dutch for "grandfather") during his service, a nickname that is sometimes still used to refer to him in Dutch media.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: De Ruyter was born on 24 March 1607 in Vlissingen, in the Spanish Netherlands, the son of a seaman who eventually became a brewery drayman, Adriaen Michielszoon, and Aagje Jansdochter. Little is known about de Ruyter's early life, but he was sent to sea as a boatswain's apprentice at the age of 11, the usual age for Zeeland boys to begin seafaring.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: In 1622, during the Eighty Years' War against Spain, he fought as a musketeer in the new Dutch army under Maurice of Nassau against the Spaniards during the relief of Bergen-op-Zoom. That same year he rejoined the Dutch merchant fleet and steadily worked his way up through the posts of boatswain and chief mate before becoming a merchant ship's master at the age of thirty. Although having had little formal education, he spoke tolerable French and fluent English.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: Bruijn notes that an anonymous English biographer of de Ruyter claims that he was active in Dublin between 1623 and 1631 as a factor for the Vlissingen-based merchant house of the Lampsins brothers and had become fluent in English when living there. The source claimed that de Ruyter had a slight knowledge of the Irish language and at least one Irish friend who played a leading role in the capture of in 1667.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: De Ruyter occasionally travelled as supercargo to the Mediterranean or to the Barbary Coast. In those years, he usually referred to himself as "Machgyel Adriensoon", his name in the Zeelandic dialect he spoke, as he had not yet adopted the surname "De Ruyter". "De Ruyter" was most probably a nickname given to him: one explanation might be found in the older Dutch verb "ruyten" or "ruiten", which means "to raid", something de Ruyter was known to do as a privateer with the Lampsins ship "Den Graeuwen Heynst". Another suggestion is that the name "Ruyter", meaning "horseman" commemorates one of his grandfathers, who was a cavalry trooper.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: On 16 March in 1631, he married Maayke Velders, a farmer's daughter. On 31 December that year, Maayke died after giving birth to a daughter; who also died just three weeks later. In 1633 and 1635, de Ruyter sailed as a navigating officer aboard the ship "Groene Leeuw" ("Green Lion") on whaling expeditions to Jan Mayen. Until 1637, he did not yet have a command of his own. In the summer of 1636 he remarried, this time to a daughter of a wealthy burgher named Neeltje Engels, who gave him four children – one of whom died shortly after birth. The others were named Adriaen (b. 1637), Neeltje (b. 1639) and Aelken (b. 1642).


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: In the midst of this, in 1637, de Ruyter became captain of a private ship meant to hunt for the Dunkirkers, raiders operating from Dunkirk who were preying on Dutch merchant shipping. He fulfilled this task until 1640. After this, he sailed for a while as skipper of a merchant vessel named "De Vlissinge". In 1641, de Ruyter was nominated by the Admiralty of Zeeland to become the captain of the "Haze", a merchant ship converted man-of-war carrying 26 guns, in a fleet under admiral Gijsels formed to assist the Portuguese in the Portuguese Restoration War against Philip IV of Spain, who was also Philip III of Portugal. The Dutch fleet was to join a Portuguese squadron fighting Spain at sea, and de Ruyter was appointed to be its "Schout-bij-nacht" or third in command. Although this expedition had little success, de Ruyter distinguished himself in combat against a Spanish fleet in the inconclusive action on 4 November 1641, off Cape St. Vincent. However, as a result of the loss of two ships and damage to others in this action, and the withdrawal of the Portuguese squadron after the action, the Dutch fleet returned home without completing its mission.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: After the fleet was disbanded, de Ruyter returned to merchant service, which he undertook either as master of a Lampsins ship, or after buying his own ship, the "Salamander".


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: Between 1642 and 1651, he made a number of profitable trading sailings to Morocco, Brazil and the West Indies, and by 1651, he had saved enough money to retire. In 1650, de Ruyter's second wife, who in 1649 had given him a second son, Engel, unexpectedly died. On 8 January 1652, he married a widow, Anna van Gelder, and bought a house in Flushing for his proposed retirement, which lasted less than a year.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: During the First Anglo-Dutch War of 1652–1654, De Ruyter agreed to join the expanding Dutch fleet as a junior flag-officer or "commandeur", a rank broadly comparable to that of commodore, commanding a Zeelandic squadron of "director's ships", which were privately financed warships, after he had initially refused the post on the grounds that others were better qualified for it. De Ruyter proved his worth under the supreme commander lieutenant-admiral Maarten Tromp. The rank of admiral-general was reserved for the stadtholder, but at the time, no-one held that appointment. The main function of De Ruyter's squadron was to convoy outbound or returning Dutch merchant ships through the English Channel, where they were vulnerable to attacks from English ships based at Portsmouth or Plymouth.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: In August 1652, a convoy of around 60 Dutch merchant ships left the Netherlands for the Mediterranean, initially with an escort of 10 warships. The convoy was joined off the coast of the Spanish Netherlands by a further escort commanded by de Ruyter of between 20 and 30 fighting ships. The exact number of Dutch fighting ships involved in the subsequent battle is unclear, but de Ruyter sailed with 21 warships from all five of the Dutch admiralties, two large Dutch East India warships and six fireships. Additional warships may have joined him on route to the convoy and at least one warship was damaged before the subsequent battle and returned to port. On 15 August 1652, the convoy and its escort were sighted by an English fleet commanded by General at Sea George Ayscue with around 45 ships. Three of these were warships more powerful than any in the Dutch fleet, but, as in de Ruyter's fleet, many of the others were small armed merchant ships rather than purpose-built warships. On the afternoon of 16 August 1652, Ayscue attempted to attack and capture the Dutch merchant ships with around nine of his strongest and fastest warships, but de Ruyter counter-attacked, leaving the convoy unprotected, and he surrounded those English warships that had attacked. The ensuing mêlée battle continued until nightfall, as the outnumbered English ships could rely on their stronger gun batteries to keep the Dutch at bay. Most of the hired English merchant ships neither attempted to aid their warships nor pursue the Dutch merchant ships. As Ayscue was defeated in his aim of capturing or destroying Dutch merchant ships, and as de Ruyter had fought off an attack by a potentially superior force by a bold attack on its strongest ships, the latter had won this battle of Plymouth and saved the convoy. He also fought at the battle of Kentish Knock and the battle of the Gabbard during this war.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: Tromp's death during the battle of Scheveningen ended the war. De Ruyter declined an emphatic offer from Johan de Witt to assume supreme command because he considered himself 'unfit' and also feared that it would bring him into conflict with Witte de With and Johan Evertsen, both of whom had more seniority. Later, de Ruyter and de Witt became friends. Colonel Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam then became the new Dutch supreme commander of the confederate fleet. De Ruyter at first refused to become Obdam's naval 'counsellor and assistant', but later was persuaded by de Witt to accept and remained in the service of the Dutch navy in that post until he accepted an offer from the Admiralty of Amsterdam to become their vice-admiral on 2 March 1654. He relocated with his family to that city in 1655.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: In July 1655, De Ruyter took command of a squadron of eight ships, of which the "Tijdverdrijf" ("Pastime") was his flagship, and set out for the Mediterranean with 55 merchantmen in convoy. His orders were to protect Dutch trade interests in that region and to ransom enslaved Christians in Algiers. Meeting an English fleet under Robert Blake along the way, he managed to avoid an incident. Operating off the Barbary Coast, he captured several infamous corsairs and, after negotiating a peace agreement with Salé, de Ruyter returned home in May 1656.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: The same month, the States General, becoming ever more concerned by the expansionary plans of the Swedish king, Charles X, decided to intervene in the Second Northern War by sending a fleet to the Baltic Sea. The Swedes had controlled this area since Charles had invaded Poland and claimed the Polish throne. De Ruyter once again embarked aboard the "Tijdverdrijf", arriving at the Øresund, where he waited for Obdam to arrive on 8 June. After Obdam had assumed command, de Ruyter and the Dutch fleet sailed to relieve the besieged city of Danzig on 27 July, which they did without any bloodshed. Peace was signed a month later Before leaving the Baltic, de Ruyter and other flag officers were granted an audience by Frederick III of Denmark. De Ruyter took a liking to the Danish king, who later became a friend.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: In 1658, the States General, on the advice of a leading member, Cornelis de Graeff, one of the mayors of Amsterdam, decided to once again send a fleet to the Baltic Sea to protect the important Baltic trade and to aid the Danes against Swedish aggression, which had continued despite a peace settlement. In accordance with the States' balance-of-power political approach, a fleet under Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam was sent without de Ruyter, who, at the time, was blockading Lisbon. On 8 November, a bloody melee took place, the battle of the Sound, which resulted in a Dutch victory, relieving Copenhagen. Still the Swedes were far from defeated and the States decided to continue their support for the Danes. De Ruyter took command of a new expeditionary fleet and managed to liberate Nyborg in 1659. For this, he was knighted by King Frederick III of Denmark. From 1661 to 1663, de Ruyter did convoy duty in the Mediterranean.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: In 1664, a year before the Second Anglo-Dutch War began, Robert Holmes had captured several Dutch West India Company trading posts and ships on the West African coast, seeking to forcibly expel Dutch influence from the region. Although Johan de Witt wanted to avoid an all-out war with England, he considered that this provocation must be responded to, and proposed to the States General that de Ruyter's squadron in the Mediterranean should be sent to West Africa to retake the West India Company's forts there. De Ruyter received his instructions at Málaga on 1 September 1664 and, by early the next month, all the Dutch West African posts had been recaptured and the squadron was ready to cross the Atlantic to attack English shipping in the West Indies and at the Newfoundland fisheries in reprisal.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: De Ruyter's activities in the American waters had less satisfactory results than those off West Africa. Arriving off Barbados in the Caribbean at the end of April 1665 aboard his flagship "Spiegel" (directly translating to mirror but in Dutch use may also refer to the transom or more simply the rear of a ship), he led his fleet of thirteen vessels into Carlisle Bay, exchanging fire with the English batteries and destroying many of the vessels anchored there. Unable to silence the English guns and having sustained significant casualties and considerable damage to his vessels, he retired to French Martinique for repairs.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: Sailing north from Martinique, de Ruyter captured several English vessels and delivered supplies to the Dutch colony at Sint Eustatius. In view of the damage that his ships had sustained at Barbados, he decided against an assault on New York, formerly New Amsterdam which would have been necessary, had the Dutch wished to retake their former New Netherland colony. De Ruyter then proceeded to Newfoundland, capturing some English merchant ships and temporarily taking the town of St. John's before returning to Europe, travelling around the north of Scotland as a precaution.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: In December 1664, the English fleet attacked the Dutch Smyrna fleet. Although the attack failed, the Dutch in January 1665 allowed their ships to open fire on English warships when threatened. War was declared by the Dutch on 4 March 1665, following two further English attacks on Dutch convoys, one off Cadiz and another in the English Channel. The Dutch fleet was confident of victory but it contained a significant proportion of older or weak ships. In the first year of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, at the Battle of Lowestoft on 13 June 1665, the Dutch suffered the worst defeat in the history the Dutch Republic's navy. At least sixteen ships lost, and one-third of its personnel captured or killed; Van Wassenaer was among the dead.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: On his return to the republic, de Ruyter learned van Wassenaer had been killed at Lowestoft. Cornelis Tromp had been put in temporary command of the confederate fleet after the battle, but was not acceptable to the regime of Johan de Witt because of his support for the Orangist cause. De Ruyter was politically neutral, but on friendly terms with Johan de Witt and his associates. His successes in distant waters, which ensured he was not involved in the battle of Lowestoft and tainted by that defeat, made him the obvious candidate to succeed Van Wassenaer as commander of the Dutch fleet, which he did on 11 August 1665. He was therefore made lieutenant-admiral, a rank he then shared with six others in the Dutch admiralties.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: In the second year of the war, 1666, de Ruyter won the hard-fought Four Days' Battle of 1 to 4 June 1666. The division of the English fleet gave the Dutch the advantage of numbers on the first and second days of fighting. An English attack on the anchored Dutch fleet on the first day was resisted and, after two days fighting, the English fleet retreated towards the Thames. However, the English fleet was reinforced by a squadron of undamaged ships on the third evening and fought strongly on the fourth day, so that Tromp seemed near to defeat in the afternoon, until de Ruyter decided the battle with a surprise all-out attack that demoralised his opponents into retreat.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: However, the English fleet was not destroyed and, on 4 and 5 August, the Dutch suffered heavy losses and narrowly escaped disaster in the St. James's Day Battle. After the battle, de Ruyter accused Cornelis Tromp of ignoring the main English attack on the Dutch fleet, preferring to chase the English rear squadron as far as the coast, which eventually led to Tromp's dismissal. De Ruyter then became seriously ill, recovering just in time to take nominal command of the fleet executing the Raid on the Medway in 1667, the third year of the war. The Medway raid was part of a broader plan by Johan de Witt to land Dutch troops in Kent or Essex, and de Ruyter neither agreed with de Witt's fixation with the Thames estuary as the critical theatre of the naval war nor with this raid. Although the Medway raid was a costly and embarrassing defeat for the English, resulting in the loss of the English flagship it did not bring the success de Witt had sought, as its effect politically was to help Charles II and his ministers to justify a third Dutch war.