title: Ford Five Hundred

text: For the 2010 model year, the Ford Taurus underwent a complete redesign. Although retaining the D3 chassis, the exterior and interior was completely changed, to add more aggressive styling. This became the final generation Taurus for North America. As the Mercury brand was being phased out in 2010, 2009 marked the final year of the Sable nameplate.


title: Ford Five Hundred

text: Alongside the Ford Five Hundred, several versions of the D3 platform were marketed by Ford Motor Company, with all variants produced in the same Chicago assembly facility.


title: Ford Five Hundred

text: The Mercury division sold the Ford Five Hundred as the Mercury Montego, slotted in between the Grand Marquis and the Milan (replacing the Sable). For the first time since 1979, Mercury sold a completely new full-size car (and two full-size Mercury sedans for the first time since 1974). While largely distinguished from the Five Hundred by its standard HID headlights and LED taillights (the largest set of LED taillights ever introduced on a Ford vehicle at the time), the Montego also differs from the Five Hundred in its monochomatic exterior, satin aluminum trim, and two-tone interior with black-toned wood trim.


title: Ford Five Hundred

text: As with the Five Hundred, the Montego was produced in front and all-wheel drive configurations, sharing the same powertrains. In contrast, Mercury sold the Montego in two trim levels (Luxury and Premier).


title: Ford Five Hundred

text: In its development as one of the vehicles to replace the Ford Taurus, the model lineup of the Five Hundred/Montego was reduced to the four-door sedan exclusively. While not deleted, the role of the Taurus/Sable station wagon would change as it was repackaged as a functionally similar crossover SUV, replacing the long-running third-row jumpseat with a forward-facing folding third row.


title: Ford Five Hundred

text: Slotted in between the Ford Escape and Ford Explorer in its exterior footprint, the Ford Freestyle was fitted solely with a 3.0-liter V6 engine and a continuously variable transmission (CVT). In its exterior design, the Freestyle borrowed elements from several vehicles, including the Explorer and Escape.


title: Ford Five Hundred

text: In place of the luxury sedan interior of the Five Hundred/Montego, the Freestyle was designed with a model-specific interior.


title: Ford Five Hundred

text: While the Freestyle would serve as the basis for the Mercury Meta One concept vehicle, no Mercury version was ever produced beyond the prototype stage.


title: Ford Five Hundred

text: During its production, the Ford Five Hundred would attract a high degree of attention by automotive industry critics over its controversial styling. Intended as "guilt-free luxury", several reviewers have noted its close resemblance to Volkswagen and Audi sedans, (along with the lack of brand differentiation between the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego)."" Others criticized its conservative exterior styling, likely to only appeal to older buyers.


title: Ford Five Hundred

text: While the Five Hundred would attract attention for its high interior volume, design functionality, value, and large number of safety features, along with its styling, many reviewers criticized the performance of the 3.0L V6 engine and CVT transmission (in comparison to other vehicles).


title: Ford Five Hundred

text: Ford designer J Mays said "I don't think the Five Hundred or Freestyle was one of my brighter moments in Ford, but designing a car is not a solo effort and a lot of people have input on the kind of product they want. I've been at the company 13 years and I've been through five CEOs. Some of those CEOs have had more conservative tastes than others." Mays later conceded of the Five Hundred's styling: “It’s just lacking in the emotional appeal that we should have put into it. We were being good team players, and we did our best to wrap what was a best-in-class package with sheetmetal, and we ended up with a car, I think, that compromised itself in terms of style. But we will never make that mistake again. In fact, we haven’t made a mistake like that since we did it. I think of all the cars I’ve designed in my career, I regret not pushing harder on that car.”


title: Fantastic (Wham! album)

text: Fantastic is the debut studio album by British pop duo Wham!, released on 9 July 1983. It reached number one on the UK Albums Chart. It included the previously released singles "Young Guns", "Wham! Rap" and "Bad Boys". "Club Tropicana" was released as a single to coincide with the album's release. Although not on the album, "Club Fantastic Megamix" (a medley of songs from the album) was released against the band's wishes by Innervision soon after "Fantastic", and whilst they were in proceedings to leave the label.


title: Fantastic (Wham! album)

text: According to Andrew Ridgeley in his 2019 book "Wham! George and Me" it was during the early stages of writing and recording of this album, that the pair agreed that George Michael should take sole responsibility for writing the group's material. Before securing their first record deal, they had written songs together, and made their first demos with these songs. When work started in the studio, George Michael – according to Ridgeley – started working "at lightning speed", and it quickly became clear that he was by far the better songwriter. Andrew Ridgeley would later say, that it was not something that he particularly wanted, but there was no doubt it was the way to go to achieve the success they both wanted. Two new songs, "Golden Soul" and "Soul Boy", were written by George and Andrew for the album but both were shelved as "neither of them were any good". (They have never been officially released but can be found on YouTube). They were replaced by tracks written and arranged by George Michael.


title: Fantastic (Wham! album)

text: The album features a hidden track (played on a honky-tonk-style piano), after the final 20 seconds of "Young Guns (Go for It!)".


title: Fantastic (Wham! album)

text: In the U.S., the album was originally released as the group "WHAM! U.K.", due to a conflict with a U.S. group with the same name (Columbia BFC-38911).


title: Fantastic (Wham! album)

text: The track listing of the first edition of the CD and the original cassette tape feature three bonus tracks interspersed within the original track listing, consisting of instrumental remixes. This track listing was again used for the 1998 reissue of the CD.


title: Fantastic (Wham! album)

text: Michael and Ridgeley embarked on a UK tour to promote the album in October 1983, opening at Aberdeen's Capitol Theatre, before going on to dates in Scotland, England and Wales ending in November at the Centre in Brighton.


title: Clay Bennett (businessman)

text: Clayton Ike Bennett (born 1959) is an American businessman and chairman of the Professional Basketball Club LLC, the ownership group of the Oklahoma City Thunder, an NBA franchise formerly known as the Seattle SuperSonics. Bennett is the chairman of Oklahoma City-based Dorchester Capital Corporation, as well as the chairman emeritus of the board of directors of the Oklahoma Heritage Association and served as chairman of the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma from 2011–2019.


title: Clay Bennett (businessman)

text: Bennett was one of the owners of the San Antonio Spurs in the mid-1990s, where one of his primary duties was to represent the team on the NBA Board of Governors. Immediately prior to the 2005–06 NBA season, Bennett, along with Aubrey McClendon of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Tom L. Ward of Oklahoma City-based SandRidge Energy Corporation, and G. Jeffrey Records Jr. of Oklahoma City-based MidFirst Bank, partnered with the city of Oklahoma City and the state of Oklahoma in providing a revenue guarantee for the NBA's New Orleans Hornets. This resulted in the relocation of the Hornets to Oklahoma City for two seasons. The temporary relocation to Oklahoma City stemmed from damage to the arena and infrastructure in New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina.


title: Clay Bennett (businessman)

text: Bennett is the chairman of the Oklahoma City-based Professional Basketball Club LLC (PBC), which owns the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder. Formerly known as the Seattle SuperSonics, the team was purchased from Howard Schultz in 2006 for approximately $350 million with Bennett promising a good-faith effort to keep the team in Seattle, provided there would be a public commitment to a new arena. After failing to get $500 million in public funding from local taxes to build a new suburban arena for the team, Bennett notified the NBA on November 2, 2007, of the ownership group's intent to move the team to Oklahoma City. On March 21, 2008, Bennett made known his plan to relocate the basketball franchise. On April 18, 2008, NBA owners gave approval for moving the franchise from Seattle for the 2008–2009 season pending the outcome of the city's case to uphold the lease and the former ownership group's lawsuit to rescind the purchase. On July 2, 2008, Bennett's ownership group reached a settlement agreement in the lawsuit filed by the city of Seattle, thus allowing the franchise to move from Seattle to Oklahoma City.


title: Clay Bennett (businessman)

text: On May 15, 2013, Bennett was a part of the board of governors that voted, 22–8, against a proposed relocation of the Sacramento Kings to Seattle.


title: Clay Bennett (businessman)

text: Bennett is married to Louise Gaylord Bennett, the daughter of Oklahoma City media mogul Edward L. Gaylord. Bennett and Louise Gaylord were high school sweethearts, meeting when he was a sophomore and she was a freshman. They have three children. As of August 2021, Bennett's daughter-in law, Alex Bennett, entered an agreement with Barstool Sports to create digital content. Bennett's in-laws also have ties to professional sports ownership, as the Gaylords once owned a minority share of the Texas Rangers—a share which was later sold to future Republican President George W. Bush. Bennett is a Republican. Bennett is chairman of a task force identifying and seeking criminal justice reforms to alleviate jail overcrowding in Oklahoma City.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: In sociolinguistics, prestige is the level of regard normally accorded a specific language or dialect within a speech community, relative to other languages or dialects. Prestige varieties are language or dialect families which are generally considered by a society to be the most "correct" or otherwise superior. In many cases, they are the standard form of the language, though there are exceptions, particularly in situations of covert prestige (where a non-standard dialect is highly valued). In addition to dialects and languages, prestige is also applied to smaller linguistic features, such as the pronunciation or usage of words or grammatical constructs, which may not be distinctive enough to constitute a separate dialect. The concept of prestige provides one explanation for the phenomenon of variation in form among speakers of a language or languages.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: The presence of prestige dialects is a result of the relationship between the prestige of a group of people and the language that they use. Generally, the language or variety that is regarded as more prestigious in that community is the one used by the more prestigious group. The level of prestige a group has can also influence whether the language that they speak is considered its own language or a dialect (implying that it does not have enough prestige to be considered its own language).


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Social class has a correlation with the language that is considered more prestigious, and studies in different communities have shown that sometimes members of a lower social class attempt to emulate the language of individuals in higher social classes to avoid how their distinct language would otherwise construct their identity. The relationship between language and identity construction as a result of prestige influences the language used by different individuals, depending on which groups they do belong or want to belong.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Sociolinguistic prestige is especially visible in situations where two or more distinct languages are used, and in diverse, socially stratified urban areas, in which there are likely to be speakers of different languages and/or dialects interacting often. The result of language contact depends on the power relationship between the languages of the groups that are in contact.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: The prevailing view among contemporary linguists is that, regardless of perceptions that a dialect or language is "better" or "worse" than its counterparts, when dialects and languages are assessed "on purely linguistic grounds, all languages—and all dialects—have equal merit".


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Additionally, which varieties, registers or features will be considered more prestigious depends on audience and context. There are thus the concepts of "overt" and "covert" prestige. Overt prestige is related to standard and "formal" language features, and expresses power and status; covert prestige is related more to vernacular and often patois, and expresses solidarity, community and group identity more than authority.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Prestige varieties are those that are regarded mostly highly within a society. As such, the standard language, the form promoted by authorities—usually governmental or from those in power—and considered "correct" or otherwise superior, is often the prestige variety. However, there are many exceptions to this rule, such as Arabic, in which Egyptian Arabic is widely used in mass media aimed at international audiences, while Literary Arabic (also known as Standard Arabic) is a more prestigious form. Prestige varieties do not exhibit features, grammatically speaking, which prove them superior in terms of logic, efficacy or aesthetics. With certain exceptions, they are the language varieties of the prestigious social classes. Therefore, the prestige variety of a given language community or nation-state has symbolic significance and may act as an instrument of political power.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: The notion of a standard language in a speech community is related to the prestige of the languages spoken in the community. In general, "greater prestige tends to be attached to the notion of the standard, since it can function in higher domains, and has a written form." While there are some counterexamples, such as Arabic, "prestigious and standard varieties [tend to] coincide to the extent that the two terms can be used interchangeably."


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: In countries like the United States, where citizens speak many different languages and come from a variety of national and ethnic groups, there is a "folk linguistic" belief that the most prestigious dialect is the single standard dialect of English that all people should speak. Linguist Rosina Lippi-Green believes that this belief in a standard language defends and rationalizes the preservation of the social order, since it equates "nonstandard" or "substandard" language with "nonstandard or substandard human beings." Linguists believe that no variety of language is inherently better than any other, for every language serves its purpose of allowing its users to communicate. This is because every variety of a language is systematic and rule governed. These rules do not contain a hierarchy, thus certain varieties—linguistically—are not placed above another.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: The terms and conditions of prestige assigned to a language variety are subject to change depending on speaker, situation and context. A dialect or variety which is considered prestigious in one context, will not carry the same status in another. The relative status of language varies according to audience, situation and other contextual elements such as geographic location. Covert prestige refers to relatively high value placed on a non-standard form of language.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Different languages and dialects are accorded prestige based upon factors, including "rich literary heritage, high degree of language modernization, considerable international standing, or the prestige of its speakers". These, and other attributes and factors contribute to how the language is viewed as being of high prestige, leaving a language or dialect with few or none of these attributes to be considered to be of low prestige.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: "Language is intertwined with culture," therefore there is often a strong correlation between the prestige of a group of people and the prestige accorded to the language they speak, as linguist Laurie Bauer's description of Latin's prestige exemplifies this phenomenon:


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: This phenomenon is not limited to English-speaking populations. In Western Europe, multiple languages were considered to be of high prestige at some time or another, including "Italian as the Mediterranean "lingua franca" and as the language of the Renaissance; and the 17th-18th century French of the court culture".


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: It started a moment in time in which Sanskrit was considered the oldest language in the world, followed by other languages increasing their prestige by claiming to be as close to a presumed Proto-Indo-European language or linked to other Proto-Indo-European mythology, both in Europe and South Asia.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Walt Wolfram, a professor of linguistics at North Carolina State University, notes that he "can't think of any situations in the United States where low-prestige groups have high-prestige language systems". Wolfram further emphasizes this in his PBS documentary "Do You Speak American?", and explains how there is a very clear hierarchy in which "modern American English" is at the top, and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is at the bottom, because AAVE is seldom considered “standard” English in academic settings.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: The education system is one of the primary agents in emphasizing a "standard" way of speaking. For example, Wolfram's documentary also shows how speakers of AAVE are often corrected by teachers, since it has linguistic features that are different from what has been deemed the "standard." Criticism of AAVE in schools by teachers not only insults the students that speak AAVE, but those insults also put the individuals who taught these students how to speak, such as their family members, in a subordinate position. In turn, this further reinforces stratification of social groups in a linguistic and social context. In schools around the world that teach English, speaking "proper" English is emphasized, even if other varieties are equally valid and able to communicate the same ideas. In a school in Mumbai, India, there is a large emphasis placed on speaking "good English." Thus, proficiency is not determined by ability to convey ideas, but rather the grammatical adherence of the speaker to the rules used in the "standard" English variety, and speaking English that way. This not only perpetuates the idea of a "correct" way of speaking in the classroom, but this subordination extends well outside of the classroom.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Many films and TV shows (especially children's TV shows) use different language varieties for different characters, which constructs their identity in particular ways. For example, the protagonists of Disney animated films tend to speak Standard American English, while minor characters or antagonists are more likely to speak with other accents. This is true even when characters would not logically speak English, as in the film "Aladdin", where the title character Aladdin, his love interest Jasmine, and Jasmine's father have American accents, but several other characters do not. Associating the American accent with sympathetic or prestigious characters in children's TV shows/movies can have negative implications, contributing to the formation of stereotypes and biases.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: One of the primary examples of the debate of prestige within the media is the Oakland ebonics controversy of 1996. Illustrating the pervasiveness of public views on socio-educational issues in relation to language diversity, the Oakland, California school board came to a resolution recognizing Ebonics within public education. This proposition recognized Ebonics as a language system in attempts for the city to receive public funding for bilingual situations. Heavy debate arose amongst members of congress, newscasters, and other commentators with relatively no linguistics knowledge.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: The debate was extremely controversial, with beliefs stemming from the same beliefs that govern morality, religion, and ethics. Similar to the beliefs that govern these areas, the debate on Ebonics was believed to be inflexible. The discussion "surfaced foundational beliefs about language and language diversity and exposed an alternative, non-mainstream set of beliefs about language and language variation.”


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Prestige influences whether a language variety is considered a language or a dialect. In discussing definitions of language, Dell Hymes wrote that "sometimes two communities are said to have the same, or different, languages on the grounds of mutual intelligibility, or lack thereof", but alone, this definition is often insufficient.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Different language varieties in an area exist along a dialect continuum, and moving geographically often means a change in the local variety.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: This continuum means that despite the fact that standard German and standard Dutch are not mutually intelligible, the speech of people living near the border between Germany and the Netherlands will more closely resemble that of their neighbors across the border than the standard languages of their respective home countries. Even so, speakers near the border would describe themselves as speaking a variety of their respective standard languages, and the evolution of these dialects tends to mirror that of the standard languages as well.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: That they are classified as such reflects the fact that "language differences are not only marks of differential group membership, but also powerful triggers of group attitudes". Such fuzziness has resulted in the aphorism "A language is a dialect with an army and navy." That is, speakers of some language variety with political and social power are viewed as having a distinct language, while "'dialect' is [...] a term that suggests lower-class or rural speech".


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: A canonical example of this is the Scandinavian languages, including Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, where language differences "constitute barriers to but do not wholly block communication", but are considered distinct languages because they are spoken in different countries.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: While some differences between dialects are regional in nature, there are also social causes for differences in dialects. Very often, the "public prestige dialect of the elite in a stratified community differs from the dialect(s) of the non-elite strata (working class and other)". In fact, in an article which in part tried to motivate the study of sociolinguistics, Raven McDavid wrote that "the importance of language as a mirror of culture can be demonstrated by dialect differences in American English". Thus the relation between the way speakers use a language and their social status is a long recognized tool in sociolinguistics.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: In 1958, one of the earliest studies of the relationship between social differences and dialect differences was published by John Gumperz, who studied the speech patterns in Khalapur, a small, highly stratified village in India. In all, the village has 31 castes, ranging from Brahmins and Rajputs at the top, to Chamars and Bhangis at the bottom, and 90% of the overall population was Hindu, with the remaining 10% Muslim.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Gumperz observed that the different castes were distinguished both phonologically and lexically, with each caste having a vocabulary specific to their subculture. Remarkably, the speech differences between Hindus and Muslims "are of the same order as those between individual touchable castes and certainly much less important than the variation between touchables and untouchables".


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Gumperz also observed that the lower prestige groups sought to imitate the higher prestige speech patterns and that over time, it had caused the evolution of the prestige away from the regional standard, as higher prestige groups sought to differentiate themselves from lower prestige groups. He concluded that in determining speech patterns in this community, "the determining factor seems to be informal friendship contacts" rather than work contacts.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: An example of this was also observed in a study in Madrid, Spain, where Latin American Spanish-speakers noticed that certain features of their Spanish were evaluated negatively by local speakers. Spanish varieties spoken in Latin American countries have linguistic differences from the way many locals in Madrid speak. Their use of Latin American Spanish is associated with “symbolic and monetary capital (such as social class and ethnicity).” The study asserted that “To be accepted, therefore, the speakers have to “correct” these “errors” and “adapt” to the local variety of Spanish, which is considered the model to follow. In other words, to be acknowledged as full participants in their respective communities, these participants have to sound like locals.” Thus, social class plays a role in determining prestige, impacting the way that Latin American Spanish is acknowledged.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: One notable example of the relationship between dialect and social stratification in English is William Labov's 1966 study of the variable pronunciation of "r" in New York City. Labov went to three New York City department stores that catered to three clearly delineated socioeconomic groups—Saks (high), Macy's (middle), and S. Klein (low)—and studied how their employees pronounced the phrase "fourth floor". His results demonstrated that the employees at Saks pronounced "r" most often, Macy's employees pronounced "r" less often, and at S. Klein, seventy-nine percent of the respondents said no "r" at all. Another trend Labov noticed was that at all three of the stores, but Macy's in particular, when prompted to say "fourth floor" a second time, employees were much more likely to pronounce the "r".


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Labov attributed his findings to the perceived prestige of each dialect. He noted that New York City's "dropped 'r' has its origins in posh British speech", but after World War II, "with the loss of Britain's imperial status 'r'-less British speech ceased to be regarded as 'prestige speech'". In 1966, when Labov performed his study, pronouncing words like "car" and "guard" with "r" was then considered an element of prestige speech. This resulted in middle-class employees, once made conscious of having to pronounce "fourth floor", altering their pronunciation in order to match that of the high prestige dialect. The prestige given to "r" was also evident in the hypercorrection observed in lower-class speech. Knowing that "r"-pronunciation was a prestigious trait, many of the lower-class speakers in another Labov study—in which speakers were asked to read from word lists—added "-r" to words that did not have an "r" at all. The difference between this study and the "fourth floor" study was the fact that speakers were closely monitoring their speech, not speaking spontaneously, and were thus careful to add "r" in an attempt to mimic a higher social class.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Another prime example of covert prestige is within popular culture. The pervasiveness of hip hop music and its usage of AAVE has coined many widely used terms. Usage of AAVE has created a certain social capital, or clout, in certain social contexts. Contrastingly, in educational or hierarchical settings, usage of this variety can result in negative connotations. Due to this, practitioners are often perceived as having minimal academic prowess or being lowly educated. They can also be associated with poverty or low economic means. These inherent stigmas and biases impede the AAVE speaker from academic, social, and economic success.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Non-standard dialects are usually considered low-prestige, but in some situations dialects "stigmatized by the education system still enjoy a "covert" prestige among working-class men for the very reason that they are considered incorrect". These situations occur when the speaker wants to gain recognition, acceptance, or solidarity with a specific—and non-prestigious—group of people, or to signal to other speakers their identification with that group. The idea of covert prestige was first introduced by William Labov, who noticed that even speakers who used non-standard dialects often believed that their own dialect was "bad" or "inferior". Labov realized that there must be some underlying reason for their use of the dialect, which he identified as a signal of group identity. One example is a 1998 study on the use of word-final "-ing" versus "-in" among college fraternity men in the United States. The fraternity men used "-in" rather than "-ing," from which the author concluded that the men used "-in" to demonstrate what they saw as working-class behavioral traits, such as 'hard-working' and 'casual,' thus creating a specific identity for themselves.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: In a study by Elaine Chun, it was noted that even though the use of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is not viewed as the standard in many American schools, and thus is often corrected by teachers, there are some instances where non-African Americans use AAVE to construct their identity in a particular way and enjoy covert prestige in the African American speech community. The study pointed out that "mainstream uses of AAVE 'slang' are especially prevalent in social circles that desire to create and project a heterosexual masculinity," and included examples of a Korean-American student using AAVE to gain recognition/acceptance in the African American speech community. This underscores that the relative status of language varies according to audience.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Likewise, in studies of the speech patterns in British English, Peter Trudgill observed that more working class women spoke the standard dialect than men. Farida Abu-Haidar performed a similar study in Baghdad of prestige in the Arabic language, after which she concluded that in Baghdadi Arabic, women are more conscious of prestige than are men. Other areas in which this has been observed include New Zealand and Guangdong in China. As explanation, Trudgill suggests that for men, there is covert prestige associated with speaking the working class dialect. In fact, he observed men claiming to speak a "less" prestigious dialect than that which they actually spoke. According to this interpretation then, "women's use of prestige features simply conforms to the ordinary sociolinguistic order, while men deviate from what is expected." Elizabeth Gordon, in her study of New Zealand, suggested instead that women used higher prestige forms because of the association of sexual immorality with lower-class women. Whatever the cause, women across many cultures seem more likely than men to modify their speech towards the prestige dialect.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Though women use prestige dialects more than men, the same gender preference for prestige languages does not seem to exist. A study of diglossic societies by John Angle and Sharlene Hesse-Biber showed that the poorer men were more likely to speak the prestige language than were poorer women, even though women were more particularly "drawn to the language of the rich." One explanation put forth for this is that poorer men are more likely to have the means of acquiring a second language than poorer women as a result of having "greater exposure" and "greater economic motivation."


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: When different language varieties come into contact, a variety of relationships can form between the two, all typically influenced by prestige. When they have equal power or prestige, they form adstratum, as exemplified by Old English and Norse, which shared elements with each other more or less equally.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Far more common is for the two languages to have an unequal power relationship, as is the case of many colonial language contact situations. Languages that have a higher status in relation to a certain group often manifest themselves in word borrowing. One example is in English, which features many French words, as a result of the historical prestige of French. Another potential result of such contact relationships includes the creation of a pidgin or eventually creole through nativization. In the case of pidgins and creoles, it is usually noted that the low prestige language provides the phonology while the high prestige language provides the lexicon and grammatical structure.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: In addition to forming a new language, known as a creole, language contact can result in changes, such as language convergence, language shift or language death. Language convergence is when two languages have been exposed for a long period of time and they begin to have more properties in common. Language shift is when a speaker shifts from speaking a lower prestige dialect to a higher prestige dialect. Language death can happen in many ways, one of which is when speakers of a language die off, and there are no new generations learning to speak this language. The intensity of the contact between the two languages and their relative prestige levels influence the degree to which a language experiences lexical borrowing and changes to the morphology, phonology, syntax, and overall structure of the language.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: When two languages with an asymmetrical power relationship come into contact, such as through colonization or in a refugee situation, the creole that results is typically largely based on the prestige language; as noted above, linguists have observed that the low-prestige language usually provides the phonology while the high-prestige language provides the lexicon and grammatical structure. Over time, continued contact between the creole and the prestige language may result in decreolization, in which the creole begins to more closely resemble the prestige language. Decreolization thus creates a creole continuum, ranging from an acrolect (a version of the creole that is very similar to the prestige language), to mesolects (decreasingly similar versions), to the basilect (the most “conservative" creole). An example of decreolization described by Hock and Joseph is African American Vernacular English (AAVE), in which older, more conservative versions preserve features such as the completive marker "done" while newer, less conservative versions do not.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: Some instances of contact between languages with different prestige levels have resulted in diglossia, a phenomenon in which a community uses a high prestige language or dialect in certain situations, usually for newspapers, in literature, on university campuses, for religious ceremonies, and on television and the radio, but uses a low prestige language or dialect for other situations, often in conversation in the home or in letters, comic strips, and in popular culture. Linguist Charles A. Ferguson's 1959 article "Diglossia" listed the following examples of diglossic societies: in the Middle East and North Africa, Standard Arabic and vernacular Arabics; in Greece, Katharevousa and Dhimotiki; in Switzerland, Swiss Standard German and Swiss German; and in Haiti, Standard French and Haitian Creole. In most African countries, a European language serves as the official, prestige language (Standard French, English, Portuguese), while local languages (Wolof, Bambara, Yoruba) or creoles (Ivorian French, Nigerian English) serve as everyday languages of communication.


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: In diglossic societies, the prestigious language tends to conservatively resist change over time while the low-prestige language, the local vernacular, undergoes normal language change. For instance, Latin, the high prestige language of Europe for many centuries, underwent minimal change while the everyday low prestige spoken languages evolved significantly. If, however, the two languages are spoken freely, the prestige language may undergo vernacularization and begin to incorporate vernacular features. An example is Sanskrit, an ancient prestige language that has incorporated the vernacular pronunciations of and for word-initial "y-" and "v-".


title: Prestige (sociolinguistics)

text: The prestige language may also change under the influence of specific regional dialects in a process known as regionalization. For example, in medieval times, Ecclesiastical Latin developed different forms in countries such as Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Catalonia, as well as other Roman Catholic nations, notably in pronunciation – see Latin regional pronunciation. Some of these differences were minor, such as "c" before "i" and "e" being pronounced in Italy but in France, but after English underwent the Great Vowel Shift between 1200 and 1600, the vowel system in England became nearly unrecognizable to its European ecclesiastic counterparts.


title: Gepárd anti-materiel rifle

text: The Gepárd anti-materiel rifles ("gepárd" meaning cheetah in Hungarian) are a family of Hungarian weapons manufactured by Sero International designed to destroy unarmored and lightly armored targets. These long-range large-caliber rifles have high accuracy and muzzle velocity. In 1987 the Hungarian army sought to obtain a compact, mobile weapon that could damage lightly armored targets. The project, led by Ferenc Földi (Institute of Military Technology of the Hungarian People's Army), culminated in the creation of the Gepárds.


title: Gepárd anti-materiel rifle

text: The M1 was the first Gepárd rifle to enter service. It featured a long barrel for increased accuracy, a skeleton stock to reduce weight, and used the heavy 12.7×108mm cartridge. However, the rifle was complicated to reload. The M1 fired only one shot and would then have to be manually reloaded. To do this, the user had to rotate, pull back, remove the grip assembly (whose shape resembles a signal-flare handgun), and insert another cartridge. This tedious task took time to master and slowed the weapon's rate of fire. Other difficulties such as high recoil also plagued the M1. The recoil problem was solved with the addition of a barrel that recoiled back after each shot. The design was inspired by artillery cannons, which face the same impediment. Still, the Gepárd rifles need specially made, high-strength telescopic gunsights. Improvements, such as the addition of a carrier/lafette backpack and a longer barrel, led to the M1A1 variant, but at 21 kilograms its combat weight was deemed excessive.


title: Gepárd anti-materiel rifle

text: The M1 was essentially a sniper weapon, not primarily intended for military field application, but for anti-terrorist police and special forces' use, who operate on the "one shot, one kill" principle. The single shot action was designed to reduce the number of moving parts and allow for extreme precision, five hits out of five shots fit in a 25 centimeter radius circle at 1300 meters. Yet, the Hungarian army decided to purchase 25 rifles of the Gepárd M1 type for use as an in-the-field materiel destruction rifle, but did not purchase any of the later variants so far. Owing to the great weight of Gepárd M1, sharpshooters were instructed to abandon the weapon if forced to retreat quickly and only save the grip assembly for proof, rendering the gun useless.


title: Gepárd anti-materiel rifle

text: A semi-automatic version of the M1 was later produced. Dubbing it the M2, designers reduced its barrel length and weight. An even shorter paratrooper variant dubbed M2A2 made it more favorable to airborne forces and special forces, especially because it could be fired from the hip, thanks to the advanced recoil mechanism. A fiber optic technology scope and eyepiece imaging system was developed (or at least proposed) to allow use of a hip-fired M2A2 for VIP protection purposes. Although the 12.7×108mm was considered one of the most powerful, Fellegi decided it was not good enough. He then ordered the development of the M3, with a larger 14.5×114mm. With this new destructive capability also came increased accuracy and range, making the M3 the most popular of the Gepárd rifles.


title: Gepárd anti-materiel rifle

text: Nevertheless, three more models were to follow. The M4 and M5 sought to become improvements on the M2, with stronger materials and better reliability. The new versions have a more rectangular look and are usually of blackened steel finish, while M1 – M3 were usually painted olive-green colour. Gepárd M5 is a bolt-action rifle for military sharpshooters and weighs only 13 kilograms, while the M4 is a semi-automatic anti-materiel rifle. The 10-round drum magazine, so characteristic of the M2 and M3, was replaced with a straight box magazine design with a capacity for five rounds. The later M4 and M5 can fire either Russian or NATO 12.7 mm ammunition as the gun barrel is field replaceable.


title: Gepárd anti-materiel rifle

text: The M3 is strictly an anti-materiel rifle, because while the 14.5mm round is extremely powerful, its accuracy degrades rapidly at ranges beyond 1000 meters. Its high destructive power is efficient in taking out hovering helicopters, APCs or mobile radar stations.


title: Gepárd anti-materiel rifle

text: Finally, the Gepárd rifle family concluded with the M6, now called "GM6 Lynx". This rifle used the 12.7×108mm and .50 BMG rounds, like the M2 and M4, but featured stronger parts, lighter weight, shorter length and an improved scope.


title: Gepárd anti-materiel rifle

text: The production history of the Gepárd was bumpy, since it was designed and prototyped at the end of communist rule and first production runs happened during the early-1990s, as Hungary transitioned to a market economy. Early examples were assembled at the Vízgépészeti Vállalat (Hydrotechnic State Company). Production and development of Gepárd currently happens at Báthory-Épszolg Kft. (GM6 is manufactured by SERO Kft.), which also produces the new "Szép 7.62×51mm" bolt-action sniper rifle for Hungarian army and anti-terrorist police units. This smaller, standard caliber sniper rifle owes a lot of design elements to the Gepárd, since its designer, Ferenc Szép, also participated in development of the Gepárd guns.


title: Gepárd anti-materiel rifle

text: The M-1, M-1A1, M-2, M-4, M-5 and M-6 rifles all use the 12.7×108mm cartridge as their primary calibre. They can be converted to fire the NATO .50 BMG round.


title: Paradise Theatre (album)

text: Paradise Theatre is the tenth studio album by American rock band Styx, released on January 16, 1981, by A&M Records. It was the band's most commercially successful album, peaking at #1 for 3 weeks on the "Billboard" 200 in April and May 1981 (non-consecutively). It was also the band's fourth consecutive album to be certified triple-platinum by the RIAA.


title: Paradise Theatre (album)

text: Four singles from the album charted on various charts, with two songs reaching the top 10 pop singles chart. The lead single "The Best of Times", written by Dennis DeYoung, went to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Too Much Time on My Hands", written by Tommy Shaw, went to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, Shaw's only top 10 hit for Styx. "Nothing Ever Goes as Planned", written by DeYoung, went to #54 on the US Pop Chart. "Rockin' the Paradise" — written by DeYoung, Shaw and James Young — went to #8 on the Top Rock Track Chart.


title: Paradise Theatre (album)

text: A concept album, the album is a fictional account of Chicago's Paradise Theatre from its opening in 1928 to its closing in 1958 (and eventual abandonment), used as a metaphor for America's changing times from the late 1970s into the 1980s. (Dennis DeYoung, who envisioned and developed the entire concept, confirmed this in an episode of "In the Studio with Redbeard" about the making of the album.)


title: Paradise Theatre (album)

text: DeYoung has said that the theme of the album is "one of hope and renewal in the spirit of the American people to understand the problems that confront the world and this country and find solutions themselves to those problems. Don't depend on heroes to do what you must do for yourself. If you hate your job but you have a dream, then pursue it. Just don't sit around and complain about it."


title: Paradise Theatre (album)

text: "Newsday" critic Wayne Robins stated that the songs "deal with people out of sync with themselves and their environment." For example, "Too Much Time on My Hands" is about a man who is unemployed and has given up, he regards "Lonely People" as a "contemporary rewrite of the Beatles' 'Eleanor Rigby,'" and "Nothing Ever Goes as Planned" is about "the inevitability of failure."


title: Paradise Theatre (album)

text: Initial vinyl copies of the album have a design featuring the name of the band laser etched directly onto the vinyl on side 2 (some copies had a wax design of the cover art). The vinyl record sleeve was a gate-fold and was painted by the artist Chris Hopkins. On the back cover, label and spine, the title of the record is spelled "Paradise Theater", while on the front cover, the title is spelled "Paradise Theatre".


title: Paradise Theatre (album)

text: Vinyl releases and initial CD pressings of the album had the musical segue between "Half-Penny, Two-Penny" and "A.D. 1958" indexed as the intro to "A.D. 1958". Subsequent pressings of the CD had the segue indexed as the fade to "Half-Penny, Two-Penny" instead.


title: RGD-5

text: The RGD-5 ("Ruchnaya Granata Distantsionnaya", English "Hand Grenade Remote") is a post–World War II Soviet anti-personnel fragmentation grenade, designed in the early 1950s. The RGD-5 was accepted into service with the Soviet Army in 1954. It was widely exported, and is still in service with many armies in the Middle East and the former Soviet bloc.


title: RGD-5

text: The grenade is egg-shaped without ribbing, except for a lateral ridge where the two halves of the grenade join. It weighs , is in length and in diameter. The surface has a few small dimples with green or olive drab paint.


title: RGD-5

text: It contains a charge of TNT with an internal fragmentation liner that produces around 350 fragments with a fatality radius of around and a wounding radius of . Typically, the RGD-5 uses the 3.2 to 4.2 second delay UZRG, UZRGM, or UZRGM-2 fuze, a universal Russian type also used in the RG-41, RG-42, and F1 grenades or the more modern DVM-78 fuze. It is also possible to screw a MUV booby-trap firing device into the fuze well.


title: RGD-5

text: The RGD-5 can be thrown about by the average soldier and on throwing, the grenade makes a loud "crack" sound as its spoon falls out activating the fuze.


title: RGD-5

text: It is still manufactured in Russia with copies produced in Bulgaria, China (as the Type 59) and Georgia. Millions of RGD-5s and its clones have been manufactured over the years and although not as advanced as more modern grenades specifically designed to penetrate CRISAT standard body armour, the RGD-5 is an effective and inexpensive weapon. A single RGD-5 grenade costs around $5 US, making it affordable.


title: RGD-5

text: The AK-47 can mount a (rarely used) cup-type grenade-launcher that fires standard Soviet RGD-5 hand-grenades. The soup-can shaped launcher is screwed onto the AK-47's muzzle. It is prepared for firing by inserting a standard RGD-5 hand-grenade into the launcher, removing the safety pin, and inserting a special blank cartridge into the rifle's chamber. With the butt-stock of the rifle on the ground it can be fired.


title: RGD-5

text: The URG-N is a reusable training model of the RGD-5 with a modified fuze containing a tiny explosive charge which simulates the detonation of the grenade. The body of this grenade is painted black with white markings.


title: RGD-5

text: On 10 May 2005, Vladimir Arutyunian, a Georgian citizen and ethnic Armenian, waited for the United States President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to speak in Tbilisi's central Liberty Square. When Bush began speaking, Arutyunian threw an RGD-5 hand grenade wrapped in a red plaid handkerchief toward the podium where Bush stood as he addressed the crowd. The grenade landed from the podium, near where Saakashvili, his wife Sandra E. Roelofs, Laura Bush, and other officials were seated.


title: RGD-5

text: The grenade failed to detonate. Although original reports indicated that the grenade was not live, it was later revealed that it was. After Arutyunian pulled the pin and threw the grenade, it hit a girl, cushioning its impact. The red handkerchief remained wrapped around the grenade, and it prevented the striker lever from releasing. A Georgian security officer quickly removed the grenade, and Arutyunian disappeared, but was later arrested.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: In chemistry, conformational isomerism is a form of stereoisomerism in which the isomers can be interconverted just by rotations about formally single bonds (refer to figure on single bond rotation). While any two arrangements of atoms in a molecule that differ by rotation about single bonds can be referred to as different conformations, conformations that correspond to local minima on the potential energy surface are specifically called conformational isomers or conformers. Conformations that correspond to local maxima on the energy surface are the transition states between the local-minimum conformational isomers. Rotations about single bonds involve overcoming a rotational energy barrier to interconvert one conformer to another. If the energy barrier is low, there is free rotation and a sample of the compound exists as a rapidly equilibrating mixture of multiple conformers; if the energy barrier is high enough then there is restricted rotation, a molecule may exist for a relatively long time period as a stable rotational isomer or rotamer (an isomer arising from hindered single-bond rotation). When the time scale for interconversion is long enough for isolation of individual rotamers (usually arbitrarily defined as a half-life of interconversion of 1000 seconds or longer), the isomers are termed atropisomers ("see:" atropisomerism). The ring-flip of substituted cyclohexanes constitutes another common form of conformational isomerism.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: Conformational isomers are thus distinct from the other classes of stereoisomers (i. e. configurational isomers) where interconversion necessarily involves breaking and reforming of chemical bonds. For example, /- and "R"/"S"- configurations of organic molecules have different handedness and optical activities, and can only be interconverted by breaking one or more bonds connected to the chiral atom and reforming a similar bond in a different direction or spatial orientation. They also differ from geometric ("cis"/"trans") isomers, another class of stereoisomers, which require the π-component of double bonds to break for interconversion. (Although the distinction is not always clear-cut, since certain bonds that are formally single bonds actually have double bond character that becomes apparent only when secondary resonance contributors are considered, like the C–N bonds of amides, for instance.) Due to rapid interconversion, conformers are usually not isolable at room temperature.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: The study of the energetics between different conformations is referred to as conformational analysis. It is useful for understanding the stability of different isomers, for example, by taking into account the spatial orientation and through-space interactions of substituents. In addition, conformational analysis can be used to predict and explain product selectivity, mechanisms, and rates of reactions. Conformational analysis also plays an important role in rational, structure-based drug design.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: Rotating their carbon–carbon bonds, the molecules ethane and propane have three local energy minima. They are structurally and energetically equivalent, and are called the "staggered conformers". For each molecule, the three substituents emanating from each carbon–carbon bond are staggered, with each H–C–C–H dihedral angle (and H–C–C–CH dihedral angle in the case of propane) equal to 60° (or approximately equal to 60° in the case of propane). The three eclipsed conformations, in which the dihedral angles are zero, are transition states (energy maxima) connecting two equivalent energy minima, the staggered conformers.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: The butane molecule is the simplest molecule for which single bond rotations result in two types of nonequivalent structures, known as the "anti"- and "gauche-"conformers (see figure).


title: Conformational isomerism

text: For example, butane has three conformers relating to its two methyl (CH) groups: two "gauche" conformers, which have the methyls ±60° apart and are enantiomeric, and an "anti" conformer, where the four carbon centres are coplanar and the substituents are 180° apart (refer to free energy diagram of butane). The energy difference between gauche and anti is 0.9 kcal/mol associated with the strain energy of the gauche conformer. The anti conformer is, therefore, the most stable (≈ 0 kcal/mol). The three eclipsed conformations with dihedral angles of 0°, 120°, and 240° are transition states between conformers. Note that the two eclipsed conformations have different energies: at 0° the two methyl groups are eclipsed, resulting in higher energy (≈ 5 kcal/mol) than at 120°, where the methyl groups are eclipsed with hydrogens (≈ 3.5 kcal/mol).


title: Conformational isomerism

text: While simple molecules can be described by these types of conformations, more complex molecules require the use of the Klyne–Prelog system to describe the different conformers.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: Conformational isomers exist in a dynamic equilibrium, where the relative free energies of isomers determines the population of each isomer and the energy barrier of rotation determines the rate of interconversion between isomers:


title: Conformational isomerism

text: where "K" is the equilibrium constant, Δ"G°" is the difference in standard free energy between the two conformers in kcal/mol, "R" is the universal gas constant (1.987×10 kcal/mol K), and "T" is the system's temperature in kelvins. In units of kcal/mol at 298 K,


title: Conformational isomerism

text: Thus, every 1.36 kcal/mol corresponds to a factor of about 10 in term of equilibrium constant at temperatures around room temperature. (The "1.36 rule" is useful in general for estimation of equilibrium constants at room temperature from free energy differences. At lower temperatures, a smaller energy difference is needed to obtain a given equilibrium constant.)


title: Conformational isomerism

text: Three isotherms are given in the diagram depicting the equilibrium distribution of two conformers at different temperatures. At a free energy difference of 0 kcal/mol, this gives an equilibrium constant of 1, meaning that two conformers exist in a 1:1 ratio. The two have equal free energy; neither is more stable, so neither predominates compared to the other. A negative difference in free energy means that a conformer interconverts to a thermodynamically more stable conformation, thus the equilibrium constant will always be greater than 1. For example, the Δ"G°" for the transformation of butane from the "gauche" conformer to the "anti" conformer is −0.47 kcal/mol at 298 K. This gives an equilibrium constant is about 2.2 in favor of the "anti" conformer, or a 31:69 mixture of "gauche":"anti" conformers at equilibrium. Conversely, a positive difference in free energy means the conformer already is the more stable one, so the interconversion is an unfavorable equilibrium ("K" < 1). Even for highly unfavorable changes (large positive Δ"G°"), the equilibrium constant between two conformers can be increased by increasing the temperature, so that the amount of the less stable conformer present at equilibrium increases (although it always remains the minor conformer).


title: Conformational isomerism

text: The left hand side is the proportion of conformer "i" in an equilibrating mixture of "M" conformers in thermodynamic equilibrium. On the right side, "E" ("k" = 1, 2, ..., "M") is the energy of conformer "k", "R" is the molar ideal gas constant (approximately equal to 8.314 J/(mol·K) or 1.987 cal/(mol·K)), and "T" is the absolute temperature. The denominator of the right side is the partition function.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: The effects of electrostatic and steric interactions of the substituents as well as orbital interactions such as hyperconjugation are responsible for the relative stability of conformers and their transition states. The contributions of these factors vary depending on the nature of the substituents and may either contribute positively or negatively to the energy barrier. Computational studies of small molecules such as ethane suggest that electrostatic effects make the greatest contribution to the energy barrier; however, the barrier is traditionally attributed primarily to steric interactions.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: In the case of cyclic systems, the steric effect and contribution to the free energy can be approximated by A values, which measure the energy difference when a substituent on cyclohexane in the axial as compared to the equatorial position. In large (>14 atom) rings, there are many accessible low-energy conformations which correspond to the strain-free diamond lattice.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: The short timescale of interconversion precludes the separation of conformational isomers in most cases. Atropisomers are conformational isomers which can be separated due to restricted rotation. The equilibrium between conformational isomers can be observed using a variety of spectroscopic techniques.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: Protein folding also generates stable conformational isomers which can be observed. The Karplus equation relates the dihedral angle of vicinal protons to their J-coupling constants as measured by NMR. The equation aids in the elucidation of protein folding as well as the conformations of other rigid aliphatic molecules. Protein side chains exhibit rotamers, whose distribution is determined by their steric interaction with different conformations of the backbone. This is evident from statistical analysis of the conformations of protein side chains in the Backbone-dependent rotamer library.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: In cyclohexane derivatives, the two chair conformers interconvert with rapidly at room temperature, with cyclohexane itself undergoing the ring-flip at a rates of approximately 10 ring-flips/sec, with an overall energy barrier of 10 kcal/mol (42 kJ/mol), which precludes their separation at ambient temperatures. However, at low temperatures below the coalescence point one can directly monitor the equilibrium by NMR spectroscopy and by dynamic, temperature dependent NMR spectroscopy the barrier interconversion.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: The dynamics of conformational (and other kinds of) isomerism can be monitored by NMR spectroscopy at varying temperatures. The technique applies to barriers of 8–14 kcal/mol, and species exhibiting such dynamics are often called "fluxional".


title: Conformational isomerism

text: Besides NMR spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy is used to measure conformer ratios. For the axial and equatorial conformer of bromocyclohexane, ν differs by almost 50 cm.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: Reaction rates are highly dependent on the conformation of the reactants. In many cases the dominant product arises from the reaction of the "less prevalent" conformer, by virtue of the Curtin-Hammett principle. This is typical for situations where the conformational equilibration is much faster than reaction to form the product. The dependence of a reaction on the stereochemical orientation is therefore usually only visible in configurational isomers, in which a particular conformation is locked by substituents. Prediction of rates of many reactions involving the transition between sp2 and sp3 states, such as ketone reduction, alcohol oxidation or nucleophilic substitution is possible if all conformers and their relative stability ruled by their strain is taken into account.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: One example with configurational isomers is provided by elimination reactions, which involve the simultaneous removal of a proton and a leaving group from vicinal or "anti"periplanar positions under the influence of a base.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: The mechanism requires that the departing atoms or groups follow antiparallel trajectories. For open chain substrates this geometric prerequisite is met by at least one of the three staggered conformers. For some cyclic substrates such as cyclohexane, however, an antiparallel arrangement may not be attainable depending on the substituents which might set a conformational lock. Adjacent substituents on a cyclohexane ring can achieve antiperiplanarity only when they occupy trans diaxial positions (that is, both are in axial position, one going up and one going down).


title: Conformational isomerism

text: One consequence of this analysis is that "trans"-4-"tert"-butylcyclohexyl chloride cannot easily eliminate but instead undergoes substitution (see diagram below) because the most stable conformation has the bulky "t"-Bu group in the equatorial position, therefore the chloride group is not antiperiplanar with any vicinal hydrogen (it is gauche to all four). The thermodynamically unfavored conformation has the "t"-Bu group in the axial position, which is higher in energy by more than 5 kcal/mol (see A value). As a result, the "t"-Bu group "locks" the ring in the conformation where it is in the equatorial position and substitution reaction is observed. On the other hand, "cis"-4-"tert"-butylcyclohexyl chloride undergoes elimination because antiperiplanarity of Cl and H can be achieved when the "t"-Bu group is in the favorable equatorial position.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: The repulsion between an axial "t"-butyl group and hydrogen atoms in the 1,3-diaxial position is so strong that the cyclohexane ring will revert to a twisted boat conformation. The strain in cyclic structures is usually characterized by deviations from ideal bond angles (Baeyer strain), ideal torsional angles (Pitzer strain) or transannular (Prelog ) interactions.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: Alkane conformers arise from rotation around sp hybridised carbon–carbon sigma bonds. The smallest alkane with such a chemical bond, ethane, exists as an infinite number of conformations with respect to rotation around the C–C bond. Two of these are recognised as energy minimum (staggered conformation) and energy maximum (eclipsed conformation) forms. The existence of specific conformations is due to hindered rotation around sigma bonds, although a role for hyperconjugation is proposed by a competing theory.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: The importance of energy minima and energy maxima is seen by extension of these concepts to more complex molecules for which stable conformations may be predicted as minimum-energy forms. The determination of stable conformations has also played a large role in the establishment of the concept of asymmetric induction and the ability to predict the stereochemistry of reactions controlled by steric effects.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: In the example of staggered ethane in Newman projection, a hydrogen atom on one carbon atom has a 60° torsional angle or torsion angle with respect to the nearest hydrogen atom on the other carbon so that steric hindrance is minimised. The staggered conformation is more stable by 12.5 kJ/mol than the eclipsed conformation, which is the energy maximum for ethane. In the eclipsed conformation the torsional angle is minimised.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: In butane, the two staggered conformations are no longer equivalent and represent two distinct conformers:the anti-conformation (left-most, below) and the gauche conformation (right-most, below).


title: Conformational isomerism

text: Both conformations are free of torsional strain, but, in the gauche conformation, the two methyl groups are in closer proximity than the sum of their van der Waals radii. The interaction between the two methyl groups is repulsive (van der Waals strain), and an energy barrier results.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: A measure of the potential energy stored in butane conformers with greater steric hindrance than the 'anti'-conformer ground state is given by these values:


title: Conformational isomerism

text: The eclipsed methyl groups exert a greater steric strain because of their greater electron density compared to lone hydrogen atoms.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: The textbook explanation for the existence of the energy maximum for an eclipsed conformation in ethane is steric hindrance, but, with a C-C bond length of 154 pm and a Van der Waals radius for hydrogen of 120 pm, the hydrogen atoms in ethane are never in each other's way. The question of whether steric hindrance is responsible for the eclipsed energy maximum is a topic of debate to this day. One alternative to the steric hindrance explanation is based on hyperconjugation as analyzed within the Natural Bond Orbital framework. In the staggered conformation, one C-H sigma bonding orbital donates electron density to the antibonding orbital of the other C-H bond. The energetic stabilization of this effect is maximized when the two orbitals have maximal overlap, occurring in the staggered conformation. There is no overlap in the eclipsed conformation, leading to a disfavored energy maximum. On the other hand, an analysis within quantitative molecular orbital theory shows that 2-orbital-4-electron (steric) repulsions are dominant over hyperconjugation. A valence bond theory study also emphasizes the importance of steric effects.


title: Conformational isomerism

text: Naming alkanes per standards listed in the IUPAC Gold Book is done according to the Klyne–Prelog system for specifying angles (called either torsional or dihedral angles) between substituents around a single bond:


title: Conformational isomerism

text: Replacing hydrogen by fluorine in polytetrafluoroethylene changes the stereochemistry from the zigzag geometry to that of a helix due to electrostatic repulsion of the fluorine atoms in the 1,3 positions. Evidence for the helix structure in the crystalline state is derived from X-ray crystallography and from NMR spectroscopy and circular dichroism in solution.


title: Yoo In-young

text: Yoo Hyo-min (born January 5, 1984), professionally known as Yoo In-young (Hangul: 유인영), is a South Korean actress. Yoo began her entertainment career as a commercial model before making her acting debut in 2005. Yoo is best known for her roles in "A Man Called God" (2010) and "Dummy Mommy" (2012). In 2013, Yoo was chosen as a model for Elizabeth Arden, the first Korean actor to represent the cosmetic brand exclusively in the Asian region.


title: Amita Kuttner

text: Amita Kuttner ( ; born December 4, 1990) is a Canadian astrophysicist and politician who served as the interim leader of the Green Party of Canada from November 24, 2021 to November 19, 2022. Kuttner first ran for office in the 2019 federal election, seeking a House of Commons seat as a Green candidate, followed by a run for Green Party leadership in 2020 following the election. They are the first transgender person and the first person of East Asian descent to lead a federal party in Canada.


title: Amita Kuttner

text: Kuttner identifies as non-binary, transgender, and pansexual, and uses they/them and he/him pronouns. Kuttner was born in North Vancouver. Their mother, Eliza Kuttner (nee Chiu) taught computer science at Capilano College and was an immigrant from Hong Kong. Kuttner's father immigrated to Canada from the United Kingdom. They went through a French immersion program.


title: Amita Kuttner

text: In 2005, their mother was killed in a disaster when a mudslide crashed down the west Seymour River escarpment into the family's home. Michael Kuttner, their father, survived but suffered serious injuries, and later sued the district for neglecting safety programmes around mudslides. Kuttner was attending boarding school in California when the disaster occurred. Kuttner experienced PTSD as a result of the disaster.


title: Amita Kuttner

text: Kuttner attended the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), where they earned a Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics and studied black holes in the early universe with Anthony Aguirre. They were a member of the Women in Physics and Astronomy group and co-founded the university's 314 Action group, which seeks to elect more scientists to public office in the United States.


title: Amita Kuttner

text: Along with 20 other scientists, Kuttner co-signed a letter published in the journal, "Science", in support of youth climate protesters, declaring that "we approve and support their demand for rapid and forceful action."


title: Amita Kuttner

text: Kuttner is co-founder of the Moonlight Institute, a non-profit that aims to explore frameworks to adapt to the climate crisis. In April 2021, they were a panelist at Solve Climate by 2030, an event held at Toronto Metropolitan University.


title: Amita Kuttner

text: During the 2019 Canadian federal election, Kuttner was the Green Party candidate for the riding of Burnaby North—Seymour, finishing in fourth place, with 9.59 per cent of the vote, almost doubling the Green vote from the 2015 election. They served as the Green Party's Science and Innovation Critic from September 2018 to February 2020.


title: Amita Kuttner

text: Kuttner ran in the 2020 Green Party leadership election.<ref name="Huff9/11/20"></ref> During the campaign, they refused to hold fundraising events with former leader Elizabeth May, saying the offer of assistance with fundraising does not address other systemic inequities in the race. They finished in sixth place, being eliminated in the fourth round with 7.32 per cent of the vote. In 2021, they told the "Toronto Star" that they had submitted an official complaint to the party's federal council about transphobia and racism that they experienced during the race, such as facing slurs during online party events.


title: Amita Kuttner

text: Following the resignation of Annamie Paul, Kuttner was appointed by the Green Party federal council to serve as interim leader on November 24, 2021. Appointed at the age of 30, they are the youngest person to lead a federal political party, as well as the first transgender person and person of East Asian heritage.


title: Amita Kuttner

text: In a press conference about a week after their appointment, Kuttner said they wanted to start the process of regrowth and to heal the party. The party had released a report indicating that it was threatened with insolvency, and was considering closing its office in Ottawa. The party had lost 499 monthly donors since July 2021, and 6,259 members in the same time. Kuttner acknowledged internal conflict over Annamie Paul's leadership had affected donations. The report blamed negotiations concerning Annamie Paul's departure as leader of the party for significant legal costs. In a December 2021 media interview, Kuttner said that the party's financial position was getting "back on track" and was "turning around" pointing to fundraising including at the party's virtual general meeting about a week earlier.


title: Amita Kuttner

text: The party's constitution requires a leadership election to select a permanent leader to begin within six months of the appointment of an interim leader, and conclude within two years of their appointment. Kuttner has said they do not wish to be the permanent leader. In December 2021, Kuttner said they believed there should be a "longer period before launching a permanent leadership contest, and then a short leadership race."


title: Amita Kuttner

text: In September 2022, Kuttner was misgendered by being referred to with female pronouns in a caption on a Green Party Zoom call connected with the leadership election. Kuttner stated that the use of female pronouns "made me feel hurt and isolated" and was "reflective of a larger pattern of behaviours that a few in the party are perpetuating". The party president Lorraine Rekmans subsequently resigned, stating that she had been unfairly blamed for the misgendering.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: Mystery Train is a 1989 comedy-drama anthology film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and set in Memphis, Tennessee. The film is a triptych of stories involving foreign protagonists, unfolding over the course of the same night. "Far from Yokohama" features a Japanese couple (Youki Kudoh and Masatoshi Nagase) on a cultural pilgrimage, "A Ghost" focuses on an Italian widow (Nicoletta Braschi) stranded in the city overnight, and "Lost in Space" follows the misadventures of a newly single and unemployed Englishman (Joe Strummer) and his reluctant companions (Rick Aviles and Steve Buscemi). The narratives are linked by a run-down flophouse overseen by a night clerk (Screamin' Jay Hawkins) and his disheveled bellboy (Cinqué Lee), the use of Elvis Presley's song "Blue Moon", and a gunshot.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: The starting point for the script was the ensemble cast of friends and previous collaborators Jarmusch had conceived characters for, while the tripartite formal structure of the film was inspired by his study of literary forms. Cinematographer Robby Müller and musician John Lurie were among the many contributors who had been involved in earlier Jarmusch projects and returned to work on the film. "Mystery Train"s US$2.8 million budget (financed by Japanese conglomerate JVC) was considerable compared to what the director had enjoyed before, and allowed him the freedom to rehearse many unscripted background scenes. It was the first of Jarmusch's feature films since "Permanent Vacation" to depart from his trademark black-and-white photography, though the use of color was tightly controlled to conform with the director's intuitive sense of the film's aesthetic.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: "Mystery Train" was released theatrically by Orion Classics under a restricted rating in the United States, where it grossed over $1.5 million. It enjoyed critical acclaim on the film festival circuit, and like the director's earlier films premiered at the New York Film Festival and was shown in competition at Cannes, where Jarmusch was awarded the Best Artistic Achievement Award. The film was also shown in the Edinburgh, London, Midnight Sun, Telluride, and Toronto film festivals, and was nominated in six categories at the Independent Spirit Awards. Critical reaction was overwhelmingly positive, with reviewers praising the structure, humor, and characters of the film, though there was criticism that the director had not been sufficiently adventurous.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: The film consists of three stories that take place on the same night in downtown Memphis. The three stories are linked together by the Arcade Hotel, a run-down flophouse presided over by a night clerk and a bellboy, where the principal characters in each story spend a part of the night. Every room in the hotel lacks a television (as is noted in each story) but is adorned with a portrait of Elvis Presley.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: The first story, "Far from Yokohama", features Mitsuko and Jun, a teenage couple from Yokohama making a pilgrimage to Memphis during a trip across America. Mitsuko is obsessed with Elvis, and has put together a scrapbook detailing her belief that the singer has a mystical connection to other cultural figures ranging from Madonna to the Buddha to the Statue of Liberty. The story follows the couple as they travel from the train station, through downtown Memphis and a tour of Sun Records, to the Arcade hotel, before they eventually depart to board the train again.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: The second story, "A Ghost", is about an Italian widow, Luisa, who is stranded in Memphis while escorting her husband's coffin back to Italy. Luisa shares a room at the hotel with Dee Dee, a young woman who has just left her British boyfriend (Johnny from the final story) and plans to leave the city in the morning. Luisa is kept awake by Dee Dee's constant talking. After Dee Dee finally goes to sleep, Luisa is visited by an apparition of Elvis Presley.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: The final story, "Lost in Space", introduces Johnny. Upset after losing his job and his girlfriend, Johnny – called Elvis, much to his chagrin – drunkenly brandishes a gun in a bar before leaving with his friend Will Robinson and his ex-girlfriend's brother, Charlie, who believes Johnny to be his brother-in-law. They stop at a liquor store, which Johnny robs, shooting its clerk in the process. Fearing the consequences, Johnny, Will and Charlie retire to the hotel to hide out for the night; there, they all become increasingly intoxicated. Charlie realizes that Will shares the same name as the character Will Robinson from the television show "Lost in Space", which Johnny has never heard of. Charlie and Johnny proceed to tell him about the show, and Will comments that the title describes how he feels then with Charlie and Johnny: lost in space. The next morning, Charlie discovers that Johnny is not really his brother-in-law, which angers him because of what they have been through. Johnny attempts to shoot himself, and while struggling to prevent him, Charlie is accidentally shot in the leg. Leaving the hotel, the three rush to escape a police car that is not even looking for them. The closing credits show the train, the airport and final views of the characters from the first two stories.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: Jarmusch wrote the script for the film under the working title "One Night in Memphis", without ever having been to the southern city. He took the idea for "Far from Yokohama", the first segment, from a one-act play he had been writing before filming "Down by Law" (1986). The play – unrelated to Elvis or Memphis – concerned a constantly argumentative young couple, one of whom gradually comes to realize that their fighting is a unifying force in the relationship. The interconnected stories were inspired by Jarmusch's dwelling on literary forms, and specifically the work of Chaucer, Italian episodic films and Japanese ghost story cinema. As with his other films, Jarmusch's starting point for writing "Mystery Train" was the actors and characters he had foremost in mind. The great number of these collaborators contributed to it being "the most complicated film to write and execute" according to the director.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: The role of Johnny was written by Jarmusch specifically for Joe Strummer, who had been the frontman of The Clash, the director's favorite 1980s rock band. Jarmusch had conceived the part a few years previously while the two were together in Spain, and although the musician had been in a period of depression at the time following the collapse of the band, he was drawn by the Memphis setting of the film. Unlike the jovial Steve Buscemi, Strummer did not stay on set to joke with the veteran actors between shots, but instead preferred to keep his own company, focusing intensively on orienting himself to the role.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: Jarmusch had met blues singer Screamin' Jay Hawkins after featuring his music prominently in his breakthrough feature "Stranger Than Paradise" (1984). Although reticent about acting, Hawkins responded favorably to the director's offer to appear. The part of Luisa was also written by the director with the star – actress Nicoletta Braschi – in mind; the two had previously collaborated on "Down by Law" (1986). Cinqué Lee is the younger brother of director Spike Lee, a longtime friend of Jarmusch from their days at New York University's film school, while Youki Kudoh was cast after the director saw her performance in Sōgo Ishii's "The Crazy Family" (1984) while promoting "Down by Law" in Japan. Repeat Jarmusch collaborators who worked on the film included John Lurie who provided the original music, cinematographer Robby Müller, and singer Tom Waits, who in a voice appearance reprised his role of radio DJ Lee Baby Sims from "Down by Law". Other cameos include Jarmusch's long-time girlfriend Sara Driver as an airport clerk, Rufus Thomas as the man in the train station who greets the Japanese couple, Rockets Redglare as the clerk of the liquor store, Vondie Curtis-Hall as Ed, Sy Richardson as the news vendor, and Richard Boes and Tom Noonan as diner patrons.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: "Mystery Train" was filmed in Memphis in the summer of 1988. After arriving in the city during a snowstorm to scout for shooting locations, Jarmusch drove around without direction before coming to the intersection of a disused train station, the Arcade Luncheonette diner, and the dilapidated Arcade Hotel that would become the film's core setting. He would later recount the experience in a March 1990 interview in "Spin": "Man, ... this crossroad is filled with so many ghosts. You know Robert Johnson walked down that street, you know Muddy Waters was in that train station." The locale of the intersection was one of the film's primary formal elements; the effect of Jarmusch returning to the setting with different characters under different circumstances was one of the variations on a theme.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: The film was shot in bright, primary colors rather than the black-and-white of the director's previous features, but it retained his usual languid pacing. Jarmusch characterized the color choice as "intuitive". He deliberately chose a cool color palette, eschewing yellows and oranges and using only sporadic dashes of red (as in the Japanese couple's ubiquitous suitcase). This motif of flashes of red was later described by Suzanne Scott of "Reverse Shot" as "giving the impression of a failed attempt to grab a bit of Elvis's glamor and try it on for size, only to inevitably discover that it looks cartoonish out of context". Stills from the film as well as on-location shots of the actors and the film crew by photographer Masayoshi Sukita were published to accompany the film as the photo collection "Mystery Train: A Film by Jim Jarmusch".


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: "Mystery Train" was the first American independent film to be financed by Japanese conglomerate JVC, and was produced on a budget – $2.8 million – that was considerable by Jarmusch's modest standards. The company was enthusiastic about underwriting the film despite the director insisting on retaining full creative control, and went on to fund his next three features. The substantial budget and time available gave Jarmusch the opportunity to shoot in color and to rehearse with the actors many scenes not in the script, including several from the courtship of Mitsuko and Jun. At a Memphis nightclub with the Japanese actors during production, the director had Masatoshi Nagase – who spoke little English but was an accomplished mimic – try chat-up lines on the female clientele as an acting exercise. Jarmusch took advantage of the production to make the second installment of his "Coffee and Cigarettes" series, a collection of short vignettes featuring acquaintances of the director sitting about drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. The "Memphis Version", titled "Twins", starred bickering twins Cinqué and Joie Lee alongside Steve Buscemi as an obtuse waiter who expounds his theory of Elvis having an evil twin to a hostile reception.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: The film had its domestic premiere at the 27th New York Film Festival in 1989, thereby emulating the director's previous features "Stranger Than Paradise" in 1984, and "Down by Law" in 1986. The "Miami Herald" declared it the "quiet triumph" of the festival. The film was picked up for theatrical distribution by Orion Classics in the United States, where it was released under an R-rating due to scenes featuring brief nudity and strong language. Its total domestic gross was $1,541,218, making it the 153rd highest-grossing film of 1989, and the 70th highest R-rated film of the year. Internationally, it was first shown in competition at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival on May 13 and 14, 1989, and subsequently featured in the Edinburgh, London, Midnight Sun, Telluride and Toronto film festivals.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: "Mystery Train" was released on DVD on March 28, 2000, with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and Dolby Digital 5.1/2 surround sound. The DVD release was criticized by Anna Lazowski of AllMovie who awarded it two stars out of five compared to four for the film itself, citing the paltry special features of 24 scene selections and a collectible behind-the-scenes booklet. A Criterion Collection DVD and Blu-ray were released on June 15, 2010, utilizing a new restored high-definition digital transfer.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: Like Jarmusch's previous films, "Mystery Train" enjoyed a warm reception from critics. This was particularly evident at Cannes, where the film was nominated for the "Palme d'Or" and Jarmusch was commended for the festival's Best Artistic Achievement. It was nominated in six categories at the 1989 Independent Spirit Awards: Best Picture, Best Screenplay (Jim Jarmusch), Best Director (Jim Jarmusch), Best Cinematography (Robby Müller), Best Actress (Youki Kudoh), and Best Supporting Actor (Steve Buscemi and Screamin' Jay Hawkins).


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: "Entertainment Weekly" reviewer Ira Robbins gave the film a B+ rating, complimenting it as "conceptually ambitious" and concluding that its "offbeat characters, fine cinematography, and novel structure make for entertaining viewing". Robert Fulford of the "National Post" hailed it as "eccentric and deliriously funny", while "Rolling Stone"s Phil Whitman remarked that the director's "bracing, original comedy may be mostly smoke and air, but it's not insubstantial". In "The New York Times", Vincent Canby called it "thoroughly fascinating, a delight" and the director's best effort to date, drawing note to its retention of the "same kind of dour, discordant charm" exhibited by "Stranger Than Paradise". He praised Jarmusch's development as a screenwriter – citing the restrained dialogue, humor and subtlety of the narrative and the careful construction of the plot – and the performances he elicited from the ensemble cast. John Hartl, in "The Seattle Times", also drew a comparison with "Stranger Than Paradise", judging "Mystery Train" to be the more accessible work while retaining the dry wit of its predecessor.


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: Hal Hinson of "The Washington Post" was unimpressed with the film, calling it Jarmusch's "least engaging, and the first in which his bohemian posturing actually becomes an irritant". Of the film's characters, critic Jonathan Rosenbaum of the "Chicago Reader" wrote that some were "beautifully imagined and realized, while others seem drawn from a more familiar stockpile, designed for reuse rather than discovery". David Denby, concluding a mixed review of the film for "New York Magazine", mused that "one feels Jarmusch has pushed hipsterism and cool about as far as they can go, and that isn't nearly far enough." This reproach was echoed by other reviewers who found that the film's style did not stray far from that of the director's earlier work – a critical backlash that would be amplified two years later following the release of "Night on Earth" (1991).


title: Mystery Train (film)

text: Postmodern cultural critic bell hooks cited the interaction in the Memphis train station between Thomas and the Japanese couple as one of the few examples of nuanced, deconstructive and subversive treatment of blackness in American film. In his original review for the "Chicago Sun-Times", Roger Ebert proclaimed that "[t]he best thing about "Mystery Train" is that it takes you to an America you feel you ought to be able to find for yourself, if you only knew where to look." He later included the movie in his "Great Movies" collection, comparing the movie favorably to Jarmusch's later efforts like "Dead Man" and "The Limits of Control". In an April 2000 retrospective of Jarmusch's work for "Sight & Sound", Shawn Levy concluded that the film was "as much a valentine to the allure of the American way of pop culture as it is a cheeky bit of structural legerdemain without terribly much resonating significance".


title: Semla

text: A semla, vastlakukkel, laskiaispulla, fastlagsbulle/fastelavnsbolle or vēja kūkas is a traditional sweet roll made in various forms in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Latvia, associated with Lent and especially Shrove Tuesday in most countries, Shrove Monday in Denmark, parts of southern Sweden, Iceland and Faroe Islands or Sunday of Fastelavn in Norway. In Sweden it is most commonly known as just (plural: ), but is also known as (lit. "fat Tuesday roll"). In the southern parts of Sweden, as well as in Swedish-speaking Finland, it is known as (plural: ; semla on the other hand means a plain wheat bun with butter, called in Sweden). In Estonia it is called . In Norway and Denmark it is called . In Iceland, it is known as a and served on Bolludagur. In Faroe Islands it is called , and is served on Føstulávintsmánadagur. In Latvia, it is called . In northern Germany it is called . Semla served in a bowl of hot milk is "".


title: Semla

text: The name (plural: ) is a loan word from German , originally deriving from the Latin , meaning 'flour', itself a borrowing from Greek "σεμίδαλις (semidalis)", "groats", which was the name used for the finest quality wheat flour or semolina. In the southernmost part of Sweden (Scania) and by the Swedish-speaking population in Finland, they are known as "fastlagsbulle". In Denmark and Norway they are known as ("fastlagen" and "fastelavn" being the equivalent of Shrove Tuesday). In Scanian, the feast is also called "fastelann". In Finnish they are known as (which refers to the Finnish "laskiainen"), in Latvian as , and in Estonian as .


title: Semla

text: Today, the Swedish-Finnish semla consists of a cardamom-spiced wheat bun which has its top cut off, and is then filled with a mix of milk and almond paste, topped with whipped cream. The cut-off top serves as a lid and is dusted with powdered sugar. Today it is often eaten on its own, with coffee or tea. Some prefer to eat it in a bowl of hot milk. In Finland, the bun is often filled with strawberry or raspberry jam instead of almond paste, and bakeries in Finland usually offer both versions. (Many bakeries distinguish between the two by decorating the traditional bun with almonds on top, whereas the jam-filled version has powdered sugar on top). In Finland-Swedish, "semla" means a plain wheat bun, used for bread and butter, and not a sweet bun. At some point Swedes grew tired of the strict observance of Lent, added cream and almond paste to the mix and started eating semla every Tuesday between Shrove Tuesday and Easter. Every year, at around the same time that the bakeries fill with semlor, the Swedish newspapers start to fill with semla taste tests. Panels of 'experts' dissect and inspect tables full of semlor to find the best in town.


title: Semla

text: Some bakeries have created alternative forms of the pastry, such as the "semmelwrap" formed as a wrap rather than the traditional bun, while others have added e.g. chocolate, marzipan, or pistachios to the recipe.


title: Semla

text: In Finland and Estonia the traditional dessert predates Christian influences. Laskiaissunnuntai and laskiaistiistai, both days included in "laskiainen", were festivals when children and youth would go sledding or downhill sliding on a hill or a slope to determine how the crop would yield in the coming year. Those who slid the farthest were going to get the best crop. Hence the festival is named after the act of sliding or sledding downhill, "laskea". Nowadays "laskiainen" has been integrated into Christian customs as the beginning of lent before Easter.


title: Semla

text: Fastelavnsbolle consists of a cardamom-spiced wheat bun which has its top cut off, and is then filled with whipped cream, topped with jam. The cut-off top serves as a lid and is dusted with powdered sugar. The buns are served at Sunday of Fastelavn (Shrove Sunday), but were previously associated with Shrove Tuesday.


title: Semla

text: The version sold in Danish bakeries on or around Shrove Monday is rather different, made from puff pastry and filled with whipped cream, a bit of jam and often with icing on top. At home people may bake a version more similar to a usual wheat roll, mixing plain yeast dough with raisins, succade and sometimes candied bitter orange peel.


title: Semla

text: In Iceland it is done in a similar way but in place of puff pastry more common is the choux pastry version.


title: Semla

text: In the Faroe Islands, it is done with choux pastry, and filled with vanilla cream, whipped cream and jam, and topped with chocolate icing.


title: Semla

text: The oldest version of the "semla" was a plain bread bun, eaten in a bowl of warm milk. In Swedish this is known as , from Middle Low German "hete Weggen" (hot wedges) or German (hot buns) and falsely interpreted as "hotwall".


title: Semla

text: The semla was originally eaten only on Shrove Tuesday, or all of the three days before Lent, as the last festive food before Lent. However, with the arrival of the Protestant Reformation, the Swedes stopped observing a strict fasting for Lent. The semla in its bowl of warm milk became a traditional dessert every Tuesday between Shrove Tuesday and Easter. Today, semlor are available in shops and bakeries every day from shortly after Christmas until Easter. Each Swede consumes on average four to five bakery-produced semlor each year, in addition to any that are homemade.


title: Semla

text: King Adolf Frederick of Sweden died of digestion problems on February 12, 1771, after consuming a meal consisting of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring and champagne, which was topped off by a helping of "hetvägg" (semla), the king's favorite dessert.


title: Semla

text: This was the sweet chosen to represent Finland in the Café Europe initiative of the Austrian presidency of the European Union, on Europe Day 2006.


title: Sylvinho

text: Sylvio Mendes Campos Júnior (born 12 April 1974), commonly known as Sylvinho (sometimes alternatively spelled Silvinho), is a Brazilian football manager and former player.


title: Sylvinho

text: Formerly a left back, he began his career at Corinthians. He was signed by Arsenal of the Premier League in 1999, and was a popular player in his two seasons at the club. He left for Celta de Vigo of La Liga, before joining FC Barcelona in 2004, with whom he won the UEFA Champions League in 2006 and 2009 among other honours. He returned to England to spend his final season as a player with Manchester City in 2009–10.


title: Sylvinho

text: Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Sylvinho started his career at Corinthians in 1994. With Timão, Sylvinho won the Copa do Brasil in 1995. He was also victorious with Corinthians in 1998's edition of Brazil's top flight league, the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. Sylvinho as well won the Campeonato Paulista in 1995, 1997 & 1999 with Corinthians altogether.


title: Sylvinho

text: In 1999, he became the first ever Brazilian player to sign for English club Arsenal, whom he signed for ahead of North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur who had made numerous offers for him. Before long he was first choice at left back, displacing long-time fan-favourite Nigel Winterburn. He had a setback early on in his first season when he missed a penalty in a shootout as Arsenal crashed out of the League Cup to Middlesbrough, and that season finished in similar heartbreak as Arsenal lost 4–1 on penalties against Turkish club Galatasaray in the 2000 UEFA Cup Final, although this time he did not take a penalty. During his second season at the club he was displaced by Ashley Cole. His stay only lasted for two years but in his short spell there he gained many friends and admirers and scored several spectacular goals including ones against Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton Athletic and Chelsea. He also scored twice in the Champions League for Arsenal against Sparta Prague and Spartak Moscow. In the 2000–01 season, Sylvinho was included in the PFA Team of the Year.


title: Sylvinho

text: In 2001, he moved to Celta Vigo, and played there for three years, scoring once in the league against Barcelona on 26 January 2003, his future club. He became a popular figure with the club's fans, helping the team to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in their history during the 2003–04 season.


title: Sylvinho

text: Sylvinho obtained a Spanish passport in 2004, granted to him after completing three years' residency in Spain. It allowed him to bypass the non-EU player restrictions in La Liga.