title: Bayesian optimization

text: The maximum of the acquisition function is typically found by resorting to discretization or by means of an auxiliary optimizer. Acquisition functions are typically well-behaved and are


title: Bayesian optimization

text: maximized using a numerical optimization technique, such as Newton's Method or quasi-Newton methods like the Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno algorithm.


title: Bayesian optimization

text: The approach has been applied to solve a wide range of problems, including learning to rank, computer graphics and visual design, robotics, sensor networks, automatic algorithm configuration, automatic machine learning toolboxes, reinforcement learning, planning, visual attention, architecture configuration in deep learning, static program analysis, experimental particle physics, chemistry, material design, and drug development.


title: David Robb

text: Born in London, the son of David Robb and Elsie Tilley, Robb grew up in Edinburgh and was educated there at the Royal High School, where he played Henry II in a school production of Jean Anouilh’s "Becket".


title: David Robb

text: Robb has starred in various British films and television shows, including films such as "Swing Kids" and "Hellbound". He is well known for playing Germanicus in the famous 1976 BBC production of "I, Claudius", and as Robin Grant, one of the principal characters in Thames Television's 1981 series "The Flame Trees of Thika".


title: David Robb

text: Robb had his big break playing Andrew Fraser MP in the TV miniseries "First Among Equals" a 1986 adaption of the book of the same name by Jeffrey Archer. The miniseries was a great success on prime time TV in the UK and abroad and also propelled careers of co-stars Tom Wilkinson, Jeremy Child and James Faulkner.


title: David Robb

text: He has also performed as a voice actor for several "Star Wars" video games, and had a recurring role in the fantasy television series "". He has worked extensively on BBC radio drama, including as Charles in the original radio series of "Up the Garden Path" opposite Imelda Staunton; as Captain Jack Aubrey in the BBC Radio 4 adaptations of the Patrick O'Brian "Aubrey" novels, and as Richard Hannay in several adaptations of the John Buchan novels, including "The Thirty-Nine Steps" in 2001 and "Mr Standfast" in 2007. In 2020, BBC Radio 4 Extra rebroadcast his performance from 1985 in E Phillips Oppenheim's mystery thriller "The Great Impersonation". He played Dr Clarkson in the television drama series "Downton Abbey". David Robb is also the narrator of History Channel's documentary series "Battle Stations".


title: David Robb

text: Robb performed in two of Richard Norton-Taylor's Tricycle Tribunal Plays: "The Colour of Justice" (the dramatised version of the Sir William Macpherson inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, his family's search for justice, and endemic racism in British police forces), and "Half the Picture" (a distillation of the Scott Inquiry into Arms-to-Iraq. It was the first play to be performed in the Palace of Westminster); both were directed by Nicolas Kent and performed at the Tricycle Theatre. The productions were broadcast by the BBC.


title: David Robb

text: Robb received two "Actors" (Screen Actors Guild Awards) for his role as part of the main cast of Downton Abbey, season 2 and season 4.


title: David Robb

text: Robb married the actress Briony McRoberts in 1978. His best man was Lord Michael Jones. Beginning in 2004, he and his wife ran every year in the Edinburgh Marathon to raise money for leukaemia research. McRoberts took her own life on 17 July 2013 (age 56), after a long illness with anorexia.


title: Spike protein

text: In virology, a spike protein or peplomer protein is a protein that forms a large structure known as a spike or peplomer projecting from the surface of an enveloped virus. The proteins are usually glycoproteins that form dimers or trimers.


title: Spike protein

text: The term "peplomer" refers to an individual spike from the viral surface; collectively the layer of material at the outer surface of the virion has been referred to as the "peplos". The term is derived from the Greek peplos, "a loose outer garment", "robe or cloak", or "woman['s] mantle". Early systems of viral taxonomy, such as the Lwoff-Horne-Tournier system proposed in the 1960s, used the appearance and morphology of the "peplos" and peplomers as important characteristics for classification. More recently, the term "peplos" is considered a synonym for viral envelope.


title: Spike protein

text: Spikes or peplomers are usually rod- or club-shaped projections from the viral surface. Spike proteins are membrane proteins with typically large external ectodomains, a single transmembrane domain that anchors the protein in the viral envelope, and a short tail in the interior of the virion. They may also form protein–protein interactions with other viral proteins, such as those forming the nucleocapsid. They are usually glycoproteins, more commonly via N-linked than O-linked glycosylation.


title: Spike protein

text: Spikes typically have a role in viral entry. They may interact with cell-surface receptors located on the host cell and may have hemagglutinizing activity as a result, or in other cases they may be enzymes. For example, influenza virus has two surface proteins with these two functions, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. The binding site for the cell-surface receptor is usually located at the tip of the spike. Many spike proteins are membrane fusion proteins. Being exposed on the surface of the virion, spike proteins can be antigens.


title: Spike protein

text: Spikes or peplomers can be visible in electron micrograph images of enveloped viruses such as orthomyxoviruses, paramyxoviruses, rhabdoviruses, filoviruses, coronaviruses, bunyaviruses, arenaviruses, and retroviruses.


title: Spike protein

text: Coronaviruses exhibit coronavirus spike protein, also known as the S protein, on their surfaces; S is a class I fusion protein and is responsible for mediating viral entry as the first step in viral infection. It is highly antigenic and accounts for most antibodies produced by the immune system in response to infection. For this reason the spike protein has been the focus of development for COVID-19 vaccines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. A subgenus of the betacoronaviruses, known as embecoviruses (not including SARS-like coronaviruses), have an additional shorter surface protein known as hemagglutinin esterase.


title: Spike protein

text: The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated identification of viral particles in electron micrographs of patient tissue samples. A number of reports misidentified normal subcellular structures as coronaviruses due to their superficial resemblance to coronavirus morphology, and because the distinctive spikes of coronaviruses are apparent by negative stain but much less visible in thin section.


title: Spike protein

text: Most influenza virus subgroups have two surface proteins described as peplomers, neuraminidase (an enzyme) and hemagglutinin (also a class I fusion protein). Some instead have a single hemagglutinin esterase protein with both functions.


title: Spike protein

text: Retroviruses such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have surface peplomers. These are protein complexes formed by two proteins, gp41 and gp120, both expressed from the "env" gene, collectively forming a spike protein complex that mediates viral entry.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: Saint Mary's College of California is a private Catholic college in Moraga, California. Established in 1863, it is affiliated with the Catholic Church and administered by the De La Salle Brothers. The college offers undergraduate and graduate programs with a total student count at under 4,000 .


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: St. Mary's College began in 1863 as a diocesan college for boys established by the Most Rev. Joseph Alemany, a member of the Dominicans and the first archbishop of San Francisco. One of its first donors was Mary Ellen Pleasant, a famed Black Catholic philanthropist who gave the school roughly $10,000 in today's money to help get the school off the ground.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: Unhappy with the archdiocese's operation of the college, Archbishop Alemany applied for assistance from Rome and in 1868 St. Mary's College was handed over to the De La Salle Christian Brothers.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: In 1889, the college moved east across San Francisco Bay to Oakland, California. The location on the corner of 30th and Broadway became affectionately known as "The Brickpile" and Saint Mary's College would call Oakland home until 1928, when it moved further eastward to Moraga after a fire severely damaged the Brickpile. The Oakland site is California Historical Landmark #676 and has been marked by a commemorative plaque. The former San Francisco site is now the site of the St. Mary's Park neighborhood. The college and high school sections separated not long after the move to Moraga and the high school is currently located in Albany.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: During its first years in Moraga, the college nearly went bankrupt, but eventually managed to gain financial security when it was bought by Archbishop John Joseph Mitty, for whom a residence hall is now named. During World War II the college was used by the United States Navy for the training of pilots. Former President Gerald Ford was briefly stationed at the school and served as a naval instructor. The navy erected many buildings, including the world's largest indoor pool, but only one, Assumption Hall, remains on the campus as the school had little use for most of the buildings after the war. Saint Mary's continued to be a male-only school until 1970, when it became coeducational. Since then, more women have come to the college and by 2011, 62% of the students were women.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: In the 1970s, the college was well known by secondary schools throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for producing the Saint Mary's Math Contest. The popular contest was discontinued in 1978 but later became the chief inspiration for the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival which continues to this day.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: Roughly two dozen Christian Brothers still live and work at the school, and the school presidents had always been Brothers until 2013. Recognizing the dwindling number of Christian Brothers, in 2003 the college's bylaws were changed to allow the election of a non-Christian Brother to the presidency if no qualified Brother exists or steps forward. James A. Donahue, a committed and engaged Roman Catholic, became the first non-Christian Brother to serve as president in the 150-year history of Saint Mary's on July 1, 2013.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: There are four schools at Saint Mary's: the School of Liberal Arts, the School of Science, the School of Economics and Business Administration, and the Kalmanovitz School of Education. Saint Mary's College is a liberal arts institution, and the majority of undergraduate students are in the School of Liberal Arts. However, the most popular major is Business Administration. This is followed by Psychology, Communication, Kinesiology, and Accounting. The average class size is 19, with a student faculty ratio of 13:1. 91% of classes are taught by full-time faculty, of which 95% hold the highest degree in their fields. There are 40 academic majors, with an option to create your own major. Most Saint Mary's faculty are required to teach six courses per year (three per semester).


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: In addition to these general education courses, students must take four Collegiate Seminar or Great Books courses. Although based on the academic programs at St. John's College, the Saint Mary's College program consists of only four courses required for all students regardless of major. The first course is offered in the spring of their first year, in the fall of their sophomore year, and then students have the choice of when they want to take the last two courses during their junior and senior years. There is also a seminar course created for transfer students so that they can be just as prepared as their peers in the following seminar courses.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: The Integral Liberal Arts Program is a "college-within-a-college", distinct from a major, at Saint Mary's College that incorporates the Seminar method for all of its classes. It was modeled on St. John's College. The Integral Program is a complete four-year Great Books course of study, covering all mathematics, science, religious and language requirements. Instead of taking four classes in addition to the general education, Integral students' entire curriculum, including subjects not traditionally related to the "classics," is in the Seminar style. For example, math is taught through reading and discussing Euclid and Galileo, rather than actually completing numerical problem sets. Although the Seminar portion of the program is twice as long (eight semesters vs. four), moves more quickly and covers more material than the Collegiate Seminar program, it is not an honors program. The program does not have any tests or lectures, however students are expected to complete a substantial amount of reading per night in preparation for classroom discussions. Although seminal works such as the Bible and the writings of some theologians are organic to the Western Canon, the program itself is non-religious. Classics from cultures other than western are in the Program roughly where they were chronologically introduced into western discourse.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: While the Integral Program is housed in the School of Liberal Arts and Integral students receive a Bachelor of Arts degree, Integral Liberal Arts students graduate separately from the Liberal Arts majors. Many students go on to graduate school for pre-med or pre-law studies.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: Saint Mary's has a "4–1–4" system, similar to Middlebury College: fall semester, January Term, and spring semester. Students are given three weeks off for Christmas following fall semester, one week off following Jan-Term, and one week in the middle of spring semester for Easter. Fall semester usually begins the Monday before Labor Day and runs through the second week of December. Graduation is usually the third or fourth week of May.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: January Term is an academic session in which during the month of January students are required to take one class and encouraged to take one outside their major. Jan Term classes are more intensive than a normal fall or spring class. Instead of meeting two or three times a week, they meet four times a week for two and a half hours. Students must take four Jan Term classes to graduate. This differs from many colleges at which January Term or "Intersession" is optional. Each year, a committee meets to determine the year's January Term theme, and the process includes a vote of the final three selections by the community. Classes during January Term range from Shakespeare to Star Trek, and students have the option to travel abroad for their January class. There are also optional quarter credit classes for January Term and during the semesters, such as digital photography or weight training.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: St. Mary's historic campus is located in Moraga, California. The majority of the principal buildings on campus are built in the California Churrigueresque style, while the rest of campus is made up of other styles of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture or Mission Revival architecture.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: All first-year students at Saint Mary's live on campus. 55% of the total student population lives on campus. There are six first year residence halls (Augustine, Justin, Mitty, De La Salle, Aquinas and Assumption Halls). All first year residence halls (with the exception of Aquinas) are set up "community style," in which two or three students usually share a room and the entire floor shares a central bathroom. Floors are usually separated by sex in first year halls (because of the shared bathrooms). The only exceptions are Aquinas hall which has students live in suites with their own bathroom, and the first floor of Assumption, which is coeducational with separate bathrooms for each sex. Currently, first years living on campus are guaranteed a spot on campus for their second year. Sophomores live in Becket Hall, More Hall, North and South Claeys Halls, and Ageno A, B, and C Halls. All of these halls are "suite" style living and each suite comes with three or four bedrooms, accommodates six students, and has its own bathroom and shower. Floors on suite buildings are co-ed.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: Juniors and seniors enter into a housing lottery to determine if they can live on campus. Many upperclassmen live in "townhouse" buildings: Ageno East and West, Guerreri East and West, Freitas, Thille, Syufy and Sabatte Halls. All townhouses come with two or three bedrooms (accommodating five to six students), a bathroom and shower, kitchen and living room. Upperclassmen also live off-campus in Moraga, Orinda, Lafayette, and Walnut Creek. Upperclassmen resident advisers, as well as a few other upperclassmen, live in the traditionally freshman and sophomore halls. All residence hall rooms are fully furnished and come with two phones with free long distance, free Internet, and free TV cable outlet. Others often choose to live at home if they are within half an hour of campus. In addition to several student resident advisers, each residence hall also has at least one resident director, who is a Brother or a faculty or staff member and lives in the residence hall.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: There are four Living Learning Communities on campus. The Honors/Science living learning community is available only for first years and is located in Assumption Hall. Live-in tutors specializing in the sciences and the humanities – along with live-in faculty – help to create this intellectually stimulating and supportive community. The International Community is located in Claeys Hall North, where both international and domestic students can learn skills important in both cross-cultural communication and living globally. The Lasallian Community is a community of sophomores living in Becket Hall. They participate in a class, service and community time together and are focused on learning the life and principles of Saint John Baptist De La Salle. The Santiago Community is a community of juniors and Seniors living in Ageno West who are focused on a Faith, Service, and Community aspect, and learning about Br. James Santiago Miller who died when his work to educate the poor came in opposition to the military powers.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: The majority of classes are held in Galileo, Dante and Garaventa halls, which each have three floors. Most of the professors' offices are also in these halls. A science building, known as Brousseau Hall was built in 2000. Sichel Hall is a smaller, media-oriented classroom building used by the Communication Department, and Syufy Performing Arts Hall houses large and small practice rooms for arts students. The newest building on campus is Filippi Academic Hall, which houses the School of Education. The library, St. Albert Hall, is located near the freshmen dorms.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: The cafeteria is called Oliver Hall and its neighbor, Dryden Hall has recently been retrofitted into overflow seating for Oliver Hall and is also used for other events around campus. The Cassin Student Union is a student lounge, adjacent to Dryden. Attached to Cassin is Café Louis, a coffee shop, which is operated by Sodexo, the same company that runs the dining hall. Other spaces often used by students are the Delphine Intercultural Center, the Women's Resource Center and the bookstore.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: Athletics facilities include McKeon Pavilion (basketball and volleyball), Saint Mary's Stadium (soccer and rugby), Madigan Gym, Louis Guisto Field (baseball), Cottrell Field (softball) as well as additional soccer, rugby and intramural fields. The college also operates Timothy Korth Tennis Complex and frequently hosts conference, area and regional tennis tournaments. In March 2015, the college opened the new Joseph L. Alioto Recreation Center.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: Two other important buildings are the Soda Activity Center and the Lefevre Theatre, where various events are held. There is also St. Albert Hall Library and the Saint Mary's Museum of Art. All buildings on campus except Assumption Hall are named after an important person in the Catholic religion or a person important to the school.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: There is a cross at the top of a hill on campus and a large concrete "SMC" on top of one of the surrounding hills, which gets painted frequently by student groups around campus.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: The Museum of Art, originally named the Hearst Art Gallery, is the only accredited art museum in Contra Costa County. The museum houses the largest collection of William Keith paintings.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: The Hearst Art Gallery, built with the aid of a grant from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, opened in 1977 to replace a smaller William Keith Gallery started by Brother Fidelis Cornelius. Brother Cornelius was an art professor and Keith biographer who had built the Keith Collection and established the original William Keith Gallery at Saint Mary's in 1934.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: As a Lasallian school, community service plays a big role on campus. The Catholic Institute for Lasallian Social Action coordinates most service work on campus, and each year students perform many hours of community service. On the first Saturday of every other month, they have the opportunity to participate in "Saturday of Service" where Saint Mary's students branch out all across the Bay Area and serve their community.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: Because Saint Mary's is located in the Bay Area, students have many options of off-campus activities. Student organizations such as the Campus Activities Board and the Residence Hall Association send students to various sporting events, concerts, and activities around the Bay Area.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: The campus has a chapel in which Mass is held daily on weekdays and twice on Sundays. The main student Mass is on Sundays at 8 p.m. There are several priests who work on campus, many of whom also teach classes and there is also a chaplain who regularly officiates mass. It is not a requirement to be Catholic in order to attend Saint Mary's, and students do not have to take courses in Catholicism (two general Religious Studies classes are required, an introductory course of the Bible and Its Interpretation and an elective of the student's choosing). However around 50% of Saint Mary's undergraduate students are Catholic. Many students are also involved in community service. Nearly 10 percent of every graduating class goes on to join a major service organization: the Peace Corps, the Lasallian Volunteers, Teach for America, or the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: The college has a weekly newspaper called "The Collegian" and a radio station, "KSMC 89.5". The campus also has access to the "Saint Mary's Magazine" and the weekly "SMC Bulletin".


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: Saint Mary's has 17 Division I teams, competing in the West Coast Conference. The nickname of Saint Mary's sports teams is the Gaels, which had been given to the school's football team in 1926 by Pat Frayne, a writer for the San Francisco Call- Bulletin. The school's previous nickname was the Saints although the baseball team still kept the nickname the Phoenix up until the 1940s.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: The men's basketball team is recognized nationally as one of the top mid-major programs in the country; in 2010, it made it to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: The Gaels are also known for their strong pursuit of Australian talent, such as NBA players Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova. Chants such as "Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi" are common among students, and an Australian flag now hangs from the back wall of Saint Mary's basketball arena, McKeon Pavilion during games. This has also given the college a big following in Australia, with most basketball games shown on ESPN Australia/New Zealand. Recently, point guard Matthew Dellavedova was named WCC Player of the Year in 2012 and became the first male athlete at Saint Mary's to earn first-team Capital One Academic All-America honors. In 2013, he broke school records becoming the all-time leader in scoring, assists, and three-pointers.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: In 2011, the men's soccer team won the West Coast Conference title, beating the University of San Diego, 1–0, giving Saint Mary's an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament and their first-ever WCC title. In the first round Saint Mary's defeated No. 25 CSU Bakersfield 1–0 to send them to the next round. The second round was played against UC Irvine. The Gaels defeated the No. 7 Anteaters, 2–1, in double overtime. The game-winning goal was headed in by Justin Howard in the 103rd minute, sending Saint Mary's into the "Sweet Sixteen". The third round of the NCAA Tournament saw the Gaels against Brown University, beating the Bears in overtime 3–2, at Stevenson Field. The win over the Bears sent the Gaels into the "Elite Eight," making it only the second team in school history to make it to the Elite Eight along with the 1959 men's basketball team. Saint Mary's lost to the University of North Carolina in the Quarter Finals, 2–0. The participation of the men's soccer team in the 2011 NCAA Tournament was the most successful postseason run in Saint Mary's history.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: In 2012, the Gaels' golf team took the program's first-ever WCC title, and junior Ben Geyer became just the fourth Saint Mary's player to take home medalist honors in the tournament's 41-year history. Head coach Scott Hardy earned his seventh WCC Coach of the Year honor after leading the team to the 2013 title – the first back-to-back championship in program history. He earned his eight WCC Coach of the Year honors in 2015.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: In 2001, the women's basketball and soccer teams competed in their respective NCAA tournaments, with both teams advancing to the second round. The women's volleyball team advanced to the "Sweet Sixteen" in 2004. Women's tennis, softball and volleyball won the WCC Conference championships and went on to play in NCAA postseason tournaments. The 2010 and 2013 women's tennis teams won WCC championships and the program has advanced to 4-straight NCAA tournaments, the most consecutive invitations to NCAA tournament play of any Saint Mary's athletic program.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: Saint Mary's College was once known for its American football team led by Edward "Slip" Madigan, which dominated west coast football, indeed beating USC and California during the thirties, and with several wins against eastern powerhouses during the 20s, 30s, and 40s including winning the 1939 Cotton Bowl by narrowly defeating favored Texas Tech 20 to 13. The Gaels were known for their flashy style that reflected the personality of their flamboyant coach. Madigan traveled to New York for the Fordham game with 150 fans on a train that was labelled "the world's longest bar." To stir up publicity for the game, he threw a party the night before and invited not only sportswriters, but such celebrities as Babe Ruth and New York mayor Jimmy Walker. They dropped the sport in 2004.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: Currently, 60% of the students who attend Saint Mary's are involved with organized athletics. There are 13 club sports teams that they have the opportunity to participate in as well as Intramural teams and NCAA. Student-athletes from Saint Mary's graduate at the second-highest success rate among all California Division 1 Institutions, according to data released by NCAA.


title: Saint Mary's College of California

text: Another successful sports program at Saint Mary's is rugby, which, though not well known in the United States generally, is the oldest athletic club at Saint Mary's. The men's rugby team enjoyed a rise in the past few years and won the school's first national championship on May 10, 2014, beating Life University 21–6 to win the USA Rugby D1A title at Stanford University. The team frequently is ranked among the top teams in the country, competing with large high-profile schools such as California, Ohio State, and the military academies. In 2008, it reached the Final Four of the USA Rugby Division One National Championship tournament, losing to California 41–31 in the semi-finals, and was also ranked at #2 in the nation for Division 1 Collegiate Rugby at the season's end. In 2011, it competed in the National 7s and in 2012, after beating No.1 ranked California 20 –18 in Moraga, the team finished the regular season undefeated in the Pacific Coast Conference and ranked No. 2 in the country. It defeated Utah 25–15 in the D1-A quarterfinals before falling to Arkansas State in the semifinals. In 2015, the Saint Mary's Men's Rugby team clinched the national D1-A title for the second year in a row when it beat Life University 30-24 at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.


title: RL10

text: The RL10 is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine built in the United States by Aerojet Rocketdyne that burns cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. Modern versions produce up to of thrust per engine in vacuum. Three RL10 versions are in production for the Centaur upper stage of the Atlas V and the DCSS of the Delta IV. Three more versions are in development for the Exploration Upper Stage of the Space Launch System and the Centaur V of the Vulcan rocket.


title: RL10

text: The expander cycle that the engine uses drives the turbopump with waste heat absorbed by the engine combustion chamber, throat, and nozzle. This, combined with the hydrogen fuel, leads to very high specific impulses ("I") in the range of in a vacuum. Mass ranges from depending on the version of the engine.


title: RL10

text: The RL10 was the first liquid hydrogen rocket engine to be built in the United States, with development of the engine by Marshall Space Flight Center and Pratt & Whitney beginning in the 1950s. The RL10 was originally developed as a throttleable engine for the USAF Lunex lunar lander, finally putting this capability to use twenty years later in the DC-X VTOL vehicle.


title: RL10

text: The RL10 was first tested on the ground in 1959, at Pratt & Whitney's Florida Research and Development Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. The first successful flight took place on November 27, 1963. For that launch, two RL10A-3 engines powered the Centaur upper stage of an Atlas launch vehicle. The launch was used to conduct a heavily instrumented performance and structural integrity test of the vehicle.


title: RL10

text: Multiple versions of this engine have been flown. The S-IV of the Saturn I used a cluster of six RL10A-3S, a version which was modified for installation on the Saturn and the Titan program included Centaur D-1T upper stages powered by two RL10A-3-3 Engines.


title: RL10

text: A flaw in the brazing of an RL10B-2 combustion chamber was identified as the cause of failure for the 4 May 1999 Delta III launch carrying the Orion-3 communications satellite.


title: RL10

text: The DIRECT version 3.0 proposal to replace Ares I and Ares V with a family of rockets sharing a common core stage recommended the RL10 for the second stage of the J-246 and J-247 launch vehicles. Up to seven RL10 engines would have been used in the proposed Jupiter Upper Stage, serving an equivalent role to the Space Launch System Exploration Upper Stage.


title: RL10

text: the Common Extensible Cryogenic Engine (CECE) demonstrator. CECE was intended to lead to RL10 engines capable of deep throttling. In 2007, its operability (with some "chugging") was demonstrated at 11:1 throttle ratios. In 2009, NASA reported successfully throttling from 104 percent thrust to eight percent thrust, a record for an expander cycle engine of this type. Chugging was eliminated by injector and propellant feed system modifications that control the pressure, temperature and flow of propellants. In 2010, the throttling range was expanded further to a 17.6:1 ratio, throttling from 104% to 5.9% power.


title: RL10

text: In 2012 NASA joined with the US Air Force (USAF) to study next-generation upper stage propulsion, formalizing the agencies' joint interests in a new upper stage engine to replace the Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10.


title: RL10

text: From the study, NASA hoped to find a less expensive RL10-class engine for the upper stage of the Space Launch System (SLS).


title: RL10

text: USAF hoped to replace the Rocketdyne RL10 engines used on the upper stages of the Lockheed Martin Atlas V and the Boeing Delta IV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV) that were the primary methods of putting US government satellites into space. A related requirements study was conducted at the same time under the Affordable Upper Stage Engine Program (AUSEP).


title: RL10

text: The RL10 has evolved over the years. The RL10B-2 that was used on the DCSS had improved performance, an extendable carbon-carbon nozzle, electro-mechanical gimbaling for reduced weight and increased reliability, and a specific impulse of .


title: RL10

text: As of 2016, Aerojet Rocketdyne was working toward incorporating additive manufacturing into the RL10 construction process. The company conducted full-scale, hot-fire tests on an engine with a printed main injector in March 2016, and on an engine with a printed thrust chamber assembly in April 2017.


title: RL10

text: , an enhanced version of the RL10 was proposed to power the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage (ACES), a long-duration, low-boiloff extension of existing ULA Centaur and Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS) technology for the Vulcan launch vehicle. Long-duration ACES technology is intended to support geosynchronous, cislunar, and interplanetary missions. Another possible application is as in-space propellant depots in LEO or at that could be used as way-stations for other rockets to stop and refuel on the way to beyond-LEO or interplanetary missions. Cleanup of space debris was also proposed.


title: Heavy infantry

text: Heavy infantry consisted of heavily armed and armoured infantrymen who were trained to mount frontal assaults and/or anchor the defensive center of a battle line. This differentiated them from light infantry who are relatively mobile and lightly armoured skirmisher troops intended for screening, scouting, and other tactical roles unsuited to soldiers carrying heavier loads. Heavy infantry typically made use of dense battlefield formations, such as shield wall or phalanx, multiplying their effective weight of arms with force concentration.


title: Heavy infantry

text: Heavy infantry were critical to many ancient armies, such as the Greek hoplites, Macedonian phalangites, and Roman legionaries. After the fall of Rome, heavy infantry declined in Europe but returned to dominance in the Late Middle Ages with Swiss pikemen and German Landsknechts. With the rise of firearms during early modern warfare, dense formations became increasingly hazardous, and heavy armours were either ineffective or too cumbersome to be tactically useful. By the early 18th century, heavy infantry were replaced by line infantry armed with muskets and bayonets and no armour.


title: Heavy infantry

text: In ancient Greece, the hoplite was a common form of heavy infantry. All hoplites had a shield and spear, and perhaps a helmet as well. Wealthier hoplites were able to afford bronze breastplate or linothorax armor, while poorer hoplites wore little to no armor. The hoplite armor and shield were designed to block arrows and blows from spear points and swords. Hoplites would act as both a city watch and as an army in the field. Hoplites were thought of as a force to be reckoned with because they would form a phalanx—a tight band of spearmen—which aided them against lighter infantry and cavalry.


title: Heavy infantry

text: Herodotus described an elite infantry unit of 10,000 soldiers, which he called the Immortals, in the army of the Achaemenid Empire. They were heavily-armed, carrying wicker shields, short spears, quivers, swords or large daggers, and bow and arrow. Underneath their robes they wore scale armour coats, which means they were not "heavily-armored" (even by ancient standards), but on the other hand, this would allow them to carry more weapons. The regiment was followed by a caravan of covered carriages, camels, and mules that transported rations separate than that of the rest of the army.


title: Heavy infantry

text: Alexander's army employed infantry known as the phalangite – soldiers equipped with a small shield and long pike and employed in a formation known as the sarissa phalanx. Alexander also had a flexible heavy infantry force known as the Argyraspides, or silver shields, who acted as his elite infantry. Post-Alexander Hellenistic states such as Macedonia, Seleucid Persia, and Ptolemaic Egypt would employ more heavily armored phalangites, as well as their own variation of elite units such as the silver shields.


title: Heavy infantry

text: The Celts were a diverse group of people that, through migration, lived in an area stretching from the British Isles to Anatolia. A people with a strong warrior tradition, they varied greatly in battle and equipment. Some of the more heavily armed Celts wore mail armour and "Galea" type helmets, and threw javelins in battle; all of these elements were later adopted by the Romans. Celts were respected for their battle prowess and often served as mercenaries for other Mediterranean civilizations.


title: Heavy infantry

text: In the military of ancient Rome, heavy infantry made up most of the Roman army. The heavy infantry of the pre-Marian Roman Republic included the "hastati", "principes", and "triarii" (although depending how the "hastati" were armed and armored, they could also be considered light infantry). The "hastati", the youngest men in the line, were armed with a sword, or "gladius", and two javelins, or "pila". The "pila" were usually thrown at a charging enemy before they were engaged in hand-to-hand combat. "Hastati" were also equipped with a helmet, a shield and a bronze breast plate or coat of mail (if they could afford it). The "principes" were armed just like the "hastati", but they were older, more experienced and, because they had more money, were more likely to own better-quality arms. The final type of heavy infantry were the "triarii". They were armed and armored just like the "principes" except that instead of wielding a sword or gladius, they used a large spear known as the "hasta". Incidentally, the "hastati" were originally armed with this weapon, which gave them their name, but the "hasta" were eventually abandoned as Rome switched from a Greek-style hoplite phalanx to the manipular system. The "triarii" were the last vestige of this older style of warfare in the Roman republic. The "triarii" were usually called in to end the battle and break the lines of the enemy.


title: Heavy infantry

text: Rome's use of heavy infantry and a general lack of major cavalry forces meant they were stronger in pitched battle but more vulnerable to ambushes. After the Marian reforms of the late 2nd century BCE, property requirements were dropped, and the three-lined maniples were replaced in favor of a single type of heavy infantry, the legionary, all equipped in nearly identical fashion to "hastati" and "principes".


title: Heavy infantry

text: Following the introduction of infantry tactics during the Warring States period, the Qin army developed an infantry force that would help it conquer the other states. Soldiers fulfilling the role of heavy infantry usually wore lacquered leather (and sometimes bronze) coat of plate or lamellar armour, and were equipped with spears and wooden shields, halberds, dagger-axes, swords, and small and large shields covered in metal. Some soldiers were also equipped with very long spears, long halberds, or pikes, and fought in a formation akin to Swiss pikemen. The Han dynasty that succeeded the Qin era equipped their soldiers with iron armor, which they were able to mass-produce because of state standardized metallurgical improvements. Unlike their contemporaries such as the post-Marian Romans, the Han military did not rely primarily on their heavy infantry but emphasized a more balanced force of infantry, missile troops, and cavalry.


title: Heavy infantry

text: The kingdom of Goguryeo in Korea was renowned for its military power and influence, especially during the rule of Gwanggaeto the Great. The rapid expansion of Goguryeo into Manchuria and parts of eastern China can be accredited to the skill and discipline of the Goguryeo heavy infantry and cavalry. Soldiers were typically equipped with iron swords, pole-arms, and bows. Warriors were usually clad in iron lamellar armor or lacquered leather to ward off arrows and sword blows. The weapons and armor of the heavy infantry of Goguryeo were considered the best in quality because of the advanced technological improvements made in steel and iron production in Korea. Not much is known about the actual battle formations used in Korean armies during the Goguryeo era, but accounts of the individual expertise and prowess of the Goguryeo soldiers, as well as the strict regimentation of Goguryeo's armies, indicates that there must have been some balance between group combat and individual combat. Despite strides made in infantry warfare, Goguryeo also placed great emphasis on the usage of heavy cavalry, sometimes almost exclusively using horsemen for shock attacks, with infantrymen coming in after the initial cavalry charge. Meticulous development and implementation of efficient swordsmanship and martial arts, tactics, and technology allowed Goguryeo armies to remain virtually undefeated during the height of its existence.


title: Heavy infantry

text: The Swiss reinvented heavy infantry during the Late Middle Ages to counter heavy cavalry. Swiss pikeman militia formations resembled ancient Greek warfare and hoplite forces. Despite similarities with Greek phalanx formation, the Swiss showed more offensive posture during battles. The Swiss soldiers wore only steel caps and breastplates for protection. They were armed with halberds, which allowed footmen to pull cavalry soldiers from their mounts. The Swiss used drums to control formations. One additional factor that lessened heavy cavalry's role on the battlefield, despite innovations such as stirrup, were the inventions of longbow and crossbow after the eleventh century. However, the Swiss did not manage to form an effective counter to heavy cavalry until the mid-fourteenth century. By the late fourteenth century the Swiss tactics started to dominate warfare. German, French and Spanish militaries incorporated Swiss mercenaries and adopted their heavy infantry tactics. The Swiss innovations continued to influence early Renaissance period.


title: RAF Regiment

text: The Royal Air Force Regiment (RAF Regiment) is part of the Royal Air Force and functions as a specialist corps. Founded by royal warrant in 1942, the Corps carries out soldiering tasks relating to the delivery of air power. Examples of such tasks are non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO), recovery of downed aircrew (joint personnel recovery – JPR), and in-depth defence of airfields by way of aggressively patrolling and actively seeking out infiltrators in a large area surrounding airfields. In addition the RAF Regiment provides Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) to the British Army and Royal Marines, and provides flight size commitment to the Special Forces Support Group.


title: RAF Regiment

text: The RAF Regiment Gunners are personnel trained in various disciplines such as infantry tactics, force protection, field craft, sniper, support special forces operations, CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) defence, equipped with advanced vehicles and detection measures. RAF Regiment instructors are responsible for training all Royal Air Force personnel in basic force protection such as first aid, weapon handling and CBRN skills.


title: RAF Regiment

text: The regiment and its members are known within the RAF as "The Regiment", "Rock Apes" or "Rocks". After basic training at RAF Halton, and a 20-week gunner course at RAF Honington, its members are trained and equipped to prevent a successful enemy attack in the first instance; minimise the damage caused by a successful attack; and ensure that air operations can continue without delay in the aftermath of an attack.


title: RAF Regiment

text: The genesis of the RAF Regiment was the creation of No. 1 Armoured Car Company RAF, formed in Egypt in 1921 for operations in Iraq, followed shortly afterwards by No. 2 Armoured Car Company RAF and No. 3 Armoured Car Company RAF. These were equipped with Rolls-Royce armoured cars and carried out policing operations throughout the Middle East in the 1920s.


title: RAF Regiment

text: In 1941 during the Second World War German airborne forces invaded Crete, then held by Greek, British and Commonwealth forces. The German invasion succeeded in major part because of the failure of the Allied land forces to recognise the strategic importance of the airfields, and hence to defend them adequately. In consequence the RAF base at Maleme was taken largely intact by German paratroop and glider forces, albeit with heavy casualties. The Germans were then reinforced by air behind allied lines. This led eventually to the loss of the whole island and substantial Allied losses in what became known as the Battle of Crete.


title: RAF Regiment

text: Disappointed with the failure of the British Army to recognise the importance of airfields in modern warfare, Prime Minister Churchill made the RAF responsible for the defence of its own bases and the RAF Regiment was formed on 1 February 1942, with its first headquarters established at RAF Belton Park, Grantham, Lincolnshire. From the start it had 66,000 personnel drawn from the former Defence Squadrons Nos. 701–850. The new regiment was made up of field squadrons equipped with Morris Light Reconnaissance Cars, Humber Light Reconnaissance Cars and Otter Light Reconnaissance Cars. The light anti-aircraft squadrons were originally armed with Hispano 20 mm cannon and then the Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun. Its role was to seize, secure and defend airfields to enable air operations to take place. Several parachute squadrons were formed to assist in the capture of airfields, a capability retained by No. II Squadron. It mounted the King's Guard at Buckingham Palace for the first time on 1 April 1943. During the War the RAF Regiment grew to a force of over 80,000 men.


title: RAF Regiment

text: In late June 1944, with the British Army fighting in Normandy where it was sustaining heavy losses and at the same time suffering from a severe shortage of manpower, it was decided to transfer 25,000 officers and men of the RAF Regiment to the army, mostly to the infantry and the Foot Guards, to be retrained.


title: RAF Regiment

text: The Second World War campaign in north-eastern India and northern Burma was fought in jungle and mountains with few or non-existent roads and which facilitated the infiltration of enemy patrols behind front lines. This was overcome by holding defensive "boxes" mainly or entirely supplied by air. The defence of forward airfields close to the main army concentrations was vital to this tactic. A training school and depot for the RAF Regiment was established at Secunderabad in October 1942, to retrain former ground defence airmen. It had an assault course considered tougher than anything the army had in India. Six field squadrons and seventy AA flights were initially formed, containing 160 officers and 4,000 other ranks. Until mid-1944 the AA flights were equipped only with light machine guns, then with Hispano 20 mm cannon for the rest of the war. Regiment units defended airfields and forward mobile radar units in Arakan in the Arakan Campaign in late 1942 and early 1943.


title: RAF Regiment

text: During the Battle of Imphal all supplies and reinforcements had to be flown in between 29 March and 22 June 1944 with RAF Regiment units providing vital airfield defence. Following the failure of the Japanese Operation U-Go it was decided to pursue the shattered remnants of the Japanese 15th Army into Burma during the monsoon, in average rainfall of per day and rifle flights were sometimes attached to advancing Indian Army and British East African units, to gain experience in the jungle. Units of 1307 Wing were flown into the newly captured and tactically vital Meiktila airfield on 1 March 1945. Only a roughly box, shared with the army and some United States anti-aircraft artillery, could be held at night and the airfield had to be cleared of enemy each morning before flying could start. As one of the RAF Regiment's proudest battle honours, this three-week battle destroyed the Japanese hold on northern Burma.


title: RAF Regiment

text: The RAF Regiment fought as field, armoured car and light anti-aircraft (LAA) squadrons and flights in North Africa, the Middle East, Italy, the Balkans and North Western Europe, as well as 68 LAA squadrons defending the UK against V1 attacks as part of Operation Diver, alongside the Royal Artillery's heavy anti-aircraft and LAA batteries. Amongst other things, RAF Regiment units were the first British forces to reach Paris, amongst the first to enter Brussels, and Squadron Leader Mark Hobden and his force arrested Hitler's successor as Fuhrer, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, at his HQ in Flensburg.


title: RAF Regiment

text: On 26 November 1944, a Me 262A-2a Sturmvogel of III/KG51 based at Hopsten/Rheine near Osnabruck was the first confirmed ground-to-air kill of a jet combat aircraft. The 262 was shot down by a 40/L60 40mm Bofors gun of B.11 Detachment of 2875 Squadron RAF Regiment, at the RAF forward airfield of Helmond, near Eindhoven. Others were lost to ground fire on 17 and 18 December when the same airfield was attacked at intervals by a total of eighteen Me 262s and the guns of Nos. 2873 and 2875 squadrons RAF Regiment damaged several, causing at least two of them to crash within a few miles of the airfield. In February 1945, Sergeant Pollards's B.6 gun detachment of 2809 Squadron RAF Regiment shot down another Me 262 over the airfield of Vokel. The final appearance of Me 262s over Vokel was in 1945, when yet another fell to 2809's guns.


title: RAF Regiment

text: On 5 December 1944, twelve RAF Regiment squadrons deployed onto various airfields in southern Greece. They became engaged in fighting with Greek Communist Forces (ELAS) which wished to depose the Greek government at that time. No. 2848 Field Squadron was the first RAF unit to arrive in West Berlin in 1945 to secure Luftwaffe Flugplatz Gatow.


title: RAF Regiment

text: King George VI became Air Commodore-in-Chief of the regiment in 1947. He later decided to present his king's colour in 1952, on the 10th anniversary of the RAF Regiment's founding. The king, however, died around this time and Queen Elizabeth II instead presented the Queen's Colour a year later.


title: RAF Regiment

text: The unilateral declaration of independence by Rhodesia in November 1965 necessitated support to Zambia, which desperately needed air defence. In a rapid response, Javelin fighters were deployed and an RAF Regiment squadron was also deployed from the United Kingdom to provide ground defence. The agility of the Regiment was demonstrated in its ability to embark 51 Squadron RAF Regiment in six hours from the call to deploy. At the eastern end of the Empire, flights from RAF Regiment squadrons based in Singapore deployed to Hong Kong in 1968 to help maintain security and confidence. The RAF Regiment continued to be involved in Hong Kong into the mid-1970s providing protection at both RAF Kai Tak and at the radar station at Tai Mo Shan.


title: RAF Regiment

text: In 1974, the Rapier surface-to-air missile system entered service with the RAF Regiment, and equipped four squadrons protecting four RAF airfields in Germany. Detachments from the German Rapier Squadrons, particularly from RAF Gutersloh, deployed to San Carlos beach-head during the Falklands conflict to provide anti-aircraft cover.


title: RAF Regiment

text: Light armoured squadrons, equipped with FV101 Scorpion and FV107 Scimitar light tracked vehicles continued to be operated into the 1980s. Also from the 1980s units such as 19 Squadron were equipped with Rapier and tasked with defending USAF airbases such as RAF Upper Heyford.


title: RAF Regiment

text: In July 2004 it was announced that the role of providing ground-based air defence was to be transferred to the British Army's Royal Artillery and the four Royal Air Force Regiment air defence squadrons were to be disbanded.


title: RAF Regiment

text: In 2011, as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, it was announced that from December 2011, the CBRN role undertaken by the Joint CBRN Regiment, a combined Army/RAF unit, would be transferred to the RAF Regiment (as lead service) under the new Defence CBRN Wing, formed from 26 Squadron, 27 Squadron and 2623 (Auxiliary) Squadron. The army retained involvement through the continued use of the Royal Yeomanry to provide trained battlefield casualty replacements.


title: RAF Regiment

text: In 2016, this decision was reversed with the announcement the CBRN role would be handed back to the British Army in 2020.


title: RAF Regiment

text: In November 2013, The Queen's Colour (63), 1 and 27 Squadron had their new colours presented. However 16, 37 and 48 squadrons were disbanded.


title: RAF Regiment

text: In July 2017, Prince Harry visited RAF Honington on behalf of The Queen to present a new Colour to the RAF Regiment. The new colour was to celebrate the 75th birthday of the formation of the Regiment in 1942.


title: RAF Regiment

text: The RAF Regiment comes under command of 2 Group, Air Command. Its members are organised into seven regular squadrons, - Nos 1, 2, 15, 27, 34, 51 and 63/Queen's Colour Squadron - of which six are field squadrons and 27 is the specialist CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) units under the umbrella of the defence CBRN Wing (No 20 Wing RAF Regiment -see note below), plus six Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF) Regiment (RAuxAF Regt) squadrons. These are intended to counter ground-based threats to overseas/deployed RAF assets and, to this end, are trained as mobile infantry to move on foot, or in helicopters and protected mobility vehicles, to defend airfields and landing sites. The large area surrounding airfields (regularly up to 140 km square) means RAF Regiment rifle flights (platoons) often spend long periods of time deployed on the ground deterring and detecting potential attackers. Leaving aside those injured, seriously or otherwise, five RAF Regiment gunners were killed in Iraq (one in a firefight, three, including a member of the RAuxAF, in a single mortar strike, and one in a road traffic incident) and five were killed in Afghanistan (one due to hostile fire, four due to IEDs, including one 51 year old member of the RAuxAF, the oldest member of the British Armed Forces to die in Afghanistan) with an additional man dying in an accident in Cyprus after leaving Afghanistan. Additionally, over the same period, three Military Crosses have been awarded to RAF Regiment members for conspicuous bravery. Four RAF Regiment personnel were killed by the IRA, all in 1988 and 1989 - one killed by hostile fire in Northern Ireland, the rest by snipers or car bombs in Europe.


title: RAF Regiment

text: The field squadrons are 171 strong making them larger than an infantry company in the British Army but, critically, due to the nature of their structure, a key limitation is that they are only able to operate up to Company/Squadron level and so cannot bring the same 'Mass' to bear of an Infantry Regiment or Battlegroup. Not all personnel on an RAF Regiment squadron are trained gunners but can be involved in specialist support services such as administrators and drivers. A typical RAF Regiment squadron has support elements from the RAF but these personnel do not always deploy on patrols and other combat operations. Formerly, all RAF Regiment personnel were men, as it was British government policy that women could not serve in close combat units. However, the intention was that by the end of 2018, women would be allowed to apply for these roles, with the RAF recruitment website 'looking forward' to female applications for the RAF Regiment. A review in 2017 determined that, although the Regiment was deemed to be the Royal Air Force's infantry, it was more alike to the Royal Armoured Corps in terms of risk. As a result, women will be allowed into the RAF Regiment from September 2017, which is a full year before other infantry units. In January 2020, the first female recruit to complete the 20-week training course passed out of RAF Honington.


title: RAF Regiment

text: In March 2021, it was announced that the regular force is expected to be reduced by 300 personnel by 2023.


title: RAF Regiment

text: In the past the nickname "Rock Ape" has been attributed to their traditional role guarding areas of Gibraltar, but this is not so. The term came into use after an accident in the Western Aden Protectorate in November 1952. Two RAF Regiment officers serving with the Aden Protectorate Levies at Dhala decided to amuse themselves by going out to shoot some of the hamadryas baboons (locally referred to as "rock apes"). The officers drew rifles and split up to hunt the apes. In the semi-darkness one of the officers fired at a moving object in the distance. When he reached the target he discovered he had shot the other officer. After emergency treatment Flight Lieutenant Percy Henry Mason survived to return to service a few months later. When asked by a board of inquiry why he had fired at his friend the officer replied that his target had "looked just like a rock ape" in the half light. The remark soon reverberated around the RAF and it was not long before the term was in general use.


title: Altar server

text: An altar server is a lay assistant to a member of the clergy during a Christian liturgy. An altar server attends to supporting tasks at the altar such as fetching and carrying, ringing the altar bell, helps bring up the gifts, brings up the book, among other things. If young, the server is commonly called an altar boy or altar girl. In some Christian denominations, altar servers are known as acolytes.


title: Altar server

text: While the function of altar server is commonly associated with children, it can be and is carried out by people of any age or dignity.


title: Altar server

text: A according to the "General Instruction of the Roman Missal", "Mass should not be celebrated without a minister, or at least one of the faithful, except for a just and reasonable cause."


title: Altar server

text: As in other churches, altar servers are sometimes called acolytes in the Latin Church. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of Saint Tarcisius as "presumably an acolyte, that is, an altar server". However, within the Latin Church, the term "acolyte" is also used in a more restricted sense, often specified as "instituted acolyte", to mean an adult woman or man who has received the instituted ministry of that name. Acolytes in this narrower sense are not necessarily preparing for ordination as deacons and priests. They are authorized to carry out some functions, in particular that of cleansing the Eucharistic vessels, that are not entrusted to ordinary servers. Those who are to be ordained to the diaconate must be instituted as acolytes at least six months previously. This ministry was long classified in the Latin Church as a minor order, as by the Council of Trent. The "General Instruction of the Roman Missal", which does not use the term "server" and instead speaks of altar servers generically among "other ministers", treats in detail of the functions of the "acolyte", often specifying "instituted acolyte".


title: Altar server

text: The 1983 Code of Canon Law altered the juridical situation: without distinguishing between male and female, it declared: "Lay persons can fulfill the function of lector in liturgical actions by temporary designation. All lay persons can also perform the functions of commentator or cantor, or other functions, according to the norm of law." On 30 June 1992, the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts issued an authentic interpretation of that canon declaring that service of the altar is one of the "other functions" open to lay persons in general, without distinguishing between male and female.


title: Altar server

text: In reference to this authentic interpretation, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments sent on 15 March 1994 a circular letter to presidents of episcopal conferences, clarifying that the canon in question is only of permissive character. It does not require the use of female altar servers. It is thus for each diocesan bishop to decide whether to allow them in his diocese. A later document, from 2001, states that, even if a bishop permits female altar servers, the priest in charge of a church in that diocese is not obliged to recruit them, since nobody, male or female, has a "right" to become an altar server. The document also states that "it will always be very appropriate to follow the noble tradition of having boys serve at the altar".


title: Altar server

text: As priests in charge of churches are not obliged to avail of a diocesan bishop's permission in this matter, those belonging to traditionalist Catholic groups such as the FSSP, Institute of Christ the King, FSSPX and the CMRI and some other priests do not.


title: Altar server

text: In the United States, after the Arlington Diocese's decision to allow them, the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska became the only diocese in the country that did not allow females to be altar servers in 2006, after the only other holdout ended its prohibition on female altar servers.


title: Altar server

text: However, it was joined by a church in the Diocese of Phoenix in August 2011, when it was announced that girls would no longer be allowed to altar serve.


title: Altar server

text: In the absence of instituted acolytes, some of their functions at Mass may be carried out by altar servers.


title: Altar server

text: The vestment common to all ordained and instituted ministers of whatever rank is an alb, which is to be tied at the waist with a cincture unless the alb is made to fit without cincture. Acolytes, readers and other lay ministers (such as altar servers) may wear either an alb or other appropriate attire as determined by the local episcopal conference.


title: Altar server

text: Servers often wear cassock and surplice, with black and red being the most common colors for a server's cassock.


title: Altar server

text: In the Byzantine Rite, altar servers assist the higher clergy during services. They might carry the cross, candles or liturgical fans in processions and entrances; maintain the censer, ensuring it has enough live charcoal, loading it with incense and handing it to the priest or deacon when required; preparing the hot water ("zeon") in time for it to be added to the chalice at the Divine Liturgy; prepare the antidoron for the people to receive after Holy Communion; and any other necessary tasks so that the priest need not be distracted during the service. An altar server is vested in the sticharion only.


title: Altar server

text: In the early Church, before someone could be a server he had to be tonsured. Nowadays, in many places it is not necessary to be tonsured before one is allowed to serve (since the tonsure must be done by a bishop or higher-ranking priest). The rites of "Setting Aside a Taper-bearer" and "Tonsuring a Reader" have now been combined into one service. It is the custom in some traditions, such as the Greek Orthodox or Melkite Catholic, to allow tonsured altar servers to also vest in the orarion, worn crossed over the back like that of a subdeacon but with the ends hanging parallel in front. Among the Russians, however, the orarion is not usually worn by servers, but only by duly ordained subdeacons and deacons, with the exception that laymen who are blessed to perform some of the functions of subdeacons may sometimes be blessed to wear the orar.


title: Altar server

text: Before vesting, the server must fold his sticharion and bring it to the priest for him to bless. The priest blesses and lays his hand on the folded sticharion. The server kisses the priest's hand and the Cross on the vestment, and then withdraws to vest. Any server who has not been tonsured must remove the sticharion when he receives Holy Communion, because communicants receive the Mysteries according to their order within the Church (so tonsured clergy vest while laymen remove their vestments). Before divesting at the end of the service, the server must receive the priest's blessing.


title: Altar server

text: The minimum age varies by local circumstance, but boys must be mature enough to carry out their duties without disrupting the sanctity of the altar. Although it is common in North America for boys to act as altar servers, in some places this practice is virtually unknown and these duties are always carried out by adult men. In other places where altar servers are normally boys, adult men will not vest if called upon to serve. In yet other places, boys are not permitted to serve in the Altar on reaching their teens on the grounds that the young man is no longer innocent enough to serve in the altar.


title: Altar server

text: Altar servers, regardless of age, are subject to all the normal restrictions for those not of higher clerical position. Anyone who is bleeding, or has an open sore, is not permitted to enter the altar. They may not touch the altar table or anything on it under any circumstances, nor the prothesis without a blessing. They may not touch the sacred vessels, the chalice and diskos (paten) at any time. They may not stand directly in front of the altar table or pass between the front of it and the iconostasis, but must cross between the altar and the High Place if they need to move to the opposite side.


title: Altar server

text: In general, women do not serve in the altar except in women's monasteries. In that case they do not receive the clerical tonsure (though they must be tonsured nuns), and do not vest in the sticharion, but wear their normal religious habit for attending services, and serve at a certain distance from the actual altar table. Normally, only older nuns may serve in the altar; but the Hegumenia (Abbess) is permitted to enter even if she is younger. A few parishes have begun to use women as altar servers.


title: Altar server

text: In many Anglican churches, and Lutheran churches, all who serve in the above positions are called acolytes.


title: Altar server

text: In Anglo-Catholic and some Episcopal Churches however, the vast majority of roles associated with an altar server are the same as those in the Catholic Church, and the same titles for each individual role are retained from Catholic tradition – mostly restored during the Oxford Movement in the 19th century.


title: Spelunky

text: Spelunky is a 2008 source-available 2D platform game created by independent developer Derek Yu and released as freeware for Microsoft Windows. It was remade for the Xbox 360 in 2012, with ports of the new version following for various platforms, including back to Microsoft Windows. The player controls a spelunker who explores a series of caves while collecting treasure, saving damsels, fighting enemies, and dodging traps. The caves are procedurally generated, making each run-through of the game unique.


title: Spelunky

text: The first public release was on December 21, 2008. The source code of the Windows version was released on December 25, 2009. An enhanced version for Xbox Live Arcade was released on July 4, 2012. The enhanced version was later released for Windows and PlayStation 3 in August 2013, and for PlayStation 4 on October 7, 2014. The remake was also made available on Xbox One via backward compatibility in December 2015. A fanmade, ChromeOS version of the original game was made as well, titled "Spelunky HTML5". A port for Nintendo Switch was released on August 26, 2021. A sequel, "Spelunky 2", was released in September 2020.


title: Spelunky

text: "Spelunky" was one of the first games to borrow concepts from roguelikes and combine them with real-time side-scrolling platformer elements. Due to its popularity, it was the influence for many later roguelike games. "Spelunky" received critical acclaim for its gameplay, atmosphere and design, though some controls and multiplayer elements polarized critics. Many critics and publications regarded it as one of the greatest video games of all time.


title: Spelunky

text: The player controls an unnamed adventurer, known as the spelunker. The aim of the game is to explore tunnels, gathering as much treasure as possible while avoiding traps and enemies. The spelunker can whip or jump on enemies to defeat them, pick up items that can be thrown to either attack enemies or set off traps, and use a limited supply of bombs and ropes to navigate the caves. Levels are randomly generated and grouped into four increasingly difficult "areas", each with a distinctive set of items, enemies, terrain types and special features. Later areas contain more valuable treasures, secret locations, and items. If the player loses all their hearts or runs into an instant-kill trap, they will have to start from the beginning.


title: Spelunky

text: Enemies include animals like bats, snakes and spiders of varying sizes, other characters, and monsters like yeti, man-eating plants and ghosts. The player can collect many items, mainly gold and jewels which add to the player's score, but also useful objects including bombs, guns, climbing gear and archaeological artifacts. Some of the latter have supernatural abilities, including kapalas, hedjets, crystal skulls and golden ankhs, though many of these special items can only be gained through secret methods, like combining other items together. Some items may be purchased or stolen from shops scattered about the caves, though the shopkeepers become powerful enemies if the player steals from them.


title: Spelunky

text: The player can also encounter damsels in distress trapped in the caves, who can be picked up and carried to an exit. Successfully doing so returns health to the player. It's possible to unlock the damsel as a playable character; gameplay is identical, except that the player encounters spelunkers to rescue. Another unlockable character is the "Tunnel Man", who possesses a mattock instead of a whip.


title: Spelunky

text: The Xbox Live Arcade, as well as the PlayStation Network versions of the game feature local multiplayer (co-op and deathmatch) for up to four players. There are 9 different characters to play as.


title: Spelunky

text: The original "Spelunky" also includes a level editor, in which players can create their own non-random levels to share with others.


title: Spelunky

text: "Spelunky" was created by Derek Yu and released as freeware for Microsoft Windows on December 21, 2008. The source code of the 2008 Windows version was published under a software license permitting noncommercial distribution and modification on December 25, 2009. Based on this source code the game community created a community patch which added support for Mac OS X. Since the game source code became available community members have created many modified versions, or mods, of the original game. Most of these are available via the forums on the website for Derek Yu's video game company, Mossmouth, where a list is maintained of finished mods.


title: Spelunky

text: The first version of "Spelunky" classic was released as freeware on a private space called TIGSource forums where some players were exposed to the game and provided Derek Yu with immediate feedback for the game creating a loop of development where new additions were added to the game in response to player feedback. Shortly after, Derek released a public version of the game which gained greater exposure. Jonathan Blow, developer of "Braid", reached out to Derek concerning releasing the game officially on console platforms which was a huge benefit for indie developers at the time considering the success of other indie games at the time such as Castle Crashers and World of Goo. While looking for programmers to help him on the project he reconnected with longtime friend Andy Hull who offered his services.


title: Spelunky

text: An enhanced remake version for Xbox Live Arcade was released on July 4, 2012. The enhanced edition was also released on PC on August 8, 2013 and for PlayStation 3 on August 27 and 28, 2013.


title: Spelunky

text: "Spelunky" draws from "La-Mulana", "Rick Dangerous", and "Spelunker" for its visual styling, character design, gameplay elements and general mechanics. Essentially a dungeon crawl, it also adds elements from the roguelike genre, including randomly generated levels, a lack of save points, frequent and easy death, and discovery mechanics. It draws equally from the 2D platformer genre, including real-time interactions with enemies. According to Yu, the "Super Mario" series of video games was one of the game's biggest inspirations, especially in "feel and physics." Derek found inspiration in the rogue like genre from the random generation features of each playthrough but found the turn based dungeon crawling elements of typical roguelikes uninteresting. However he found the higher concepts such as universal intractability and the consequences of permadeath much more exciting. By taking these higher concepts and combining them with the features of platform games he was able to develop the initial conception for "Spelunky" using procedural generation.


title: Spelunky

text: Aztec, Balding's Quest, NetHack, Indiana Jones, and Cave Story have also been credited as influences.


title: Spelunky

text: "Spelunky" is notorious for its difficult gameplay as many hazards and enemies are capable of killing the player quickly. Derek found that a punishing gameplay experience caused players to behave in unique ways, forcing the player to think more about their actions and what plans they have to remain alive. Even Edmund McMillen, a notable game developer who created successfully challenging games such as "Super Meat Boy", told him that the starting area’s arrow traps should do less damage, but Derek was adamant that the immediate difficulty was necessary to show players not already familiar with the roguelike structure that death and failure is an expected part of gameplay.


title: Spelunky

text: Destructibility of terrain was also a key element of the level design in Spelunky inspired by the pickaxe’s abilities in another roguelike game called NetHack. Derek found that it made the level progression more lenient as players could create their own paths instead of using the path generated by the level.


title: Spelunky

text: Derek associated his enemy design with the behavior of the ghosts from Pac-Man and how they differed their approaches to interacting with the player but collectively provided a unified and diverse experience.


title: Spelunky

text: "IGN" gave the XBLA version a score of 9.0 and an Editor's Choice award, calling it "a superb 2D platformer that's as easy to hate as it is to love." "GamesRadar" gave the game 5/5, praising its gameplay and constant sense of discovery. GameTrailers gave the game a score of 8.3, praising its design but criticising some control quirks and throwaway multiplayer. "1UP.com" gave the game an A ranking, saying "it offers the same immediate, pick-up-and-play fun of "Geometry Wars", but demands much more than the simple reflexive reactions of your lizard brain."


title: Spelunky

text: "PC Gamer UK" chose the remake of "Spelunky" as its 2013 game of the year. Eurogamer ranked "Spelunky" third on its Games of the Generation list. In 2015, Rock, Paper, Shotgun ranked the original "Spelunky" 1st on its The 50 Best Free Games On PC list. A difficult challenge run of "Spelunky HD", known as an "eggplant run", was reported on by various video game news websites. In 2019, "Spelunky" was ranked 36th on "The Guardian" newspaper's The 50 Best Video Games of the 21st Century list.


title: Spelunky

text: The spelunker, the main character of "Spelunky", is one of several indie game characters who can be unlocked and played in "Super Meat Boy". Referred to as "Spelunky" in "Super Meat Boy", the character has the special power of explosive jumps (referencing the bombs he carries in the original game), and he is exclusive to the Xbox Live Arcade version. He also makes an appearance in "Runner2" as a DLC character.


title: Spelunky

text: "Spelunky" was a commercial success, selling over one million units by 2016. The Steam launch was noted to be particularly successful by Derek Yu, with 61,408 units sold within the first week, and 577,185 units throughout the game's lifetime.


title: Ryan Condal

text: Ryan J. Condal (born ) is an American screenwriter and an executive producer who is a creator and a showrunner for the 2022 TV series "House of the Dragon", a prequel to the TV series "Game of Thrones" (2011–2019). Condal and Carlton Cuse were creators and showrunners for the TV series "Colony" (2016–2018). He was also a screenwriter for the films "Hercules" (2014) and "Rampage" (2018).


title: Ryan Condal

text: Condal was born in in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, in the United States and grew up in Hasbrouck Heights. He graduated from Villanova University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Accountancy degree. After college, he lived on the East Side in Manhattan and worked in the pharmaceutical industry for eight years, first working in marketing then shifting to advertising. While working, he submitted stories to competitions to win fellowships and grants and started placing in competitions. He was able to transfer his job to Los Angeles, where he continued writing. He eventually sold a script titled "Galahad" to The Film Company in early 2008. The film stalled in development hell, and the script ranked in the Top 15 of The Black List for 2008. He was subsequently hired by Universal Pictures to write an adaptation of the Radical Comics 2008 comic book series "Hercules: The Thracian Wars". The studio 20th Century Fox also hired Condal to write a new draft of a screenplay adapting the Oni Press comic book series "Queen & Country". By 2010, Condal helped rewrite a screenplay adapting the epic 17th-century English poem "Paradise Lost" for Legendary Pictures.


title: Ryan Condal

text: By 2012, he was working on a film adaptation of "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, also for Legendary, though by late 2013, screenwriter Alex Litvak was hired to write a new approach. Also in 2012, Condal was hired by CBS Films to write an English-language remake of the 2009 Spanish-language film "Celda 211". He was also hired to write a film titled "Boy Nobody" for Sony Pictures. Condal began collaboration with Carlton Cuse to produce for NBC a television pilot of the comic book series "The Sixth Gun". Condal wrote the pilot, and he and Cuse were executive producers of the pilot. The pilot was green-lighted in 2013, and it was filmed in the US state of New Mexico, but NBC did not pick up the series.


title: Ryan Condal

text: Condal's first official screenwriting credit, shared with Evan Spiliotopoulos, was for the 2014 film "Hercules". Condal had written an initial script for Paramount Pictures, and Spiliotopoulos revised the script. Meanwhile, despite the pilot for "The Sixth Gun" not becoming a TV series, Condal and Carlton Cuse sought to work together again and co-created the project that would become the TV series "Colony" (2016–2018). In 2014, USA Network green-lighted a television pilot. The pilot for "Colony" was picked up and ultimately became a TV series co-produced by Legendary Television and Universal Cable Productions. It premiered on USA Network in January 2016. "Colony" lasted for three seasons, from 2016 to 2018, and was canceled in July 2018 before the third season's finale.


title: Ryan Condal

text: In 2016 before "Colony" premiered, Condal and Cuse were hired to rewrite the script for the film "Rampage" produced under New Line Cinema. They rewrote a draft written by Ryan Engle, and Adam Sztykiel wrote the final revisions. Later in 2016, Condal began writing a screenplay for Warner Bros.'s perpetually-in-development remake of the 1976 science fiction film "Logan's Run", itself based on a book published in 1967. By early 2018, Condal created and wrote "Conan", a potential TV series adapting the character Conan the Barbarian as written by Robert E. Howard, and the series was acquired by Amazon Studios. Condal also submitted a script to Lionsgate that would reboot the "Highlander" film series, a studio effort that was a decade old. Shortly after "Rampage"s release in the second quarter of 2018, Lionsgate hired Condal to write a screenplay adapting the Image Comics series "Analog".


title: Ryan Condal

text: With "A Song of Ice and Fire" author George R. R. Martin, Condal created the HBO TV series "House of the Dragon" that is a prequel to the TV series "Game of Thrones" (2011–2019). Condal, who was familiar with "A Song of Ice and Fire", first met Martin at a book convention in 2005. By 2013, when Condal was working on "The Sixth Gun", he successfully sought a meeting with Martin, and the two developed a friendship. In late 2019, HBO ordered the prequel series to be produced. Condal served as a showrunner with Miguel Sapochnik and also served as an executive producer with Sapochnik, Martin, and Vince Gerardis. "House of the Dragon" premiered in August 2022, and by the end of the month, Sapochnik stepped down as showrunner, leaving Condal as the remaining showrunner for "House of the Dragon". The TV series was renewed for a second season with Condal as the sole showrunner.


title: Nigel Short

text: Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English chess grandmaster, columnist, coach, and commentator, who is the vice-president of FIDE since October 2018. Short earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19, and was ranked third in the world by FIDE from July 1988 to July 1989. In 1993, he became the first English player to play a World Chess Championship match, when he qualified to play Garry Kasparov in the World Chess Championship 1993 in London, where Kasparov won 12½ to 7½.


title: Nigel Short

text: He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1999 Birthday Honours for services to chess.


title: Nigel Short

text: Short was born 1 June 1965 in Leigh, Lancashire. He is the second of three children (all boys) of David and Jean Short. His father was a journalist and his mother was a school secretary. He grew up in Atherton, going to St Philip's Primary School on Bolton Old Road. He studied at the independent Bolton School and Leigh College. He was a member both of Atherton Chess Club, which was founded by his father, and later of Bolton Chess Club, which had initially rejected him (aged seven) for being too young. His parents divorced when he was 13 years old. Short left school at age 17, having completed four O-levels, to focus on chess full-time.


title: Nigel Short

text: Short learned chess at age five from his father. A chess prodigy, Short first attracted significant media attention as a 10-year-old, by defeating Viktor Korchnoi, then ranked No. 2 in the world, in a simultaneous exhibition in London over 31 boards, where Short was the only victor. He was virtually self-taught. In 1977 he became the youngest ever participant in the British Chess Championship by qualifying through the North West Zonal three days before his 12th birthday. In the event itself, he defeated ten-time British champion Jonathan Penrose, and finished with 5/11, an excellent showing for a debutant. Short dominated British youth chess during this period, and earned a Master rating with his showing in the 1977 British finals.


title: Nigel Short

text: Two years later, in the British Championship at Chester, Short tied for first place with John Nunn and Robert Bellin, earning his first International Master norm; Bellin won the title on tiebreak. Later in 1979, Short tied for first place in the World Championship for players under age 16, the World Cadet Championship, at Belfort, France, but lost to Argentinian Marcello Tempone on tiebreak. He became (at the time) the youngest International Master in chess history by scoring 8/15 in the Hastings Premier in 1979/80, breaking Bobby Fischer's record from 1958.


title: Nigel Short

text: Participating in four World Junior Championships (1980–83), Short achieved his best result during his first attempt, when he placed second to Garry Kasparov in 1980 at Dortmund. Short represented England in international team play for the first time at the 1983 European Team finals in Plovdiv. He was awarded the grandmaster title in 1984, aged 19—becoming the youngest grandmaster in the world at the time, being later supplanted by Simen Agdestein.


title: Nigel Short

text: Short's arrival on the World Chess Championship title began in earnest in 1985 when he narrowly qualified from the Biel Interzonal to become Britain's first-ever candidate. He needed a playoff to advance past John van der Wiel and Eugenio Torre for the last berth, after the three had tied in regulation play. But the Montpellier Candidates Tournament brought Short little success, as he scored 7/15 to finish in 10th place. In the next cycle, he again qualified by winning the 1987 Subotica Interzonal with Jon Speelman. The Candidates stage had by this time reverted to its traditional match format: Short defeated Gyula Sax (+2=3) in Saint John, Canada, in 1988, but then unexpectedly lost (−2=3) to Speelman in London.


title: Nigel Short

text: Short's next attempt proved his most successful. He defeated Mikhail Gurevich in the last round of the Manila Interzonal and finished equal third with Viswanathan Anand, behind Vassily Ivanchuk and Boris Gelfand, qualifying him as a Candidate for the third successive time. Meeting Speelman again in the 8/Final, in London, he tied a close match (+2-2=4) before edging his older opponent 1.5-0.5 in the tie-break. The 1/4 final, against Gelfand, in Brussels, was a bloodthirsty affair in which Short eventually prevailed (+4-2=2). In the semifinal, in 1992, the Englishman overcame former World Champion Anatoly Karpov (+4−2=4) in a match that was described as "the end of an era". In the final, in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Short defeated Dutchman Jan Timman (+5−3=5) to earn the right to meet defending World Champion Garry Kasparov. The King walk, perhaps the most famous in recent history, where Nigel Short defeated Jan Timman in Tilburg in 1991, was voted as one of the hundred greatest chess games in a list compiled by FM Graham Burgess, and GMs John Nunn and John Emms.


title: Nigel Short

text: According to Short and Kasparov, the head of the chess world's governing body FIDE, Florencio Campomanes, in breach of FIDE rules, decided the location of the match (Manchester) and the prize fund without consulting them. In her book "Nigel Short: Quest for the Crown" (Cadogan 1993), the British WIM and author Cathy Forbes wrote that at no time in the 1993 bidding process did FIDE actually receive a conforming world championship match bid. In response, Short and Kasparov promptly formed a rival organisation, the Professional Chess Association. The resulting match—sponsored by "The Times" newspaper—was held under the new body's auspices in London from September to October 1993. Kasparov won convincingly (+6−1=13) – the largest margin of victory in a world title contest since Botvinnik defeated Tal in 1961.


title: Nigel Short

text: The unprecedented rebellion organized by Kasparov and Short resulted in a parallel World Championship cycle organized by FIDE, featuring Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman playing a title match later in 1993, which was won by Karpov. Short and Kasparov were both sanctioned by FIDE, and the situation led to enormous controversy and upheaval in the chess world for the next several years.


title: Nigel Short

text: Short won the British Chess Championship in 1984, 1987 and 1998, and the English Championship in 1991 (the only year in which the latter event was held). He was the Commonwealth Champion in 2004 (Mumbai), 2006 (Mumbai) and 2008 (Nagpur). He won the 2006 EU Individual Open Chess Championship in Liverpool and took a share of second place in 2008 when it was held there again. He has finished outright first, or tied for first, in dozens of other international tournaments, including Geneva (1979), Belfort, World Under 16 (1979), the BBC Master Game (1981), Amsterdam OHRA (1982), Baku (1983), Esbjerg (1984), British Rapidplay Chess Championship (1986), Wijk aan Zee (1986, 1987), Reykjavík (1987), Amsterdam VSB (1988, 1991, 1992, 1993), Hastings (1987/88, 1988/89), Pärnu (1996), Groningen (1996), Tallinn/Pärnu (1998), Isle of Man Monarch Assurance 1998, Dhaka United Insurance (1999), Shymkent (1999), Pamplona (1999/2000), Linares Open (2000), Tan Chin Nam Cup, Beijing (2000), Sigeman and Co. Malmö (2002, 2009, 2013 joint first shared with Richárd Rapport and Nils Grandelius), Gibraltar (2003, 2004, 2012), Budapest Hunguest Hotels (2003), Samba Cup, Skanderborg (2003), Taiyuan (2004), the Politiken Cup (2006), Bazna (2008), the Staunton Memorial (2009), Bangkok Chess Club Open (2011, 2012, 2015, 2017), Luanda (2011), 7th Edmonton International (2012), Bunratty (2012, 2016, 2017, 2020), RA Club Ottawa (2012), Pühajärve Rapid Chess Tournament (2012), Spicenet Tanzania Open (2013), PokerStars Isle of Man (2014), Zaw Win Lay Memorial Yangon (2014), the South African Open (2015) the 1st Stars Cup in Anzali (2016), the British Knockout Championship (2016), the Bacolod Negros Open (2017), the Pre-League Blitz Open in Kampala (2018), the GM Nigel Short Blitz in Lagos (2018), and the Moja GM Tournament, in Kimberley, (2022).


title: Nigel Short

text: Short won the 50th edition of the Canadian Open Chess Championship in Ottawa in 2013, edging Canadian Grandmaster Eric Hansen on tiebreak after both finished with unbeaten 7½/9 scores.


title: Nigel Short

text: Arguably Short's finest tournament performance came at the Amsterdam VSB tournament in 1991, where he tied for first place with Valery Salov ahead of both Kasparov and Karpov.


title: Nigel Short

text: In addition to World Championship cycle results already mentioned above, Short has enjoyed other success as a match player, beating US Champion Lev Alburt in Foxborough, Massachusetts in 1985 by the score of 7–1 (+6=2). He has also defeated Utut Adianto (+3=3) in Jakarta 1995, Étienne Bacrot in Albert 2000 (+3−1=2), Hannes Stefánsson in Reykjavík 2002 (+4−1=1), Ehsan Ghaem Maghami in Tehran 2003 (+2=4) Zahar Efimenko in Mukachevo 2009 (+2−1=3) and Hou Yifan in Hoogeveen 2016 (+2-1=3). Short lost to Joel Benjamin by 2½–1½ at London 1983, drew with Eugenio Torre (+1−1=4) in Manila 1988, drew with Timman (3–3) in an exhibition match at Hilversum in 1989, defeated Boris Gulko in extra games in the PCA Candidates' quarterfinals at New York 1994, lost to Gata Kamsky by (5½–1½) in the PCA semi-finals at Linares 1995, and drew with Anish Giri in Amsterdam 2010 (+1-1=2).


title: Nigel Short

text: In a return to Tehran in March 2013, Short played a second match against the Iranian player Ehsan Ghaem Maghami. Billed as "Talking Chess", the contest comprised four games with a classic time control, four games of rapid chess and eight games of blitz. As the classic games progressed, the players gave an intermittent live commentary, aimed at increasing the understanding of the live and television audiences, who could contrast and compare the player's own thoughts and assessments. Short won the classic games (+2=2), the rapid games (+3−1) and the blitz games (+3−2=3).


title: Nigel Short

text: Short made his international team debut in the European Team Chess Championship at age 17 at Plovdiv 1983. He represented England in 17 consecutive Olympiads between 1984 and 2016. Short's main highlights are: team silver medals in the chess Olympiads of Thessaloniki 1984, Dubai 1986 (where he also took gold medal for the best individual performance on board three) and Thessaloniki 1988. He took a team bronze in the Novi Sad Olympiad of 1990, and led England to fourth-place finishes in both 1994 and 1996. He led the English team to victory in the 1997 Euroteams at Pula, and was a member of the bronze winning team in 1992, and of fourth place teams in 1983 and 2001. He was a member of three English teams in the World Team Chess Championships of 1985 (team bronze), 1989 (team bronze), and 1997 (team fourth). His complete log when representing England in major international team events follows.


title: Nigel Short

text: Short was appointed to serve as one of several Vice Presidents of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) in October 2018. He has written chess columns and book reviews for the British newspapers "The Sunday Times", "The Daily Telegraph", the "Daily Mail" and "The Spectator". He wrote for "The Sunday Telegraph" for a decade and for "The Guardian" between 2005 and 19 October 2006. He reported on the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 in San Luis, Argentina, for the ChessBase website. He wrote a column, "Short Stories", for "New in Chess" magazine from January 2011 until December 2018. During the World Chess Championship 2013 he wrote a series of articles for "The Indian Express". In 2014 he began writing a column for the "Financial Times", interviewing Sol Campbell in the first article.


title: Nigel Short

text: He has individually coached young prodigies Pentala Harikrishna, Sergey Karjakin, David Howell and Parimarjan Negi. He worked as national coach of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 2006 to 2007. His first assignment led to their unexpectedly capturing a team bronze medal at the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, in 2006. In the nine chess events at the Asian Indoor Games in Macau 2007, Iran took a silver and two bronze medals.


title: Nigel Short

text: Short was made an honorary Fellow of the then Bolton Institute of Higher Education in 1993, and was admitted to the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Bolton in 2010. In 1999 he was appointed MBE, in recognition of his chess accomplishments. In August 2005, he was unanimously elected secretary general of the Commonwealth Chess Association. He became its president in June 2006, stepping down in January 2008. He was the FIDE delegate for the ECF between 2009 and 2014.


title: Nigel Short

text: During important chess events in recent years, Short is often engaged for commentary as part of live broadcasts on the Internet. Chess historian Edward Winter has named him one of the top five Internet broadcasters.


title: Nigel Short

text: In the Introduction chapter of his book "Winning", published in 2021, Short said "This is my first book, and it has taken a global pandemic for me to write it" and "I must confess that all books with my name on the cover – and with profound apologies to those who bought them – were all ghost-written".


title: Nigel Short

text: In 2001, Short told "The Sunday Telegraph" chess column that he believed he had been secretly playing the reclusive former chess champion Bobby Fischer on the online chess platform Internet Chess Club in speed chess matches. Fischer denied ownership of the account.


title: Nigel Short

text: In January 2007, Short gave an interview to the Indian newspaper "DNA", in which he called for an inquiry to examine allegations that Veselin Topalov cheated during the World Championship in San Luis.


title: Nigel Short

text: In the same "DNA" interview, Short was critical of the role of members of the Appeals Committee at the 2005 and 2006 World Championships, in particular FIDE Vice President Zurab Azmaiparashvili, whom he described as "singularly inappropriate for such work having, by his own admission, cheated in winning the 2003 European Championship." Azmaiparashvili filed a formal complaint to the FIDE Ethics Commission, which convened in July 2007. While dismissing the main complaints against Short, the commission sanctioned him for a minor violation of the FIDE Code of Ethics for his use of the word "dunderhead".


title: Nigel Short

text: In 2015, Short was criticised for saying that men are biologically better suited to chess than women, he also stated that women are better in other areas.


title: Nigel Short

text: Short resides in Greece, and married drama therapist Rhea Argyro Karageorgiou in 1987. The couple have two children. He is an atheist.


title: Tom Corbett

text: Thomas Wingett Corbett Jr. (born June 17, 1949) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 46th governor of Pennsylvania from 2011 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as Attorney General of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2005 to 2011.


title: Tom Corbett

text: Born in Philadelphia, Corbett is a graduate of Lebanon Valley College and St. Mary's University School of Law and served as a captain in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Corbett began his career as an assistant district attorney in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania in 1976. Corbett then joined the U.S. Department of Justice as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, serving from 1980 to 1983, upon entering private practice. In 1988 Corbett was first elected to public office as a Commissioner in the Pittsburgh suburb of Shaler, before serving as the United States Attorney for Western Pennsylvania from 1989 to 1993 in the George H. W. Bush administration.