title: Human genetic variation

text: Jeffrey Long and Rick Kittles give a long critique of the application of "F" to human populations in their 2003 paper "Human Genetic Diversity and the Nonexistence of Biological Races". They find that the figure of 85% is misleading because it implies that all human populations contain on average 85% of all genetic diversity. They argue the underlying statistical model incorrectly assumes equal and independent histories of variation for each large human population. A more realistic approach is to understand that some human groups are parental to other groups and that these groups represent paraphyletic groups to their descent groups. For example, under the recent African origin theory the human population in Africa is paraphyletic to all other human groups because it represents the ancestral group from which all non-African populations derive, but more than that, non-African groups only derive from a small non-representative sample of this African population. This means that all non-African groups are more closely related to each other and to some African groups (probably east Africans) than they are to others, and further that the migration out of Africa represented a genetic bottleneck, with much of the diversity that existed in Africa not being carried out of Africa by the emigrating groups. Under this scenario, human populations do not have equal amounts of local variability, but rather diminished amounts of diversity the further from Africa any population lives. Long and Kittles find that rather than 85% of human genetic diversity existing in all human populations, about 100% of human diversity exists in a single African population, whereas only about 70% of human genetic diversity exists in a population derived from New Guinea. Long and Kittles argued that this still produces a global human population that is genetically homogeneous compared to other mammalian populations.


title: Human genetic variation

text: There is a hypothesis that anatomically modern humans interbred with Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic. In May 2010, the Neanderthal Genome Project presented genetic evidence that interbreeding did likely take place and that a small but significant portion, around 2-4%, of Neanderthal admixture is present in the DNA of modern Eurasians and Oceanians, and nearly absent in sub-Saharan African populations.


title: Human genetic variation

text: Between 4% and 6% of the genome of Melanesians (represented by the Papua New Guinean and Bougainville Islander) are thought to derive from Denisova hominins – a previously unknown species which shares a common origin with Neanderthals. It was possibly introduced during the early migration of the ancestors of Melanesians into Southeast Asia. This history of interaction suggests that Denisovans once ranged widely over eastern Asia.


title: Human genetic variation

text: Thus, Melanesians emerge as the most archaic-admixed population, having Denisovan/Neanderthal-related admixture of ~8%.


title: Human genetic variation

text: In a study published in 2013, Jeffrey Wall from University of California studied whole sequence-genome data and found higher rates of introgression in Asians compared to Europeans. Hammer et al. tested the hypothesis that contemporary African genomes have signatures of gene flow with archaic human ancestors and found evidence of archaic admixture in the genomes of some African groups, suggesting that modest amounts of gene flow were widespread throughout time and space during the evolution of anatomically modern humans.


title: Human genetic variation

text: New data on human genetic variation has reignited the debate about a possible biological basis for categorization of humans into races. Most of the controversy surrounds the question of how to interpret the genetic data and whether conclusions based on it are sound. Some researchers argue that self-identified race can be used as an indicator of geographic ancestry for certain health risks and medications.


title: Human genetic variation

text: Although the genetic differences among human groups are relatively small, these differences in certain genes such as duffy, ABCC11, SLC24A5, called ancestry-informative markers (AIMs) nevertheless can be used to reliably situate many individuals within broad, geographically based groupings. For example, computer analyses of hundreds of polymorphic loci sampled in globally distributed populations have revealed the existence of genetic clustering that roughly is associated with groups that historically have occupied large continental and subcontinental regions (Rosenberg "et al." 2002; Bamshad "et al." 2003).


title: Human genetic variation

text: Some commentators have argued that these patterns of variation provide a biological justification for the use of traditional racial categories. They argue that the continental clusterings correspond roughly with the division of human beings into sub-Saharan Africans; Europeans, Western Asians, Central Asians, Southern Asians and Northern Africans; Eastern Asians, Southeast Asians, Polynesians and Native Americans; and other inhabitants of Oceania (Melanesians, Micronesians & Australian Aborigines) (Risch "et al." 2002). Other observers disagree, saying that the same data undercut traditional notions of racial groups (King and Motulsky 2002; Calafell 2003; Tishkoff and Kidd 2004). They point out, for example, that major populations considered races or subgroups within races do not necessarily form their own clusters.


title: Human genetic variation

text: Racial categories are also undermined by findings that genetic variants which are limited to one region tend to be rare within that region, variants that are common within a region tend to be shared across the globe, and most differences between individuals, whether they come from the same region or different regions, are due to global variants. No genetic variants have been found which are fixed within a continent or major region and found nowhere else.


title: Human genetic variation

text: Furthermore, because human genetic variation is clinal, many individuals affiliate with two or more continental groups. Thus, the genetically based "biogeographical ancestry" assigned to any given person generally will be broadly distributed and will be accompanied by sizable uncertainties (Pfaff "et al." 2004).


title: Human genetic variation

text: In many parts of the world, groups have mixed in such a way that many individuals have relatively recent ancestors from widely separated regions. Although genetic analyses of large numbers of loci can produce estimates of the percentage of a person's ancestors coming from various continental populations (Shriver "et al." 2003; Bamshad "et al." 2004), these estimates may assume a false distinctiveness of the parental populations, since human groups have exchanged mates from local to continental scales throughout history (Cavalli-Sforza "et al." 1994; Hoerder 2002). Even with large numbers of markers, information for estimating admixture proportions of individuals or groups is limited, and estimates typically will have wide confidence intervals (Pfaff "et al." 2004).


title: Human genetic variation

text: Genetic data can be used to infer population structure and assign individuals to groups that often correspond with their self-identified geographical ancestry. Jorde and Wooding (2004) argued that "Analysis of many loci now yields reasonably accurate estimates of genetic similarity among individuals, rather than populations. Clustering of individuals is correlated with geographic origin or ancestry." However, identification by geographic origin may quickly break down when considering historical ancestry shared between individuals back in time.


title: Human genetic variation

text: An analysis of autosomal SNP data from the International HapMap Project (Phase II) and CEPH Human Genome Diversity Panel samples was published in 2009.


title: Human genetic variation

text: The study of 53 populations taken from the HapMap and CEPH data (1138 unrelated individuals) suggested that natural selection may shape the human genome much more slowly than previously thought, with factors such as migration within and among continents more heavily influencing the distribution of genetic variations.


title: Human genetic variation

text: A similar study published in 2010 found strong genome-wide evidence for selection due to changes in ecoregion, diet, and subsistence


title: Human genetic variation

text: particularly in connection with polar ecoregions, with foraging, and with a diet rich in roots and tubers. In a 2016 study, principal component analysis of genome-wide data was capable of recovering previously-known targets for positive selection (without prior definition of populations) as well as a number of new candidate genes.


title: Human genetic variation

text: Forensic anthropologists can assess the ancestry of skeletal remains by analyzing skeletal morphology as well as using genetic and chemical markers, when possible. While these assessments are never certain, the accuracy of skeletal morphology analyses in determining true ancestry has been estimated at 90%.


title: Human genetic variation

text: Gene flow between two populations reduces the average genetic distance between the populations, only totally isolated human populations experience no gene flow and most populations have continuous gene flow with other neighboring populations which create the clinal distribution observed for most genetic variation. When gene flow takes place between well-differentiated genetic populations the result is referred to as "genetic admixture".


title: Human genetic variation

text: Admixture mapping is a technique used to study how genetic variants cause differences in disease rates between population. Recent admixture populations that trace their ancestry to multiple continents are well suited for identifying genes for traits and diseases that differ in prevalence between parental populations. African-American populations have been the focus of numerous population genetic and admixture mapping studies, including studies of complex genetic traits such as white cell count, body-mass index, prostate cancer and renal disease.


title: Human genetic variation

text: An analysis of phenotypic and genetic variation including skin color and socio-economic status was carried out in the population of Cape Verde which has a well documented history of contact between Europeans and Africans. The studies showed that pattern of admixture in this population has been sex-biased and there is a significant interactions between socio economic status and skin color independent of the skin color and ancestry. Another study shows an increased risk of graft-versus-host disease complications after transplantation due to genetic variants in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) and non-HLA proteins.


title: Human genetic variation

text: Differences in allele frequencies contribute to group differences in the incidence of some monogenic diseases, and they may contribute to differences in the incidence of some common diseases. For the monogenic diseases, the frequency of causative alleles usually correlates best with ancestry, whether familial (for example, Ellis–Van Creveld syndrome among the Pennsylvania Amish), ethnic (Tay–Sachs disease among Ashkenazi Jewish populations), or geographical (hemoglobinopathies among people with ancestors who lived in malarial regions). To the extent that ancestry corresponds with racial or ethnic groups or subgroups, the incidence of monogenic diseases can differ between groups categorized by race or ethnicity, and health-care professionals typically take these patterns into account in making diagnoses.


title: Human genetic variation

text: Even with common diseases involving numerous genetic variants and environmental factors, investigators point to evidence suggesting the involvement of differentially distributed alleles with small to moderate effects. Frequently cited examples include hypertension (Douglas "et al." 1996), diabetes (Gower "et al." 2003), obesity (Fernandez "et al." 2003), and prostate cancer (Platz "et al." 2000). However, in none of these cases has allelic variation in a susceptibility gene been shown to account for a significant fraction of the difference in disease prevalence among groups, and the role of genetic factors in generating these differences remains uncertain (Mountain and Risch 2004).


title: Human genetic variation

text: Some other variations on the other hand are beneficial to human, as they prevent certain diseases and increase the chance to adapt to the environment. For example, mutation in CCR5 gene that protects against AIDS. CCR5 gene is absent on the surface of cell due to mutation. Without CCR5 gene on the surface, there is nothing for HIV viruses to grab on and bind into. Therefore, the mutation on CCR5 gene decreases the chance of an individual's risk with AIDS. The mutation in CCR5 is also quite common in certain areas, with more than 14% of the population carry the mutation in Europe and about 6–10% in Asia and North Africa.


title: Human genetic variation

text: Apart from mutations, many genes that may have aided humans in ancient times plague humans today. For example, it is suspected that genes that allow humans to more efficiently process food are those that make people susceptible to obesity and diabetes today.


title: Human genetic variation

text: Neil Risch of Stanford University has proposed that self-identified race/ethnic group could be a valid means of categorization in the US for public health and policy considerations. A 2002 paper by Noah Rosenberg's group makes a similar claim: "The structure of human populations is relevant in various epidemiological contexts. As a result of variation in frequencies of both genetic and nongenetic risk factors, rates of disease and of such phenotypes as adverse drug response vary across populations. Further, information about a patient's population of origin might provide health care practitioners with information about risk when direct causes of disease are unknown." However, in 2018 Noah Rosenberg released a study arguing against genetically essentialist ideas of health disparities between populations stating environmental variants are a more likely cause


title: Human genetic variation

text: Human genome projects are scientific endeavors that determine or study the structure of the human genome. The Human Genome Project was a landmark genome project.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The NBA All-Star Celebrity Game is an annual exhibition basketball game held by the National Basketball Association that takes place during the NBA All-Star Weekend and features retired NBA players, WNBA players, actors, musicians and athletes from sports other than basketball.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The game was first held during the 2002–03 season as part of the NBA All-Star Weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. The NBA All-Star Celebrity Game is played on Friday in the same host city as the NBA All-Star Game. However, the game is not held in the same arena as all the other All-Star Saturday events. Instead, it is held on the NBA Jam Session's practice court.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The game is played with the standard NBA rules; however, there are several rule changes that are used in this game.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The inaugural NBA All-Star Celebrity Game was played on Friday, February 7, 2003 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: Celebrities like Justin Timberlake and Jamie Foxx highlighted this NBA All-Star Celebrity game playing alongside WNBA players, NBA legends, and other celebrities. Former NBA players and current Inside the NBA analysts Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley were the opposing coaches. Kenny Smith and the Jets wound up winning in a tight-knit game 46–43.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2004 McDonald's NBA All-Star Celebrity Game was played on Friday, February 13, 2004 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The NBA All-Star Celebrity Game featured celebrities from Paris Hilton to Bill Walton. Although Richard Jefferson of the Lakers led all scorers with 16 points, the Lakers would lose to the Braves 60–52.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2005 McDonald's NBA All-Star Celebrity Game sponsored by Sprite was played on Friday, February 18, 2005 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: Rapper Nelly, pop rock singer Ryan Cabrera, rapper/actor Ice Cube, and actor Danny Masterson were among some of the celebrities who participated. After playing the first half with the Nuggets, "Entertainment Tonight" correspondent Kevin Frazier played the second half with Team Denver. R&B Singer Brian McKnight scored the game winning basket as he threw in an off-balance shot that sailed in while getting the foul call with 9.9 seconds in the fourth quarter, and he was named the first ever MVP of the NBA All-Star Celebrity game.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2006 McDonald's NBA All-Star Celebrity Game was played on Friday, February 17, 2006, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: Nelly was named MVP with a game-high 14 points and 12 rebounds and hit H-Town's only two three-pointers in a losing effort as the Clutch City Team beat the H-Town Team 37–33.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2007 McDonald's NBA All-Star Celebrity Game Presented by 2K Sports was played on Friday, February 16, 2007 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada. Jamie Foxx was scheduled to play but did not play to perform at a concert later that night. Donald Faison started for the East but was traded to the West team in exchange for no one during the second quarter. During the third quarter New Orleans Saints running back and West player Reggie Bush slightly sprained his right ankle and did not play the rest of the game. However, Access Hollywood correspondent and fellow West teammate Tony Potts scored 14 points and eight rebounds for the West team as he helped the West beat the East 40–21 and was named the game's MVP. During the game, Jazz Bear, the mascot of the Utah Jazz, ESPN reporter Jim Gray, and former NBA player Jerome Williams played a few minutes in the game.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The NBA All-Star Celebrity Game was played on Friday, February 15, 2008 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. A total of 17 celebrities took part in the game. The game was marked by a surprise appearance by Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens in the middle of the second quarter, where he joined and played with the New Orleans team. Owens scored 18 points including a dunk. He was named MVP of the game after helping his team win 51–50. ESPN analyst Ric Bucher was the commissioner for the game.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2009 McDonald's NBA All-Star Celebrity Game was played on Friday, February 13, 2009 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. A total of 17 celebrities took part in the game. Basketball Hall of Famers Magic Johnson and Julius Erving, who combined for 23 NBA All-Star appearances, served as coaches for the celebrity teams. NBA legends, Dominique Wilkins and Clyde Drexler, were joined by former players, Dan Majerle and Rick Fox, in the celebrity team roster. WNBA stars Lisa Leslie and Kara Lawson also participated in the game along with four Harlem Globetrotters players.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: Previous year's MVP, Terrell Owens scored a game-high 17 points and led the East Sunrisers to a 60–57 victory over the West Sunsetters. Owens, an American football star for Dallas Cowboys, was named as the Celebrity Game MVP for the second year in a row. The game was marked by a surprise appearance by another Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman in the middle of the game, where she joined and played with the East Sunrisers. ESPN play-by-play commentator Mike Breen also made a surprise appearance as the referee for the game.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2010 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game presented by Final Fantasy XIII was played on Friday, February 12, 2010 at the Dallas Convention Center in Dallas, Texas. A total of 20 celebrities took part in the game, including several former basketball players. Basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and five-time NBA All-Star Alonzo Mourning, served as coaches for the celebrity teams. Three former NBA players, Robert Horry, Rick Fox and Chris Mullin, along with Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, participated in the game. The West team won 41–37 over the East. "Special K" Daley, one of the four Harlem Globetrotters player that participated in the game, scored game-high 18 points for the West. Actor Michael Rapaport, who scored 4 points, was named as the Celebrity Game MVP for his defense on football player Terrell Owens, the MVP of the last two Celebrity Games. Owens, who played both college basketball and football in Chattanooga, led the East with 10 points. The Globetrotters, joined by "Curly" Neal and "Bucket" Blakes, entertained the crowd during the timeouts with their signature ball-handling tricks.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2011 BBVA Celebrity All-Star Game was played on Friday, February 18 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. The head coaches were Basketball Hall of Famers Bill Walton and Magic Johnson. Their assistants were comedians Ty Burrell and Jason Alexander. Each team featured fake "general managers" who simulated to have chosen the team.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The game's MVP was chosen by voting through text messaging and social media. At the end of the game, Justin Bieber was announced the MVP. Bieber scored eight points (3–11 FG), and had two rebounds and four assists. NBA legend Chris Mullin said of Bieber, "He's got a nice little game... but more importantly, he's got great passion. It looked like he loves the game."


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2012 Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game was played on Friday, February 24, 2012 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Participants in 2012's version of the game include J. Cole, Common, Vinny Guadagnino, Kevin Hart, and Ne-Yo.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: Arne Duncan scored 17 points, and grabbed eight rebounds for the East, but teammate Kevin Hart, who recorded 8 points and 6 assists, was named the game's MVP. Hart was also given two technical fouls and was ejected from the game with about a minute to go in the fourth quarter for protesting a call made against him. The East won the game 86–54. Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard coached for the East team and Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant coached the West team.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2013 Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game was played on Friday, February 15, 2013 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. The game featured 18 players, including Jamaican Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, Entertainment Tonight correspondent Rocsi Diaz, actor Josh Hutcherson, ABC News correspondent John Schriffen, and Kevin Hart. Miami Heat small forward LeBron James and Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant served as the game's head coaches.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: Josh Hutcherson was the leading scorer of the East Team with 11 points which included three 3-pointers. Arne Duncan and Terrence Jenkins were the leading scorers of the West Team with 11 points; teammate Kevin Hart, however, who scored five points, three rebounds, and one assist, was named Celebrity Game MVP for the second successive year. Hart became the second player to win the Most Valuable Player award twice joining Terrell Owens, who won it in 2008 and 2009.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2014 Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game was played on Friday, February 14, 2014 from the Sprint Arena at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The game featured 18 players including comedian/actor and two-time Celebrity Game MVP Kevin Hart, Victoria's Secret model Erin Heatherton, ESPN "Mike & Mike" co-hosts Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg, hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg, Actor Michael B. Jordan ("The Wire"), United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and others. ESPN's "NBA Countdown" co-hosts Bill Simmons and Jalen Rose were the head coaches. Brandon Franklin was a fan who won the Sprint's Assistant Coach for a Day Sweepstakes and he served as assistant coach for the East team.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: Arne Duncan led the way with a celebrity game record of 20 points, and added 11 rebounds, and six assists as the East team beat the West team 60–56. The West's Kevin Hart scored 7 points and 4 assists was once again voted MVP by the fans; however, due to his lackluster play he passed the award to Arne Duncan.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2015 Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game was played on Friday, February 13, 2015. It was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, home of the New York Knicks. This was the first celebrity game played at an NBA arena in the event's history. The game was televised nationally by ESPN.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: This game featured 20 players including Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler, Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan, 2014 Little League World Series female pitcher Mo'ne Davis, WNBA player Skylar Diggins, Paralympic athlete Blake Leeper, NBA hall of famer Chris Mullin, and Memphis Grizzlies owner Robert Pera. This game also featured two All-Star Celebrity Game MVPs; 2010 winner Michael Rapaport and 2012, 2013, and 2014 winner Kevin Hart.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike" hosts Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg coached the West and East teams respectively. The West team assistant coaches were film director Spike Lee and tennis legend John McEnroe. New York Knicks' small forward Carmelo Anthony and former Baylor Bears center Isaiah Austin was the assistant coaches for the East team. Actress and singer Keke Palmer sang the national anthem, and Canadian reggae fusion band Magic! performed at halftime.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: Although the West led by Atlanta Dream point guard Shoni Schimmel with 17 points beat the East 57–51, Kevin Hart of the East who scored 15 points and won the MVP award. This was Hart's fourth MVP award in a row, a record for the Celebrity Game. Hart would then announce his retirement from the annual celebrity game.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2016 NBA Celebrity All-Star Game was played on February 12, 2016 at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The game was a matchup of Team Canada vs. Team USA, coached by Canadian rapper Drake, and 4-time Celebrity Game MVP Kevin Hart, respectively. It featured 21 players, including actors Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Anthony Anderson, O'Shea Jackson, Jr., Joel David Moore, and Tom Cavanagh, and TV hosts Nick Cannon, Terrence Jenkins, and the Property Brothers. The game also included four NBA legends in Chauncey Billups, Muggsy Bogues, Tracy McGrady, and Rick Fox, as well as Elena Delle Donne and Tammy Sutton-Brown of the WNBA.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: Despite the efforts of head coach Kevin Hart who later played in the game in the second half, Team Canada won 74–64 and Win Butler was named MVP of the game.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2017 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game was played on Friday, February 17, 2017 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The game was a matchup of Team East vs. Team West, coached by ESPN SportsCenter hosts Michael Smith and Jemele Hill, respectively. The game featured 23 players, including actors Ansel Elgort, Caleb McLaughlin, & Romeo Miller, and TV host Nick Cannon. The game also includes two NBA legends, Jason Williams, and Baron Davis, as well as Lindsay Whalen and Candace Parker of the WNBA.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The game ended up being the second most lopsided game in Celebrity Game history to date. The East Team's 88 points were the most ever scored by one team, and their 29-point margin of victory was the second largest ever. Even though last year's MVP and the East Team player Win Butler scored 22 points and 11 rebounds, his teammate Brandon Armstrong won the 2017 All-Star Celebrity Game MVP award with 16 points and 15 rebounds.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2018 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game presented by Ruffles was played on Friday, February 16, 2018 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Since the All-Star Weekend was held in Los Angeles, the competition was represented by the two NBA teams in the city with the Los Angeles Lakers (Team Lakers) and the Los Angeles Clippers (Team Clippers) instead of the typical West Vs. East affair like in previous years.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2019 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game presented by Ruffles was played on Friday, February 15, 2019, at the Bojangles' Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Home team featured personnel who either was born, raised, and/or played in North Carolina or South Carolina. Both teams will have one "Hometown Hero" on their roster honoring exemplary citizens who rose to the occasion to help save others in the time of need. Playing for the Home Team is Jason Weinmann, a 47-year-old U.S. Marine who used his own military transport vehicle to rescue New Bern, NC residents stranded during Hurricane Florence in 2018. Playing for the Away Team is James Shaw Jr., an 29-year-old electrical technician who disarmed a gunman armed with an AR-15 style rifle during the Nashville Waffle House shooting in Antioch, Tennessee. The 2019 Celebrity All-Star Game MVP was won by Famous Los, who scored 22 points, 2 rebounds, and 3 assists.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2020 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game presented by Ruffles was played on Friday, February 14, 2020, at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois. The coaches for the 2020 game were First Take analyst Stephen A. Smith and Pardon the Interruption co-host Michael Wilbon. Team Wilbon defeated Team Stephen A. 62–47 and Common took home the MVP award with 10 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: Former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was a late addition to Team Wilbon. Smith also received the first technical for a head coach in Celebrity Game History.


title: NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

text: The 2022 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game presented by Ruffles was played on Friday, February 18, 2022, at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The coaches for the 2022 game was NBA legends Bill Walton and Dominique Wilkins. Team Walton defeated Team Nique 65–51 and Alex Toussaint took home the MVP award with 18 points.


title: Fawn Hall

text: Fawn Hall (born September 15, 1959) is a former secretary to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and had a small role in the Iran-Contra affair by helping North shred confidential documents.


title: Fawn Hall

text: Born in Annandale, Virginia, in 1959, Hall graduated from Annandale High School in 1977. She began working part-time in a clerical position for the United States Navy, beginning in January 1976 while she was in VGA high school. After graduating, she began working full-time for the Navy at the Pentagon.


title: Fawn Hall

text: Hall was detailed from the Navy to work at the National Security Council on February 26, 1983 as Oliver North's secretary. She worked for North until she was fired on November 25, 1986, at the height of the scandal. Hall's mother, Wilma Hall, was secretary to Robert McFarlane, Reagan's national security advisor, North's superior and a major player in the Iran-Contra affair.


title: Fawn Hall

text: In one mishap, Hall transposed the digits of a Swiss bank account number, resulting in a contribution from the Sultan of Brunei to the Contras being credited to a Swiss businessman's bank account instead of the intended account.


title: Fawn Hall

text: In June 1987, Hall, herself, began two days of testimony in front of the United States Congress. She confessed to altering, shredding a large number of documents (so much was destroyed, she said, that the office shredder jammed), and smuggling others in her boots and inside her clothing and giving them to North on November 25, 1986, who was fired after his role in orchestrating potentially illegal aid to the Nicaraguan Contras became public. Among her other testimony was a claim that, "Sometimes you have to go above the law." Journalist Bob Woodward recorded that her legal defense justification was summarized in her words: 'We shred everything'. In 1989, in exchange for her testimony against North for Iran-Contra affair, she was granted immunity from prosecution.


title: Fawn Hall

text: After the Iran-Contra affair broke, Hall briefly went back to work for the Navy in 1987 for less than 6 months. She was invited to the 1987 White House Correspondents' Dinner by journalist Michael Kelly. After her congressional testimony in June 1987, she left government service and signed with the William Morris Agency and unsuccessfully pursued a media career in the Washington, D.C., area. She later moved to Los Angeles, California, and pursued a modeling career for several years. In April 1993, she married Danny Sugerman, former manager of The Doors.


title: Fawn Hall

text: The Sugermans lived in the Hollywood Hills. It was reported that Sugerman introduced Hall to crack cocaine shortly after their marriage. She developed an addiction and suffered a non-lethal overdose in 1994. Afterward, she went into rehab. Sugerman died in 2005 of lung cancer, and in 2007 Hall listed the house for sale for almost $2.5 million.


title: Fawn Hall

text: Since 2012 Hall has lived a quiet life in West Hollywood, working at a bookstore and staying out of the public eye.


title: Simple Service Discovery Protocol

text: The Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) is a network protocol based on the Internet protocol suite for advertisement and discovery of network services and presence information. It accomplishes this without assistance of server-based configuration mechanisms, such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) or Domain Name System (DNS), and without special static configuration of a network host. SSDP is the basis of the discovery protocol of Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and is intended for use in residential or small office environments. It was formally described in an IETF Internet Draft by Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard in 1999. Although the IETF proposal has since expired (April, 2000), SSDP was incorporated into the UPnP protocol stack, and a description of the final implementation is included in UPnP standards documents.


title: Simple Service Discovery Protocol

text: SSDP is a text-based protocol based on HTTPU. It uses UDP as the underlying transport protocol. Services are announced by the hosting system with multicast addressing to a specifically designated IP multicast address at UDP port number 1900. In IPv4, the multicast address is and SSDP over IPv6 uses the address set for all scope ranges indicated by .


title: Simple Service Discovery Protocol

text: Additionally, applications may use the source-specific multicast addresses derived from the local IPv6 routing prefix, with group ID "C" (decimal 12).


title: Simple Service Discovery Protocol

text: SSDP uses the HTTP method "NOTIFY" to announce the establishment or withdrawal of services (presence) information to the multicast group. A client that wishes to discover available services on a network, uses method "M-SEARCH". Responses to such search requests are sent via unicast addressing to the originating address and port number of the multicast request.


title: Simple Service Discovery Protocol

text: Microsoft's IPv6 SSDP implementations in Windows Media Player and Server use the link-local scope address. Microsoft uses port number 2869 for event notification and event subscriptions. However, early implementations of SSDP also used port 5000 for this service.


title: Simple Service Discovery Protocol

text: In 2014 it was discovered that SSDP was being used in DDoS attacks known as an "SSDP reflection attack with amplification". Many devices, including some residential routers, have a vulnerability in the UPnP software that allows an attacker to get replies from port number 1900 to a destination address of their choice. With a botnet of thousands of devices, the attackers can generate sufficient packet rates and occupy bandwidth to saturate links, causing the denial of services. The network company Cloudflare has described this attack as the "Stupidly Simple DDoS Protocol".


title: Simple Service Discovery Protocol

text: Firefox for Android prior to version 79 did not properly validate the schema of the URL received in SSDP and were vulnerable to remote code execution. An attacker on the same network could create a malicious server pretending to be a device supporting casting, but instead of a configuration file it would return an codice_1 URL. Firefox would launch the intent (if it was supported by the device) and thus would execute arbitrary code. This is not a bug with SSDP, just an improper validation performed by Firefox casting service.


title: Ashkenaz

text: Ashkenaz is the first son of Gomer, and a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations. In rabbinic literature, the descendants of Ashkenaz were first associated with the Scythian cultures, then later with the Slavic territories, and, from the 11th century onwards, with Germany and northern Europe, in a manner similar to Tzarfat or Sefarad.


title: Ashkenaz

text: His name is related to the Assyrian "Aškūza" ("Aškuzai, Iškuzai"), the Scythians who expelled the "Gimirri" ("Gimirrāi") from the Armenian highland of the Upper Euphrates area.


title: Ashkenaz

text: In the genealogies of the Hebrew Bible, Ashkenaz (Hebrew: , "’Aškănaz"; ) was a descendant of Noah. He was the first son of Gomer and brother of Riphath and Togarmah (, ), with Gomer being the grandson of Noah through Japheth.


title: Ashkenaz

text: According to , a kingdom of Ashkenaz was to be called together with Ararat and Minni against Babylon, which reads:


title: Ashkenaz

text: Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her [ie. Babylon], call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.


title: Ashkenaz

text: According to the "Encyclopaedia Biblica", "Ashkenaz must have been one of the migratory peoples which in the time of Esar-haddon, burst upon the northern provinces of Asia Minor, and upon Armenia. One branch of this great migration appears to have reached Lake Urumiyeh; for in the revolt which Esar-haddon chastised, the Mannai, who lived to the SW of that lake, sought the help of Ispakai 'of the land of Asguza,' a name (originally perhaps Asgunza) which the skepticism of Dillmann need not hinder us from identifying with Ashkenaz, and from considering as that of a horde from the north, of Indo-Germanic origin, which settled on the south of Lake Urumiyeh."


title: Ashkenaz

text: The Karaite philologist David ben Abraham al-Fāsi, writing around the turn of the millennium, identified Ashkenaz as the ancestor of the Khazars.


title: Ashkenaz

text: In rabbinic literature, the kingdom of Ashkenaz was first associated with the Scythian region, then later with the Slavic territories, and, from the 11th century onwards, with northern Europe and Germany. The region of Ashkenaz was centred on the Rhineland and the Palatinate (notably Worms and Speyer), in what is now the westernmost part of Germany. Its geographic extent did not coincide with the German Christian principalities of the time, and it included northern France.


title: Ashkenaz

text: How the name of Ashkenaz came to be associated in the rabbinic literature with the Rhineland is a subject of speculation.


title: Ashkenaz

text: In rabbinic literature from the 11th century, Ashkenaz was considered the ruler of a kingdom in the North and of the Northern and Germanic people. (See below.)


title: Ashkenaz

text: Sometime in the post Biblical early medieval period, the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe came to be called by the name "Ashkenazim", in conformity with the custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names, Spain being identified as "Sefarad" (), France as "Tsarefat" (), and Bohemia as "Land of Canaan". By the high medieval period, Talmudic commentators like Rashi began to use "Ashkenaz/Eretz Ashkenaz" to designate Germany, earlier known as "Loter", where, especially in the Rhineland communities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz, the most important Jewish communities arose. Rashi uses "leshon Ashkenaz" (Ashkenazi language) to describe the German language, and Byzantium and Syrian Jewish letters referred to the Crusaders as Ashkenazim. Given the close links between the Jewish communities of France and Germany following the Carolingian unification, the term Ashkenazi came to refer to both the Jews of medieval Germany and France. Ashkenazi Jewish culture later spread in the 16th Century into Eastern Europe, where their rite replaced that of existing Jewish communities whom some scholars believe to have been larger in demographics than the Ashkenazi Jews themselves, and then to all parts of the world with the migrations of Jews who identified as "Ashkenazi Jews".


title: Ashkenaz

text: In Armenian tradition, Ashkenaz, along with Togarmah, was considered among the ancestors of the Armenians. Koriun, the earliest Armenian historian, calls the Armenians an "Askanazian (i.e., Ashkenazi) nation". He starts the "Life of Mashtots" with these words:


title: Ashkenaz

text: I had been thinking of the God-given alphabet of the Azkanazian nation and of the land of Armenia—when, in what time, and through what kind of man that new divine gift had been bestowed ...


title: Ashkenaz

text: The sixth son was Tiras from whom were born our very own Ashkenaz [Ask'anaz] and Togarmah [T'orgom] who named the country that he possessed Thrace after himself, as well as Chittim [K'itiim] who brought under his sway the Macedonians. 7. The sons of Tiras were Ashkenaz, from whom descended the Sarmatians, Riphath, whence the Sauromatians [Soramatk'], and Togarmah, who according to Jeremiah subjugated the Ashkenazian army and called it the House of Togarmah; for at first Ashkenaz had named our people after himself in accord with the law of seniority, as we shall explain in its proper place.


title: Ashkenaz

text: In 1498, a monk named Annio da Viterbo published fragments known as "Pseudo-Berossus", now considered a forgery, claiming that Babylonian records had shown that Noah had more sons than the three sons of his listed in the Bible. Specifically, Tuiscon or Tuisto is given as the fourth son of Noah, who had been the first ruler of Scythia and Germany following the dispersion of peoples, with him being succeeded by his son Mannus as the second king.


title: Ashkenaz

text: Later historians (e.g., Johannes Aventinus and Johann Hübner) managed to furnish numerous further details, including the assertion by James Anderson in the early 18th century that this Tuiscon was in fact none other than the biblical Ashkenaz, son of Gomer. James Anderson's 1732 tome "Royal genealogies" reports a significant number of antiquarian or mythographic traditions regarding Askenaz as the first king of ancient Germany, for example the following entry:


title: Ashkenaz

text: <poem>Askenaz, or Askanes, called by Aventinus Tuisco the Giant, and by others Tuisto or Tuizo (whom Aventinus makes the 4th son of Noah, and that he was born after the flood, but without authority) was sent by Noah into Europe, after the flood 131 years, with 20 Captains, and made a settlement near the Tanais, on the West coast of the Euxin sea (by some called Asken from him) and there founded the kingdom of the Germans and the Sarmatians ... when Askenaz himself was 24 years old, for he lived above 200 years, and reigned 176.


title: Ashkenaz

text: In the vocables of Saxony and Hessia, there are some villages of the name Askenaz, and from him the Jews call the Germans Askenaz, but in the Saxonic and Italian, they are called Tuiscones, from Tuisco his other name. In the 25th year of his reign, he partitioned the kingdom into Toparchies, Tetrarchies, and Governments, and brought colonies from diverse parts to increase it. He built the city Duisburg, made a body of laws in verse, and invented letters, which Kadmos later imitated, for the Greek and High Dutch are alike in many words.


title: Ashkenaz

text: The 20 captains or dukes that came with Askenaz are: Sarmata, from whom Sarmatia; Dacus or Danus – Dania or Denmark; Geta from whom the Getae; Gotha from whom the Goths; Tibiscus, people on the river Tibiscus; Mocia – Mysia; Phrygus or Brigus – Phrygia; Thynus – Bithynia; Dalmata – Dalmatia; Jader – Jadera Colonia; Albanus from whom Albania; Zavus – the river Save; Pannus – Pannonia; Salon – the town Sale, Azalus – the Azali; Hister – Istria; Adulas, Dietas, Ibalus – people that of old dwelt between the rivers Oenus and Rhenus; Epirus, from whom Epirus.


title: Ashkenaz

text: Askenaz had a brother called Scytha (say the Germans) the father of the Scythians, for which the Germans have of old been called Scythians too (very justly, for they came mostly from old Scythia) and Germany had several ancient names; for that part next to the Euxin was called Scythia, and the country of the Getes, but the parts east of the Vistule or Weyssel were called Sarmatia Europaea, and westward it was called Gallia, Celtica, Allemania, Francia and Teutonia; for old Germany comprehended the greater part of Europe; and those called Gauls were all old Germans; who by ancient authors were called Celts, Gauls and Galatians, which is confirmed by the historians Strabo and Aventinus, and by Alstedius in his Chronology, p. 201 etc. Askenaz, or Tuisco, after his death, was worshipped as the ambassador and interpreter of the gods, and from thence called the first German Mercury, from Tuitseben to interpret.</poem>


title: Ashkenaz

text: In the 19th century, the German theologian August Wilhelm Knobel again equated Ashkenaz with the Germans, deriving the name of the Aesir from Ashkenaz.


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH), Drag Queen Storytime, Drag Story Time, and Drag Story Hour are children's events first started in 2015 by author and activist Michelle Tea in San Francisco with the goals of promoting reading and diversity. The events, usually geared for children aged 3–11, are hosted by drag queens who read children’s books, and engage in other learning activities in public libraries. The DSH concept is seen as unconventional as the libraries are usually more reserved, and the queens traditionally are associated with bars and nightlife.


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: Jonathan Hamilt, who co-founded the New York chapter as a nonprofit, said that as of June 2019, DSH has 35 U.S. and five international chapters. The program strives to "instill the imagination and play of gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models".


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: Drag Story Hour started in 2015 in San Francisco, and was created by author Michelle Tea, then the executive director of the nonprofit Radar Productions; the first events were organized by Juliàn Delgado Lopera and Virgie Tovar. Tea, who identifies as queer, came up with the idea after attending children's library events with her newborn son and finding them welcoming but heteronormative. She imagined an event that was more inclusive and affirming to LGBTQ families. The first event was held at the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library in the LGBT Castro neighborhood of San Francisco and featured drag queen Persia and was well received. Other early DSH events in San Francisco featured several drag queens of color, including Honey Mahogany, Yves St. Croissant, and Panda Dulce. As of February 2020, there are 50+ official chapters of DSH, spread internationally, as well as other drag artists holding reading events at libraries, schools, bookstores, and museums. In October 2022, the nonprofit organization officially changed its name to Drag Story Hour, to be more inclusive and "reflect the diverse cast of storytellers."


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: In 2017 the New York chapter incorporated as a non-profit and has received funds from the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and two city council members. The funds buy books, some DSH events do book giveaways, go for paying the queens, and training to ensure the queens "talk effectively to children and their parents about gender identity and drag."


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: In 2017 and 2018, the organization had a convicted child sex offender perform in the Houston Public Library. The library had failed to do the background check that is part of its usual process for storytellers. The library apologized and recognized its shortcoming in not properly vetting the performer in question.


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: The books read include children's classics and works featuring LGBT characters and issues. One popular book at DSH is "This Day in June", written by Gayle Pitman and illustrated by Kristyna Litten, which introduces the reader to the idea of an LGBTQ pride parade. Pitman also authored "Sewing the Rainbow", about rainbow flag creator Gilbert Baker, she is also on faculty at Sacramento City College teaching psychology and women and gender studies. She feels it important to teach LGBTQ kids, including children in LGBTQ families, about subjects outside two tropes she's seen: gay and lesbian parents; and gender non-conforming children, like in "10,000 Dresses". Pitman feels that children are smarter than given credit for, and can understand complex issues like intersex bodies, if the explanation is simplified.


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic which had accompanying 'shelter in place' and 'avoid group gatherings' orders, DSHs were among events postponed. Nina West and other drag queens started live-streaming readings. West authored the children’s album "Drag Is Magic", featured "RED: A Crayon Story" by Michael Hall as the first book of the online series. "RED" is about “a crayon who suffers an identity crisis when he is labeled wrong.”


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: DSH events have met with opposition towards the drag queens, and the books being read. An event organizer and performer noted: "Just like an actor can do an R-rated movie and a G-rated kids’ movie, we have different levels of how we entertain and how we can put on our character as well."


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: In a May 2019 "First Things" article and a subsequent debate with David A. French, Sohrab Ahmari argued that drag queen story hours presented a challenge to proponents of "conservative liberalism" who emphasized personal autonomy and opposed "the use of the public power to advance the common good, including in the realm of public morality". Steven Greenhut responded in a "Whittier Daily News" editorial that, although he perceived the story hours to be "bizarre and agenda driven", banning them would be an overreach of governmental power and an attempt to legislate morality. In August 2019, a petition by "LifeSiteNews" and Personhood Alliance, both pro-life activism groups, asked the American Library Association (ALA) to stop promoting the story hours; it gathered nearly 100,000 signatures. The ALA responded by affirming its support for DSH events, stating that it "strongly opposes any effort to limit access to information, ideas and programmes that patrons wish to explore" and "includes a commitment to combating marginalisation and underrepresentation within the communities served by libraries through increased understanding of the effects of historical exclusion."


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: According to progressive news website "ThinkProgress", "it has been a common tactic among the far right to disrupt DSH". In June 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reported that "white nationalist and former U.S. Congressional candidate Paul Nehlen announced on June 19 a plan he called 'PROJECT DOX TRANNY STORYTIME.'" Nehlen urged followers to gather photos and vehicle license plates of DSH participants for doxing, the Internet-based practice of researching and broadcasting private or identifying information (especially personally identifying information) about an individual. The SPLC reported that events such as DSH were "a big draw for far-right extremists". In April 2019, two members of the white nationalist group American Identity Movement (formerly Identity Evropa) dressed as clowns and disrupted a DSH in New Orleans, Louisiana.


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: Nina West, "RuPaul’s Drag Race" season eleven contestant and winner of "Miss Congeniality", and producer of "Drag Is Magic", an EP of kids music about the art form, says she hopes to inspire them to "dream big, be kind, and be their perfect selves." West feels drag is "an opportunity for children to get creative and think outside the boxes us silly adults have crafted for them." Marti Gould Cummings said something similar when a video of them performing "Baby Shark" at a drag brunch went viral. "Anyone who thinks drag isn’t for children is wrong" said Cummings, "Drag is expression, and children are such judgment-free beings; they don’t really care what you’re wearing, just what you’re performing." As of May 2019, the video has been viewed over 806,000 times.


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: West’s responded to critics who question if children are too young to experience drag, saying, "Drag is an opportunity for anyone – including and especially children – to reconsider the masks we are all forced to wear daily.” West added, "Children are inundated with implicit imagery from media about what is 'boy' and what is 'girl.' And I believe that almost all kids are really less concerned about playing with a toy that's supposedly aligned to their gender, and more concerned with playing with toys that speak to them."


title: Drag Queen Story Hour

text: "The New York Times" noted "Laura Edwards-Leeper, a clinical psychologist in Oregon who works with queer and trans kids, said that experimenting with gender expression isn't necessarily linked to being queer or trans." and "It's normal at basically any age for boys to dress up as princesses and girls in male superhero outfits". She argues that what changed is parenting: "When there's no judgment, kids are more likely to feel free to explore".


title: World currency

text: In international finance, a world currency, supranational currency, or global currency is a currency that would be transacted internationally, with no set borders.


title: World currency

text: The first European banknotes were issued in 1661 by Stockholms Banco. Founded by Johan Palmstruch, it was a predecessor of Sweden's central bank Sveriges Riksbank.


title: World currency

text: In the 17th and 18th centuries, the use of silver Spanish dollars or eight-real coins, also known as "pieces of eight" extended from the Spanish territories in the Americas westwards to Asia and eastwards to Europe. This then formed the first worldwide currency. Spain's political supremacy on the world stage, the importance of Spanish commercial routes across the Atlantic and the Pacific, and the coin's quality and purity of silver helped it become internationally accepted for about three centuries. It was legal tender in Spain's Pacific territories of Philippines, Guam and Micronesia, and later in China and other Southeast Asian countries, until the mid-19th century. In the Americas it was legal tender in all of South and Central America (except Brazil) and in the US and Canada until the 19th century. The Spanish dollar was legal tender in the United States until the Coinage Act of 1857. In Europe it was legal tender in the Iberian Peninsula as well as most of Italy including: Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia, in the Franche-Comté (France), and in the Spanish Netherlands. It was also used in other European states including the Austrian Habsburg territories.


title: World currency

text: After Mexican Independence in 1821, the Spanish dollar continued to be used in many parts of the Americas, together with the Mexican Peso from the 1860s onward. The Mexican peso, the US dollar, and the Canadian dollar all trace their origins back to the Spanish dollar. The trace also included the use of the caduceus sign ($), also known as the dollar sign.


title: World currency

text: Before 1944, the world reference currency was the United Kingdom's, sterling. The transition between sterling and United States dollar and its impact for central banks was described recently.


title: World currency

text: In the period following the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944, exchange rates around the world were pegged to the United States dollar, which could be exchanged for a fixed amount of gold. This reinforced the dominance of the US dollar as a global currency.


title: World currency

text: Since the collapse of the fixed exchange rate regime and the gold standard and the institution of floating exchange rates following the Smithsonian Agreement in 1971, most currencies around the world have no longer been pegged to the United States dollar. However, as the United States has the world's largest economy, most international transactions continue to be conducted with the United States dollar, and it has remained the "de facto" world currency. According to Robert Gilpin in "Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order" (2001): "Somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of international financial transactions are denominated in dollars. For decades the dollar has also been the world's principal reserve currency; in 1996, the dollar accounted for approximately two-thirds of the world's foreign exchange reserves", as compared to about one-quarter held in euros (see Reserve Currency).


title: World currency

text: Some of the world's currencies are still pegged to the dollar. Some countries, such as Ecuador, El Salvador, and Panama, have gone even further and eliminated their own currency (see dollarization) in favor of the United States dollar.


title: World currency

text: Only two serious challengers to the status of the United States dollar as a world currency have arisen. During the 1980s, the Japanese yen became increasingly used as an international currency, but that usage diminished with the Japanese recession in the 1990s. More recently, the euro has increasingly competed with the United States dollar in international finance.


title: World currency

text: The euro inherited its status as a major reserve currency from the German mark (DM) and its contribution to official reserves has increased as banks seek to diversify their reserves and trade in the eurozone expands.


title: World currency

text: As with the dollar, some of the world's currencies are pegged against the euro. They are usually Eastern European currencies like the Bulgarian lev, plus several west African currencies like the Cape Verdean escudo and the CFA franc. Other European countries, while not being EU members, have adopted the euro due to currency unions with member states, or by unilaterally superseding their own currencies: Andorra, Monaco, Kosovo, Montenegro, San Marino, and Vatican City.


title: World currency

text: , the euro surpassed the dollar in the combined value of cash in circulation. The value of euro notes in circulation has risen to more than €610 billion, equivalent to US$800 billion at the exchange rates at the time. A 2016 report by the World Trade Organisation shows that the world's energy, food and services trade are made 60% with US dollar and 40% by euro.


title: World currency

text: On 16 March 2009, in connection with the April 2009 G20 summit, Russia called for a supranational reserve currency as part of a reform of the global financial system. In a document containing proposals for the G20 meeting, it suggested that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (or an Ad Hoc Working Group of G20) should be instructed to carry out specific studies to review the following options:


title: World currency

text: On 23 March 2009, Zhou Xiaochuan, then-President of the People's Bank of China, called for a replacement of the US dollar with a different standard using "creative reform of the existing international monetary system towards an international reserve currency," believing it would "significantly reduce the risks of a future crisis and enhance crisis management capability." Zhou suggested that the IMF's special drawing rights (a currency basket then comprising dollars, euros, sterling and yen) could serve as a super-sovereign reserve currency, saying that it would not be easily influenced by the policies of individual countries. Then-US President Barack Obama, however, rejected China's call for a new global currency. He stated, "As far as confidence in the US economy or the dollar, I would just point out that the dollar is extraordinarily strong right now."


title: World currency

text: At the G8 summit in July 2009, Dmitry Medvedev expressed Russia's desire for a new supranational reserve currency by showing off a coin minted with the words "unity in diversity". The coin, an example of a future world currency, emphasized his call for creating a mix of regional currencies as a way to address the global financial crisis.


title: World currency

text: On 30 March 2009, at the second South America-Arab League Summit in Qatar, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez proposed the creation of a petro-currency. It would be backed by the huge oil reserves of oil-producing countries. Chavez's successor, Nicolás Maduro, in 2018 announced the Petro cryptocurrency, but it does not appear to be used as a currency.


title: World currency

text: An alternative definition of a world or global currency refers to a hypothetical single global currency or "supercurrency", as the proposed terra or the DEY (acronym for Dollar Euro Yen), produced and supported by a central bank which is used for "all" transactions around the world, regardless of the nationality of the entities (individuals, corporations, governments, or other organizations) involved in the transaction. No such official currency currently exists, although non-inflationary current funds such as MXV/UDI (Mexican unidad de inversión) have been used as a model for a General Global Currency (GGC), a principal reserved current fund based on a complex relationship between national currencies.


title: World currency

text: Advocates, notably Keynes, of a global currency often argue that such a currency would not suffer from inflation, which, in extreme cases, has had disastrous effects for economies. In addition, many argue that a single global currency would make conducting international business more efficient and would encourage foreign direct investment (FDI).


title: World currency

text: There are many different variations of the idea, including a possibility that it would be administered by a global central bank that would define its own monetary standard or that it would be on the gold standard. Supporters often point to the euro as an example of a supranational currency successfully implemented by a union of nations with disparate languages, cultures, and economies.


title: World currency

text: A limited alternative would be a world reserve currency issued by the International Monetary Fund, as an evolution of the existing special drawing rights and used as reserve assets by all national and regional central banks. On 26 March 2009, a UN panel of expert economists called for a new global currency reserve scheme to replace the current US dollar-based system. The panel's report pointed out that the "greatly expanded SDR (special drawing rights), with regular or cyclically adjusted emissions calibrated to the size of reserve accumulations, could contribute to global stability, economic strength and global equity."


title: World currency

text: Another world currency was proposed to use conceptual currency to aid the transaction between countries. The basic idea is to utilize the balance of trade to cancel out the currency actually needed to trade.


title: World currency

text: In addition to the idea of a single world currency, some evidence suggests the world may evolve multiple global currencies that exchange on a singular market system. The rise of digital global currencies owned by privately held companies or groups such as Ven suggest that multiple global currencies may offer wider formats for trade as they gain strength and wider acceptance.


title: World currency

text: WOCU currency, based on the WOCU synthetic global currency quotation derived from a weighted basket of currencies of fiat currency pairs covering the top 20 economies of the world, is planned to be issued and distributed by Unite Global a centralised platform for global real-time payments and settlement.


title: World currency

text: Some economists argue that a single world currency is unnecessary, because the U.S. dollar is providing many of the benefits of a world currency while avoiding some of the costs However, this de facto situation gives the U.S. government additional power over other countries. If the world does not form an optimum currency area, then it would be economically inefficient for the world to share one currency.


title: World currency

text: In the present world, nations are not able to work together closely enough to be able to produce and support a common currency. There has to be a high level of trust between different countries before a true world currency could be created. A world currency might even undermine national sovereignty of smaller states.


title: World currency

text: The interest rate set by the central bank indirectly determines the interest rate customers must pay on their bank loans. This interest rate affects the rate of interest among individuals, investments, and countries. Lending to the poor involves more risk than lending to the rich. As a result of the larger differences in wealth in different areas of the world, a central bank's ability to set interest rates to make the area prosper will be increasingly compromised, since it places wealthiest regions in conflict with the poorest regions in debt.


title: World currency

text: Usury – the accumulation of interest on loan principal – is prohibited by the texts of some major religions. In Christianity and Judaism, adherents are forbidden to charge interest to other adherents or to the poor (Leviticus 25:35–38; Deuteronomy 23:19). Islam forbids usury, known in Arabic as riba.


title: World currency

text: Some religious adherents who oppose the paying of interest are currently able to use banking facilities in their countries which regulate interest. An example of this is the Islamic banking system, which is characterized by a nation's central bank setting interest rates for most other transactions.


title: Ginevra de' Benci

text: Ginevra de' Benci is a portrait painting by Leonardo da Vinci of the 15th-century Florentine aristocrat Ginevra de' Benci (born ). Exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., it is the only painting by Leonardo on public view in the Americas.


title: Ginevra de' Benci

text: Ginevra de' Benci, a well-known young Florentine woman, is universally considered to be the portrait's sitter. Leonardo painted the portrait in Florence between 1474 and 1478, possibly to commemorate Ginevra's marriage to Luigi di Bernardo Niccolini at the age of 16. More likely, it commemorates the engagement. Commonly, contemporary portraits of females were commissioned for either of two occasions: betrothal or marriage. Wedding portraits traditionally were created in pairs, with the woman on the right, facing left; since this portrait faces right, it more likely represents betrothal.


title: Ginevra de' Benci

text: The juniper bush that surrounds Ginevra's head and fills much of the background, serves more than mere decorative purposes. In Renaissance Italy, the juniper was regarded a symbol of female virtue, while the Italian word for juniper, "ginepro", also makes a play on Ginevra's name.


title: Ginevra de' Benci

text: The imagery and text on the reverse of the panel—a juniper sprig encircled by a wreath of laurel and palm, memorialized by the Latin motto ("Beauty adorns virtue")—further support the identification of the portrait. The phrase is understood as symbolizing the intricate relationship between Ginevra's intellectual and moral virtue on the one hand, and her physical beauty on the other. The sprig of juniper, encircled by laurel and palm, suggests her name. The laurel and palm are in the personal emblem of Bernardo Bembo, a Venetian ambassador to Florence whose platonic relationship with Ginevra is revealed in poems exchanged between them. Infrared examination has revealed Bembo's motto "Virtue and Honor" beneath Ginevra's, making it likely that Bembo was somehow involved in the commission of the portrait.


title: Ginevra de' Benci

text: The portrait is one of the highlights of the National Gallery of Art, and is admired by many for its portrayal of Ginevra's temperament. Ginevra is beautiful, but austere; she has no hint of a smile and her gaze, although forward, seems indifferent to the viewer.


title: Ginevra de' Benci

text: At some point, the bottom of the painting was removed, presumably owing to damage, and Ginevra's arms and hands are thought to have been lost. Using the golden section, Susan Dorothea White has drawn an interpretation of how her arms and hands may have been positioned in the original. The adaptation is based on drawings of hands by Leonardo thought to be studies for this painting.


title: Ginevra de' Benci

text: For an unorthodox view on Ginevra de' Benci see: or the Second Revised Edition of the same book, by Gingko Edizioni, Verona,


title: Ginevra de' Benci

text: For an in depth analysis of the "motions of the mind" (moti mentali) of Ginevra de Benci see Glori C, I moti mentali e la biografia di Ginevra de Benci in https://www.academia.edu/41930706/I_moti_mentali_e_la_biografia_di_Ginevra_Benci_Ritrar_listoria_nel_segno_della_psicoanalisi_e_dellarte_contemporanea


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: In Japan, the national government issues vehicle registration plates for motor vehicles through the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Land Transportation Offices nationwide. However, the local municipality rather than the national government registers certain vehicles with small engine displacements.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: The number on the top line is a vehicle class code which begins with a 0 through 9 to indicate specific vehicle classification. This is signified by the length, width and height of the vehicle as well as engine displacement. Broadly speaking, passenger automobiles with engine displacements at or smaller than 2000 cc receive 5-series plates, while passenger automobiles with engine displacements larger than or more receive 3-series license plates.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: Official vehicles of the Imperial household are exempt from the requirement to display such plates. Official vehicles of the Self-Defense Forces and the foreign diplomats are required to display other plates.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: The plates are installed on both the front and rear of the vehicle, with the rear plate permanently attached to the vehicle with a prefecture seal completely covering one of the attaching plate bolts. The plate is only removed when the vehicle is sold secondhand to someone from a different prefecture, has reached the end of service and has been sold for scrap, or exported. New vehicles are not delivered to the purchaser until the plates have been attached at the dealership.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: Since November 1, 1970, a "jikō-shiki" (字光式) plate has been offered for private vehicles at the owner's request. The green characters on this type of plate are replaced with molded green plastic that can be illuminated from behind the plate. From May 19, 1998, specific numbers can also be requested if the numbers are not already in use. From 2010, these are also available in blue version of vehicle registration plates started in 1973.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: Until 31 December 1974, kei cars had small green and white license plates. After this date, they received medium plates, now in black and yellow to distinguish them from regular cars.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: "Please note that, to avoid any claims of invasion of privacy, the artist of these pictures has deliberately selected an invalid combination of characters."


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: The illustration shows what a plate might look like. The top line contains the name of the issuing office (Tama, shown, is in Tokyo) and a vehicle class code. The bottom line contains a hiragana character and a four-digit serial number divided into two groups of two digits separated by a hyphen. Any leading zeroes are replaced by centered dots.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: Some characters, including ones with a dakuten or a handakuten, be used on any plates, including the yellow and black ones:


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: A license plate in Japan thus follows this format: KK?*H##-## (e.g., 足立500き21-41), where KK is the name of the issuing office in kanji, H is a hiragana, ? is a 5 for vehicles less than 2000 cc and a 3 for vehicles greater than 2000 cc (other numbers are less common—1 for large trucks, 2 for buses, etc.), * is a number from 0 to 99 (pre-1971 license plates will omit this), and # is a number from 0* to 9 (*leading zeroes are replaced by centered dots).


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: Vehicles owned by personnel with the United States military in Japan under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) have a "Y" on white plates, or an "A" on yellow plates, where the hiragana character is normally displayed. Earlier versions of the SOFA license plate displayed the letters "K", "M", "G", "H" and "E". These letters indicated the car was imported into Japan under SOFA and was left-hand drive. Today, cars with an "E" indicate that Japanese sales tax has not been paid and the vehicle will not remain in Japan when the military member departs. Since the 1980s, military commands have discouraged servicemembers assigned to Japan from shipping their vehicles from the U.S. into the country, so this is rarely seen. Military members who retire in Japan use the hiragana "よ". Many opt to purchase second-hand domestic vehicles through used car dealers off-base, and from other servicemembers departing Japan at on-base "lemon lots".


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: Because the Japanese writing system, particularly the "kana", is unique to Japan, standard-issue Japanese license plates are considered unacceptable for international travel. If motorists wish to take their vehicles abroad with them, the Ministry of Transport will issue them with plates with the hiragana and kanji scripts replaced by Roman letters. The hiragana prefix is replaced by a Kunrei-shiki romanization of that character. The kanji prefecture/office code is replaced by a two- or three-letter abbreviation, the first two letters representing the prefecture, the third (if present) representing the office within the prefecture. All the numerical portions of the plate remain the same.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: Using the example given above, the plate (足立50Kき21-41) would then read TKA 50K 21-41 (TKA for Tokyo Adachi).


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: In addition to plate size and color, Japanese plates since 1962 have identified the vehicle type (signified by length, width and height as well as engine displacement) by use of a "vehicle class code" signified by a number on the top line of the plate for all vehicles with three or more wheels.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: The vehicle class code system is not widely understood outside of Japan, and as a result, Japanese vehicles displaying "vanity" Japanese license plates at overseas shows and events are often unwittingly misrepresented.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: In 1967, double digit vehicle codes were introduced for the first time, once all previous possible combinations were used. For example, 3 would become 33, and then 34, 35, etc. This began in October 1967 in the more populous prefectures initially for the most common vehicle classes such as 3 and 5. In April 1971 all vehicle codes become double digit across the country. Double digit codes finally stopped being issued in 1999.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: By the early 1970s, three wheeled passenger cars were no longer in production and some prefectures began to issue the double digit codes 77, 78 and 79 as an 'overflow series' for passenger cars 2000cc and under. This practice stopped in 1999.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: By May 1998, some prefectures were beginning to run out of all possible combinations of double digit vehicle codes for the most common classes (notably 5 and 7) and began issuing triple digit vehicle codes.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Japan

text: In 2006, several new location names, known as numbers, were approved by the MLIT for places that wanted to increase their recognition for purposes such as tourism. Criteria included the need for 100,000 vehicles in the area and the avoidance of an imbalance in the prefecture. The new locations began appearing in 2006 on plates for vehicles registered in certain specific cities, towns and villages in or near the places marked below in green.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: In computer science, thrashing occurs when a computer's virtual memory resources are overused, leading to a constant state of paging and page faults, inhibiting most application-level processing. This causes the performance of the computer to degrade or collapse. The situation can continue indefinitely until either the user closes some running applications or the active processes free up additional virtual memory resources.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: After completing initialization, most programs operate on a small number of code and data pages compared to the total memory the program requires. The pages most frequently accessed are called the working set.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: When the working set is a small percentage of the system's total number of pages, virtual memory systems work most efficiently and an insignificant amount of computing is spent resolving page faults. As the working set grows, resolving page faults remains manageable until the growth reaches a critical point. Then faults go up dramatically and the time spent resolving them overwhelms time spent on the computing the program was written to do. This condition is referred to as thrashing. Thrashing occurs on a program that works with huge data structures, as its large working set causes continual page faults that drastically slow down the system. Satisfying page faults may require freeing pages that will soon have to be re-read from disk.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: The term is also used for various similar phenomena, particularly movement between other levels of the memory hierarchy, where a process progresses slowly because significant time is being spent acquiring resources.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: "Thrashing" is also used in contexts other than virtual memory systems; for example, to describe cache issues in computing or silly window syndrome in networking.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: Virtual memory works by treating a portion of secondary storage such as a computer hard disk as an additional layer of the cache hierarchy. Virtual memory is notable for allowing processes to use more memory than is physically present in main memory and for enabling virtual machines. Operating systems supporting virtual memory assign processes a virtual address space and each process refers to addresses in its execution context by a so-called virtual address. In order to access data such as code or variables at that address, the process must translate the address to a physical address in a process known as virtual address translation. In effect, physical main memory becomes a cache for virtual memory which is in general stored on disk in memory pages.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: Programs are allocated a certain number of pages as needed by the operating system. Active memory pages exist in both RAM and on disk. Inactive pages are removed from the cache and written to disk when the main memory becomes full.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: If processes are utilizing all main memory and need additional memory pages, a cascade of severe cache misses known as page faults will occur, often leading to a noticeable lag in operating system responsiveness. This process together with the futile, repetitive page swapping that occurs are known as "thrashing". This frequently leads to high, runaway CPU utilization that can grind the system to a halt. In modern computers, thrashing may occur in the paging system (if there is not sufficient physical memory or the disk access time is overly long), or in the I/O communications subsystem (especially in conflicts over internal bus access), etc.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: Depending on the configuration and algorithms involved, the throughput and latency of a system may degrade by multiple orders of magnitude. Thrashing is a state in which the CPU performs 'productive' work less, and 'swapping' more. The overall memory access time may increase since the higher level memory is only as fast as the next lower level in the memory hierarchy. The CPU is busy in swapping pages so much that it can not respond to users' programs and interrupts as much as required. Thrashing occurs when there are too many pages in memory, and each page refers to another page. The real memory shortens in capacity to have all the pages in it, so it uses 'virtual memory'. When each page in execution demands that page that is not currently in real memory (RAM) it places some pages on virtual memory and adjusts the required page on RAM. If the CPU is too busy in doing this task, thrashing occurs.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: In virtual memory systems, thrashing may be caused by programs or workloads that present insufficient locality of reference: if the working set of a program or a workload cannot be effectively held within physical memory, then constant data swapping, "i.e.," thrashing, may occur. The term was first used during the tape operating system days to describe the sound the tapes made when data was being rapidly written to and read.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: A worst-case scenario of this sort on the IBM System/370 series mainframe computer could be an execute instruction crossing a page boundary that points to a move instruction itself also crossing a page boundary, itself pointing to a source and a target that each cross page boundaries. The total number of pages thus involved in this particular instruction is eight, and all eight pages must be simultaneously present in memory. If any one of the eight pages can't be swapped in (for example to make room for any of the other pages), the instruction will fault, and every attempt to restart it will fail until all eight pages can be swapped in.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: A system thrashing is often a result of a sudden spike in page demanding from a small number of running programs. Swap-token is a lightweight and dynamic thrashing protection mechanism. The basic idea is to set a token in the system, which is randomly given to a process that has page faults when thrashing happens. The process that has the token is given a privilege to allocate more physical memory pages to build its working set, which is expected to quickly finish its execution and to release the memory pages to other processes. A time stamp is used to handover the token one by one. The first version of swap-token is implemented in Linux. The second version is called preempt swap-token. In this updated swap-token implementation, a priority counter is set for each process to track the number of swap-out pages. The token is always given to the process with a high priority, which has a high number of swap-out pages. The length of the time stamp is not a constant but is determined by the priority: the higher the number of swap-out pages of a process, the longer the time stamp for it will be.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: Thrashing is best known in the context of memory and storage, but analogous phenomena occur for other resources, including:


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: Where main memory is accessed in a pattern that leads to multiple main memory locations competing for the same cache lines, resulting in excessive cache misses. This is most problematic for caches that have low associativity.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: Where the translation lookaside buffer (TLB) acting as a cache for the memory management unit (MMU) which translates virtual addresses to physical addresses is too small for the working set of pages. TLB thrashing can occur even if instruction cache or data cache thrashing are not occurring, because these are cached in different sizes. Instructions and data are cached in small blocks (cache lines), not entire pages, but address lookup is done at the page level. Thus even if the code and data working sets fit into cache, if the working sets are fragmented across many pages, the virtual address working set may not fit into TLB, causing TLB thrashing.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: Frequent garbage collection, due to failure to allocate memory for an object, due to insufficient free memory or insufficient contiguous free memory due to memory fragmentation is referred to as heap thrashing.


title: Thrashing (computer science)

text: A similar phenomenon occurs for processes: when the process working set cannot be coscheduled – so not all interacting processes are scheduled to run at the same time – they experience "process thrashing" due to being repeatedly scheduled and unscheduled, progressing only slowly.


title: Kenichi Matsuyama

text: On April 1, 2011, he married Koyuki Katō, who co-starred with him in "Kamui Gaiden". The couple's first child was born in January 2012, and their second child was born in January 2013 in South Korea. In July 2015, the couple had their third child.


title: Raymond Chandler bibliography

text: Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and lived in the US until he was seven, when his parents separated and his Anglo-Irish mother brought him to live near London; he was educated at Dulwich College from 1900. After working briefly for the British Civil Service, he became a part-time teacher at Dulwich, supplementing his income as a journalist and writer—mostly for "The Westminster Gazette" and "The Academy". His output—consisting largely of poems and essays—was not to his taste, and his biographer Paul Bishop considers the work as "lifeless", while "Contemporary Authors" describes it as "lofty in subject and mawkish in tone". Chandler returned to the US in 1912 where he trained to become an accountant in Los Angeles. In 1917 he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, saw combat in the trenches in France where he was wounded, and was undergoing flight training in the fledgling Royal Air Force when the war ended.


title: Raymond Chandler bibliography

text: Chandler returned to the US in 1919 to rekindle his literary career, but instead took a job with an oil company until he was fired in 1932 following a bout of depression, womanizing and heavy drinking. He began writing crime stories for the pulp magazines "Black Mask", "Detective Fiction Weekly", "The Fortnightly Intruder" and "Dime Detective". Between 1933 and 1941, Chandler wrote 22 short stories. In the next 17 years he wrote only three more. In the mid 1940s, some of the first 22 began appearing in inexpensive paperback and hardcover collections published by Avon Books and World Publishing Co. In 1950, Houghton Mifflin published the hardcover collection "The Simple Art of Murder", containing a dozen stories selected by Chandler and an essay on mystery stories. Eight stories that he had "cannibalized" (his term) while writing his novels were omitted at his request. After Chandler's death, these eight were published in "Killer in the Rain" (1964). Selected stories from "The Simple Art of Murder" were subsequently published in additional paperback and hardcover editions. In 1939, at the behest of the publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Sr., Chandler wrote his first novel, "The Big Sleep", for which he used parts of his short stories "Killer in the Rain" (1935) and "The Curtain" (1936). He went on to write seven novels, all of which featured the character Philip Marlowe.


title: Raymond Chandler bibliography

text: In 1944 Chandler was asked by Paramount Pictures to write the script for the film "Double Indemnity" with Billy Wilder; the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. It was the first of seven scripts Chandler wrote, although two of them were unused. In 1959 Chandler died of pneumonia, brought on by alcoholism. In the aftermath of his death, many of his unpublished writings—including letters, literary criticism and prose and poetry—were released. His biographer, Tom Williams, considers that Chandler's name has become "a touchstone for crime writing, representing not just excellent fiction, but also a type of writing that is at once powerful and beautiful."


title: Raymond Chandler bibliography

text: "The Rose-Leaf Romance" and "Organ Music" are an early short story and an early poem that were included in a collection, but their first printing is unknown.


title: Raymond Chandler bibliography

text: Chandler left an unfinished novel when he died. This was completed by Robert B. Parker and published in 1989 as "Poodle Springs".


title: Raymond Chandler bibliography

text: Many of Chandler's works were used as the basis for films. The following are where he is credited as the writer of the performed script.


title: Golden Legend

text: The Golden Legend (Latin: "Legenda aurea" or "Legenda sanctorum") is a collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in late medieval Europe. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived. It was likely compiled around the years 1259–1266, although the text was added to over the centuries.


title: Golden Legend

text: Initially entitled "Legenda sanctorum" ("Readings of the Saints"), it gained its popularity under the title by which it is best known. It overtook and eclipsed earlier compilations of abridged legendaria, the "Abbreviatio in gestis et miraculis sanctorum" attributed to the Dominican chronicler Jean de Mailly and the "Epilogus in gestis sanctorum" of the Dominican preacher Bartholomew of Trent. When printing was invented in the 1450s, editions appeared quickly, not only in Latin, but also in almost every major European language. Among "incunabula", printed before 1501, "Legenda aurea" was printed in more editions than the Bible and was one of the most widely published books of the Middle Ages. During the height of its popularity the book was so well known that the term "Golden Legend" was sometimes used generally to refer to any collection of stories about the saints. It was one of the first books William Caxton printed in the English language; Caxton's version appeared in 1483 and his translation was reprinted, reaching a ninth edition in 1527.


title: Golden Legend

text: Written in simple, readable Latin, the book was read in its day for its stories. Each chapter is about a different saint or Christian festival. The book is considered the closest thing to an encyclopaedia of medieval saint lore that survives today; as such, it is invaluable to art historians and medievalists who seek to identify saints depicted in art by their deeds and attributes. Its repetitious nature is explained if Jacobus meant to write a compendium of saintly lore for sermons and preaching, not a work of popular entertainment.


title: Golden Legend

text: The book sought to compile traditional lore about saints venerated at the time of its compilation, ordered according to their feast days. Jacobus de Voragine for the most part follows a template for each chapter: etymology of the saint's name, a narrative about their life, a list of miracles performed, and finally a list of citations where the information was found.


title: Golden Legend

text: Each chapter typically begins with an etymology for the saint's name, "often entirely fanciful". An example (in Caxton's translation) shows his method:


title: Golden Legend

text: As a Latin author, Jacobus de Voragine must have known that "Silvester", a relatively common Latin name, simply meant "from the forest". The correct derivation is alluded to in the text, but set out in parallel to fanciful ones that lexicographers would consider quite wide of the mark. Even the "correct" explanations ("silvas", "forest", and the mention of green boughs) are used as the basis for an allegorical interpretation. Jacobus de Voragine's etymologies had different goals from modern etymologies, and cannot be judged by the same standards. Jacobus' etymologies have parallels in Isidore of Seville's "Etymologiae", in which linguistically accurate derivations are set out beside allegorical and figurative explanations.


title: Golden Legend

text: Jacobus de Voragine then moves on to the saint's life, compiled with reference to the readings from the Roman Catholic Church's liturgy commemorating that saint; then embellishes the biography with supernatural tales of incidents involving the saint's life.


title: Golden Legend

text: The chapter "St Pelagius, Pope and the History of the Lombards" begins with the story of St Pelagius, then proceeds to touch upon events surrounding the origin and history of the Lombards in Europe leading up to the 7th century when the story of Muhammad begins. The story then goes on to describe "Magumeth (Mahomet, Muhammad)" as "a false prophet and sorcerer", detailing his early life and travels as a merchant through his marriage to the widow Khadija, and goes on to suggest that his "visions" came as a result of epileptic seizures and the interventions of a renegade Nestorian monk named Sergius. The chapter conveys the medieval Christian understanding of the beliefs of Saracens and other Muslims. It may be because of this long history that early copies of the entire work were sometimes referred to as Historia Lombardica.


title: Golden Legend

text: Many of the stories also conclude with miracle tales and similar wonderlore from accounts of those who called upon that saint for aid or used the saint's relics. Such a tale is told of Saint Agatha; Jacobus da Varagine has pagans in Catania repairing to the relics of St. Agatha to supernaturally repel an eruption of Mount Etna:


title: Golden Legend

text: And for to prove that she had prayed for the salvation of the country, at the beginning of February, the year after her martyrdom, there arose a great fire, and came from the mountain toward the city of Catania and burnt the earth and stones, it was so fervent. Then ran the paynims to the sepulchre of S. Agatha and took the cloth that lay upon her tomb, and held it abroad against the fire, and anon on the ninth day after, which was the day of her feast, ceased the fire as soon as it came to the cloth that they brought from her tomb, showing that our Lord kept the city from the said fire by the merits of S. Agatha.


title: Golden Legend

text: Jacobus carefully lists many of the sources he used to collect his stories, with more than 120 total sources listed; among the three most important are "Historia Ecclesiastica" by Eusebius, "Tripartate History" by Cassiodorus, and "Historia scholastica" by Petrus Comestor.


title: Golden Legend

text: However, scholars have also identified other sources which Jacobus did not himself credit. A substantial portion of Jacobus' text was drawn from two epitomes of collected lives of the saints, both also arranged in the order of the liturgical year, written by members of his Dominican order: one is Jean de Mailly's lengthy "Abbreviatio in gestis et miraculis sanctorum" ("Summary of the Deeds and Miracles of the Saints") and the other is Bartholomew of Trent's "Epilogum in gesta sanctorum" ("Afterword on the Deeds of the Saints"). The many extended parallels to text found in Vincent de Beauvais' "Speculum historiale", the main encyclopedia that was used in the Middle Ages, are attributed by modern scholars to the two authors' common compilation of identical sources, rather than to Jacobus' reading Vincent's encyclopedia. More than 130 more distant sources have been identified for the tales related of the saints in the "Golden Legend", few of which have a nucleus in the New Testament itself; these hagiographic sources include apocryphal texts such as the "Gospel of Nicodemus", and the histories of Gregory of Tours and John Cassian. Many of his stories have no other known source. A typical example of the sort of story related, also involving St. Silvester, shows the saint receiving miraculous instruction from Saint Peter in a vision that enables him to exorcise a dragon: