text: Cruella and the Baduns discover the escape, and a chase ensues through the streets of London, crashing through the filming of Lil' Lightning's new show in the process. Cruella and the Baduns finally corner the puppies in an alley. Patch tries to hold them off while the others escape, but they are undaunted. Luckily, Thunderbolt arrives, having been driven to the scene by Lars, and fakes a heart attack, distracting Cruella and causing her to knock out Jasper and Horace and incapacitate herself. Patch puts the bus into reverse, sending Cruella, the Baduns, and Lightning scrambling into the River Thames. The police have two English mastiffs arrest Lightning, and Cruella, now driven completely insane, is sent to a mental institution. The Radcliffes and Nanny arrive, along with Patch's parents Pongo and Perdita, who thank Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt dismisses himself as just an actor, but says that Patch is "a real, one of a kind wonder-dog".


"101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure" was released direct-to-video on January 21, 2003. Bonus features on the DVD include the behind-the-scenes footage "Making of Dog-umentary", music videos "Try Again" by Will Young and "You're the One" by LMNT, and some games. The film was re-released on DVD on September 16, 2008. It was released on Blu-ray on September 3, 2012 in the United Kingdom, along with the UK Blu-ray release of the original film. Finally, the film was released on Blu-ray on June 9, 2015 in the United States, following the first HD Blu-ray release of its predecessor.


title: 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film received approval rating with an average rating of based on reviews.


title: Sonja Yelich

text: Sonja Yelich () was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1965, into an immigrant family from the region of Dalmatia. She studied literature at the University of Auckland and became a trained teacher.


title: Sonja Yelich

text: Yelich's early poetry was included in "AUP Poets 2" (2002). Her first collection of poems, "Clung" (Auckland University Press, 2004), won the 2005 Jessie Mackay Award for 'Best First Book of Poetry' at the New Zealand Book Awards. Her poems were chosen for the "Best New Zealand Poems" series in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2008. She was also included in "New New Zealand Poets in Performance" (AUP, July 2008), a book that was released with an accompanying CD.


title: Sonja Yelich

text: Yelich's second collection of poetry, "Get Some" (AUP, 2008) was a finalist in the New Zealand Post Book Awards. "Get Some" focuses on an American marine named "Edgar" who is serving in Iraq.


title: Sonja Yelich

text: In 2010 Yelich received a Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship (with Sarah Laing) that allowed her to write full-time in residence at the Sargeson Centre. The Centre is adjacent to the University of Auckland and recipients receive an annual stipend of NZ$40,000.


title: Sonja Yelich

text: As of October 2013, Yelich lives in Auckland with her husband Vic O'Connor. They have four children: daughters Jerry (born 1994), Ella (born 1996, better known as Lorde), India "Indy" (born 1998), and son Angelo (born 2001). In June 2014, the couple became engaged, and they married on 6 May 2017.


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: The Tower of the Swallow, published as The Tower of Swallows in the United States (Polish original title: "Wieża Jaskółki") is the fourth novel in the "Witcher Saga" written by Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski, first published in Poland in 1997. It is a sequel to the third "Witcher" novel "Baptism of Fire" and is followed by the final entry in the series, "The Lady of the Lake".


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: Vysogota, an elderly philosopher living alone in the Pereplut swamp, comes upon an injured Ciri near his retreat and takes her in, caring for her. During her recovery, Ciri recounts the events of the last few months.


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: Ciri was content with life among "the Rats", but hears that a "princess" with her name has been presented in Nilfgaard as the intended bride of the Emperor. Ciri decides to reclaim her birthright and expose the Emperor's lie, but hears that the Rats are being tracked by a notorious bounty hunter, Leo Bonhart. She rushes back to them, but finds that Bonhart has slaughtered them. Bonhart defeats and captures Ciri.


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: Nilfgaard's spymaster, Vattier de Rideaux, wants Ciri captured alive, but the Imperial coroner, Stefan Skellen, secretly hired Bonhart to kill her. Instead of doing so, Bonhart has her fight for her life in a gladiatorial arena, confirming for Bonhart her identity and training as a witcher.


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: Meanwhile, having saved Queen Meve of Rivia, Geralt and his party – the bard Dandelion, Milva the archer, higher vampire Regis, and former Nilfgaardian soldier, Cahir – travel with her army. Geralt seeks a group of druids whom he believes can locate Ciri. During their journey, they learn that a bounty has been placed on their heads by a half-elf and a group of criminals led by a man named Nightingale. Partnering up with the young woman Angoulême, a former member of this group, they decide to ambush the bandits and discover who hired them, who Geralt suspects to be the wizard Vilgefortz. Eventually, they stumble upon the half-elf, named Schirrú. A fight breaks out, in which Cahir is injured, forcing him and Geralt into hiding. During this time, the two reconcile. They reunite with the rest of the party, who have entered Toussaint, where the druids are. They attempt to locate the criminals, but are captured instead by the druids, who kill the criminals before Geralt can question them.


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: Meanwhile, Geralt meets the elven sage Avallac'h, who talks to him about Ithlinne's prophecy of the end of the world. Avallac'h tells Geralt that he must not seek out Ciri, since what is predestined will happen regardless. Geralt remains committed to finding Ciri.


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: The kingdom of Redania's spymaster, Sigismund Dijkstra, travels to the neutral nation of Kovir, seeking financing to rebuild Redania's army in anticipation of a Nilfgaardian invasion. He discovers that the magicians of the newly formed Sorceress' Lodge have begun to establish Kovir as a nation sympathetic to magic, under their control. Sorceresses under the leadership of Phillipa Eilhart gather information on the various nations, and set their own plans in motion. Triss Merigold, a member of the Lodge privately questioning its motives, searches for information on Yennefer of Vengerberg, who is believed to be dead.


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: It is revealed that Yennefer survived her escape from the Lodge and took refuge in Skellige, requesting aid from the jarl, Crach an Craite, to find Vilgefortz. During her time here, she has a vision of Ragh Nar Roog, the end of the world, and is urged by what appears to be the mythical Modron Freya to choose a side. She tracks Vilgefortz to a dangerous part of the sea beyond Skellige, and travels there, but she is captured by him and Schirrú. They torture her, to locate Ciri through their empathic connection. She refuses to break, but inadvertently reveals Geralt's location. Vilgefortz dispatches Schirrú to kill Geralt, explaining the earlier ambush.


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: In Vysogota's lodge, Ciri explains how she escaped. Her account is intercut with an official inquest in Nilfgaard, as a psychic named Kenna is interrogated for charges of treason:


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: After several months in the arena, Bonhart has her viewed by Stefan Skellen, who has come to kill her. With Kenna's help, Skellen's group learn they are being stalked by Rience. Skellen, Rience, and Bonhart meet, with Rience carrying a magical device that allows Vilgefortz to communicate with them. Vilgefortz guesses that Skellen is working for a number of Nilfgaardian nobles, who are angry at their daughters being rejected as the Emperor's bride in favor of the fake Ciri. Skellen admits this, but he himself believes that the Emperor must be overthrown in order to convert Nilfgaard into a democracy.


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: While the three talk, Ciri is freed by a traitor in Skellen's group, and has her magical capabilities restored when Kenna attempts to read her mind. With her powers, Ciri escapes, but her face is wounded by Skellen. Vysogota then reveals that there are agents of Skellen waiting in ambush in nearby towns, and Ciri leaves his hideout. Soon after, Vysogota dies from a heart attack in his shack, praying to the gods to protect Ciri.


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: With a pair of ice skates formerly belonging to Vysogota's daughter, Ciri lures her pursuers onto a frozen lake, then strikes out of the fog. Skellen's band panics and scatters, while Rience is killed. Bonhart hangs back on the shore of the lake, expecting to capture Ciri, but to his shock, the mythical Tower of the Swallow appears out of the fog and Ciri enters, transporting her to an alternate reality. Its' elf-like inhabitants say they have been expecting her.


title: The Tower of the Swallow

text: The novel has been published in Czech (Leonardo, 1998), Russian (AST, 1999), Spanish (Bibliopolis, 2006), Lithuanian (Eridanas, 2006), German (DTV, 2010), Bulgarian (InfoDar, 2010), French (Bragelonne, 2010), Serbian (Čarobna Knjiga, 2013), Finnish (WSOY, 2015), Italian (Editrice Nord, 2015) and Portuguese (WMF Martins Fontes, 2016). An English translation was released in the United States by Orbit (titled "The Tower of Swallows") in May 2016, and in the United Kingdom by Gollancz (titled "The Tower of the Swallow") in 2017. The Polish title refers to a singular swallow, so "The Tower of the Swallow" used by Gollancz is the more accurate translation.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: The new towns in the United Kingdom were planned under the powers of the New Towns Act 1946 and later acts to relocate populations in poor or bombed-out housing following the Second World War. They were developed in three waves. Later developments included the expanded towns: existing towns which were substantially expanded to accommodate what was called the "overspill" population from densely populated areas of deprivation.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: Designated new towns were removed from local authority control and placed under the supervision of a development corporation. These corporations were later disbanded and their assets split between local authorities and, in England, the Commission for New Towns (later English Partnerships).


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: The concept of the "garden city" was first envisaged by Ebenezer Howard in his 1898 book "To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform," as an alternative to the pollution and overcrowding in Britain's growing urban areas. Taking inspiration from the model villages of Port Sunlight and Bournville, he saw garden cities as the "joyous union" of town and country, providing a much better quality of life for those who lived there.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: Two garden cities were built Letchworth, Hertfordshire in 1903, and Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire in 1920.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: The underlying principles of garden cities (including community engagement, well-designed housing, easily-accessible recreational and shopping facilities, and an integrated transport network) were strongly influential in the development of the post-war new towns movement.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: An "overspill estate" is a housing estate planned and built for the housing of excess population in urban areas, both from the natural increase of population and often in order to rehouse people from decaying inner city areas, usually as part of the process of slum clearance. They were created on the outskirts of most large British towns and during most of the 20th century, with new towns being an alternative approach outside London after World War II. The objective of this was to bring more economic activity to these smaller communities, whilst relieving pressure on overpopulated areas of major cities.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: The first wave of independent new towns was intended to help alleviate the housing shortages following the Second World War, beyond the green belt around London. A couple of sites in County Durham were also designated. These designations were made under the New Towns Act 1946.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: The second wave (1961–64) was likewise initiated to alleviate housing shortfalls. Two of the locations below (Redditch and Dawley New Townlater renamed Telford) are situated near the West Midlands conurbation and were designed for Birmingham and Wolverhampton overspill; another two (Runcorn and Skelmersdale) are near Merseyside and were intended as overspill for the city of Liverpool.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: The third and last wave of new towns (1967–70) allowed for additional growth chiefly further north from the previous London new towns, with a few developments between Liverpool and Manchester, namely "Central Lancashire New Town" and Warrington. Dawley New Town was redesignated as Telford New Town, with a much larger area, as overspill for Birmingham and nearby towns including Wolverhampton. With a target population of 250,000 and a planning brief to become the first "new city", the largest of these was Milton Keynes at the northern edge of the South East, about halfway between Birmingham and London. In the East Midlands, the existing town of Northampton was expanded. In East Anglia, the city of Peterborough was designated as a new town to accommodate overspill from London.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: Six new towns in Scotland were designated between 1947 and 1973, mostly for the overspill population of Glasgow.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: The New Towns Act (Northern Ireland) 1965 gave the Minister of Development of the Government of Northern Ireland the power to designate an area as a new town, and to appoint a development commission. An order could be made to transfer municipal functions of all or part of any existing local authorities to the commission, which took the additional title of urban district council, although unelected. This was done in the case of Craigavon.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: The New Towns Amendment Act 1968 was passed to enable the establishment of the Londonderry Development Commission to replace the County Borough and rural district of Londonderry, and implement the Londonderry Area Plan. On 3 April 1969, the development commission took over the municipal functions of the two councils, the area becoming Londonderry Urban District.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: During the same period as the new town scheme, several other towns underwent local authority led expansion as 'overspills' to larger urban areas, but were not officially designated as new towns, among these were:


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: No new towns have been formally designated since 1970, but several new large scale developments have been founded:


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: Poundbury is an experimental new town or urban extension on the outskirts of Dorchester. The development is built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. It is built according to the principles of (then) Prince Charles, who was known for holding strong views challenging the post-war trends in town planning that were suburban in character.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: On 13 May 2007, chancellor Gordon Brown, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom the following month, announced he would designate 10 new "eco-towns" to ease demand for low-cost housing. The towns, around 20,000 population each—at least 5,000 homes—are planned to be "carbon neutral" and will use locally generated sustainable-energy sources. Only one site was identified in the announcement: the former Oakington Barracks in Cambridgeshire—the already planned Northstowe development. Local councils will be invited to provide sites for the remaining four towns.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: The Town and Country Planning Association is advising the government on the criteria and best practice in developing the eco-towns by producing a series of "worksheets" for developers.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: In September 2014 the CBI called for all political parties to commit to building 10 new towns and garden cities to get to grips with the country's housing shortage.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: In July 2002 the Select Committee on Transport, Local Government and the Regions assessed the effectiveness of the new towns and concluded that:


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: While many New Towns have been economically successful, most now are experiencing major problems. Their design is inappropriate to the 21st Century. Their infrastructure is ageing at the same rate and many have social and economic problems. Many are small local authorities which do not have the capacity to resolve their problems. Their attempts to manage the towns are complicated by the role played by English Partnerships which still has major landholdings and other outstanding interests.


title: New towns in the United Kingdom

text: The new towns are no longer new and many of the quickly built houses have reached the end of their design life. The masterplans dictated low density development with large amounts of open space, and housing segregated from jobs, shopping and business services. These created a car dependency and are now not considered sustainable. Low density developments are expensive to maintain. Roads and sewers are in need of expensive upgrades.


title: Conan (dog)

text: Conan is a special operations military working dog in the United States 1st SFOD-D (Delta Force). He is a male Belgian Malinois and was named after late-night talk show host and comedian Conan O'Brien. He is a veteran canine of the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM), and served in 50 combat missions.


title: Conan (dog)

text: Conan took part in the Barisha raid in Syria, which resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the then-leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS) terror organization, on October 27, 2019. He chased Baghdadi down into a tunnel where the terror leader detonated his suicide vest. General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. stated on October 30, 2019 that the dog was injured during the raid due to exposed live electric wires, but had recovered and returned to field duty.


title: Conan (dog)

text: President Donald Trump posted the declassified picture of Conan on Twitter and called him a "wonderful dog" in the tweet. His name was classified at the time, but it was revealed as Conan to "Newsweek". A few days later, Trump also referred to the dog as Conan. Trump later re-tweeted a fake image (photoshopped by "The Daily Wire") of himself awarding Conan a dog version of a Medal of Honor.


title: Conan (dog)

text: After quickly garnering mainstream attention following the raid, merchandising with Conan's depiction and the slogan "Zero Bark Thirty" appeared online, a reference to "Zero Dark Thirty", a film about the 2011 special operations raid targeting Osama bin Laden.


title: Conan (dog)

text: There were conflicting reports on Conan's sex following his reveal to the public. "Newsweek" initially reported that the dog is female, but the magazine later issued a correction which said Conan is male. RTL Nieuws reported that Conan was trained by a company in Best, Netherlands before being transported to the United States, and a man identified as his former owner and trainer was quoted as saying: "It is a five year old male. It is a very good dog."


title: Conan (dog)

text: On November 25, 2019, a White House official said the dog is female before issuing a correction, saying Conan is in fact male. The next day, defense officials confirmed with "Stars and Stripes" that Conan was male. At the same time, a U.S. defense official disputed this and told ABC News that Conan is female, but ABC's report was retracted a short time later with multiple officials saying they had verified that Conan is male.


title: Conan (dog)

text: The United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has contested a Freedom of Information Act request for records related to Conan's sex. SOCOM states that it can "neither confirm nor deny the existence or non existence of records," but if records exist, they would be a national security secret.


title: Conan (dog)

text: On November 25, 2019, Conan made a surprise appearance with a handler at the White House. The handler used dog commands in German during the meeting. President Donald Trump introduced Conan to reporters in the White House Rose Garden, saying, "So this is Conan. Right now, probably the world's most famous dog," going on to call him a "tough cookie" and "actually incredible" and "The Ultimate drug sniffer" and "Ultimate fighter". First Lady Melania Trump and Vice President Mike Pence attended the event as well, with Pence petting Conan and calling him a "hero" during brief remarks. President Trump stated that along with honoring Conan with a medal and a plaque, he met with some of the other special operations soldiers that participated in the Baghdadi raid, who were not identified for national security reasons as they were engaged in active duty.


title: Bagna càuda

text: Bagna càuda (, meaning "hot dip", "hot gravy") is a hot dish made from garlic and anchovies, originating in Piedmont, Italy, during the 16th century. The dish is served and consumed in a manner similar to fondue, sometimes as an appetizer, with raw or cooked vegetables typically used to dip into it.


title: Bagna càuda

text: Bagna càuda is a hot dish and dipping sauce in Italian cuisine that is used to dip vegetables in. It is prepared using olive oil, chopped anchovies and garlic. Additional ingredients sometimes used include truffle and salt. Raw or cooked vegetables are dipped into the sauce, which is typically kept hot on a serving table using a heat source such as a candle or burner.


title: Bagna càuda

text: Bagna càuda originates from and has been described as "unique to" Piedmont, a Northwest Italy region, and has been a part of Piedmontese cuisine since the 16th century. In Piedmont, cardoon (edible thistle) is often dipped in the sauce. Additional foods used to dip into it include cabbage, celery, carrots, Jerusalem artichoke, peppers, fennel and breads. It is sometimes served as an appetizer.


title: Bagna càuda

text: It is also a popular winter dish in central Argentina and prevalent in Clinton, Indiana, Rock Springs, Wyoming, and Benld, Illinois, United States, as there were many northern Italian immigrants to those places. Bagna càuda was also prepared in the coal-mining community of Madison County, Illinois (including Collinsville, Edwardsville, and Maryville, Illinois), due to the numerous Italian immigrants that came there to work in the mines.


title: Bagna càuda

text: In the past walnut or hazelnut oil would have been used. Sometimes, truffles are used in versions around Alba, Piedmont, Italy. It is traditionally eaten during the autumn and winter months, particularly at Christmas and New Year's, and must be served hot, as the name suggests.


title: Bagna càuda

text: "Pinzimonio" is a similar dipping sauce prepared using olive oil, wine vinegar, salt and pepper that is served with raw vegetables. It is typically served cold.


title: Internet exchange point

text: Internet exchange points (IXes or IXPs) are common grounds of IP networking, allowing participant Internet service providers (ISPs) to exchange data destined for their respective networks. IXPs are generally located at places with preexisting connections to multiple distinct networks, "i.e.", datacenters, and operate physical infrastructure (switches) to connect their participants. Organizationally, most IXPs are each independent not-for-profit associations of their constituent participating networks (that is, the set of ISPs which participate at that IXP). The primary alternative to IXPs is private peering, where ISPs directly connect their networks to each other.


title: Internet exchange point

text: IXPs reduce the portion of an ISP's traffic that must be delivered via their upstream transit providers, thereby reducing the average per-bit delivery cost of their service. Furthermore, the increased number of paths available through the IXP improves routing efficiency (by allowing routers to select shorter paths) and fault-tolerance. IXPs exhibit the characteristics of the network effect.


title: Internet exchange point

text: Internet exchange points began as Network Access Points or NAPs, a key component of Al Gore's National Information Infrastructure (NII) plan, which defined the transition from the US Government-paid-for NSFNET era (when Internet access was government sponsored and commercial traffic was prohibited) to the commercial Internet of today. The four Network Access Points (NAPs) were defined as transitional data communications facilities at which Network Service Providers (NSPs) would exchange traffic, in replacement of the publicly financed NSFNET Internet backbone. The National Science Foundation let contracts supporting the four NAPs, one to MFS Datanet for the preexisting MAE-East in Washington, D.C., and three others to Sprint, Ameritech, and Pacific Bell, for new facilities of various designs and technologies, in New York (actually Pennsauken, New Jersey), Chicago, and California, respectively. As a transitional strategy, they were effective, providing a bridge from the Internet's beginnings as a government-funded academic experiment, to the modern Internet of many private-sector competitors collaborating to form a network-of-networks, transporting Internet bandwidth from its points-of-production at Internet Exchange Points to its sites-of-consumption at users' locations.


title: Internet exchange point

text: This transition was particularly timely, coming hard on the heels of the ANS CO+RE controversy, which had disturbed the nascent industry, led to congressional hearings, resulted in a law allowing NSF to promote and use networks that carry commercial traffic, prompted a review of the administration of NSFNET by the NSF's Inspector General (no serious problems were found), and caused commercial operators to realize that they needed to be able to communicate with each other independent of third parties or at neutral exchange points.


title: Internet exchange point

text: Although the three telco-operated NAPs faded into obscurity relatively quickly after the expiration of the federal subsidies, MAE-East, thrived for fifteen more years, and its west-coast counterpart MAE-West continued for more than twenty years.


title: Internet exchange point

text: Today, the phrase "Network Access Point" is of historical interest only, since the four transitional NAPs disappeared long ago, replaced by hundreds of modern Internet Exchange Points, though in Spanish-speaking Latin America, the phrase lives on to a small degree, among those who conflate the NAPs with IXPs.


title: Internet exchange point

text: The primary purpose of an IXP is to allow networks to interconnect directly, via the exchange, rather than going through one or more third-party networks. The primary advantages of direct interconnection are cost, latency, and bandwidth.


title: Internet exchange point

text: Traffic passing through an exchange is typically not billed by any party, whereas traffic to an ISP's upstream provider is. The direct interconnection, often located in the same city as both networks, avoids the need for data to travel to other cities—and potentially on other continents—to get from one network to another, thus reducing latency.


title: Internet exchange point

text: The third advantage, speed, is most noticeable in areas that have poorly developed long-distance connections. ISPs in regions with poor connections might have to pay between 10 or 100 times more for data transport than ISPs in North America, Europe, or Japan. Therefore, these ISPs typically have slower, more limited connections to the rest of the Internet. However, a connection to a local IXP may allow them to transfer data without limit, and without cost, vastly improving the bandwidth between customers of such adjacent ISPs.


title: Internet exchange point

text: A typical IXP consists of one or more network switches, to which each of the participating ISPs connect. Prior to the existence of switches, IXPs typically employed fiber-optic inter-repeater link (FOIRL) hubs or Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) rings, migrating to Ethernet and FDDI switches as those became available in 1993 and 1994.


title: Internet exchange point

text: Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switches were briefly used at a few IXPs in the late 1990s, accounting for approximately 4% of the market at their peak, and there was an attempt by Stockholm-based IXP NetNod to use SRP/DPT, but Ethernet has prevailed, accounting for more than 95% of all existing Internet exchange switch fabrics. All Ethernet port speeds are to be found at modern IXPs, ranging from 10 Mb/second ports in use in small developing-country IXPs, to ganged 10 Gb/second ports in major centers like Seoul, New York, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Palo Alto. Ports with 100 Gb/second are available, for example, at the AMS-IX in Amsterdam and at the DE-CIX in Frankfurt.


title: Internet exchange point

text: The technical and business logistics of traffic exchange between ISPs is governed by bilateral or multilateral peering agreements. Under such agreements, traffic is exchanged without compensation. When an IXP incurs operating costs, they are typically shared among all of its participants.


title: Internet exchange point

text: At the more expensive exchanges, participants pay a monthly or annual fee, usually determined by the speed of the port or ports which they are using. Fees based on the volume of traffic are less common because they provide a counterincentive to the growth of the exchange. Some exchanges charge a setup fee to offset the costs of the switch port and any media adaptors (gigabit interface converters, small form-factor pluggable transceivers, XFP transceivers, XENPAKs, etc.) that the new participant requires.


title: Internet exchange point

text: Internet traffic exchange between two participants on an IXP is facilitated by Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing configurations between them. They choose to announce routes via the peering relationship – either routes to their own addresses or routes to addresses of other ISPs that they connect to, possibly via other mechanisms. The other party to the peering can then apply route filtering, where it chooses to accept those routes, and route traffic accordingly, or to ignore those routes, and use other routes to reach those addresses.


title: Internet exchange point

text: In many cases, an ISP will have both a direct link to another ISP and accept a route (normally ignored) to the other ISP through the IXP; if the direct link fails, traffic will then start flowing over the IXP. In this way, the IXP acts as a backup link.


title: Internet exchange point

text: When these conditions are met, and a contractual structure exists to create a market to purchase network services, the IXP is sometimes called a "transit exchange". The Vancouver Transit Exchange, for example, is described as a "shopping mall" of service providers at one central location, making it easy to switch providers, "as simple as getting a VLAN to a new provider". The VTE is run by BCNET, a public entity.


title: Internet exchange point

text: Advocates of green broadband schemes and more competitive telecommunications services often advocate aggressive expansion of transit exchanges into every municipal area network so that competing service providers can place such equipment as video on demand hosts and PSTN switches to serve existing phone equipment, without being answerable to any monopoly incumbent.


title: Internet exchange point

text: Since the dissolution of the Internet backbone and transition to the IXP system in 1992, the measurement of Internet traffic exchanged at IXPs has been the primary source of data about Internet bandwidth production: how it grows over time and where it is produced. Standardized measures of bandwidth production have been in place since 1996 and have been refined over time.


title: Pardon my French

text: "Pardon my French" or "Excuse my French" is a common English language phrase ostensibly disguising profanity as words from the French language. The phrase is uttered in an attempt to excuse the user of profanity, swearing, or curses in the presence of those offended by it, under the pretense of the words being part of a foreign language. Also derived from the attempt to disguise the French term for "the seal"-"le phoque"


title: Pardon my French

text: At least one source suggests that the phrase "derives from a literal usage of the exclamation. In the 19th century, when English people used French expressions in conversation they often apologized for it – presumably because many of their listeners (then as now) wouldn't be familiar with the language". The definition cites an example from "The Lady's Magazine", 1830:


title: Pardon my French

text: The phrase has been used in broadcast television and family films where less offensive words are preceded by "pardon my French" to intensify their effect without violating censorship or rating guidelines. An example is in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"; Cameron Frye says, "Pardon my French, but you’re an asshole" on a phone call with Edward Rooney.


title: Pardon my French

text: Incidentally, several expressions are used by both the English and the French to describe the same culturally unacceptable habit, but attributing the habit to the other people:


title: Envy (2004 film)

text: Envy is a 2004 American dark comedy buddy film directed by Barry Levinson. It stars Ben Stiller and Jack Black. The film was a critical and commercial failure.


title: Envy (2004 film)

text: Tim Dingman and Nick Vanderpark are best friends, neighbors and co-workers at 3M. Nick is constantly coming up with crazy ideas to get rich quick, and when he invents Vapoorize, a spray that instantly disintegrates dog feces, he actually succeeds. As Nick's wealth continues to grow, so does Tim's envy, as he had initially scoffed at the idea and squandered an opportunity to invest and become mega-rich himself. Nick is blissfully unaware of Tim's envy, and his generosity only serves to make Tim more envious of him. Meanwhile, Nick's wife Natalie decides to run for state senate but is continually plagued by questions about her husband's product.


title: Envy (2004 film)

text: After Tim's wife Debbie and children temporarily leave and he is fired from 3M, Tim's envy reaches new levels. In a bar, he meets J-Man, a bizarre drifter, who lends a sympathetic ear and offers advice. After a drunken night out, Tim accidentally shoots Nick's beloved horse, Corky, with a bow and arrow, apparently killing him, and buries the horse in his abandoned swimming pool.


title: Envy (2004 film)

text: Nick offers a $50,000 reward for the return of his horse. J-Man and Tim concoct a plan whereby J-Man would discover the horse and claim the reward, splitting the proceeds. However a series of unfortunate events, including Tim's family getting holed up in J-Man's mountain cabin, leads to the horse's carcass being lost in a rain storm.


title: Envy (2004 film)

text: Nick reveals to Tim that he is going to Rome for the debut of Vapoorize there, and gives Tim the opportunity to join him in a 50/50 partnership, which he accepts. J-Man finds out that Tim is now rich, and, feeling betrayed, tries to blackmail him. After confessing to his wife, now enjoying her rich lifestyle, Tim agrees to pay J-Man; however, J-Man ups his demands and asks to be Tim's partner. Tim accidentally shoots him in the back with an arrow and J-Man, believing that Tim has tried to kill him, backs down in fear.


title: Envy (2004 film)

text: Tim eventually confesses all to Nick who forgives him for his jealousy and agrees to continue with the partnership; however, at a press conference for Natalie's electoral campaign (where she promises to withdraw her candidacy if it is proven Vapoorize is harmful to the environment in any way), Corky's body is seen floating down the nearby river. The animal's post-mortem reveals that the horse was not killed by the arrow as previously thought but actually poisoned by a by-product of Vapoorize, used by Tim to treat his garden after Corky came to eat the apples from his tree. The veterinarian informs the pair that she is obliged to notify the Environmental Protection Agency, and Vapoorize is immediately pulled from the market. Nick and Tim almost lose all their wealth and glory, until Tim comes up with an invention of his own: Pocket Flan, inspired by Nick's family's love for the dessert. J-Man is shown in the audience of Tim and Nick's infomercial for Pocket Flan, apparently reconciled.


title: Envy (2004 film)

text: "Envy" received generally negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 8% based on 118 reviews with an average rating of 3.11/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Jack Black and Ben Stiller fail to wring laughs from a script that's essentially one extended poop joke." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 31 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Envy (2004 film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film 2 out of 4 stars. He said "the movie is funny, yes, but not really funny enough." "Variety"s Robert Koehler wrote that the film "can't decide whether to be an eccentric black comedy or a middle-of-the-road diversion" and "Levinson's desire to provoke extreme laughs isn't matched by a strategy of how to get to the edge -- especially when the edge is some distance from his trusty Baltimore storytelling roots."


title: Envy (2004 film)

text: Stella Papamichael of BBC said that ""Envy" is all about flogging a dead horse", while Nick Schager of "Slant Magazine" stated regarding a scene in a film: "[a] canary-yellow Lamborghini's license plate reads "Caca King" in "Envy", nicely summing up this dreadful money-versus-friendship comedy".


title: Envy (2004 film)

text: According to "Time Out" "Had "School of Rock" not made Jack Black so bankable, this comedy would surely have gone straight to video – which is where it belongs".


title: Envy (2004 film)

text: The film was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Actor (Stiller), but lost to "Fahrenheit 9/11" (George W. Bush).


title: Alexandra von Fürstenberg

text: Alexandra von Fürstenberg (; born 3 October 1972) is a Hong Kong-born American heiress, socialite, entrepreneur and furniture designer based in Los Angeles. She is the youngest daughter of American billionaire and DFS Group co-founder Robert Warren Miller.


title: Alexandra von Fürstenberg

text: Alexandra von Fürstenberg was born in 1972, in British Hong Kong to American entrepreneur Robert Warren Miller and his Ecuadorian wife, María Clara "Chantal" (). She has two older sisters Pia and Marie-Chantal. Alexandra and her sisters grew up between Hong Kong, Paris and New York.


title: Alexandra von Fürstenberg

text: She attended Parsons School of Design and Brown University, where she studied costume design and art history.


title: Alexandra von Fürstenberg

text: In the 1990s, Alexandra and her sisters were popularly dubbed by New York high society as the Miller Sisters.


title: Alexandra von Fürstenberg

text: In 1995, Alexandra joined the design team of her then mother-in-law, Diane von Fürstenberg. During her ten-year career at DVF as Creative Director and later as Director of Image, Alexandra was instrumental in the re-launch of the iconic wrap dress as well as reinforcing the relevance of this American brand.


title: Alexandra von Fürstenberg

text: After relocating to Los Angeles in 2005, Alexandra focused on designing exclusively for the home. In 2007, she created Alexandra Von Furstenberg, LLC, the brand, to create modern furniture and home accessories made of acrylic. She originally began by designing for her personal home, and then realized there was a market for her designs. In March 2008, she launched her first designs.


title: Alexandra von Fürstenberg

text: On October 28, 1995, at the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola in New York City, she married Prince Alexander von Fürstenberg, the son of the fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg and Prince Egon von Fürstenberg. They have two children, Princess Talita Natasha (born May 7, 1999) and Prince Tassilo Egon Maximilian (born August 21, 2001). The couple divorced in 2002.


title: Alexandra von Fürstenberg

text: On July 7, 2015, Alexandra married longtime fiancé, architectural designer and developer Dax Miller. The couple wed on the seventh anniversary of the start of their relationship.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust is a certified, self-winding chronometer wristwatch manufactured by Rolex. When it was launched in 1945, the Datejust was the first self-winding chronometer wristwatch to indicate the date in a window on the dial. Today, it exists in a variety of sizes from 28mm to 41mm, in stainless steel, two-tone gold, and solid gold versions.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: Rolex introduced the original Datejust (reference 4467) in 1945 to celebrate the company's 40th anniversary. It was available only in 18 karat yellow gold and had a small bubble back winder with a deeply domed back. It also featured the company's waterproof Oyster case (first introduced in 1926), a fluted bezel, and the new Jubilee bracelet (so named for the occasion).


title: Rolex Datejust

text: Over the years, the Datejust saw an expansion of its design options as well as improvements to its movement, from a gradual date change shortly before midnight in the earliest versions to an instantaneous change beginning in 1955.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: The Datejust is offered with two Rolex bracelets: the Jubilee and the Oyster. The original Datejust was launched with a case size of 36mm. Subsequently, various sizes including ladies' and mid-sized versions were made available. The Turn-O-Graph model was introduced in 1955 as an award given to US Air Force pilots returning from combat missions. It featured a rotating bezel marked to 60 minutes, which can be used to measure time intervals. Datejust watches of this type have been nicknamed "Thunderbirds". This watch would form the basis for the Rolex Explorer (designed for Sir Edmund Hillary's Mount Everest expedition), the Rolex Submariner, and the Rolex Sea-Dweller.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: In 2009, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust II was released. At 41mm in diameter (excluding the crown) its case is bigger than the original Datejust.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: In 2016, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust 41 was released. The watch comes in stainless steel, and two-tone stainless steel and 18k yellow or 18k everose gold (Rolex's version of rose gold) bracelets. The 2016 41mm Datejust is on an Oyster or Jubilee bracelet. While the Datejust 41 has a similar-sized 41mm diameter case as the Datejust II, the Datejust 41 has smaller indexes and a thinner bezel compared to the Datejust II.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: In this year, Rolex also introduced the new Caliber 3235 movement, which replaces more than 90% of the parts of its predecessor, the Caliber 3135 - Rolex’s longest running and most successful movement. Caliber 3235 includes a new escapement, the Chronergy, along with other significant improvements, and provides a 70-hour power reserve while maintaining the same dimensions as its predecessor.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: At Baselworld 2015, Rolex announced that the Lady-Datejust 26mm would be replaced by a newer 28mm variant, with a new Caliber 2236 movement, refined lugs and middle case, a broad and clear dial, as well as a President or Jubilee bracelet integrated into the Oyster case.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: As of 2019, the Datejust lineup consists of the following sizes: 28mm, 31mm, 34mm, 36mm, 41mm - which come in either full stainless steel, two-tone gold (yellow, Everose or white) and stainless steel, or solid gold (yellow, Everose and white) case and bracelet.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: In the movie "American Psycho", Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale) wears the Rolex Datejust 16013 - a two tone, 18ct yellow gold with a champagne coloured tapestry dial. The Informers, another movie adapted from Bret Easton Ellis movies, also had some of their cast wearing Datejust watches.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: The actor Paul Newman, was seen wearing a full stainless steel 36mm Datejust in "The Color of Money".


title: Rolex Datejust

text: American actor, Harrison Ford sports a Datejust 36mm in the 1980s movie "Frantic", which featured a white Roman numeral dial, white gold bezel and stainless steel jubilee bracelet and case.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: Activist and civil rights movement leader, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wore a Datejust reference 1601.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: U.S. first female chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Sylvia Earle wears a full gold, Lady-Datejust 26mm.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: Peruvian operatic tenor - Juan Diego Flórez has a 36mm, two-tone Rolex Datejust reference 116233 - one of the few Datejust models that utilized the Crownclasp; usually on President and PearlMaster models only.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Joe Biden wore the Rolex Datejust while in office. Eisenhower's Datejust had a white Roman numeral dial, a stainless steel engine turned bezel and a steel jubilee bracelet and steel case.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was given the 100,000th officially certified chronometer by Rolex's founder, Hans Wilsdorf, while in office during World War II - a 36mm Datejust with a fluted white gold bezel and stainless-steel Jubilee bracelet .


title: Rolex Datejust

text: Italian Formula One racing driver Arturo Merzario was given an Oyster Perpetual Datejust by Austrian driver Niki Lauda, for rescuing him from a fiery accident at the 1976 German Grand Prix.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: Swiss tennis player, Roger Federer, wore the 41mm Datejust II and is also Rolex's most prominent (paid) “brand ambassador”.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: Australian tennis player, Rod Laver, wears a solid gold, 36mm Datejust. A left-hander, he wears it on his right wrist.


title: Rolex Datejust

text: American basketball player Michael Jordan has a two-tone Datejust, amongst many Rolex watches he owns.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The Fuzhou language (, FR: ), also Foochow, Hokchew, Hok-chiu, or Fuzhounese, is the prestige variety of the Eastern Min branch of Min Chinese spoken mainly in the Mindong region of Eastern Fujian Province. As it is mutually unintelligible to neighbouring varieties (e.g. Hokkien) in the province, under a technical linguistic definition Fuzhou is a language and not a dialect (conferring the variety a 'dialect' status is more socio-politically motivated than linguistic). Thus, while Fuzhou may be commonly referred to as a 'dialect' by laypersons, this is colloquial usage and not recognised in academic linguistics. Like many other varieties of Chinese, the Fuzhou dialect is dominated by monosyllabic morphemes that carry lexical tones, and has a mainly analytic syntax. While the Eastern Min branch it belongs to is relatively closer to Southern Min or Hokkien than to other Sinitic branches such as Mandarin, Wu Chinese or Hakka, they are still not mutually intelligible.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Centered in Fuzhou City, the Fuzhou dialect covers 11 cities and counties in China: Fuzhou City Proper, Pingnan, Gutian, Luoyuan, Minqing, Lianjiang, Minhou, Changle, Yongtai, Fuqing and Pingtan; and Lienchiang County (the Matsu Islands), in Taiwan (the ROC). It is also the second local language in many northern and middle Fujian cities and counties such as Nanping, Shaowu, Shunchang, Sanming and Youxi.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The Fuzhou dialect is also widely spoken in some regions abroad, especially in Southeastern Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. The Malaysian city of Sibu is called "New Fuzhou" due to the influx of immigrants there in the late 19th century and early 1900s. Many Fuzhou people have also emigrated to Japan, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan in the decades since China's economic reform.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: In older works, the variety is called "Foochow dialect", based on the Chinese postal romanization of Fuzhou.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: In Chinese, it is sometimes called (; pinyin: "Fúzhōuyǔ"). Native speakers also call it Bàng-uâ (), meaning "the everyday language."


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: In Indonesia (especially in Surabaya of East Java), it is known locally as "Hokchia". Meanwhile in Malaysia and Singapore, it is often called "Hokchiu" (), which is the pronunciation of Fuzhou in the Southern Min Hokkien language or "Huchiu" (), which is the pronunciation of Fuzhou in the Eastern Min language of Fuzhou itself. Eastern Min and Southern Min are both spoken in the same Fujian Province, but the name Hokkien, while etymologically derived from the same characters as Fujian (), is used in Southeast Asia and the English press to refer specifically to Southern Min, which has a larger number of speakers both within Fujian and in the Chinese diaspora of Southeast Asia.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: After the Qin dynasty conquered the Minyue kingdom of Southeast China in 110 BC, Chinese people began settling what is now Fujian Province. The Old Chinese language brought by the mass influx of Chinese immigrants from the Chinese heartland, along with the influences of local languages, became the early Proto-Min language from which Eastern Min, Southern Min, and other Min languages arose. Within this Min branch of Chinese, Eastern Min and Southern Min both form part of a Coastal Min subgroup, and are thus closer to each other than to Inland Min groups such as Northern Min and Central Min.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The famous book "Qī Lín Bāyīn", which was compiled in the 17th century, is the first and the most full-scale rime book that provides a systematic guide to character reading for people speaking or learning the Fuzhou dialect. It once served to standardize the language and is still widely quoted as an authoritative reference book in modern academic research in Min Chinese phonology.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: In 1842, Fuzhou was open to Westerners as a treaty port after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing. But due to the language barrier, however, the first Christian missionary base in this city did not take place without difficulties. In order to convert Fuzhou people, those missionaries found it very necessary to make a careful study of the Fuzhou dialect. Their most notable works are listed below:


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: During the Second World War, some Japanese scholars became passionate about studying the Fuzhou dialect, believing that it could be beneficial to the rule of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. One of their most famous works was the "Japanese-Chinese Translation: Fuzhou Dialect" () published in 1940 in Taipei, in which katakana was used to represent Fuzhou pronunciation.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: By the end of the Qing dynasty, Fuzhou society had been largely monolingual. But for decades the Chinese government has discouraged the use of the vernacular in school education and in media, so the number of Mandarin speakers has been greatly boosted. Recent reports indicate that less than 50% of young people in Fuzhou are able to speak the Fuzhou dialect.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: In Mainland China, the Fuzhou dialect has been officially listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage and promotion work is being systematically carried out to preserve its use. In Matsu, currently controlled by the Republic of China located in Taiwan, the teaching of the local variant, the Matsu dialect, has been successfully introduced into elementary schools. It is also one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in Matsu and in Fuzhou.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Like all Chinese varieties, the Fuzhou dialect is a tonal language, and has extensive sandhi rules in the initials, rimes, and tones. These complicated rules make the Fuzhou dialect one of the most difficult Chinese varieties.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: There are seven original tones in the Fuzhou dialect, compared with the eight tones of Middle Chinese:


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The sample characters are taken from the "Qī Lín Bāyīn". More modern studies have also been done in the late 20th century and early 21st centuires, including an acoustically quantified set of data for the citation tones.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: In "Qī Lín Bāyīn", the Fuzhou dialect is described as having eight tones, which explains how the book got its title ("Bāyīn" means "eight tones"). That name, however, is somewhat misleading, because Ĭng-siōng () and Iòng-siōng () are identical in tone contour; therefore, only seven tones exist.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Ĭng-ĭk and Iòng-ĭk (or so-called entering tone) syllables end with either velar stop or a glottal stop . However, they are both now realized as a glottal stop, though the two phonemes maintain distinct sandhi behavior in connected speech.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Besides those seven tones listed above, two new tonal values, "˨˩" (Buáng-ĭng-ké̤ṳ, ) and (Buáng-iòng-ké̤ṳ, ) occur in connected speech (see Tonal sandhi below).


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Little discussed in the existing literature, there is some evidence that Fuzhou uses non-modal phonation with certain tones: creaky for "ĭng-ké̤ṳ", "ĭng-ĭk", "iòng-ké̤ṳ", and breathy for "siōng-siăng". This has been shown to be perceptually relevant for tonal identification.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The rules of tonal sandhi in the Fuzhou dialect are complicated, even compared with those of other Min dialects. When two or more than two morphemes combine into a word, the tonal value of the last morpheme remains stable but in most cases those of the preceding morphemes change. For example, "", "" and "" are words of Iòng-ĭk () with the same tonal value , and are pronounced , , and , respectively. When combined as the phrase "" (Independence Day), "" changes its tonal value to , and "" changes its to , therefore the pronunciation as a whole is .


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The two-syllable tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below (the rows give the first syllable's original citation tone, while the columns give the citation tone of the second syllable):


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Ĭng-ĭk-gák () are Ĭng-ĭk () syllables ending with and Ĭng-ĭk-ék () are those with . Both are usually realized as the glottal stop by most modern speakers of the Fuzhou dialect, but they are distinguished both in the above tone sandhi behavior, and in initial assimilation that occurs after them.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The three patterns of tone sandhi exhibited in the Fuzhou dialect may be a reflex of the voicing split from Middle Chinese into different registers. This is based on a comparison with the tonal sandhi system of the subdialect of Lianjiang, a very similar but more conservative Eastern Min variety, where three tonal categories on the penultimate syllables ("Yin" / Ĭng / from unvoiced consonants in Middle Chinese; "Yang" / Iòng / from voiced consonants in Middle Chinese; and a third "Shang" / Siōng / tonal category from the Middle Chinese "rising tone" 上聲 where the Yin and Yang registers have merged) interact with the tonal category of the final syllable to form the sandhi pattern in Lianjiang. Although the effect of the historical tonal registers from Middle Chinese is clear in Lianjiang, the Fuzhou tonal sandhi system has deviated from the older pattern, in that the tone Iòng-ké̤ṳ 陽去, which is from the historical "Yang" tonal register, now follows the sandhi rules for the "Yin" register; and the sandhi tone Ĭng-ĭk-gák 陰入乙 , which comes from the historical "Yin" register, follow the sandhi rules for the merged "Shang" tone.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: For four-syllable words, they can be treated as two sequential two-syllable units, and undergo two-syllable tone sandhi accordingly; in faster speech, the first two syllables are reduced to a half dark departing tone, and the remaining two syllables undergo two-syllable tone sandhi.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: No labiodental phonemes, such as or , exist in the Fuzhou dialect, which is one of the most conspicuous characteristics shared by all branches in the Min Family.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: In the Fuzhou dialect, there are various kinds of initial assimilation, all of which are progressive. When two or more than two syllables combine into a word, the initial of the first syllable stays unchanged while those of the following syllables, in most cases, change to match its preceding phoneme, i.e., the coda of its preceding syllable. As with the rime changes, initial assimilation is not as mandatory as tone sandhi in connected speech, and its presence and absence may indicate different parts of speech, different meanings of a single word, or different relationships between groups of words syntactically.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The table below shows the seven vowel phonemes of the Fuzhou dialect. Fuzhou is known for its vowel alternations much discussed in the linguistic literature.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: In the Fuzhou dialect, the codas , , and have all merged as , and , , have all merged as . Seven vowel phonemes, together with the codas and , are organized into forty-six rimes.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: As has been mentioned above, there are theoretically two different entering tonal codas in the Fuzhou dialect: and . However, for most Fuzhou dialect speakers, those two codas are only distinguishable when in the tonal sandhi or initial assimilation.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Some rimes come in pairs in the above table: the one to the left represents a close rime (), while the other represents an open rime (). The close/open rimes are closely related with the tones. In single syllables, the tones of Ĭng-bìng (), Siōng-siăng (), Iòng-bìng () and Iòng-ĭk () have close rimes, while Ĭng-ké̤ṳ (), Ĭng-ĭk () and Iòng-ké̤ṳ () have open rimes.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: In connected speech, an open rime shifts to its close counterpart in the tonal sandhi. For instance, "" (hók) is a Ĭng-ĭk syllable and is pronounced and "" (ciŭ) a Ĭng-bìng syllable with the pronunciation of . When these two syllables combine into the word "" (Hók-ciŭ, Fuzhou), "" changes its tonal value from to and, simultaneously, shifts its rime from to , so the phrase is pronounced . In contrast, in the word "" (Dṳ̆ng-guók, China), "" is a Ĭng-bìng syllable and therefore its close rime never changes, though it does change its tonal value from to in the tonal sandhi.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: As with initial assimilation, the closing of open rimes in connected speech is not as compulsory than tone sandhi. It has been described as "a sort of switch that flips on and off to indicate different things", so its presence or absence can indicate different meanings or different syntactic functions.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The phenomenon of close/open rimes is nearly unique to the Fuzhou dialect and this feature makes it especially intricate and reduces its intelligibility, even to speakers of other Min varieties. Even cross-linguistically, such phonological tone-vowel interactions are rare.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The neutral tone is attested in the Fuzhou dialect, as well as being found in the Southern Min group and in varieties of Mandarin Chinese, including Beijing-based Standard Mandarin. It is commonly found in some modal particles, aspect markers, and some question-forming negative particles that come after units made up of one tone sandhi domain, and in some adverbs, aspect markers, conjunctions etc. that come before such units. These two types, the post-nucleus and the pre-nucleus neutral tone, exhibit different tone sandhi behavior. Disyllabic neutral tone words are also attested, as are some inter-nuclei neutral tones, mainly connected to the use of 蜀 "siŏh" // in verbal reduplication.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Most words in the Fuzhou dialect have cognates in other varieties of Chinese, so a non-Fuzhou speaker would find it much easier to understand the Fuzhou dialect written in Chinese characters than spoken in conversation. However, false friends do exist: for example, "" (mŏ̤h sá̤-nê) means "don't be too polite" or "make yourself at home", "" (nguāi dó̤i-chiū nṳ̄ sā̤ uāng) means "I help you wash dishes", "" (ĭ gâe̤ng ĭ lâu-mā lā̤ uŏng-gă) means "he and his wife are quarreling (with each other)", etc. Mere knowledge of Mandarin vocabulary does not help one catch the meaning of these sentences.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The majority of Fuzhou dialect vocabulary dates back to more than 1,200 years ago. Some daily-used words are even preserved as they were in the Tang dynasty, which can be illustrated by a poem of a famous Chinese poet Gu Kuang. In his poem "Jiǎn" (), Gu Kuang explicitly noted:


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Quite a few words from Old Chinese have retained the original meanings for thousands of years, while their counterparts in Mandarin Chinese have either fallen out of daily use or varied to different meanings.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: This table shows some words that are used in the Fuzhou dialect close to as they were in Classical Chinese, while the meanings in Mandarin Chinese have altered:


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Some daily used words, shared by all Min varieties, came from the ancient Minyue language. Such as follows:


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The literary and colloquial readings is a feature commonly found in all Chinese dialects throughout China. Literary readings are mainly used in formal phrases derived from the written language, while the colloquial ones are used in colloquial phrases in the spoken language, as well as when used on their own.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Phonologically, a large range of phonemes can differ between the character's two readings: in tone, final, initial, or any and all of these features.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: This table displays some widely used characters in the Fuzhou dialect which have both literary and colloquial readings:


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: The First Opium War, also known as the First Anglo-Chinese War, was ended in 1842 with the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, which forced the Qing government to open Fuzhou to all British traders and missionaries. Since then, quite a number of churches and Western-style schools have been established. Consequently, some English words came into the Fuzhou dialect, but without fixed written forms in Chinese characters. The most frequently used words are listed below:


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Most words of the Fuzhou dialect stem from Old Chinese and can therefore be written in Chinese characters. Many books published during the Qing dynasty had been written in this traditional way, such as the famous "Mǐndū Biéjì" (, Foochow Romanized: Mìng-dŭ Biék-gé). However, Chinese characters as the writing system for the Fuzhou dialect can have many shortcomings.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: First, a great number of words are unique to the Fuzhou dialect, so that they can only be written in informal ways. For instance, the word "mâ̤", a negative word, has no common form. Some write it as "" or "", both of which share with it an identical pronunciation but have an irrelevant meaning; and others prefer to use a newly created character, , combining "" and "", but this character is not included in most fonts.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Second, the Fuzhou dialect has been excluded from the educational system for many decades. As a result, many if not all take for granted that the Fuzhou dialect does not have a formal writing system and when they have to write it, they tend to employ characters with a similar Mandarin Chinese enunciation. For example, " (â̤ sāi)", meaning "okay", are frequently written as "" because they are uttered almost in the same way.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Foochow Romanized, also known as Bàng-uâ-cê (, BUC for short) or Hók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê (), is a romanized orthography for the Fuzhou dialect adopted in the middle of 19th century by American and English missionaries. It had varied at different times, and became standardized several decades later. Foochow Romanized was mainly used inside of church circles, and was taught in some mission schools in Fuzhou.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Mǐnqiāng Kuàizì (, Foochow Romanized: "Mìng-kiŏng Kuái-cê"), literally meaning "Fujian Colloquial Fast Characters", is a Qieyin System () for Fuzhou dialect designed by Chinese scholar and calligrapher Li Jiesan () in 1896.


title: Fuzhou dialect

text: Below is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written in the Fuzhou dialect, using both Foochow Romanized (left) and Chinese characters (center).


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: The 2006 Texas gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 2006, to elect the Governor of Texas. The election was a rare five-way race, with incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry running for re-election against Democrat Chris Bell and Independents Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman, as well as Libertarian nominee James Werner.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: Perry was re-elected to a second full term in office, winning 39% of the vote to Bell's 30%, Strayhorn's 18%, and Friedman's 12%. Perry carried 209 out of the state's 254 counties, while Bell carried 39 and Strayhorn carried 6. Exit polls revealed that Perry won the white vote with 46%, while Bell got 22%, Strayhorn got 16% and Friedman got 15%. Bell won 63% of African Americans, while Perry got 16%, Strayhorn got 15% and Friedman got 4%. Bell also won the Latino vote with 41%, while Perry got 31%, Strayhorn got 18% and Friedman got 4%.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: Perry was inaugurated for a second full four-year term on January 16, 2007. The ceremony was held inside the House of Representatives chamber at the Texas Capitol after thunderstorms canceled the planned outdoor ceremony. This remains the last time Republicans won a statewide race in Texas with only a plurality.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: It is difficult for an independent gubernatorial candidate to gain ballot access in the state of Texas. The election law, summarized briefly, requires the following:


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: In the event a candidate does not qualify for independent status, they may still run as a write-in candidate. The candidate must pay a $3,750 filing fee and submit 5,000 qualified signatures. However, the filing cannot take place any earlier than July 30, nor later than 5:00 PM on August 29.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: Incumbent Rick Perry became governor in late 2000 when then-Governor George W. Bush resigned following his election as President of the United States. He had been elected lieutenant governor in 1998. Perry was subsequently elected governor in his own right in 2002 and successfully ran for a second full term in 2006.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: Perry's overall poll ratings had plummeted since the 2002 election, plagued by budget woes, battles over school financing reform, and a contentious and controversial redistricting battle. His approval rating dropped to 38% during the latter part of the 2005 legislative session. Perry then improved from this position, more recently holding a 44% approval rating, with 51% disapproving, as of a September 2006 poll. Texas election laws do not require a run-off in the event that a majority is not achieved, and so Governor Perry joined only two other Texas governors to achieve the office by a plurality of less than 40%. The Texas Governor Elections of 1853 and 1861 both won with less than 40% of the vote.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: Despite weak polling numbers, Perry had the support of the Texas GOP. According to Perry's campaign website, he gained 142 separate endorsements. Perry had endorsements from virtually the entire Texas GOP Congressional delegation (all but two members), every other Republican statewide officeholder (except Strayhorn and judicial officeholders; the latter by law cannot endorse political candidates), 51 of the 62 members of the Texas Republican Party executive committee, and nearly every major Texas pro-business, fiscal conservative, and social conservative organization and PAC. Perry even managed to gain the endorsement of the Teamsters Union, notwithstanding Texas's strong right to work laws.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: Kinky Friedman, an independent candidate, gained a good amount of popular support among Texas voters. He claimed that country-music lovers, college students, animal lovers, ranchers, and anyone who didn't vote in the last election were among his supporters.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: Friedman briefly enjoyed a high standing in the polls, and surpassed Democrat Chris Bell by Independence Day. As Election Day drew near, his campaign fizzled out as much of his wide support was among young voters. He finished fourth in the election with under 13% of the vote. His website claimed that "he doesn't put much stock in unscientific political polls among "likely" voters, saying, "It's Kinky Friedman versus apathy". Friedman stated during the campaign that he was going after the 71% who didn't make it to the polls in 2002.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: Chris Bell, a former Congressman from Houston, filed an ethics complaint against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay as a lame duck who had been defeated in his party's primary after the controversial mid-decade redistricting in the state. Bell announced his run in July 2005.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: Bell's official strategy was to get Democrats to unite behind and vote for a Democrat, predicting (and betting on) a splintering of the Republican vote among Perry, Strayhorn, and Friedman, giving the Democrats the needed plurality to win the election. Running on a platform of ethics reform and education issues, he stayed with the pack of three candidates with better name recognition. After a good debate performance, his poll numbers improved significantly to where he had taken second place in nearly every poll afterward.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the Comptroller of Public Accounts, was initially pegged as running in a potentially contentious three-way Republican primary battle with bitter rival Governor Perry and U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Hutchison declined to run for governor in late 2005, instead opting to run for re-election to the Senate. This left Strayhorn and Perry vying for the GOP nomination. Believing her chances to be better running as an independent and appealing directly to voters, rather than those of the Republican Party first, she announced her intent to challenge him in the general election instead. Had she run in the primary, the December 2005 Scripps Howard Texas Poll of match ups had Perry in the lead against Strayhorn by a 55%-24% margin.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: Strayhorn was seen as a moderate alternative to Perry, and found support among moderate Republicans and independent voters. Although a few polls had her tied for second going into Election day, she finished with 18.13% of the vote, 12% behind Bell and 21% behind Perry.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: James Werner was the Libertarian Party candidate. According to Werner's campaign website, he has a master's degree in Spanish and Latin American literature from the University of California, a bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt University and is currently working for an Austin-based educational software company.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: Werner previously ran for Congress in 2004 as the Libertarian nominee. Contending for the 25th District, he garnered 26,748 votes or 0.61%.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: James "Patriot" Dillon was the only announced write-in candidate, according to information from the Texas Secretary of State's office.


title: 2006 Texas gubernatorial election

text: "Percent change available only for parties that participated in the 2002 Texas gubernatorial election."


title: Beretta Cx4 Storm

text: The Beretta Cx4 Storm is a pistol-calibre semi-automatic carbine aimed at the sporting, personal defense and law enforcement markets. It is available in two models: one that accepts 92/96 magazines, and one that accepts Px4 series magazines, each available in 9×19mm Parabellum, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, and 9×21mm.


title: Beretta Cx4 Storm

text: The Beretta Mx4 Storm is the military version of the Cx4 Storm, which is capable of fully automatic fire. It features a 12-inch barrel, and most commonly seen with a 30-round magazine.


title: Beretta Cx4 Storm

text: Both the Mx4 Storm and Cx4 Storm features a Picatinny rail on top of the receiver for mounting modern optics, and a tri-rail adapter for mounting flashlights, laser sights, grips and other accessories. The firearm also has some ambidextrous features, such as being able to switch the fire selector, charging handle, ejection port and magazine release to the left side.


title: Beretta Cx4 Storm

text: The Cx4 Storm was developed to be used in conjunction with Beretta semi-automatic pistols. For example, the magazines for the Beretta 92FS chambered in 9mm can be used in the Cx4 (also chambered in 9mm).


title: Beretta Cx4 Storm

text: Conversion between Px4 Storm, 92/96 and 8000/8040 Cougar 9×19mm Parabellum/.40 S&W magazines requires two parts (not included with rifle). For Px4 magazines the C5C620 magazine insert and C89210 magazine release button are required, for 92/96 the C5A511 insert and C89109 release, for Cougar the C5A670 insert and C89110 release.


title: Beretta Cx4 Storm

text: In Canada, the Cx4 Storm was the primary weapon used in the 2006 Dawson College shooting. The restricted class firearm had been acquired legally, and a coroner's inquest into the shooting recommended that all semi-automatic rifles be banned in Canada. The Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act passed in 2015 did not include a provision for such a ban. Sales of the CX4 Storm increased in Canada following the shooting, and in 2011, Beretta introduced a non-restricted (19" barrel) variant of the Cx4, making it more accessible. On May 1, 2020, the Canadian government reclassified the Cx4 Storm (in all its variants) to be prohibited firearms.


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: October 1982 Moscow) is a Russian businessman. He is one of the main owners of the privately held investment company Marathon Group and largest shareholder of retailer Magnit. Vinokurov was added to the EU Sanctions List on 9 March 2022 for providing a substantial source of revenue to the government of the Russian Federation during the Russo-Ukrainian War.


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: In 2004, Vinokurov graduated with honours from the faculty of economics of the University of Cambridge. He received a BA in economics. During the period of his studies, he established the Cambridge Russian-Speaking Society, a student organisation, and was elected its president.


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: In 2001, he interned at the Troika Dialog, which was under the control of Andrey Borodin with a large stake owned by Ruben Vardanyan who recommended to Vinokurov to gain employment at Morgan Stanley.


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: In 2006, he returned to Russia as vice-president of TPG Capital (the world's largest private equity investment firm, with $100 billion in assets under its management), co-founding the company's Russian office. He was involved in acquisitions of a number of major assets, including shares in VTB upon the state bank's privatisation, stakes in the Moscow office centres White Square and White Gardens, Ontex S.A. (a Belgian manufacturer of personal hygiene products with Russian production facilities), Strauss Coffee and the Lenta hypermarket chain.


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: In 2011, Vinokurov became president of Summa Group, a diversified private holding company, which has significant investments in port and rail logistics, engineering, construction, telecommunications, oil and gas, oil trading and agriculture. Major deals concluded during his tenure included the acquisition of a 71% stake in Fesco from Sergey Generalov's Industrial Investors and the purchase of a 50% stake in United Grain Company from the state.


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: In 2014, he became CEO of A1, the investment arm of Alfa Group, which he left in May 2017. Major transactions by A1 during Vinokurov's time there included the sale of Formula Kino, Russia's second-largest cinema chain, to structures controlled by Alexander Mamut (RUB 6.75–7.65 billion)); acquisition of a stake in Polyplastic (one of Russia's largest manufacturers of plastic pipes), and others.


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: In October 2015, although , who is the founder and owner of R-Pharm, competed for control of SIA, Vinokurov gained control of the pharmaceutical factory in Kurgan, 75% stake in the Biocom plant in Stavropol, 100% ownership of Mega Pharm and became an indirect 100% owner of , now known as SIA Group, which was founded in 1993 by Igor Rudinsky (1954-2014) and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Russia.


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: From 2017, Vinokurov focused on developing co-owned Marathon Group. Marathon Group was founded in 2017 by Vinokurov and Sergei Zakharov. The Company primarily focuses on strategic investments in retail, FMCG, infrastructure and other projects with subsequent development of the assets. Current investments of Marathon Group include shareholdings in a leading food retail chain Magnit, the largest franchisee of quick service restaurants in Russia, Demetra-Holding (the largest vertically integrated grain holding company in Russia with export logistics and trading assets) and Bentus Laboratories (producer of hand sanitizers). Recent highlights: turn-around and sale of pharmaceutical companies Sintez, Biocom and Fort, of pharmaceutical distributor SIA Group, and financial investment in Fix Price (a leading variety value retailer in Russia).


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: , Vinokurov controls stakes in such companies as one of Russia's largest food retailer Magnit, an international restaurant brand KFC, a division of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM), Demetra Holding – Russian grain exports infrastructure company and Santinelle, leading Russia's producer of instant hand sanitisers.


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: Vinokurov is a member of the supervisory board of the Russian Cycling Federation and Rugby Union of Russia, co-founder of Marathon-Tula Cycling Team.


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: Vinokurov was added to the EU Sanctions List on 9 March 2022 for providing a substantial source of revenue to the government of the Russian Federation.


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: Vinokurov is married to Ekaterina Vinokurova (née Lavrova) (born 1982 New York City), daughter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov. She graduated from Manhattan's The Dwight School, majored in political science receiving a degree from Columbia University, and then studied for two years at the London School of Economics and received her master's in economics from there in 2006. After Russian special services noticed a $500 million contract on the internet for murdering both Alexander and Ekaterina Vinokurov addressed to ("Lesha the Soldat or Lesha the Soldier") in the fall of 2014, she and her husband moved to Moscow where she is the head of Christie's branch in Moscow. They have three children.


title: Alexander Vinokurov (businessman)

text: Vinokurov is fond of sports. He sponsored the Russian aquabike championship at 2019. Vinokurov's Marathon Group is also sponsor for FC Dynamo Moscow.


title: Gree Electric

text: Gree Electric Appliances Inc. of Zhuhai is a Chinese major appliance manufacturer headquartered in Zhuhai, Guangdong province. It is the world's largest residential air-conditioner manufacturer. The company offers two types of air conditioners: household air conditioners and commercial air conditioners. The company also produces electric fans, water dispensers, heaters, rice cookers, air purifiers, water kettles, humidifiers and induction cookers, among other products. It distributes its products in China and abroad under the brand name Gree. The company has two joint-ventures with Daikin, "Zhuhai Gree Daikin Device Co., Ltd.", and "Zhuhai Gree Daikin Precision Mold Co., Ltd."


title: Gree Electric

text: Gree was established in Zhuhai, Guangdong, in 1989 under its former name of Zhuhai City Haili Cooling Engineering Company Limited (). It was restructured and renamed Gree Electric Appliances Inc. of Zhuhai in 1994. The company started as a nameless factory with 200 employees and annual production of less than 20,000 units.


title: Gree Electric

text: It was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 1996. The company grew 47% in 2008, despite the global recession, booking $23 billion in contract sales. The company is a multinational enterprise with 70,000 employees and annual production of 65.5 million units. In April 2011, Gree announced that first-quarter net income rose 47 percent from a year earlier to 934.7 million Yuan.


title: Gree Electric

text: Gree Electric's Chairwoman is Dong Mingzhu, or "Sister Dong" as she is known in China. She was appointed CEO in 2009. She joined the company in 1990. Dong was also the Chairwoman of its largest shareholder at the time, Gree Group, until November 2016. Gree Group was owned by Zhuhai Municipal People's Government (the local government of Zhuhai).


title: Gree Electric

text: As of 31 December 2015, the largest shareholder of Gree Electric was Gree Group; it was followed by Hebei Jinghai Investment Guarantee (for 8.91%), China Securities Finance (for 2.99%), Central Huijin Investment (for 1.40%). UBS (for 1.21%), Foresea Life Insurance (for 1.14%), Yale University (for 0.95%), Hexie Health Insurance (for 0.80%), chairwoman Dong Mingzhu (for 0.73%) and a private equity fund (for 0.71%).


title: Gree Electric

text: In 2001 Gree Group owned a 50.289% stake in Gree Electric. Gree Group was also the largest shareholder of Gree Real Estate () until 2015.


title: Gree Electric

text: In December 2019, Gree Group sold most of the stake they owned in Gree Electric, to a private equity fund.


title: Gree Electric

text: In 2022, Gree Electric become one of the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022 that chosen by Mitsubishi Electric, along with Maspion Holdings, Wuling Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Tiger Brokers and Yanmar.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: Antoine Rizkallah "Tony" Kanaan Filho (born 31 December 1974), nicknamed TK, is a Brazilian racing driver. He currently competes full-time in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series, driving the No. 6 Toyota Corolla E210 for Full Time Bassani and part time for Chip Ganassi Racing, driving the No. 1 Dallara Honda for the 2022 IndyCar Series season.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: Kanaan won the 2013 Indianapolis 500 and the 2004 IndyCar Series championship. In that season he completed 3,305 laps, making him the first IndyCar Series driver to complete every possible lap in a season. He also led 889 laps in 13 separate races to establish an IndyCar Series record. He is also the only driver to lead the Indianapolis 500 in each of his first seven starts and won his first race on his 12th attempt. Kanaan has a total of 17 career race wins and 15 pole positions in the IndyCar Series. Kanaan also won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2015, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: Kanaan would begin to compete in Formula Europa Boxer for the 1994 season. Kanaan would drive for Cram Competition in a Tatuus-Alfa Romeo. Kanaan would win the series championship on the strength of 5 wins.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: Kanaan competed in Italian Formula Three in 1995 for Tatuus in a Dallara 395-Opel. Kanaan would win a race and get 9 podiums to finish 5th in points with 111 points.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: Kanaan began to compete in the PPG/Firestone Indy Lights Championship Powered By Buick (now Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires) in 1996 for Tasman Motorsports in the No. 37 Marlboro Lola T96/20-Buick V6. At the season-opening race at Homestead Motorsports Complex Kanaan started 9th and finished 10th. At the second race of the season on the Streets of Long Beach, Kanaan would start 3rd and finish 2nd. Kanaan moved from 10th to 3rd in points following the race. Kanaan's results in the next three races were 12th, 17th, and 7th at Nazareth Speedway, Michigan International Speedway and the Milwaukee Mile. In those races, Kanaan started 14th, 4th, and 11th. At Michigan Kanaan led for 8 laps before retiring due to a mechanical problem. At the race at Belle Isle State Park Kanaan started 5th and won his first race after leading for a race-high 29 of 36 laps. At the next race at Portland International Raceway Kanaan qualified on the pole position and finished 5th after leading for 3 laps. Kanaan would get a pair of 2nd-place finishes at the races at Circuit Trois-Rivières and Concord Pacific Place. In the latter, Kanaan led for a race-high 22 of 44 laps. At the next and season-ending race at Laguna Seca Raceway Kanaan qualified on the pole position and led for all 34 laps to get his second victory of the season. Kanaan would finish 2nd in points with 113 points.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: In 1997 Kanaan returned with Tasman Motorsports to drive the No. 7 Marlboro/Davene/Brahma Lola T97/20-Buick V6. At the season-opening race at Homestead Motorsports Complex Kanaan started 10th and finished 6th. Kanaan would then get consecutive 5th-place finishes at the next two races, on the Streets of Long Beach and at Nazareth Speedway. Kanaan would then finish 23rd and 10th at the Hutchinson Island Road Race Course and at Gateway International Raceway. At the next race at Belle Isle State Park Kanaan qualified on the pole position and led all 36 laps of the race to win the race. Kanaan would then qualify on the pole position at Exhibition Place and would finish in 2nd place. Kanaan would then win at Circuit Trois-Rivières after starting 3rd and leading for a race-high 44 of 50 laps. Kanaan would then take the championship lead with a 2nd-place finish at the race at Concord Pacific Place. Kanaan would then finish 2nd and 9th at the races at Laguna Seca Raceway and California Speedway, qualifying on the pole position and 3rd place to end the season. Kanaan would win the series championship with 156 points.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: Kanaan began to compete in the Champ Car Championship Series in 1998 for Tasman Motorsports in the No. 31 LCI International Reynard 98i-Honda HRK. Kanaan made his debut at the season-opening Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami Presented by Toyota at Homestead Motorsports Complex. In the race, Kanaan started in 18th place and finished in 29th (last) place due to a crash after 29 laps. Kanaan later achieved a pair of third-place finishes at the Honda Grand Prix of Monterey at Laguna Seca Raceway and the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston on the Streets of Houston. Kanaan finished out the season ranked in ninth place in points with 92 points. Kanaan also won the Jim Trueman Rookie of the Year Award.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: In 1999, Kanaan began to drive the No. 44 McDonald's Reynard 99i-Honda HRS for Forsythe Racing in conjunction with Tasman Motorsports. Kanaan qualified on the pole position at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on the Streets of Long Beach. In the race, Kanaan led the first 44 laps and was attempting to hold off Juan Pablo Montoya when he crashed in turn-6. Kanaan later won the U. S. 500 Presented by Toyota at Michigan International Speedway when leader Max Papis ran out of fuel on the last lap. Kanaan's next best finish during the season was fifth place at the Grand Prix Telemar Rio 200 at Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway. Kanaan finished out the season ranked in 11th place in points with 85 points.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: For 2000, Kanaan began to drive for Mo Nunn Racing in the No. 55 Hollywood Cigarettes Reyanard 2Ki-Ilmor-Mercedes-Benz IC108F. The season was a struggle for Kanaan as he could only get a best finish of a trio of eighth-place finishes at the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix Presented by Toyota at Nazareth Speedway, the Motorola 220 at Road America and the Honda Indy 300 on the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit. At the Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix of Detroit at Belle Isle State Park, Kanaan was injured before the race and missed the race and the three races following it. Kanaan's best start of the season was a third-place at the Target Grand Prix Presented by Energizer at Chicago Motor Speedway. Kanaan finished the season ranked in 19th place in points with 24 points.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: In 2001, Kanaan returned with Mo Nunn Racing to drive the No. 55 Hollywood Cigarettes Reynard 01i-Honda HR-1. Kanaan got his first podium since winning at Michigan in 1999 when he got a third-place finish at the Firestone Firehawk 500 at Twin Ring Motegi. Kanaan later qualified on the pole position at the Target Grand Prix Presented by Energizer at Chicago Motor Speedway. Kanaan finished in ninth place in points with 93 points.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: Kanaan returned with Mo Nunn Racing in 2002 to originally drive the No. 10 Pioneer Corporation/WorldCom Reynard 02i-Honda HR-2. Kanaan's highlight of the first three races of the season was a second-place start at the Bridgestone Potenza 500 at Twin Ring Motegi. Kanaan's best finish in these races was a 15th-place finish at Motegi. Following Motegi, at the Miller Lite 250 at the Milwaukee Mile, Kanaan switched chassis types to a Lola B02/00. Kanaan qualified on the pole position at both the Grand Prix Americas at Bayfront Park and The 500 Presented by Toyota at California Speedway and finished in third place at both the Molson Indy Vancouver on the Streets of Vancouver and the Molson Indy Montreal at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Kanaan finished in 12th place in points with 99 points.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: Kanaan competed in the Indy Racing League in 2002 for Mo Nunn Racing in the No. 17 Hollywood Cigarettes-sponsored G-Force GF05-Chevrolet V8 in one-off race at the Indianapolis 500. Kanaan was the highest-starting rookie in the race with a fifth-place starting position. In the race, Kanaan led for 23 laps when on lap 90 both Jimmy Vasser and Bruno Junqueira had mechanical problems and slowed on the course. An oil leak was on the track and was not caught by Indy Racing League officials and Kanaan crashed, finishing 28th. Kanaan finished 50th in points with two points.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: In 2003, Kanaan drove for Andretti Green Racing in the No. 11 7-Eleven-sponsored Dallara IR03-Ilmor-Honda Indy V8 HI3R. Kanaan got consecutive pole positions at the Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, finishing fourth, and the Purex Dial Indy 200 at Phoenix International Raceway, where he would go on to win his second Indy car race after leading for 79 laps. Kanaan then led the point standings after Phoenix. At the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi Kanaan was involved in a crash with Scott Dixon on lap 178 and finished 14th. There was a question whether Kanaan would be able to compete in the Indianapolis 500. Kanaan was able to participate and qualified 2nd and led for two laps, eventually finishing 3rd behind countrymen and Marlboro Team Penske teammates Gil de Ferran and Hélio Castroneves. Kanaan regained the points lead and held on for the next eight races, except for the Belterra Casino Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway where he dropped to second place, based on consistent finishes. Following an 18th-place finish at the Firestone Indy 225 at Nazareth Speedway Kanaan dropped to 3rd in points. Kanaan entered the season-ending Chevy 500 at Texas Motor Speedway third in points and was involved in a five-way battle for the championship with de Ferran, Dixon, Castroneves, and Sam Hornish Jr. In the race, Kanaan started ninth and led for 52 laps, only to finish two laps down in 14th place. Kanaan finished fourth in points behind Dixon, de Ferran, and Castroneves with 476 points.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: In 2004 Kanaan returned with Andretti Green Racing to drive the No. 11 7-Eleven Dallara IR03-Ilmor-Honda Indy V8 HI4R. At the season-opening Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Kanaan started and finished eighth. At the second race of the season, the Copper World Indy 200 at Phoenix International Raceway, Kanaan started second and led for 191 of 200 laps to win. Kanaan also took the points lead. At the Indianapolis 500, Kanaan qualified in fifth-place. In the race, Kanaan led for 28 laps and was battling with teammate and friend Dan Wheldon and Buddy Rice. Kanaan was running second to Rice on lap 174 when the caution came out for rain. The race was then stopped permanently on lap 180 with Kanaan in third. Kanaan went on to win both the Bombardier 500 at Texas Motor Speedway and the Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway. Kanaan also qualified on the pole position at the Michigan Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway and the Honda Indy 225 at Pikes Peak International Raceway. Kanaan clinched the championship with a 2nd-place finish at the Toyota Indy 400 at California Speedway. Kanaan completed all 3,305 laps during the season. Kanaan scored 618 points to win the championship.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: For 2005, Kanaan returned with Andretti Green Racing in the No. 11 7-Eleven-sponsored Dallara IR05-Ilmor-Honda Indy V8 HI4R. Kanaan started off the season with a third-place finish at the season-opening Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. At the Indianapolis 500, Kanaan qualified on the pole position. In the race, Kanaan battled early with Sam Hornish Jr. for the lead. Kanaan led for 54 laps, only to drop to an eighth-place finish in the final 50 laps of the race. Kanaan later won the Argent Mortgage Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway and the Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix at Infineon Raceway. Kanaan finished second in the point standings behind his teammate and friend Dan Wheldon with 548 points. In September 2005 Kanaan tested a BAR-Honda Formula One car for British American Racing at Circuito de Jerez as a reward for winning the 2004 IndyCar Series championship in a Honda-powered car.


title: Tony Kanaan

text: Kanaan returned with Andretti Green Racing in the No. 11 7-Eleven-sponsored Dallara IR05-Ilmor-Honda Indy V8 HI4R in 2006. The entire season would be a struggle for the entire Andretti Green team compared to previous seasons due to in part Marlboro Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing beginning to use Honda engines due to Toyota withdrawing after 2005. Kanaan's only win of the season was at the ABC Supply Company A. J. Foyt 225 at the Milwaukee Mile. Kanaan's best start of the season was a second at the Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix presented by Tissot at Watkins Glen International. At the Indianapolis 500, Kanaan qualified fifth and in the race led for 12 laps. On lap 190 Felipe Giaffone crashed in turn 2 while Kanaan still had to make his final pit stop; as a result, he pitted under caution and dropped to fourth place. On the final lap of the race, Dan Wheldon passed Kanaan. Kanaan finished in fifth-place behind Sam Hornish Jr., Marco Andretti, Michael Andretti and Wheldon. On 28 May 2006, Kanaan's friend Rubens Barrichello wore Kanaan's helmet livery during the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and Kanaan wore Barrichello's helmet during the Indianapolis 500. The two of them created a charity offering financial and technical aid to institutions within the voluntary sector, the Barrichello Kanaan Institute. Kanaan would have an issue with another of his long-time good friends and a former teammate from his time at Tasman Motorsports, Hélio Castroneves. Kanaan and Castroneves had developed an intense rivalry that has resulted in some hard feelings. Castroneves accused Kanaan of costing him the 2006 series championship by racing him too hard for position in the final race. Kanaan countered that he was not paid to let other people pass him for the position. The two started to patch up their differences at 2007 Indianapolis 500. Kanaan finished 6th in points 384 points.