title: Insane Clown Posse

text: In late 1997, Bruce took Myzery to St. Andrew's Hall. Eminem, then an unknown local emcee, approached Bruce and, according to Bruce, handed him a flyer advertising the release party for the "Slim Shady EP". The flyer read, "Featuring appearances by Esham, Kid Rock, and ICP (maybe)". Bruce asked why Eminem was promoting a possible Insane Clown Posse appearance without first contacting the group. Bruce said that Eminem explained, "It says 'maybe.' Maybe you will be there; I don't know. That's why I'm asking you right now. You guys comin' to my release party, or what?" Bruce, upset over not being consulted, responded, "Fuck "no", I ain't coming to your party. We might have, if you would've asked us first, before putting us on the fuckin' flyer like this." Bruce reported that Eminem attacked the group in radio interviews. Bruce and Utsler first responded by referring to Eminem's alter ego as "Slim Anus" on "85 Bucks An Hour" from Twiztid's 1997 debut, "Mostasteless", and later in 1999 releasing a parody of Eminem's "My Name Is" entitled "Slim Anus". Eminem later released a skit on his album The Marshall Mathers LP depicting the members of Insane Clown Posse having sex with the fictional homosexual Ken Kaniff. In the skit, Kaniff asks Shaggy 2 Dope to "say my name." When Shaggy replies "Eminem," Kaniff is angered and leaves. Barbs between Insane Clown Posse and Eminem continued until the feud was ended in 2005 by hip hop group D12 and Psychopathic Records.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: One month after "ICP's Strangle-Mania Live", Insane Clown Posse began their second nationwide tour, "The House of Horrors Tour", with Myzery added as one of the opening acts. While searching for the second opening act, Bruce received a telephone call at his home from former House of Krazees members Jamie Spaniolo and Paul Methric, who told Bruce that the group was officially disbanded and asked to be on the tour. Spaniolo and Methric provided a demo tape containing three songs: "2nd Hand Smoke", "Diemotherfuckdie", and "How Does It Feel?" Bruce was extremely impressed, and immediately had a contract drafted with Psychopathic Records for the new group to sign. Bruce, Spaniolo, and Methric agreed on the band name Twiztid. The House of Horrors Tour thus featured Insane Clown Posse, with opening groups Twiztid, Myzery, and Psycho Realm.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: On November 16, 1997, Bruce was arrested on an aggravated battery charge after allegedly striking an audience member thirty times with his microphone at a concert in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bruce was held for four hours before being released on $5,000 bail. The January 1998 issue of "Spin" magazine ran a four-page cartoon lampooning Insane Clown Posse and Juggalos, claiming that the group was offensive "not for their obscenity, but for their stupidity". "Spin" likened Insane Clown Posse's stage act to "a sort of circus karaoke" and portrayed the group's fans as overweight suburbanites. On the group's website, Bruce responded to the article by stating, "I could give a fuck less".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: After a show in Indianapolis, Insane Clown Posse's tour bus stopped at a Waffle House in Greenfield, Indiana. When a customer began to harass Spaniolo and Bruce, a fight broke out between the customer and all of the bands' members. Months later on June 4, 1998, Bruce and Utsler pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges (reduced from battery) in an Indiana court and were fined $200 each. Members of Twiztid, Myzery, and Psycho Realm were charged with battery. The group's tour was briefly derailed in January 1998, when their tour bus drifted off a highway and down an embankment, leaving Frank Moreno of Psycho Realm with a concussion. As a result of the accident, Insane Clown Posse postponed two shows scheduled for Cleveland, Ohio, on January 22 and 23, but honored their promise to perform on January 25 and 26. They face a lawsuit over alleged sexual harassment.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: On April 19, 1998, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bruce suffered a panic attack during a performance and was carried off stage. Bruce, who later recalled being completely "out of it", found scissors and cut off his dreadlocks. After suffering another panic attack once he returned home, Bruce opted to spend three days in a Michigan mental health program. Insane Clown Posse later cancelled the last two weeks' worth of dates on its United States tour, but subsequently launched their first European tour.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: By late 1998 over one million copies of "The Great Milenko" had been sold, and Insane Clown Posse was ready for its fifth album, "The Amazing Jeckel Brothers". Working with Mike E. Clark and Rich "Legz Diamond" Murrell, Bruce and Utsler developed their album with the highest of hopes. The group was known nationally, but were not taken very seriously. Hoping to receive the respect Bruce and Utsler felt they deserved, they planned to feature well-known, respected rappers on their album. Bruce stated outright that he wanted to involve Snoop Dogg and Ol' Dirty Bastard. They paid Snoop Dogg $40,000 to appear on the song "The Shaggy Show". Snoop Dogg also helped them contact Ol' Dirty Bastard, who was paid $30,000 for his appearance. Ol' Dirty Bastard recorded his track in a matter of two days; however, his recording consisted of nothing more than him rambling about "bitches". It took Bruce and Utsler a week to assemble just four rhymes out of his rambling, and had to re-record the track and title it "Bitches". Finally, Insane Clown Posse contacted Ice-T, who charged them only $10,000. The group felt that Ice-T's song did not belong on the album, and was instead released on a later album, "Psychopathics from Outer Space".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: To help increase their positive publicity, the group hired the Nasty Little Man publicity team. The team set up a photo shoot for Insane Clown Posse that was to appear on the cover of "Alternative Press" magazine in Cleveland. On the set of the photo shoot, a member of the publicity team approached Bruce and explained that in the song "Fuck the World", the lyric that stated "Fuck the Beastie Boys and the Dalai Lama" needed to be changed. Insulted, Bruce exclaimed that his music would not be censored again—referring to Disney's previous requirement for censorship. Nasty Little Man told Bruce that the Beastie Boys were not only clients of the company but also personal friends, and the Beastie Boys told the company to make Bruce change the lyric. In response, Bruce fired Nasty Little Man and asked its team to leave the photo shoot.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: "The Amazing Jeckel Brothers" was released on May 25, 1999, and reached No. 4 on the "Billboard" album charts, and has since been certified platinum by the RIAA. Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album a "four out of five stars" rating, stating that "[Insane Clown Posse] actually delivered an album that comes close to fulfilling whatever promise their ridiculous, carnivalesque blend of hardcore hip-hop and shock-metal had in the first place". "Rolling Stone" writer Barry Walters gave the album a "two out of five stars" rating, writing that "no musical sleight of hand can disguise the fact that Shaggy and J remain the ultimate wack MCs". At the same time as "The Amazing Jeckel Brothers" release, Island Records merged with Def Jam Records. It quickly became apparent to Bruce and Utsler that Def Jam Records had no interest in them. Eminem, who had begun to gain mainstream success, insulted Insane Clown Posse in interviews, tours, and the song "Till Hell Freezes Over".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: On Insane Clown Posse's previous tour (The House of Horrors Tour), they had watched the movie "Big Ballers". The group, as well as Twiztid, loved the video. After Insane Clown Posse finished its "The Amazing Jeckel Brothers" album, Bruce and Utsler decided to create their own movie, "Big Money Hustlas", with the same low-budget comedy style as "Big Ballers". Island Records gave them $250,000 to begin work on the movie. Bruce and Utsler were contacted by John Cafiero, who said that he was a fan of Insane Clown Posse, and offered to direct the movie. Insane Clown Posse asked Mick Foley to appear in the movie as "Cactus Sac", a parody of his "Cactus Jack" persona. Cafiero retained the Misfits, Fred Berry, and, at Bruce's request, Harland Williams. The script was written by Bruce, and filmed in New York City. Bruce played a crime boss and Utsler portrayed a police detective. The stage crew members, who showed their dislike for Insane Clown Posse, were a source of contention. Despite the crew striking twice, the movie was filmed in two months.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: While on "The Asylum In-store Tour", Bruce and Utsler were informed by Abbiss that they were offered $100,000 to perform at Woodstock '99. They were excited about the offer, as it indicated their impact on the music industry. Some people perceived participating in Woodstock '99 was a sell-out for the group; however, Bruce and Utsler disagreed. As Bruce explains, "[Woodstock] sold out the mainstream style for us! Woodstock never came to us and asked us to change one fuckin' thing about us or our show! They wanted ICP just as ICP is, and nothing else. If that ain't fresh, then I don't know what the fuck is!".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: After Woodstock 1999, Insane Clown Posse began its "Amazing Jeckel Brothers Tour", along with musicians Biohazard, Krayzie Bone, Twiztid, Mindless Self Indulgence, and Coal Chamber. Biohazard, Mindless Self Indulgence, Krayzie Bone, and Twiztid were well received by audiences; however, Coal Chamber was not. Insane Clown Posse fans were not purchasing tickets, as they did not like Coal Chamber. For the three shows that Coal Chamber played, there were multiple ticket refunds. Bruce and his brother, Rob, made the decision to eliminate Coal Chamber from the tour. After doing so, there were no tickets returned for the remainder of the tour dates. Bruce and Utsler claimed that Coal Chamber had been removed from the tour because of equipment problems, but later revealed the true reason for their actions on "The Howard Stern Show", which aired August 19, 1999. Bruce continued by saying, "Nobody will tell you that, because everybody's afraid of your crumpet-ass bitch manager". Later that night, Stern contacted Bruce and Utsler, asking them to appear on his show the following day to talk with Coal Chamber's manager, Sharon Osbourne.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Before the show went on air, Osbourne bet Bruce and Utsler $50,000 that Insane Clown Posse's next album would not even sell 200,000 copies—a bet that Bruce accepted. On air Osbourne informed Bruce and Utsler that Coal Chamber filed a lawsuit for breach of contract. Osbourne stated that her group was to receive $12,500 per show for a scheduled two-month package tour. Bruce reiterated that Coal Chamber's music did not appeal to Insane Clown Posse fans, and that ticket refunds decreased after Coal Chamber had been removed from the tour. Osbourne then made public the bet with Bruce about Insane Clown Posse's next album, also stating that the duo would be subsequently dropped from their distributor. In Osbourne's words, "You're dead. Your career is over." Bruce predicted that the group's next album would sell at least 500,000 copies; however, the bet officially stood at 200,000 copies as agreed by both Bruce and Osbourne backstage.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: On January 10, 2000, Utsler collapsed on stage during a performance at the House of Blues in Chicago and was rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He was diagnosed with flu-related symptoms and abnormally low blood sugar. As a result of the incident, the following week's concert dates were rescheduled. In June 2000, Eminem physically attacked Douglas Dail, an Insane Clown Posse affiliate, threatening him with a gun in the parking lot of a car audio store in Royal Oak, Michigan. Eminem pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for two years probation and a $10,000 fine. In July 2000, Bruce and Utsler staged the first annual Gathering of the Juggalos at the Novi Expo Center in Novi, Michigan. Described by Bruce as a "Juggalo Woodstock", the Gathering of the Juggalos was a three-day music festival that featured wrestling, games, seminars, contests, sideshows, and performances by all Psychopathic Records' artists. Also featured at the event were Vampiro—who both wrestled and performed—Project Born, and Kottonmouth Kings. On July 18, 2000, "Big Money Hustlas" was released direct-to-video.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: After the Gathering of the Juggalos, Insane Clown Posse set out to release its sixth and seventh studio albums—"Bizaar" and "Bizzar"—as a double album. While recording the albums, the duo had a fallout with long-time producer Mike E. Clark. "Bizaar" and "Bizzar" were the last complete albums Clark would produce with Insane Clown Posse until his return in 2007. Bruce and Utsler flew to Denver, Colorado to add the finishing touches to the albums. "Bizaar" and "Bizzar" were released on October 31, 2000, peaking at #20 and No. 21, respectively, on the "Billboard" 200. In "The New Rolling Stone Album Guide", Ben Sisario wrote that the albums "qualify as ICP's masterworks of both merchandising and music". Both albums were given a "three out of five stars" rating. The combined sales were around 400,000 copies, exceeding the bet placed previously with Sharon Osbourne; Osbourne did not come through with payment for having lost the bet.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Two music videos were released from the albums: "Tilt-a-Whirl," from "Bizaar," and "Let's Go All The Way", a cover of a Sly Fox song from "Bizzar." MTV agreed to play "Let's Go All The Way" on their network, airing it once in the late evening. Bruce and Utsler decided to bombard "Total Request Live (TRL)" with requests for the video. While on their "Bizaar Bizzar Tour", Insane Clown Posse posted on its website that December 8 was the day for their fans request the video. Bruce and Utsler named that day "The Mighty Day of Lienda," meaning "The Mighty Day of All or Nothing". On December 8, Rudy Hill, Robert Bruce, Tom Dub, and six other Psychopathic Records employees and friends drove down to New York City.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: They were met by nearly 400 Insane Clown Posse fans standing outside in front of the "TRL" studio window, all with signs supporting the duo. Thirty minutes before the show began, Viacom security guards and New York City police officers were dispatched to remove all the fans from the sidewalk. When some fans, including Robert Bruce, refused to move because it was a public street and no other individuals were asked to move, they were assaulted. All telephone requests for the video to be played were ignored, and Insane Clown Posse was never mentioned during the show. MTV later informed Island Records that the heads of the network must choose the band first before it can become eligible to be featured on "TRL".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Bruce and Utsler left Island Records, signing a contract with D3 Entertainment to distribute every release on Psychopathic Records, which would remain independently funded, produced, and recorded. Insane Clown Posse had their own studio built, called "The Lotus Pod". In the spring of 2001, Insane Clown Posse's road manager William Dail was arrested in Omaha, Nebraska, for allegedly choking a man who waved an Eminem T-shirt in front of the band. Dail was charged for misdemeanor assault and battery. The charges were reduced to a $100 fine after he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: The second Gathering of the Juggalos was held from July 13–15 at the SeaGate Convention Centre in Toledo, Ohio. The event featured the same activities as the first Gathering of the Juggalos, as well as guests such as Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Vanilla Ice, and Three 6 Mafia. On June 15, 2001, Bruce was arrested in Columbia, Missouri for an outstanding warrant in St. Louis stemming from an incident in February 2001. That incident involved Insane Clown Posse allegedly attacking employees of a St. Louis radio station over disparaging remarks that a disc jockey made on the air. The police used several squad cars to detain Bruce, Utsler, and two associates a few miles from a venue where the group had completed a concert. Bruce was transferred to St. Louis the following day and released on bail without charge on June 18.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: The face of the sixth Joker's Card is "The Wraith", a personification of Death. The card features two "exhibits", "Shangri-La" and "Hell's Pit", each of which would be given its own album. On November 5, 2002, Insane Clown Posse released their eighth studio album, "", which debuted at No. 15 on the "Billboard" 200 and No. 1 on the Top Independent Albums chart. The album was notable for its explicit acknowledgment of ICP's belief in God.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Ben Sisario criticized the album in the "Rolling Stone Album Guide", writing that "the whole thing was some bland divine plan" and asking, "Is this man's final dis of God, or His of us?" Some critics perceived the spiritual element of the storyline to be a joke or stunt. Allmusic writer Bradley Torreano wrote that "Even if it is a joke, it isn't a funny one, or even a clever one." In September 2003, Insane Clown Posse was voted the worst band of any musical genre in "Blender", with "The Wraith: Shangri-La" named as the group's worst album. However, the magazine also gave the album a positive review for its "charming, good-natured idiocy".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: According to Bruce, "Some people might've been upset [by spiritual themes in "The Wraith: Shangri-La"], but through our eyes all we did was touch a lot of people. We definitely wanted it to be something everlasting. Maybe a 19-year-old might not understand or like that ending now. But later, when he has four kids, he might think, 'That was the shit.'" Following the release of "The Wraith: Shangri-La", Bruce and Utsler signed a new contract with Sony BMG's RED Distribution and launched the Psychopathic Europe record label.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: The duo went on the 75-date "Shangri-La World Tour", where they performed across the United States, Australia, and Europe. While in Australia, customs confiscated all the group's Faygo, assuming that they were bringing it for commercial purposes. Insane Clown Posse tried to explain that they are performers and that the soda was part of their act, but were still unable to use the Faygo and forced to use a different form of soda for their Australian tour.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Following the release of "The Wraith: Shangri-La", Bruce admitted that he was considering not completing the production of "Hell's Pit". He is quoted as describing "Shangri-La" as "the end of the road. It's the end of the Joker's Cards. After this I could do anything I want, for the rest of my life. The positivity was so unbelievable". On August 31, 2004, Insane Clown Posse released their ninth studio album, "Hell's Pit", the second exhibit of The Wraith, intended to warn listeners of the horrors of Hell. Bruce described the album as the darkest, most painful work he had ever done. Two versions of the album were released, each containing a different DVD. One release featured a live concert and a twelve-minute music video for the song "Real Underground Baby", and another featured a short film for the song "Bowling Balls", which was the first 3-D film shot in high-definition video. Also in 2004, music by Insane Clown Posse was featured in the film "Demons at the Door", directed by Roy Knyrim.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: In 2005, D12 and Insane Clown Posse ended their feud, with the help of member Proof. Attempts to officially end the feud between Eminem and Insane Clown Posse have been unsuccessful, but Bruce states that the rivalry has ended.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: On February 1, 2006, Insane Clown Posse fan Jacob D. Robida attacked individuals in a gay bar in New Bedford, Massachusetts with a handgun and a hatchet—a weapon featured in the logo of the group's record label, Psychopathic Records. Robida had a swastika tattoo and flaunted Nazi insignias and paraphernalia on his website. On February 5, Robida shot and killed a traffic officer during a routine stop. When police pulled Robida over during a later stop, he killed his girlfriend, Jennifer Bailey of Charleston, West Virginia, then opened fire on the police. Robida was shot twice in the head during the shootout with the police, and later died in the hospital. On February 7, Insane Clown Posse released a statement on the Robida attacks. The group's manager Alex Abbiss extended Bruce and Utsler's condolences and prayers to the families of the victims, stating that "It's quite obvious that this guy had no clue what being a Juggalo is all about. If anyone knows anything at all about ICP, then you know that they have never, ever been down or will be down with any racist or bigotry bullshit".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: On October 21, 2006, Insane Clown Posse performed at one of twenty benefit shows organized by Myspace as part of the "Rock for Darfur" campaign to raise awareness of the War in Darfur and funds for the region's aid.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: On March 20, 2007, Insane Clown Posse released their tenth studio album, "The Tempest", which debuted at No. 20 on the "Billboard" 200 and sold nearly 33,000 copies in its first week. In 2008, Bruce and Utsler starred in the Knyrim-directed film "Death Racers". It was released direct-to-video on September 16, 2008, by The Asylum. In December 2008, John Antonelli filed a lawsuit against the group after being struck by an unopened two-liter of Faygo during a performance at the Fargo nightclub The Hub, formerly known as Playmakers. Antonelli is seeking at least $50,000 in damages. The lawsuit also names the venue, Playmakers, as a defendant. An attorney for Playmakers states that only Bruce should be held liable.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Filming of "Big Money Rustlas", a Western spoof, began in January 2009, and concluded on February 24, 2009. The tenth Gathering of the Juggalos took place at Hogrock in Cave-In-Rock, Illinois, from August 6 to 9. The event had the largest attendance in Gathering history with over 20,000 people. Over 120 musical artists performed at the event, including the likes of Tech N9ne, Kottonmouth Kings, Ice Cube, Gwar, Coolio, Vanilla Ice, Onyx, Scarface, The Dayton Family, Bizarre, Esham, and NATAS. At the event, the "Big Money Rustlas" trailer was screened twice. An infomercial for the event was released online by Psychopathic Records. After the event, a friend of Esham's handed Bruce a copy of his album "I Ain't Cha Homey", which depicted a clown committing suicide with a gun on the front cover. Bruce listened to the album and saw it as a diss towards Insane Clown Posse. While Esham claimed that the album was not a diss in his podcast, the album strained the relationship between Bruce and Esham.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Insane Clown Posse's eleventh studio album, "Bang! Pow! Boom!", was released on September 1, 2009. It debuted at No. 1 on the "Billboard" Top Independent Albums chart and No. 4 on the "Billboard" 200. The album was later revealed to be the first of a "second deck" of Joker's Cards. "The Detroit News" music critic Adam Graham gave the album a B rating, describing it as "the best material the Clowns have touched since 1999's "The Amazing Jeckel Brothers"".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: On July 21, 2009, Tom Scharpling and Paul F. Tompkins discussed the 2009 Gathering of the Juggalos infomercial at length on The Best Show on WFMU. On December 5, 2009, "Saturday Night Live" aired a sketch titled "Kickspit Underground Rock Festival", which parodied the Gathering of the Juggalos infomercial. Bruce stated that he was not offended by the parody, and that he thought that the sketch was "hilarious" and "a humongous compliment". On February 17, 2010, Psychopathic Records signed a contract with Universal Music Group's Fontana Distribution. On March 9, 2010, Insane Clown Posse were interviewed by "Nightline" journalist Martin Bashir. Bruce hated the segment, stating that Bashir took statements made by the duo out of context, pairing one of Bruce's responses with a different question than he had been asked.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: The trailer for "Big Money Rustlas" spawned a parody video called "Juggalo News", which achieved popularity on CollegeHumor and Funny or Die, and was praised by Bruce on his Twitter account. On April 6, 2010, "Bang! Pow! Boom!" was reissued in a "Nuclear Edition", which featured previously unreleased material and music videos for the songs "In Yo Face" and "Miracles". During this period, the duo won the Detroit Music Award for Outstanding Hip-Hop Artist/Group. On April 17, "Saturday Night Live" aired a sketch which parodied the "Miracles" music video, featuring host Ryan Phillippe and cast member Bobby Moynihan. Insane Clown Posse responded favorably to the parody, and asked to appear on the show.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Before the 12th annual Gathering of the Juggalos, Insane Clown Posse were contacted by Jack White, who invited Bruce and Utsler to his mansion because he wanted to collaborate with them. White played the track he was working on, an arrangement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Leck mich im Arsch" with live instrumentation by JEFF the Brotherhood, for Bruce and Utsler and explained that the title of the track translated to "Lick My Ass". Bruce perceived that the scatological nature of the composition was the reason why White asked Bruce and Utsler to appear on the song, but once White explained Mozart's sense of humor, they became excited to work with White, went back to their hotel room to write their lyrics, and returned to record with White and JEFF the Brotherhood in White's home recording studio. Bruce and Utsler's vocals were recorded in one take. The song was released as a single on September 13 by White's label Third Man Records, paired with another song, "Mountain Girl", which Bruce describes as his favorite of the two songs recorded with White, and "more ICP's feel".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: "Big Money Rustlas" was released on August 17, 2010. Insane Clown Posse returned to Europe for a tour. The group released a three-disc compilation of their guest appearances with other artists called "Featuring Freshness" in November 2011. The compilation also included new songs with artists Paris, Cold 187um, and Tone Tone.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: At the 2011 Detroit Music Awards, Insane Clown Posse received the Distinguished Achievement Award. In June, Insane Clown Posse issued a cease and desist notice to the Upright Citizens Brigade, threatening legal action over a planned performance, "The Gathering of the Juggalos For A Mother Fucking Baby Funeral".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: At their 2010 Hallowicked concert, Insane Clown Posse announced that the second new Joker's Card would be "The Mighty Death Pop!" The album has two faces, the first of which was revealed at the Hallowicked concert. "The Mighty Death Pop!" features appearances from Tech N9ne and Hopsin.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Additionally, the album was released in three variant editions, containing three individual full-length bonus albums. The first variant edition, dubbed the "Red Pop" edition, contains an album of cover songs entitled "Smothered, Covered & Chunked", which features appearances by Psychopathic artists Twiztid, Anybody Killa, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, Cold 187um and Boondox, as well as Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst and rapper Lil Wyte. The second variant, the "Black Pop" edition, contains the album "Freaky Tales", consisting of a single, album-length rap, inspired by Too Short's song of the same name. In October of 2012, the group made an appearance on the Spike television series, "1000 Ways To Die", as the horror rock band, Infernal Clown Posse (Episode: "Deadliest Kitch"). The third variant, the "White Pop" edition, contains the remix album "Mike E. Clark's Extra Pop Emporium", which features remixes, outtakes and leftover songs recorded during the "Mighty Death Pop" sessions; these tracks include appearances by Kottonmouth Kings, Three 6 Mafia, Color Me Badd, Ice Cube, Scarface, Geto Boys, Twiztid, Kreayshawn, Swollen Members and Willie D. ICP said in their December 21, 2012 Hatchet Herald edition that they will be releasing a sideshow EP for The Mighty Death Pop! in 2013. The EP is titled "House Of Wax" set to be released on November 25, 2014 packaged inside "The First Six".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Insane Clown Posse sued the FBI, whose National Gang Intelligence Center listed Juggalos as "a loosely organized hybrid gang" in a 2011 report. The report states that Juggalos are "recognized as a gang in only four states... law enforcement officials in at least 21 states have identified criminal Juggalo sub-sets". The report also noted that New Mexico was seeing a lot of Juggalo gang expansion due to their attraction to "the tribal and cultural traditions of the Native Americans". The lawsuit asks for the documents that the FBI used to reach this conclusion; in August 2013, federal authorities had "filed a motion to dismiss the case, saying they had already released several news media reports about Juggalos involved in criminal activity". The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is working with ICP's lawyers in order "to ensure the right of Juggalos everywhere to gather together and express their support of the I.C.P. without having to worry about being unfairly targeted and harassed by law enforcement". On January 8, 2014, Insane Clown Posse, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, filed suit again against the FBI. The suit aims to have Juggalos no longer considered to be a gang and to have any "criminal intelligence information" about Juggalos destroyed. ICP announced in the edition of December 21, 2012 of the Hatchet Herald that they will be releasing a sideshow EP to "The Mighty Death Pop!" in 2013. After no word was heard on the album, it was speculated that it had been scrapped. In mid 2013 it was announced that ICP would be releasing their first ever box set titled "The First Six". After the release date came and passed, "The First Six" was not released. In a February 2014 interview with Faygoluvers, the question was asked if we would be able to get the box set. ICP thought it had already been released. Dog Beats (the first ever release on Psychopathic Records) was set to be the bonus album in the box set, ICP went back and decided to put "House of Wax" in the box set instead. "The First Six" was set to be released on October 28, 2014. After a minor setback, was ultimately released on November 25, 2014.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Additionally, Psychopathic Records is pushing back against a former publicist who is suing the label for sexual harassment. In late 2013 ICP teamed up with Da Mafia 6ix to create The Killjoy Club, and released their debut album Reindeer Games on September 2, 2014. ICP went on "The ShockFest Tour" with Da Mafia 6ix, Mushroomhead, Madchild and Jelly Roll, additionally Big Hoodoo joined the tour to perform before the ticketed acts. To close out the shows on the tour Insane Clown Posse and Da Mafia 6ix performed on stage together as The Killjoy Club, doing only two songs.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: During their 2014 Hallowicked concert, ICP revealed the 3rd Joker Card in the 2nd Deck of the Dark Carnival saga. The first part of the third card is titled "", which was released on Violent J's 43rd birthday, April 28, 2015. The second part of the third card is titled "", and was originally set to be released during the 2015 Gathering of the Juggalos, July 28, 2015. It was released three days later.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: On December 5, 2015, Violent J announced that original member John Kickjazz (Shaggy 2 Dope's older brother) had died on November 20, 2015 at a group home in Michigan.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Young Wicked of the Axe Murder Boyz posted on his personal Instagram account that "The Marvelous Missing Link" was one of the Insane Clown Posse's best albums ever. He stated specifically that it was going back to the Insane Clown Posse's roots in the era of the first deck of Jokers Cards. Young wicked also made a statement that referenced the idea that he may have some featured spots on one of the albums.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: On April 7, 2015, "The Marvelous Missing Link: Lost" was made available for digital download preorder. Those who preordered on that day received the first single off the album, titled "Vomit". The rest of the album automatically downloaded on the release date, April 28, 2015.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Michigan-based author Steve Miller wrote a book, ""; released in 2016 via Da Capo Press, the book details the fandom associated with juggalos and their struggle with the FBI.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: In late 2015 2 flyers were released with the "Phantom: X-tra Spooky Edition", promoting 2016 solo album releases from Violent J titled, "Karma Forest", and Shaggy 2 Dope titled, "F.T.F.O.M.F.". On December 10, 2015 it was announced that the sideshow EP for "The Marvelous Missing Link" albums was released titled "Phantom: X-tra Spooky Edition".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: In an April 8, 2016 faygoluvers.net interview with Violent J, he stated that Shaggy 2 Dope has been working with Young Wicked, who also produced the album, without asking Violent J for any help this far. After an internal conflict between Young Wicked, Violent J and Jumpsteady, it was rumoured that Young Wicked had left Psychopathic Records but wasn't made official until December 31, 2016 when it was announced that he had signed to Majik Ninja Entertainment.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: In a January 19, 2017 ICP interview with Faygoluvers.net, Violent J stated that Shaggy 2 Dope and DJ Clay were working on the album. The album features Violent J on the song "'Foggin' Up the Window" and DJ Clay on the bonus track (only available digitally) "Awww Shit". The album was released on May 26, 2017 and charted on the Billboard 200 at No. 72, Independent at No. 1, R&B/Hip-Hop at No. 39, Top Album Sales at No. 18 and Artist 100 at No. 96.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: On September 16, 2017, an estimated 1,500 Juggalos gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial to organize a concert and all-day rally in protest of their gang classification, and "class-based discrimination by law enforcement".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Insane Clown Posse's lyrics utilize "shocking (and blatantly over-the-top) narratives to give an over-exaggerated, almost cartoon-like version of urban deprivation in Detroit", according to author Sara Cohen. Bruce and Utsler describe many of their lyrics as being tongue-in-cheek. The group's lyrics serve as morality tales, with songs focusing on subjects such as cannibalism, murder and necrophilia. Insane Clown Posse's debut album, "Carnival of Carnage", features a politically-oriented focus, criticizing elitism and prejudice against those who live in the ghetto, while the album's liner notes criticize the Gulf War. The group's lyrics have opposed racism, bigotry, domestic violence, and child abuse.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Insane Clown Posse has covered songs by Geto Boys, Sly Fox, and Above the Law. Bruce and Utsler were influenced by Ice Cube, Awesome Dre, Geto Boys, Esham, Gong, and Michael Jackson, who Bruce called Insane Clown Posse's biggest influence. The duo has described Insane Clown Posse musically as a cross between N.W.A, Michael Jackson and Pearl Jam. Utsler has a tattoo of Jackson, and Bruce has a poster of Jackson facing him in his recording studio when he raps. Insane Clown Posse's music incorporates elements such as "carnival organ riffs, power chords and shotgun blasts...banjolike plucking and Van Halen-esque guitar squeals". Bruce and Utsler's vocal style has been described as alternating between rapping and screaming. Insane Clown Posse have incorporated elements of industrial rock, funk and pop music into their sound. The group's early work features a raw, minimalistic sound, which later evolved into a more rock-oriented style. The group's music has been classified as hip hop, horrorcore, rap rock, rap metal, acid rap, trip hop, progressive pop, progressive hip hop, shock rock, disco, Detroit techno, dark ambient and pop rap. Bruce has classified the group's music as "Wicked Pop". Bruce has also stated "We do our own genre of music". In his review of "The Tempest", Allmusic's David Jeffries writes that Bruce and Utsler "[rap] in a carnival barker fashion that fits with their circus motif, their Insane Clown disguises, and Mike E. Clark's big top-inspired production." Insane Clown Posse influenced Axe Murder Boyz, Blaze Ya Dead Homie and Boondox.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Insane Clown Posse is known for their elaborate concert performances. In Marley Brant's "Tales from the Rock 'n' Roll Highway", Bruce described a typical performance: "We toss out, kick out, and shoot out into the crowd about three to four hundred two-liters of Faygo at every show...We bring with us monsters, dancing clowns, girls, trampolines, and pure and absolute madness to the stage...Shaggy and I know that without all that crazy shit going on around us, we'd just be two more idiots walking back and forth, rapping on stage...ICP's motto has always been 'Fuck keepin' it real: we just keep it entertaining.'" Performances feature backdrops including, among other settings, a game show set and a cemetery. Bruce stated, "We always have a different set, not only for Hallowicked but every tour we go out on. We've been around so long that we get to dig up the many cool sets that we used back in the day and then get to use them again on a national level. Something we might've done once in '94 at St. Andrew's Hall, we can go back again and now do it nationwide-style".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: On tour following the release of "Dog Beats", Insane Clown Posse was scheduled to perform at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, but were delayed by a blizzard. After they arrived, the group was announced by their manager, Alex Abbiss. Bruce remembers that "[w]e came out with no microphones or nothing; we were just right up in the people's faces. Shaggy and I were just fuckin' yelling over our own cassette. The people were staring at us in amazement and bewilderment. They must have been in shock and awe. We finished our two-song set, and the crowd...didn't cheer or boo. They just stood there, stunned"; they later learned that the concert was supposed to occur earlier in the evening, and that they were performing in the wrong building.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: The group was unable to bring the large amounts of Faygo needed for their concerts to their European tours without a sales permit visa because customs believed that the group had intended to sell the soda at their concerts. As a result, the group's European record label purchased similar quantities of another soda and created fake Faygo stickers to label the bottles. According to Bruce, "The craziness was this: they were not the regular two-liter bottles we're used to; they were some other amount ... maybe one-and-a-half-liter bottles. Over there, they make their plastic bottles taller and thinner...when you're doing what we do with them—that makes a world of difference". During a performance in England, Bruce recounts that he "rocketed one of them bottles off my foot and that motherfucker shot straight up and out like a guided Patriot missile, right towards the disco ball high above the crowd...The bottle nailed the disco ball, and ... came falling down ... on top of some English kid's head. ... We must've knocked fifteen or twenty people flat-out cold on that tour...Shaggy and I both had black eyes and several injuries and bruises ourselves from them things hittin' us".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Bruce and Utsler did not expect many of their fans to attend Woodstock 1999, and were surprised when thousands of people chanted "I-C-P! I-C-P!" as they waited for the group to perform. Bruce told his stage crew that he would pay $2,000 to each person who ran around the stage naked, and two people took up his offer. Insane Clown Posse also brought naked women on stage. Bruce and Utsler felt that because the tickets to the event were over-priced, they needed to "give something back." According to Bruce, "We brought along these big beach balls. We announced to the crowd that they each had a hundred dollars taped to them, and then we proceeded to kick about thirty of them into the crowd. Then we rolled out these bigger giant-ass beach balls and announced, 'These ones have five hundred bucks taped to them!' We booted a gang of them into the human sea." Bruce also recounts that their set had multiple technical problems, and the audience was not allowed to get close to the stage, which made the duo feel less connected with them.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: The group's 2009 tour in support of "Bang! Pow! Boom!" featured clowns, showgirls, a ringmaster and caged "attractions", including "Ape Boy". According to Bruce, "This is actually the biggest tour we've ever brought out, as far as stage theatrics and extras on stage...We've got a whole circus. We're touring clubs and theaters, but it's more like an arena show. It's like an arena concert packed into a club".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: The themes of God's presence and the final judgment of individuals are explored in multiple Insane Clown Posse songs. Throughout their career, the group has used parables set within the Dark Carnival mythology to warn of the ultimate consequences of immoral behavior. Their 2002 album "" ended the first set of Joker Card albums and included the song "The Unveiling", which explicitly revealed that the hidden message of ICP's music had always been to follow God. Joseph Bruce remarked that "The ending of the Joker Cards, the way we looked at it, was death. Heaven and hell. That's up to each and every juggalo [to decide]".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Several journalists have commented on the apparent conflict between the group's sexualized and often violent lyrics and their stated spiritual message. In a June 2010 interview with "The Columbian"'s Alan Sculley, Bruce explained, "[Sex and violence is] the stuff that people are talking about on the streets...to get attention, you have to speak their language. You have to interest them, gain their trust, talk to them and show you're one of them. You're a person from the street and speak of your experiences. Then at the end you can tell them God has helped me out like this and it might transfer over instead of just come straight out and just speak straight out of religion".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: In an October 2010 article for "The Guardian", Jon Ronson characterized the Insane Clown Posse as "evangelical Christians" who have "only been pretending to be brutal and sadistic to trick their fans into believing in God". In an interview with ICP conducted for the article, two of Ronson's queries referred parenthetically to ICP's "Christian message" and to the members' identities as "[secret] Christians". Several papers, including "The Washington Post", published summaries of Ronson's claims.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Eight days after publication of the "Guardian" article, Joseph Bruce tweeted "I think [it's] crazy how some press say we're a Christian band and act like we're all religious [...] I'm proud that we believe in God but I haven't been to church since I was like 10. I don't even know if [Utsler has] ever been to church!" "Christianity Today" writer Mark Moring also challenged Ronson's characterization, writing that "The guys in ICP haven't used the word 'Christian' or 'evangelical' [...] so let's not call them anything that they're not claiming for themselves".


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: In 2011, Insane Clown Posse appeared on "Attack of the Show!" and repudiated claims that they were a Christian band. Bruce explained that their Dark Carnival mythology "comes from the basic principle of right and wrong, you know. Evil and good. That's all. We're just trying to say that there's bad guys out there and that there's good guys out there [...] We were taught there's a heaven and a hell, but that's all we were taught. We weren't taught about the [Ten] Commandments [... or] what's in the Bible and all that. We just [...] want to see good people hopefully go to heaven, which we refer to as ". Joseph Utsler explained in a 2002 interview with Craig Markley that "God is in your heart [...] In my definition, it doesn't matter what creed, religion, or group you belong to. If you're doing what's right and are a good person, then you're right with God." Bruce and Utsler have also stated that they are not certain that God and the afterlife exist, but that they'd like to believe that there is something after death.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Both Bruce and Utsler began wrestling as single competitors in 1983 in their backyard wrestling promotion "Tag Team Wrestling", later renamed "National All-Star Wrestling". The two moved on to compete in various independent promotions in Michigan from 1990 to 1997 before making an appearance together in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as Insane Clown Posse. In 1998, the team had a three-month stint in World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) where they wrestled alongside The Oddities and, later, The Headbangers.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: After leaving the company, they went to wrestle for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) with The Dead Pool and The Dark Carnival between 1999 and 2000. On December 19, 1999, Bruce and Utsler created their own wrestling promotion, "Juggalo Championshit Wrestling" (now known as Juggalo Championship Wrestling). In 2004, they briefly wrestled in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). The duo continues to wrestle today in Juggalo Championship Wrestling as well as in various independent promotions.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: Insane Clown Posse gained fame for being both professional musicians and professional wrestlers. Overall, they are two-time JCW Tag Team Champions. Additionally, Bruce is a one-time JCW Tag Team Champion with 2 Tuff Tony, and Utsler is a one-time JCW Heavyweight Champion. Bruce and Utsler are also founding members of the Juggalo World Order.


title: Insane Clown Posse

text: In addition they were largely involved in "", where most of the wrestlers in the game were members of JCW.


title: Christian Dior

text: Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE, which is now owned by parent company LVMH. His fashion houses are known all around the world, specifically "on five continents in only a decade" (Sauer). He was the second child of a family of seven, born to Maurice Dior and Madeleine Martin, in the town of Granville.


title: Christian Dior

text: Dior's artistic skills led to his employment and design for various well-known fashion icons in attempts to preserve the fashion industry during World War II. Post-war, he founded and established the Dior fashion house, with his collection of the "New Look" revolutionising women's dress and contributing to the reestablishment of Paris as the centre of the fashion world.


title: Christian Dior

text: Throughout his lifetime, he won numerous awards for Best Costume Design. Upon his death in 1957, various contemporary icons paid tribute to his life and work.


title: Christian Dior

text: Christian Dior was born in Granville, a seaside town on the coast of Normandy, France. He was the second of five children born to Maurice Dior, a wealthy fertilizer manufacturer (the family firm was Dior Frères), and his wife, formerly Madeleine Martin. He had four siblings: Raymond (father of Françoise Dior), Jacqueline, Bernard, and Catherine Dior. When Christian was about five years old, the family moved to Paris, but still returned to the Normandy coast for summer holidays.


title: Christian Dior

text: Dior's family had hoped he would become a diplomat, but Dior was artistic and wished to be involved in art. To make money, he sold his fashion sketches outside his house for about 10 cents each. In 1928, Dior left school and received money from his father to finance a small art gallery, where he and a friend sold art by the likes of Pablo Picasso. The gallery was closed three years later, following the deaths of Dior's mother and brother, as well as financial trouble during the Great Depression that resulted in his father losing control of the family business.


title: Christian Dior

text: From 1937, Dior was employed by the fashion designer Robert Piguet, who gave him the opportunity to design for three Piguet collections. Dior would later say that "Robert Piguet taught me the virtues of simplicity through which true elegance must come." One of his original designs for Piguet, a day dress with a short, full skirt called "Cafe Anglais", was particularly well received. Whilst at Piguet, Dior worked alongside Pierre Balmain, and was succeeded as house designer by Marc Bohan – who would, in 1960, become head of design for Christian Dior Paris. Dior left Piguet when he was called up for military service.


title: Christian Dior

text: In 1942, when Dior left the army, he joined the fashion house of Lucien Lelong, where he and Balmain were the primary designers. For the duration of World War II, Dior, as an employee of Lelong – who labored to preserve the French fashion industry during wartime for economic and artistic reasons - designed dresses for the wives of Nazi officers and French collaborators, as did other fashion houses that remained in business during the war, including Jean Patou, Jeanne Lanvin, and Nina Ricci. His sister, Catherine (1917–2008), served as a member of the French Resistance, was captured by the Gestapo, and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was incarcerated until her liberation in May 1945. In 1947, he named his debut fragrance, "Miss Dior" in tribute to his sister.


title: Christian Dior

text: In 1946, Marcel Boussac, a successful entrepreneur known as the richest man in France, invited Dior to design for Philippe et Gaston, a Paris fashion house launched in 1925. Dior refused, wishing to make a fresh start under his own name rather than reviving an old brand. On 8 December 1946, with Boussac's backing, Dior founded his fashion house. The name of the line of his first collection, presented on 12 February 1947, was "Corolle" (literally the botanical term "corolla" or "circlet of flower petals" in English). The phrase "New Look" was coined for it by Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief of "Harper's Bazaar".


title: Christian Dior

text: Despite being called "New", it was clearly drawn from styles of the Edwardian era. The "New Look" merely refined and crystallized trends in skirt shape and waistline that had been burgeoning in high fashion since the late 1930s. Dior's designs were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric-conserving shapes of the recent World War II styles, influenced by the wartime rationing of fabric.


title: Christian Dior

text: Dior was a master at creating shapes and silhouettes. Dior was quoted as saying: "I have designed flower women." His look employed fabrics lined predominantly with percale, boned, bustier-style bodices, hip padding, wasp-waisted corsets, and petticoats that made his dresses flare out from the waist, giving his models a very curvaceous form.


title: Christian Dior

text: Initially, women protested because his designs covered up their legs, which they had been unused to because of the previous limitations on fabric. Some of the backlash to Dior's designs was also due to the amount of fabric used in a single dress or suit. Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel said of the "New Look": "Look how ridiculous these women are, wearing clothes by a man who doesn't know women, never had one, and dreams of being one." During one photo shoot in a Paris market, the models were attacked by female vendors over this profligacy, but opposition ceased as the wartime shortages ended.


title: Christian Dior

text: The "New Look" revolutionized women's dress and reestablished Paris as the centre of the fashion world after World War II, as well as making Dior a virtual arbiter of fashion for much of the following decade. Each season featuring a newly titled Dior "line", in the manner of 1947's "Corolle" line, that would then be trumpeted in the fashion press: the Envol and Cyclone/Zigzag lines in 1948; the Trompe l'Oeil and Mid-Century lines in 1949; the Vertical and Oblique lines in 1950; the Naturelle/Princesse and Longue lines in 1951; the Sinueuse and Profilėe lines in 1952; the Tulipe and Vivante lines in 1953; the Muguet/Lily of the Valley line and H-Line in 1954; the A-Line and Y-Line in 1955; the Flèche/Arrow and Aimant/Magnet lines in 1956; and the Libre/Free and Fuseau/Spindle lines in 1957, followed by successor Yves Saint Laurent's Trapeze line in 1958.


title: Christian Dior

text: In 1955, the 19-year-old Yves Saint Laurent became Dior's design assistant. Christian Dior later met with Yves Saint Laurent's mother, Lucienne Mathieu-Saint Laurent, in 1957, to tell her that he had chosen Saint Laurent to succeed him at Dior. She indicated later that she had been confused by the remark, as Dior was only 52 at the time.


title: Christian Dior

text: Christian Dior died of a sudden heart attack while on vacation in Montecatini, Italy, on 24 October 1957 in the late afternoon while playing a game of cards. He was survived by Jacques Benita, an Algerian singer, the last of a number of discreet male lovers.


title: Christian Dior

text: Dior was nominated for the 1955 Academy Award for Best Costume Design in black and white for the "Terminal Station" directed by Vittorio De Sica (1953). Dior was also nominated in 1967 for a BAFTA for Best British Costume (Colour) for the "Arabesque" directed by Stanley Donen (1966). Nominated in 1986 for his contributions to the 1985 film, "Bras de fer", he was up for Best Costume Design (Meilleurs costumes) during the 11th Cesar Awards.


title: Christian Dior

text: A novella by Paul Gallico, "Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris" (1958, UK title "Flowers for Mrs Harris"), tells the story of a London charwoman who falls in love with her employer's couture wardrobe and goes to Paris to purchase a Dior ballgown. A perfume named Christian Dior is used in Haruki Murakami's novel "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" as an influential symbol placed at critical plot points throughout. The English singer-songwriter Morrissey released a song titled "Christian Dior" as a B-side to his 2006 single "In the Future When All's Well". Kanye West released a song titled "Christian Dior Denim Flow" in 2010. West mentioned the Dior brand in three other songs: "Devil in a New Dress", "Stronger", and "Barry Bonds".


title: Christian Dior

text: The late American rapper Pop Smoke released a song titled "Dior" in July 2019. Pop Smoke also mentioned the Dior brand in other songs, including "Enjoy Yourself": "Shopping up in Saks Fifth with a cup of Actavis to get Christian Dior; Look, I be all up in the stores (Oh, oh)."


title: Christian Dior

text: In 2016, book publisher Assouline introduced an ongoing series devoted to each designer of the couture house of Dior. Published titles include "Dior by Christian Dior", "Dior by YSL", "Dior by Marc Bohan", and "Dior by Gianfranco Ferre".


title: Centipede

text: Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , "foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , "kheilos", lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an arthropod group which includes millipedes and other multi-legged animals. Centipedes are elongated segmented (metameric) creatures with one pair of legs per body segment. All centipedes are venomous and can inflict painful bites, injecting their venom through pincer-like appendages known as forcipules. Despite the name, centipedes can have a varying number of legs, ranging from 30 to 382. Centipedes always have an odd number of pairs of legs; no centipede has exactly 100. Like spiders and scorpions, centipedes are predominantly carnivorous.


title: Centipede

text: Their size ranges from a few millimetres in the smaller lithobiomorphs and geophilomorphs to about in the largest scolopendromorphs.


title: Centipede

text: Centipedes can be found in a wide variety of environments. They normally have a drab coloration combining shades of brown and red. Cavernicolous (cave-dwelling) and subterranean species may lack pigmentation, while many tropical scolopendromorphs have bright aposematic colors.


title: Centipede

text: Worldwide, an estimated 8,000 species of centipedes are thought to exist, of which 3,000 have been described. Centipedes have a wide geographical range, even reaching beyond the Arctic Circle. They are found in an array of terrestrial habitats from tropical rainforests to deserts. Within these habitats, centipedes require a moist microhabitat because they lack the waxy cuticle of insects and arachnids, therefore causing them to rapidly lose water. Accordingly, they are found in soil and leaf litter, under stones and dead wood, and inside logs. Centipedes are among the largest terrestrial invertebrate predators, and often contribute significantly to the invertebrate predatory biomass in terrestrial ecosystems.


title: Centipede

text: Centipedes have a rounded or flattened head, bearing a pair of antennae at the forward margin. They have a pair of elongated mandibles, and two pairs of maxillae. The first pair of maxillae form the lower lip, and bear short palps. The first pair of limbs stretch forward from the body to cover the remainder of the mouth. These limbs, or forcipules, end in sharp claws and include venom glands that help the animal to kill or paralyze its prey.


title: Centipede

text: Many species of centipedes lack eyes, but some possess a variable number of ocelli, which are sometimes clustered together to form true compound eyes. However, these eyes are only capable of discerning light from dark, and provide no true vision. In some species, the first pair of legs (at the centipede's head-end) can function as sensory organs, similar to antennae; unlike the antennae of most other invertebrates, these point backwards. An unusual clustering of sensory organs (found in some centipedes) is the Organ of Tömösváry. Located at the base of the antennae, these consist of a disc-like structure and a central pore, with an encircling of sensitive cells. They are likely used for sensing vibrations, and may even provide a weak form of “hearing”.


title: Centipede

text: Forcipules are a unique feature found only in centipedes, and no other arthropods. The forcipules are modifications of the first pair of legs (the maxillipeds), forming a pincer-like appendage, always located just behind the head. Forcipules are not actual oral mouthparts, though they are used in the subduing of prey animals, notably for injecting venom and holding on to their victims. Venom glands run through a tube, from inside the head to the tip of each forcipule.


title: Centipede

text: Behind the head, the body consists of at least fifteen segments. Most of the segments bear a single pair of legs; the maxillipeds project forward, from the first body segment, with the final two segments being small and legless. Each pair of legs are slightly longer than the pair preceding them, ensuring that they do not overlap, thus reducing the chance that they will collide with each other, tripping the animal while in motion. In some cases, the last pair of legs may be twice the length of the first pair. The final segment bears a telson, and includes the openings of the reproductive organs.


title: Centipede

text: As predators, centipedes mainly use their antennae to seek out their prey. The digestive tract forms a simple tube, with digestive glands attached to the mouthparts. Like insects, centipedes breathe through a tracheal system, typically with a single opening, or spiracle, on each body segment. They excrete waste through a single pair of malpighian tubules.


title: Centipede

text: "Scolopendra gigantea", also known as the Amazonian giant centipede, is the largest existing species of centipede, reaching over in length. It is known to eat lizards, frogs, birds, mice, and even bats, catching them in midflight.


title: Centipede

text: The difference between millipedes and centipedes is a common question from the general public. Both groups of myriapods have long, multi-segmented bodies, many legs, a single pair of antennae, and the presence of postantennal organs. Centipedes have one pair of legs per segment, while millipedes have two. Their heads differ in that millipedes have short, elbowed antennae, a pair of robust mandibles and a single pair of maxillae fused into a lip; centipedes have long, threadlike antennae, a pair of small mandibles, two pairs of maxillae and a pair of large venom claws.


title: Centipede

text: Centipede reproduction does not involve copulation. Males deposit a spermatophore for the female to take up. In one clade, this spermatophore is deposited in a web, and the male undertakes a courtship dance to encourage the female to engulf his sperm. In other cases, the males just leave them for the females to find. In temperate areas, egg laying occurs in spring and summer, but in subtropical and tropical areas, little seasonality to centipede breeding is apparent. A few species of parthenogenetic centipedes are known.


title: Centipede

text: The Lithobiomorpha and Scutigeromorpha lay their eggs singly in holes in the soil, and the female fills the holes with soil and leaves them. The number of eggs laid ranges from about 10 to 50. Time of development of the embryo to hatching is highly variable and may take from one to a few months. Time of development to reproductive period is highly variable within and among species. For example, it can take 3 years for "S. coleoptrata" to achieve adulthood, whereas under the right conditions, lithobiomorph species may reach a reproductive period in 1 year. In addition, centipedes are relatively long-lived when compared to insects. For example, the European "Lithobius forficatus" may live for 5 to 6 years, and the wide-ranging "Scolopendra subspinipes" can live for over 10 years. The combination of a small number of eggs laid, long gestation period, and long time of development to reproduction has led authors to label lithobiomorph centipedes as K-selected.


title: Centipede

text: Females of the Geophilomorpha and Scolopendromorpha show far more parental care. The eggs, 15 to 60 in number, are laid in a nest in the soil or in rotten wood. The female stays with the eggs, guarding and cleaning them to protect them from fungi. The female in some species stays with the young after they have hatched, guarding them until they are ready to leave. If disturbed, the female either abandons the eggs or eats them; abandoned eggs tend to fall prey to fungi rapidly. Some species of Scolopendromorpha are matriphagic, meaning the offspring eat their mother.


title: Centipede

text: Centipedes grow their legs at different points in their development. In the primitive condition, exhibited by the Lithobiomorpha, Scutigeromorpha, and Craterostigmomorpha, development is anamorphic: more pairs of legs are grown between moults. For example, "Scutigera coleoptrata", the house centipede, hatches with only four pairs of legs and in successive moults has 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, 15, 15 and 15 pairs respectively, before becoming a sexually mature adult. Life stages with fewer than 15 pairs of legs are called larval stadia (there are about five stages). After the full complement of legs is achieved, the now postlarval stadia (about five more stages) develop gonopods, sensory pores, more antennal segments, and more ocelli. All mature lithobiomorph centipedes have 15 leg-bearing segments. The Craterostigmomorpha only have one phase of anamorphosis, with embryos having 12 pairs, and moultees 15.


title: Centipede

text: The clade Epimorpha, consisting of the orders Geophilomorpha and Scolopendromorpha, exhibits epimorphy: all pairs of legs are developed in the embryonic stages, and offspring do not develop more legs between moults. This clade contains the longest centipedes; the maximum number of thoracic segments may also vary intraspecifically, often on a geographical basis; in most cases, females bear more legs than males. The number of leg-bearing segments varies widely, from 15 to 191, but the developmental mode of their creation means they are always added in pairs—hence the total number of pairs is always odd.


title: Centipede

text: Centipedes are predominantly generalist predators, which means they have adapted to eat a variety of different available prey. Examination of centipede gut contents suggests that plant material is an unimportant part of their diets, although centipedes have been observed to eat vegetable matter when starved during laboratory experiments.


title: Centipede

text: Centipedes are mostly nocturnal. Studies on their activity rhythms confirm this, although a few observations of centipedes active during the day have been made, and one species, "Strigamia chinophila", is diurnal. What centipedes actually eat is not well known because of their cryptic lifestyles and thorough mastication of food. Laboratory feeding trials support that they will feed as generalists, taking almost anything that is soft-bodied and in a reasonable size range. Earthworms may provide the bulk of diets for geophilomorphs, since they burrow through the soil and earthworm bodies would be easily pierced by their venomous claws. Geophilomorphs probably cannot subdue earthworms larger than themselves, so smaller earthworms may be a substantial proportion of their diet.


title: Centipede

text: Scolopendromorphs, given their size, are able to feed on vertebrates, in addition to invertebrates. Springtails may provide a large proportion of lithobiomorph diets. Little is known about scutigeromorph or craterostigmomorph diets. All centipedes are potential intraguild predators. Centipedes and spiders may frequently prey on one another.


title: Centipede

text: Three species ("Scolopendra cataracta", "S. paradoxa", and "S. alcyona") are amphibious, and are believed to hunt aquatic or amphibious invertebrates.


title: Centipede

text: Many larger animals prey upon centipedes, such as mongooses, mice, salamanders, beetles and snakes. They form an important item of diet for many species and the staple diet of some such as the African ant "Amblyopone pluto", which feeds solely on geophilomorph centipedes, and the South African Cape black-headed snake "Aparallactus capensis".


title: Centipede

text: Centipede defences include their speed and venomous forcipules, as well as the secretion of defensive chemicals. Geophilomorph centipedes can secrete sticky substances that generate toxic hydrogen cyanide and benzoic acid from microscopic glands on their undersides. Similarly, lithobiomorph centipedes secrete a sticky substance from glands in the rear-most two pairs of legs.


title: Centipede

text: Water regulation is an important aspect of centipede ecology, since they lose water rapidly in dry conditions and are found in moist microhabitats. Water loss is a result of centipedes lacking a waxy covering of their exoskeleton and excreting waste nitrogen as ammonia, which requires extra water. Centipedes deal with water loss through a variety of adaptations. Geophilomorphs lose water less rapidly than lithobiomorphs, though they have a greater surface area to volume ratio. This may be because geophilomorphs have a more heavily sclerotized pleural membrane. Spiracle shape, size, and ability to constrict also have an influence on rate of water loss. In addition, the number and size of coxal pores may be variables affecting centipede water balance.


title: Centipede

text: Centipedes live in many different habitat types—forest, savannah, prairie, and desert, to name a few. Some geophilomorphs are adapted to littoral habitats, where they feed on barnacles. Species of all orders excluding the Craterostigmomorpha have adapted to caves. Centipede densities have been recorded as high as 600/m and biomass as high as 500 mg/m wet weight. Small geophilomorphs attain highest densities, followed by small lithobiomorphs. Large lithobiomorphs attain densities of 20/m. One study of scolopendromorphs records "Scolopendra morsitans" in a Nigerian savannah at a density of 0.16/m and a biomass of 140 mg/m wet weight.


title: Centipede

text: The fossil record of centipedes extends back to , during the Late Silurian. Possibly the oldest known fossil land animal, "Pneumodesmus newmani", is a myriapod.


title: Centipede

text: Within the myriapods, centipedes are believed to be the first of the extant classes to branch from the last common ancestor. The five orders of centipedes are: Craterostigmomorpha, Geophilomorpha, Lithobiomorpha, Scolopendromorpha, and Scutigeromorpha. These orders are united into the clade Chilopoda by the following synapomorphies:


title: Centipede

text: The Chilopoda are then split into two clades: the Notostigmophora including the Scutigeromorpha and the Pleurostigmophora including the other four orders. The main difference is that the Notostigmophora have their spiracles located mid-dorsally. It was previously believed that Chilopoda was split into Anamorpha (Lithobiomorpha and Scutigeromorpha) and Epimorpha (Geophilomorpha and Scolopendromorpha), based on developmental modes, with the relationship of the Craterostigmomorpha being uncertain. Recent phylogenetic analyses using combined molecular and morphological characters supports the previous phylogeny. The Epimorpha still exist as a monophyletic group within the Pleurostigmophora, but the Anamorpha are paraphyletic, as shown in the cladogram:


title: Centipede

text: Geophilomorph centipedes have been used to argue for an evolutionary developmental constraint: that the evolvability of a trait, the number of segments in the case of geophilomorph centipedes, was constrained by the mode of development. The geophilomorph centipedes have variable segment numbers within species, yet as with all centipedes, they always have an odd number of pairs of legs. In this taxon, the number of segments ranges from 27 to 191, but is never an even number.


title: Centipede

text: All centipedes are venomous. Over the first 50 million years of the clade's evolutionary history, centipede venoms appear to have consisted of a simple cocktail of about four different components, and differentiation into specific venom types appears to have only occurred after the currently recognized five orders had developed. The evolution of the venom includes horizontal gene transfer, involving bacteria, fungi and oomycetes.


title: Centipede

text: As a food item, certain large-sized centipedes are consumed in China, usually skewered and grilled or deep fried. They are often seen in street vendors’ stalls in large cities, including Donghuamen and Wangfujing markets in Beijing.


title: Centipede

text: Some species of centipedes can be hazardous to humans because of their bite. While a bite to an adult human is usually very painful and may cause severe swelling, chills, fever, and weakness, it is unlikely to be fatal. Bites can be dangerous to small children and those with allergies to bee stings. The venomous bite of larger centipedes can induce anaphylactic shock in such people. Smaller centipedes are generally incapable of piercing human skin.


title: Centipede

text: Even small centipedes that cannot pierce human skin are considered frightening by some humans due to their dozens of legs moving at the same time and their tendency to dart swiftly out of the darkness towards one's feet. A 19th-century Tibetan poet warned his fellow Buddhists, "if you enjoy frightening others, you will be reborn as a centipede."


title: QWERTY

text: QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to E. Remington and Sons in 1873. It became popular with the success of the Remington No. 2 of 1878, and remains in ubiquitous use.


title: QWERTY

text: The QWERTY layout was devised and created in the early 1870s by Christopher Latham Sholes, a newspaper editor and printer who lived in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In October 1867, Sholes filed a patent application for his early writing machine he developed with the assistance of his friends Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soulé.


title: QWERTY

text: The first model constructed by Sholes used a piano-like keyboard with two rows of characters arranged alphabetically as shown below:


title: QWERTY

text: Sholes struggled for the next five years to perfect his invention, making many trial-and-error rearrangements of the original machine's alphabetical key arrangement. The study of bigram (letter-pair) frequency by educator Amos Densmore, brother of the financial backer James Densmore, is believed to have influenced the array of letters, but the contribution was later called into question. Others suggest instead that the letter groupings evolved from telegraph operators' feedback.


title: QWERTY

text: In November 1868 he changed the arrangement of the latter half of the alphabet, O to Z, right-to-left. In April 1870 he arrived at a four-row, upper case keyboard approaching the modern QWERTY standard, moving six vowel letters, A, E, I, O, U, and Y, to the upper row as follows:


title: QWERTY

text: In 1873 Sholes's backer, James Densmore, successfully sold the manufacturing rights for the Sholes & Glidden Type-Writer to E. Remington and Sons. The keyboard layout was finalized within a few months by Remington's mechanics and was ultimately presented:


title: QWERTY

text: After they purchased the device, Remington made several adjustments, creating a keyboard with essentially the modern QWERTY layout. These adjustments included placing the "R" key in the place previously allotted to the period key. Apocryphal claims that this change was made to let salesmen impress customers by pecking out the brand name "TYPE WRITER QUOTE" from one keyboard row are not formally substantiated. Vestiges of the original alphabetical layout remained in the "home row" sequence DFGHJKL.


title: QWERTY

text: The QWERTY layout became popular with the success of the Remington No. 2 of 1878, the first typewriter to include both upper and lower case letters, using a shift key.


title: QWERTY

text: One popular but unverified explanation for the QWERTY arrangement is that it was designed to reduce the likelihood of internal clashing of typebars by placing commonly used combinations of letters farther from each other inside the machine.


title: QWERTY

text: The QWERTY layout depicted in Sholes's 1878 patent is slightly different from the modern layout, most notably in the absence of the numerals 0 and 1, with each of the remaining numerals shifted one position to the left of their modern counterparts. The letter M is located at the end of the third row to the right of the letter L rather than on the fourth row to the right of the N, the letters X and C are reversed, and most punctuation marks are in different positions or are missing entirely. 0 and 1 were omitted to simplify the design and reduce the manufacturing and maintenance costs; they were chosen specifically because they were "redundant" and could be recreated using other keys. Typists who learned on these machines learned the habit of using the uppercase letter I (or lowercase letter L) for the digit one, and the uppercase O for the zero.


title: QWERTY

text: The 0 key was added and standardized in its modern position early in the history of the typewriter, but the 1 and exclamation point were left off some typewriter keyboards into the 1970s.


title: QWERTY

text: In early designs, some characters were produced by printing two symbols with the carriage in the same position. For instance, the exclamation point, which shares a key with the numeral 1 on post-mechanical keyboards, could be reproduced by using a three-stroke combination of an apostrophe, a backspace, and a period. A semicolon (;) was produced by printing a comma (,) over a colon (:). As the backspace key is slow in simple mechanical typewriters (the carriage was heavy and optimized to move in the opposite direction), a more professional approach was to block the carriage by pressing and holding the space bar while printing all characters that needed to be in a shared position. To make this possible, the carriage was designed to advance forward only after releasing the space bar.


title: QWERTY

text: In the era of mechanical typewriters, combined characters such as "é" and "õ" were created by the use of dead keys for the diacritics ("′, ~"), which did not move the paper forward. Thus the "′" and "e" would be printed at the same location on the paper, creating "é".


title: QWERTY

text: There were no particular technological requirements for the QWERTY layout, since at the time there were ways to make a typewriter without the "up-stroke" typebar mechanism that had required it to be devised. Not only were there rival machines with "down-stroke" and "frontstroke" positions that gave a visible printing point, the problem of typebar clashes could be circumvented completely: examples include Thomas Edison's 1872 electric print-wheel device which later became the basis for Teletype machines; Lucien Stephen Crandall's typewriter (the second to come onto the American market) whose type was arranged on a cylindrical sleeve; the Hammond typewriter of 1887 which used a semi-circular "type-shuttle" of hardened rubber (later light metal); and the Blickensderfer typewriter of 1893 which used a type wheel. The early Blickensderfer's "Ideal" keyboard was also non-QWERTY, instead having the sequence "DHIATENSOR" in the home row, these 10 letters being capable of composing 70% of the words in the English language.


title: QWERTY

text: Alternating hands while typing is a desirable trait in a keyboard design. While one hand types a letter, the other hand can prepare to type the next letter, making the process faster and more efficient. In the QWERTY layout many more words can be spelled using only the left hand than the right hand. In fact, thousands of English words can be spelled using only the left hand, while only a couple of hundred words can be typed using only the right hand (the three most frequent letters in the English language, ETA, are all typed with the left hand). In addition, more typing strokes are done with the left hand in the QWERTY layout. This is helpful for left-handed people but disadvantageous for right-handed people.


title: QWERTY

text: Contrary to popular belief, the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down, but rather to speed up typing. Indeed, there is evidence that, aside from the issue of jamming, placing often-used keys farther apart increases typing speed, because it encourages alternation between the hands. (On the other hand, in the German keyboard the Z has been moved between the T and the U to help type the frequent digraphs TZ and ZU in that language.) Almost every word in the English language contains at least one vowel letter, but on the QWERTY keyboard only the vowel letter "A" is on the home row, which requires the typist's fingers to leave the home row for most words.


title: QWERTY

text: A feature much less commented-on than the order of the keys is that the keys do not form a rectangular grid, but rather each column slants diagonally. This is because of the mechanical linkages – each key is attached to a lever, and hence the offset prevents the levers from running into each other – and has been retained in most electronic keyboards. Some keyboards, such as the Kinesis or TypeMatrix, retain the QWERTY layout but arrange the keys in vertical columns, to reduce unnecessary lateral finger motion.


title: QWERTY

text: The first computer terminals such as the Teletype were typewriters that could produce and be controlled by various computer codes. These used the QWERTY layouts and added keys such as escape (ESC) which had special meanings to computers. Later keyboards added function keys and arrow keys. Since the standardization of PC-compatible computers and Windows after the 1980s, most full-sized computer keyboards have followed this standard (see drawing at right). This layout has a separate numeric keypad for data entry at the right, 12 function keys across the top, and a cursor section to the right and center with keys for Insert, Delete, Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down with cursor arrows in an inverted-T shape.


title: QWERTY

text: QWERTY was designed for English, a language with accents ('diacritics') appearing only in a few words of foreign origin. The standard US keyboard has no provision for these at all; the need was later met by the so-called "US-International" keyboard mapping, which uses "dead keys" to type accents without having to add more physical keys. (The same principle is used in the standard US keyboard layout for MacOS, but in a different way.) Most European (including UK) keyboards for PCs have an AltGr key ('Alternative Graphics' key, replaces the right Alt key) that enables easy access to the most common diacritics used in the territory where sold. For example, default keyboard mapping for the UK/Ireland keyboard has the diacritics used in Irish but these are rarely printed on the keys; but to type the accents used in Welsh and Scots Gaelic requires the use of a "UK Extended" keyboard mapping and the dead key or compose key method. This arrangement applies to Windows, ChromeOS and Linux; MacOS computers have different techniques. The US International and UK Extended mappings provide many of the diacritics needed for students of other European languages.


title: QWERTY

text: Minor changes to the arrangement are made for other languages. There are a large number of different keyboard layouts used for different languages written in Latin script. They can be divided into three main families according to where the , , , , and keys are placed on the keyboard. These are usually named after the first six letters, for example this QWERTY layout and the AZERTY layout.


title: QWERTY

text: In this section you will also find keyboard layouts that include some additional symbols of other languages. But they are different from layouts that were designed with the goal to be usable for multiple languages (see Multilingual variants).


title: QWERTY

text: The following sections give general descriptions of QWERTY keyboard variants along with details specific to certain operating systems. The emphasis is on Microsoft Windows.


title: QWERTY

text: English-speaking Canadians have traditionally used the same keyboard layout as in the United States, unless they are in a position where they have to write French on a regular basis. French-speaking Canadians respectively have favoured the Canadian French keyboard layout (see French (Canada), below).


title: QWERTY

text: The United Kingdom and Ireland use a keyboard layout based on the 48-key version defined in the (now withdrawn) British Standard BS 4822. It is very similar to that of the United States, but has an AltGr key and a larger Enter key, includes £ and € signs and some rarely used EBCDIC symbols (¬, ¦), and uses different positions for the characters @, ", #, ~, \, and |.


title: QWERTY

text: The BS 4822:1994 standard did not make any use of the AltGr key and lacked support for any non-ASCII characters other than ¬ and £. It also assigned a key for the non-ASCII character broken bar (¦), but lacked one for the far more commonly used ASCII character vertical bar (|). It also lacked support for various diacritics used in the Welsh alphabet, and the Scots Gaelic alphabet; and also is missing the letter yogh, ȝ, used very rarely in the Scots language. Therefore, various manufacturers have modified or extended the BS 4822 standard:


title: QWERTY

text: Support for the diacritics needed for Scots Gaelic and Welsh was added to Windows and ChromeOS using a "UK-extended" setting (see below); Linux and X11 systems have an explicit or reassigned compose key for this purpose.


title: QWERTY

text: The British version of the Apple Keyboard does not use the standard UK layout. Instead, some older versions have the US layout (see below) with a few differences: the sign is reached by and the sign by , the opposite to the US layout. The is also present and is typed with . Umlauts are reached by typing and then the vowel, and ß is reached by typing .


title: QWERTY

text: Newer Apple "British" keyboards use a layout that is relatively unlike either the US or traditional UK keyboard. It uses an elongated return key, a shortened left with and in the newly created position, and in the upper left of the keyboard are and instead of the traditional EBCDIC codes. The middle-row key that fits inside the key has and .


title: QWERTY

text: The arrangement of the character input keys and the Shift keys contained in this layout is specified in the US national standard ANSI-INCITS 154-1988 (R1999) (formerly ANSI X3.154-1988 (R1999)), where this layout is called "ASCII keyboard". The complete US keyboard layout, as it is usually found, also contains the usual function keys in accordance with the international standard ISO/IEC 9995-2, although this is not explicitly required by the US American national standard.


title: QWERTY

text: US keyboards are used not only in the United States, but also in many other English-speaking places, (except UK and Ireland), including India, Australia, Anglophone Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, and Indonesia that uses the same 26-letter alphabets as English. In many other English-speaking jurisdictions (e.g., Canada, Australia, the Caribbean nations, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Singapore, New Zealand, and South Africa), local spelling sometimes conforms more closely to British English usage, although these nations decided to use a US English keyboard layout. Until Windows 8 and later versions, when Microsoft separated the settings, this had the undesirable side effect of also setting the language to US English, rather than the local orthography.


title: QWERTY

text: The US keyboard layout has a second Alt key instead of the AltGr key and does not use any dead keys; this makes it inefficient for all but a handful of languages. On the other hand, the US keyboard layout (or the similar UK layout) is occasionally used by programmers in countries where the keys for []{} are located in less convenient positions on the locally customary layout.


title: QWERTY

text: On some keyboards the enter key is bigger than traditionally and takes up also a part of the line above, more or less the area of the traditional location of the backslash key (\). In these cases the backslash is located in alternative places. It can be situated one line above the default location, on the right of the equals sign key (=). Sometimes it is placed one line below its traditional situation, on the right of the apostrophe key (') (in these cases the enter key is narrower than usual on the line of its default location). It may also be two lines below its default situation on the right of a narrower than traditionally right shift key. A variant of this layout is used in Arabic-speaking countries.


title: QWERTY

text: This variant has the | \ key to the left of Z, ~ ` key where the | \ key is in the usual layout, and the > < key where the ~ ` key is in the usual layout.


title: QWERTY

text: The typewriter came to the Czech-speaking area in the late 19th century, when it was part of Austria-Hungary where German was the dominant language of administration. Therefore, Czech typewriters have the QWERTZ layout.


title: QWERTY

text: However, with the introduction of imported computers, especially since the 1990s, the QWERTY keyboard layout is frequently used for computer keyboards. The Czech QWERTY layout differs from QWERTZ in that the characters (e.g. @$& and others) missing from the Czech keyboard are accessible with AltGr on the same keys where they are located on an American keyboard. In Czech QWERTZ keyboards the positions of these characters accessed through AltGr differs.


title: QWERTY

text: Both the Danish and Norwegian keyboards include dedicated keys for the letters Å/å, Æ/æ and Ø/ø, but the placement is a little different, as the and keys are swapped on the Norwegian layout. (The Finnish–Swedish keyboard is also largely similar to the Norwegian layout, but the and are replaced with and . On some systems, the Danish keyboard may allow typing Ö/ö and Ä/ä by holding the or key while striking and , respectively.) Computers with Windows are commonly sold with ÖØÆ and ÄÆØ printed on the two keys, allowing same computer hardware to be sold in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, with different operating system settings.


title: QWERTY

text: Though it is seldom used (most Dutch keyboards use US International layout), the Dutch layout uses QWERTY but has additions for the € sign, the diaresis (¨), and the braces ({ }) as well as different locations for other symbols. An older version contained a single-stroke key for the Dutch character IJ/ij, which is usually typed by the combination of and . In the 1990s, there was a version with the now-obsolete florin sign (Dutch: guldenteken) for IBM PCs.


title: QWERTY

text: In Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium), "AZERTY" keyboards are used instead, due to influence from the French-speaking part of Belgium.


title: QWERTY

text: The keyboard layout used in Estonia is virtually the same as the Swedish layout. The main difference is that the and keys (to the right of ) are replaced with and respectively (the latter letter being the most distinguishing feature of the Estonian alphabet). Some special symbols and dead keys are also moved around.


title: QWERTY

text: The same as the Danish layout with added (Eth), since the Faroe Islands are a self-governed part of the Kingdom of Denmark.


title: QWERTY

text: This keyboard layout is commonly used in Canada by French-speaking Canadians. It is the most common layout for laptops and stand-alone keyboards aimed at the Francophone market. Unlike the AZERTY layout used in France and Belgium, it is a QWERTY layout and as such is also relatively commonly used by English speakers in the US and Canada (accustomed to using US standard QWERTY keyboards) for easy access to the accented letters found in some French loanwords. It can be used to type all accented French characters, as well as some from other languages, and serves all English functions as well. It is popular mainly because of its close similarity to the basic US keyboard commonly used by English-speaking Canadians and Americans and historical use of US-made typewriters by French-Canadians. It can also easily 'map' to or from a standard US QWERTY keyboard with the sole loss the guillemet/degree sign key. Its significant difference from the US standard is that the right Alt key is reconfigured as an AltGr key that gives easy access to a further range of characters (marked in blue and red on the keyboard image. Blue indicates an alternative character that will display as typed. Red indicates a dead key: the diacritic will be applied to the next vowel typed.)


title: QWERTY

text: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg use QWERTZ layouts, where the letter Z is to the right of T.


title: QWERTY

text: The Icelandic keyboard layout is different from the standard QWERTY keyboard because the Icelandic alphabet has some special letters, most of which it shares with the other Nordic countries:


title: QWERTY

text: Þ/þ, Ð/ð, Æ/æ, and Ö/ö. (Æ/æ also occurs in Norwegian, Danish and Faroese, Ð/ð in Faroese, and Ö/ö in Swedish, Finnish and Estonian. In Norwegian Ö/ö could be substituted for Ø/Ø which is the same sound/letter and is widely understood).


title: QWERTY

text: The letters Á/á, Ý/ý, Ú/ú, Í/í, and É/é are produced by first pressing the dead key and then the corresponding letter. The Nordic letters Å/å and Ä/ä can be produced by first pressing , located below the key, and (for ¨) which also works for the non-Nordic ÿ, Ü/ü, Ï/ï, and Ë/ë. These letters are not used natively in Icelandic, but may have been implemented for ease of communication in other Nordic languages. Additional diacritics may be found behind the key: for ˋ (grave accent) and for ˆ (circumflex).


title: QWERTY

text: Microsoft Windows includes an Irish layout which supports acute accents with for the Irish language and grave accents with the dead key for Scots Gaelic. The other Insular Celtic languages have their own layout. The UK or UK-Extended layout is also frequently used.


title: QWERTY

text: There is an alternate layout, which differs only in disposition of characters accessible through , and includes the tilde and the curly brackets. It is commonly used in IBM keyboards.


title: QWERTY

text: Although rarely used, a keyboard layout specifically designed for the Latvian language called ŪGJRMV exists. The Latvian QWERTY keyboard layout is most commonly used; its layout is the same as Latin ones, but with a dead key, which allows entering special characters (āčēģīķļņõŗšūž). The most common dead key is the apostrophe ('), which is followed by Alt+Gr (Windows default for Latvian layout). Some prefer using the tick (`).


title: QWERTY

text: Where in standard QWERTY the number row is located, you find in Lithuanian QWERTY: Ą, Č, Ę, Ė, Į, Š, Ų, Ū, Ž, instead of their counterparts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, =. If you still want to use the numbers of the mentioned 'number row', you can create them in combination with the -key. Aside from these changes the keyboard is standard QWERTY. Besides QWERTY, the ĄŽERTY layout without the adjustment of the number row is used.


title: QWERTY

text: The Maltese language uses Unicode (UTF-8) to display the Maltese diacritics: ċ Ċ; ġ Ġ; ħ Ħ; ż Ż (together with à À; è È; ì Ì; ò Ò; ù Ù). There are two standard keyboard layouts for Maltese, according to "MSA 100:2002 Maltese Keyboard Standard"; one of 47 keys and one of 48 keys. The 48-key layout is the most popular.


title: QWERTY

text: The Norwegian languages use the same letters as Danish, but the Norwegian keyboard differs from the Danish layout regarding the placement of the , and (backslash) keys. On the Danish keyboard, the and are swapped. The Swedish keyboard is also similar to the Norwegian layout, but and are replaced with and . On some systems, the Norwegian keyboard may allow typing Ö/ö and Ä/ä by holding the or key while striking and , respectively.


title: QWERTY

text: There is also an alternative keyboard layout called "Norwegian with Sámi", which allows for easier input of the characters required to write various Sámi languages. All the Sámi characters are accessed through the key.


title: QWERTY

text: On Macintosh computers, the "Norwegian" and "Norwegian extended" keyboard layouts have a slightly different placement for some of the symbols obtained with the help of the or keys. Notably, the "$" sign is accessed with and "¢" with . Furthermore, the frequently used "@" is placed between and .


title: QWERTY

text: Most typewriters use a QWERTZ keyboard with Polish letters (with diacritical marks) accessed directly (officially approved as "Typist's keyboard", , Polish Standard PN-87), which is mainly ignored in Poland as impractical (custom-made keyboards, e.g., those in the public sector as well as some Apple computers, present an exception to this paradigm); the "Polish programmer's" () layout has become the "de facto" standard, used on virtually all computers sold on the Polish market.


title: QWERTY

text: Most computer keyboards in Poland are laid out according to the standard US visual and functional layout. Polish diacritics are accessed by using the "AltGr" key with a corresponding similar letter from the base Latin alphabet. Normal capitalization rules apply with respect to "Shift" and "Caps Lock" keys. For example, to enter "Ź", one can type "Shift+AltGr+X" with "Caps Lock" off, or turn on "Caps Lock" and type "AltGr+X".


title: QWERTY

text: Both ANSI and ISO mechanical layouts are common sights, and even some non-standard mechanical layouts are in use. ANSI is often preferred, as the additional key provides no additional function, at least in Microsoft Windows where it duplicates the backslash key, while taking space from the Shift key. Many keyboards do not label "AltGr" as such, leaving the "Alt" marking as in the US layout - the right "Alt" key nevertheless functions as "AltGr" in this layout, causing possible confusion when keyboard shortcuts with the "Alt" key are required (these usually work only with the left "Alt") and causing the key to be commonly referred to as "right Alt" (). However, keyboards with "AltGr" marking are available and it is also officially used by Microsoft when depicting the layout.


title: QWERTY

text: Also, on MS Windows, the tilde character "~" ("Shift"+"`") acts as a dead key to type Polish letters (with diacritical marks) thus, to obtain an "Ł", one may press "Shift"+"`" followed by "L". The tilde character is obtained with ("Shift"+"`") then "space".


title: QWERTY

text: In Linux-based systems, the euro symbol is typically mapped to Alt+5 instead of Alt+U, the tilde acts as a normal key, and several accented letters from other European languages are accessible through combinations with left Alt. Polish letters are also accessible by using the compose key.


title: QWERTY

text: Software keyboards on touchscreen devices usually make the Polish diacritics available as one of the alternatives which show up after long-pressing the corresponding Latin letter. However, modern predictive text and autocorrection algorithms largely mitigate the need to type them directly on such devices.


title: QWERTY

text: The Brazilian computer keyboard layout is specified in the ABNT NBR 10346 variant 2 (alphanumeric portion) and 10347 (numeric portion) standards.