title: Sikh Empire

text: The Sikhs attempted not to offend the prejudices of Muslims, noted Baron von Hügel, the Austrian botanist and explorer, yet the Sikhs were described as harsh. In this regard, Masson's explanation is perhaps the most pertinent: "Though compared to the Afghans, the Sikhs were mild and exerted a protecting influence, yet no advantages could compensate to their Mohammedan subjects, the idea of subjection to infidels, and the prohibition to slay kine, and to repeat the "azan", or 'summons to prayer'." Chitralekha Zutshi and William Roe Polk write that Sikh governors adopted policies that alienated the Muslim population such as the ban on cow slaughter and the azan (the Islamic call to prayer), the seizure of mosques as property of the state, and imposed ruinous taxes on Kashmiri Muslims causing a famine in 1832. In addition, begar (forced labour) was imposed by the Sikh administration to facilitate the supply of materials to the imperial army, a policy that was augmented by the successive Dogra rulers. These policies led the Kashmiri Muslim population to emirgate en masse to more lenient neighboring countries, particularly Ladakh. As a symbolic assertion of power, the Sikhs regularly desecrated Muslim places of worship, including closing of the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar and the conversion of the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore to an ammunition store and horse stable, but the empire still maintained Persian administrative institutions and court etiquette; the Sikh silver rupees were minted on the Mughal standard with Persian legends.


title: Sikh Empire

text: The empire was divided into various provinces (known as "Subas"), them namely being (with their estimated population in the year 1838):


title: Sikh Empire

text: The population of Khalsa empire during the time of Ranjit Singh’s rule was estimated to be around 12 million people. There were 8.4 million Muslims, 2.88 million Hindus and 722,000 Sikhs.


title: Sikh Empire

text: The religious demography of the empire is estimated to have been just over 10% to 12% Sikh, 80% Muslim, and just under 10% Hindu. Surjit Hans gave different numbers by retrospectively projecting the 1881 census, putting Muslims at 51%, Hindus at 40% and Sikhs at around 8%, the remaining 1% being Europeans. The population was 3.5 million in 1831, according to Amarinder Singh's "The Last Sunset: The Rise and Fall of the Lahore Durbar". Hans Herrli in "The Coins of the Sikhs" estimated the total population of the empire to be around 5.35 million during 1838.


title: Sikh Empire

text: An estimated 90% of the Sikh population at the time, and more than half of the total population, was concentrated in the upper Bari, Jalandhar, and upper Rechna Doabs, and in the areas of their greatest concentration formed about one third of the population in the 1830s; half of the Sikh population of this core region was in the area covered by the later districts of Lahore and Amritsar.


title: Sikh Empire

text: After Ranjit Singh's death in 1839, the empire was severely weakened by internal divisions and political mismanagement. This opportunity was used by the British East India Company to launch the First Anglo-Sikh War.


title: Sikh Empire

text: The Battle of Ferozeshah in 1845 marked many turning points, the British encountered the Punjab Army, opening with a gun-duel in which the Sikhs "had the better of the British artillery". As the British made advances, Europeans in their army were specially targeted, as the Sikhs believed if the army "became demoralized, the backbone of the enemy's position would be broken". The fighting continued throughout the night. The British position "grew graver as the night wore on", and "suffered terrible casualties with every single member of the Governor General's staff either killed or wounded". Nevertheless, the British army took and held Ferozeshah. British General Sir James Hope Grant recorded: "Truly the night was one of gloom and forbidding and perhaps never in the annals of warfare has a British Army on such a large scale been nearer to a defeat which would have involved annihilation."


title: Sikh Empire

text: The reasons for the withdrawal of the Sikhs from Ferozeshah are contentious. Some believe that it was treachery of the non-Sikh high command of their own army which led to them marching away from a British force in a precarious and battered state. Others believe that a tactical withdrawal was the best policy.


title: Sikh Empire

text: The Sikh empire was finally dissolved at the end of the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849 into separate princely states and the British province of Punjab. Eventually, a Lieutenant Governorship was formed in Lahore as a direct representative of the British Crown.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: Oliver Norvell Hardy (born Norvell Hardy; January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957) was an American comic actor and one half of Laurel and Hardy, the double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted from 1926 to 1957. He appeared with his comedy partner Stan Laurel in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles. He was credited with his first film, "Outwitting Dad", in 1914. In most of his silent films before joining producer Hal Roach, he was billed on screen as Babe Hardy.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: Oliver Hardy was born Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Georgia. His father, Oliver, was a Confederate States Army veteran of the American Civil War who had been wounded at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, and was a recruiting officer for Company K, 16th Georgia Regiment. The elder Oliver Hardy assisted his father in running the remnants of the family's cotton plantation. He then bought a share in a retail business and was elected full-time Tax Collector for Columbia County, Georgia. Hardy's mother, Emily Norvell, was the daughter of Thomas Benjamin Norvell, who was descended from Hugh Norvell of Williamsburg, Virginia, and Mary Freeman. The elder Hardy and Norvell married March 12, 1890; it was her second marriage and his third.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: The family moved to Madison, Georgia, in 1891, the year before Norvell's birth. He was likely born in Harlem, though some sources say that his birth occurred in Covington, Georgia, his mother's hometown. His father died less than a year after his birth. Hardy was the youngest of five children. His older brother Sam drowned in the Oconee River; Hardy pulled him from the river but was unable to resuscitate him.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: As a child, Hardy was sometimes difficult. In the fifth grade he was sent to Georgia Military College in Milledgeville. In 1905, when he was 13, he was sent to Young Harris College in north Georgia for the fall semester which he completed successfully in January 1906, however he was in the junior high component of that institution what is today known as an Academy. At that time there were no two-year junior colleges. He had little interest in formal education, although he acquired an early interest in music and theater. He joined a theatrical group and later ran away from a boarding school near Atlanta to sing with the group. His mother recognized his talent for singing and sent him to Atlanta to study music and voice with singing teacher Adolf Dahm-Petersen. He skipped some of his lessons to sing in the Alcazar Theater for $3.50 a week. In 1912, he signed up for a course or two at University of Georgia as a law major for fall semester just to play football. He never missed a game.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: As a teenager, Hardy began styling himself "Oliver Norvell Hardy", adding the first name "Oliver" as a tribute to his father. He appeared as "Oliver N. Hardy" in the 1910 U.S. census, and he used "Oliver" as his first name in all subsequent legal records, marriage announcements, etc. Hardy was initiated into Freemasonry at Solomon Lodge No. 20 in Jacksonville, Florida which helped him with room and board when he was starting out in show business. He was inducted into the Grand Order of Water Rats along with Stan Laurel.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: In 1910, The Palace, a motion picture theater, opened in Hardy's hometown of Milledgeville, and he became the projectionist, ticket taker, janitor and manager. He soon became obsessed with the new motion picture industry and was convinced that he could do a better job than the actors that he saw. A friend suggested that he move to Jacksonville, Florida, where some films were being made, which he did in 1913. He worked in Jacksonville as a cabaret and vaudeville singer at night and at the Lubin Manufacturing Company during the day. It was at this time that he met Madelyn Saloshin, a pianist, whom he married on November 17, 1913, in Macon, Georgia.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: The next year, he made his first movie, "Outwitting Dad" (1914), for the Lubin studio, billed as O. N. Hardy. In his personal life, he was known as "Babe" Hardy and was billed as "Babe Hardy" in many of his later films at Lubin, such as "Back to the Farm" (1914). He was a big man, standing 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) and weighing up to 300 pounds ( kg), and his size placed limits on the roles that he could play. He was most often cast as the villain, but he also had roles in comedy shorts, his size complementing the character. By 1915, Hardy had made 50 short one-reel films at Lubin. He moved to New York and made films for the Pathé, Casino and Edison Studios. He returned to Jacksonville, where he made films for the Vim Comedy Company. That studio closed after Hardy discovered that the owners were stealing from the payroll. He then worked for the King Bee studio, which bought Vim, and worked with Billy Ruge, Billy West (a Charlie Chaplin imitator), and comedic actress Ethel Burton Palmer. He continued playing the villains for West well into the early 1920s, often imitating Eric Campbell to West's Chaplin.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: Between 1916-1917, Hardy experienced a brief directorial career. He is credited for directing or co-directing ten shorts, all played by him.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: In 1917, Hardy moved to Los Angeles, working freelance for several Hollywood studios. He made more than 40 films for Vitagraph between 1918 and 1923, mostly playing the "heavy" for Larry Semon. In 1919, he separated from his wife, ending with a provisional divorce in November 1920 that was finalized on November 17, 1921. On November 24, 1921, he married actress Myrtle Reeves. This marriage was also unhappy, and Reeves was said to have become an alcoholic.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: In 1921, he appeared in the movie "The Lucky Dog", produced by Broncho Billy Anderson and starring Stan Laurel. Hardy played the part of a robber trying to hold up Stan's character. They did not work together again for several years. In 1924, Hardy began working at Hal Roach Studios with the "Our Gang" films and Charley Chase. In 1925, he starred as the Tin Man in the "Wizard of Oz". Also that year he was in the film "Yes, Yes, Nanette!", starring Jimmy Finlayson and directed by Stan Laurel. (In later years, Finlayson frequently was a supporting actor in the Laurel and Hardy film series.) He also continued playing supporting roles in films featuring Clyde Cooke and Bobby Ray. Hardy would play two other shorts directed by Laurel, "Wandering Papas" and "Madame Mystery", both in 1926.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: In 1926, Hardy was to appear in "Get 'Em Young", but he was unexpectedly hospitalized after being burned by a hot leg of lamb. Laurel had been working as a gag man and a director at Roach Studios, so he was recruited to fill in. Laurel continued to act and appeared in "45 Minutes from Hollywood" with Hardy, although they did not share any scenes together.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: In 1927, Laurel and Hardy began sharing screen time together in "Slipping Wives", "Duck Soup" (no relation to the 1933 Marx Brothers' film), and "With Love and Hisses". Roach Studios' supervising director Leo McCarey recognized the audience reaction to the two and began teaming them together, which led to the start of a Laurel and Hardy series later that year.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: They began producing a huge body of short movies, including "The Battle of the Century" (1927) (with one of the greatest pie fights ever filmed), "Should Married Men Go Home?" (1928), "Two Tars" (1928), "Unaccustomed As We Are" (1929, marking their transition to talking pictures) "Berth Marks" (1929), "Blotto" (1930), "Brats" (1930), "Another Fine Mess" (1930), "Be Big!" (1931), and many others. In 1929, they appeared in their first feature, in one of the revue sequences of "Hollywood Revue of 1929," and the following year they appeared as the comic relief in a lavish Technicolor musical feature entitled "The Rogue Song". This film marked their first appearance in color, yet only a few fragments of this film survive. In 1931, they starred in their first full-length movie "Pardon Us", and they continued to make features and shorts until 1935. The 1932 film "The Music Box" won an Academy Award for best short film, their only effort to receive such an award.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: In 1937, Hardy and Myrtle Reeves divorced. He made "Zenobia" with Harry Langdon in 1939 while waiting for a contractual issue to be resolved between Laurel and Hal Roach. Eventually, however, new contracts were agreed upon and the team was lent to producer Boris Morros at General Service Studios to make "The Flying Deuces" (1939). While on the lot, Hardy fell in love with Virginia Lucille Jones, a script girl whom he married the next year. They enjoyed a happy marriage for the rest of his life.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: In 1939, Laurel and Hardy made "A Chump at Oxford" and "Saps at Sea" before leaving Roach Studios. They began performing for the USO, supporting the Allied troops during World War II.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: In 1941 Laurel and Hardy were signed by 20th Century-Fox (as well as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942). These studios produced films on a larger scale, and initially the comedians were hired only as actors in the B-picture division, forced to yield the writing and editing decisions to the production teams. The films proved very successful, and gradually both Laurel and Hardy were allowed more creative input. Laurel and Hardy completed eight features during the war years, with no loss of popularity. M-G-M's two-picture pact expired in August 1944, and Fox's series of six Laurel & Hardy pictures ended when the studio discontinued B-picture production in December 1944.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: In 1947, Laurel and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom. They were initially unsure of how they would be received, but they were mobbed wherever they went. The tour was lengthened to include engagements in Scandinavia, Belgium, France, and a Royal Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Biographer John McCabe writes that they continued to make live appearances in the United Kingdom and France until 1954, often using new sketches and material that Laurel had written for them.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: In 1949, Hardy's friend John Wayne asked him to play a supporting role in "The Fighting Kentuckian". Hardy had previously worked with Wayne and John Ford in a charity production of the play "What Price Glory?" while Laurel began treatment for his diabetes a few years previously. He was initially hesitant, but he accepted the role at Laurel's insistence. Frank Capra invited him to play a cameo role in "Riding High" with Bing Crosby in 1950.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: During 1950–1951, Laurel and Hardy made their final film "Atoll K" (also known as "Utopia"). It was a simple concept; Laurel inherits an island, and the boys set out to sea where they encounter a storm and discover a brand new island, rich in uranium, making them powerful and wealthy. However, the film was produced by a consortium of European interests, with an international cast and crew that could not speak to each other. In addition, Laurel had to rewrite the script to make it fit the comedy team's style, and both suffered serious physical illness during the filming.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: Laurel and Hardy made two live television appearances: in 1953 on a live broadcast of the BBC show "Face the Music", and in December 1954 on NBC's "This Is Your Life". They also appeared in a filmed insert for the BBC show "This Is Music Hall" in 1955, their final appearance together. The pair contracted with Hal Roach, Jr. to produce a series of TV shows based on the Mother Goose fables in 1955. According to biographer John McCabe, they were to be filmed in color for NBC, but the series was postponed when Laurel suffered a stroke and required a lengthy convalescence. Later that year while Laurel was recovering, Hardy had a heart attack and stroke from which he never recovered.


title: Oliver Hardy

text: Hardy suffered a mild heart attack in May 1954, and he began looking after his health for the first time in his life. He lost more than 150 pounds (68 kg) in a few months which completely changed his appearance. Letters written by Laurel refer to Hardy having terminal cancer, and it was speculated that this was the reason for Hardy's rapid weight loss. Both men were smokers; Hal Roach said that they were a couple of "freight train smoke stacks".


title: Oliver Hardy

text: Hardy suffered a major stroke on September 14, 1956, that left him confined to bed and unable to speak for several months. He remained at home in the care of his wife Lucille. After suffering two more strokes in early August 1957, he slipped into a coma and died from cerebral thrombosis on August 7, 1957, at age 65. After he was cremated, his ashes were interred in the Masonic Garden of Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood. Laurel was inconsolable at the loss of his "dear pal and partner"; his doctor advised Laurel against attending the funeral, due to his own poor health, and Laurel said that "Babe would understand."


title: Conium maculatum

text: Conium maculatum, colloquially known as hemlock, poison hemlock or wild hemlock, is a highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, native to Europe and North Africa. A hardy plant capable of living in a variety of environments, hemlock is widely naturalized in locations outside its native range, such as parts of Australia, West Asia, and North and South America, to which it has been introduced. It is capable of spreading and thereby becoming an invasive weed.


title: Conium maculatum

text: All parts of the plant are toxic, especially the seeds and roots, and especially when ingested. Under the right conditions the plant grows quite rapidly during the growing season and can reach heights of , with a long penetrating root. The plant has a distinctive odour usually considered unpleasant that carries with the wind. The hollow stems are usually spotted with a dark maroon colour before the plant dies and becomes dry and brown after completing its biennial lifecycle. The hollow stems of this toxic plant are deadly for up to 3 years after the plant has died.


title: Conium maculatum

text: "Conium maculatum" is a herbaceous biennial flowering plant that grows to tall, exceptionally . It has a smooth, green, hollow stem, usually spotted or streaked with red or purple on the top and lower half of the stem. All parts of the plant are hairless (glabrous); the leaves are two- to four-pinnate, finely divided and lacy, overall triangular in shape, up to long and broad. Hemlock's flower is small and white; they are loosely clustered and each flower has five petals.


title: Conium maculatum

text: A biennial plant, hemlock produces leaves at its base the first year but no flowers. In its second year it produces white flowers in umbrella-shaped clusters.


title: Conium maculatum

text: Hemlock can be confused with the wild carrot plant ("Daucus carota"). The wild carrot plant has a hairy stem without purple markings, grows less than tall, and does not have clustered flowers. One can distinguish the two from each other by hemlock's smooth texture, mid-green, quite vivid, colour and typical height of large clumps being least , twice the maximum of wild carrot. Carrots have hairy stems that lack the purple blotches.


title: Conium maculatum

text: The plant should not be visually confused with the North American-native "Tsuga", a coniferous tree sometimes called the hemlock, hemlock fir or hemlock spruce, from a slight similarity in the leaf smell. The ambiguous shorthand of 'hemlock' for this tree is more common in the US dialect than the plant it is actually named after. Similarly, the plant should not be confused with "Cicuta" (commonly known as water hemlock).


title: Conium maculatum

text: Wild poison hemlock also can be mistaken for Queen Anne's lace, which is wild or feral carrot plants and sometimes gathered and eaten as an edible wildflower. The authentic, edible plant lacks the purple mottling of hemlock on its stems, which, in the case of Queen Anne's lace, are also more hairy.


title: Conium maculatum

text: The genus name "Conium" refers to "koneios", the Greek word for 'spin' or 'whirl', alluding to the dizzying effects of the plant's poison after ingestion. In the vernacular, "hemlock" most commonly refers to the species "C. maculatum". "Conium" comes from the Ancient Greek "κώνειον – kṓneion": "hemlock". This may be related to "konas" (meaning to whirl), in reference to vertigo, one of the symptoms of ingesting the plant.


title: Conium maculatum

text: "C. maculatum", also known as poison hemlock, was the first species within the genus to be described. It was identified by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 publication, Species Plantarum. "Maculatum" means 'spotted', in reference to the purple blotches characteristic of the stalks of the species.


title: Conium maculatum

text: Vernacular names in the English language are poison hemlock, poison parsley, spotted corobane (rarer forms), carrot fern (Australian Eng.), devil's bread or devil's porridge (Irish Eng.)


title: Conium maculatum

text: It exists in some woodland (and elsewhere) in most British Isles counties; in Ulster these are particularly County Down, County Antrim and County Londonderry.


title: Conium maculatum

text: It has become naturalised in Asia, North America, Australia and New Zealand. It is sometimes encountered around rivers in southeast Australia and Tasmania. An outbreak of Poison Hemlock was reported in Reno Nevada USA by BeeHabitat.com.


title: Conium maculatum

text: The plant is often found in poorly drained soil, particularly near streams, ditches, and other watery surfaces. It also appears on roadsides, edges of cultivated fields, and waste areas. "Conium maculatum" grows in quite damp soil, but also on drier rough grassland, roadsides and disturbed ground. It is used as a food plant by the larvae of some lepidoptera, including silver-ground carpet moths and particularly the poison hemlock moth ("Agonopterix alstroemeriana"). The latter has been widely used as a biological control agent for the plant. Poison hemlock grows in the spring, when much undergrowth is not in flower and may not be in leaf. All plant parts are poisonous.


title: Conium maculatum

text: Poison hemlock contains coniine and some similar poisonous alkaloids, and is poisonous to all mammals (and many other organisms) that eat it. Intoxication has been reported in cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys, rabbits, and horses. Ingesting more than 150–300 milligrams of coniine, approximately equivalent to six to eight hemlock leaves, can be fatal for adult humans. The seeds and roots are also toxic, more so than the leaves. While hemlock toxicity primarily results from consumption, poisoning can also result from inhalation, and from skin contact. Farmers also need to be careful that the hay fed to animals does not contain hemlock. Poison hemlock is most poisonous in the spring when the concentration of γ-coniceine (the precursor to other toxins) is at its peak.


title: Conium maculatum

text: "C. maculatum" is known for being extremely poisonous. Its tissues contain different alkaloids. In flower buds, the major alkaloid found is γ-coniceine. This molecule is transformed into coniine later during the fruit development. The alkaloids are volatile; as such, researchers assume that these alkaloids play an important role in attracting pollinators such as butterflies and bees.


title: Conium maculatum

text: "Conium" contains the piperidine alkaloids coniine, N-methylconiine, conhydrine, pseudoconhydrine and gamma-coniceine (or g-coniceïne), which is the precursor of the other hemlock alkaloids.


title: Conium maculatum

text: Coniine has a chemical structure and pharmacological properties similar to that of nicotine. Coniine acts directly on the central nervous system through inhibitory action on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. In high enough concentrations, coniine can be dangerous to humans and livestock. With its high potency, the ingestion of seemingly small doses can easily result in respiratory collapse and death.


title: Conium maculatum

text: The alkaloid content found in "C. maculatum" also affects the thermoregulatory centre by a phenomenon called peripheral vasoconstriction, resulting in hypothermia in calves. In addition, alkaloid was also found to stimulate the sympathetic ganglia and reduce the influence of the parasympathetic ganglia in rats and rabbits, causing an increased heart rate.


title: Conium maculatum

text: Coniine also has significant toxic effects on the kidneys. The presence of rhabdomyolysis and acute tubular necrosis has been shown in patients who died from hemlock poisoning. A fraction of these patients were also found to have acute kidney injury. Coniine is toxic for the kidneys because it leads to the constriction of the urinary bladder sphincter and eventually the accumulation of urine.


title: Conium maculatum

text: A short time after ingestion, the alkaloids produce potentially fatal neuromuscular dysfunction due to failure of the respiratory muscles. Acute toxicity, if not lethal, may resolve in spontaneous recovery, provided further exposure is avoided. Death can be prevented by artificial ventilation until the effects have worn off 48–72 hours later. For an adult, the ingestion of more than 100 mg (0.1 gram) of coniine (about six to eight fresh leaves, or a smaller dose of the seeds or root) may be fatal. Narcotic-like effects can be observed as soon as 30 minutes after ingestion of green leaf matter of the plant, with victims falling asleep and unconsciousness gradually deepening until death a few hours later.


title: Conium maculatum

text: The onset of symptoms is similar to that caused by curare, with an ascending muscular paralysis leading to paralysis of the respiratory muscles, causing death from oxygen deprivation.


title: Conium maculatum

text: It has been observed that poisoned animals return to feed on the plant after initial poisoning. Chronic toxicity affects only pregnant animals when they are poisoned at low levels by "C. maculatum" during the fetus' organ-formation period; in such cases the offspring is born with malformations, mainly palatoschisis and multiple congenital contractures (arthrogryposis). The damage to the fetus due to chronic toxicity is irreversible. Though arthrogryposis may be surgically corrected in some cases, most of the malformed animals die.


title: Conium maculatum

text: Such losses may be underestimated, at least in some regions, because of the difficulty in associating malformations with the much earlier maternal poisoning.


title: Conium maculatum

text: Since no specific antidote is available, prevention is the only way to deal with the production losses caused by the plant. Control with herbicides and grazing with less-susceptible animals (such as sheep) have been suggested. It is a common myth that "C. maculatum" alkaloids can enter the human food chain via milk and fowl, and scientific studies have disproven these claims.


title: Conium maculatum

text: In ancient Greece, hemlock was used to poison condemned prisoners. "Conium maculatum" is the plant that killed Theramenes, Socrates, Polemarchus, Matthias Corvinus, and Phocion. Socrates, the most famous victim of hemlock poisoning, was accused of impiety and corrupting the minds of the young men of Athens in 399 BC, and his trial gave down his death sentence. He decided to take a potent infusion of hemlock.


title: Figma (software)

text: Figma is a collaborative web application for interface design, with additional offline features enabled by desktop applications for macOS and Windows. The feature set of Figma focuses on user interface and user experience design, with an emphasis on real-time collaboration, utilising a variety of vector graphics editor and prototyping tools. The Figma mobile app for Android and iOS allows viewing and interacting with Figma prototypes in real-time on mobile and tablet devices.


title: Figma (software)

text: Dylan Field and Evan Wallace began working on Figma in 2012 while studying computer science at Brown University. Wallace studied graphics and was a Teacher Assistant for the Computer Science Department, while Field chaired the CS Departmental Undergraduate Group.


title: Figma (software)

text: The original objective behind Figma was to enable "anyone [to] be creative by creating free, simple, creative tools in a browser." Field and Wallace experimented with different ideas, including software for drones and a meme generator, before settling on web-based graphics editor software. The company's early scope was described in a 2012 article by "The Brown Daily Herald" vaguely as "a technology startup that will allow users to creatively express themselves online." That article reported that the company's first ideas revolved around 3D content generation, and subsequent ideas focused on photo editing and object segmentation.


title: Figma (software)

text: Field was named a Thiel Fellow in 2012, earning him $100,000 in exchange for taking a leave of absence from college. Wallace joined Field in California after completing his degree in computer science, and the two began working on the company full time.


title: Figma (software)

text: Figma started offering a free invite-only preview program on December 3, 2015. It saw its first public release on September 27, 2016.


title: Figma (software)

text: On October 22, 2019, Figma launched Figma Community, allowing designers to publish their work for others to view and adapt.


title: Figma (software)

text: On April 21, 2021, Figma launched a digital whiteboarding capability called "FigJam", allowing users to collaborate with sticky notes, emojis and drawing tools.


title: Figma (software)

text: In June 2022, Google for Education announced that it would be partnering with Figma to bring its design and prototyping platform, as well as "FigJam", to education Chromebooks.


title: Figma (software)

text: On September 15, 2022, Adobe announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire Figma for about $20 billion in cash and stock, the company's largest acquisition to-date, with Field remaining as CEO. Members of the design community showed concerns for the future of the product—including potential or mandatory integration with Adobe Creative Cloud, or being forced to adopt business models otherwise unfavorable in comparison to those presently used by Figma. Adobe shares fell by 17% following the announcement.


title: Figma (software)

text: The proposed purchase has been criticized on antitrust grounds (in an attempt to supplant its own competing Adobe XD, which had begun to lose market share to Figma by 2021) and as being an overvaluation. John Naughton went as far as comparing the purchase to Facebook, Inc.'s acquisition of WhatsApp in order to prevent it from growing into a competitor to its core businesses. On November 2, 2022, it was reported that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had begun an investigation.


title: Figma (software)

text: In June 2013, Figma raised $3.8 million in seed funding. In December 2015, the company raised $14 million in Series A funding. In February 2018, Figma raised $25 million in a Series B round. In February 2019, Figma raised $40 million in Series C funding. In April 2020, Figma raised $50 million in a Series D funding round. In June 2021, Figma raised $200 million in a Series E funding round.


title: Clock

text: A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and the year. Devices operating on several physical processes have been used over the millennia.


title: Clock

text: Some predecessors to the modern clock may be considered as "clocks" that are based on movement in nature: A sundial shows the time by displaying the position of a shadow on a flat surface. There is a range of duration timers, a well-known example being the hourglass. Water clocks, along with the sundials, are possibly the oldest time-measuring instruments. A major advance occurred with the invention of the verge escapement, which made possible the first mechanical clocks around 1300 in Europe, which kept time with oscillating timekeepers like balance wheels.


title: Clock

text: Traditionally, in horology, the term "clock" was used for a striking clock, while a clock that did not strike the hours audibly was called a timepiece. This distinction is no longer made. Watches and other timepieces that can be carried on one's person are usually not referred to as clocks. Spring-driven clocks appeared during the 15th century. During the 15th and 16th centuries, clockmaking flourished. The next development in accuracy occurred after 1656 with the invention of the pendulum clock by Christiaan Huygens. A major stimulus to improving the accuracy and reliability of clocks was the importance of precise time-keeping for navigation. The mechanism of a timepiece with a series of gears driven by a spring or weights is referred to as clockwork; the term is used by extension for a similar mechanism not used in a timepiece. The electric clock was patented in 1840, and electronic clocks were introduced in the 20th century, becoming widespread with the development of small battery-powered semiconductor devices.


title: Clock

text: The timekeeping element in every modern clock is a harmonic oscillator, a physical object (resonator) that vibrates or oscillates at a particular frequency.


title: Clock

text: This object can be a pendulum, a tuning fork, a quartz crystal, or the vibration of electrons in atoms as they emit microwaves.


title: Clock

text: Clocks have different ways of displaying the time. Analog clocks indicate time with a traditional clock face, with moving hands. Digital clocks display a numeric representation of time. Two numbering systems are in use: 12-hour time notation and 24-hour notation. Most digital clocks use electronic mechanisms and LCD, LED, or VFD displays. For the blind and for use over telephones, speaking clocks state the time audibly in words. There are also clocks for the blind that have displays that can be read by touch. The study of timekeeping is known as horology.


title: Clock

text: The word "clock" derives from the medieval Latin word for 'bell'——and has cognates in many European languages. Clocks spread to England from the Low Countries, so the English word came from the Middle Low German and Middle Dutch .


title: Clock

text: The word derives from the Middle English , Old North French , or Middle Dutch , all of which mean 'bell', and stem from an Old Irish root.


title: Clock

text: The apparent position of the Sun in the sky moves over the course of each day, reflecting the rotation of the Earth. Shadows cast by stationary objects move correspondingly, so their positions can be used to indicate the time of day. A sundial shows the time by displaying the position of a shadow on a (usually) flat surface, which has markings that correspond to the hours. Sundials can be horizontal, vertical, or in other orientations. Sundials were widely used in ancient times. With the knowledge of latitude, a well-constructed sundial can measure local solar time with reasonable accuracy, within a minute or two. Sundials continued to be used to monitor the performance of clocks until the 1830s, with the use of the telegraph and train to standardize time and time zones between cities.


title: Clock

text: Many devices can be used to mark the passage of time without respect to reference time (time of day, hours, minutes, etc.) and can be useful for measuring duration or intervals. Examples of such duration timers are candle clocks, incense clocks and the hourglass. Both the candle clock and the incense clock work on the same principle wherein the consumption of resources is more or less constant allowing reasonably precise and repeatable estimates of time passages. In the hourglass, fine sand pouring through a tiny hole at a constant rate indicates an arbitrary, predetermined passage of time. The resource is not consumed but re-used.


title: Clock

text: Water clocks, along with the sundials, are possibly the oldest time-measuring instruments, with the only exceptions being the day counting tally stick. Given their great antiquity, where and when they first existed is not known and is perhaps unknowable. The bowl-shaped outflow is the simplest form of a water clock and is known to have existed in Babylon and in Egypt around the 16th century BC. Other regions of the world, including India and China, also have early evidence of water clocks, but the earliest dates are less certain. Some authors, however, write about water clocks appearing as early as 4000 BC in these regions of the world.


title: Clock

text: Greek astronomer Andronicus of Cyrrhus supervised the construction of the Tower of the Winds in Athens in the 1st century B.C. The Greek and Roman civilizations advanced water clock design with improved accuracy. These advances were passed on through Byzantine and Islamic times, eventually making their way back to Europe. Independently, the Chinese developed their own advanced water clocks（水鐘）in 725 AD, passing their ideas on to Korea and Japan.


title: Clock

text: Some water clock designs were developed independently and some knowledge was transferred through the spread of trade. Pre-modern societies do not have the same precise timekeeping requirements that exist in modern industrial societies, where every hour of work or rest is monitored, and work may start or finish at any time regardless of external conditions. Instead, water clocks in ancient societies were used mainly for astrological reasons. These early water clocks were calibrated with a sundial. While never reaching the level of accuracy of a modern timepiece, the water clock was the most accurate and commonly used timekeeping device for millennia, until it was replaced by the more accurate pendulum clock in 17th-century Europe.


title: Clock

text: Islamic civilization is credited with further advancing the accuracy of clocks with elaborate engineering. In 797 (or possibly 801), the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, presented Charlemagne with an Asian elephant named Abul-Abbas together with a "particularly elaborate example" of a water clock. Pope Sylvester II introduced clocks to northern and western Europe around 1000 AD.


title: Clock

text: The first known geared clock was invented by the great mathematician, physicist, and engineer Archimedes during the 3rd century BC. Archimedes created his astronomical clock that was also a cuckoo clock with birds singing and moving every hour. It is the first carillon clock as it plays music and simultaneously with a person blinking his eyes surprised by the singing birds. Archimedes clock works with a system of four weights, counter weights, and strings regulated by a system of floats in a water container with siphons that regulate the automatic continuation of the clock. The principles of this type of clocks are described by the mathematician and physicist Hero, who says that some of them work with a chain that turns a gear of the mechanism. Another Greek clock probably constructed at the time of Alexander was in Gaza, described by Procopius. The Gaza clock was probably a Meteoroskopeion, i.e. a building showing the celestial phenomena and the time. It had pointer for the time and some automations similar to the Archimedes clock. There were 12 doors opening one every hour with Hercules performing his labors, the Lion at one o'clock, etc., and at night a lamp becomes visible every hour, with 12 windows opening to show the time.


title: Clock

text: A water-powered cogwheel clock was created in China by Yi Xing and Liang Lingzan. This is not considered an escapement mechanism clock as it was unidirectional, the Song dynasty polymath and genius Su Song (1020–1101) incorporated it into his monumental innovation of the astronomical clock-tower of Kaifeng in 1088. His astronomical clock and rotating armillary sphere still relied on the use of either flowing water during the spring, summer, autumn seasons and liquid mercury during the freezing temperature of winter (i.e. hydraulics).


title: Clock

text: In Su Song's waterwheel linkwork device, the action of the escapement's arrest and release was achieved by gravity exerted periodically as the continuous flow of liquid filled containers of a limited size. In a single line of evolution, Su Song's clock therefore united the concept of the clepsydra and the mechanical clock into one device run by mechanics and hydraulics. In his memorial, Su Song wrote about this concept:According to your servant's opinion there have been many systems and designs for astronomical instruments during past dynasties all differing from one another in minor respects. But the principle of the use of water-power for the driving mechanism has always been the same. The heavens move without ceasing but so also does water flow (and fall). Thus if the water is made to pour with perfect evenness, then the comparison of the rotary movements (of the heavens and the machine) will show no discrepancy or contradiction; for the unresting follows the unceasing.


title: Clock

text: Song was also strongly influenced by the earlier armillary sphere created by Zhang Sixun (976 AD), who also employed the escapement mechanism and used liquid mercury instead of water in the waterwheel of his astronomical clock tower.The mechanical clockworks for Su Song's astronomical tower featured a great driving-wheel that was 11 feet in diameter, carrying 36 scoops, into each of which water poured at a uniform rate from the "constant-level tank". The main driving shaft of iron, with its cylindrical necks supported on iron crescent-shaped bearings, ended in a pinion, which engaged a gear wheel at the lower end of the main vertical transmission shaft. This great astronomical hydromechanical clock tower was about ten metres high (about 30 feet) and featured a clock escapement and was indirectly powered by a rotating wheel either with falling water and liquid mercury. A full-sized working replica of Su Song's clock exists in the Republic of China (Taiwan)'s National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung city. This full-scale, fully functional replica, approximately 12 meters (39 feet) in height, was constructed from Su Song's original descriptions and mechanical drawings.


title: Clock

text: In the 13th century, Al-Jazari, an engineer from Mesopotamia (lived 1136–1206) who worked for Artuqid king of Diyar-Bakr, Nasir al-Din, made numerous clocks of all shapes and sizes. The most reputed clocks included the elephant, scribe, and castle clocks, some of which have been successfully reconstructed. As well as telling the time, these grand clocks were symbols of status, grandeur and wealth of the Urtuq State.


title: Clock

text: The word (from the Greek —'hour', and —'to tell') was used to describe early mechanical clocks, but the use of this word (still used in several Romance languages) for all timekeepers conceals the true nature of the mechanisms. For example, there is a record that in 1176 Sens Cathedral in France installed an 'horologe' but the mechanism used is unknown. According to Jocelyn de Brakelond, in 1198 during a fire at the abbey of St Edmundsbury (now Bury St Edmunds), the monks "ran to the clock" to fetch water, indicating that their water clock had a reservoir large enough to help extinguish the occasional fire. The word "clock" (via Medieval Latin from Old Irish , both meaning 'bell'), which gradually supersedes "horologe", suggests that it was the sound of bells which also characterized the prototype mechanical clocks that appeared during the 13th century in Europe.


title: Clock

text: In Europe, between 1280 and 1320, there was an increase in the number of references to clocks and horologes in church records, and this probably indicates that a new type of clock mechanism had been devised. Existing clock mechanisms that used water power were being adapted to take their driving power from falling weights. This power was controlled by some form of oscillating mechanism, probably derived from existing bell-ringing or alarm devices. This controlled release of power – the escapement – marks the beginning of the true mechanical clock, which differed from the previously mentioned cogwheel clocks. Verge escapement mechanism derived in the surge of true mechanical clocks, which didn't need any kind of fluid power, like water or mercury, to work.


title: Clock

text: These mechanical clocks were intended for two main purposes: for signalling and notification (e.g. the timing of services and public events), and for modeling the solar system. The former purpose is administrative, the latter arises naturally given the scholarly interests in astronomy, science, astrology, and how these subjects integrated with the religious philosophy of the time. The astrolabe was used both by astronomers and astrologers, and it was natural to apply a clockwork drive to the rotating plate to produce a working model of the solar system.


title: Clock

text: Simple clocks intended mainly for notification were installed in towers, and did not always require faces or hands. They would have announced the canonical hours or intervals between set times of prayer. Canonical hours varied in length as the times of sunrise and sunset shifted. The more sophisticated astronomical clocks would have had moving dials or hands, and would have shown the time in various time systems, including Italian hours, canonical hours, and time as measured by astronomers at the time. Both styles of clock started acquiring extravagant features such as automata.


title: Clock

text: In 1283, a large clock was installed at Dunstable Priory in Bedfordshire in southern England; its location above the rood screen suggests that it was not a water clock. In 1292, Canterbury Cathedral installed a 'great horloge'. Over the next 30 years there are mentions of clocks at a number of ecclesiastical institutions in England, Italy, and France. In 1322, a new clock was installed in Norwich, an expensive replacement for an earlier clock installed in 1273. This had a large (2 metre) astronomical dial with automata and bells. The costs of the installation included the full-time employment of two clockkeepers for two years.


title: Clock

text: The world's first fully mechanical water clock the 'Cosmic Engine', was invented by Su Song, a Chinese polymath, designed and constructed in China in 1092. This great astronomical hydromechanical clock tower was about ten metres high (about 30 feet) and featured a clock escapement and was indirectly powered by a rotating wheel with falling water and liquid mercury, and used an armillary sphere capable of calculating complex astronomical problems.


title: Clock

text: In Europe, there were the clocks constructed by Richard of Wallingford in Albans by 1336, and by Giovanni de Dondi in Padua from 1348 to 1364. They no longer exist, but detailed descriptions of their design and construction survive, and modern reproductions have been made. They illustrate how quickly the theory of the mechanical clock had been translated into practical constructions, and also that one of the many impulses to their development had been the desire of astronomers to investigate celestial phenomena.


title: Clock

text: The Astrarium of Giovanni Dondi dell'Orologio was a complex astronomical clock built between 1348 and 1364 in Padua, Italy, by the doctor and clock-maker Giovanni Dondi dell'Orologio. The Astrarium had seven faces and 107 moving gears; it showed the positions of the sun, the moon and the five planets then known, as well as religious feast days. The astrarium stood about 1 metre high, and consisted of a seven-sided brass or iron framework resting on 7 decorative paw-shaped feet. The lower section provided a 24-hour dial and a large calendar drum, showing the fixed feasts of the church, the movable feasts, and the position in the zodiac of the moon's ascending node. The upper section contained 7 dials, each about 30 cm in diameter, showing the positional data for the Primum Mobile, Venus, Mercury, the moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. Directly above the 24-hour dial is the dial of the Primum Mobile, so called because it reproduces the diurnal motion of the stars and the annual motion of the sun against the background of stars. Each of the 'planetary' dials used complex clockwork to produce reasonably accurate models of the planets' motion. These agreed reasonably well both with Ptolemaic theory and with observations.


title: Clock

text: Wallingford's clock had a large astrolabe-type dial, showing the sun, the moon's age, phase, and node, a star map, and possibly the planets. In addition, it had a wheel of fortune and an indicator of the state of the tide at London Bridge. Bells rang every hour, the number of strokes indicating the time. Dondi's clock was a seven-sided construction, 1 metre high, with dials showing the time of day, including minutes, the motions of all the known planets, an automatic calendar of fixed and movable feasts, and an eclipse prediction hand rotating once every 18 years. It is not known how accurate or reliable these clocks would have been. They were probably adjusted manually every day to compensate for errors caused by wear and imprecise manufacture. Water clocks are sometimes still used today, and can be examined in places such as ancient castles and museums. The Salisbury Cathedral clock, built in 1386, is considered to be the world's oldest surviving mechanical clock that strikes the hours.


title: Clock

text: Clockmakers developed their art in various ways. Building smaller clocks was a technical challenge, as was improving accuracy and reliability. Clocks could be impressive showpieces to demonstrate skilled craftsmanship, or less expensive, mass-produced items for domestic use. The escapement in particular was an important factor affecting the clock's accuracy, so many different mechanisms were tried.


title: Clock

text: Spring-driven clocks appeared during the 15th century, although they are often erroneously credited to Nuremberg watchmaker Peter Henlein (or Henle, or Hele) around 1511. The earliest existing spring driven clock is the chamber clock given to Phillip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, around 1430, now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Spring power presented clockmakers with a new problem: how to keep the clock movement running at a constant rate as the spring ran down. This resulted in the invention of the "stackfreed" and the fusee in the 15th century, and many other innovations, down to the invention of the modern "going barrel" in 1760.


title: Clock

text: Early clock dials did not indicate minutes and seconds. A clock with a dial indicating minutes was illustrated in a 1475 manuscript by Paulus Almanus, and some 15th-century clocks in Germany indicated minutes and seconds.


title: Clock

text: An early record of a seconds hand on a clock dates back to about 1560 on a clock now in the Fremersdorf collection.


title: Clock

text: During the 15th and 16th centuries, clockmaking flourished, particularly in the metalworking towns of Nuremberg and Augsburg, and in Blois, France. Some of the more basic table clocks have only one time-keeping hand, with the dial between the hour markers being divided into four equal parts making the clocks readable to the nearest 15 minutes. Other clocks were exhibitions of craftsmanship and skill, incorporating astronomical indicators and musical movements. The cross-beat escapement was invented in 1584 by Jost Bürgi, who also developed the remontoire. Bürgi's clocks were a great improvement in accuracy as they were correct to within a minute a day. These clocks helped the 16th-century astronomer Tycho Brahe to observe astronomical events with much greater precision than before.


title: Clock

text: The next development in accuracy occurred after 1656 with the invention of the pendulum clock. Galileo had the idea to use a swinging bob to regulate the motion of a time-telling device earlier in the 17th century. Christiaan Huygens, however, is usually credited as the inventor. He determined the mathematical formula that related pendulum length to time (about 99.4 cm or 39.1 inches for the one second movement) and had the first pendulum-driven clock made. The first model clock was built in 1657 in the Hague, but it was in England that the idea was taken up. The longcase clock (also known as the "grandfather clock") was created to house the pendulum and works by the English clockmaker William Clement in 1670 or 1671. It was also at this time that clock cases began to be made of wood and clock faces to use enamel as well as hand-painted ceramics.


title: Clock

text: In 1670, William Clement created the anchor escapement, an improvement over Huygens' crown escapement. Clement also introduced the pendulum suspension spring in 1671. The concentric minute hand was added to the clock by Daniel Quare, a London clockmaker and others, and the second hand was first introduced.


title: Clock

text: In 1675, Huygens and Robert Hooke invented the spiral balance spring, or the hairspring, designed to control the oscillating speed of the balance wheel. This crucial advance finally made accurate pocket watches possible. The great English clockmaker Thomas Tompion, was one of the first to use this mechanism successfully in his pocket watches, and he adopted the minute hand which, after a variety of designs were trialled, eventually stabilised into the modern-day configuration. The rack and snail striking mechanism for striking clocks, was introduced during the 17th century and had distinct advantages over the 'countwheel' (or 'locking plate') mechanism. During the 20th century there was a common misconception that Edward Barlow invented "rack and snail" striking. In fact, his invention was connected with a repeating mechanism employing the rack and snail. The repeating clock, that chimes the number of hours (or even minutes) on demand was invented by either Quare or Barlow in 1676. George Graham invented the deadbeat escapement for clocks in 1720.


title: Clock

text: A major stimulus to improving the accuracy and reliability of clocks was the importance of precise time-keeping for navigation. The position of a ship at sea could be determined with reasonable accuracy if a navigator could refer to a clock that lost or gained less than about 10 seconds per day. This clock could not contain a pendulum, which would be virtually useless on a rocking ship. In 1714, the British government offered large financial rewards to the value of 20,000 pounds for anyone who could determine longitude accurately. John Harrison, who dedicated his life to improving the accuracy of his clocks, later received considerable sums under the Longitude Act.


title: Clock

text: In 1735, Harrison built his first chronometer, which he steadily improved on over the next thirty years before submitting it for examination. The clock had many innovations, including the use of bearings to reduce friction, weighted balances to compensate for the ship's pitch and roll in the sea and the use of two different metals to reduce the problem of expansion from heat. The chronometer was tested in 1761 by Harrison's son and by the end of 10 weeks the clock was in error by less than 5 seconds.


title: Clock

text: The British had dominated watch manufacture for much of the 17th and 18th centuries, but maintained a system of production that was geared towards high quality products for the elite. Although there was an attempt to modernise clock manufacture with mass-production techniques and the application of duplicating tools and machinery by the British Watch Company in 1843, it was in the United States that this system took off. In 1816, Eli Terry and some other Connecticut clockmakers developed a way of mass-producing clocks by using interchangeable parts. Aaron Lufkin Dennison started a factory in 1851 in Massachusetts that also used interchangeable parts, and by 1861 was running a successful enterprise incorporated as the Waltham Watch Company.


title: Clock

text: In 1815, Francis Ronalds published the first electric clock powered by dry pile batteries. Alexander Bain, Scottish clockmaker, patented the electric clock in 1840. The electric clock's mainspring is wound either with an electric motor or with an electromagnet and armature. In 1841, he first patented the electromagnetic pendulum. By the end of the nineteenth century, the advent of the dry cell battery made it feasible to use electric power in clocks. Spring or weight driven clocks that use electricity, either alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC), to rewind the spring or raise the weight of a mechanical clock would be classified as an electromechanical clock. This classification would also apply to clocks that employ an electrical impulse to propel the pendulum. In electromechanical clocks the electricity serves no time keeping function. These types of clocks were made as individual timepieces but more commonly used in synchronized time installations in schools, businesses, factories, railroads and government facilities as a master clock and slave clocks.


title: Clock

text: Where an AC electrical supply of stable frequency is available, timekeeping can be maintained very reliably by using a synchronous motor, essentially counting the cycles. The supply current alternates with an accurate frequency of 50 hertz in many countries, and 60 hertz in others. While the frequency may vary slightly during the day as the load changes, generators are designed to maintain an accurate number of cycles over a day, so the clock may be a fraction of a second slow or fast at any time, but will be perfectly accurate over a long time. The rotor of the motor rotates at a speed that is related to the alternation frequency. Appropriate gearing converts this rotation speed to the correct ones for the hands of the analog clock. Time in these cases is measured in several ways, such as by counting the cycles of the AC supply, vibration of a tuning fork, the behaviour of quartz crystals, or the quantum vibrations of atoms. Electronic circuits divide these high-frequency oscillations to slower ones that drive the time display.


title: Clock

text: The piezoelectric properties of crystalline quartz were discovered by Jacques and Pierre Curie in 1880. The first crystal oscillator was invented in 1917 by Alexander M. Nicholson, after which the first quartz crystal oscillator was built by Walter G. Cady in 1921. In 1927 the first quartz clock was built by Warren Marrison and J.W. Horton at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Canada. The following decades saw the development of quartz clocks as precision time measurement devices in laboratory settings—the bulky and delicate counting electronics, built with vacuum tubes at the time, limited their practical use elsewhere. The National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) based the time standard of the United States on quartz clocks from late 1929 until the 1960s, when it changed to atomic clocks. In 1969, Seiko produced the world's first quartz wristwatch, the Astron. Their inherent accuracy and low cost of production resulted in the subsequent proliferation of quartz clocks and watches.


title: Clock

text: Currently, atomic clocks are the most accurate clocks in existence. They are considerably more accurate than quartz clocks as they can be accurate to within a few seconds over trillions of years. Atomic clocks were first theorized by Lord Kelvin in 1879. In the 1930s the development of magnetic resonance created practical method for doing this. A prototype ammonia maser device was built in 1949 at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (NBS, now NIST). Although it was less accurate than existing quartz clocks, it served to demonstrate the concept. The first accurate atomic clock, a caesium standard based on a certain transition of the caesium-133 atom, was built by Louis Essen in 1955 at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK. Calibration of the caesium standard atomic clock was carried out by the use of the astronomical time scale "ephemeris time" (ET). As of 2013, the most stable atomic clocks are ytterbium clocks, which are stable to within less than two parts in 1 quintillion ().


title: Clock

text: The invention of the mechanical clock in the 13th century initiated a change in timekeeping methods from continuous processes, such as the motion of the gnomon's shadow on a sundial or the flow of liquid in a water clock, to periodic oscillatory processes, such as the swing of a pendulum or the vibration of a quartz crystal, which had the potential for more accuracy. All modern clocks use oscillation.


title: Clock

text: Although the mechanisms they use vary, all oscillating clocks, mechanical, electric, and atomic, work similarly and can be divided into analogous parts. They consist of an object that repeats the same motion over and over again, an "oscillator", with a precisely constant time interval between each repetition, or 'beat'. Attached to the oscillator is a "controller" device, which sustains the oscillator's motion by replacing the energy it loses to friction, and converts its oscillations into a series of pulses. The pulses are then counted by some type of "counter", and the number of counts is converted into convenient units, usually seconds, minutes, hours, etc. Finally some kind of "indicator" displays the result in human readable form.


title: Clock

text: The timekeeping element in every modern clock is a harmonic oscillator, a physical object (resonator) that vibrates or oscillates repetitively at a precisely constant frequency.


title: Clock

text: The advantage of a harmonic oscillator over other forms of oscillator is that it employs resonance to vibrate at a precise natural resonant frequency or "beat" dependent only on its physical characteristics, and resists vibrating at other rates. The possible precision achievable by a harmonic oscillator is measured by a parameter called its Q, or quality factor, which increases (other things being equal) with its resonant frequency. This is why there has been a long-term trend toward higher frequency oscillators in clocks. Balance wheels and pendulums always include a means of adjusting the rate of the timepiece. Quartz timepieces sometimes include a rate screw that adjusts a capacitor for that purpose. Atomic clocks are primary standards, and their rate cannot be adjusted.


title: Clock

text: Some clocks rely for their accuracy on an external oscillator; that is, they are automatically synchronized to a more accurate clock:


title: Clock

text: This has the dual function of keeping the oscillator running by giving it 'pushes' to replace the energy lost to friction, and converting its vibrations into a series of pulses that serve to measure the time.


title: Clock

text: In mechanical clocks, the low Q of the balance wheel or pendulum oscillator made them very sensitive to the disturbing effect of the impulses of the escapement, so the escapement had a great effect on the accuracy of the clock, and many escapement designs were tried. The higher Q of resonators in electronic clocks makes them relatively insensitive to the disturbing effects of the drive power, so the driving oscillator circuit is a much less critical component.


title: Clock

text: This counts the pulses and adds them up to get traditional time units of seconds, minutes, hours, etc. It usually has a provision for "setting" the clock by manually entering the correct time into the counter.


title: Clock

text: Analog clocks usually use a clock face which indicates time using rotating pointers called "hands" on a fixed numbered dial or dials. The standard clock face, known universally throughout the world, has a short "hour hand" which indicates the hour on a circular dial of 12 hours, making two revolutions per day, and a longer "minute hand" which indicates the minutes in the current hour on the same dial, which is also divided into 60 minutes. It may also have a "second hand" which indicates the seconds in the current minute. The only other widely used clock face today is the 24 hour analog dial, because of the use of 24 hour time in military organizations and timetables. Before the modern clock face was standardized during the Industrial Revolution, many other face designs were used throughout the years, including dials divided into 6, 8, 10, and 24 hours. During the French Revolution the French government tried to introduce a 10-hour clock, as part of their decimal-based metric system of measurement, but it did not achieve widespread use. An Italian 6 hour clock was developed in the 18th century, presumably to save power (a clock or watch striking 24 times uses more power).


title: Clock

text: Another type of analog clock is the sundial, which tracks the sun continuously, registering the time by the shadow position of its gnomon. Because the sun does not adjust to daylight saving time, users must add an hour during that time. Corrections must also be made for the equation of time, and for the difference between the longitudes of the sundial and of the central meridian of the time zone that is being used (i.e. 15 degrees east of the prime meridian for each hour that the time zone is ahead of GMT). Sundials use some or part of the 24 hour analog dial. There also exist clocks which use a digital display despite having an analog mechanism—these are commonly referred to as flip clocks. Alternative systems have been proposed. For example, the "Twelv" clock indicates the current hour using one of twelve colors, and indicates the minute by showing a proportion of a circular disk, similar to a moon phase.


title: Clock

text: Digital clocks display a numeric representation of time. Two numeric display formats are commonly used on digital clocks:


title: Clock

text: Most digital clocks use electronic mechanisms and LCD, LED, or VFD displays; many other display technologies are used as well (cathode-ray tubes, nixie tubes, etc.). After a reset, battery change or power failure, these clocks without a backup battery or capacitor either start counting from 12:00, or stay at 12:00, often with blinking digits indicating that the time needs to be set. Some newer clocks will reset themselves based on radio or Internet time servers that are tuned to national atomic clocks. Since the advent of digital clocks in the 1960s, the use of analog clocks has declined significantly.


title: Clock

text: Some clocks, called 'flip clocks', have digital displays that work mechanically. The digits are painted on sheets of material which are mounted like the pages of a book. Once a minute, a page is turned over to reveal the next digit. These displays are usually easier to read in brightly lit conditions than LCDs or LEDs. Also, they do not go back to 12:00 after a power interruption. Flip clocks generally do not have electronic mechanisms. Usually, they are driven by AC-synchronous motors.


title: Clock

text: Clocks with analog quadrants, with a digital component, usually minutes and hours displayed analogously and seconds displayed in digital mode.


title: Clock

text: For convenience, distance, telephony or blindness, auditory clocks present the time as sounds. The sound is either spoken natural language, (e.g. "The time is twelve thirty-five"), or as auditory codes (e.g. number of sequential bell rings on the hour represents the number of the hour like the bell, Big Ben). Most telecommunication companies also provide a speaking clock service as well.


title: Clock

text: Word clocks are clocks that display the time visually using sentences. E.g.: "It's about three o'clock." These clocks can be implemented in hardware or software.


title: Clock

text: Some clocks, usually digital ones, include an optical projector that shines a magnified image of the time display onto a screen or onto a surface such as an indoor ceiling or wall. The digits are large enough to be easily read, without using glasses, by persons with moderately imperfect vision, so the clocks are convenient for use in their bedrooms. Usually, the timekeeping circuitry has a battery as a backup source for an uninterrupted power supply to keep the clock on time, while the projection light only works when the unit is connected to an A.C. supply. Completely battery-powered portable versions resembling flashlights are also available.


title: Clock

text: Auditory and projection clocks can be used by people who are blind or have limited vision. There are also clocks for the blind that have displays that can be read by using the sense of touch. Some of these are similar to normal analog displays, but are constructed so the hands can be felt without damaging them. Another type is essentially digital, and uses devices that use a code such as Braille to show the digits so that they can be felt with the fingertips.


title: Clock

text: Some clocks have several displays driven by a single mechanism, and some others have several completely separate mechanisms in a single case. Clocks in public places often have several faces visible from different directions, so that the clock can be read from anywhere in the vicinity; all the faces show the same time. Other clocks show the current time in several time-zones. Watches that are intended to be carried by travellers often have two displays, one for the local time and the other for the time at home, which is useful for making pre-arranged phone calls. Some equation clocks have two displays, one showing mean time and the other solar time, as would be shown by a sundial. Some clocks have both analog and digital displays. Clocks with Braille displays usually also have conventional digits so they can be read by sighted people.


title: Clock

text: Clocks are in homes, offices and many other places; smaller ones (watches) are carried on the wrist or in a pocket; larger ones are in public places, e.g. a railway station or church. A small clock is often shown in a corner of computer displays, mobile phones and many MP3 players.


title: Clock

text: The primary purpose of a clock is to "display" the time. Clocks may also have the facility to make a loud alert signal at a specified time, typically to waken a sleeper at a preset time; they are referred to as "alarm clocks". The alarm may start at a low volume and become louder, or have the facility to be switched off for a few minutes then resume. Alarm clocks with visible indicators are sometimes used to indicate to children too young to read the time that the time for sleep has finished; they are sometimes called "training clocks".


title: Clock

text: A clock mechanism may be used to "control" a device according to time, e.g. a central heating system, a VCR, or a time bomb (see: digital counter). Such mechanisms are usually called timers. Clock mechanisms are also used to drive devices such as solar trackers and astronomical telescopes, which have to turn at accurately controlled speeds to counteract the rotation of the Earth.


title: Clock

text: Most digital computers depend on an internal signal at constant frequency to synchronize processing; this is referred to as a clock signal. (A few research projects are developing CPUs based on asynchronous circuits.) Some equipment, including computers, also maintains time and date for use as required; this is referred to as time-of-day clock, and is distinct from the system clock signal, although possibly based on counting its cycles.


title: Clock

text: In Chinese culture, giving a clock () is often taboo, especially to the elderly as the term for this act is a homophone with the term for the act of attending another's funeral ().


title: Clock

text: This homonymic pair works in both Mandarin and Cantonese, although in most parts of China only clocks and large bells, and not watches, are called ""zhong"", and watches are commonly given as gifts in China.


title: Clock

text: However, should such a gift be given, the "unluckiness" of the gift can be countered by exacting a small monetary payment so the recipient is buying the clock and thereby counteracting the ("give") expression of the phrase.


title: Clock

text: For some scientific work timing of the utmost accuracy is essential. It is also necessary to have a standard of the maximum accuracy against which working clocks can be calibrated. An ideal clock would give the time to unlimited accuracy, but this is not realisable. Many physical processes, in particular including some transitions between atomic energy levels, occur at exceedingly stable frequency; counting cycles of such a process can give a very accurate and consistent time—clocks which work this way are usually called atomic clocks. Such clocks are typically large, very expensive, require a controlled environment, and are far more accurate than required for most purposes; they are typically used in a standards laboratory.


title: Clock

text: Until advances in the late twentieth century, navigation depended on the ability to measure latitude and longitude. Latitude can be determined through celestial navigation; the measurement of longitude requires accurate knowledge of time. This need was a major motivation for the development of accurate mechanical clocks. John Harrison created the first highly accurate marine chronometer in the mid-18th century. The Noon gun in Cape Town still fires an accurate signal to allow ships to check their chronometers. Many buildings near major ports used to have (some still do) a large ball mounted on a tower or mast arranged to drop at a pre-determined time, for the same purpose. While satellite navigation systems such as GPS require unprecedentedly accurate knowledge of time, this is supplied by equipment on the satellites; vehicles no longer need timekeeping equipment.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme (born October 22, 1948) is an American criminal who was a member of the Manson family, a cult led by Charles Manson. Though not involved in the Tate–LaBianca murders for which the Manson family is best known, she attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975. For that crime, she was sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled from prison on August 14, 2009, after serving approximately 34 years. She published a book about her life in 2018.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: Fromme was born on October 22, 1948, in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of Helen (née Benzinger) and William Millar Fromme, an aeronautical engineer. As a child, Fromme performed with a popular dance group called the Westchester Lariats, which began touring the United States and Europe in the late 1950s, and had an appearance on "The Lawrence Welk Show" and at the White House.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: In 1963, the family moved to Redondo Beach, and Fromme began using alcohol and drugs. Her grades dropped at Redondo Union High School, but she graduated in 1966. She moved out of her parents' house for a few months before her father convinced her to enroll at El Camino College. She returned home for two months before her father kicked her out following an argument, rendering her homeless.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: In 1967, at the age of 19, Fromme dropped out of college and went to Venice Beach after her parents had thrown her out of the house. Suffering from depression, she sat on a curb and watched a bus arrive, and Charles Manson exited. Manson stopped and looked at her and said "Your parents threw you out, didn't they?" Fromme immediately decided Manson was a psychic. Manson walked away and Fromme picked up her belongings and followed him. Manson had recently been released from the federal prison at Terminal Island, and Fromme became the second member of what would become the Manson Family.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: Fromme found Manson's philosophies and attitudes appealing, and the two became friends and traveled together with other young people, including Mary Brunner and Susan Atkins. She lived with the Manson Family at Spahn Ranch where they worked for their keep, and at the Barker Ranch in Death Valley, which was owned by a Family member's grandmother. Ranch owner George Spahn gave her the nickname "Squeaky" because of the sound that she made when he touched her.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: Manson and some of his followers were arrested for the Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca murders in 1969, and Fromme and the remaining Manson Family camped outside the trial. Manson and fellow defendants Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten carved Xs into their foreheads, as did Fromme and her compatriots. They proclaimed Manson's innocence and preached his apocalyptic philosophy to the news media and to anyone else who would listen. Fromme was not charged with involvement in the murders, but was convicted of attempting to prevent Manson's imprisoned followers from testifying, as well as contempt of court when she refused to testify herself. She was given short jail sentences for both offenses.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: Fromme and Sandra Good moved into an older attic apartment in downtown Sacramento, as they wanted to be near Manson after he was moved to Folsom Prison. She and Good lived in the third-floor apartment at 1725 P Street in Sacramento.()


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: Around 1973, Fromme started work on an extensive 600-page book about the Manson Family, including intricate drawings and photos; other family members had contributed to it as well. Fromme sent it to publishers, but she dropped it after discussing it with Clem Grogan, deciding that the project was too incriminating. The book, titled "Reflexion", was eventually published in 2018 by the Peasenhall Press.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: Fromme traveled to Stockton in 1972 with Nancy Pitman, Priscilla Cooper, and Aryan Brotherhood members Michael Monfort and James Craig, in order to follow through with Manson's deal with the Brotherhood. This group met James and Lauren Willett at a cabin. In November 1972, Montfort and Craig forced James Willett to dig his own grave and then shot him because he was going to tell the authorities about a series of robberies that they had committed after they were released from prison. His body was found with his hand still sticking out of the ground. The housemates were arrested on suspicion of murder, after which Lauren's body was discovered in the basement. She had been shot to death. The Willetts' eight-month-old daughter, Heidi, was found alive in the house. Fromme was released for lack of evidence.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: The Sonoma County coroner's office concluded that James Willett was killed sometime in September 1972, although his decapitated body was not found until the beginning of November. He had been buried near Guerneville. On the night of November 11, 1972, the Stockton Police responded to information that a station wagon owned by the Willetts was parked in front of 720 W. Flora St. Sergeant Richard Whiteman forced his way into the house: "All the persons subsequently arrested were in the house except for Fromme. She telephoned the house while police were there, asking to be picked up, and officers obliged, taking her into custody nearby. Police found a quantity of guns and ammunition in the house along with amounts of marijuana, and noticed freshly dug earth beneath the building."


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: Fromme later told reporters that she had been traveling in California trying to visit "brothers" in jail and to visit Manson. She said that she came to Stockton on November 10 to visit William Goucher, who was in jail on a robbery charge, when Lauren died. When Fromme left the jail after visiting Goucher, she called the house on Flora Street to have someone pick her up, and the Stockton Police traced the call and arrested her at a phone booth.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: The Stockton Police exhumed the body of Lauren Willett the following day. Cooper told investigators that she had been shot accidentally, contending that Monfort was "demonstrating the dangers of firearms, playing a form of Russian roulette with a .38 caliber pistol" and had first spun the gun cylinder and shot at his own head, and then pointed it at the victim, when it fired. The police determined that Lauren had been with them voluntarily. Fromme was held in custody for 2½ months but never charged; she said she was innocent of any wrongdoing. The other four people involved were convicted.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: After leaving Stockton, Fromme moved into a Sacramento apartment with Sandra Good. The two wore robes on occasion and changed their names to symbolize their devotion to Manson's new religion, Fromme becoming "Red" in honor of her red hair and the California redwoods, and Good becoming "Blue" for her blue eyes and the ocean; both nicknames were originally given to them by Manson.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: Prior to a Led Zeppelin concert in Long Beach in 1975, Fromme knocked on the hotel door of Danny Goldberg, vice-president of the band's record label, Swan Song Records. Fromme, described as frantic and with a nervous tic marring her face, asked to meet with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page to warn him, claiming to have foreseen the future and wishing to warn Page of imminent "evil" which she believed might take place that night at the concert. Goldberg stated that she could not see Page until the following night, to which Fromme responded "tomorrow night will probably be too late". After a long discussion, Goldberg agreed to deliver a message to Page if she wrote it down. Fromme was subsequently escorted away against her will and the note was ultimately burned and never read. A week later, Goldberg saw Fromme on the television news after she had attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: On the morning of September 5, 1975, Fromme went to Sacramento's Capitol Park, ostensibly to plead with President Gerald Ford about the plight of the California redwoods, dressed in a red robe and armed with a Colt M1911 .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol. The pistol's magazine was loaded with four rounds, but there was no round in the chamber. When Fromme pointed the gun at Ford she was immediately restrained by Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf. She managed to say a few sentences to the on-scene cameras while being handcuffed, emphasizing that the gun "didn't go off". In 1980, Fromme told "The Sacramento Bee" that she had deliberately ejected the round from her weapon's chamber before leaving home that morning, and investigators later found a round on her bathroom floor.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: Fromme refused to cooperate with her own defense during her trial. Despite claiming that "I was not determined to kill the guy", Fromme was eventually convicted of the attempted assassination of the president and received a life sentence under a 1965 law that made attempted presidential assassinations a federal crime. Attorney Dwayne Keyes recommended severe punishment because she was "full of hate and violence"; Fromme threw an apple at him, hitting him in the face and knocking off his glasses. She told the press that she "came to get life. Not just my life but clean air, healthy water, and respect for creatures and creation."


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: In 1979, Fromme was transferred out of Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin, for attacking fellow inmate Julienne Bušić with a hammer. On December 23, 1987, she escaped from Federal Prison Camp Alderson in West Virginia in an attempt to meet Manson, who had testicular cancer. She was captured two days later and incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, in Fort Worth, Texas.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: Fromme continued to profess total allegiance to Manson. Vincent Bugliosi wrote in "Helter Skelter" that she and Good were the only members of the Manson Family who had not renounced him. She once told an Associated Press reporter, "The curtain is going to come down on all of us, and if we don't turn everything over to Charlie immediately, it will be too late."


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: Fromme first became eligible for parole in 2005 and was entitled by federal law to a mandatory hearing after thirty years, but she could waive that hearing and apply for release at a later date. She waived her right to request a hearing and was required by federal law to complete a parole application before one could be considered and granted. She was granted parole in July 2008, but was not released because of the extra time added to her sentence for the 1987 prison escape.


title: Squeaky Fromme

text: She was released on parole from Federal Medical Center, Carswell, on August 14, 2009, and moved to New York State, where she and her boyfriend Robert Valdner live in a house decorated with skulls. In a 2019 televised interview, Fromme said about Manson, "Was I in love with Charlie? Yeah, [...] I still am."


title: Nagma

text: Nagma Arvind Morarji (born Nandita Arvind Morarji on 25 December 1974) is an Indian politician and former actress. She was a popular lead actress in the 1990s. She made her cinematic debut in the film "Baaghi" opposite Salman Khan in 1990. It was Hindi cinema's seventh highest-grossing film of the year. She is known for her roles in films like "Gharana Mogudu" (1992), "King Uncle" (1993), Suhaag (1994), "Kadhalan" (1994), "Baashha" (1995) and "Lal Baadshah" (1999). She began her acting career in Bollywood. Nagma has acted in a broad range of films in India's languages predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Bhojpuri Films and has also additionally appeared in several other regional language pictures- such as Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi Marathi and Mandarin/Cantonese films.


title: Nagma

text: Nagma was born as Nandita Arvind Morarji on 25 December 1974. Her father Arvind Morarji, whose forefathers hailed from Jaisalmer, later migrating to Porbandar, Gujarat and finally Mumbai. Her grandfather Gokuldas Morarji was a reputed businessman in the shipping, textile, agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. Her mother Seema, originally named Shama Kazi, is a Muslim belonging to the Kazi freedom fighter family. She married Morarji in 1969 at the CCI Club in Mumbai, but separated from him in 1974. After divorcing Morarji in August 1974, Nagma's mother married Chander Sadanah, a film producer in March 1975 with whom she had three children: including two daughters, actresses Jyothika and Roshini (born Radhika).


title: Nagma

text: Nagma did her schooling from Mount Mary Convent High School, Mumbai. She is a Bachelor of Commerce graduate from National College, Mumbai University.


title: Nagma

text: Nagma remained close to her biological father until his death on 31 December 2005. She explained to a Mumbai reporter "I am proud of the fact that I belong to a respectable family. My mother was legally married to my father, the late Shri Arvind Morarji, at a public function at the CCI Club, Mumbai." It was Nagma's mother who encouraged her to become an actress and is said to have been her "constant companion on the film sets" for several years.


title: Nagma

text: Nagma's debut film "", opposite Salman Khan was Hindi cinema's seventh highest-grossing film in 1990. With Karisma Kapoor, she was also one of the female leads in 1994's "Suhaag" with Ajay Devgan and Akshay Kumar. Following these films, she acted in regional cinema to star in Telugu and Tamil films at the behest of her friend Divya Bharti. Explaining her shift, she cited what she was more conscious of the quality of work, in terms of meaty roles and her flair to travel throughout India understanding different cultures and her drive and passion to get acclamation from all over India. She stated "Language was never a barrier. I love adventure, culture and have great respect for the Indian tradition".


title: Nagma

text: Her Telugu films include "Gharana Mogudu" with Chiranjeevi, "Allari Alludu" with Nagarjuna Akkineni and "Major Chandrakanth" with N. T. Rama Rao and Mohan Babu. Her Tamil films include "Kadhalan" with Prabhu Deva, "Baashha" with Rajinikanth and "Villadhi Villain" with Sathyaraj in which she played her most glamour part and begin to tempt the Tamil audience and her performance gained her a unanimous praises for her glamour role time.


title: Nagma

text: After moving back to Mumbai, she focused on supporting roles in Hindi films like the 2000s "Chal Mere Bhai", which reunited her with former co-stars Karisma Kapoor, Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt. While based in Mumbai, she continued to work in some Telugu and Tamil films, such as "Allari Ramudu" and "Citizen", as well as taking leading roles in some Malayalam films including "Chathurangam".


title: Nagma

text: Nagma has acted in Bhojpuri films, including films with the "Big Boss" participant Ravi Kishan. She won a Best Actress award at the 2005 Bhojpuri Film Awards for her performance in "Dulha Milal Dildar". In 2006's "Ganga", she starred in the title role opposite Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini. When asked why she shifted to Bhojpuri films, she said "I wanted to do films in different languages. I have already done films in 10 languages. My first Bhojpuri film "Panditji Bataayina Biyaah Kab Hoii" was a huge hit. After that, the offers poured in and they were too good to be ignored." When interviewed by "The Hindu" in Delhi in April 2007, she indicated that another important reason for her decision to focus on Bhojpuri films was to help with her political campaigning.


title: Nagma

text: Discussing her career in a "Mid-Day" interview in September 2006, Nagma said "I have learned nine languages, so I want to do films in all languages. On the Hindi film front, I am in the process of signing a very big period thriller. I am getting to do a variety of roles with content, so I am satisfied." While noting her commitment to complete several Bhojpuri films she was involved with, in March 2007, she expressed her intention to next focus on returning to Hindi films after wrapping up her projects. In her 2007 "Hindustan Times" interview, in which she discusses her future plans for cinema and politics, Nagma responded to a question about her reputation for controversy by saying "You need guts to deal with controversies. Of course, whether it’s for negative or positive reasons, I’ve always been in the news."


title: Nagma

text: It was reported that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), wanted to field Nagma as a candidate from Hyderabad for the 2004 General Lok Sabha Elections. But she decided to join Congress in 2004 and campaigned in Andhra Pradesh.


title: Nagma

text: She cited Congress Party's "commitment towards secularism and welfare of the poor and weaker sections" as her reason for joining. Later, after joining the Congress, Nagma has reportedly said that she first supported the Congress Party because of her admiration for Rajiv Gandhi.


title: Nagma

text: She contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Meerut as Congress candidate, securing fourth position with 42,911votes, She lost her deposit.


title: Nagma

text: In a 2006 interview, she made a direct link between her family history and her political activism: "My mom is Muslim and my dad is Hindu. We were brought up to respect all religions.She said I personally experienced the Love of Jesus Christ from early on and His uniqueness and identifies herself as a Christian. Communal riots pained me. I wanted to do something. So I joined politics.". She had to turn down an offer to run for India's Lok Sabha in 2003 due to her many film commitments. "If I wanted to become a member of Parliament I would need to give 100 per cent to my constituency — which I could not at that point of time." In an interview with the "Hindustan Times" in 2007, she said "politics will continue".


title: Nagma

text: She is a recipient of Bhojpuri Film Awards two times. She won Best Actress at the first Bhojpuri Film Awards for her performance in "Dulha Milal Dildar". Later in 2007, she was honoured again for the same for the 2006 film "Ganga", in which she played the titular role.


title: Nagma

text: She was nominated at Filmfare Awards South for her work in Telugu and Tamil film industry. She was seen as the female lead in "Gharana Mogudu" , Telugu-language film directed by K. Raghavendra Rao, opposite Chiranjeevi,for which she was nominated her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu. She lost the award to Revathy for "Ankuram" . Second time, she was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil at 42nd Filmfare Awards South, for her role in Kadhalan, but lost to Revathi again for "Priyanka", but the team won Best Director – Tamil for S. Shankar & Music Director – Tamil for A. R. Rahman.


title: Nagma

text: In 2013, the Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF) decided to honour Nagma with a lifetime achievement award, but issued the award to Sharmila Tagore instead. Nagma, who was 39 years old at the time, said, "I thought I was too young for the award, but they convinced me. They said I had been selected because of my contribution to Indian cinema". JIFF's director, Hanuman Chaudhary, said that the change was due to Nagma not responding to their invitation, but Nagma recounted to "Times of India" that she accepted their invitation officially.


title: Ernie Lively

text: Ernie Lively (born Ernest Wilson Brown Jr.; January 29, 1947 – June 3, 2021) was an American actor and acting coach, and the father of actors Lori Lively, Jason Lively, Robyn Lively, Eric Lively, and Blake Lively.


title: Ernie Lively

text: Lively was born Ernest Wilson Brown Jr. in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Beatrice Gray (Walton, 1927-1994) and Ernest W. Brown Sr (1919-2007).


title: Ernie Lively

text: Lively may be best known for his roles in "Passenger 57", "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2". In the latter two films, he played the father of a character played by his own real life daughter, Blake.


title: Ernie Lively

text: Lively's credits as a character actor date back to the 1970s, beginning with TV roles on shows including "The Waltons" and "The Dukes of Hazzard". He appeared in movies including "Turner & Hooch", "Air America", "Passenger 57" and "The Beverly Hillbillies" and on popular TV shows like "The X-Files", "That '70s Show" and "The West Wing". In 2005, he played the father of his daughter Blake’s character in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", and he returned for its 2008 sequel. Lively was also a director, directing Blake in her film debut, “Sandman.” A father of five, he influenced all of his children as they pursued acting careers. Lively was also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War.


title: Ernie Lively

text: In 1979, Lively married talent manager Elaine Lively ("" McAlpin). They were the parents of Blake and Eric Lively, both actors. He adopted Elaine's children from her previous marriage: Lori, Robyn and Jason Lively.


title: Ernie Lively

text: He resided in Heber City, Utah with his wife. In 2003, Lively suffered a heart attack. In November 2013, Lively was treated with stem-cell therapy as part of a new experimental retrograde gene procedure.


title: Mining

text: Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic viability of investing in the equipment, labor, and energy required to extract, refine and transport the materials found at the mine to manufacturers who can use the material.


title: Mining

text: Ores recovered by mining include metals, coal, oil shale, gemstones, limestone, chalk, dimension stone, rock salt, potash, gravel, and clay. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or feasibly created artificially in a laboratory or factory. Mining in a wider sense includes extraction of any non-renewable resource such as petroleum, natural gas, or even water. Modern mining processes involve prospecting for ore bodies, analysis of the profit potential of a proposed mine, extraction of the desired materials, and final reclamation or restoration of the land after the mine is closed.


title: Mining

text: Mining operations can create a negative environmental impact, both during the mining activity and after the mine has closed. Hence, most of the world's nations have passed regulations to decrease the impact; however, the outsized role of mining in generating business for often rural, remote or economically depressed communities means that governments may fail to fully enforce such regulations. Work safety has long been a concern as well, and where enforcing modern practices have significantly improved safety in mines. Moreover, unregulated or poorly regulated mining, especially in developing economies, frequently contributes to local human rights violations and resource conflicts.


title: Mining

text: Since the beginning of civilization, people have used stone, clay and, later, metals found close to the Earth's surface. These were used to make early tools and weapons; for example, high quality flint found in northern France, southern England and Poland was used to create flint tools. Flint mines have been found in chalk areas where seams of the stone were followed underground by shafts and galleries. The mines at Grimes Graves and Krzemionki are especially famous, and like most other flint mines, are Neolithic in origin (c. 4000–3000 BC). Other hard rocks mined or collected for axes included the greenstone of the Langdale axe industry based in the English Lake District.


title: Mining

text: The oldest-known mine on archaeological record is the Ngwenya Mine in Eswatini (Swaziland), which radiocarbon dating shows to be about 43,000 years old. At this site Paleolithic humans mined hematite to make the red pigment ochre. Mines of a similar age in Hungary are believed to be sites where Neanderthals may have mined flint for weapons and tools.