title: Direct democracy

text: Hipparchus, the brother of the tyrant Hippias, was killed by Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who were subsequently honored by the Athenians for their alleged restoration of Athenian freedom.


title: Direct democracy

text: The greatest and longest-lasting democratic leader was Pericles; after his death, Athenian democracy was twice briefly interrupted by an oligarchic revolution towards the end of the Peloponnesian War. It was modified somewhat after it was restored under Eucleides; the most detailed accounts are of this 4th-century modification rather than of the Periclean system. It was suppressed by the Macedonians in 322 BC. The Athenian institutions were later revived, but the extent to which they were a real democracy is debatable.


title: Direct democracy

text: Sociologist Max Weber believed that every mass democracy went in a Caesarist direction. Professor of law Gerhard Casper writes, "Weber employed the term to stress, inter alia, the plebiscitary character of elections, disdain for parliament, the non-toleration of autonomous powers within the government and a failure to attract or suffer independent political minds."


title: Direct democracy

text: Despite being a monarchy, direct democracy is considered to be an engrained element on Liechtensteiner politics.


title: Direct democracy

text: The pure form of direct democracy exists only in the Swiss cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus. The Swiss Confederation is a semi-direct democracy (representative democracy with strong instruments of direct democracy). The nature of direct democracy in Switzerland is fundamentally complemented by its federal governmental structures (in German also called the ).


title: Direct democracy

text: Most western countries have representative systems. Switzerland is a rare example of a country with instruments of direct democracy (at the levels of the municipalities, cantons, and federal state). Citizens have more power than in a representative democracy. On any political level citizens can propose changes to the constitution (popular initiative), or ask for an optional referendum to be held on any law voted by the federal, cantonal parliament and/or municipal legislative body.


title: Direct democracy

text: The list for mandatory or optional referendums on each political level are generally much longer in Switzerland than in any other country; for example, any amendment to the constitution must automatically be voted on by the Swiss electorate and cantons, on cantonal/communal levels often any financial decision of a certain substantial amount decreed by legislative and/or executive bodies as well.


title: Direct democracy

text: Swiss citizens vote regularly on any kind of issue on every political level, such as financial approvals of a schoolhouse or the building of a new street, or the change of the policy regarding sexual work, or on constitutional changes, or on the foreign policy of Switzerland, four times a year. Between January 1995 and June 2005, Swiss citizens voted 31 times, on 103 federal questions besides many more cantonal and municipal questions. During the same period, French citizens participated in only two referendums.


title: Direct democracy

text: In Switzerland, simple majorities are sufficient at the municipal and cantonal level, at the federal level double majorities are required on constitutional issues.


title: Direct democracy

text: A double majority requires approval by a majority of individuals voting, and also by a majority of cantons. Thus, in Switzerland, a citizen-proposed amendment to the federal constitution (i.e. popular initiative) cannot be passed at the federal level if a majority of the people approve but a majority of the cantons disapprove. For referendums or propositions in general terms (like the principle of a general revision of the Constitution), a majority of those voting is sufficient (Swiss Constitution, 2005).


title: Direct democracy

text: In 1890, when the provisions for Swiss national citizen lawmaking were being debated by civil society and government, the Swiss adopted the idea of double majorities from the United States Congress, in which House votes were to represent the people and Senate votes were to represent the states. According to its supporters, this "legitimacy-rich" approach to national citizen lawmaking has been very successful. Kris Kobach, former Kansas elected official, claims that Switzerland has had tandem successes both socially and economically which are matched by only a few other nations. Kobach states at the end of his book, "Too often, observers deem Switzerland an oddity among political systems. It is more appropriate to regard it as a pioneer." Finally, the Swiss political system, including its direct democratic devices in a multi-level governance context, becomes increasingly interesting for scholars of European Union integration.


title: Direct democracy

text: In the New England region of the United States, towns in states such as Vermont decide local affairs through the direct democratic process of the town meeting. This is the oldest form of direct democracy in the United States, and predates the founding of the country by at least a century.


title: Direct democracy

text: Direct democracy was not what the framers of the United States Constitution envisioned for the nation. They saw a danger in tyranny of the majority. As a result, they advocated a representative democracy in the form of a constitutional republic over a direct democracy. For example, James Madison, in Federalist No. 10, advocates a constitutional republic over direct democracy precisely to protect the individual from the will of the majority. He says,


title: Direct democracy

text: John Witherspoon, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, said: "Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state – it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage." Alexander Hamilton said, "That a pure democracy, if it were practicable, would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure, deformity."


title: Direct democracy

text: Despite the framers' intentions at the beginning of the republic, ballot measures and their corresponding referendums have been widely used at the state and sub-state level. There is much state and federal case law, from the early 1900s to the 1990s, that protects the people's right to each of these direct democracy governance components (Magleby, 1984, and Zimmerman, 1999). The first United States Supreme Court ruling in favor of the citizen lawmaking was in "Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company v. Oregon", 223 U.S. 118 in 1912 (Zimmerman, December 1999). President Theodore Roosevelt, in his "Charter of Democracy" speech to the 1912 Ohio constitutional convention, stated: "I believe in the Initiative and Referendum, which should be used not to destroy representative government, but to correct it whenever it becomes misrepresentative."


title: Direct democracy

text: Democratic theorists have identified a trilemma due to the presence of three desirable characteristics of an ideal system of direct democracy, which are challenging to deliver all at once. These three characteristics are "participation" – widespread participation in the decision making process by the people affected; "deliberation" – a rational discussion where all major points of view are weighted according to evidence; and "equality" – all members of the population on whose behalf decisions are taken have an equal chance of having their views taken into account. Empirical evidence from dozens of studies suggests deliberation leads to better decision making. The most popularly disputed form of direct popular participation is the referendum on constitutional matters.


title: Direct democracy

text: For the system to respect the principle of political equality, either "everyone" needs to be involved or there needs to be a representative random sample of people chosen to take part in the discussion. In the definition used by scholars such as James Fishkin, deliberative democracy is a form of direct democracy which satisfies the requirement for deliberation and equality but does not make provision to involve everyone who wants to be included in the discussion. Participatory democracy, by Fishkin's definition, allows inclusive participation and deliberation, but at a cost of sacrificing equality, because if widespread participation is allowed, sufficient resources rarely will be available to compensate people who sacrifice their time to participate in the deliberation. Therefore, participants tend to be those with a strong interest in the issue to be decided and often will not therefore be representative of the overall population. Fishkin instead argues that random sampling should be used to select a small, but still representative, number of people from the general public.


title: Direct democracy

text: Fishkin concedes it is possible to imagine a system that transcends the trilemma, but it would require very radical reforms if such a system were to be integrated into mainstream politics.


title: Direct democracy

text: Anarchists have advocated forms of direct democracy as an alternative to the centralized state and capitalism; however, others (such as individualist anarchists) have criticized direct democracy and democracy in general for ignoring the rights of the minority, and instead have advocated a form of consensus decision-making. Libertarian Marxists, however, fully support direct democracy in the form of the proletarian republic and see majority rule and citizen participation as virtues. Libertarian socialists such as anarcho-communists and anarcho-syndicalists advocate direct democracy. The Young Communist League USA in particular refers to representative democracy as "bourgeois democracy", implying that they see direct democracy as "true democracy".


title: Direct democracy

text: Democratic schools modeled on Summerhill School resolve conflicts and make school policy decisions through full school meetings in which the votes of students and staff are weighted equally.


title: Æthelflæd

text: Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians ( 870 – 12 June 918) ruled Mercia in the English Midlands from 911 until her death. She was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and his wife Ealhswith.


title: Æthelflæd

text: Æthelflæd was born around 870 at the height of the Viking invasions of England. By 878, most of England was under Danish Viking rule – East Anglia and Northumbria having been conquered, and Mercia partitioned between the English and the Vikings – but in that year Alfred won a crucial victory at the Battle of Edington. Soon afterwards the English-controlled western half of Mercia came under the rule of Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, who accepted Alfred's overlordship. Alfred adopted the title King of the Anglo-Saxons (previously he was titled King of the West Saxons like his predecessors) claiming to rule all Anglo-Saxon people not living in areas under Viking control. In the mid-880s, Alfred sealed the strategic alliance between the surviving English kingdoms by marrying Æthelflæd to Æthelred.


title: Æthelflæd

text: Æthelred played a major role in fighting off renewed Viking attacks in the 890s, together with Æthelflæd's brother, the future King Edward the Elder. Æthelred and Æthelflæd fortified Worcester, gave generous donations to Mercian churches and built a new minster in Gloucester. Æthelred's health probably declined early in the next decade, after which it is likely that Æthelflæd was mainly responsible for the government of Mercia. Edward had succeeded as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 899, and in 909 he sent a West Saxon and Mercian force to raid the northern Danelaw. They returned with the remains of the royal Northumbrian saint Oswald, which were translated to the new Gloucester minster. Æthelred died in 911 and Æthelflæd then ruled Mercia as Lady of the Mercians. The accession of a female ruler in Mercia is described by the historian Ian Walker as "one of the most unique events in early medieval history".


title: Æthelflæd

text: Alfred had built a network of fortified burhs and in the 910s Edward and Æthelflæd embarked on a programme of extending them. Among the towns where she built defences were Wednesbury, Bridgnorth, Tamworth, Stafford, Warwick, Chirbury and Runcorn. In 917 she sent an army to capture Derby, the first of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw to fall to the English, a victory described by Tim Clarkson as "her greatest triumph". In 918 Leicester surrendered without a fight. Shortly afterwards the Viking leaders of York offered her their loyalty, but she died on 12June 918 before she could take advantage of the offer, and a few months later Edward completed the conquest of Mercia. Æthelflæd was succeeded by her daughter Ælfwynn, but in December Edward took personal control of Mercia and carried Ælfwynn off to Wessex.


title: Æthelflæd

text: Historians disagree whether Mercia was an independent kingdom under Æthelred and Æthelflæd but they agree that Æthelflæd was a great ruler who played an important part in the conquest of the Danelaw. She was praised by Anglo-Norman chroniclers such as William of Malmesbury, who described her as "a powerful accession to [Edward's] party, the delight of his subjects, the dread of his enemies, a woman of enlarged soul". According to Pauline Stafford, "like ... ElizabethI she became a wonder to later ages". In Nick Higham's view, medieval and modern writers have been so captivated by her that Edward's reputation has suffered unfairly in comparison.


title: Æthelflæd

text: Mercia was the dominant kingdom in southern England in the eighth century and maintained its position until it suffered a decisive defeat by Wessex at the Battle of Ellandun in 825. Thereafter the two kingdoms became allies, which was to be an important factor in English resistance to the Vikings.


title: Æthelflæd

text: In 865 the Viking Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia and used this as a starting point for an invasion. The East Anglians were forced to buy peace and the following year the Vikings invaded Northumbria, where they appointed a puppet king in 867. They then moved on Mercia, where they spent the winter of 867–868. King Burgred of Mercia was joined by King Æthelred of Wessex and his brother, the future King Alfred, for a combined attack on the Vikings, who refused an engagement; in the end the Mercians bought peace with them. The following year, the Vikings conquered East Anglia. In 874 the Vikings expelled King Burgred and Ceolwulf became the last King of Mercia with their support. In 877 the Vikings partitioned Mercia, taking the eastern regions for themselves and allowing Ceolwulf to keep the western ones. He was described by the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" as "a foolish king's thegn" who was a puppet of the Vikings. The historian Ann Williams regards this view as partial and distorted, that he was accepted as a true king by the Mercians and by King Alfred. The situation was transformed the following year when Alfred won a decisive victory over the Danes at the Battle of Edington.


title: Æthelflæd

text: Ceolwulf is not recorded after 879. His successor as the ruler of the English western half of Mercia, Æthelflæd's husband Æthelred, is first seen in 881 when, according to the historian of medieval Wales, Thomas Charles-Edwards, he led an unsuccessful Mercian invasion of the north Welsh Kingdom of Gwynedd. In 883 he made a grant with the consent of King Alfred, thus acknowledging Alfred's lordship. In 886 Alfred occupied the Mercian town of London, which had been in Viking hands. He then received the submission of all English not under Viking control and handed control of London over to Æthelred. In the 890s, Æthelred and Edward, Alfred's son and future successor, fought off more Viking attacks. Alfred died in 899 and Edward's claim to the throne was disputed by Æthelwold, son of Alfred's elder brother. Æthelwold joined forces with the Vikings when he was unable to get sufficient support in Wessex, and his rebellion only ended with his death in battle in December 902.


title: Æthelflæd

text: The most important source for history in this period is the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" but Æthelflæd is almost ignored in the standard West Saxon version, in what F. T. Wainwright calls "a conspiracy of silence". He argues that King Edward was anxious not to encourage Mercian separatism and did not wish to publicise his sister's accomplishments, in case she became a symbol of Mercian claims. Brief details of her actions were preserved in a pro-Mercian version of the "Chronicle" known as the "Mercian Register" or the "Annals of Æthelflæd"; although it is now lost, elements were incorporated into several surviving versions of the "Chronicle". The "Register" covers the years 902 to 924, and focuses on Æthelflæd's actions; Edward is hardly mentioned and her husband only twice, on his death and as father of their daughter. Information about Æthelflæd's career is also preserved in the Irish chronicle known as the "Three Fragments". According to Wainwright, it "contains much that is legendary rather than historical. But it also contains, especially for our period, much genuine historical information which seems to have its roots in a contemporary narrative." She was praised by Anglo-Norman chroniclers such as William of Malmesbury and John of Worcester and she has received more attention from historians than any other secular woman in Anglo-Saxon England.


title: Æthelflæd

text: Æthelflæd was born around 870, the oldest child of King Alfred the Great and his Mercian wife, Ealhswith, who was a daughter of Æthelred Mucel, ealdorman of the Gaini, one of the tribes of Mercia. Ealhswith's mother, Eadburh, was a member of the Mercian royal house, probably a descendant of King Coenwulf (796–821). Æthelflæd was thus half-Mercian and the alliance between Wessex and Mercia was sealed by her marriage to Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians. They are mentioned in Alfred's will, which probably dates to the 880s. Æthelflæd, described only as "my eldest daughter", received an estate and 100 mancuses, while Æthelred, the only ealdorman to be mentioned by name, received a sword worth 100 mancuses. Æthelflæd was first recorded as Æthelred's wife in a charter of 887, when he granted two estates to the see of Worcester "with the permission and sign-manual of King Alfred" and the attestors included "Æthelflæd "conjux"". The marriage may have taken place earlier, perhaps when he submitted to Alfred following the recovery of London in 886. Æthelred was much older than Æthelflæd and they had one known child, a daughter called Ælfwynn. Æthelstan, the eldest son of Edward the Elder and future king of England, was brought up in their court and, in the view of Martin Ryan, certainly joined their campaigns against the Vikings.


title: Æthelflæd

text: Æthelred's descent is unknown. Richard Abels describes him as "somewhat of a mysterious character", who may have claimed royal blood and been related to King Alfred's father-in-law, Ealdorman Æthelred Mucel. In the view of Ian Walker: "He was a royal ealdorman whose power base lay in the south-west of Mercia in the former kingdom of the Hwicce around Gloucester". Alex Woolf suggests that he was probably the son of King Burgred of Mercia and King Alfred's sister Æthelswith, although that would mean that the marriage between Æthelflæd and Æthelred was uncanonical, because Rome then forbade marriage between first cousins.


title: Æthelflæd

text: Compared to the rest of England, much of English Mercia —Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire —was unusually stable in the Viking age. It did not suffer major attacks and it did not come under great pressure from Wessex. Mercian scholarship had high prestige at the courts of Alfred and Edward. Worcester was able to preserve considerable intellectual and liturgical continuity and, with Gloucester, became the centre of a Mercian revival under Æthelred and Æthelflæd that extended into the more unstable areas of Staffordshire and Cheshire. Charters show the Mercian leaders supporting the revival by their generosity to monastic communities. In 883 Æthelred granted privileges to Berkeley Abbey and in the 890s he and Æthelflæd issued a charter in favour of the church of Worcester. This was the only occasion in Alfred's lifetime when they are known to have acted jointly; generally Æthelred acted on his own, usually acknowledging the permission of King Alfred. Æthelflæd witnessed charters of Æthelred in 888, 889 and 896. In 901 Æthelflæd and Æthelred gave land and a golden chalice weighing thirty mancuses to the shrine of Saint Mildburg at Much Wenlock church.


title: Æthelflæd

text: At the end of the ninth century, Æthelred and Æthelflæd fortified Worcester, with the permission of King Alfred and at the request of Bishop Werferth, described in the charter as "their friend". They granted the church of Worcester a half share of the rights of lordship over the city, covering land rents and the proceeds of justice, and in return the cathedral community agreed in perpetuity to dedicate a psalm to them three times a day and a mass and thirty psalms every Saturday. As the rights of lordship had previously belonged fully to the church, this represented the beginning of transfer from episcopal to secular control of the city. In 904 Bishop Werferth granted a lease of land in the city to Æthelred and Æthelflæd, to be held for the duration of their lives and that of their daughter Ælfwynn. The land was valuable, including most of the city's usable river frontage, and control of it enabled the Mercian rulers to dominate over and profit from the city.


title: Æthelflæd

text: Æthelred's health probably declined at some stage in the decade after Alfred died in 899, and Æthelflæd may have become the de facto ruler of Mercia by 902. According to the "Three Fragments", the Norse (Norwegian) Vikings were expelled from Dublin and then made an abortive attack on Wales. When this failed they applied to Æthelflæd, her husband being ill, for permission to settle near Chester. Æthelflæd agreed and for some time they were peaceful. The Norse Vikings then joined with the Danes in an attack on Chester, but this failed because Æthelflæd had fortified the town, and she and her husband persuaded the Irish among the attackers to change sides. Other sources confirm that the Norse were driven out of Dublin in 902 and that Æthelflæd fortified Chester in 907. Æthelflæd re-founded Chester as a burh and she is believed to have enhanced its Roman defences by running walls from the north-west and south-east corners of the fort to the River Dee. Simon Ward, who excavated an Anglo-Saxon site in Chester, sees the later prosperity of the town as owing much to the planning of Æthelflæd and Edward. After Æthelflæd's death, Edward encountered fierce resistance to his efforts to consolidate his control of the north-west and he died there in 924, shortly after suppressing a local rebellion. Æthelred was well enough to witness charters at a meeting of Edward's court in 903, but he did not witness any later surviving charter.


title: Æthelflæd

text: In 909 Edward sent a West Saxon and Mercian force to the northern Danelaw, where it raided for five weeks. The remains of the royal Northumbrian saint Oswald were seized and taken from his resting place in Bardney Abbey in Lincolnshire to Gloucester. In the late ninth century Gloucester had become a burh with a street plan similar to Winchester, and Æthelred and Æthelflæd had repaired its ancient Roman defences. In 896 a meeting of the Mercian witan was held in the royal hall at Kingsholm, just outside the town. The Mercian rulers built a new minster in Gloucester and, although the building was small, it was embellished on a grand scale, with rich sculpture. The church appears to have been an exact copy of the Old Minster, Winchester. It was initially dedicated to St Peter but when Oswald's remains were brought to Gloucester in 909, Æthelflæd had them translated from Bardney to the new minster, which was renamed St Oswald's in his honour. The relics gave the church great prestige as Oswald had been one of the most important founding saints of Anglo-Saxon Christianity as well as a ruling monarch, and the decision to translate his relics to Gloucester shows the importance of the town to Æthelred and Æthelflæd, who were buried in St Oswald's Minster. Simon Keynes describes the town as "the main seat of their power" and Carolyn Heighway believes that the foundation of the church was probably a family and dynastic enterprise, encouraged by Alfred and supported by Edward and Bishop Werferth. Heighway and Michael Hare wrote:


title: Æthelflæd

text: Mercia had a long tradition of venerating royal saints and this was enthusiastically supported by Æthelred and Æthelflæd. Saintly relics were believed to give supernatural legitimacy to rulers' authority, and Æthelflæd was probably responsible for the foundation or re-foundation of Chester Minster and the transfer to it of the remains of the seventh-century Mercian princess Saint Werburgh from Hanbury in Staffordshire. She may also have translated the relics of the martyred Northumbrian prince Ealhmund from Derby to Shrewsbury. In 910 the Danes retaliated against the English attack of the previous year by invading Mercia, raiding as far as Bridgnorth in Shropshire. On their way back they were caught by an English army in Staffordshire and their army was destroyed at the Battle of Tettenhall, opening the way for the recovery of the Danish Midlands and East Anglia over the next decade.


title: Æthelflæd

text: On her husband's death in 911, Æthelflæd became "Myrcna hlædige", "Lady of the Mercians". Ian Walker describes her succession as the only case of a female ruler of a kingdom in Anglo-Saxon history and "one of the most unique events in early medieval history". In Wessex, royal women were not allowed to play any political role; Alfred's wife was not granted the title of queen and was never a witness to charters. In Mercia, Alfred's sister Æthelswith had been the wife of King Burgred of Mercia; she had witnessed charters as queen and had made grants jointly with her husband and in her own name. Æthelflæd benefited from a Mercian tradition of queenly importance, and was able to play a key role in the history of the early tenth century as Lady of the Mercians, which would not have been possible in Wessex.


title: Æthelflæd

text: When Æthelred died, Edward took control of the Mercian towns of London and Oxford and their hinterlands, which Alfred had put under Mercian control. Ian Walker suggests that Æthelflæd accepted this loss of territory in return for recognition by her brother of her position in Mercia. Alfred had constructed a network of fortified burhs in Wessex, and Edward and Æthelflæd now embarked on a programme of extending them to consolidate their defences and provide bases for attacks on the Vikings. According to Frank Stenton, Æthelflæd led Mercian armies on expeditions, which she planned. He commented: "It was through reliance on her guardianship of Mercia that her brother was enabled to begin the forward movement against the southern Danes which is the outstanding feature of his reign".


title: Æthelflæd

text: Æthelflæd had already fortified an unknown location called "Bremesburh" in 910 and in 912 she built defences at Bridgnorth to cover a crossing of the River Severn. In 913 she built forts at Tamworth to guard against the Danes in Leicester, and in Stafford to cover access from the Trent Valley. In 914 a Mercian army drawn from Gloucester and Hereford repelled a Viking invasion from Brittany, and the Iron Age Eddisbury hill fort was repaired to protect against invasion from Northumbria or Cheshire, while Warwick was fortified as further protection against the Leicester Danes. In 915 Chirbury was fortified to guard a route from Wales and Runcorn on the River Mersey. Defences were built before 914 at Hereford, and probably Shrewsbury and two other fortresses, at "Scergeat" and "Weardbyrig", which have not been located.


title: Æthelflæd

text: In 917 invasions by three Viking armies failed as Æthelflæd sent an army which captured Derby and the territory around it. The town was one of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw, together with Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford. Derby was the first to fall to the English; she lost "four of her thegns who were dear to her" in the battle. Tim Clarkson, who describes Æthelflæd as "renowned as a competent war-leader", regards the victory at Derby as "her greatest triumph". At the end of the year, the East Anglian Danes submitted to Edward. In early 918, Æthelflæd gained possession of Leicester without opposition and most of the local Danish army submitted to her. A few months later, the leading men of Danish-ruled York offered to pledge their loyalty to Æthelflæd, probably to secure her support against Norse raiders from Ireland, but she died on 12 June 918, before she could take advantage of the offer. No similar offer is known to have been made to Edward. According to the "Three Fragments", in 918 Æthelflæd led an army of Scots and Northumbrian English against forces led by the Norse Viking leader Ragnall at the Battle of Corbridge in Northumbria. Historians consider this unlikely, but she may have sent a contingent to the battle. Both sides claimed victory but Ragnall was able to establish himself as ruler of Northumbria. In the "Three Fragments", Æthelflæd also formed a defensive alliance with the Scots and the Strathclyde British, a claim accepted by Clarkson.


title: Æthelflæd

text: Little is known of Æthelflæd's relations with the Welsh. The only recorded event took place in 916, when she sent an expedition to avenge the murder of a Mercian abbot and his companions; her men destroyed the royal crannog of Brycheiniog on Llangorse Lake and captured the queen and thirty-three of her companions. According to a version of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" strongly sympathetic to Edward the Elder, after Æthelflæd's death "the kings among the Welsh, Hywel and Clydog and Idwal, and all the Welsh people sought to have [Edward] as their lord". Hywel Dda was king of Dyfed in south-west Wales, Clydog ap Cadell probably king of Powys in the north-east, and Idwal ab Anarawd king of Gwynedd in the north-west. Gwent in south-east Wales was already under West Saxon lordship but, in the view of Charles-Edwards, this passage shows that the other Welsh kingdoms were under Mercian lordship until Edward took direct power over Mercia.


title: Æthelflæd

text: No coins were issued with the name of Æthelred or Æthelflæd on them, but in the 910s silver pennies were minted in west Mercian towns with unusual ornamental designs on the reverse and this may have reflected Æthelflæd's desire to distinguish specie issued under her control from that of her brother. After her death, west Mercian coin reverses were again the same as those on coins produced in Wessex. No charters of Edward survive for the period between 910 and his death in 924, whereas two survive in Æthelflæd's sole name, S 224, possibly dating to 914 and S 225, dated 9 September 915, issued at "Weardbyrig", one of the burhs she built at an unidentified location.


title: Æthelflæd

text: Æthelflæd died at Tamworth on 12June 918 and her body was carried to Gloucester, where she was buried with her husband in their foundation, St Oswald's Minster. According to the "Mercian Register", Æthelflæd was buried in the east porticus. A building suitable for a royal mausoleum has been found by archaeological investigation at the east end of the church and this may have been St Oswald's burial place. Placement next to the saint would have been a prestigious burial location for Æthelred and Æthelflæd. William of Malmesbury wrote that their burial places were found in the "south" porticus during building works in the early twelfth century. He may have been misinformed about the position but it is also possible that the tombs were moved from their prestigious position next to the saint, when the couple became less known over time or when tenth-century kings acted to minimise the honour paid to their Mercian predecessors.


title: Æthelflæd

text: The choice of burial place was symbolic. Victoria Thompson argues that if Æthelflæd had chosen Edward's royal mausoleum in Winchester as the burial place for her husband and herself, that would have emphasised Mercia's subordinate status, whereas a traditional Mercian royal burial place such as Repton would have been a provocative declaration of independence; Gloucester, near the border with Wessex, was a compromise between the two. Martin Ryan sees the foundation as "something like a royal mausoleum, intended to replace the one at Repton (Derbyshire) that had been destroyed by the Vikings". Æthelflæd died a few months too early to see the final conquest of the southern Danelaw by Edward. She was succeeded as Lady of the Mercians by her daughter, Ælfwynn, but in early December 918 Edward deposed her and took Mercia under his control. Many Mercians disliked the subordination of their ancient kingdom to Wessex, and Wainwright describes the Mercian annalist's description of the deposition of Ælfwynn as "heavy with resentment". Edward died in 924 at Farndon in Cheshire a few days after putting down a rebellion by Mercians and Welshmen at Chester.


title: Æthelflæd

text: To the West Saxon version of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", Æthelflæd was merely King Edward's sister, whereas for the "Mercian Register" she was Lady of the Mercians. Irish and Welsh annals described her as a queen and the Annals of Ulster, which ignore the deaths of Alfred and Edward, described her as "famosissima regina Saxonum" (renowned Saxon queen). She was also praised by Anglo-Norman historians such as John of Worcester and William of Malmesbury, who described her as "a powerful accession to [Edward's] party, the delight of his subjects, the dread of his enemies, a woman of enlarged soul". He claimed that she declined to have sex after the birth of her only child because it was "unbecoming of the daughter of a king to give way to a delight which, after a time, produced such painful consequences". According to Nick Higham, "successive medieval and modern writers were quite captivated by her" and her brother's reputation has suffered unfairly in comparison. In the twelfth century, Henry of Huntingdon paid her his own tribute:


title: Æthelflæd

text: Some historians believe that Æthelred and Æthelflæd were independent rulers. In the "Handbook of British Chronology", David Dumville refers to "Q. Æthelflæd" and comments, "The titles given her by all sources ("hlæfdige, regina") imply that she wielded royal power and authority". Alex Woolf concurs and Pauline Stafford describes Æthelflæd as "the last Mercian queen", referred to in charters in such terms as "by the gift of Christ's mercy ruling the government of the Mercians". Stafford argues that Æthelred and Æthelflæd exercised most or all of the powers of a monarch after Alfred's death but it would have been a provocative act formally to claim regality, especially after Æthelwold's rebellion. Stafford sees her as a "warrior queen", "Like ... ElizabethI she became a wonder to later ages." According to Charles Insley,


title: Æthelflæd

text: Wainwright sees Æthelflæd as willingly accepting a subordinate role in a partnership with her brother and agreeing to his plan of unification of Wessex and Mercia under his rule. Wainwright argues that he probably sent his oldest son Æthelstan to be brought up in Mercia, to make him more acceptable to the Mercians as king; Æthelflæd does not appear to have tried to find a husband for her daughter, who must have been nearly thirty by 918. In Wainwright's view, she was ignored in West Saxon sources for fear that recognition of her achievements would encourage Mercian separatism:


title: Æthelflæd

text: Simon Keynes points out that all coins were issued in Edward's name, and while the Mercian rulers were able to issue some charters on their own authority, others acknowledged Edward's lordship. In 903 a Mercian ealdorman "petitioned King Edward, and also Æthelred and Æthelflæd, who then held rulership and power over the race of the Mercians under the aforesaid king". Keynes argues that a new polity was created when Æthelred submitted to Alfred in the 880s, covering Wessex and English (western) Mercia. In Keynes's view, "the conclusion seems inescapable that the Alfredian polity of the kingship 'of the Anglo-Saxons' persisted in the first quarter of the tenth century, and that the Mercians were thus under Edward's rule from the beginning of his reign". Ryan believes that the Mercian rulers "had a considerable but ultimately subordinate share of royal authority".


title: Æthelflæd

text: In Higham's view, Keynes makes a strong case that Edward ruled over an Anglo-Saxon state with a developing administrative and ideological unity but that Æthelflæd and Æthelred did much to encourage a separate Mercian identity, such as establishing cults of Mercian saints at their new burhs, as well as reverence for their great Northumbrian royal saint at Gloucester:


title: Æthelflæd

text: In June 2018, Æthelflæd's funeral was re-enacted in front of a crowd of 10,000 people in Gloucester, as part of a series of living history events marking the 1,100th anniversary of her death.


title: Æthelflæd

text: The 1,100th anniversary of the death of Æthelflaed was marked throughout 2018 in Tamworth with a number of major events, including the unveiling of a new six-metre statue, the creation of the town's biggest ever piece of community art, a major commemorative church service, talks, a special guided walk, commemorative ale and an academic conference weekend drawing academics and delegates from all over the world.


title: Max Brooks

text: Maximillian Michael Brooks (born May 22, 1972) is an American actor and author. He is the son of comedy filmmaker Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. Much of Brooks's writing focuses on zombie stories. He is a senior fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point, New York.


title: Max Brooks

text: Brooks was born on May 22, 1972, in Manhattan, New York City. He is the son of actress Anne Bancroft and actor, director, producer, and writer Mel Brooks. His father is Jewish, while his mother was an Italian-American Catholic.


title: Max Brooks

text: Brooks attended Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California. He studied at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history. He also attended graduate school, studying film at American University in Washington, D.C.


title: Max Brooks

text: In 2003, Brooks wrote his first book, "The Zombie Survival Guide", a satirical survival manual about zombies. In 2006, Brooks wrote the follow-up "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War", a novel on the same subject, set in the ten years following a zombie apocalypse. Paramount Pictures acquired the movie rights, and Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B Entertainment, produced the film. In the October 2006 issue of "Fangoria Magazine", Brooks stated that he would not be writing the screenplay for the motion picture, as he felt he was not an accomplished enough screenwriter to "do it right" (J. Michael Straczynski wrote the first version of the screenplay).


title: Max Brooks

text: Brooks wrote the introduction for the hardcover collected edition of Dynamite Entertainment's zombie miniseries "Raise the Dead", released in 2007.


title: Max Brooks

text: In 2012, he published "Closure, Limited and Other Zombie Tales", featuring the story of that name from "The New Dead", along with three other short stories set in the "World War Z" universe.


title: Max Brooks

text: In 2014, Broadway Books published "The Harlem Hellfighters", a graphic novel which portrays a fictionalized account of the African American 369th Infantry Regiment's experiences in World War I, written by Brooks and illustrated by Caanan White. Sony Pictures has purchased the rights to create a film of the novel, with Caleeb Pinkett and James Lassiter producing on behalf of Overbrook Entertainment.


title: Max Brooks

text: In 2016, Brooks was invited to MineCon and announced that he was working on a new novel based on "Minecraft", titled "Minecraft: The Island", and in 2021, he published the sequel, "Minecraft: The Mountain".


title: Max Brooks

text: In August 2019, Brooks' announced a new book, entitled "", about the cryptid Bigfoot. It was released on June 16, 2020.


title: Max Brooks

text: Brooks has a number of other creative credits. As an actor, he has been seen in "Roseanne", "To Be or Not to Be", "Pacific Blue", and "7th Heaven". He also has a career voicing animation: his voice has been featured in the animated shows "Batman Beyond", "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command", "Justice League", and "". During the start of the 3rd season of "Lost Tapes", he was cast as himself in the zombie episode, telling the audience about how zombies come to be. He also appeared on Spike TV series "Deadliest Warrior", in which he represented the zombie team in the "Vampires vs. Zombies" episode, as one of the Zombie experts along with Matt Mogk, founder of the Zombie Research Society.


title: Max Brooks

text: Brooks has been married to playwright Michelle Kholos since 2003. They have one son, Henry Michael Brooks (born March 2005), and live in Venice, California. In October 2020, Brooks and his son appeared in a short video featuring Mel Brooks making his first political video at age 94 to endorse Joe Biden for president.


title: Conversations with Friends (TV series)

text: Conversations with Friends is an Irish television serial based on the 2017 novel of the same name by the Irish author Sally Rooney. Developed by Element Pictures for BBC Three and Hulu in association with RTÉ, it is the second adaptation by this crew of a Rooney novel after "Normal People" in 2020. "Conversations with Friends" was first broadcast on 15 May 2022.


title: Conversations with Friends (TV series)

text: The series received generally favourable reviews with praise for the performance of lead cast and aesthetics.


title: Conversations with Friends (TV series)

text: In February 2020, it was announced that "Conversations with Friends" would be made into a 12-episode miniseries, and that most of the creative team behind the adaptation of Rooney's second novel, "Normal People", including Element Pictures, director Lenny Abrahamson, and co-writer Alice Birch, would be returning for this adaptation. Mark O'Halloran, Meadhbh McHugh, and Susan Soon He Stanton were added as writers, and Leanne Welham was added as a director.


title: Conversations with Friends (TV series)

text: The cast was announced in February 2021, with Joe Alwyn, Jemima Kirke, Sasha Lane, and Alison Oliver as the book's main quartet.


title: Conversations with Friends (TV series)

text: Principal photography began in April 2021, in Northern Ireland. Locations include Northern Ireland, Ireland, and Hvar, Croatia. Cast and crew were on set in Bray, County Wicklow that July.


title: Conversations with Friends (TV series)

text: The series premiered/released on 15 May 2022, on BBC Three and Hulu. It will premiere on RTÉ One on Wednesday May 18 with a feature-length episode. Endeavor Content will distribute the series internationally.


title: Conversations with Friends (TV series)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the limited series holds a 60% approval rating based on 58 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "'While the characters are unevenly compelling and the overlong plotting makes these "Conversations" often go in circles, this adaptation retains some of the observant wisdom that made Sally Rooney's novel shine." On Metacritic, the series has a score of 65 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Jolly Roger

text: Jolly Roger is the traditional English name for the flags flown to identify a pirate ship preceding or during an attack, during the early 18th century (the later part of the Golden Age of Piracy).


title: Jolly Roger

text: The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly Roger today — the skull and crossbones symbol on a black flag — was used during the 1710s by a number of pirate captains including Black Sam Bellamy, Edward England, and John Taylor. It went on to become the most commonly used pirate flag during the 1720s, although other designs were also in use.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Use of the term "Jolly Roger" in reference to pirate flags goes back to at least Charles Johnson's "A General History of the Pyrates," published in Britain in 1724.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Johnson specifically cites two pirates as having named their flag "Jolly Roger": Bartholomew Roberts in June 1721 and Francis Spriggs in December 1723.


title: Jolly Roger

text: While Spriggs and Roberts used the same name for their flags, their flag designs were very different, suggesting that already "Jolly Roger" was a generic term for black pirate flags rather than a name for any single specific design. Neither Spriggs' nor Roberts' Jolly Roger consisted of a skull and crossbones.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Richard Hawkins, who was captured by pirates in 1724, reported that the pirates had a black flag bearing the figure of a skeleton stabbing a heart with a spear, which they named "Jolly Roger". This description closely resembles the flags of a number of Golden Age pirates.


title: Jolly Roger

text: It is sometimes claimed that the term derives from "Joli Rouge" ("Pretty Red") in reference to a red flag used by French privateers. This is sometimes attributed to red blood, symbolizing violent pirates, ready to kill.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Another early reference to "Old Roger" is found in a news report in the "Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer" (London, Saturday, October 19, 1723; Issue LVII, p. 2, col. 1):


title: Jolly Roger

text: Rhode-Island, July 26. This Day, 26 of the Pirates taken by his Majesty Ship the "Greyhound, Captain Solgard", were executed here. Some of them delivered what they had to say in writing, and most of them said something at the Place of Execution, advising all People, young ones especially, to take warning by their unhappy Fate, and to avoid the crimes that brought them to it. Their black Flag, under which they had committed abundance of Pyracies and Murders, was affix'd to one Corner of the Gallows. It had in it the Portraiture of Death, with an Hour-Glass in one Hand, and a Dart in the other, striking into a Heart, and three Drops of Blood delineated as falling from it. This Flag they called "Old Roger", and us'd to say, "They would live and die under it".


title: Jolly Roger

text: Although it, most likely, was not called "Jolly Roger", usage of flag containing skull and crossbones go as early as 1588, in Basel's dance of death, Hulderich Frölich


title: Jolly Roger

text: It possibly originated among the Barbary pirates of the period, which would connect the black colour of the Jolly Roger to the Muslim Black Standard (black flag). But an early reference to Muslim corsairs flying a skull symbol, in the context of a 1625 slave raid on Cornwall, explicitly refers to the symbols being shown on a green flag.


title: Jolly Roger

text: There are mentions of Francis Drake's flying a black flag as early as 1585, but the historicity of this tradition has been called into question. Contemporary accounts show Peter Easton using a plain black flag in 1612; a plain black flag was also used by Captain Martel's pirates in 1716, Blackbeard, Charles Vane, and Richard Worley in 1718, and Howell Davis in 1719.


title: Jolly Roger

text: An early record of the skull-and-crossbones design being used on a (red) flag by pirates is found in a December 6, 1687 entry in a log book held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The entry describes pirates using the flag, not on a ship but on land.


title: Jolly Roger

text: 17th and 18th century colonial governors usually required privateers to fly a specific version of the British flag, the 1606 Union Jack with a white crest in the middle, also distinguishing them from naval vessels. Before this time, British privateers such as Sir Henry Morgan sailed under English colours.


title: Jolly Roger

text: An early use of a black flag with skull, crossbones, and hourglass is attributed to pirate captain Emanuel Wynn in 1700, according to a wide variety of secondary sources. Reportedly, these secondary sources are based on the account of Captain John Cranby of HMS "Poole" and are verified at the London Public Record Office.


title: Jolly Roger

text: With the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714, many privateers turned to piracy. They still used red and black flags, but now they decorated them with their own designs. Edward England, for example, flew three different flags: from his mainmast the black flag depicted above; from his foremast a red version of the same; and from his ensign staff the English national flag.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Just as variations on the Jolly Roger design existed, red flags sometimes incorporated yellow stripes or images symbolic of death. Coloured pennants and ribbons could also be used alongside flags.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Marcus Rediker (1987) claims that most pirates active between 1716 and 1726 were part of one of two large interconnected groups sharing many similarities in organisation. He states that this accounts for the "comparatively rapid adoption of the piratical black flag among a group of men operating across thousands of miles of ocean", suggesting that the skull-and-crossbone design became standardized at about the same time as the term "Jolly Roger" was adopted as its name. By 1730, the diversity of symbols in prior use had been mostly replaced by the standard design.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The gallery below showing pirate flags in use from 1693 (Thomas Tew's) to 1724 (Edward Low's) appears in multiple extant works on the history of piracy. All the secondary sources cited in the gallery below are in agreement except as to the background colour of Every's flag.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Sources exist describing the Jolly Rogers of other pirates than the ones above; also, the pirates described above sometimes used other Jolly Rogers than those shown above. However, no pictures of these alternate Jolly Rogers are easily located.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Pirates did not fly the Jolly Roger at all times. Like other vessels, pirate ships usually stocked a variety of flags, and would normally fly a false flag or no colours until they had their prey within firing range. When the pirates' intended victim was within range, the Jolly Roger would be raised, often simultaneously with a warning shot.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The flag was probably intended as communication of the pirates' identity, which may have given target ships an opportunity to decide to surrender without a fight. For example, in June 1720, when Bartholomew Roberts sailed into the harbour at Trepassey, Newfoundland with black flags flying, the crews of all 22 vessels in the harbour abandoned their ships in panic. It is claimed (without contemporary references) that if a ship then decided to resist, the Jolly Roger was taken down and a red flag (in the 20th Century sometimes called the "Bloody Red") was flown, indicating that the pirates intended to take the ship by force and without mercy. This claim comes from only one source, in the mid-18th century Sir Richard Hawkins suggested that pirates gave quarter beneath the black flag, while no quarter was given beneath the red flag. However the cited content may simply relate to different pirate captains, their ships, their chosen flag and particular operating practices.


title: Jolly Roger

text: In view of these models, it was important for a prey ship to know that its assailant was a pirate, and not a privateer or government vessel, as the latter two generally had to abide by a rule that if a crew resisted, but then surrendered, it could not be executed:


title: Jolly Roger

text: An angry pirate therefore posed a greater danger to merchant ships than an angry Spanish coast guard or privateer vessel. Because of this, although, like pirate ships, Spanish coast guard vessels and privateers were almost always stronger than the merchant ships they attacked, merchant ships may have been more willing to attempt resisting these "legitimate" attackers than their piratical counterparts. To achieve their goal of taking prizes without a costly fight, it was therefore important for pirates to distinguish themselves from these other ships also taking prizes on the seas.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Flying a Jolly Roger was a reliable way of proving oneself a pirate. Just possessing or using a Jolly Roger was considered proof that one was a criminal pirate rather than something more legitimate; only a pirate would dare fly the Jolly Roger, as he was already under threat of execution.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Following the introduction of submarines in several navies circa 1900, Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson, the First Sea Lord of the British Royal Navy, stated that submarines were "underhanded, unfair, and damned un-English", and that he would convince the British Admiralty to have the crews of enemy submarines captured during wartime hanged as pirates.


title: Jolly Roger

text: In September 1914, the British submarine successfully torpedoed the German cruiser SMS "Hela". Remembering Wilson's statements, commanding officer Max Horton instructed his submariners to manufacture a Jolly Roger, which was flown from the submarine as she entered port. Each successful patrol saw Horton's submarine fly an additional Jolly Roger until there was no more room for flags, at which point Horton had a large Jolly Roger manufactured, onto which symbols indicating "E9"s achievements were sewn. A small number of other submarines adopted the practice: flew a red flag with the skull and crossbones on return from a foray into the Dardanelles in June 1915, and the first known photograph of the practice was taken in July 1916 aboard .


title: Jolly Roger

text: The practice restarted during World War II. In October 1941, following a successful patrol by , during which she sank the Italian destroyer "Palestro", the submarine returned to Alexandria, but was ordered to remain outside the boom net until the motorboat assigned to the leader of the 1st Submarine Flotilla had come alongside. The flotilla leader wanted to recognise the boat's achievement, so had a Jolly Roger made and delivered to "Osiris". After this, the commanders of submarine flotillas began to hand out the flags to successful submarines. Although some sources claim that "all" British submarines used the flag, the practice was not taken up by those submarine commanders who saw it as boastful and potentially inaccurate, as sinkings could not always be confirmed. During the war, British submarines were entitled to fly the Jolly Roger on the day of their return from a successful patrol: it would be hoisted as the boat passed the boom net, and remain raised until sunset.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Symbols on the flag indicated the history of the submarine, and it was the responsibility of the boat's personnel to keep the flag updated. The Royal Navy Submarine Museum (which, as of 2004, possessed fifteen Jolly Rogers) recognises 20 unique symbols. A bar denotes the torpedoing of a ship: red bars indicated warships, white bars represented merchant vessels, and black bars with a white "U" stood for U-boats. A dagger indicated a 'cloak and dagger' operation: typically the delivery or recovery of shore parties from enemy territory. Stars (sometimes surrounding crossed cannon) stood for occasions where the deck gun was fired. Minelaying operations were shown by the silhouette of a sea mine: a number inside the mine indicated how many such missions. A lighthouse or torch symbolised the boat's use as a navigational marker for an invasion force; the latter more particularly associated with Operation Torch. Rescue of personnel from downed aircraft or sunken ships was marked by a lifebuoy. Unique symbols are used to denote one-off incidents: for example, the Jolly Roger of included a can-opener, referencing an incident where an Italian destroyer attempted to ram the submarine, but ended up worse off because of damage to the destroyer's hull by the submarine's hydroplanes, while added a stork and baby when the boat's commander became a father while on patrol. Flying the Jolly Roger continued in the late 20th century and on into the 21st. raised the flag decorated with the silhouette of a cruiser to recognise her successful attack on the Argentine cruiser ARA "General Belgrano" during the Falklands War. Several submarines returning from missions where Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired fly Jolly Rogers with tomahawk axes depicted, with crossed tomahawks indicating an unspecified number of firings, or individual axes for each successful launch. The Jolly Roger has been adopted as the logo of the Royal Navy Submarine Service.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The practice, while commonly associated with British submarines, is not restricted to them. During World War II, Allied submariners working with Royal Navy fleets adopted the process from their British counterparts. While operating in the Mediterranean, the Polish submarines ORP "Sokół" and ORP "Dzik" were presented with Jolly Rogers by General Władysław Sikorski, and continued to update them during the war. At least one British surface ship recorded their U-boat kills through silhouettes on a Jolly Roger. The Australian submarine flew the Jolly Roger in 1980, following her successful participation in the Kangaroo 3 wargame as an opposing submarine: the flag bore the silhouettes of the seven surface ships involved, as during the exercise, "Onslow" had successfully 'sunk' all seven.


title: Jolly Roger

text: During the Vietnam war an urgent airfield was needed at Quảng Trị by the United States forces. U.S. Seabee Battalions 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 74, 121, and 133 all sent detachments of men and equipment to get the job done. Those detachments dubbed themselves the Ghost Battalion and chose the Jolly Roger for the Battalion's colours.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The Kuperjanov Infantry Battalion, part of the Estonian Land Forces, uses the Jolly Roger as its insignia.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Three distinct U.S. Naval Aviation squadrons have used the name and insignia of the Jolly Roger: VF-17/VF-5B/VF-61, VF-84, and VF-103, since redesignated as VFA-103. While these are distinctly different squadrons that have no lineal linkage, they all share the same Jolly Roger name, the skull and crossbones insignia and traditions.


title: Jolly Roger

text: At least twice in 2017, the USS "Jimmy Carter", an American attack submarine modified to support special forces operations, returned to its home port flying a Jolly Roger. The flag was traditionally an indicative of a successful mission.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The three American destroyers named USS "Kidd" have all flown the Jolly Roger; they were named for US Navy Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, not for William Kidd.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The "Golden Age of Piracy" was over by the mid-18th century, and piracy was widely suppressed by the 1800s, although the problem of Barbary pirates persisted until the French conquest of Algeria in 1830.


title: Jolly Roger

text: By the Victorian era, the pirate threat had receded enough for it to become a topos of boyish adventure fiction, notably influenced by Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure novel "Treasure Island" (1883). Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera "The Pirates of Penzance" (which debuted on 31 December 1879) introduced pirates as comedic characters, and since the later 20th century, pirates sporting the Jolly Roger flag were often depicted as cartoonish or silly characters. J.M. Barrie also used it as the name of Captain Hook's pirate ship in "Peter and Wendy" (1904 play and 1911 novel); it was thus used in most adaptations of the character, including ABC's television series "Once Upon a Time" (2011-2018). Additionally, the Jolly Roger is depicted in Eiichiro Oda's manga "One Piece", in which the pirate crews in the series have different designs that reflects the appearance of the captain (Straw Hat Pirates for example, the protagonist crew, having the classic skull with cross bones wearing a straw hat like the main character, Monkey D. Luffy) or a personal theme of the crew (Black Cat Pirates for example, one of the antagonist crews, having the head of a black cat with cross bones).


title: Jolly Roger

text: In the film "The Island" (1980), the Jolly Roger is a skull with a red dot and crossbones with an hourglass on the bottom. In Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean", the "Black Pearl" flies a flag of skull over two crossed swords, which is not copyrighted as it is actually a copy of Calico Jack's flag, with the swords sometimes said to represent the two female pirates aboard his ship, Anne Bonny and Mary Read.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The cover of indie rock band Half Man Half Biscuit's 2005 album "Achtung Bono" shows a stylised Jolly Roger, featuring a grinning skull adorned with sunglasses and a halo.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The cover of Iron Maiden's album "A Matter of Life and Death" (2006) includes a version of a Jolly Roger depicting a helmeted Eddie and two assault rifles instead of bones, hanging from a tank.


title: Jolly Roger

text: On the cover of Michael Jackson's album "Dangerous" (1991), the Jolly Roger can be seen on the left side with the alteration of a skull over two swords.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The re-issued version of the Megadeth album, "Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!" (1985), shows a stylized Vic Rattlehead skull on top of crossed swords and crossed bones. This was based on Mustaine's original drawing for the cover which the band did not have enough money to produce at the time.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The "pirate" German metal band Running Wild often references the Jolly Roger and other pirate related themes in their music. Their third album is named "Under Jolly Roger".


title: Jolly Roger

text: Another "pirate" metal band Alestorm also uses Jolly Roger and other pirate related themes in their music.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The Pirates, a spinoff of the band Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, released an album called "Out of their Skulls" featuring a skull with crossed guitars below it.


title: Jolly Roger

text: One of the best known in current use is the National Football League's Tampa Bay Buccaneers' adaptation of Calico Jack's pirate flag, with a carnelian red background instead of black, and an American football positioned over the intersection of two crossed swords.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The supporters of FC St. Pauli, a sports club from Hamburg, Germany best known for its association football team, have adopted a variation of Richard Worley's flag as their own unofficial emblem.


title: Jolly Roger

text: "Raise the Jolly Roger!" is used in a statement by the Major League Baseball's team Pittsburgh Pirates announcer Greg Brown when the Pirates win a game. Brown has become known for the phrase, his signature call, similar to other sports broadcasters, such as the Cincinnati Reds' announcer Marty Brennamen's phrase ('This one belongs to the Reds'), and former Pirates announcers Lanny Frattare ("There was no doubt about it!") and Bob Prince, who liked to end Pirates wins with similarly jovial statements.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Another such variation is the Las Vegas Raiders', which depicts a head with facial features, wearing an eye patch and a helmet, and crossed swords behind the helmet.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The South African Football Association soccer team Orlando Pirates also has the classic Jolly Roger as their logo. Central Coast United FC in Australia use the Jolly Roger in their club crest and their active supporters are known as the Graveyard.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The athletic teams of East Carolina University used a stylized Jolly Roger as one of their logos. This particular variation includes an earringed and eyepatch-wearing skull donning a tricorn of purple and gold (the school's colours) emblazoned over two crossbones. This logo appears on the helmets of the school's football team, and an elaborate pre-game ritual takes place prior to each home contest wherein a flag bearing the university's Jolly Roger logo is raised on a special flagpole located behind the west end zone prior to the opening kickoff. Immediately prior to the start of the fourth quarter, the normal (black) Jolly Roger is lowered and replaced with a flag bearing the ECU Jolly Roger on a red background, indicating that the Pirates will grant their opponents "no quarter".


title: Jolly Roger

text: The Blackshirts, the starting defensive unit players for the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, are represented by a Jolly Roger, somewhat similar to Richard Worley's flag but with the skull encased in the team's football helmet. Additionally, the players and fans often celebrate by "throwing the bones", where they cross the forearms in front of the chest in an 'X' imitating the logo, and the student section at Memorial Stadium, Lincoln is known as the 'Boneyard', where the logo is often displayed on banners, signs, and flags in an act of intimidation.


title: Jolly Roger

text: When Viktor Korchnoi opposed Anatoly Karpov for the World Chess Championship 1978, he was a defector from the Soviet Union and momentarily stateless; so he played with a miniature Jolly Roger at the chess table.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The early development team of the Apple Macintosh used a pirate flag to portray a "rebellious" spirit.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Before changing to a stylized "P", Sweden's Pirate Party used the Jolly Roger as its symbol, which is still used extensively in the Pirate movement. The Piratbyrån and its online database, The Pirate Bay also use either the skull and crossbones symbol, or derivatives of it, such as the logo of Home Taping Is Killing Music.


title: Jolly Roger

text: The flag of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is modelled to look like a classic Jolly Roger, with some alterations. The flag depicts a whale and a dolphin on the skull's forehead, and the crossed long-bones are replaced with a crossed trident and a shepherd's crook.


title: Jolly Roger

text: Ozlock Con, a conference about physical security, uses a logo inspired by the Jolly Roger. The skull is a lock and the bones are lockpicks.


title: Jolly Roger

text: One account states that Horton, now Commander in Chief Submarines, was visiting at the time of "Osiris" return, and influenced the flotilla leader's decision.


title: To be, or not to be

text: "To be, or not to be" is the opening phrase of a soliloquy given by Prince Hamlet in the so-called "nunnery scene" of William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", Act 3, Scene 1. In the speech, Hamlet contemplates death and suicide, weighing the pain and unfairness of life against the alternative, which might be worse. The opening line is one of the most widely known and quoted lines in modern English literature, and the soliloquy has been referenced in many works of theatre, literature, and music. Hamlet is not alone as he speaks—Ophelia is present, and Claudius and Polonius have concealed themselves. Claudius and Polonius have placed Ophelia in Hamlet's way in order to overhear their conversation and find out if Hamlet is really mad or only pretending. Even so, Hamlet seems to consider himself alone, and there is no indication that the others hear him before he addresses Ophelia.


title: To be, or not to be

text: This version preserves most of the First Folio text with updated spelling, punctuation, and five common emendations introduced from the Second ("Good") Quarto (italicised).


title: To be, or not to be

text: The First Quarto is a short early text of "Hamlet". Though it was published in 1603, it was lost or not known until a copy was discovered in 1823. It contains a number of unique characteristics and oddities. When it was discovered, it was thought to be an earlier version than the Second Quarto, but is now considered by scholars to be derivative, or pirated and imperfectly remembered. In the version below, the spelling is updated, along with minor alterations of scansion, capitalization and punctuation.


title: To be, or not to be

text: The text of the Second Quarto (Q2) is considered the earliest version of the play. In Q2 the whole nunnery scene including "To be" takes place later in the play than in Q1 where it occurs directly after Claudius and Polonius have planned it. The addition of "Soft you now", suggests that Hamlet has not (or is feigning having not) seen Ophelia thus far during his speech.


title: To be, or not to be

text: "Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies", published by Isaac Jaggard and Ed Blount in 1623 and better known as the "First Folio", includes an edition of "Hamlet" largely similar to the Second Quarto. The differences in "To be" are mostly typographic, with increased punctuation and capitalization.


title: To be, or not to be

text: "To be, or not to be" is one of the most widely known and quoted lines in modern English, and the soliloquy has been referenced in numerous works of theatre, literature and music. The two most iconic moments in the play ― the Act III, scene 1 "To be or not to be" soliloquy and the Act V, scene 1 image of Hamlet contemplating a skull ― may be linked when the play is remembered, but the two moments occur in different acts of the play.


title: To be, or not to be

text: A plot point of the 1942 film comedy "To Be or Not to Be" involves the first line of the monologue. In the 1957 comedy film "A King in New York", Charlie Chaplin recites the monologue in the shoes of the ambiguous King Shahdov.


title: To be, or not to be

text: Hamlet's line is the basis of the title of Kurt Vonnegut's 1962 short story "2 B R 0 2 B" (the zero is pronounced "naught"). The narrative takes place in a dystopian future in which the United States government, through scientific advancement, has achieved a “cure” for both aging and overpopulation. The alphabetical/numerical reformulation of Shakespeare's lines serves in the story as the phone number for the Federal Bureau of Termination's assisted suicide request line.


title: To be, or not to be

text: In 1963 at a debate in Oxford, Black liberation leader Malcolm X quoted the first few lines of the soliloquy to make a point about "extremism in defense of liberty."


title: To be, or not to be

text: "Last Action Hero" (1993) has Jack Slater parody the phrase before blowing up a building behind him just by smoking a cigar. His version has him say "To be, or not to be? Not to be."


title: To be, or not to be

text: "Star Trek" (1991) was named after the "Undiscovered Country" line from this soliloquy, albeit the Klingon interpretation in which the title refers to the future and not death. References are made to Shakespeare during the film including Klingon translations of his works and the use of the phrase "taH pagh, taHbe' ", roughly meaning "whether to continue, or not to continue [existence]."


title: To be, or not to be

text: The 1978 novel by Richard Matheson and its 1998 film adaptation "What Dreams May Come" derive their name from a line from this soliloquy.


title: To be, or not to be

text: The 1997 film adaptation of "George of the Jungle" also parodies this line; when George sees a paraglider dangling off the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and notices a rope on the bridge's ledge, he quotes to the audience "To swing, or not to swing"? After deciding "swing", George grabs the rope and swings, saving the paraglider.


title: To be, or not to be

text: The New Zealand television series "Outrageous Fortune" takes its title from the words of the third line of the soliliquy.


title: To be, or not to be

text: A shorter Hindi version of "To be, or not to be" was recited by Shahid Kapoor in the 2014 Bollywood film "Haider".


title: To be, or not to be

text: "Stargate Atlantis", the Season 4 Episode 10 named "This Mortal Coil" (2008) after the soliloquy, as well as Season 4 Episode 11 named "Be All My Sins Remember'd" (2008). These episodes involved learning about and fighting the artificial intelligence species Replicator.


title: To be, or not to be

text: The virtuoso soliloquy in Carl Michael Bellman's Fredman's Epistle "Ack du min moder" was described by the poet and literary historian Oscar Levertin as "the to-be-or-not-to-be of Swedish literature".


title: Æsir

text: The Æsir (Old Norse: ) are the gods of the principal pantheon in Norse religion. They include Odin, Frigg, Höðr, Thor, and Baldr. The second Norse pantheon is the Vanir. In Norse mythology, the two pantheons wage war against each other, resulting in a unified pantheon. Unlike the Old English word "god" (and the Old Norse word ""), Æsir was never converted over to Christian use.


title: Æsir

text: "Æsir" is the plural of "áss", "ǫ́ss" "god". In genitival compounds, it takes the form ', e.g. in ' ("Thor of the Æsir"), besides "" found in


title: Æsir

text: Cognate forms of "áss" are found in other Germanic languages, such as Old English () (plural '), denoting a deity in Anglo-Saxon paganism, preserved as a prefix ' in personal names (e.g. Osborne, Oswald) and place-names, and as the genitive plural "".


title: Æsir

text: In Old High German, Old Dutch and Old Saxon, the word is only attested in personal and place names, e.g.


title: Æsir

text: Gothic has ' as reported by Jordanes, who wrote in the 6th century CE, presumably a Latinized form of actual plural '), as a name for euhemerized semi-divine early Gothic rulers.


title: Æsir

text: The reconstructed Proto-Germanic form is ' (plural '). The ansuz rune, , was named after the Æsir. *"ansuz", itself comes from Proto-Indo-European *"h₂énsus" (gen. "") "life force" (cf. Avestan "aŋhū" "lord; lifetime", "ahura" "godhood", Sanskrit "ásu" "life force", "ásura" "demons" ( *'). It is widely accepted that this word is further related to *'- "to engender" (cf. Hittite "hass-" "to procreate, give birth", Tocharian B "ās-" "to produce").


title: Æsir

text: The interaction between the Æsir and the Vanir has provoked a considerable amount of scholarly theory and speculation.


title: Æsir

text: While other cultures have had "elder" and "younger" families of gods, as with the Titans versus the Olympians of ancient Greece, the Æsir and Vanir are portrayed in myth as contemporaries: The two clans of gods fought battles, concluded treaties, exchanged hostages (Freyr and Freyja are mentioned as hostages), and intermarried.


title: Æsir

text: An "áss" like Ullr is almost unknown in the myths, but his name is seen in a lot of geographical names, especially in Sweden, and may also appear on the 3rd century Thorsberg chape, suggesting that his cult was widespread in prehistoric times.


title: Æsir

text: The names of the first three Æsir in Norse mythology, Vili and Vé, and Odin all refer to spiritual or mental state, "vili" to conscious will or desire, "vé" to the sacred or numinous and "óðr" to the manic or ecstatic.


title: Æsir

text: The second clan of gods mentioned in Norse mythology is the "Vanir": The god Njörðr and his children, Freyr and Freyja, are the most prominent Vanir gods who join the Æsir as hostages after a war between Æsir and Vanir. The Vanir appear to have mainly been connected with cultivation and fertility and the Æsir were connected with power and war.


title: Æsir

text: In the "Eddas", however, the word "Æsir" is used for [male] gods in general, while "Asynjur" is used for the goddesses in general. For example, in the poem Skírnismál, Freyr was called a "Prince of the Æsir". In the Prose Edda, Njörðr was introduced as "the third among the Æsir", and among the Asynjur, Freya is always listed second only to Frigg.


title: Æsir

text: In surviving tales, the origins of many of the Æsir are unexplained. In the ostensibly oldest stories, there are only Búri's three sons: Odin and his brothers Vili and Vé. Odin's sons by giantesses are counted as Æsir. Heimdallr and Ullr's connection with the Æsir is not clearly mentioned. Loki is a jötunn (apparently a cousin and foster-brother of Odin) and Njörðr is a Vanir and his two children are hostages, but they are often ranked among the Æsir.


title: Æsir

text: Given the difference between their roles and emphases, some scholars have speculated that the interactions between the Æsir and the Vanir reflect the types of interaction that occurred between clans (or social classes) within Norse society at the time.


title: Æsir

text: According to another theory, the Vanir (and the fertility cults associated with them) may be more archaic than that of the more warlike Æsir, such that the mythical war may mirror a half-remembered religious conflict. This argument was first suggested in 1877 by Wilhelm Mannhardt. On a similar note, Marija Gimbutas argues that the Æsir and the Vanir represent the displacement of an indigenous Indo-European group by a tribe of warlike invaders as part of her Kurgan hypothesis. See her case in "The Living Goddess" for more details. Another historical theory is that the inter-pantheon interaction may be an apotheosis of the conflict between the Roman Kingdom and the Sabines.


title: Æsir

text: Finally, M. Eliade (1958) speculated that this conflict is actually a later version of an Indo-European myth concerning the conflict between and eventual integration of a pantheon of sky / warrior / ruler gods and a pantheon of earth / economics / fertility gods, with no strict historical antecedents.


title: Æsir

text: The Prose Edda lists both male and female gods of the Æsir, in . The Gylfaginning does not include Odin or Loki in this portion, perhaps considering them outside the ranking.


title: Æsir

text: The "a"-rune, ansuz, , Younger Futhark ᚬ, was probably named after the Æsir. The name in this sense survives only in the Icelandic Rune Poem as "Óss", referring to Óðinn, who is identified with Jupiter:


title: Æsir

text: The name of "a" in the Gothic alphabet is "ahsa". The common Germanic name of the rune may thus have either been "ansuz" "God, one of the Æsir", or "ahsam" "ear (of corn)"


title: Æsir

text: The personal names Old Norse "Ásleikr" (Latinised as "Ansleicus"), Old English "Óslác" (modern ""Hasluck"") and Old High German "Ansleh" may continue the term for a sacrificial performance for the gods in early Germanic paganism (""). Grimm's "Deutsches Wörterbuch" (s.v. "Leich") compares "*laikom" to the meaning of Greek , denoting first the ceremonial procession to the sacrifice, but also ritual dance and hymns pertaining to religious ritual.


title: Æsir

text: Paul Herrman (1906) identified as such "*ansulaikom" the victory songs of the Batavi after defeating Quintus Petillius Cerialis in the Revolt of the Batavi in the year 69 CE according to Tacitus' account, and also the "nefarious song" accompanied by "running in a circle" around the head of a decapitated goat sacrificed to (he presumes) Wodan (Odin), sung by the Lombards at their victory celebration in 579 CE.


title: Æsir

text: Old High German had "Anso", Anselm, Ansgar, Anshilt, Anspald, and Ansnôt, and Lombardic has Answald and Ansprand.


title: Æsir

text: "As" also occurs in some English names. In 874, King Asketil was one of four Viking nobles who sacked Repton, the capital of Mercia, England. As 'ketil' means 'cauldron' (whence the English word 'kettle' is derived), his name means 'God's cauldron'. The English surname Astle is derived from his name; however, it is not related to the name "Astley". Less common alternative spellings of Astle include


title: Æsir

text: Ásatrú, a kind of Heathenry whose name means "faith in the Æsir", is a new religious movement of polytheistic reconstructionism based on Norse paganism. As of 2007, Ásatrú is a religion officially recognized by the governments of Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.


title: Æsir

text: Most adherents do not emphasize worship of the Æsir in particular and refer to their practice as "Forn sed / sidr / siður" meaning old customs. The Icelandic "Ásatrúarfélagið" describes "Ásatrú" as "Nordic pantheism" involving "belief in the Icelandic / Nordic folklore" including all the "spirits and entities" besides "gods and other beings" this entails.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: The East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry was a feud between artists and fans of the East Coast hip hop and West Coast hip hop scenes in the United States, especially from the mid-1990s. Focal points of the feud were East Coast–based rapper The Notorious B.I.G. with Puff Daddy and their New York City–based label, Bad Boy Records, and West Coast–based rapper Tupac Shakur with Suge Knight and their Los Angeles-based label, Death Row Records. The feud culminated in the murders of both rappers in drive-by shootings. Although several suspects have been identified, both murders remain unsolved.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: Modern hip hop culture and rap music is widely considered to have originated on the East Coast of the United States in New York City. As a result, New York rappers were often perceived as feeling their hip hop scene was superior to other regional hip hop cultures whereas those on the West Coast of the United States had developed an inferiority complex.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: By the late-1980s, however, West Coast hip hop was flourishing, led by acts such as Compton, California's N.W.A. On November 12, 1991, Bronx rapper Tim Dog released the album "Penicillin on Wax". It contained several skits which mocked West Coast artists and a diss track directed at the members of N.W.A including Dr. Dre entitled "Fuck Compton." Dr. Dre would respond a year later on his debut solo album, "The Chronic". Although Tim Dog would not figure into the later stages of the feud, his diss track presaged what was to come. This was also the same year that Uncle Luke came out with the album "In the Nude" which also dissed Dr. Dre.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: In 1991, Suge Knight co-founded Death Row Records in Los Angeles alongside Dr. Dre, Dick Griffey and The D.O.C. Knight, a native of Compton, California and a Blood, was among those in the West Coast hip hop scene irritated by the East Coast's perceived condescension toward the West.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: In 1993, fledgling A&R executive and record producer Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs founded the New York-centered hip-hop label, Bad Boy Records. The next year, the label's debut releases by Brooklyn-based rapper The Notorious B.I.G. (also known as Biggie Smalls) and Long Island–based rapper Craig Mack became immediate critical and commercial successes.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: By 1994, New York-born, California-based rapper and actor Tupac "2Pac" Shakur had released two successful albums and starred in three movies. However, at the same time, his career was in jeopardy as he was low on money and standing trial in New York City on charges of sexual abuse, sodomy, and weapons possession.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: On November 30, 1994, 2Pac was scheduled to record a verse with Little Shawn at Quad Studios in Manhattan to help pay his legal fees. As he arrived, members of Junior M.A.F.I.A., a group affiliated with Bad Boy, shouted greetings to 2Pac on the street below. Once he entered the building, two gunmen ordered everyone in the lobby to the floor. When 2Pac hesitated, he was shot five times and robbed. As 2Pac was taken out on a stretcher, he gave the middle finger to Biggie and other Bad Boy affiliates who were present.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: One day later, 2Pac was convicted of sexual abuse. Afterward, 2Pac implied in an interview with Kevin Powell of "Vibe" that Biggie, Puff Daddy and Uptown Records head Andre Harrell were involved in or responsible for the attack at Quad Studios. Between when that interview was given and when the article was published, Puff Daddy had visited 2Pac at Rikers Island and assured him that Bad Boy was not involved in the shooting.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: In February 1995, "Who Shot Ya?," a B-side track from Biggie's "Big Poppa" single was released. Although Combs and Biggie denied having anything to do with the shooting and stated that "Who Shot Ya?" had been recorded before the shooting, 2Pac interpreted it as a taunt directed at him.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: On August 3, 1995, Suge Knight took a dig at Puff Daddy at that year's Source Awards in New York City, announcing to the assembly of artists and industry figures: "Any artist out there that want to be an artist and want to stay a star, and don't want to have to worry about the executive producer trying to be all in the videos ... All on the records ... dancing, come to Death Row!" - referring to Combs' tendency to appear in his artists' music videos and perform ad-libs in their songs. To the New York audience, Knight's comments seemed a slight to the entire East Coast hip hop scene, and resulted in boos from the crowd.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: The crowd booed again when Dr. Dre was named Producer of the Year. In response to the boos, Death Row artist Snoop Doggy Dogg took the microphone from Dr. Dre and asked the crowd: "The east coast ain’t got no love for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and Death Row? Y’all don’t love us? Y’all don’t love us?! Well, let it be known then! We don’t give a fuck. We know y’all east coast! We know where the fuck we at!"


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: Puff Daddy later took the stage as a presenter and told the audience: "[A]ll this East and West—that needs to stop. So give it up for everybody from the East and the West that won tonight. One love."


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: Problems continued the following month when Suge Knight and Puff Daddy attended a birthday party for musician Jermaine Dupri at Platinum House club in Atlanta. Conflict between the two groups spilled outside the club and Jai "Big Jake" Robles, a close friend of Knight's and a Death Row Blood affiliate, was fatally shot as he was getting into a limousine. Knight accused Combs (also in attendance) of being involved in the shooting.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: Shortly after Robles' death, Knight secured 2Pac's release from prison by posting his $1.4 million bond, flying across the country and renting a limousine to pick him up from Clinton Correctional Facility. Shortly after his release, 2Pac proceeded to join Knight in escalating Death Row's feud with Bad Boy Records. 2Pac insulted or threatened Biggie, Bad Boy and its affiliates on several tracks from late 1995 to 1996. Examples include the songs "Against All Odds," "Bomb First (My Second Reply)" and "Hit 'Em Up."


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: Queens group Mobb Deep, which had been called out by name in 2Pac's "Hit 'Em Up," released "Drop a Gem on 'Em" in August 1996 as a direct response. In 2011, Mobb Deep's Prodigy recalled his reaction after hearing Hit 'Em Up: "As soon as we heard Tupac saying anything about Mobb Deep, we went in and made that shit about him. We were like, ‘Fuck this nigga, we going right at this nigga and whoever the fuck he’s down with.’"


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: 2Pac also interpreted New York rapper LL Cool J's 1995 track "I Shot Ya" as a diss track referring to the Quad Studios shooting. In 1996, 2Pac confronted Keith Murray, who was featured on the track, at the California House of Blues. Murray made it clear that the record was not about 2Pac.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: Although Biggie never released an explicit retaliation record, Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil' Cease claimed in a "XXL" interview that 2Pac was the subject of Biggie's track "Long Kiss Goodnight." Puff Daddy, however, steadfastly denied this theory, arguing that if Biggie were to diss 2Pac, he would have called him out by name.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: During this time, the media became heavily involved and dubbed the rivalry a coastal rap war, reporting on it continually. This caused fans from both scenes to take sides.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: In November 1995, 2Pac met Biggie's estranged wife, Bad Boy singer Faith Evans, at a party and agreed to pay her $250,000 to sing on one of his tracks. According to Evans, after she recorded her part, 2Pac refused to pay her unless she had sex with him and she declined.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: While Evans continued to deny rumors that she was involved romantically or sexually with 2Pac, Suge Knight and 2Pac were doing the opposite. In January 1996, they hinted to Lynn Hirschberg of "The New York Times" that he was in a relationship with Evans in that she had given him gifts and he had repaid her those gifts with what he implied were sexual favors. Biggie flew into a rage after hearing about the "Times" article and aggressively confronted Evans. Publicly, however, he tried to brush it off as a joke. Later, in "Hit 'Em Up," 2Pac made his insinuations explicit, going so far as to say "I fucked your bitch, you fat motherfucker" and "you claim to be a player but I fucked your wife."


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: Hip hop writers including "Newsweek"'s Allison Samuels and "The Source"s Kierna Mayo described Evans as "a pawn" in 2Pac's revenge plot against Biggie and the power struggle between the two men. She was not portrayed sympathetically in the media. "Vibe" joked in March 1996 that Evans was "losing weight from all that running back and forth between the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac."


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: In December 1995, Tha Dogg Pound, a Death Row group, was in Red Hook, Brooklyn filming the music video for their single "New York, New York." The music for the song used a beat that Biggie had rapped over in a commercial for St. Ides. Biggie called into local hip hop station Hot 97 and said "Red Hook [is where Tha Dogg Pound and 2Pac are] shooting a video. Brooklyn, stand up!" according to Snoop Doggy Dogg's recollection. Tha Dogg Pound, who were listening to the radio at the time, interpreted it as a friendly sentiment and thought Biggie was summoning fans to their video set. Shortly after the call, however, shots were fired at Tha Dogg Pound's trailer on the video set. The gunman was never identified. After the shooting, a scene was added to the music video showing Snoop Dogg destroying buildings and cars in New York City like Godzilla. In 1996, East Coast rappers Capone-N-Noreaga, Mobb Deep and Tragedy Khadafi recorded a comeback diss entitled "L.A., L.A." It was released in 1996 on Penalty Recordings.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur was shot in a drive-by shooting at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, where he died six days later. In 2002, Chuck Philips wrote the article "Who Killed Tupac Shakur?" reporting, "the shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the Southside Crips to avenge the beating of one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier ... Orlando Anderson, the Crip whom Shakur had attacked, fired the fatal shots. Las Vegas police discounted Anderson as a suspect and interviewed him only once, briefly. He was later killed in an "unrelated gang shooting" nearly 2 years later on May 29, 1998. The Philips article and its follow-up, "How Vegas Police Probe Floundered in Tupac Shakur Case" also implicated East Coast rappers including Biggie Smalls.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: Six months after Tupac's death, on March 9, 1997, The Notorious B.I.G. was killed in a drive-by shooting by an unknown assailant in Los Angeles, California.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: On September 22, 1996, a peace summit was convened at Mosque Maryam by Louis Farrakhan in the wake of the murder of 2Pac, and another after the shooting of Biggie Smalls in March 1997.


title: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry

text: In February 1997, Snoop Dogg and Combs held a press conference where they called for an end to the East Coast–West Coast rap feud that had already claimed the life of 2Pac. "Kids around the world are watching," Snoop said. "By calling for a truce we're giving them something to live for." However, their efforts failed to stop the violence; less than a month later, The Notorious B.I.G. was killed in a drive-by shooting while stopping at a stoplight in Los Angeles.


title: Comma-separated values

text: A comma-separated values (CSV) file is a delimited text file that uses a comma to separate values. Each line of the file is a data record. Each record consists of one or more fields, separated by commas. The use of the comma as a field separator is the source of the name for this file format. A CSV file typically stores tabular data (numbers and text) in plain text, in which case each line will have the same number of fields.


title: Comma-separated values

text: The CSV file format is not fully standardized. Separating fields with commas is the foundation, but commas in the data or embedded line breaks have to be handled specially. Some implementations disallow such content while others surround the field with quotation marks, which yet again creates the need for escaping if quotation marks are present in the data.


title: Comma-separated values

text: The term "CSV" also denotes several closely-related delimiter-separated formats that use other field delimiters such as semicolons. These include tab-separated values and space-separated values. A delimiter guaranteed not to be part of the data greatly simplifies parsing.


title: Comma-separated values

text: Alternative delimiter-separated files are often given a ".csv" extension despite the use of a non-comma field separator. This loose terminology can cause problems in data exchange. Many applications that accept CSV files have options to select the delimiter character and the quotation character. Semicolons are often used instead of commas in many European locales in order to use the comma as the decimal separator and, possibly, the period as a decimal grouping character.


title: Comma-separated values

text: CSV is a common data exchange format that is widely supported by consumer, business, and scientific applications. Among its most common uses is moving tabular data between programs that natively operate on incompatible (often proprietary or undocumented) formats. This works despite the lack of adherence to RFC 4180 (or any other standard) because so many programs support variations on the CSV format for data import.


title: Comma-separated values

text: For example, a user may need to transfer information from a database program that stores data in a proprietary format, to a spreadsheet that uses a completely different format. Most database programs can export data as CSV and the exported CSV file can then be imported by the spreadsheet program.


title: Comma-separated values

text: proposes a specification for the CSV format; however, actual practice often does not follow the RFC and the term "CSV" might refer to any file that:


title: Comma-separated values

text: Within these general constraints, many variations are in use. Therefore, without additional information (such as whether RFC 4180 is honored), a file claimed simply to be in "CSV" format is not fully specified. As a result, some applications supporting CSV files have text import wizards that allow users to preview the first few lines of the file and then specify the delimiter character(s), quoting rules, and field trimming.


title: Comma-separated values

text: Comma-separated values is a data format that predates personal computers by more than a decade: the IBM Fortran (level H extended) compiler under OS/360 supported CSV in 1972. List-directed ("free form") input/output was defined in FORTRAN 77, approved in 1978. List-directed input used commas or spaces for delimiters, so unquoted character strings could not contain commas or spaces.


title: Comma-separated values

text: The term "comma-separated value" and the "CSV" abbreviation were in use by 1983. The manual for the Osborne Executive computer, which bundled the SuperCalc spreadsheet, documents the CSV quoting convention that allows strings to contain embedded commas, but the manual does not specify a convention for embedding quotation marks within quoted strings.


title: Comma-separated values

text: Comma-separated value lists are easier to type (for example into punched cards) than fixed-column-aligned data, and they were less prone to producing incorrect results if a value was punched one column off from its intended location.


title: Comma-separated values

text: Comma separated files are used for the interchange of database information between machines of two different architectures. The plain-text character of CSV files largely avoids incompatibilities such as byte-order and word size. The files are largely human-readable, so it is easier to deal with them in the absence of perfect documentation or communication.


title: Comma-separated values

text: The main standardization initiative—transforming ""de facto" fuzzy definition" into a more precise and "de jure" one—was in 2005, with , defining CSV as a MIME Content Type. Later, in 2013, some of RFC 4180's deficiencies were tackled by a W3C recommendation.


title: Comma-separated values

text: In 2014 IETF published describing the application of URI fragments to CSV documents. RFC 7111 specifies how row, column, and cell ranges can be selected from a CSV document using position indexes.


title: Comma-separated values

text: In 2015 W3C, in an attempt to enhance CSV with formal semantics, publicized the first "drafts of recommendations" for CSV metadata standards, which began as "recommendations" in December of the same year.


title: Comma-separated values

text: CSV formats are best used to represent sets or sequences of records in which each record has an identical list of fields. This corresponds to a single relation in a relational database, or to data (though not calculations) in a typical spreadsheet.