title: Microcontroller

text: Where hundreds of thousands of identical devices are required, using parts programmed at the time of manufacture can be economical. These "mask programmed" parts have the program laid down in the same way as the logic of the chip, at the same time.


title: Microcontroller

text: A customized micro-controller incorporates a block of digital logic that can be personalized for additional processing capability, peripherals and interfaces that are adapted to the requirements of the application. One example is the AT91CAP from Atmel.


title: Microcontroller

text: Microcontrollers usually contain from several to dozens of general purpose input/output pins (GPIO). GPIO pins are software configurable to either an input or an output state. When GPIO pins are configured to an input state, they are often used to read sensors or external signals. Configured to the output state, GPIO pins can drive external devices such as LEDs or motors, often indirectly, through external power electronics.


title: Microcontroller

text: Many embedded systems need to read sensors that produce analog signals. This is the purpose of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Since processors are built to interpret and process digital data, i.e. 1s and 0s, they are not able to do anything with the analog signals that may be sent to it by a device. So the analog to digital converter is used to convert the incoming data into a form that the processor can recognize. A less common feature on some microcontrollers is a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that allows the processor to output analog signals or voltage levels.


title: Microcontroller

text: In addition to the converters, many embedded microprocessors include a variety of timers as well. One of the most common types of timers is the programmable interval timer (PIT). A PIT may either count down from some value to zero, or up to the capacity of the count register, overflowing to zero. Once it reaches zero, it sends an interrupt to the processor indicating that it has finished counting. This is useful for devices such as thermostats, which periodically test the temperature around them to see if they need to turn the air conditioner on/off, the heater on/off, etc.


title: Microcontroller

text: A dedicated pulse-width modulation (PWM) block makes it possible for the CPU to control power converters, resistive loads, motors, etc., without using many CPU resources in tight timer loops.


title: Microcontroller

text: A universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) block makes it possible to receive and transmit data over a serial line with very little load on the CPU. Dedicated on-chip hardware also often includes capabilities to communicate with other devices (chips) in digital formats such as Inter-Integrated Circuit (I²C), Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), Universal Serial Bus (USB), and Ethernet.


title: Microcontroller

text: Micro-controllers may not implement an external address or data bus as they integrate RAM and non-volatile memory on the same chip as the CPU. Using fewer pins, the chip can be placed in a much smaller, cheaper package.


title: Microcontroller

text: Integrating the memory and other peripherals on a single chip and testing them as a unit increases the cost of that chip, but often results in decreased net cost of the embedded system as a whole. Even if the cost of a CPU that has integrated peripherals is slightly more than the cost of a CPU and external peripherals, having fewer chips typically allows a smaller and cheaper circuit board, and reduces the labor required to assemble and test the circuit board, in addition to tending to decrease the defect rate for the finished assembly.


title: Microcontroller

text: This integration drastically reduces the number of chips and the amount of wiring and circuit board space that would be needed to produce equivalent systems using separate chips. Furthermore, on low pin count devices in particular, each pin may interface to several internal peripherals, with the pin function selected by software. This allows a part to be used in a wider variety of applications than if pins had dedicated functions.


title: Microcontroller

text: Micro-controllers have proved to be highly popular in embedded systems since their introduction in the 1970s.


title: Microcontroller

text: Some microcontrollers use a Harvard architecture: separate memory buses for instructions and data, allowing accesses to take place concurrently. Where a Harvard architecture is used, instruction words for the processor may be a different bit size than the length of internal memory and registers; for example: 12-bit instructions used with 8-bit data registers.


title: Microcontroller

text: The decision of which peripheral to integrate is often difficult. The microcontroller vendors often trade operating frequencies and system design flexibility against time-to-market requirements from their customers and overall lower system cost. Manufacturers have to balance the need to minimize the chip size against additional functionality.


title: Microcontroller

text: Microcontroller architectures vary widely. Some designs include general-purpose microprocessor cores, with one or more ROM, RAM, or I/O functions integrated onto the package. Other designs are purpose built for control applications. A micro-controller instruction set usually has many instructions intended for bit manipulation (bit-wise operations) to make control programs more compact. For example, a general purpose processor might require several instructions to test a bit in a register and branch if the bit is set, where a micro-controller could have a single instruction to provide that commonly required function.


title: Microcontroller

text: Microcontrollers traditionally do not have a math coprocessor, so floating-point arithmetic is performed by software. However, some recent designs do include an FPU and DSP optimized features. An example would be Microchip's PIC32 MIPS based line.


title: Microcontroller

text: Microcontrollers were originally programmed only in assembly language, but various high-level programming languages, such as C, Python and JavaScript, are now also in common use to target microcontrollers and embedded systems. Compilers for general purpose languages will typically have some restrictions as well as enhancements to better support the unique characteristics of microcontrollers. Some microcontrollers have environments to aid developing certain types of applications. Microcontroller vendors often make tools freely available to make it easier to adopt their hardware.


title: Microcontroller

text: Microcontrollers with specialty hardware may require their own non-standard dialects of C, such as SDCC for the 8051, which prevent using standard tools (such as code libraries or static analysis tools) even for code unrelated to hardware features. Interpreters may also contain nonstandard features, such as MicroPython, although a fork, CircuitPython, has looked to move hardware dependencies to libraries and have the language adhere to a more CPython standard.


title: Microcontroller

text: Interpreter firmware is also available for some microcontrollers. For example, BASIC on the early microcontrollers Intel 8052; BASIC and FORTH on the Zilog Z8 as well as some modern devices. Typically these interpreters support interactive programming.


title: Microcontroller

text: Simulators are available for some microcontrollers. These allow a developer to analyze what the behavior of the microcontroller and their program should be if they were using the actual part. A simulator will show the internal processor state and also that of the outputs, as well as allowing input signals to be generated. While on the one hand most simulators will be limited from being unable to simulate much other hardware in a system, they can exercise conditions that may otherwise be hard to reproduce at will in the physical implementation, and can be the quickest way to debug and analyze problems.


title: Microcontroller

text: Recent microcontrollers are often integrated with on-chip debug circuitry that when accessed by an in-circuit emulator (ICE) via JTAG, allow debugging of the firmware with a debugger. A real-time ICE may allow viewing and/or manipulating of internal states while running. A tracing ICE can record executed program and MCU states before/after a trigger point.


title: Microcontroller

text: Many others exist, some of which are used in very narrow range of applications or are more like applications processors than microcontrollers. The microcontroller market is extremely fragmented, with numerous vendors, technologies, and markets. Note that many vendors sell or have sold multiple architectures.


title: Microcontroller

text: In contrast to general-purpose computers, microcontrollers used in embedded systems often seek to optimize interrupt latency over instruction throughput. Issues include both reducing the latency, and making it be more predictable (to support real-time control).


title: Microcontroller

text: When an electronic device causes an interrupt, during the context switch the intermediate results (registers) have to be saved before the software responsible for handling the interrupt can run. They must also be restored after that interrupt handler is finished. If there are more processor registers, this saving and restoring process may take more time, increasing the latency. (If an ISR does not require the use of some registers, it may simply leave them alone rather than saving and restoring them, so in that case those registers are not involved with the latency.) Ways to reduce such context/restore latency include having relatively few registers in their central processing units (undesirable because it slows down most non-interrupt processing substantially), or at least having the hardware not save them all (this fails if the software then needs to compensate by saving the rest "manually"). Another technique involves spending silicon gates on "shadow registers": One or more duplicate registers used only by the interrupt software, perhaps supporting a dedicated stack.


title: Microcontroller

text: Two different kinds of memory are commonly used with microcontrollers, a non-volatile memory for storing firmware and a read-write memory for temporary data.


title: Microcontroller

text: From the earliest microcontrollers to today, six-transistor SRAM is almost always used as the read/write working memory, with a few more transistors per bit used in the register file.


title: Microcontroller

text: In addition to the SRAM, some microcontrollers also have internal EEPROM for data storage; and even ones that do not have any (or not enough) are often connected to external EEPROM chip (such as the BASIC Stamp) or external flash memory chip.


title: Microcontroller

text: The earliest microcontrollers used mask ROM to store firmware. Later microcontrollers (such as the early versions of the Freescale 68HC11 and early PIC microcontrollers) had EPROM memory, which used a translucent window to allow erasure via UV light, while production versions had no such window, being OTP (one-time-programmable). Firmware updates were equivalent to replacing the microcontroller itself, thus many products were not upgradeable.


title: Microcontroller

text: Motorola MC68HC805 was the first microcontroller to use EEPROM to store the firmware. EEPROM microcontrollers became more popular in 1993 when Microchip introduced PIC16C84 and Atmel introduced an 8051-core microcontroller that was first one to use NOR Flash memory to store the firmware. Today's microcontrollers almost all use flash memory, with a few models using FRAM and some ultra-low-cost parts still using OTP or Mask ROM.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 – October 1, 1990) was an American Air Force general who implemented a controversial strategic bombing campaign in the Pacific theater of World War II. He later served as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, from 1961 to 1965.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, the precursor to the U.S. Air Force, in 1929 while studying civil engineering at Ohio State University. He had risen to the rank of major by the time of Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the United States's subsequent entry into World War II. He commanded the 305th Operations Group from October 1942 until September 1943, and the 3rd Air Division in the European theatre of World War II until August 1944, when he was transferred to the China Burma India Theater. He was then placed in command of strategic bombing operations against Japan, planning and executing a massive fire bombing campaign against Japanese cities and Operation Starvation, a crippling minelaying campaign in Japan's internal waterways.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: After the war, he was assigned to command USAF Europe and coordinated the Berlin Airlift. He served as commander of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) from 1948 to 1957, where he presided over the transition to an all-jet aircraft force that had a strong emphasis on the delivery of nuclear weapons in the event of war. As Chief of Staff of the Air Force, he called for the bombing of Cuban missile sites during the Cuban Missile Crisis and sought a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: After retiring from the Air Force in 1965, LeMay agreed to serve as Governor George Wallace's running mate on the American Independent Party ticket in the 1968 United States presidential election. The ticket won 13.5% of the popular vote, a strong tally for a third party campaign, but the Wallace campaign came to see LeMay as a liability. After the election, LeMay retired to his home in Newport Beach, California, and died in 1990 at age 83.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay was born in Columbus, Ohio, on November 15, 1906. LeMay was of English and distant French Huguenot heritage. His father, Erving Edwin LeMay, was at times an ironworker and general handyman, but he never held a job longer than a few months. His mother, Arizona Dove (née Carpenter) LeMay, did her best to hold her family together. With very limited income, his family moved around the country as his father looked for work, going as far as Montana and California. Eventually they returned to his native city of Columbus. LeMay attended Columbus public schools, graduating from Columbus South High School, and studied civil engineering at The Ohio State University. Working his way through college, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. While at Ohio State he was a member of the National Society of Pershing Rifles and the Professional Engineering Fraternity Theta Tau.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Corps Reserve in October 1929. He received a regular commission in the United States Army Air Corps in January 1930. While finishing at Ohio State, he took flight training at Norton Field in Columbus, in 1931–32. On June 9, 1934, he married Helen Maitland.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay became a pursuit pilot with his first duty station at Selfridge Field with the 27th Pursuit Squadron. After having served in various assignments in fighter operations, LeMay transferred to bomber aircraft in 1937. While stationed in Hawaii, he became one of the first members of the Air Corps to receive specialized training in aerial navigation. In August 1937, as navigator under pilot and commander Caleb V. Haynes on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, he helped locate the battleship "Utah" despite being given the wrong coordinates by Navy personnel, in exercises held in misty conditions off California, after which the group of B-17s bombed it with water bombs. In March 1938, LeMay as a member of the 2nd Bombardment Group participated in a good will flight to Buenos Aires. For this flight, the 2nd Bombardment Group was awarded the Mackay Trophy in 1939. For Haynes again, in May 1938 he navigated three B-17s over the Atlantic Ocean to intercept the Italian liner "SS Rex" to illustrate the ability of land-based airpower to defend the American coasts. In 1940 he was navigator for Haynes on the prototype Boeing XB-15 heavy bomber, flying a survey from Panama over the Galapagos islands. By the end of 1940, he was stationed at Westover Air Reserve Base, as the operations officer of the 34th Bombardment Group. War brought rapid promotion and increased responsibility.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: When his crews were not flying missions, they were subjected to relentless training, as LeMay believed that training was the key to saving their lives. "You fight as you train" was one of his cardinal rules. It expressed his belief that, in the chaos, stress, and confusion of combat (aerial or otherwise), troops or airmen would perform successfully only if their individual acts were second nature, performed nearly instinctively due to repetitive training. Throughout his career, LeMay was widely and fondly known among his troops as "Old Iron Pants", and the "Big Cigar".


title: Curtis LeMay

text: When the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, LeMay was a major in the United States Army Air Forces (he had been a first lieutenant as recently as 1940), and the commander of a newly created B-17 Flying Fortress unit, the 305th Bomb Group. He took this unit to England in October 1942 as part of the Eighth Air Force, and led it in combat until May 1943, notably helping to develop the combat box formation. In September 1943, he became the first commander of the newly formed 3rd Air Division. He personally led several dangerous missions, including the Regensburg section of the Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission of August 17, 1943. In that mission, he led 146 B-17s to Regensburg, Germany, beyond the range of escorting fighters, and, after bombing, continued on to bases in North Africa, losing 24 bombers in the process.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: The heavy losses in veteran crews on this and subsequent deep penetration missions in the autumn of 1943 led the Eighth Air Force to limit missions to targets within escort range. Finally, with the deployment in the European theater of the P-51 Mustang in January 1944, the Eighth Air Force gained an escort fighter with range to match the bombers.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: In a discussion of a report into high abort rates in bomber missions during World War II, which Robert McNamara suspected was because of pilot cowardice, McNamara described LeMay's character:


title: Curtis LeMay

text: In August 1944, LeMay transferred to the China-Burma-India theater and directed first the XX Bomber Command in China and then the XXI Bomber Command in the Pacific. LeMay was later placed in charge of all strategic air operations against the Japanese home islands.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay soon concluded that the techniques and tactics developed for use in Europe against the Luftwaffe were unsuitable against Japan. His Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers flying from China were dropping their bombs near their targets only 5% of the time. Operational losses of aircraft and crews were unacceptably high owing to Japanese daylight air defenses and continuing mechanical problems with the B-29. In January 1945, LeMay was transferred from China to relieve Brigadier General Haywood S. Hansell as commander of the XXI Bomber Command in the Marianas.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: He became convinced that high-altitude precision bombing would be ineffective, given the usually cloudy weather over Japan. Furthermore, bombs dropped from the B-29s at high altitude (above ) were often blown off of their trajectories by a consistently powerful jet stream over the Japanese home islands, which dramatically reduced the effectiveness of the high-altitude raids. Because Japanese air defenses made daytime bombing below jet stream-affected altitudes too perilous, LeMay finally switched to low-altitude nighttime incendiary attacks on Japanese targets, a tactic senior commanders had been advocating for some time. Japanese cities were largely constructed of combustible materials such as wood and paper. Precision high-altitude daylight bombing was ordered to proceed only when weather permitted or when specific critical targets were not vulnerable to area bombing.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay commanded subsequent B-29 Superfortress combat operations against Japan, including massive incendiary attacks on 67 Japanese cities and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This included the firebombing of Tokyo known in official documents as the "Operation Meetinghouse" air raid on the night of March 9–10, 1945 which proved to be the single most destructive bombing raid of the war. For this first attack, LeMay ordered the defensive guns removed from 325 B-29s, loaded each plane with Model M-47 incendiary clusters, magnesium bombs, white phosphorus bombs, and napalm, and ordered the bombers to fly in streams at over Tokyo. LeMay described Operation Meetinghouse by saying "the US had finally stopped swatting at flies and gone after the manure pile".


title: Curtis LeMay

text: The first pathfinder airplanes arrived over Tokyo just after midnight on March 10 and marked the target area with a flaming "X". In a three-hour period, the main bombing force dropped 1,665 tons of incendiary bombs, killing 100,000 civilians, destroying 250,000 buildings, and incinerating of the city. Aircrews at the tail end of the bomber stream reported that the stench of burned human flesh permeated the aircraft over the target.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Precise figures are not available, but the strategic bombing campaign against Japan, directed by LeMay between March 1945 and the Japanese surrender in August 1945, may have killed more than 500,000 Japanese civilians and left five million homeless. Official estimates from the United States Strategic Bombing Survey put the figures at 220,000 people killed. Some 40% of the built-up areas of 66 cities were destroyed, including much of Japan's war industry.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay was aware of the implication of his orders. "The New York Times" reported at the time, "Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, commander of the B-29s of the entire Marianas area, declared that if the war is shortened by a single day, the attack will have served its purpose". The argument was that it was his duty to carry out the attacks in order to end the war as quickly as possible, sparing further loss of life. He also remarked regarding the morality of the air effort against Japan, "I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal." This opinion was also reported by Robert McNamara in the 2003 documentary "The Fog of War", although after the war the Allies did not prosecute any German or Japanese military personnel for bombing civilian targets.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Presidents Roosevelt and Truman supported LeMay's strategy, referring to an estimate of one million Allied casualties if Japan had to be invaded. Japan had intentionally decentralized 90% of its war-related production into small subcontractor workshops in civilian districts, making remaining Japanese war industry largely immune to conventional precision bombing with high explosives. As the firebombing campaign took effect, Japanese war planners were forced to expend significant resources to relocate vital war industries to remote caves and mountain bunkers, reducing production of war material. As a lieutenant colonel who served under LeMay, Robert McNamara was in charge of evaluating the effectiveness of American bombing missions. Later, McNamara, as United States Secretary of Defense under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, often clashed with LeMay.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay also oversaw Operation Starvation, an aerial mining operation against Japanese waterways and ports that disrupted Japanese shipping and logistics. Although his superiors were unsupportive of this naval objective, LeMay gave it a high priority by assigning the entire 313th Bombardment Wing (four groups, about 160 airplanes) to the task. Aerial mining supplemented a tight Allied submarine blockade of the home islands, drastically reducing Japan's ability to supply its overseas forces to the point that postwar analysis concluded that it could have defeated Japan on its own had it begun earlier.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay piloted one of three specially modified B-29s flying from Japan to the U.S. in September 1945, in the process breaking several aviation records, including the greatest USAAF takeoff weight, the longest USAAF non-stop flight, and the first ever non-stop Japan–Chicago flight. One of the pilots was of higher rank: Lieutenant General Barney M. Giles. The other two aircraft used up more fuel than LeMay's in fighting headwinds, and they could not fly to Washington, D.C., the original goal. Their pilots landed in Chicago to refuel. LeMay's aircraft had sufficient fuel to reach Washington, but he was directed by the War Department to join the others by refueling at Chicago.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: After World War II, LeMay was briefly transferred to The Pentagon as deputy chief of Air Staff for Research & Development. In 1947, he returned to Europe as commander of USAF Europe, heading operations for the Berlin Airlift in 1948 in the face of a blockade by the Soviet Union and its satellite states that threatened to starve the civilian population of the Western occupation zones of Berlin. Under LeMay's direction, Douglas C-54 Skymasters that could each carry 10 tons of cargo began supplying the city on July 1. By the fall, the airlift was bringing in an average of 5,000 tons of supplies a day with 500 daily flights. The airlift continued for 11 months, with 213,000 flights operated by six countries bringing in 1.7 million tons of food and fuel to Berlin. Faced with the failure of its blockade, the Soviet Union relented and reopened land corridors to the West. Though LeMay is sometimes publicly credited with the success of the Berlin Airlift, it was, in fact, instigated by General Lucius D. Clay when General Clay called LeMay about the problem. LeMay initially started flying supplies into Berlin, but then decided that it was a job for a logistics expert and he found that person in Lt. General William H. Tunner, who took over the operational end of the Berlin Airlift.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: In 1948, he returned to the U.S. to head the Strategic Air Command (SAC) at Offutt Air Force Base, replacing Gen George Kenney. When LeMay took over command of SAC, it consisted of little more than a few understaffed B-29 bombardment groups left over from World War II. Less than half of the available aircraft were operational, and the crews were undertrained. Base and aircraft security standards were minimal. Upon inspecting a SAC hangar full of US nuclear strategic bombers, LeMay found a single Air Force sentry on duty, unarmed. After ordering a mock bombing exercise on Dayton, Ohio, LeMay was shocked to learn that most of the strategic bombers assigned to the mission missed their targets by one mile or more. "We didn't have one crew, not one crew, in the entire command who could do a professional job", noted LeMay.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: A meeting in November 1948, with Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg, found the two men agreeing the primary mission of SAC should be the capability of delivering 80% of the nation's atomic bombs in one mission. At the Dualism Conference in December 1948, the Air Force high command rallied behind LeMay's position that the service's highest priority was to deliver the SAC atomic offensive "in one fell swoop telescoping mass and time". "To LeMay, demolishing everything was how you win a war." Towards this aim, LeMay delivered the first SAC Emergency War Plan in March 1949 which called for dropping 133 atomic bombs on 70 cities in the USSR within 30 days. LeMay predicted that World War III would last no longer than 30 days. Air power strategists called this type of pre-emptive strike "killing a nation". However, the Harmon committee released their unanimous report two months later stating such an attack would not end a war with the Soviets and their industry would quickly recover. This committee had been specifically created by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to study the effects of a massive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, within weeks, an ad hoc Joint Chiefs committee recommended tripling America's nuclear arsenal, and Chief of Staff Vandenberg called for enough bombs to attack 220 targets, up from the previous 70.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Upon receiving his fourth star in 1951 at age 44, LeMay became the youngest American four-star general since Ulysses S. Grant. He would also become the longest serving person in that rank in American military history.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: In 1954 LeMay remarked to pilot Hal Austin, whose plane had been damaged by a MiG-17 while on a reconnaissance mission over the Soviet Union, "Well, maybe if we do this overflight right, we can get World War III started". Hal Austin assumed that LeMay was joking, but years later, after LeMay retired, Austin saw him again and "brought up the subject of the mission we had flown. And he remembered it like it was yesterday. We chatted about it a little bit. His comment again was, 'Well, we'd have been a hell of a lot better off if we'd got World War III started in those days.'"


title: Curtis LeMay

text: In 1956 and 1957 LeMay implemented tests of 24-hour bomber and tanker alerts, keeping some bomber forces ready at all times. LeMay headed SAC until 1957, overseeing its transformation into a modern, efficient, all-jet force. LeMay's tenure was the longest over an American military command in nearly 100 years.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay was instrumental in SAC's acquisition of a large fleet of new strategic bombers, establishment of a vast aerial refueling system, the formation of many new units and bases, development of a strategic ballistic missile force, and establishment of a strict command and control system with an unprecedented readiness capability. All of this was protected by a greatly enhanced and modernized security force, the Strategic Air Command Elite Guard. LeMay insisted on rigorous training and very high standards of performance for all SAC personnel, be they officers, enlisted men, aircrews, mechanics, or administrative staff, and reportedly commented, "I have neither the time nor the inclination to differentiate between the incompetent and the merely unfortunate".


title: Curtis LeMay

text: A famous legend often used by SAC flight crews to illustrate LeMay's command style concerned his famous ever-present cigar. In the first known published account of the story, "Life" magazine reporter Ernest Havemann related that LeMay once took the co-pilot's seat of a SAC bomber to observe the mission, complete with lit cigar. When asked by the pilot to put the cigar out, LeMay demanded to know why. When the pilot explained that fumes inside the fuselage could ignite the airplane, LeMay reportedly growled, "It wouldn't dare". The incident was used as the basis for a fictional scene in the 1955 film "Strategic Air Command". In his highly controversial and factually disputed memoir "War's End", Major General Charles Sweeney related an alleged 1944 incident that may have been the basis for the "It wouldn't dare" comment.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Despite his uncompromising attitude regarding performance of duty, LeMay was also known for his concern for the physical well-being and comfort of his men. LeMay found ways to encourage morale, individual performance, and the reenlistment rate through a number of means: encouraging off-duty group recreational activities, instituting spot promotions based on performance, and authorizing special uniforms, training, equipment, and allowances for ground personnel as well as flight crews.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: On LeMay's departure, SAC was composed of 224,000 airmen, close to 2,000 heavy bombers, and nearly 800 tanker aircraft.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay was appointed Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force in July 1957, serving until 1961.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Following service as USAF Vice Chief of Staff (1957–1961), LeMay was made the fifth Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force on the retirement of Gen Thomas White. His belief in the efficacy of strategic air campaigns over tactical strikes and ground support operations became Air Force policy during his tenure as chief of staff.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: As Chief of Staff, LeMay clashed repeatedly with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Air Force Secretary Eugene Zuckert, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Maxwell Taylor. At the time, budget constraints and successive nuclear war fighting strategies had left the armed forces in a state of flux. Each of the armed forces had gradually jettisoned realistic appraisals of future conflicts in favor of developing its own separate nuclear and nonnuclear capabilities. At the height of this struggle, the U.S. Army had even reorganized its combat divisions to fight land wars on irradiated nuclear battlefields, developing short-range atomic cannon and mortars in order to win appropriations. The United States Navy in turn proposed delivering strategic nuclear weapons from supercarriers intended to sail into range of the Soviet air defense forces. Of all these various schemes, only LeMay's command structure of SAC survived complete reorganization in the changing reality of Cold War-era conflicts.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay was not an enthusiast of the ICBM program, considering ballistic missiles to be little more than toys and no substitute for the strategic nuclear bomber force.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Though LeMay lost significant appropriation battles for the Skybolt ALBM and the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress replacement, the North American XB-70 Valkyrie, he was largely successful at expanding Air Force budgets. Despite LeMay's disdain for missiles, he did strongly support the use of military space programs to perform satellite reconnaissance and gather electronic intelligence. For comparison, the US Army and Navy frequently suffered budgetary cutbacks and program cancellations by Congress and Secretary McNamara.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, LeMay clashed again with U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Defense Secretary McNamara, arguing that he should be allowed to bomb nuclear missile sites in Cuba. He opposed the naval blockade and, after the end of the crisis, suggested that Cuba be invaded anyway, even after the Soviets agreed to withdraw their missiles. Kennedy refused LeMay's requests, and the naval blockade was successful.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: The memorandum from LeMay, Chief of Staff, USAF, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, January 4, 1964, illustrates LeMay's reasons for keeping bomber forces alongside ballistic missiles: "It is important to recognize, however, that ballistic missile forces represent both the U.S. and Soviet potential for strategic nuclear warfare at the highest, most indiscriminate level, and at a level least susceptible to control. The employment of these weapons in lower level conflict would be likely to escalate the situation, uncontrollably, to an intensity which could be vastly disproportionate to the original aggravation. The use of ICBMs and SLBMs is not, therefore, a rational or credible response to provocations which, although serious, are still less than an immediate threat to national survival. For this reason, among others, I consider that the national security will continue to require the flexibility, responsiveness, and discrimination of manned strategic weapon systems throughout the range of cold, limited, and general war".


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay's dislike for tactical aircraft and training backfired in the low-intensity conflict of Vietnam, where existing Air Force fighter aircraft and standard attack profiles proved incapable of carrying out sustained tactical bombing campaigns in the face of hostile North Vietnamese antiaircraft defenses. LeMay said, "Flying fighters is fun. Flying bombers is important". Aircraft losses on tactical attack missions soared, and Air Force commanders soon realized that their large, missile-armed jet fighters were exceedingly vulnerable not only to antiaircraft shells and missiles but also to cannon-armed, maneuverable Soviet fighters.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay advocated a sustained strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnamese cities, harbors, ports, shipping, and other strategic targets. His advice was ignored. Instead, an incremental policy was implemented that focused on limited interdiction bombing of fluid enemy supply corridors in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. This limited campaign failed to destroy significant quantities of enemy war supplies or diminish enemy ambitions. Bombing limitations were imposed by President Lyndon Johnson for geopolitical reasons, as he surmised that bombing Soviet and Chinese ships in port and killing Soviet advisers would bring the Soviets and Chinese more directly into the war.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: In his 1965 autobiography (co-written with MacKinlay Kantor), LeMay is quoted as saying his response to North Vietnam would be to demand that "they've got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression, or we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age. And we would shove them back into the Stone Age with Air power or Naval power—not with ground forces".


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay subsequently rejected misquotes of the famous "Stone Age" quote. Later, in a "Washington Post" interview LeMay said that "I never said we should bomb them back to the Stone Age. I said we had the capability to do it. I want to save lives on both sides". Etymologyst Barry Popik cites multiple sources (including interviews with LeMay) for various versions of both quotes from LeMay. Nevertheless, the "should" quote remained part of the LeMay legend, and remains widely attributed to him ever after.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Some military historians have argued that LeMay's theories were eventually proven correct. Near the war's end in December 1972, President Richard Nixon ordered Operation Linebacker II, a high-intensity Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps aerial bombing campaign, which included hundreds of B-52 bombers that struck previously untouched North Vietnamese strategic targets, including heavy populated areas in Hanoi and Haiphong. Linebacker II was followed by renewed negotiations that led to the Paris Peace Agreement, appearing to support the claim. However, consideration must be given to significant differences in terms of both military objectives and geopolitical realities between 1968 and 1972, including the impact of Nixon's recognition and exploitation of the Sino-Soviet split to gain a "free hand" in Vietnam and the shift of Communist opposition from an organic insurgency (the Viet Cong) to a conventional mechanized offensive that was by its nature more reliant on industrial output and traditional logistics. In effect, Johnson and Nixon were waging two different wars.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Because of his unrelenting opposition to the Johnson administration's Vietnam policy and what was widely perceived as his hostility to Robert McNamara, LeMay was essentially forced into retirement in February 1965. Moving to California, he was approached by conservatives to challenge moderate Republican Thomas Kuchel for his seat in the United States Senate in 1968, but he declined.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: For the 1968 presidential election, LeMay originally supported former Republican Vice President Richard Nixon; he turned down two requests by former Alabama Governor George Wallace to join his newly formed American Independent Party, that year, on the grounds that a third-party candidacy might hurt Nixon's chances at the polls. (By coincidence, Wallace had served as a sergeant in a unit commanded by LeMay during World War II before LeMay had Wallace transferred to the 477th Bombardment Group.)


title: Curtis LeMay

text: In 1968 LeMay threw his support to Wallace and became his vice-presidential running mate on the American Independent Party ticket. The campaign saw Wallace's record on racial segregation heavily scrutinized.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Wallace's staff began to consider LeMay to be "politically tone-deaf" as the former Air Force General made several comments at campaign events speculating about the possibility of nuclear war. LeMay's arguments that the American public had a "phobia" of atomic weapons failed to change the perception that some American voters had of the Wallace-LeMay ticket.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: The "bomb them back to the stone age" comment received significant publicity but LeMay disclaimed the comment, saying in a later interview: "I never said we should bomb them back to the Stone Age. I said we had the capability to do it".


title: Curtis LeMay

text: The Wallace-LeMay AIP ticket received 13.5% of the popular vote, higher than most third party candidacies in the US, and carried five states for a total of 46 electoral votes.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay was honored by several countries for his military service. His U.S. military decorations included the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, and the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters. He was also a recipient of the French Légion d'honneur and on December 7, 1964 the Japanese government conferred on him the First Order of Merit with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun. He was elected to the Alfalfa Club in 1957 and served as a general officer for 21 years.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: In 1977, LeMay was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: On June 9, 1934, LeMay married Helen Estelle Maitland (died 1992), with whom he had one child, Patricia Jane LeMay Lodge, known as Janie.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Curtis LeMay was also initiated to the York Rite Freemasonry in the Lakewood Lodge No. 601, Lakewood, Ohio.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay resided in Newport Beach, California starting in 1969. In 1989, he moved to Air Force Village West, a retirement community for former Air Force officers near March Air Force Base in Riverside. He died on October 1, 1990, of complications from a heart attack in the 22nd Strategic Hospital on the grounds of March AFB. He is buried in the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery at Colorado Springs, Colorado.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay was a Heathkit customer and active amateur radio operator and held a succession of call signs; K0GRL, K4FRA, and W6EZV. He held these calls respectively while stationed at Offutt AFB, Washington, D.C. and when he retired in California. K0GRL is still the call sign of the Strategic Air Command Memorial Amateur Radio Club. He was famous for being on the air on amateur bands while flying on board SAC bombers. LeMay became aware that the new single sideband (SSB) technology offered a big advantage over amplitude modulation (AM) for SAC aircraft operating long distances from their bases. In conjunction with Heath engineers and Art Collins (W0CXX) of Collins Radio, he established SSB as the radio standard for SAC bombers in 1957.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay was also a sports car owner and enthusiast (he owned an Allard J2); as the "SAC era" began to wind down, LeMay loaned out facilities of SAC bases for use by the Sports Car Club of America, as the era of early street races began to die out. He was awarded the Woolf Barnato Award, SCCA's highest award, for contributions to the Club, in 1954. In November 2006, it was announced that LeMay would be one of the inductees into the SCCA Hall of Fame in 2007.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: On March 13, 2010, LeMay was named the class exemplar for the United States Air Force Academy class of 2013.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: In 1964, LeMay became one of the founding board members of Executive Jet Aviation (EJA) (now called NetJets), along with fellow USAF generals Paul Tibbets and Olbert Lassiter, Washington lawyer and former military pilot Bruce Sundlun, and entertainers James Stewart and Arthur Godfrey.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Judo's resurgence after the war was due primarily to two individuals, Kyuzo Mifune and Curtis LeMay. The pre-war death of Jigorō Kanō ("the father of judo"), wartime demands on the Japanese, their surrender, postwar occupation, and the martial-arts ban all contributed to a time of uncertainty for judo. As assistant to General Douglas MacArthur during the occupation of Japan, LeMay made practicing judo a routine part of Air Force tours of duty in Japan. Many Americans brought home stories of a "tiny old man" (Mifune) throwing down healthy, young men without any apparent effort. LeMay became a promoter of judo training and provided political support for judo in the early years after the war. For this, he was awarded the license of "Shihan". In addition, LeMay promoted judo within the armed forces of the United States.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay held the following ranks over the course of his Air Force career. LeMay's first contact with military service occurred in September 1924 when he enrolled as a student in the Army ROTC program at Ohio State University. By his senior year, LeMay was listed on the ROTC rolls as a "cadet lieutenant colonel". On June 14, 1928, the summer before the start of his senior year, LeMay accepted a commission as a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery Reserve of the U.S. Army. In September 1928, LeMay was approached by the Ohio National Guard and asked to accept a state commission, also as a second lieutenant, which LeMay accepted.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: On October 12, 1929, LeMay finished his flight training and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps Reserve. This was the third time he had been appointed a second lieutenant in just under two years. He held this reserve commission until June 1930, when he was appointed as a Regular Army officer in the Army Air Corps.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay experienced slow advancement throughout the 1930s, as did most officers of the seniority-driven Regular Army. At the start of 1940 he was promoted to captain after serving nearly eleven years in the lieutenant grades. Beginning in 1941, LeMay began to receive temporary advancements in grade in the expanding Army Air Forces and advanced from captain to brigadier general in less than four years; by 1944, he was a major general in the Army Air Forces. When World War II ended, he was appointed to the permanent rank of brigadier general in the Regular Army and then promoted to permanent major general rank (two star) when the Air Force became its own separate branch of service. LeMay was simultaneously appointed to temporary three star general rank in the Air Force and promoted to the full rank of general, permanent in the Air Force, in 1951. LeMay held this rank until his retirement in 1965.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Curtis LeMay retired from the United States Air Force on February 1, 1965 with the rank of full (four star) general.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: According to letters in LeMay's service record, while he was in command of SAC during the 1950s several petitions were made by Air Force service members to have LeMay promoted to the rank of General of the Air Force (five stars). The Air Force leadership, however, felt that such a promotion would lessen the prestige of this rank, which was seen as a wartime rank to be held only in times of extreme national emergency.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: It is clear that a grateful nation, recognizing the tremendous contributions of the key military and naval leaders in World War II, created these supreme grades as an attempt to accord to these leaders the prestige, the clear-cut leadership, and the emolument of office befitting their service to their country in war. It is the conviction of the Department of the Air Force that this recognition was and is appropriate. Moreover, appointments to this grade during periods other than war would carry the unavoidable connotation of downgrading of those officers so honored in World War II.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: Thus, no serious effort was ever made to promote LeMay to the rank of General of the Air Force, and the matter was eventually dropped after his retirement from active service in 1965.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: LeMay received recognition for his work from thirteen countries, receiving two badges and thirty-two different medals and decorations.


title: Curtis LeMay

text: According to Michael S. Sherry, "Few American military officers of this century have been more feared, reviled, and ridiculed than Curtis E. LeMay." According to Fred Kaplan:"Dr. Strangelove", Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film about nuclear-war plans run amok, is widely heralded as one of the greatest satires in American political or movie history. ... It was no secret—it would have been obvious to many viewers in 1964—that General Ripper looked a lot like Curtis LeMay, the cigar-chomping, gruff-talking general."


title: Curtis LeMay

text: University of Notre Dame Professor Dan Lindley points out parallels between LeMay and the characters of Buck Turgidson and Jack Ripper in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove", including close paraphrasing of statements by LeMay.


title: Adam Curtis

text: Curtis began his career as a conventional documentary producer for the BBC throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The release of "Pandora's Box" (1992) marked the introduction of Curtis's distinctive presentation that uses collage to explore aspects of sociology, psychology, philosophy and political history. His style has been described as involving, "whiplash digressions, menacing atmospherics and arpeggiated scores, and the near-psychedelic compilation of archival footage", narrated by Curtis himself with "patrician economy and assertion". His films have been awarded with four BAFTAs.


title: Adam Curtis

text: Adam Curtis was born in Dartford in Kent, and raised in nearby Platt. His father was Martin Curtis (1917–2002), a cinematographer with a socialist background.


title: Adam Curtis

text: Curtis won a county scholarship and attended the Sevenoaks School. It was there that an influential art teacher introduced him to the work of Robert Rauschenberg.


title: Adam Curtis

text: Curtis completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in human sciences at Mansfield College, Oxford. He began a PhD and taught in politics, but ultimately became disillusioned with academia and decided to leave the profession.


title: Adam Curtis

text: Curtis applied to the BBC and was hired to make a film for one of its training courses, comparing designer clothes in music videos to the design of weapons. He was subsequently given a post on "That's Life!", a magazine series that juxtaposed hard-hitting investigations and light-hearted content. He was a film director on "Out of Court", a BBC Two legal series, from 1980 until 1982.


title: Adam Curtis

text: Curtis is inspired by the sociologist Max Weber, who, he argues, challenged the "crude, left-wing, vulgar Marxism that says that everything happens because of economic forces within society". Of his general political outlook, Curtis has also remarked:


title: Adam Curtis

text: Curtis cites the "U.S.A. trilogy", a series of three novels by John Dos Passos that he first read when he was thirteen, as the greatest influence on his work:


title: Adam Curtis

text: Other creative influences are Robert Rauschenberg and Émile Zola. Curtis makes extensive use of archive footage in his documentaries. He has acknowledged the influence of recordings made by Erik Durschmied and is "constantly using his stuff in my films".


title: Adam Curtis

text: Discussing his process in an interview with fellow documentary-maker Jon Ronson for "Vice", Curtis said his extensive work with footage acquired from the BBC Archives is often led by 'instinct and imagination', with the aim of creating 'a mood that gives power and force to the story I'm telling'.


title: Adam Curtis

text: Instead of specially composed music, which Curtis has said "creates a sort of monoculture", he uses tracks from a variety of genres, decades, and countries, as well as sound effects that he discovers on old tapes.


title: Adam Curtis

text: According to a profile of Curtis by Tim Adams, published in "The Observer": "If there has been a theme in Curtis's work ... it has been to look at how different elites have tried to impose an ideology on their times, and the tragicomic consequences of those attempts".


title: Adam Curtis

text: In 2005, Curtis received the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival. In 2006, he was given the Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Creative Contribution to Television at the British Academy Television Awards. In 2009, the Sheffield International Documentary Festival gave Curtis the Inspiration Award for inspiring viewers and other documentary filmmakers. In 2015, he was awarded the True Vision Award by the True/False Film Fest.


title: Adam Curtis

text: Curtis administered a blog subtitled 'The Medium and the Message' hosted by the BBC and updated between 2009 and 2016.


title: Bud Spencer

text: Carlo Pedersoli (31 October 1929 – 27 June 2016), known professionally as Bud Spencer, was an Italian actor, professional swimmer and water polo player. He was known for action-comedy and Spaghetti Western roles with his long-time film partner and friend Terence Hill. The duo "garnered world acclaim and attracted millions to theater seats". Spencer and Hill appeared in 18 films together.


title: Bud Spencer

text: In his youth, Bud Spencer was a successful athlete and swimmer for the Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Oro. He obtained a law degree and registered several patents. Spencer also became a certified commercial airline and helicopter pilot, and supported and funded many children's charities, including the Spencer Scholarship Fund.


title: Bud Spencer

text: Son of Alessandro Pedersoli, Lombards descent, and Rosa Facchetti from Chiari, Lombardy, Carlo Pedersoli was born on 31 October 1929 in Santa Lucia, a historical "rione" in Naples and in the same building as the writer Luciano De Crescenzo. He played several sports and showed an aptitude for swimming, winning prizes. De Crescenzo was a classmate of his. In 1940, due to his father's work, he moved to Rome, where he attended high school and joined a swimming club. He finished school before his seventeenth birthday with the highest marks and enrolled at Sapienza University of Rome, where he studied chemistry. In 1947, the family moved to South America and Pedersoli discontinued his studies. From 1947 to 1949, he worked in the Italian consulate in Recife, Brazil, where he learned to speak fluent Portuguese.


title: Bud Spencer

text: Pedersoli returned to Italy in 1949 to play water polo in Rome for Società Sportiva Lazio Nuoto and won the Italian swimming championships in freestyle and mixed relay teams. As a professional swimmer in his youth, Spencer was the first Italian to swim the 100 m freestyle in less than one minute when on 19 September 1950 he swam the distance in 59.5 s in Salsomaggiore. In 1949 he made his international debut and a year later he was called up for the European championships in Vienna where he swam in two finals, finishing fifth in the 100 m and fourth in the relay 4 × 200 m.


title: Bud Spencer

text: In the 1951 Mediterranean Games in Alexandria (Egypt), he won a silver medal in the same 100 m freestyle event. Pedersoli participated in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, reaching the semi-finals in the 100 m freestyle (58.8 s heats, 58.9 s semi final). Four years later, in Melbourne, he also entered the semi-finals in the same category (58.5 s heat, 59.0 s semi final).


title: Bud Spencer

text: As a water polo player, he won the Italian Championship in 1954 with S.S. Lazio and the gold medal at 1955 Mediterranean Games in Barcelona with the Italian national team. His swimming career ended abruptly in 1957.


title: Bud Spencer

text: On 17 January 2005, he was awarded the "Caimano d'oro" (Gold Caiman) by the Italian Swimming Federation. On 24 January 2007, he received swimming and water polo coach diplomas from the Italian Swimming Federation's president Paolo Barelli.


title: Bud Spencer

text: Pedersoli's first film role was in "Quel fantasma di mio marito", an Italian comedy short released in 1950. In 1951 he played a member of the Praetorian Guard in "Quo Vadis", an epic film shot in Italy made by MGM and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. During the 1950s and early 1960s, Spencer appeared playing minor parts in Italian including Mario Monicelli's movie "A Hero of Our Times", with Alberto Sordi and the 1954 war film "Human Torpedoes" with Raf Vallone.


title: Bud Spencer

text: In 1960, after the Summer Olympic games, Pedersoli married Maria Amato, daughter of Italian film producer Giuseppe Amato. He signed a contract with RCA Records to write lyrics for singers such as Ornella Vanoni and Nico Fidenco and soundtracks. In the following years, his son Giuseppe was born (1961), followed by Cristiana (1962), his contract with RCA expired and his father-in-law died (1964). Pedersoli became a producer of documentaries for the national public broadcasting company RAI.


title: Bud Spencer

text: In 1967, film director Giuseppe Colizzi offered him a role in "God Forgives... I Don't!". On the set Pedersoli met Mario Girotti (Terence Hill). Although Pedersoli had met Girotti before on the set of "Hannibal" in 1959, this was the moment they went on to become a film duo. The film director asked the two actors to change their names, deeming them to be too Italian-sounding for a Western movie: Pedersoli chose Bud Spencer, with Bud inspired by Budweiser beer and Spencer by the actor Spencer Tracy.


title: Bud Spencer

text: While Hill's characters were agile and youthful, Spencer always played the "phlegmatic, grumpy strong-arm man with a blessed, naive child's laughter and a golden heart". Overall, Hill and Spencer worked together on 18 films, including (using their most common U.S. titles) the Spaghetti Westerns "They Call Me Trinity" (1970) and its sequel, "Trinity Is Still My Name" (1971). Their last teaming, "Troublemakers" (1994), was also in this genre.


title: Bud Spencer

text: Many of these have alternative titles, depending upon the country and distributor. Some have longer Italian versions that were edited for their release abroad. These films gathered popularity for both actors, especially throughout much of Europe and parts of Asia and South America. Because of the duo's huge popularity, many producers wanted to exploit their likeness with visually similar duos. Most notable were Paul L. Smith (adopted name Adam Eden in later years, sometimes credited Anam Eden) and Michael Coby (real name Antonio Cantafora) with at least 6 movies in "Bud & Terence"-fashion from 1973 to 1977, and István Bujtor with 6 movies in "Piedone"-fashion from 1981 to 2008.


title: Bud Spencer

text: In the Italian versions of his films, Spencer was generally dubbed by actor Glauco Onorato due to his thick Naples accent, although he was voiced by Sergio Fiorentini in "Troublemakers", "To the Limit" (1997) and the "Extralarge" series (1991–93). For English dubs, Spencer was usually voiced by Robert Sommer, Edward Mannix or Richard McNamara, although he occasionally provided his own voice.


title: Bud Spencer

text: Spencer wrote the complete or partial screenplay for some of his movies. His feature film career slowed down after 1983, shifting more toward television. In the 1990s, he acted in the television action-drama "Extralarge". His autobiography was published in 2011. In addition, Spencer also published a recipe book including his favorite dishes.


title: Bud Spencer

text: In 2005, he entered politics, unsuccessfully standing as regional councilor in Lazio for the Forza Italia party. Spencer stated: "In my life, I've done everything. There are only three things I haven't been – a ballet dancer, a jockey and a politician. Given that the first two jobs are out of the question, I'll throw myself into politics." The opposition criticized him for engaging in "politica spettacolo" ("showbiz politics").


title: Bud Spencer

text: Spencer married Maria Amato in 1960, with whom he had three children: Giuseppe (1961), Cristiana (1962) and Diamante (1972). After appearing in "Più forte, ragazzi!", Spencer became a jet airplane and helicopter pilot. He founded Mistral Air in 1984, an air-mail company that also transports pilgrims, but later sold it to Poste Italiane. Spencer's grandson, Carlo Pedersoli, Jr., is a mixed martial arts fighter currently signed the Ultimate Fighting Championship.


title: Bud Spencer

text: Spencer died aged 86 on 27 June 2016 in Rome. Spencer's son Giuseppe Pedersoli stated that his father "died without pain in presence of his family, and his last word was 'grazie'". He was buried at the Campo Verano cemetery in Rome.


title: Bud Spencer

text: In Hungary, where his films were hugely popular during the communist regime, a larger-than-life-sized bronze statue of Spencer created by sculptor Szandra Tasnádi was unveiled on 11 November 2017 in downtown Budapest, with Spencer's daughter Cristiana in attendance. The statue's pedestal bears the inscription ""Mi sohasem veszekedtünk"" (""We Never Fought""), a quote from Terence Hill's eulogy referring to their long-lasting friend- and partnership.


title: Bud Spencer

text: A beat 'em up video game titled "", closely based on Spencer and Hill's cinematic work, was developed by the Italian firm Trinity Team srls and first published by the German firm Buddy Productions GmbH in 2018.


title: Indila

text: Adila Sedraïa (born 26 June 1984), known as Indila, is a French singer and songwriter. She collaborated with many musicians on vocals and songwriting prior to releasing her first single, "Dernière danse" ("Last Dance"), in November 2013, which reached SNEP Top 2 in France. She released her first album "Mini World" in February 2014.


title: Indila

text: Adila Sedraïa was born on 26 June 1984, in Paris. Her mother was a caregiver, while her grandmother sang at weddings; she has two older sisters. Indila describes herself as a "child of the world" as she is of Indian, Algerian, Egyptian, and Cambodian descent. Prior to her singing career, she worked as a tour guide at the Marché international de Rungis. She explained that her stage name comes from her insatiable love for India.


title: Indila

text: In addition to her native French, Indila has provided vocals in English, including "Dreamin" with Youssoupha and "Bye Bye Sonyé" with DJ Abdel, and sung Hindi-language refrains in "Criminel" by TLF and "Thug mariage" by Rohff.


title: Indila

text: Her meeting with record producer Skalpovich allowed her to enter into the world of rap and eventually collaborations with several French rappers. Indila began her music career around 2009, providing vocals for (among others) "Invitaation" by Vitaa, "Trinité" by L'Algérino, "Thug mariage" by Rohff, "Hiro" by Soprano, and composing "J'ai besoin d'y croire" sung by Admiral T. "Hiro" was her first successful collaboration, reaching number 26 in the charts in France and 27 in Belgium. She continued to collaborate with several other French rappers and DJs over the next three years, including "Poussière d'empire" with Nessbeal, "Criminel" with TLF, "Press pause" with OGB, "Bye Bye Sonyé" with DJ Abdel, "Dreamin" with Youssoupha—which peaked in July 2012 at number 14 in France's SNEP charts—and "Ma Reine" with Axel Tony. She also composed the songs "Plus Haut" by Matt Pokora along with "Avec Toi" by Axel Tony featuring Tunisiano, in which she is credited by her real name "Adila Sedraïa". "Avec toi", which was produced by Skalp, reached number 7 in the charts in France in November 2012.


title: Indila

text: In November 2013, Indila released her first single—"Dernière danse" ("Last Dance"), from the album "Mini World"—which quickly found success. It reached the top 10 of the French charts on 4 January 2014 and reached number 2 on 18 January, where it remained through the week of 22 March. The song remained in the top 200 in France through April 2015, for a total of 77 weeks in the top 200. It was also a success outside France; by the end of February 2014, "Dernière danse" was the number one song on iTunes in Greece and Romania, and the number two song on iTunes in Turkey. The music video for "Dernière danse", released 4 December 2013, reached 100 million YouTube views on 30 July 2014 and has over 800 million views as of .


title: Indila

text: In February 2014, Indila released her first album, "Mini World", which was produced by Skalp. In addition to "Dernière danse", two other singles from the album reached the top-20 in the charts in France: "Tourner dans le vide" ("Spinning in the Emptiness"), which reached number 13, and "S.O.S", which reached number 8. The album was the number 1 best-selling album in France the week of its debut and remained in the top-10 best-selling albums through the week of 11 October. A limited-edition CD/DVD version of "Mini World" was released in November 2014, with two new songs, orchestral versions of "Tourner dans le vide" and "Love Story", an acoustic version of "S.O.S", and videos of live performances of several tracks from the album. A second limited-edition release of "Mini World" in February 2015 contained the ten tracks from the original release, the two new songs from the first limited edition, and another new song. "Mini World" found success both in France, where it was the third-best-selling album of 2014, and outside the country, where it was the best-seller of 2014 in Poland and second-best-seller of 2014 in Belgium.


title: Indila

text: In October 2014, Indila won the MTV Europe Music Award for Best French Artist of 2014. She won Best New Album of the Year award (for "Mini World") at the 30th "Victoires de la Musique" in February 2015. Indila was among the ten artists to receive the European Border Breakers Award in 2015.


title: Indila

text: On 23 August 2019, Indila returned with her new song "Parle à ta tête". On 14 November, the music video for the song was released.


title: Indila

text: She has cited Enrico Macias as her first musical influence, with others influences being Michael Jackson, Ismaël Lo, Buika, Warda, Brel, Lata Mangeshkar.


title: Indila

text: Besides songs appearing in "Mini World" and "Parle à ta tête", Indila is credited as a songwriter in the following songs:


title: Pong

text: Pong is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but Bushnell and Atari co-founder Ted Dabney were surprised by the quality of Alcorn's work and decided to manufacture the game. Bushnell based the game's concept on an electronic ping-pong game included in the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console. In response, Magnavox later sued Atari for patent infringement.


title: Pong

text: "Pong" was the first commercially successful video game, and it helped to establish the video game industry along with the Magnavox Odyssey. Soon after its release, several companies began producing games that closely mimicked its gameplay. Eventually, Atari's competitors released new types of video games that deviated from "Pong"'s original format to varying degrees, and this, in turn, led Atari to encourage its staff to move beyond "Pong" and produce more innovative games themselves.


title: Pong

text: Atari released several sequels to "Pong" that built upon the original's gameplay by adding new features. During the 1975 Christmas season, Atari released a home version of "Pong" exclusively through Sears retail stores. The home version was also a commercial success and led to numerous clones. The game was remade on numerous home and portable platforms following its release. "Pong" is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., due to its cultural impact.


title: Pong

text: "Pong" is a two-dimensional sports game that simulates table tennis. The player controls an in-game paddle by moving it vertically across the left or right side of the screen. They can compete against another player controlling a second paddle on the opposing side. Players use the paddles to hit a ball back and forth. The goal is for each player to reach eleven points before the opponent; points are earned when one fails to return the ball to the other.


title: Pong

text: "Pong" was the first game developed by Atari. After producing "Computer Space", Bushnell decided to form a company to produce more games by licensing ideas to other companies. The first contract was with Bally Manufacturing Corporation for a driving game. Soon after the founding, Bushnell hired Allan Alcorn because of his experience with electrical engineering and computer science; Bushnell and Dabney also had previously worked with him at Ampex. Prior to working at Atari, Alcorn had no experience with video games. Bushnell had originally planned to develop a driving video game, influenced by Chicago Coin's "Speedway" (1969) which at the time was the biggest-selling electro-mechanical game at his amusement arcade. However, Bushnell had concerns that it might be too complicated for Alcorn's first game.


title: Pong

text: To acclimate Alcorn to creating games, Bushnell gave him a project secretly meant to be a warm-up exercise. Bushnell told Alcorn that he had a contract with General Electric for a product, and asked Alcorn to create a simple game with one moving spot, two paddles, and digits for score keeping. In 2011, Bushnell stated that the game was inspired by previous versions of electronic tennis he had played before; Bushnell played a version on a PDP-1 computer in 1964 while attending college. However, Alcorn has claimed it was in direct response to Bushnell's viewing of the Magnavox Odyssey's Tennis game. In May 1972, Bushnell had visited the Magnavox Profit Caravan in Burlingame, California where he played the Magnavox Odyssey demonstration, specifically the table tennis game. Though he thought the game lacked quality, seeing it prompted Bushnell to assign the project to Alcorn.


title: Pong

text: Alcorn first examined Bushnell's schematics for "Computer Space", but found them to be illegible. He went on to create his own designs based on his knowledge of transistor–transistor logic (TTL) and Bushnell's game. Feeling the basic game was too boring, Alcorn added features to give the game more appeal. He divided the paddle into eight segments to change the ball's angle of return. For example, the center segments return the ball at a 90° angle in relation to the paddle, while the outer segments return the ball at smaller angles. He also made the ball accelerate the longer it remained in play; missing the ball reset the speed. Another feature was that the in-game paddles were unable to reach the top of the screen. This was caused by a simple circuit that had an inherent defect. Instead of dedicating time to fixing the defect, Alcorn decided it gave the game more difficulty and helped limit the time the game could be played; he imagined two skilled players being able to play forever otherwise.


title: Pong

text: Three months into development, Bushnell told Alcorn he wanted the game to feature realistic sound effects and a roaring crowd. Dabney wanted the game to "boo" and "hiss" when a player lost a round. Alcorn had limited space available for the necessary electronics and was unaware of how to create such sounds with digital circuits. After inspecting the sync generator, he discovered that it could generate different tones and used those for the game's sound effects. To construct the prototype, Alcorn purchased a $75 Hitachi black-and-white television set from a local store, placed it into a wooden cabinet, and soldered the wires into boards to create the necessary circuitry. The prototype impressed Bushnell and Dabney so much that they felt it could be a profitable product and decided to test its marketability.


title: Pong

text: In August 1972, Bushnell and Alcorn installed the "Pong" prototype at a local bar, Andy Capp's Tavern. They selected the bar because of their good working relation with the bar's owner and manager, Bill Gaddis; Atari supplied pinball machines to Gaddis. Bushnell and Alcorn placed the prototype on one of the tables near the other entertainment machines: a jukebox, pinball machines, and "Computer Space". The game was well received the first night and its popularity continued to grow over the next one and a half weeks. Bushnell then went on a business trip to Chicago to demonstrate "Pong" to executives at Bally and Midway Manufacturing; he intended to use "Pong" to fulfill his contract with Bally, rather than the driving game. A few days later, the prototype began exhibiting technical issues and Gaddis contacted Alcorn to fix it. Upon inspecting the machine, Alcorn discovered that the problem was that the coin mechanism was overflowing with quarters.


title: Pong

text: After hearing about the game's success, Bushnell decided there would be more profit for Atari to manufacture the game rather than license it, but the interest of Bally and Midway had already been piqued. Bushnell decided to inform each of the two groups that the other was uninterested—Bushnell told the Bally executives that the Midway executives did not want it and vice versa—to preserve the relationships for future dealings. Upon hearing Bushnell's comment, the two groups declined his offer. Bushnell had difficulty finding financial backing for "Pong"; banks viewed it as a variant of pinball, which at the time the general public associated with the Mafia. Atari eventually obtained a line of credit from Wells Fargo that it used to expand its facilities to house an assembly line. The company announced "Pong" on 29 November 1972. Management sought assembly workers at the local unemployment office, but was unable to keep up with demand. The first arcade cabinets produced were assembled very slowly, about ten machines a day, many of which failed quality testing. Atari eventually streamlined the process and began producing the game in greater quantities. By 1973, they began shipping "Pong" to other countries with the aid of foreign partners.


title: Pong

text: In Japan, "Pong" was officially released in November 1973 by Atari Japan, which would later become part of Namco. However, "Pong" had been beaten to the market by two Japanese "Pong" clones released in July 1973: Sega's "Pong Tron" and Taito's "Elepong".


title: Pong

text: After the success of "Pong", Bushnell pushed his employees to create new products. A new electronic technology, the large-scale integration (LSI) chip, had recently become available, which Bushnell believed would "allow pioneering in new" game concepts. Atari began working on the reduction of "Pong" from a large arcade printed circuit board (PCB) down to a small LSI chip for use in a home system. The initial development cost for a game on a single LSI chip was expensive, costing around , but once the chip was developed, it became significantly cheaper to mass-produce the game as well as more difficult to reverse-engineer.


title: Pong

text: In 1974, Atari engineer Harold Lee proposed a home version of "Pong" that would connect to a television: "Home Pong". The system began development under the codename "Darlene", named after an employee at Atari. Alcorn worked with Lee to develop the designs and prototype and based them on the same digital technology used in their arcade games. The two worked in shifts to save time and money; Lee worked on the design's logic during the day, while Alcorn debugged the designs in the evenings. After the designs were approved, fellow Atari engineer Bob Brown assisted Alcorn and Lee in building a prototype. The prototype consisted of a device attached to a wooden pedestal containing over a hundred wires, which would eventually be replaced with a single chip designed by Alcorn and Lee; the chip had yet to be tested and built before the prototype was constructed. The chip was finished in the latter half of 1974, and was, at the time, the highest-performing chip used in a consumer product.


title: Pong

text: Bushnell and Gene Lipkin, Atari's vice-president of sales, approached toy and electronic retailers to sell "Home Pong", but were rejected. Retailers felt the product was too expensive and would not interest consumers. Atari contacted the Sears Sporting Goods department after noticing a Magnavox Odyssey advertisement in the sporting goods section of its catalog. Atari staff discussed the game with a representative, Tom Quinn, who expressed enthusiasm and offered the company an exclusive deal. Believing they could find more favorable terms elsewhere, Atari's executives declined and continued to pursue toy retailers. In January 1975, Atari staff set up a "Home Pong" booth at the American Toy Fair (a trade fair) in New York City, but was unsuccessful in soliciting orders due to high price of the unit.


title: Pong

text: While at the show, they met Quinn again, and, a few days later, set up a meeting with him to obtain a sales order. In order to gain approval from the Sporting Goods department, Quinn suggested Atari demonstrate the game to executives in Chicago. Alcorn and Lipkin traveled to the Sears Tower and, despite a technical complication in connection with an antenna on top of the building which broadcast on the same channel as the game, obtained approval. Bushnell told Quinn he could produce 75,000 units in time for the Christmas season; however, Quinn requested double the amount. Though Bushnell knew Atari lacked the capacity to manufacture 150,000 units, he agreed. Atari acquired a new factory through funding obtained by venture capitalist Don Valentine. Supervised by Jimm Tubb, the factory fulfilled the Sears order. The first units manufactured were branded with Sears' "Tele-Games" name. Atari later released a version under its own brand in 1976.


title: Pong

text: In April 1974 Magnavox filed suit against Atari, Allied Leisure, Bally Midway and Chicago Dynamics. Magnavox argued that Atari had infringed on Sanders Associates' patents relating to the concept of electronic ping-pong based on detailed records Ralph Baer kept of the Odyssey's design process dating back to 1966. Other documents included depositions from witnesses and a signed guest book that demonstrated Bushnell had played the Odyssey's table tennis game prior to releasing "Pong". In response to claims that he saw the Odyssey, Bushnell later stated that, "The fact is that I absolutely did see the Odyssey game and I didn't think it was very clever."


title: Pong

text: After considering his options, Bushnell decided to settle with Magnavox out of court in June 1976. Bushnell's lawyer felt they could win; however, he estimated legal costs of US$1.5 million, which would have exceeded Atari's funds. Magnavox offered Atari an agreement to become a licensee for US$1.5 million payable in eight installments. In addition, Magnavox obtained the right to full information on Atari products publicly announced or released over the next year. Magnavox continued to pursue legal action against the other companies, and proceedings began shortly after Atari's settlement. The first case took place at the district court in Chicago, with Judge John Grady presiding. Magnavox won the suit against the remaining defendants. Atari may have delayed the announcement of the Atari 2600 by a few months to avoid disclosing information about the system under the settlement agreement.


title: Pong

text: The "Pong" arcade games manufactured by Atari were a great success. The prototype was well received by Andy Capp's Tavern patrons; people came to the bar solely to play the game. Following its release, "Pong" consistently earned four times more revenue than other coin-operated machines. Bushnell estimated that the game earned US$35–40 per day (i.e.140–160 plays daily per console at $0.25 per play), which he described as nothing he'd ever seen before in the coin-operated entertainment industry at the time. The game's earning power resulted in an increase in the number of orders Atari received. This provided Atari with a steady source of income; the company sold the machines at three times the cost of production. By 1973, the company had filled 2,500 orders, and, at the end of 1974, sold more than 8,000 units. The arcade cabinets have since become collector's items with the cocktail-table version being the rarest. Soon after the game's successful testing at Andy Capp's Tavern, other companies began visiting the bar to inspect it. Similar games appeared on the market three months later, produced by companies like Ramtek and Nutting Associates. Atari could do little against the competitors as they had not initially filed for patents on the solid state technology used in the game. When the company did file for patents, complications delayed the process. As a result, the market consisted primarily of ""Pong" clones"; author Steven Kent estimated that Atari had produced less than a third of the machines. Bushnell referred to the competitors as "Jackals" because he felt they had an unfair advantage. His solution to competing against them was to produce more innovative games and concepts.


title: Pong

text: "Home Pong" was an instant success following its limited 1975 release through Sears; around 150,000 units were sold that holiday season. The game became Sears' most successful product at the time, which earned Atari a Sears Quality Excellence Award. Atari's own version sold an additional 50,000 units. Similar to the arcade version, several companies released clones to capitalize on the home console's success, many of which continued to produce new consoles and video games. Magnavox re-released their Odyssey system with simplified hardware and new features and, later, released updated versions. Coleco entered the video game market with their Telstar console; it features three "Pong" variants and was also succeeded by newer models. Nintendo released the Color TV Game 6 in 1977, which plays six variations of electronic tennis. The next year, it was followed by an updated version, the Color TV Game 15, which features fifteen variations. The systems were Nintendo's entry into the home video game market and the first to produce themselves—they had previously licensed the Magnavox Odyssey. The dedicated "Pong" consoles and the numerous clones have since become varying levels of rare; Atari's "Pong" consoles are common, while APF Electronics' TV Fun consoles are moderately rare. Prices among collectors, however, vary with rarity; the Sears Tele-Games versions are often cheaper than those with the Atari brand.


title: Pong

text: Several publications consider "Pong" the game that launched the video game industry as a lucrative enterprise. Video game author David Ellis sees the game as the cornerstone of the video game industry's success, and called the arcade game "one of the most historically significant" titles. Kent attributes the "arcade phenomenon" to "Pong" and Atari's games that followed it, and considers the release of the home version the successful beginning of home video game consoles. Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton of Gamasutra referred to the game's release as the start of a new entertainment medium, and commented that its simple, intuitive gameplay made it a success. In 1995, Flux magazine ranked the game 56th on their "Top 100 Video Games." In 1996 "Next Generation" named it one of the "Top 100 Games of All Time", recounting that ""Next Generation" staff ignor[ed] hundreds of thousands of dollars of 32-bit software to play "Pong" for hours when the Genesis version was released." In 1999, "Next Generation" listed "Pong" as number 34 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that, "Despite, or perhaps because of, its simplicity, "Pong" is the ultimate two-player challenge – a test of reaction times and very simple strategy stripped down to its barest essentials." "Entertainment Weekly" named "Pong" one of the top ten games for the Atari 2600 in 2013. Many of the companies that produced their own versions of "Pong" eventually became well known within the industry. Nintendo entered the video game market with clones of "Home Pong". The revenue generated from them—each system sold over a million units—helped the company survive a difficult financial time, and spurred them to pursue video games further. After seeing the success of "Pong", Konami decided to break into the arcade game market and released its first title, "Maze". Its moderate success drove the company to develop more titles. In 2015, The Strong National Museum of Play inducted "Pong" to its World Video Game Hall of Fame.


title: Pong

text: Bushnell felt that "Pong" was especially significant in its role as a social lubricant, since it was multiplayer-only and did not require each player to use more than one hand: "It was very common to have a girl with a quarter in hand pull a guy off a bar stool and say, 'I'd like to play "Pong" and there's nobody to play.' It was a way you could play games, you were sitting shoulder to shoulder, you could talk, you could laugh, you could challenge each other ... As you became better friends, you could put down your beer and hug. You could put your arm around the person. You could play left-handed if you so desired. In fact, there are a lot of people who have come up to me over the years and said, 'I met my wife playing "Pong",' and that's kind of a nice thing to have achieved."


title: Pong

text: Atari remade the game on numerous platforms. In 1977, "Pong" and several variants of the game were featured in "Video Olympics", one of the original release titles for the Atari 2600.


title: Pong

text: "'Pong" has also been included in several Atari compilations on many different platforms, such as "Arcade Classics" on the Sega Genesis, "Atari Classics Evolved" on the PlayStation Portable, "Retro Atari Classics" on the Nintendo DS, and "Atari: 80 Classic Games in One!" for personal computer.


title: Pong

text: Through an agreement with Atari, Bally Gaming and Systems developed a slot machine version of the game.


title: Pong

text: The game was also included as a loading screen minigame on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of "", however the Windows version doesn't include it.


title: Pong

text: Bushnell felt the best way to compete against imitators was to create better products, leading Atari to produce sequels in the years following the original's release: "Pong Doubles", "Super Pong", "Ultra Pong", "Quadrapong", and "Pin-Pong". The sequels feature similar graphics, but include new gameplay elements; for example, "Pong Doubles" allows four players to compete in pairs, while "Quadrapong"—also released by Kee Games as "Elimination"—has them compete against each other in a four-way field. Bushnell also conceptualized a free-to-play version of "Pong" to entertain children in a Doctor's office. He initially titled it "Snoopy Pong" and fashioned the cabinet after Snoopy's doghouse with the character on top, but retitled it to "Puppy Pong" and altered Snoopy to a generic dog to avoid legal action. Bushnell later used the game in his chain of Chuck E. Cheese's restaurants. In 1976, Atari released "Breakout", a single-player variation of "Pong" where the object of the game is to remove bricks from a wall by hitting them with a ball. Like "Pong", "Breakout" was followed by numerous clones that copied the gameplay, such as "Arkanoid", "Alleyway", and "Break 'Em All".


title: Pong

text: A 3D platform game with puzzle and shooter elements was reportedly in development by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar in September 1995 under the title "Pong 2000", as part of their series of arcade game updates for the system and was set to have an original storyline for it, but it was never released.


title: Pong

text: In 1999, Hasbro Interactive released a new title known as "" for home computers and the PlayStation. This game was released as part of a trend within the time period of popular arcade games being remade with 3D graphics and art styles. The game also featured many power-ups.


title: Pong

text: In 2012, Atari celebrated the 40th anniversary of "Pong" by releasing "Pong World" for iOS, which was developed by zGames. In 2020, a new game titled "Pong Quest" was developed by Chequered Ink and released by Atari on Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. A remake of Pong has been announced for release exclusively for the Intellivision Amico.


title: Pong

text: The game is featured in episodes of television series including "That '70s Show", "King of the Hill" and "Saturday Night Live". In 2006, an American Express commercial featured Andy Roddick in a tennis match against the white, in-game paddle. Other video games have also referenced and parodied "Pong"; for example "Neuromancer" for the Commodore 64 and "" for the Xbox 360. The concert event Video Games Live has performed audio from "Pong" as part of a special retro "Classic Arcade Medley". Frank Black's song "Whatever Happened to Pong?" on the album "Teenager of the Year" references the game's elements.


title: Pong

text: Dutch design studio Buro Vormkrijgers created a "Pong"-themed clock as a fun project within their offices. After the studio decided to manufacture it for retail, Atari took legal action in February 2006. The two companies eventually reached an agreement in which Buro Vormkrijgers could produce a limited number under license. In 1999, French artist Pierre Huyghe created an installation titled "Atari Light", in which two people use handheld gaming devices to play "Pong" on an illuminated ceiling. The work was shown at the Venice Biennale in 2001, and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León in 2007. The game was included in the London Barbican Art Gallery's 2002 Game On exhibition meant to showcase the various aspects of video game history, development, and culture.


title: Physiology

text: Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical and physical functions in a living system. According to the classes of organisms, the field can be divided into medical physiology, animal physiology, plant physiology, cell physiology, and comparative physiology.


title: Physiology

text: Central to physiological functioning are biophysical and biochemical processes, homeostatic control mechanisms, and communication between cells. "Physiological state" is the condition of normal function. In contrast, "pathological state" refers to abnormal conditions, including human diseases.


title: Physiology

text: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for exceptional scientific achievements in physiology related to the field of medicine.


title: Physiology

text: Although there are differences between animal, plant, and microbial cells, the basic physiological functions of cells can be divided into the processes of cell division, cell signaling, cell growth, and cell metabolism.


title: Physiology

text: Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning of plants. Closely related fields include plant morphology, plant ecology, phytochemistry, cell biology, genetics, biophysics, and molecular biology. Fundamental processes of plant physiology include photosynthesis, respiration, plant nutrition, tropisms, nastic movements, photoperiodism, photomorphogenesis, circadian rhythms, seed germination, dormancy, and stomata function and transpiration. Absorption of water by roots, production of food in the leaves, and growth of shoots towards light are examples of plant physiology.


title: Physiology

text: Human physiology seeks to understand the mechanisms that work to keep the human body alive and functioning, through scientific enquiry into the nature of mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of humans, their organs, and the cells of which they are composed. The principal level of focus of physiology is at the level of organs and systems within systems. The endocrine and nervous systems play major roles in the reception and transmission of signals that integrate function in animals. Homeostasis is a major aspect with regard to such interactions within plants as well as animals. The biological basis of the study of physiology, integration refers to the overlap of many functions of the systems of the human body, as well as its accompanied form. It is achieved through communication that occurs in a variety of ways, both electrical and chemical.


title: Physiology

text: Changes in physiology can impact the mental functions of individuals. Examples of this would be the effects of certain medications or toxic levels of substances. Change in behavior as a result of these substances is often used to assess the health of individuals.


title: Physiology

text: Much of the foundation of knowledge in human physiology was provided by animal experimentation. Due to the frequent connection between form and function, physiology and anatomy are intrinsically linked and are studied in tandem as part of a medical curriculum.


title: Physiology

text: Involving evolutionary physiology and environmental physiology, comparative physiology considers the diversity of functional characteristics across organisms.


title: Physiology

text: The study of human physiology as a medical field originates in classical Greece, at the time of Hippocrates (late 5th century BC). Outside of Western tradition, early forms of physiology or anatomy can be reconstructed as having been present at around the same time in China, India and elsewhere. Hippocrates incorporated the theory of humorism, which consisted of four basic substances: earth, water, air and fire. Each substance is known for having a corresponding humor: black bile, phlegm, blood, and yellow bile, respectively. Hippocrates also noted some emotional connections to the four humors, on which Galen would later expand. The critical thinking of Aristotle and his emphasis on the relationship between structure and function marked the beginning of physiology in Ancient Greece. Like Hippocrates, Aristotle took to the humoral theory of disease, which also consisted of four primary qualities in life: hot, cold, wet and dry. Galen (–200 AD) was the first to use experiments to probe the functions of the body. Unlike Hippocrates, Galen argued that humoral imbalances can be located in specific organs, including the entire body. His modification of this theory better equipped doctors to make more precise diagnoses. Galen also played off of Hippocrates' idea that emotions were also tied to the humors, and added the notion of temperaments: sanguine corresponds with blood; phlegmatic is tied to phlegm; yellow bile is connected to choleric; and black bile corresponds with melancholy. Galen also saw the human body consisting of three connected systems: the brain and nerves, which are responsible for thoughts and sensations; the heart and arteries, which give life; and the liver and veins, which can be attributed to nutrition and growth. Galen was also the founder of experimental physiology. And for the next 1,400 years, Galenic physiology was a powerful and influential tool in medicine.


title: Physiology

text: Jean Fernel (1497–1558), a French physician, introduced the term "physiology". Galen, Ibn al-Nafis, Michael Servetus, Realdo Colombo, Amato Lusitano and William Harvey, are credited as making important discoveries in the circulation of the blood. Santorio Santorio in 1610s was the first to use a device to measure the pulse rate (the "pulsilogium"), and a thermoscope to measure temperature.


title: Physiology

text: In 1791 Luigi Galvani described the role of electricity in nerves of dissected frogs. In 1811, César Julien Jean Legallois studied respiration in animal dissection and lesions and found the center of respiration in the medulla oblongata. In the same year, Charles Bell finished work on what would later become known as the Bell-Magendie law, which compared functional differences between dorsal and ventral roots of the spinal cord. In 1824, François Magendie described the sensory roots and produced the first evidence of the cerebellum's role in equilibration to complete the Bell-Magendie law.


title: Physiology

text: In the 1820s, the French physiologist Henri Milne-Edwards introduced the notion of physiological division of labor, which allowed to "compare and study living things as if they were machines created by the industry of man." Inspired in the work of Adam Smith, Milne-Edwards wrote that the "body of all living beings, whether animal or plant, resembles a factory ... where the organs, comparable to workers, work incessantly to produce the phenomena that constitute the life of the individual." In more differentiated organisms, the functional labor could be apportioned between different instruments or systems (called by him as "appareils").


title: Physiology

text: In 1858, Joseph Lister studied the cause of blood coagulation and inflammation that resulted after previous injuries and surgical wounds. He later discovered and implemented antiseptics in the operating room, and as a result, decreased death rate from surgery by a substantial amount.


title: Physiology

text: The Physiological Society was founded in London in 1876 as a dining club. The American Physiological Society (APS) is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1887. The Society is, "devoted to fostering education, scientific research, and dissemination of information in the physiological sciences."


title: Physiology

text: In 1891, Ivan Pavlov performed research on "conditional responses" that involved dogs' saliva production in response to a bell and visual stimuli.