title: Q-Force

text: In January 2021 it was reported that Matt Rogers, the host of HBO Max's "Haute Dog", served as a staff writer for the show. It was also reported that Charlie Nagelhout, a 2D artist, would be working as a prop designer at Titmouse on the series. In May 2021, it was reported that non-binary comedian Zackery Alexzander Stephens will be working on the show in some capacity, In June 2021, Gary Cole, David Harbour, Patti Harrison, Laurie Metcalf, Matt Rogers, Wanda Sykes, and Gabe Liedman joined the voice cast. The same month, it was confirmed that Hazy Mills Productions, a company run by Hayes, would be one of the companies producing the series. Fremulon and 3 Arts Entertainment were also reported to be the ones producing the series with the help of Universal Television.


title: Q-Force

text: On June 23, 2021, a 40-second teaser for the series was released. Reuben Baron of CBR noted that those on Twitter claimed that the series had various stereotypes and attacked those behind the show, leading some storyboarders to lock their Twitter accounts. Baron argued that while there were some stereotypical jokes in the trailer, he said that the trailer's "stereotypical gay jokes" center around one of the protagonists, and that some of the responses to one of the characters, Twink, shows "internal prejudices within the gay community." One of the show's animators, Alanna Train, criticized the trailer, saying it did not truly represent the show, and its characters, adding that many queer artists worked on the show itself. Liedman later said, in response to questions about the trailer, that he wanted to make people laugh, and "offer them a few hours of entertainment, rather than wanting to shock audiences." Rogers told The A.V. Club that he didn't think the trailer was 'a great representation of what the show is" and he understands the response, but added he respects the people who worked on the show.


title: Q-Force

text: On August 12, a trailer for the series was released and received more positively than the teaser which had been released in June. Following the trailer's release, Leidman, when interviewed by CBS8, said that it was important to build the story "into an ensemble comedy" and to tell the "story of the wider [LGBTQ] community" with the show.


title: Q-Force

text: Before the show's release, Liedman told Animation Magazine that the show's visuals were inspired by animation in "BoJack Horseman" and "Archer" and called Andrew Goldberg, the showrunner of "Big Mouth", his "teacher and mentor," and praised John Rice, the supervising director of the show, as a key to ensure the show's production and completion. He also called Matt Rogers, the show's "breakout star" and described "The Simpsons" as deeply influencing him. He argued that a "message of acceptance and LGBTQ+ equality and pride" is integrated into the show, which he called "super fun and exciting." In another interview with "Consequence", Liedman said that the series builds upon his work on "PEN15", "Big Mouth", and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine", while also noting references in the series to "L.A. Confidential" and "The Princess Diaries" and inspiration from "" and Jason Bourne film series. Rogers, in an interview with Gay City News, said he came to embody the character of Twink after reading the show's pilot script, and said he 'gravitated towards him naturally." In response to a question about the show's stereotypes, he said that he understood the "hesitancy and difficulty to swallow queer content by queer audiences," and noted the anxiety over seeing such characters and representation. He further defended the show, saying that people do talk like Twink and hopes that people embrace the show due to the "many queer identities represented" in the show, calling the show "a very sweet story about a chosen family."


title: Q-Force

text: The first season was released on September 2, 2021. On the day of the show's premiere, Liedman, in an interview with ET, said that the adventures the characters embark on have big stakes, with "a world hanging in the balance." He also defended the show's maturity, noting that it is "a show for adults" and said "people can handle it or they can turn it off, you know?" On September 6, in an article with The A.V. Club, Rogers said that Twink's "use of code-switching as a superpower" was clever, and praised the character, calling getting the role a "unique opportunity." He further said that people are going to have different reactions to the show, but describing it as a whole "by queer people, for queer people."


title: Q-Force

text: The release of the trailer on June 23 was met with heavily polarized reactions. Reuben Baron of CBR was apprehensive about the show, saying he wasn't sure if the show would be any good and that the show's humor is "not for everyone," but said that the fact the show is written, starring, and animated by queer people makes a difference. He also concluded that no matter how the show turns out, it is "not being made from a place of bigotry," telling people to wait until the show's release to criticize it. Charles Pulliam-Moore of Gizmodo stated that the show's "premise and the jokes in the trailer come across like a much more tame and recognizable go at the kind of queer pandering the show itself calls out," but that it "might end up having something interesting to say when it premieres." Gavia Baker-Whitelaw of The Daily Dot stated that the trailer "looks kind of cringeworthy, focusing on stereotypes and unfunny one-liners" and that the show "seems destined to join the ranks of mediocre adult animated sitcoms." Baker-Whitelaw also said that despite the fact the show is "walking the walk in terms of queer representation," it doesn't guarantee the show will be good, and said the show feels corny, dated, and as sophisticated as "The Ambiguously Gay Duo". Farid-ul-Haq of "The Geekiary" argued that while he was excited by the show back in 2019, his excitement disappeared after watching the trailer, saying the trailer "seems to be relying too much on problematic queer stereotypes," concluding that while there is an interesting story, it is not right to harass those associated with the series, like artists and animators. Matt Moen of Paper said that the show, as based on the trailer, would not be subtle or nuanced in its "queer-centric humor," but concluded that it remained to be seen whether the show would be entertaining and groundbreaking or "woefully two-dimensional."


title: Q-Force

text: In contrast, Michael Cuby of Them was more positive, saying the show sounded "ridiculously entertaining," even before the trailer dropped, and saying that with the reveal of the cast, they would add it to their Netflix queue. Additionally, Cuby said they were "intrigued by the premise," were excited by the trailer, and praised the "queer-affirming dialogue." May Rude of Out stated that the trailer was "filled with comedy, action, and plenty of pure and beautiful homosexuality" and argued that the show "could be the queer adult cartoon we’ve been waiting for!"


title: Q-Force

text: "Q-Force" received mixed to negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 33% approval rating with an average rating of 3.40/10, based on 13 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, ""Q-Force"s heart is in the right place, but dated stereotypes and a general lack of humor make this animated action adventure fall flat." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 45 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Q-Force

text: B.L. Panther of "The Spool" described the show as "splendidly queer" and praised the show for its ability to "sketch sex and desire as an integral part of queerness," but criticized it for showing "queer culture" only as defined by cisgender White gay people, and its attempt to "force acceptance and assimilation" as something that is important to the show's characters, and hoped the show would improve in future seasons. Mika A. Epstein of LezWatch.TV said that one of her favorite things about the show is that "they let us know the actor pronouns are the same as their characters." Tariq Raouf of the San Francisco Chronicle was more critical, arguing that the series feels "like a mockery of LGBTQ people" despite its creative team and cast, stating that the show tries "too hard to be hip, queer and fun," making it somewhat offensive and "stale." Reuben Baron of CBR gave a similar assessment, describing the show as "disappointingly unfunny," and


title: Q-Force

text: said the show has the sense that "it's coming out 10 years later than it should have." He also called the characters themselves a "mixed bag," and concluded the story is "watchable but mediocre." Farid-ul-Haq of "The Geekiary" said the show would be better if it aired in the early 2000s. He also criticized the inclusion of Buck's character.


title: Q-Force

text: David Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter said that while the show is not as "bad as Netflix's initial promotion suggested," the episodes rely on "many exhausted tropes." Even so, he called it watchable due to the "dynamic animation from Titmouse," distinctive and expressive characters, and talented voice actors. He concluded that it was a "typically bumpy start for a comedy" trying to find its footing. Daniel D'Addario, Chief TV Critic for Variety concurred, saying the protagonist, Steve, "doesn't hold the center of the show" while arguing that the supporting characters "fare somewhat better" than Steve's character. Michael Blackmon of BuzzFeed News added that the show is "weighed down by uninteresting characters and dull 'jokes,'" and that though the show "finds its footing toward the middle," he wanted more from the show.


title: Q-Force

text: Other reviews were also mixed. Glen Weldon of NPR called the show warmer and kinder than "Archer", and said he had "unfair assumptions" going into the series but it had "surprisingly gentle and humane" jokes. He added that while the characters initially embody "very broad queer stereotypes," they later go beyond this, and that if the show gets a second season, it could be improved by shining more on "members of the team besides Maryweather." Andy Swift of TVLine called the series "irreverent" and described the first episode as a "fun set-up" to the rest of the series.


title: Q-Force

text: Q-Force was not renewed by Netflix for a second season. Matt Rogers (Voice of Twink) confirmed this on the Spotify podcast "Attitudes!", simply stating that "It did not get a second season". Some described the cancellation as among "major losses for queer storytelling on television" and predicted a Peacock revival may be possible.


title: Tone Loc

text: Anthony Terrell Smith (born March 3, 1966), better known by his stage name Tone Lōc (), is an American rapper, actor, and producer. He is known for his raspy voice, his hit songs "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina", for which he was nominated for a Grammy Award, and for being featured in "We're All in the Same Gang", a collaborative single by the West Coast Rap All-Stars.


title: Tone Loc

text: Anthony Terrell Smith was born March 3, 1966, in Los Angeles, California, the son of Margaret, who managed a retirement home, and James Smith. His father died in 1972, and Tony and his three older brothers were raised by his mother. He was educated at the Hollywood Professional School. As a teenager he performed with the Triple A rap group.


title: Tone Loc

text: Tone Lōc's debut album, "Lōc-ed After Dark", was released in January 1989. The video for the first single, "Wild Thing," became a staple on MTV in the US. The song rose to No. 2 on the US Hot 100, and the top twenty in Australia. The second single, "Funky Cold Medina," also became a hit. It reached the top 5 in the US, peaking at No. 3; the top ten in Australia; and the top twenty in the UK.


title: Tone Loc

text: "Lōc-ed After Dark" reached No. 1 in the US. Since its release, has been certified 2× platinum there.


title: Tone Loc

text: Tone Lōc's second album "Cool Hand Lōc" was released in November 1991. The album's first single was "All Through the Night", which found moderate success, reaching No. 80 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and #16 on the Rap Songs chart. It received frequent airplay on MTV and BET.


title: Tone Loc

text: Tone Lōc's song "Ace Is in the House" (which samples the Beastie Boys song "No Sleep till Brooklyn") is featured in the films "" (1994) and "" (2009).


title: Tone Loc

text: He provided vocals for Fefe Dobson for the track "Rock It 'Til You Drop It" on her first album, 2003's "Fefe Dobson".


title: Tone Loc

text: Tone Lōc also voiced "Fūd Wrapper", the host of the animatronic show "Food Rocks". This was played at Epcot from 1994 to 2004. In this latter role, he sang the song "Always Read the Wrapper", a parody of his second hit single "Funky Cold Medina".


title: Tone Loc

text: Tone Lōc has performed in several feature films, including Heat, "Poetic Justice", "Blank Check" and "Posse". As a voice actor, Tone Lōc has voiced characters in several television cartoon series such as "King of the Hill" and "C-Bear and Jamal", and was featured in the animated film "Bébé's Kids", playing the wise-cracking baby Pee Wee. He voiced the character Lou the Goanna in the 1992 film "". He has also provided his signature voice for episodes of "Uncle Grandpa", and "Chowder", both airing on Cartoon Network. In 2021, Loc was featured in "" as the singing voice of Penny on Disney+.


title: Tone Loc

text: Currently, he is among the list of performers on the "I Love the 90s tour" which has performed worldwide from April 2016 to the present, as well as having featured appearances on the "" from July 2017 to September 2017.


title: Tone Loc

text: In December 2010, Lōc was arrested for an alleged DUI. He was released on bail claiming a medical condition had caused a seizure.


title: Tone Loc

text: On June 18, 2011, Tone Lōc was arrested for felony domestic violence and felony possession of a Colt AR-15 Sporter rifle, heavily restricted by California law, but not involved in the domestic incident after an altercation with the mother of one of his children. He was released less than three hours later after posting $50,000 bail. On October 3, 2011, he entered a plea of no contest to both charges, and was sentenced to one day in county jail, three years of probation, 52 weeks of anger management counseling and 30 days of community service.


title: Tone Loc

text: Tone Lōc has collapsed onstage multiple times since 1995; some if not all of these collapses have been due to seizures, according to at least one report. On May 29, 2009, he was rushed to a Florida hospital after collapsing during a concert in Pensacola. The rapper cut his elbow when he fell and was released the same day. On October 15, 2011, he was hospitalized for exhaustion after collapsing onstage during a concert in Atlanta. He was taken to a local hospital where he was intravenously rehydrated. Another similar incident occurred in 2012. On March 16, 2013, he collapsed onstage, at a performance at the "Bridge Bash" in Des Moines, Iowa, but he refused hospital care. He collapsed onstage on December 6, 2013, during a performance in San Francisco, California, and collapsed again on November 26, 2016, during a performance in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but he later returned to the stage. He wears his signature sunglasses at every performance to help reduce the likelihood of a seizure.


title: Leica Camera

text: Leica Camera AG () is a German company that manufactures cameras, optical lenses, photographic lenses, binoculars, rifle scopes and microscopes. The company was founded by Ernst Leitz in 1869 (Ernst Leitz Wetzlar), in Wetzlar, Germany.


title: Leica Camera

text: In 1986, the Leitz company changed its name to Leica, due to the fame of the Leica trade-name. The name Leica is derived from the first three letters of the founder's surname (Leitz) and the first two of the word camera: lei-ca (LEItz CAmera). At this time, Leica relocated its factory from Wetzlar to the nearby town of Solms.


title: Leica Camera

text: Leica Camera AG is 55% owned by Austrian investment firm ACM Projektentwicklung GmbH, and 45% owned by The Blackstone Group which licenses the Leica brand name from the Danaher Corporation-owned Leica Microsystems GmbH.


title: Leica Camera

text: From the year 1907 to the 1950s, the buildings that formed Leica factory were built on Ernst Leitz Street in Wetzlar, and remained until 1986, when the factory was moved to the city of Solms. The Wetzlar factory was located on the opposite side of the administrative building of 1957 and formed a special urban architecture; it is upstream from the slope of Kalsmunt and forms a structurally attractive graduation from the skyscrapers to the ruins of Kalsmunt Castle.


title: Leica Camera

text: In the last decades of the 19th century, Ernst Leitz moved its production facilities to the slopes of Kalsmunt with sufficient residential buildings and workshops on the Laufdorfer Weg.


title: Leica Camera

text: At the turn of the century, the production of optical devices expanded so much that it originated the first skyscrapers in the city of Wetzlar. The oldest part of this row of tall buildings is now hidden by a new building at the Schützenstraße. The first plans of the architect Jean Schmidt in 1907 show a brick building on a stone base, which was covered by a sloping roof and a slate roof. However, in the same year, it was decided to use the new construction of concrete skeletons and a simpler façade design. The four-story building is divided into six groups of windows, each of which has three windows. Narrow wall patterns and lightly embedded parapets summarize the three lowest floors. The fourth floor is visually separated from the lower part of the building by a very distant cornice. On either side of the central building there was a hip roof with high ceilings. The mansard's floor expanded as production and workers also increased. Only a few years later, Leitz again demanded the construction of a tall building. After the planning of Jean Schmidt, contractor Robert Schneider built a four-story building in 1911.


title: Leica Camera

text: The basement building was made of reinforced concrete with brick stairs. Again, the original plan, which provided a horizontal structure of the building through the cornucopia, was abandoned in favor of a simpler façade design. In the ten-axis building, similar to the oldest skyscraper, the lower levels are grouped by pilasters. The space between the two skyscrapers (which originally had been provided with subsequent buildings) had to be closed by another building in the early 1930s. Once again, it was Jean Schmidt, who prepared the plans for a first seven-story skyscraper. The still existing façade drawings show the columns with arches on the ground floor and that are fitted between a long strip of windows with excessive pilasters. The general design shows a mixture of very graphic elements and remains of curved Modernist forms that recall the buildings by Joseph Maria Olbrich at Mathildenhöhe of Darmstadt.


title: Leica Camera

text: In 1936, the architect presented a completely revised plan. The plan was now made up of eight floors for Leica production. The building was built with a concrete construction modeled from the production halls of Opel in Rüsselsheim, Zeiss in Jena and Wernerwerk in Berlin. It was possible to access all the floors through two stairs.


title: Leica Camera

text: The government of the city and the district finally approved a construction of eight floors with a loggia-like ninth floor, that later was closed. Due to the urban landscape that characterized the size of the building, the planning of the district government was initially rejected because of a simple and unsatisfactory exterior design. Even so, the building was built in 1938 between the two oldest skyscrapers. In 1950, west of the skyscraper of 1911, a skyscraper of similar construction with nine floors was added.


title: Leica Camera

text: The first 35 mm film Leica prototypes were built by Oskar Barnack at Ernst Leitz Optische Werke, Wetzlar, in 1913. Some say the original Leica was intended as a compact camera for landscape photography, particularly during mountain hikes, but other sources indicate the camera was intended for test exposures with 35mm motion picture film. The Leica was the first practical 35 mm camera that used standard cinema 35 mm film. The Leica transports the film horizontally, extending the frame size to 24×36mm with a 2:3 aspect ratio, instead of the 18×24 mm of cinema cameras, which transport the film vertically.


title: Leica Camera

text: The Leica had several model iterations, and in 1923, Barnack convinced his boss, Ernst Leitz II, to make a preproduction series of 31 cameras for the factory and outside photographers to test. Though the prototypes received mixed reception, Ernst Leitz decided in 1924 to produce the camera. It was an immediate success when introduced at the 1925 Leipzig Spring Fair as the Leica I (for "Leitz camera"). The focal plane shutter has a range from 1/20 to 1/500 second, in addition to a "Z" for "Zeit" (time) position.


title: Leica Camera

text: Barnack conceived the Leica as a small camera that produced a small negative. To make large photos by enlargement, (the "small negative, large picture" concept) requires that the camera have high quality lenses that could create well-defined negatives. Barnack tried a Zeiss Tessar on his early prototype camera, but because the Tessar was designed for the 18×24 mm cine format, it inadequately covered the Leica's 24×36mm negative. Barnack resorted to a Leitz Mikro-Summar 1:4.5/42 mm lens for the prototype, but to achieve resolution necessary for satisfactory enlargement, the 24x36 mm format needed a lens designed specially for it. The first Leica lens was a 50 mm design based on the Cooke triplet of 1893, adapted by Max Berek at Leitz. The lens has five elements in three groups—the third group being three cemented elements—and was initially named the Leitz Anastigmat. Unlike other triplets, the Leitz Anastigmat has the diaphragm between the first and second elements. When the Leica was first vended, this lens was renamed the ELMAX, for E Leitz and MAX Berek. By 1925, the Leitz laboratories had produced glasses with improved optical properties, and Professor Berek designed an improved version of the ELMAX named the ELMAR that had four elements in three groups. The third group was simplified to two cemented elements, which was easier and cheaper to make. Professor Berek had two dogs, Hektor and Rex. The first of these, Hektor, gave his name to a series of Leica lenses, and the name of the second appeared in the SummaREX.


title: Leica Camera

text: In 1930, the "Leica I Schraubgewinde" was first produced. It had an exchangeable lens system based on a 39mm diameter screw thread, often referred to as " Leica Thread Mount" or LTM. In addition to the 50 mm normal lens, a 35 mm wide angle and a 135 mm telephoto lens were initially available. During the mid-1930s, a legendary soft-focus lens, the Thambar 90 mm was designed, and made in small numbers between 1935 and 1949, no more than 3000 units. It is now a rare collector's item. In 2017, a new version was produced, costing $6,495. A lens from the original series can fetch between $3,000 and $8,000, depending on condition.


title: Leica Camera

text: The Leica II was first produced in 1932, with a built in rangefinder coupled to the lens focusing mechanism. This model has a separate viewfinder (showing a reduced image) and rangefinder. In 1932, the flange to filmplane was standardised to 28.8mm, first implemented on Leica model C, and the Leica Standard the next year.


title: Leica Camera

text: The Leica III added slow shutter speeds down to 1 second, and the model IIIa added the 1/1000 second shutter speed. The IIIa is the last model made before Barnack's death, and therefore the last model for which he was wholly responsible. Leitz continued to refine the original design through to 1957. The final version, the IIIg, includes a large viewfinder with several framelines. These models all have a functional combination of circular dials and square windows.


title: Leica Camera

text: Early Leica cameras bear the initials D.R.P., which stands for Deutsches Reichspatent, the name for German patents before May 1945. This is probably a reference to German patent No. 384071 "Rollfilmkamera" granted to Ernst Leitz, Optische Werke in Wetzlar, on November 3, 1923.


title: Leica Camera

text: The company had always had progressive labor policies which encouraged the retention of skilled workers, many of whom were Jewish. Ernst Leitz II, who began managing the company in 1920, responded to the election of Hitler in 1933 by helping Jews to leave Germany, by "assigning" hundreds (even if they were not actually employees) to overseas sales offices where they were helped to find jobs. The effort intensified after Kristallnacht in 1938, until the borders were closed in September 1939. The extent of what came to be known as the "Leica Freedom Train" only became public after his death, well after the war.


title: Leica Camera

text: After the war, Leitz continued to produce the late versions of the Leica II and the Leica III through the 1950s. However, in 1954, Leitz introduced the Leica M3, with the new Leica M mount, a bayonet-like lens mount. The new camera also combined the rangefinder and viewfinder into one large, bright viewfinder with a brighter double image in the center. This system also introduced a system of parallax compensation and a new rubberized, reliable, focal-plane shutter. Leica continues to refine this model (the latest versions being the MP and MA, both of which have framelines for 28, 35, 50, 75, 90, and 135 mm lenses, which show automatically upon mounting).


title: Leica Camera

text: Post-war models bear the initials DBP, standing for Deutsches Bundespatent (Federal German Patent), instead of the DRP (Deutsches Reich patent) found on pre-war models. A number of camera companies have built models based on the Leica rangefinder design. These include the Leotax, Nicca and early Canon models in Japan, the Kardon in USA, the Reid in England and the FED and Zorki in the USSR.


title: Leica Camera

text: Until at least the mid-1950s, Leitz offered factory upgrades of earlier Leica cameras to the current model's specifications. The upgraded cameras retained their original serial number.


title: Leica Camera

text: From 1964, Leica produced a series of single-lens reflex cameras, beginning with the Leicaflex, followed by the Leicaflex SL, the Leicaflex SL2, and then the R series from R3 to R7, made in collaboration with the Minolta Corporation. The Leica R8 was entirely designed and manufactured by Leica. The final model was the Leica R9, which could be fitted with the Digital Module back. Leica was slow to produce an auto-exposure model, and never made a Leica R model that included auto-focusing. Leica's U.S. official website announced (March 25, 2009) that the R-series has been discontinued. The reason given was that "new camera developments have significantly affected the sales of Leica R cameras and lenses resulting in a dramatic decrease in the number sold. Sadly, therefore, there is no longer an economic basis on which to keep the Leica R-System in the Leica production programme."


title: Leica Camera

text: Conceptually intermediate between the Rangefinder Leicas and the SLR Leicas was the Leica Visoflex System, a mirror reflex box that attached to the lens mount of Leica rangefinders (separate versions were made for the screwmount and M series bodies) and accepted lenses made especially for the Visoflex System. Rather than using the camera's rangefinder, focusing was accomplished via a groundglass screen. A coupling released both mirror and shutter to make the exposure. Camera rangefinders are inherently limited in their ability to accurately focus long focal-length lenses and the mirror reflex box permitted much longer length lenses. Throughout its history, Leitz has been responsible for numerous optical innovations, such as aspherical production lenses, multicoated lenses, and rare earth lenses.


title: Leica Camera

text: The earliest Leica reflex housing was the PLOOT (Leitz's five letter code for its products), announced in 1935, along with the 200 mm Telyt Lens. This date is significant because that it places Leica among the 35 mm SLR pioneers. Moreover, until the 1964 introduction of the Leicaflex, the PLOOT and Visoflex were Leica's only SLR offerings. A redesigned PLOOT was introduced by Leica in 1951 as the Visoflex I. This was followed by a much more compact Visoflex II in 1960 (which was the only Visoflex version available in both LTM (screwmount) and M-bayonet) and the Visoflex III with instant-return mirror in 1964. Leica lenses for the Visoflex system included focal lengths of 65, 180 (rare), 200, 280, 400, 560, and 800mm. In addition, the optical groups of many rangefinder lenses could be removed and attached to the Visoflex via a system of adapters. The Visoflex system was discontinued in 1984.


title: Leica Camera

text: Leica offered a wide range of accessories. For instance, LTM (screwmount) lenses were easily usable on M cameras via an adapter. Similarly, Visoflex lenses could be used on the Leicaflex and R cameras with an adapter. Furthermore, certain LTM and M rangefinder lenses featured removable optical groups that could mount via adapters on the Visoflex system, thus making them usable as rangefinder or SLR lenses for Visoflex-equipped Screwmount and M rangefinder cameras, as well as being usable on Leicaflex and R cameras. Leica also offered focusing systems, such as the Focorapid and Televit, that could replace certain lenses’ helicoid mounts for sports and natural-life telephotography.


title: Leica Camera

text: In 1986, the Leitz company changed its name to Leica (LEItz CAmera), due to the fame of the Leica tradename. At this time, Leica relocated its factory from Wetzlar (Germany) to the nearby town of Solms (Germany). In 1996, Leica Camera separated from the Leica Group and became a publicly owned company. In 1998, the Leica group was divided into two independent units: Leica Microsystems and Leica Geosystems.


title: Leica Camera

text: On 1 October 2012, Leica Camera AG was delisted from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange after Lisa Germany Holding GmbH acquired the remaining minority shares stock resulting in the company being owned privately.


title: Leica Camera

text: On 26 November 2013, Leica Camera AG announced the purchase of Sinar Photography AG, Zurich, the Swiss manufacturer of view cameras.


title: Leica Camera

text: In May 2014, Leica Camera AG finished building a new factory at Leitz Park 1 in the new industrial part of Wetzlar and relocated back to the city where it started.


title: Leica Camera

text: In April 2019, a television commercial for Leica titled "The Hunt" was released online. The commercial depicts photojournalists in war-torn and politically unstable environments; one of whom takes a photograph of the Tank Man during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Following censorship of the Leica brand on Sina Weibo, Leica revoked the commercial and sought to distance themselves from it, claiming the company did not sanction its production.


title: Leica Camera

text: In September 2022, Leica announced Cine 1, a laser projector, slated for release in 2023. The new model is Leica's return to digital projectors, which the company produced under the Pradovit brand.


title: Leica Camera

text: Leica cameras are particularly associated with street photography, especially in the latter twentieth century; they were used by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Sebastião Salgado.


title: Leica Camera

text: Leica cameras, lenses, accessories and sales literature are collectibles. There are dozens of Leica books and collector's guides, notably the three-volume "Leica, an Illustrated History" by James L. Lager. Early or rare cameras and accessories can have very high prices. For instance, an anonymous buyer bought a rare 1923 Leica camera for 2.6 million euros ($2.8 million) at an auction in Vienna. Notably, Leica cameras sporting military markings are highly valued; this started a market for refurbished Soviet copies with fake markings.


title: Leica Camera

text: The earliest Leica prototypes were developed by the company Ernst Leitz GmbH during the first years of the 20th century, but marketing did not commence until the mid-1920s. The Leicas were innovative, by orienting the image frame sideways for the 35 mm film as opposed to the cine-camera tradition of across the film strip. The cameras were compact with collapsible lenses, for hiking and biking. The rangefinder feature was added to the Leica II in 1932, and that year both rangefinder and viewfinder cameras became available with interchangeable lenses. In 1933 the Leica III offered slow-speed shutter controls and a fast 1/1000 s shutter speed, and various iterations of the III (a,b,c,d,f,&g) series became the flagship models and best sellers into the late 1950s. Further iterations of models I and II were offered but did not sell well.


title: Leica Camera

text: Prior to WWII, Leica and competing Contax cameras from Zeiss Ikon were considered to be the finest 35 mm cameras, but post-WWII the companies had competition from Soviet and Japanese copies. During the 1950s Japanese quality and innovation, along with low pricing, devastated the European camera industry. Leica became an expensive type of camera bought largely by professional or serious photographers. However, the advent of reflex camera technology made rangefinders somewhat obsolete, leaving Leica the main product of a diminishing market segment. Leica has remained a notable tradename into the 21st Century.


title: Leica Camera

text: The original producer of the cameras, Ernst Leitz GmbH, is now three independent companies: Leica Camera AG, Leica Geosystems AG, and Leica Microsystems GmbH, which manufacture cameras, geo survey equipment, and microscopes, respectively. Leica Microsystems GmbH owns the Leica brand and licenses its use to the other two companies.


title: Leica Camera

text: The "M" within the nomenclature of this series of cameras comes from the first initial of "Meßsucher" (or "Messsucher"), which is the German word for "Rangefinder".


title: Leica Camera

text: Leicaflex is a range of high-end SLR cameras by Leitz created as a reaction to the booming SLR market in East Asia.


title: Leica Camera

text: Leica also makes a line of cine lenses used for cinematic projects. In February 2015, their design team was awarded an Academy Scientific and Engineering Award for the optical and mechanical design of the Leica Summilux-C lenses.


title: Leica Camera

text: The Leica L-mount was first introduced by the Leica T (Typ 701), an APS-C mirrorless camera, in April 2014. In October 2015, the second camera, Leica SL (typ 601), was introduced. The SL is a full frame mirrorless camera. The two camera mounts are mechanically and electronically 100% compatible. The only difference is a small gap around the SL mount for the SL lens sealing to cover dust and spray on the Leica SL.


title: Leica Camera

text: Sigma and Panasonic joined forces with Leica to form the L-mount Alliance on 25 September 2018 and license the L-mount system for their own lines of lenses and cameras.


title: Leica Camera

text: Leica Q (Type 116) compact full frame camera with a Summilux 28 mm ASPH lens was officially announced on June 10, 2015. Its successor, the Leica Q2 with a 47.3 Megapixel full frame sensor, was launched in March 2019.


title: Leica Camera

text: And in November 2020, the company released a monochrome version of the camera, the Q2 Monochrom, using a sensor similar to that in the M10 Monochrom, but with 47.3 megapixels.


title: Leica Camera

text: Leica Sofort was announced in September 2016 at Photokina. It is Leica's first instant film camera and is compatible with both Leica's own film packs as well as Fuji Instax Mini film. It features a 60mm lens, modes for normal and macro photography and a host of pre-sets for applications like selfies and fast moving sports photography.


title: Leica Camera

text: Introduced with the Leica X1 on September 9, 2009. APS-C size sensor in a compact body. No viewfinder (hotshoe finder optional), fixed prime lens.


title: Leica Camera

text: In 2013, the Leica X Vario (Typ 107) was announced: a compact body with a 16.2 MP APS-C size sensor, a fixed variable-aperture zoom (F3.5 – F6.4, 28–70 mm equivalent) and no viewfinder (plug-in electronic viewfinder optional).


title: Leica Camera

text: In 2014, Leica announced two updates on the series: the Leica X-E (Typ 102) featuring a 24 mm lens and the Leica X (Typ 113) which has a 23mm lens.


title: Leica Camera

text: On September 8, 2013, Leica announced the Leica C (Typ 112), a compact camera with an electronic viewfinder based on the Panasonic DMC-LF1.


title: Leica Camera

text: During the 2018 Photokina in Cologne, Leica announced that Sigma and Panasonic had become licencees of the L-mount platform. The three companies would form a strategic and technical alliance, yet remain independent.


title: Leica Camera

text: Leica-branded lenses, such as some Nocticron, Elmarit and Summilux lenses, have been used on many Panasonic (Matsushita) digital cameras (Lumix) and video recorders since 1995. Panasonic/Leica models were the first to incorporate optical image stabilization in their digital cameras. Several Panasonic/Leica lenses have been produced for the Micro Four Thirds mount, including the 12 mm Summilux, 15 mm Summilux and 25 mm Summilux prime lenses, and zooms including a 12–60 mm and 100–400 mm .


title: Leica Camera

text: In 2014, to commemorate Leica camera's 100th anniversary, they partnered with Swiss watch manufacture Valbray to develop a limited edition chronograph wristwatch with Valbray's signature Leica aperture inspired dial.


title: Leica Camera

text: Since 2016, Leica has established partnership with the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, and Leica cameras will be co-engineered into Huawei smartphones, including the P series and Mate series. The first smartphone to be co-engineered with a Leica camera was the Huawei P9. The partnership ended with the Huawei P50 series in 2021.


title: Leica Camera

text: In 2020, Leica entered a strategic partnership with Insta360 to help produce the ONE R 1-Inch Edition. Since then, ONE R has been recognised as one of TIME magazine's best inventions of 2020.


title: Leica Camera

text: In 2021, Leica has established technology partnership with Sharp Corporation, and Leica cameras will be co-engineered into Sharp smartphones for the Japanese market only. The first smartphone to be co-engineered with a Leica camera was the AQUOS R6 with 1-inch-sensor camera. Then Leica with the SoftBank introduced the smartphone Leitz Phone 1 which have same specifications as AQUOS R6 but different design.


title: Leica Camera

text: In 2022, Leica entered a strategic partnership with Xiaomi to jointly develop Leica cameras to be used in Xiaomi flagship smartphones, succeeding the partnership between Huawei and Leica. The first smartphones under this new partnership were the Xiaomi 12S Ultra and Xiaomi MIX Fold 2, launched in July and August 2022, respectively.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Fernando Morientes Sánchez (; born 5 April 1976) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a striker, currently a manager.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: He played for a number of clubs during his career, including Real Madrid, Monaco, Liverpool and Valencia. In La Liga, he scored 124 goals in 337 games over 15 seasons. He earned 11 major honours with the first club, including three Champions League trophies.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes earned 47 caps for the Spain national team, representing the country in two World Cups (totalling five goals) and Euro 2004.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Born in Cilleros, Cáceres, Extremadura, Morientes moved to Sonseca in the Province of Toledo at the age of four. He began his professional career at Albacete Balompié, making his La Liga debut on 7 November 1993 as a 75th-minute substitute for Alejandro in a 2–3 loss against CD Tenerife at the Estadio Carlos Belmonte, and he made one more appearance that season, also from the bench.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: On 23 October 1994, soon after coming on as a first-half replacement for Alberto Monteagudo, Morientes scored his first professional goal, opening a 2–0 home win over Racing de Santander. He got his first start a week later in a 1–5 loss at RCD Español, and finished the campaign with a total of five goals in 20 league games; additionally, he found the net in each leg of a 3–2 aggregate win over holders Real Zaragoza in the last 16 of the Copa del Rey.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes signed with Zaragoza in 1995, where he spent another two seasons, often being partnered up front by Dani, a Real Madrid youth graduate. He made his debut on 9 September away to Real Betis, scoring the team's goal after 48 minutes but being sent off seven minutes later for striking Jaime. On 10 January of the following year, he scored his first professional hat-trick in a 3–2 win at Athletic Bilbao for the domestic cup; his first such feat in the league followed on 3 February in a 4–1 victory over Valencia CF at La Romareda, and eight days later he scored the first goal at SD Compostela and also received his marching orders with his team winning 2–1 (eventual 2–3 defeat).


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes' performances for Zaragoza caught the eye of Spanish giants Real Madrid, which bought the player in the summer of 1997 for approximately €6.6 million. Initially backing up established Predrag Mijatović and Davor Šuker, he finished as starter and managed 12 goals in his first year in 33 matches, squad-best (with the two players who fought with him for a starting berth netting ten apiece, as youth system prodigy Raúl); the team finished fourth in the league, but won the season's UEFA Champions League.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes performed very well in the 1998–99 campaign, scoring 19 goals in the league and 25 in 38 appearances overall. He continued to display top football in 1999–2000, netting 19 times and finishing as Real's top scorer in a year where he also helped to the capital side's second Champions League title in three years, scoring in the 3–0 defeat of Valencia CF in an all-Spanish final. In the next season, he won the first of two league titles with the club and netted ten goals overall, including four in eight appearances in the Champions League in a semi-final exit to eventual winners FC Bayern Munich; he missed the last weeks due to injury.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: In 2001–02, Real failed to win the league after losing out to Valencia. Morientes continued his scoring form, however, scoring 18 league goals in only 25 starts, with six substitute appearances. He also netted five in a 7–0 demolition of UD Las Palmas, missing out on a double hat-trick after missing from the penalty spot late in the match. He finished second in the top scorers list, tied with Patrick Kluivert and behind Deportivo de La Coruña's Diego Tristán, as the "Merengues" were successful in winning the Champions League after beating Bayer 04 Leverkusen – he played in the final and received a third winners medal.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: In the summer of 2002, Real Madrid signed Brazilian superstar Ronaldo from Inter Milan. This fueled rumours that Morientes would soon be leaving, with FC Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur reportedly interested – the former were reportedly on the verge of signing the player for around €22 million, but the move fell through due to Barça's reluctance to match his wage demands. Eventually, he decided to stay, but as predicted he did not feature as much after the arrival of Ronaldo, who was preferred in the starting lineup along with Raúl. He eventually fell down the pecking order of strikers to Guti and Javier Portillo and, during a February 2003 home win against Borussia Dortmund – 2–1 in the Champions League second group stage – was involved in a highly publicised spat with manager Vicente del Bosque, with the player allegedly insulting the coach after being called to enter the pitch as a third replacement in the dying minutes; in the winter transfer window, despite continuous rumours of moves to Tottenham, Zaragoza, A.S. Roma, and A.C. Milan, he remained at the club for remainder of the season as the side went on to win the league, with the player making a total of 19 appearances (with three starts) and scoring five goals.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: At the start of the 2003–04 season, it was evident Morientes was not part of Real's plans. After extensive but ultimately unsuccessful negotiations regarding a loan deal with Germany's FC Schalke 04, he was loaned to Ligue 1 side AS Monaco FC, where he performed very well, netting ten times from 28 appearances in the league. It was in the Champions League, however, that he really made an impact, finishing as top scorer at nine goals: Monaco met Real Madrid in the quarter-finals, where he scored a vital away goal in the first leg (4–2 away loss); in the second match, he again found the net as his team won 3–1, taking the aggregate score to 5–5 (away goals rule victory). He also scored in both games of the last-four win against Chelsea, but could not prevent a 3–0 defeat in the final to FC Porto, played at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: After returning to Real Madrid at the start of the 2004–05 campaign, Morientes' hopes of forcing his way into the squad were further dampened with the arrival of Michael Owen from Liverpool. He featured in 13 scoreless league matches (all as a substitute), and was transferred to Liverpool in January 2005 for a fee of €9.3 million. During his time at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium he played 272 games in all competitions, scoring 100 goals.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes made his debut for Liverpool on 15 January 2005 against Manchester United, starting in a 0–1 home loss to the rivals – BBC Sport described his performance as "quiet". He scored his first goal for the club on 1 February, equalising with a 20-yard strike in a 2–1 win at Charlton Athletic, and he followed it four days later with his first goal at Anfield to open a 3–1 win over Fulham after nine minutes. He was cup-tied for the Champions League campaign, and did not feature in the victory against Milan in the final of the competition.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: On 10 August 2005, Morientes scored in each half of a 3–1 away win against PFC CSKA Sofia in the first leg of the third qualifying round for the season's Champions League. His form in the league was inconsistent, but on 10 December he netted a five-minute brace in a 2–0 home defeat of Middlesbrough, their seventh in a row. On 21 March 2006, he scored in a 7–0 rout of Birmingham City in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, finishing Steven Gerrard's cross three minutes after entering in place of Peter Crouch. Liverpool went on to win the tournament, and the player replaced Harry Kewell early in the second half of the final against West Ham United.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes totalled 12 goals in 60 appearances, also winning the 2005 UEFA Super Cup and playing on the losing side in the 2005 Football League Cup Final and the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship Final.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes joined Valencia in late May 2006 for a fee reported to be around £3 million. Here, he started to regain his form, scoring on his league debut – a 2–1 home win against Betis– and also netting a hat-trick in his first Champions League appearance against Olympiacos FC. He linked up well with David Villa and scored 12 goals in 24 games, and was also team-top scorer in the Champions League with seven; his good form throughout the season also earned him a recall to the national side.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: For 2007–08, Morientes and Villa were joined in the strike force by Nikola Žigić and Javier Arizmendi. The campaign, however, was disappointing, as the "Che" were knocked out of the Champions League after finishing fourth in the group, and manager Quique Sánchez Flores was dismissed following a poor run of form. Morientes picked up an injury in December 2007 that ruled him out for almost three months, and he made his return to the side against Sevilla FC on 15 March 2008; he also came off the bench to score the third and final goal in Valencia's 3–1 victory over Getafe CF in the final of the Copa del Rey, the following month.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes missed out on a further few league games after he was hospitalised in April with abdominal pains and fever. He was released from hospital in time for the final two matches of the season, but played no part in either.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Having begun the following campaign as an unused substitute in Valencia's first league game, and only coming on from the bench in the second, Morientes was handed his first start in a UEFA Cup match against C.S. Marítimo, and he scored the only goal in Portugal through a solo effort at the 12-minute mark. His increasing age and the form of Villa and Juan Mata, however, led to only a handful of appearances in the league; as they were ousted in the round of 32, he still finished as their top scorer in European competition at three goals in seven matches.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: On 27 July 2009, Morientes agreed to a deal at France's Olympique de Marseille on a free transfer for one year, reuniting with former Monaco boss Didier Deschamps. During his first and only season he was only the fourth of five strikers in the squad, his only Ligue 1 goal coming on 26 September in what his first start, opening a 3–2 loss at Valenciennes FC.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes was released on 1 July 2010, by mutual consent. On 31 August, the 34-year-old announced his retirement from football.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes started his career as manager with Huracán Valencia CF, taking charge of its youth academy. In 2012 he returned to Real Madrid, being appointed at the "Juvenil B" team in the youth academy.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: In January 2015, at 38, Morientes returned to playing, signing with DAV Santa Ana in the Madrid regional championships. In June, he became manager of CF Fuenlabrada, but was sacked the following 17 February with the team 11th in Segunda División B.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes was a reliable performer for the Spanish national team since 1998, scoring a brace in the first five minutes of his debut against Sweden on 25 March and adding a further two in each of his next two games, against Northern Ireland and Bulgaria respectively. He ranked fourth on the Spanish all-time topscorer's list with 27 goals in 47 appearances, behind former Real Madrid teammate Raúl, former Valencia teammate Villa and former Madrid captain Fernando Hierro (who took the majority of Spain's free kicks and penalties), although his goals-to-games ratio was higher than Raúl and Hierro.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes netted five goals in the two FIFA World Cups he featured in, with two goals in 1998 and three in 2002. In the latter edition he and Raúl played together up front, and both showed impressive form in the tournament; during the quarter-final match against South Korea the former scored a goal in extra-time that was disallowed, although replays suggested the goal was legitimate – Spain eventually lost the match on penalties.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes was a surprise omission at UEFA Euro 2000, but played at Euro 2004 in Portugal, where he scored one of only two goals that the side could manage, in a subsequent group stage exit. He also played for the nation during the 2006 World Cup qualifiers; however, due to his poor club form for Liverpool, he was not chosen by national team coach Luis Aragonés in the final squad for the tournament, although he was part of an initial 31-man list.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Following his return to form after moving to Valencia, Morientes was recalled to the national side. He scored his 27th goal for Spain in a Euro 2008 qualifier against Denmark on 24 March 2007. Injured four days later against Iceland in another qualifying fixture, he was not recalled again.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes was regarded one of the top strikers of his generation, forming a notable and highly successful partnership with Raúl at Real Madrid. A quick, creative and hard-working player, he excelled in the air and was an accurate finisher with his head and with his feet, both inside and outside the area; he was also an accurate free kick taker, and was capable of playing off another striker.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: In his later career, as he lost his pace, Morientes often played in a supporting role, using his strength and control to hold up the ball for teammates.


title: Fernando Morientes

text: Morientes was featured in the EA Sports' FIFA video game series: he was on the cover for the Spanish edition of "FIFA 99", and also appeared in "FIFA Football 2005".


title: Caltrop

text: A caltrop (also known as caltrap, galtrop, cheval trap, galthrap, galtrap, calthrop, jackrock or crow's foot) is an area denial weapon made up of two or more sharp nails or spines arranged in such a manner that one of them always points upward from a stable base (for example, a tetrahedron). Historically, caltrops were part of defences that served to slow the advance of troops, especially horses, chariots, and war elephants, and were particularly effective against the soft feet of camels. In modern times, caltrops are effective when used against wheeled vehicles with pneumatic tires.


title: Caltrop

text: The modern name "caltrop" is derived from the Old English (heel-trap), such as in the French usage (shoe-trap). The Latin word originally referred to this and provides part of the modern scientific name of a plant commonly called the caltrop, "Tribulus terrestris", whose spiked seed cases resemble caltrops and can injure feet and puncture bicycle tires. This plant can also be compared to "Centaurea calcitrapa", which is also sometimes referred to as the "caltrop". "Trapa natans", a water plant with similarly-shaped spiked seeds and edible fruit, is called the "water caltrop".


title: Caltrop

text: The caltrop was called by the ancient Romans, or sometimes , the latter meaning "jagged iron" (literally "iron jagged thing"). The former term derives from the ancient Greek word meaning three spikes. Caltrops were used in the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC.


title: Caltrop

text: The Japanese version of the caltrop is called . Makibishi were sharp spiked objects that were used in feudal Japan to slow pursuers and also were used in the defence of samurai fortifications. Iron makibishi were called , while the makibishi made from the dried seed pod of the water caltrop, or water chestnut (genus "Trapa"), formed a natural type of makibashi called . Both types of makibishi could penetrate the thin soles of shoes, such as the sandals, which were commonly worn in feudal Japan.


title: Caltrop

text: Punji sticks perform a similar role to caltrops. These are sharpened sticks placed vertically in the ground. Their use in modern times targets the body and limbs of a falling victim by means of a pit or tripwire.


title: Caltrop

text: During the Second World War, large caltrop-shaped objects made from reinforced concrete were used as anti-tank devices, although it seems that these were rare. Much more common were concrete devices called dragon's teeth, which were designed to wedge into tank treads. Large ones weighing over are still used defensively to deny access to wheeled vehicles, especially in camp areas. As dragon's teeth are immobile, the analogy with the caltrop is inexact. Another caltrop-like defence during World War II was the massive steel, freestanding Czech hedgehog; the works were designed as anti-tank obstacles, and could also damage landing craft and warships that came too close to shore. These were used by the Germans to defend beaches at Normandy and other coastal areas. Czech hedgehogs are heavily featured and plainly visible in the 1998 Steven Spielberg-directed American epic war film "Saving Private Ryan", throughout the scenes early in the film depicting the June6, 1944 Omaha Beach assault (part of the Normandy landings during World War II).


title: Caltrop

text: Tetrapods are concrete blocks shaped like caltrops, which interlock when piled up. They are used as riprap in the construction of breakwaters and other sea defences, as they have been found to let the water pass through them and interrupt natural processes less than some other defenses.


title: Caltrop

text: Researchers have tried to develop a caltrop-like device to deflate vehicle tires in a manner useful to law enforcement agencies or the military.


title: Caltrop

text: During service in World War I, Australian Light Horse troops collected caltrops as keepsakes. These caltrops were either made by welding two pieces of wire together to form a four-pointed star or pouring molten steel into a mould to form a solid, seven-pointed star. The purpose of these devices was to disable horses. They were exchanged with French troops for bullets. The Australian Light Horse troops referred to them as "Horse Chestnuts".


title: Caltrop

text: Caltrops were used extensively and effectively during World War II. The modifications and variants produced by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) of the United States are still in use today within special forces and law enforcement bodies.


title: Caltrop

text: The Germans dropped "crow's feet" (). These were made from two segments of sheet metal welded together into a tetrapod with four barbed points and then painted in camouflage colours. They came in two sizes with a side length of either . They were dropped from aircraft in containers the same size as a 500 kg bomb and were dispersed by a small explosive charge.


title: Caltrop

text: Caltrops have been used at times during labour strikes and other disputes. Such devices were used by some to destroy the tires of management and replacement workers.


title: Caltrop

text: Caltrops, referred to as "jack rocks" in news articles, were used during the Caterpillar strike in 1995, puncturing tires on vehicles crossing the picket line in Peoria, Illinois. Because of their small size and the difficulty proving their source, both the company and the United Auto Workers blamed each other. Collateral damage included a school bus and a walking mail carrier. In Illinois, the state legislature passed a law making the possession of such devices a misdemeanor.


title: Caltrop

text: A caltrop has a variety of symbolic uses and is commonly found as a charge in heraldry. For instance, the Finnish noble family Fotangel (Swedish for 'caltrop') had arms "gules", three caltrops "argent".


title: Caltrop

text: It has also been adopted by military units: the caltrop is the symbol of the US Army's III Corps, which is based at Fort Hood, Texas. III Corps traces its lineage to the days of horse cavalry, which used the caltrop as a defensive area denial weapon.


title: Caltrop

text: The caltrop is also the symbol of the United States Marine Corps' 3rd Division, formed on 16 September 1942.


title: Caltrop

text: The Savannah Association annually commemorate Operation Savannah, a battle from 1975 to 1976 in the South African Border War (also known as the Namibian War of Independence). The battle involved a covert intervention by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the Angolan War of Independence, subsequent Angolan Civil War and Namibian War of Independence. During this battle many South African soldiers earned the Honoris Crux for bravery against Angolan and Cuban forces. Their insignia was a caltrop.


title: POF (dating website)

text: Plenty of Fish is a Canadian online dating service, popular primarily in Canada, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Brazil, and the United States. It is available in nine languages. The company, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia generates revenue through advertising and premium memberships. While it is free to use, Plenty of Fish offers premium services as part of their upgraded membership, such as allowing users to see who has "liked" a member through the service's MeetMe feature, and whether a message has been read and/or deleted.


title: POF (dating website)

text: Markus Frind, CEO of Plenty of Fish Media Inc., graduated in 1999 from British Columbia Institute of Technology with a diploma in Computer Systems Technology, and founded the business in 2003.


title: POF (dating website)

text: In 2004, Plenty of Fish became a full-time money making business for Markus. He ran the site independently until 2008, when he began hiring other employees at his new Vancouver headquarters. In 2009, Plenty of Fish also launched a contest with Lady Gaga allowing single members to go together and meet the singer during The Fame Ball Tour.


title: POF (dating website)

text: The website for Plenty of Fish appeared in several music videos in 2010: in Lady Gaga's "Telephone", Natasha Bedingfield's "Touch", Ke$ha's "We R Who We R", Flo Rida and Akon's "Available", Jason Derulo's "Ridin' Solo", and 3OH!3's "Double Vision". In 2011, it appeared in Britney Spears's music video for "Hold It Against Me". Many of these appearances are undisclosed paid product placements which have been met with highly negative reviews.


title: POF (dating website)

text: In 2010, Plenty of Fish launched mobile apps for iPhone and Android. A few years later, it was made available for both the iPad and Windows phone. In a June 2014 interview, Frind attributed 85% of all Plenty of Fish traffic to mobile with the number growing weekly.


title: POF (dating website)

text: On January 21, 2011, it was discovered that the Plenty of Fish website had been hacked which exposed the personal and password information on nearly 30 million user accounts. Since the alleged hacking incident, Frind alleges he has identified persons he believes are responsible for the hacking, and alleges he is threatening legal action in response to the widespread negative media exposure. At the time this received global media exposure and security experts blamed Plenty of Fish for the security and privacy lapse specifically for keeping users' passwords unsecured.


title: POF (dating website)

text: On February 28, 2012, the parents of US Army Lieutenant Peter Burks sued Plenty of Fish. The parents' lawsuit alleges photos of their son, who was killed in Iraq in 2007, were used without permission. The parents were seeking compensatory and punitive damages. Paul Bloudoff, the firm's legal affairs manager responded by saying "Lt. Burks’ image was never used by POF.com in any way, shape or form, [a] third-party advertiser, with no affiliation to Plenty of Fish, ran an ad promoting another dating site using Lt. Burks’ picture, and one of the places this advertiser ran this ad happened to be our site."


title: POF (dating website)

text: In an August 2012 Forbes interview, Markus Frind stated that based on the millions of relationships and marriages Plenty of Fish has created over the past several years, it is estimated that over one million babies have been born as a result of the website.


title: POF (dating website)

text: On May 20, 2013, Frind implemented several changes to the website with the stated goal of focusing on "meaningful relationships". Among these changes were the removal of the "intimate encounters" option. A related eliminated feature was the option to contact clients of age differences greater than "Markus", presumably Frind, found tasteful. Although the Plenty of Fish site and its "matching" criteria continue to match couples with age differences greater than the 14-year guideline, attempts to contact these "matches" resulted in an inbox message from Markus stating, among other things, "[t]here is no reason for a 50 year old man to contact a 18 year old woman." Another restriction implemented in the updates is that male users could no longer attach images to messages. Additionally, the site automatically blocks messages from male users containing certain words while showing such messages as being sent.


title: POF (dating website)

text: The image sending restriction was apparently reversed after Plenty of Fish was acquired by Match Group (but not "quick messages" directly from the match's profile page) and members outside of the 14-year age limit no longer appear as matches or in searches. Attempting to contact members outside of the 14-year limit now displays a page stating the user does not meet the member's contact criteria (even when untrue) and suggests several matches to contact instead of sending a message to the user's inbox.


title: POF (dating website)

text: On July 14, 2015, Plenty of Fish was sold for $575 million to Match Group (owner of Match.com, OkCupid, Tinder and Hinge, based in Dallas, Texas). The headquarters remain in Vancouver and have recently been expanded.


title: POF (dating website)

text: In March 2020, Plenty of Fish (now owned by Match Group) launched a livestream feature after a partnership to interact with users from other apps MeetMe and Skout (both owned by The Meet Group) and Zoosk (owned by Spark Networks SE).


title: POF (dating website)

text: The site relied on volunteers to monitor forums and sort through the 50,000 new photos that, at most come in each day. By 2019, Plenty of Fish employed over 100 people, including programmers, marketing managers, product managers, designers and customer success representatives.


title: POF (dating website)

text: Plenty of Fish uses a Microsoft-based platform for itself, including IIS, ASP.NET, and Microsoft SQL.


title: POF (dating website)

text: In December 2019, Plenty of Fish pushed out a fix for its app after a security researcher found it was leaking information that users had set as private on their profiles, including hidden names and postal codes.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Fletch is a 1985 American neo-noir comedy thriller film directed by Michael Ritchie and written by Andrew Bergman. Based on Gregory Mcdonald's popular "Fletch" novels, the film stars Chevy Chase as the eponymous character. It co-stars Tim Matheson, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Geena Davis and Joe Don Baker.


title: Fletch (film)

text: The film revolves around "Los Angeles Times" reporter Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher, who is offered a large sum of money to kill a millionaire (by the millionaire himself) who supposedly has a terminal cancer prognosis. Fletch becomes suspicious when he discovers the man is not ill; when he continues to investigate, his life is threatened.


title: Fletch (film)

text: "Fletch" did well with critics and at the box office – it was among the top 50 grossing domestic films in its first year of release. It has since developed a cult following and was followed by a 1989 sequel, "Fletch Lives". Subsequent decades saw many unsuccessful attempts to restart or reboot the series; another "Fletch" film, "Confess, Fletch" starring Jon Hamm, was finally produced in 2022.


title: Fletch (film)

text: "Los Angeles Times" undercover reporter Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher (who writes as "Jane Doe") is writing an article exposing drug trafficking on the beaches of Los Angeles. While posing as an addict, he is approached by Boyd Aviation executive vice president Alan Stanwyk, who assumes Fletch is a real junkie. Stanwyk claims to have bone cancer with only months left to live, and wishes to avoid the suffering. Stanwyk offers $50,000 for Fletch to kill him at his mansion in a few days' time, stage the scene as a burglary, then flee to Rio de Janeiro.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Fletch, not completely convinced of the truth of Stanwyk's story, agrees to the plan. Along with his colleague Larry, he begins investigating Stanwyk instead of completing his drug exposé, much to the chagrin of his authoritarian editor Frank Walker. Disguised as a doctor, Fletch accesses Stanwyk's file at the hospital and learns he does not have cancer.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Fletch visits Stanwyk's wife Gail at her tennis club. Pretending to be a tennis instructor and Alan's friend, he flirts with her during a tennis lesson. Looking into Stanwyk's finances, Fletch finds that Gail recently converted $3 million of her personal stock in Boyd Aviation into cash for her husband, to buy a ranch in Provo, Utah. Fletch travels to Provo and breaks into the realtor's office and discovers the sale price was only $3,000.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Meanwhile, LAPD Chief Jerry Karlin learns of Fletch's drug report. He warns Fletch that the article will jeopardize his undercover operation on the beach. Karlin threatens to kill Fletch unless he agrees to drop the investigation.


title: Fletch (film)

text: At the tennis club, Fletch witnesses arrogant club member Mr. Underhill shouting at a waiter, and decides as revenge to use Underhill's tab to treat Gail to an expensive lunch in her private cabana. Fletch reveals Alan's murder scheme to her and tells her the true price of the ranch.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Fletch watches Stanwyk making a suspicious briefcase exchange with Chief Karlin, but is unable to deduce the nature of their meeting. When he is chased by LAPD officers lying in wait at his apartment, Fletch goes into hiding, returning to Provo. Posing as an insurance investigator, he interviews Stanwyk's parents, learning that Stanwyk has been married to another woman for eight years; his bigamous marriage to Gail allowed him access to her vast wealth.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Fletch arrives at Stanwyk's mansion on the night of the planned murder, but finds Stanwyk waiting to kill him instead. Fletch reveals his discovery of Stanwyk's real plan to fake his own death by killing Fletch (whose skeletal build is similar to Stanwyk's) and burning his body beyond recognition, then escape to Brazil with his first wife and Gail's $3 million. Stanwyk was also using his private jet to smuggle drugs from South America to supply Chief Karlin, who blackmailed ex-convicts Fat Sam and Gummy to distribute it on the beaches. Karlin arrives unexpectedly; learning of Stanwyk's intention to flee with nearly $1 million of the Chief's drug money, he kills Stanwyk. Karlin and Fletch fight over the gun until Gail strikes Karlin from behind, rendering him unconscious.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Karlin is indicted after Fletch's article, with testimony from Fat Sam and Gummy. Fletch begins dating Gail, taking her to Rio on Stanwyk's tickets and using Underhill's American Express Card.


title: Fletch (film)

text: The film makes numerous references to Fletch's favorite team, the Los Angeles Lakers, and includes appearances by Lakers player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and play-by-play announcer Chick Hearn, as themselves.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Following the publication of Gregory Mcdonald's "Fletch" in 1974, King-Hitzig Productions acquired the novel's film rights. After multiple attempts to get cameras rolling at Columbia Pictures, production on the film stalled and the rights were eventually acquired by producer Jonathan Burrows in 1976.


title: Fletch (film)

text: After Columbia Pictures passed on the film, Burrows shopped the film around at every studio in Hollywood. Trying a new tactic, Burrows submitted the script with a different title and put it in a different colored binder. Despite these efforts, there were still no takers – even Universal Studios, the company who would eventually go on to produce and distribute it. Among the studios that rejected it between 1975 and 1981 were: New Line Cinema, Columbia, 20th Century Fox, United Artists, Warner Bros, AIP, General Cinema, CBS, EMI, Allied artists, NBC, Zanuck/Brown, Universal, Viacom, First Artists, MGM, Pathe, Paramount and Time Life Films. Burrows credits Michael Douglas (who much earlier was considered for the lead) for having the foresight and wherewithal to get the film made; his half-brother Peter Douglas ultimately co-produced the film through his film production company Vincent Pictures.


title: Fletch (film)

text: When Mcdonald's "Fletch" books were optioned, the author retained the right to veto casting choices. He rejected both Burt Reynolds and Mick Jagger as Fletch. When the studio mentioned Chevy Chase as Fletch, Mcdonald agreed, although he had never seen Chase perform.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Throughout the early stages of development, Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin and Barry Bostwick were among those considered to play Fletch. George Segal was at one point considered but turned it down. Burrows also wanted Richard Dreyfuss, after Chase initially rejected the part. Years later, Chase told Burrows that he never knew about the original offer and that it was his then manager who rejected it. In a 2004 interview with "Entertainment Weekly", Chase confirmed this was his favorite and most successful part.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Chase did not officially agree to take the role until after producer Alan Greisman and screenwriter Andrew Bergman got involved. Mcdonald sent Chase a telegram saying, "I am delighted to abdicate the role of Fletch to you." Bergman remembers that he wrote the screenplay very fast. "I did the first draft in four weeks ... Then there was a certain amount of improv, and something that we used to call dial-a-joke," said Bergman. Phil Alden Robinson also did some uncredited work on the script.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Mcdonald read the script and was angered by the deviations from his original text. He wrote to the studio and listed his many objections. Director Ritchie invited Mcdonald to the set of the film, and took him out to dinner where, according to Mcdonald, "Point by point, he showed me where I was wrong. I was beautifully chewed out."


title: Fletch (film)

text: Principal photography for "Fletch" began in May 1984. Parts of the film were shot in Salt Lake City International Airport, Provo and Orem, Utah.


title: Fletch (film)

text: According to actor Tim Matheson, "Fletch" was Chase's first film performance after cleaning up his drug problem. However, the studio hired director Michael Ritchie to keep Chase in check. During principal photography, Ritchie would do one take sticking close to the script and then another take allowing Chase to ad-lib.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Chase enjoyed the role, because it allowed him to play a wide variety of different characters. He said in an interview, "I love props, like wigs and buck-teeth and glasses. At one point I wear an Afro and play basketball with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There were some scenes where I didn't recognize myself." The comedian enjoyed working with director Ritchie, because he gave him the freedom to improvise: "It all began when [costar] Tim Matheson asked me what my name was. Right away, with a straight face: 'Ted Nugent'."


title: Fletch (film)

text: Chase recalls Ritchie as "Very intelligent. Very Tall (6'7"?) Trusting; allowing me so much freedom. Fine filmmaker!"


title: Fletch (film)

text: "Chevy was very hot," recalled Bergman. "And the great thing was that Universal always thought "Fletch" was a hit movie, and they treated it like a hit, even when the first previews weren't that good. They never got frightened. They just said this is a hit, they were selling it like a hit, and then it was a hit. That was a very fun project."


title: Fletch (film)

text: "Fletch" was released on May 31, 1985, in 1,225 theaters, debuting at second place behind "" with a gross of $7 million. It went on to make $50.6 million in North America and $9 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $59.6 million. The film performed well on home video, earning $24.4 million in rentals.


title: Fletch (film)

text: "Fletch" received generally positive reviews and has a 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 31 critics with the consensus: "Quotably funny – and fast-paced enough to smooth over the jokes that don't land – "Fletch" is one of the best big-screen vehicles for Chevy Chase's brand of smug silliness". On Metacritic it has a score of 68% based on reviews from 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Fletch (film)

text: Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four. While the plot and supporting cast were praiseworthy, Ebert thought "the central performance is an anthology of Chevy Chase mannerisms in search of a character." Vincent Canby in his review for "The New York Times" praised Chase's performance, writing, "He manages simultaneously to act the material with a good deal of nonchalance and to float above it, as if he wanted us to know that he knows that the whole enterprise is somewhat less than transcendental." "Time" magazine's Richard Schickel wrote, "In "Fletch", the quick, smartly paced, gags somehow read as signs of vulnerability. Incidentally, they add greatly to the movie's suspense. Every minute you expect the hero's loose lip to be turned into a fat one." In his review for the "Chicago Reader", Dave Kehr wrote, "Chase and Ritchie make a strong, natural combination: the union of their two flip, sarcastic personalities produces a fairly definitive example of the comic style of the 80s, grounded in detachment, underreaction, and cool contempt for rhetorically overblown authority figures."


title: Fletch (film)

text: Neil Gaiman reviewed "Fletch" for "Imagine" magazine, stating that it is "a very enjoyable detective comedy starring Chevy Chase as an undercover reporter who gets mixed up in a murder plot. Not as good as the Greg Mcdonald book it's based on."


title: Fletch (film)

text: "Fletch" was originally released on DVD in 1998, but that release quickly went out of print. Universal Home Video re-released a special edition of "Fletch" — the "Jane Doe" Edition on May 1, 2007. The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track and includes the retrospective featurettes, "Just Charge It to the Underhills: Making and Remembering Fletch," "From John Coctoastan To Harry S. Truman: The Disguises" and "Favorite Fletch Moments." IGN felt that this version was a decent replacement for anyone who still owned the film on VHS but for "anyone seeking more than that will be sadly disappointed by the ill-executed extras and slap-dash sound upgrade."


title: Fletch (film)

text: Additionally, the film was also the next-to-last to be released by Universal on the HD DVD format, March 11, 2008, and later released on Blu-ray disc on June 2, 2009.


title: Fletch (film)

text: "Fletch" became a cult film. In an interview for the "New York Post", Bergman tried to explain its appeal: "It's so bizarre, but "Fletch" strikes a chord. There's a group of movies like that in the '80s, like "Caddyshack", too, that captured a certain wise-ass thing." In particular, the film appeals to college students who have asked Chase to talk about it at film classes. The actor has said that the appeal of the character is "the cheekiness of the guy ... everybody at that age would like to be as quick-witted as Fletch, and as uncaring about what others think." Chase has said that this film is his favorite to date because "it allowed me to be myself. Fletch was the first one with me really winging it. Even though there was a script, the director allowed me to just go, and in many ways, I was directing the comedy." Perhaps the most meaningful praise comes from Mcdonald himself: "I watched it recently, and I think Chevy and Michael Ritchie did a good job with it."


title: Fletch (film)

text: In 2008, the film was voted the 23rd best film set in Los Angeles in the previous 25 years by a group of "Los Angeles Times" writers and editors, with two criteria: "The movie had to communicate some inherent truth about the L.A. experience, and only one film per director was allowed on the list."


title: Fletch (film)

text: The 2005 animated feature "Hoodwinked!", a parody of the Little Red Riding Hood story, depicts the Big Bad Wolf as a sarcastic investigative reporter in a direct parody of "Fletch", right up to the Lakers shirt, disguises, and a version of Fletch's theme playing during his scenes.


title: Fletch (film)

text: A follow-up to "Fletch Lives" had been discussed in the 1990s at Universal Studios. During his association with Universal after the production of "Mallrats" (this was because Gramercy Pictures, which released "Mallrats", was co-owned by Universal), Kevin Smith expressed interest in doing a third "Fletch" film as a sequel starring Chevy Chase but it never came to fruition. In June 2000, it was announced that Kevin Smith was set to write and direct a Fletch film at Miramax Films, after the rights to the books, which Universal Studios had owned, reverted. At the time, Miramax co-head Harvey Weinstein expressed the hope that a new "Fletch" series would be "Miramax Films' first-ever series."


title: Fletch (film)

text: After a disagreement between Chase and Smith in regard to differing levels of priority for the sequel project, Smith settled on adapting "Fletch Won", which follows Fletch in his early years as newspaper junior reporter. Smith intended to follow the novel's plot and characters much more closely than earlier Fletch films had. Filming the prequel/origin story would have allowed Smith to make the movie without Chase while still leaving the door open for him to appear in a cameo role in framing scenes and/or as narrator. Around this time, Smith mentioned Jason Lee and Ben Affleck as possible choices to play Fletch.


title: Fletch (film)

text: In August 2003, it was reported that the film was set to start shooting in January, with Smith still at the helm. Though Smith insisted on casting Lee in the lead role, Miramax head Harvey Weinstein refused to take a chance on Lee, citing the general inability of his films to gross more than $30 million at the box office. The role of Fletch remained uncast, with Smith considering a list of actors including Affleck, Brad Pitt, and Jimmy Fallon. Though Smith considered compromising and casting Zach Braff in the role, he eventually left the project in October 2005.


title: Fletch (film)

text: Smith was replaced as writer/director by "Scrubs" creator Bill Lawrence, in what would have been his directorial debut. He had enthused, "Not only can I recite the original "Fletch" movie line for line, I actually read all the Greg Mcdonald books as a kid. Consider me obsessed — I'm going to try as hard as I can not to screw this up." Lawrence was signed to direct both "Fletch Won" and a sequel. "Scrubs" star Zach Braff was rumored to be in talks for the lead role, and in January 2007, Braff posted on his web site that "Bill Lawrence is writing and directing "Fletch" in the spring and he wants me to play young Fletch, but no firm plans are in place yet. He is still writing the script." In April 2007, Braff announced that he had dropped out of the film to work on his own film, a remake of "Open Hearts". In June 2007, it was announced that Lawrence was off the project and had been replaced by Steve Pink.


title: Fletch (film)

text: In 2011, rights to the project were purchased by Warner Bros., who requested screenplays from several writers that turned out to be unsuitable. In 2013, David List, who represents the Mcdonald estate, stepped in with his own draft which proved attractive enough to engage Jason Sudeikis in the title role. The studio signed off on the screenplay, described as more of a "gritty action comedy with heart", and has begun looking for a director. In April 2015, the purposed film moved to Relativity Studios after Warner Bros. passed on the idea. However, Relativity Media went bankrupt later that year and again in 2018.


title: Fletch (film)

text: In July 2020, it was announced that a reboot was back on at Miramax. Actor Jon Hamm is spearheading the project as both star and producer, with Greg Mottola set to direct. Zev Borow is writing the film, which will be based on the second book in the "Fletch" series, "Confess, Fletch". "Confess, Fletch" began filming in June 2021.


title: Fletch (film)

text: The remake received positive reviews from critics, with particular praise being given to Jon Hamm's performance as Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher. It was released in a limited theatrical run and on premium video on demand on September 16, 2022, followed by a Showtime premiere on October 28, 2022.


title: EPAM Systems

text: EPAM Systems, Inc. ("Effective Programming for America") is an American company that specializes in service development, digital platform engineering, and digital product design, operating out of Newtown, Pennsylvania.


title: EPAM Systems

text: In 1993, Arkadiy Dobkin and Leo Lozner founded EPAM, a global software engineering services company, in New Jersey, USA and Minsk, Belarus.


title: EPAM Systems

text: In 2012, EPAM was listed on New York Stock Exchange under the moniker EPAM, becoming the first company from Belarus on NYSE.


title: EPAM Systems

text: In 2004, EPAM acquired Fathom Technology, a software development services company based in Budapest, Hungary, expanding its offshore services beyond North America. In 2006, EPAM secured an equity investment from Siguler Guff to fund its competitive growth plans.


title: EPAM Systems

text: In 2006, EPAM acquired VDI, a software development services company with delivery centers in Russia, which expanded the company’s presence in the CIS region. That year, EPAM CEO Arkadiy Dobkin was named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Consultants of the Year by "Consulting Magazine."


title: EPAM Systems

text: In late 2012, EPAM made two acquisitions – Thoughtcorp, which expanded its service offerings in Agile, business intelligence and mobile, and Empathy Lab, which established a digital engagement practice focusing on customer experience, design and eCommerce.


title: EPAM Systems

text: EPAM made two acquisitions in 2018 to expand its service offerings: Continuum (now EPAM Continuum) and TH_NK to add consulting capabilities and develop its digital and service design practices. Also that year, EPAM launched InfoNgen®, a text analytics and sentiment analysis enterprise software product that uses artificial intelligence.


title: EPAM Systems

text: The company also productized TelescopeAI®, an artificial intelligence-based platform for IT operations and workforce management, which won a 2019 Big Innovation Award presented by the Business Intelligence Group.


title: EPAM Systems

text: In 2019, EPAM joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA). That year, the company launched EPAM Continuum, its service for business, experience and technology consulting.


title: EPAM Systems

text: The company also launched EPAM SolutionsHub, a catalogue of its software products, accelerators and open source platforms. As part of its SolutionsHub launch, EPAM also released the Open Source Contributor Index (OSCI), a tool that ranks the top open-source contributors by a commercial organization.


title: EPAM Systems

text: In August 2021, EPAM expanded its presence in Latin America through the acquisition of Colombia-based S4N, a software development services firm specializing in the design and development of modern software products and enterprise platforms.


title: EPAM Systems

text: In July 2021, EPAM acquired CORE SE, a professional service provider specializing in IT strategy and technology-driven transformations, to further expand its Western European footprint in the DACH region.


title: EPAM Systems

text: In May 2021, EPAM acquired Just-BI, a Netherlands-based consultancy specializing in SAP/S4HANA and enterprise data and analytics program management.


title: EPAM Systems

text: In April 2021, EPAM acquired PolSource, a Salesforce Consulting Partner with more than 350 Salesforce specialists across the Americas and Europe.


title: EPAM Systems

text: During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, tensions between the firm's 14,000 Ukrainian employees and the 18,000 Belarusian and Russian staff sparked dissension when the CEO Arkadiy Dobkin refrained from publicly condemning Russia in a statement on LinkedIn and rejected calls to assist the Ukrainian military. According to "Forbes", Dobkin defended his statement, which didn't mention Putin, Russia or his native Belarus, saying the company could not use its infrastructure for cyberattacks and had to protect EPAM employees in Russia and Belarus from political reprisals that are common in those countries. The company paid Ukrainian staff a $1,000 emergency grant and supported Ukrainian relief efforts, including the installation of the Starlink satellite systems in Ukraine. Also, the company launched the EPAM Ukraine Assistance Fund to help Ukrainians and made a US$100 million humanitarian aid commitment. In April 2022, EPAM decided to stop operating in Russia while continuing working in Belarus.


title: Fat Mike

text: Michael John Burkett (born January 16, 1967), known professionally as Fat Mike, is an American musician and producer. He is the bassist and lead vocalist for the punk rock band NOFX and the bassist for the punk rock supergroup cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Fat Mike started out with his first band False Alarm in 1982. He credits Joe Escalante of the Vandals for introducing him to punk rock when he was 13 at a summer camp.


title: Fat Mike

text: While attending Beverly Hills High School, Mike began his musical career with the band False Alarm. After the band split up in 1983, he met Eric Melvin and Erik Sandin and formed the original line-up of NOFX. He has also appeared as a guest-vocalist on a number of other bands' tracks including "Peter Brady" on Screeching Weasel's 1993 album, "Anthem for a New Tomorrow". Other appearances include "Beware" by Randy, "Mr. Coffee" and "Lazy" by Lagwagon. Mike can also be heard heckling and requesting "Free Bird" at the end of the Lunachicks song, "Missed It," off their 1996 album, "Pretty Ugly", which he also produced. He also appears as a guest vocalist on the Dropkick Murphys single "Going Out In Style". Mike is the owner and founder of Fat Wreck Chords.


title: Fat Mike

text: Mike recorded the "Cokie the Clown" EP with NOFX, playing Cokie on both the cover of the EP and the music video for the title-track, "Cokie the Clown". In the video, Mike dresses as Cokie and puts white powder into his squirting flower, which in the song he describes as "my own special blend of X, coke, and K". Cokie then walks around Chicago squirting powder in pedestrians' faces, as chronicled in the song itself. The video was shot during the punk music festival Riot Fest.


title: Fat Mike

text: Fat Mike has made several appearances as Cokie the Clown, but one of his most memorable was at Emo's, a popular nightclub in Austin on March 20, 2010, at the South by Southwest festival. He recounted several graphic and disturbing stories about his life, and played several songs both previously released and unreleased. He also tricked several members of the audience into drinking tequila, before showing them a video of himself filling a partially full bottle of tequila to the top with urine to shocked reactions. The stunt was later revealed as a joke on NOFX's website, which showed Fat Mike switching out the urine bottle for an untainted one before making audience members drink it. Mike has since been banned from Emo's. However, in NOFX's autobiography Mike claims that the urine was indeed served to the audience.


title: Fat Mike

text: In 2015 Mike premiered a musical titled "Home Street Home" which he co-wrote with Soma Snakeoil and Jeff Marx.


title: Fat Mike

text: In 2019, Fat Mike released a solo album, in the character of Cokie the Clown, titled "You're Welcome". The album features Fat Mike as Cokie as well as Dizzy Reed (Guns N' Roses) and Travis Barker (blink 182).


title: Fat Mike

text: Fat Mike founded the website Punkvoter.com in 2004 in an effort to mobilize the punk community to vote George W. Bush out of office in that year's presidential election. He had never been very active in politics before then, admitting that he never even voted until 2000. However, he was driven into political activism because of Bush, whom he viewed as "the most ridiculous president in the history of presidents." Punkvoter.com targeted 18-to-25-year-old punk fans and other disenfranchised young people and encouraged them to vote Bush out of office. At its peak, the site was getting 15 million hits a day and ultimately raised over $1 million.


title: Fat Mike

text: As with Punkvoter.com, Mike organized the Rock Against Bush campaign to mobilize punk fans and musicians against President George W. Bush. Fat Mike's band NOFX, along with many other well-known punk artists including Alkaline Trio, Green Day, and Jello Biafra, embarked on a tour of American college campuses in the months leading up to the 2004 presidential election. Mike hoped to go beyond just protest and actually educate kids about why they should vote against Bush. At the shows, he would hand out free DVDs of "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War", a documentary that questions the Bush administration's motives in the Middle East.


title: Fat Mike

text: To coincide with the tour, Mike released two Rock Against Bush compilation albums on Fat Wreck Chords featuring new music from some of the bands on the label. The albums sold over 650,000 copies and proceeds helped fund the tour, as well as going toward magazine ads and billboards in swing states.


title: Fat Mike

text: Burkett lives in Sherman Oaks, California. He attended college at San Francisco State University and graduated in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in Social Science and a minor in Human Sexuality. According to the book "NOFX The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories", Burkett has said that he received the moniker "Fat Mike" from "one of the guys from [the band] Subculture". He is of Jewish heritage but is an atheist.


title: Fat Mike

text: He and his wife Erin divorced in 2010 after 18 years of marriage. They have a daughter named Darla. In October 2009, Mike appeared in the documentary "The Other F Word", an analysis of punk rock fatherhood.


title: Fat Mike

text: Fat Mike formerly owned a gastropub-style restaurant in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY called Thistle Hill Tavern. He has been into BDSM for years: he has had a dungeon in his house. Fat Mike has numerous tattoos, including one on his left arm that features a golfing dominatrix and her bound caddy. When discussing the NOFX song Fuck Euphemism for which he wrote the lyrics he discussed how he describes himself as queer: “I live a BDSM lifestyle and I’m a crossdresser, so it did bother me when people were calling me a cis male. I like the whole thing of defining yourself using your own terms, because I’m a punk rocker first, and then a submissive crossdressing male. The transgender community and the gay community are taking a stance on how we want to be known, and I’m going to be known as a certain way.”


title: Fat Mike

text: Fat Mike announced his engagement to adult film actress Soma Snakeoil on January 28, 2014. Mike and Soma separated August 2017.


title: Fat Mike

text: He has been vocal about assisting with his terminally ill mother's death, describing the episode in a song called "La Pieta" which is featured in NOFX's audiobook version of "The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories".


title: Fat Mike

text: On November 5, 2014, at a NOFX show in Sydney, Australia, Fat Mike had complained about a neck injury and had asked the audience not to throw objects at him and grab him while on stage as it caused him pain. While playing the song "Linoleum", a fan climbed onstage and put his arm around Mike's neck, to which Mike responded by elbowing him to the ground and then kicking him in the face. The fan suffered some bruising on his face but had no major injuries. Later, Fat Mike and the fan both apologized via Twitter. A video was released of Mike giving the fan a beer and custom T-shirt and letting him kick him with a fluffy slipper as an apology.


title: Rite of passage

text: A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisation of "rite de passage", a French term innovated by the ethnographer Arnold van Gennep in his work "Les rites de passage", "The Rites of Passage". The term is now fully adopted into anthropology as well as into the literature and popular cultures of many modern languages.


title: Rite of passage

text: "Each larger society contains within it several distinctly separate groupings. ... In addition, all these groups break down into still smaller societies in subgroups."


title: Rite of passage

text: The population of a society belongs to multiple groups, some more important to the individual than others. Van Gennep uses the metaphor, "as a kind of house divided into rooms and corridors." A passage occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another; in the metaphor, he changes rooms.


title: Rite of passage

text: Van Gennep further distinguishes between "the secular" and "the sacred sphere." Theorizing that civilizations are arranged on a scale, implying that the lower levels represent "the simplest level of development," he hypothesizes that "social groups in such a society likewise have magico-religious foundations." Many groups in modern industrial society practice customs that can be traced to an earlier sacred phase. Passage between these groups requires a ceremony, or ritual rite of passage.


title: Rite of passage

text: The rest of Van Gennep's book presents a description of rites of passage and an organization into types, although in the end he despairs of ever capturing them all: "It is but a rough sketch of an immense picture ..." He is able to find some universals, mainly two: "the sexual separation between men and women, and the magico-religious separation between the profane and the sacred." (Earlier the translators used secular for profane.) He refuses credit for being the first to recognize type of rites. In the work he concentrates on groups and rites individuals might normally encounter progressively: pregnancy, childbirth, initiation, betrothal, marriage, funerals and the like. He mentions some others, such as the territorial passage, a crossing of borders into a culturally different region, such as one where a different religion prevails.