title: Grand Tour

text: The itinerary of the Grand Tour was not set in stone, but was subject to innumerable variations, depending on an individual's interests and finances, though Paris and Rome were popular destinations for most English tourists.


title: Grand Tour

text: The most common itinerary of the Grand Tour shifted across generations, but the British tourist usually began in Dover, England, and crossed the English Channel to Ostend in Belgium, or to Calais or Le Havre in France. From there the tourist, usually accompanied by a tutor (known colloquially as a "bear-leader") and (if wealthy enough) a troop of servants, could rent or acquire a coach (which could be resold in any city – as in Giacomo Casanova's travels – or disassembled and packed across the Alps), or he could opt to make the trip by riverboat as far as the Alps, either travelling up the Seine to Paris, or up the Rhine to Basel.


title: Grand Tour

text: Upon hiring a French-speaking guide, as French was the dominant language of the elite in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, the tourist and his entourage would travel to Paris. There the traveller might undertake lessons in French, dancing, fencing, and riding. The appeal of Paris lay in the sophisticated language and manners of French high society, including courtly behavior and fashion. This served to polish the young man's manners in preparation for a leadership position at home, often in government or diplomacy.


title: Grand Tour

text: From Paris he would typically sojourn in urban Switzerland, often in Geneva (the cradle of the Protestant Reformation) or Lausanne. ("Alpinism" or mountaineering developed later, in the 19th century.) From there the traveller would endure a difficult crossing over the Alps (such as at the Great St Bernard Pass), which required dismantling the carriage and larger luggage. If wealthy enough, he might be carried over the hard terrain by servants.


title: Grand Tour

text: Once in Italy, the tourist would visit Turin (and sometimes Milan), then might spend a few months in Florence, where there was a considerable Anglo-Italian society accessible to travelling Englishmen "of quality" and where the "Tribuna" of the Uffizi gallery brought together in one space the monuments of High Renaissance paintings and Roman sculpture. After a side trip to Pisa, the tourist would move on to Padua, Bologna, and Venice. The British idea of Venice as the "locus of decadent Italianate allure" made it an epitome and cultural set piece of the Grand Tour.


title: Grand Tour

text: From Venice the traveller went to Rome to study the ancient ruins and the masterpieces of painting, sculpture, and architecture of Rome's Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. Some travellers also visited Naples to study music, and (after the mid-18th century) to appreciate the recently discovered archaeological sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and perhaps (for the adventurous) an ascent of Mount Vesuvius. Later in the period, the more adventurous, especially if provided with a yacht, might attempt Sicily to see its archeological sites, volcanoes and its baroque architecture, Malta or even Greece itself. But Naples – or later Paestum further south – was the usual terminus.


title: Grand Tour

text: Returning northward, the tourist might recross the Alps to the German-speaking parts of Europe, visiting Innsbruck, Vienna, Dresden, Berlin and Potsdam, with perhaps a period of study at the universities in Munich or Heidelberg. From there, travellers could visit Holland and Flanders (with more gallery-going and art appreciation) before returning across the Channel to England.


title: Grand Tour

text: Published accounts of the Grand Tour provided illuminating detail and an often polished first-hand perspective of the experience. Examining some accounts offered by authors in their own lifetimes, Jeremy Black detects the element of literary artifice in these and cautions that they should be approached as travel literature rather than unvarnished accounts. He lists as examples Joseph Addison, John Andrews, William Thomas Beckford (whose "Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents" was a published account of his letters back home in 1780–1781, embellished with stream-of-consciousness associations), William Coxe, Elizabeth Craven, John Moore, tutor to successive dukes of Hamilton, Samuel Jackson Pratt, Tobias Smollett, Philip Thicknesse, and Arthur Young.


title: Grand Tour

text: Although Italy was written as the "sink of iniquity", many travelers were not kept from recording the activities they participated in or the people they met, especially the women they encountered. To the Grand Tourists, Italy was an unconventional country, for "The shameless women of Venice made it unusual, in its own way." Sir James Hall confided in his written diary to comment on seeing "more handsome women this day than I ever saw in my life", also noting "how flattering Venetian dress [was] — or perhaps the lack of it".


title: Grand Tour

text: Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Italian women, with their unfamiliar methods and routines, were opposites to the western dress expected of European women in the eighteenth and nineteenth century; their "foreign" ways led to the documentation of encounters with them, providing published accounts of the Grand Tour.


title: Grand Tour

text: James Boswell in the 18th century courted noble ladies and recorded his progress with his relationships, mentioning that Madame Micheli "Talked of religion, philosophy... Kissed hand often." The promiscuity of Boswell's encounters with Italian elite are shared in his diary and provide further detail on events that occurred during the Grand Tour. Boswell notes "Yesterday morning with her. Pulled up petticoat and showed whole knees... Touched with her goodness. All other liberties exquisite." He describes his time with the Italian women he encounters and shares a part of history in his written accounts.


title: Grand Tour

text: Lord Byron's letters to his mother with the accounts of his travels have also been published from the early 19th century. Byron spoke of his first enduring Venetian love, his landlord's wife, mentioning that he has "fallen in love with a very pretty Venetian of two and twenty — with great black eyes — she is married — and so am I — we have found & sworn an eternal attachment ... & I am more in love than ever... and I verily believe we are one of the happiest unlawful couples on this side of the Alps." Many tourists enjoyed sexual relations while abroad but to a great extent were well behaved, such as Thomas Pelham, and scholars, such as Richard Pococke, who wrote lengthy letters of their Grand Tour experiences.


title: Grand Tour

text: Inventor Sir Francis Ronalds' journals and sketches of his 1818–20 tour to Europe and the Near East have been published online. The letters written by sisters Mary and Ida Saxton of Canton, Ohio in 1869 while on a six-month tour offer insight into the Grand Tour tradition from an American perspective.


title: Grand Tour

text: Immediately following the American Civil War U.S. author and humorist Mark Twain undertook a decidedly modest yet greatly aspiring "grand tour" of Europe, the Middle East, and the Holy Land, which he chronicled in his highly popular satire "Innocents Abroad" in 1867. Not only was it the best-selling of Twain's works during his lifetime, it became one of the best-selling travel books of all time.


title: Grand Tour

text: Margaret Mitchell's American Civil War-based novel, Gone With The Wind, makes reference to the Grand Tour. Stuart Tartleton, in a conversation with his twin brother, Brent, suspects that their mother is not likely to provide them with a Grand Tour, since they have been expelled from college again. Brent is not concerned, remarking, "What is there to see in Europe? I'll bet those foreigners can't show us a thing we haven't got right here in Georgia". Ashley Wilkes, on the other hand, enjoyed the scenery and music he encountered on his Grand Tour and was always talking about it.


title: Grand Tour

text: In 1998, the BBC produced an art history series "Sister Wendy's Grand Tour" presented by British Carmelite nun Sister Wendy. Ostensibly an art history series, the journey takes her from Madrid to Saint Petersburg with stop-offs to see the great masterpieces.


title: Grand Tour

text: In 2005, British art historian Brian Sewell followed in the footsteps of the Grand Tourists for a 10-part television series "Brian Sewell's Grand Tour". Produced by UK's Channel Five, Sewell travelled by car and confined his attention solely to Italy stopping in Rome, Florence, Naples, Pompeii, Turin, Milan, Cremona, Siena, Bologna, Vicenza, Paestum, Urbino, Tivoli and concluding at a Venetian masked ball. Material relating to this can be found in the Brian Sewell Archive held by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.


title: Grand Tour

text: In 2009, the Grand Tour featured prominently in a BBC/PBS miniseries based on "Little Dorrit" by Charles Dickens. Set mainly in Venice, it portrayed the Grand Tour as a rite of passage.


title: Grand Tour

text: Kevin McCloud presented "Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour" on Channel 4 in 2009 with McCloud retracing the tours of British architects.


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: I See You is a 2019 American horror thriller film directed by Adam Randall from a screenplay by Devon Graye. The film stars Helen Hunt, Jon Tenney, and Judah Lewis.


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: "I See You" premiered at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival and was released on December 6, 2019, to generally positive reviews.


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: Ten-year-old Justin Whitter is abducted while riding his bicycle through a park. Greg Harper is made lead detective on the case, assisted by Detective Spitzky. A green pocket knife is found at the scene, connecting the crime to a series of abductions committed 15 years prior by a man named Cole Gordon, who is now in prison. Greg's family life is in ruins after his wife Jackie had an affair. Their only child, Connor remains deeply resentful towards her since he learned of the affair.


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: Greg and Spitzky are called in by the chief. She informs them that Cole is pushing for a mistrial in light of the new abductions. They go to speak with Braun, one of Cole's two surviving victims, but he becomes hysterical when he sees them. Mysterious events start to occur in the Harper house: silverware goes missing, a television turns on by itself, pictures are removed from their frames, a repairman tells Jackie he was let in by her daughter, and Greg is trapped in a closet.


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: Jackie is visited by her former lover, Todd, who is intent on continuing the affair. After he is hit in the head by a mug that Jackie assumes Conner threw from upstairs, she hides Todd in the basement and takes Connor to school. Todd is attacked by an unknown assailant and Jackie returns home to find him dead. She panics, assuming Connor has killed him. She and Greg bury his body.


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: Back at home, Connor hears a clanging noise coming from the utility room and discovers the missing silverware wrapped in clothing in the washing machine. He then receives a bizarre message on his computer as a person wearing a mask appears behind him. Greg and Jackie return home to find Connor tied up in the bathtub, with a green pocket knife next to him. Jackie takes Connor to the hospital while Greg searches the house.


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: The film jumps back in time and reveals that the mysterious happenings in the house were being caused by two homeless people, Mindy and Alec, who have been "phrogging" (hiding in houses unbeknownst to the owners) in the Harper home. Mindy is experienced and tries to keep a low profile so that she never gets caught, but Alec decides he wants to make the family believe they are going insane. Mindy witnesses Greg killing Todd and goes to alert Alec, only to see him tying Connor up. She tells Alec she is calling the police, but he pushes her down the stairs, rendering her unconscious. Alec then hides her in Greg's car. After Jackie leaves to take Connor to the hospital, Greg drives away his car, unknowingly taking Mindy with him.


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: Mindy awakens in the trunk of the car. She searches Greg's bag and finds multiple green pocket knives and Justin's shirt, revealing Greg is the kidnapper. When he parks in the forest, Mindy sneaks out and tries to call 911 to no avail. She comes across an old trailer where Justin and Michael are trapped. As she tries to free them, Greg ambushes her, takes her back to his house, and shoots her dead. Alec attacks Greg, disarming him. Greg knocks Alec out, then stabs himself to make it seem like he's been attacked.


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: Alec recovers consciousness, grabs Greg's gun, and kills him. Spitzky arrives and shoots Alec in the shoulder. Alec says Spitzky's name and Spitzky recognizes him. Jackie and Connor arrive home to find it swarming with police. Spitzky discovers the bag of evidence in Greg's car and the two boys are rescued from the trailer. As Alec is carried to an ambulance, flashbacks show a younger Alec and Braun encountering Greg, implying that Alec was the other surviving child.


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: Helen Hunt joined the cast in June 2017. Principal photography took place in May 2018 around Chagrin Falls, Cleveland and Lakewood, Ohio.


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: The film had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, in the Midnighters section, on March 13, 2019. It was released in theaters by Saban Films on December 6, 2019, and on VOD by Cinema Epoch Video on December 3, 2019.


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: The film holds approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews, and an average rating of . The site's consensus reads: ""I See You" gets tripped up on its own narrative contortions, but a solid cast and an effective blend of scares and suspense make this slow-building mystery worth watching." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: I See You (2019 film)

text: Dennis Harvey in "Variety" described the film as "an eerie suspense exercise that starts out looking like a supernatural tale — one of several viewer presumptions this cleverly engineered narrative eventually pulls the rug out from under." Stephen Dalton of "The Hollywood Reporter" stated, ""I See You" is such a finely crafted exercise in slow-burn suspense that its loopy plot contortions only seem absurd in retrospect," and elaborated, "actor turned first-time screenwriter Devon Graye's tricksy script keeps audiences on their toes with all this multi-viewpoint misdirection, so much so that most will be caught off-guard by further major reveals."


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic varieties, the historical English sound is preserved in all pronunciation contexts. In non-rhotic varieties, speakers no longer pronounce in postvocalic environments—that is, when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel. For example, in isolation, a rhotic English speaker pronounces the words "hard" and "butter" as and , whereas a non-rhotic speaker "drops" or "deletes" the sound, pronouncing them as and . When an "r" is at the end of a word but the next word begins with a vowel, as in the phrase "bette"r a"pples", most non-rhotic speakers will pronounce the in that position (the linking R), since it is followed by a vowel in this case.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The rhotic varieties of English include the dialects of South West England, Scotland, Ireland, and most of the United States and Canada. The non-rhotic varieties include most of the dialects of modern England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In some varieties, such as those of some parts of the southern and northeastern United States, rhoticity is a sociolinguistic variable: postvocalic "r" is deleted depending on an array of social factors, such as being more correlated today with lower socioeconomic status, greater age, certain ethnic identities, and less formal speaking contexts.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Evidence from written documents suggests that loss of postvocalic /r/ began sporadically during the mid-15th century, although these /r/-less spellings were uncommon and were restricted to private documents, especially ones written by women. In the mid-18th century, postvocalic /r/ was still pronounced in most environments, but by the 1740s to 1770s it was often deleted entirely, especially after low vowels. By the early 19th century, the southern British standard was fully transformed into a non-rhotic variety, though some variation persisted as late as the 1870s.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The loss of postvocalic in British English influenced southern and eastern American port cities with close connections to Britain, causing their upper-class pronunciation to become non-rhotic while the rest of the United States remained rhotic. Non-rhotic pronunciation continued to influence American prestige speech until the 1860s, when the American Civil War began to shift America's centers of wealth and political power to rhotic areas with fewer cultural connections to the old colonial and British elites. Rhotic speech in particular became prestigious in the United States rapidly after the Second World War, reflected in the national standard of radio and television since the mid-20th century embracing historical .


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The earliest traces of a loss of in English appear in the early 15th century and occur before coronal consonants, especially , giving modern "ass" 'buttocks' (Old English "ears", Middle English "ers" or "ars"), and "bass" (the fish type) (OE "bærs", ME "bars"). A second phase of -loss began during the 15th century and was characterized by sporadic and lexically variable deletion, such as "monyng" 'morning' and "cadenall" 'cardinal'. These -less spellings appeared throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, but they were uncommon and were restricted to private documents, especially ones written by women. No English authorities described loss of in the standard language before the mid-18th century, and many did not fully accept it until the 1790s.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: During the mid-17th century, several sources described as being weakened but still present. The English playwright Ben Jonson's "English Grammar", published posthumously in 1640, recorded that was "sounded firme in the beginning of words, and more liquid in the middle, and ends." The next major documentation of the pronunciation of appeared a century later, in 1740, when the British author of a primer for French students of English said that "in many words "r" before a consonant is greatly softened, almost mute, and slightly lengthens the preceding vowel."


title: Rhoticity in English

text: By the 1770s, postvocalic -less pronunciation was becoming common around London even in formal educated speech. The English actor and linguist John Walker used the spelling "ar" to indicate the long vowel of "aunt" in his 1775 rhyming dictionary. In his influential "Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language" (1791), Walker reported, with a strong tone of disapproval, that "the "r" in "lard", "bard"... is pronounced so much in the throat as to be little more than the middle or Italian "a", lengthened into "baa", "baad"..." Americans returning to England after the American Revolutionary War, which lasted from 1775 to 1783, reported surprise at the significant changes in fashionable pronunciation that had taken place.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: By the early 19th century, the southern English standard had been fully transformed into a non-rhotic variety, although it continued to be variable in the 1870s. The extent of rhoticity in England in the mid-19th century is summarized as widespread in the book "New Zealand English: its Origins and Evolution":


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In the late 19th century, Alexander John Ellis found evidence of accents being overwhelmingly rhotic in urban areas which are now firmly non-rhotic, such as Birmingham and the Black Country, and Wakefield in West Yorkshire.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The Survey of English Dialects in the 1950s and '60s recorded rhotic or partially rhotic accents in almost every part of England, including in the counties of West Yorkshire, East Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cumbria, and Kent, where rhoticity has since disappeared.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The loss of postvocalic in the British prestige standard in the late 18th and the early 19th centuries influenced American port cities with close connections to Britain, causing upper-class pronunciation to become non-rhotic in many eastern and southern port cities such as New York City, Boston, Alexandria, Charleston, and Savannah. Like regional dialects in England, however, the accents of other areas in America remained rhotic in a display of linguistic "lag" that preserved the original pronunciation of .


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Non-rhotic pronunciation continued to influence American prestige speech until the 1860s, when the American Civil War shifted America's centers of wealth and political power to areas with fewer cultural connections to the old colonial and British elites. This largely removed the prestige associated with non-rhotic pronunciation in America. The standard broadcasting pronunciation of national radio and television in the early 20th century favored rhoticity, aligning more with Midwestern and non-coastal Americans, and thus preserving historical . The increased prestige of rhotic American accents only further accelerated after the Second World War.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In most non-rhotic accents, if a word ending in written "r" is followed immediately by a word beginning with a vowel, the is pronounced, as in "water ice". That phenomenon is referred to as "linking R". Many non-rhotic speakers also insert an epenthetic between vowels when the first vowel is one that can occur before syllable-final "r" ("drawring" for "drawing"). The so-called "intrusive R" has been stigmatized, but many speakers of Received Pronunciation (RP) now frequently "intrude" an epenthetic at word boundaries, especially if one or both vowels is schwa. For example, "the idea of it" becomes "the idea-r-of it", "Australia and New Zealand" becomes "Australia-r-and New Zealand", the formerly well-known "India-r-Office" and "Laura Norder" (Law and Order). The typical alternative used by RP speakers (and some rhotic speakers as well) is to insert a glottal stop wherever an intrusive R would otherwise have been placed.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: For non-rhotic speakers, what was historically a vowel, followed by , is now usually realized as a long vowel. That is called compensatory lengthening, which occurs after the elision of a sound. In RP and many other non-rhotic accents "card, fern, born" are thus pronounced , , or similar (actual pronunciations vary from accent to accent). That length may be retained in phrases and so "car" pronounced in isolation is , but "car owner" is . However, a final schwa usually remains short and so "water" in isolation is . In RP and similar accents, the vowels and (or ), when they are followed by "r", become diphthongs that end in schwa and so "near" is and "poor" is . However, they have other realizations as well, including monophthongal ones. Once again, the pronunciations vary from accent to accent. The same happens to diphthongs followed by "r", but they may be considered to end in rhotic speech in , which reduces to schwa, as usual, in non-rhotic speech. Thus, in isolation, "tire", is pronounced and "sour" is . For some speakers, some long vowels alternate with a diphthong ending in schwa and so "wear" may be but "wearing" .


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The compensatory lengthening view is challenged by Wells, who stated that during the 17th century, stressed vowels followed by and another consonant or word boundary underwent a lengthening process, known as pre-r lengthening. The process was not a compensatory lengthening process but an independent development, which explains modern pronunciations featuring both ("bird", "fur") and ("stirring", "stir it") according to their positions: was the regular outcome of the lengthening, which shortened to after r-dropping occurred in the 18th century. The lengthening involved "mid and open short vowels" and so the lengthening of in "car" was not a compensatory process caused by r-dropping.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Even General American speakers commonly drop the in non-final unstressed syllables if another syllable in the same word also contains , which may be referred to as "r-dissimilation". Examples include the dropping of the first in the words "surprise", "governor", and "caterpillar". In more careful speech, however, all sounds are still retained.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Rhotic accents include most varieties of Scottish English, Irish or Hiberno-English, Canadian English, American English, Barbadian English and Philippine English.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Non-rhotic accents include most varieties of English English, Welsh English, New Zealand English, Australian English, South African English, Trinidadian and Tobagonian English, Standard Malaysian English and Singaporean English.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Semi-rhotic accents have also been studied, such as Jamaican English, in which "r" is pronounced (as in even non-rhotic accents) before vowels, but also in stressed monosyllables or stressed syllables at the ends of words (e.g. in "car" or "dare"); however, it is not pronounced at the end of unstressed syllables (e.g. in "water") or before consonants (e.g. "market").


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Variably rhotic accents are also widely documented, in which deletion of "r" (when not before vowels) is optional; in these dialects the probability of deleting "r" may vary depending on social, stylistic, and contextual factors. Variably rhotic accents comprise much of Indian English, Pakistani English, and Caribbean English, for example, as spoken in Tobago, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, and the Bahamas. They also include current-day New York City English, most modern varieties of Southern American English, New York Latino English, and some Boston English, as well as some varieties of Scottish English.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Non-rhotic accents in the Americas include those of the rest of the Caribbean and Belize. Additionally, there are people with non-rhotic accents who are children of at least one rhotic-accented parent but grew up, or were educated, in non-rhotic countries like Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, or Wales. By contrast, people who have at least one non-rhotic-accented parent but were raised, or started their education, in Canada, any rhotic Caribbean country, Ireland, Scotland, or the United States, speak with rhotic accents.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Though most English varieties in England are non-rhotic today, stemming from a trend toward this in southeastern England accelerating in the very late 18th century onwards, rhotic accents are still found in the West Country (south and west of a line from near Shrewsbury to around Portsmouth), the Corby area (due to migration from Scotland in the 1930s), some of Lancashire (north and west of the centre of Manchester, increasingly among older and rural speakers only), some parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and in the areas that border Scotland. The prestige form, however, exerts a steady pressure toward non-rhoticity. Thus the urban speech of Bristol or Southampton is more accurately described as variably rhotic, the degree of rhoticity being reduced as one moves up the class and formality scales.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Most Scottish accents are rhotic, but non-rhotic speech has been reported in Edinburgh since the 1970s and Glasgow since the 1980s.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Welsh English is mostly non-rhotic, however variably rhotic accents are present in accents influenced by Welsh, especially in North Wales. Additionally, while Port Talbot English is largely non-rhotic, some speakers may supplant the front vowel of "bird" with .


title: Rhoticity in English

text: American English is predominantly rhotic today, but at the end of the 1800s non-rhotic accents were common throughout much of the coastal Eastern and Southern U.S., including along the Gulf Coast. In fact, non-rhotic accents were established in all major U.S. cities along the Atlantic coast except for the Delaware Valley area, with its early Scots-Irish influence, centered around Philadelphia and Baltimore. Since the American Civil War and even more intensely during the early to mid-1900s (presumably correlated with the Second World War), rhotic accents began to gain social prestige nationwide, even in the aforementioned traditionally non-rhotic areas. Thus, non-rhotic accents are increasingly perceived by Americans as sounding foreign or less educated due to an association with working-class or immigrant speakers in Eastern and Southern cities, while rhotic accents are increasingly perceived as sounding more "General American".


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Today, non-rhoticity in the American South among whites is found primarily among older speakers, and only in some areas such as central and southern Alabama; Savannah, Georgia; and Norfolk, Virginia, as well as in the "Yat" accent of New Orleans. However it is still very common all across the South and across all age groups among African American speakers. The local dialects of eastern New England, especially Boston, Massachusetts, extending into the states of Maine and (less so) New Hampshire, show some non-rhoticity, as well as the traditional Rhode Island dialect; however, this feature has been receding in the recent generations. The New York City dialect is traditionally non-rhotic, though William Labov more precisely classifies its current form as variably rhotic, with many of its sub-varieties now fully rhotic, such as in northeastern New Jersey.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is largely non-rhotic, and in some non-rhotic Southern and AAVE accents, there is no linking "r", that is, at the end of a word is deleted even when the following word starts with a vowel, so that "Mister Adams" is pronounced . In a few such accents, intervocalic is deleted before an unstressed syllable even within a word when the following syllable begins with a vowel. In such accents, pronunciations like for "Carolina", or for "bear up" are heard. This pronunciation also occurs in AAVE and also occurred for many older non-rhotic Southern speakers. Nonetheless, AAVE spoken in areas where non-AAVE speakers are rhotic is likelier to be rhotic, and rhoticity is also generally commoner among young AAVE speakers.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Typically, even non-rhotic modern varieties of American English pronounce the in (as in "bird," "work," or "perky") and realize it, as in most rhotic varieties, as (an r-colored mid central vowel) or (a sequence of a mid central vowel and a postalveolar or retroflex approximant).


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Canadian English is entirely rhotic except for small isolated areas in southwestern New Brunswick, parts of Newfoundland, and the Lunenburg English variety spoken in Lunenburg and Shelburne Counties, Nova Scotia, which may be non-rhotic or variably rhotic.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The prestige form of English spoken in Ireland is rhotic and most regional accents are rhotic although some regional accents, particularly in the area around counties Louth and Cavan are notably non-rhotic and many non-prestige accents have touches of non-rhoticity. In Dublin, the traditional local dialect is largely non-rhotic but the more modern varieties, referred to by Hickey as "mainstream Dublin English" and "fashionable Dublin English", are fully rhotic. Hickey used this as an example of how English in Ireland does not follow prestige trends in England.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The English spoken in Asia is predominantly rhotic. In the case of the Philippines, this may be explained because the English that is spoken there is heavily influenced by the American dialect and because of Spanish influence in the various Philippine languages. In addition, many East Asians (in Mainland China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan) who have a good command of English generally have rhotic accents because of the influence of American English. This excludes Hong Kong, whose English dialect is a result of its almost 150-year history as a British Crown colony (and later, a British dependent territory). The lack of consonant /r/ in Cantonese also contributes to the phenomenon (although rhoticity started to exist due to the handover in 1997 and influence by US and East Asian entertainment industry). However, many older (and younger) speakers among South and East Asians have a non-rhotic accent. Speakers of Semitic (Arabic, Hebrew, etc), Turkic (Turkish, Azeri, etc), Iranian languages (Persian, Kurdish, etc) in West Asia would also speak English with a rhotic pronunciation due to the inherent phonotactics of their native languages.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Indian English is variably rhotic, and can vary between being non-rhotic due to most education systems being based on British English or rhotic due to the underlying phonotactics of the native Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages and the influence of American English. Other Asian regions with non-rhotic English are Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. A typical Malaysian's English would be almost totally non-rhotic due to the nonexistence of rhotic endings in both languages of influence, whereas a more educated Malaysian's English may be non-rhotic due to Standard Malaysian English being based on RP (Received Pronunciation). The classical English spoken in Brunei is non-rhotic. But one current change that seems to be taking place is that Brunei English is becoming rhotic, partly influenced by American English and partly influenced by the rhoticity of Standard Malay, also influenced by languages of Indians in Brunei (Tamil and Punjabi) (rhoticity is also used by Chinese Bruneians), although English in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore remains non-rhotic; rhoticity in Brunei English is equal to Philippine dialects of English and Scottish and Irish dialects. Non-rhoticity is mostly found in older generations, its phenomenon is almost similar to the status of American English, wherein non-rhoticity reduced greatly.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: A typical teenager's Southeast Asian English would be rhotic, mainly because of prominent influence by American English. Spoken English in Myanmar is non-rhotic, but there are a number of English speakers with a rhotic or partially rhotic pronunciation. Sri Lankan English may be rhotic.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The English spoken in most of Africa is based on RP and is generally non-rhotic. Pronunciation and variation in African English accents are largely affected by native African language influences, level of education and exposure to Western influences. The English accents spoken in the coastal areas of West Africa are primarily non-rhotic as are the underlying varieties of Niger-Congo languages spoken in that part of West Africa. Rhoticity may be present in English spoken in areas where rhotic Afro-Asiatic or Nilo Saharan languages are spoken across northern West Africa and in the Nilotic regions of East Africa. More modern trends show an increasing American influence on African English pronunciation particularly among younger urban affluent populations, where the American rhotic 'r' may be over-stressed in informal communication to create a pseudo-Americanised accent. By and large official spoken English used in post colonial African countries is non-rhotic. Standard Liberian English is also non-rhotic because liquids are lost at the end of words or before consonants. South African English is mostly non-rhotic, especially Cultivated dialect based on RP, except for some Broad varieties spoken in the Cape Province (typically in -"er" suffixes, as in "writer"). It appears that postvocalic is entering the speech of younger people under the influence of American English, and maybe an influence of Scottish dialect brought by Scottish settlers.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Standard Australian English is non-rhotic. A degree of rhoticity has been observed in a particular sublect of Australian Aboriginal English spoken on the coast of South Australia, especially in speakers from the Point Pearce and Raukkan settlements. These speakers realise /r/ as [ɹ] in the preconsonantal postvocalic position – after a vowel but before another a consonant – but only within stems. For example: [boːɹd] "board", [tʃɜɹtʃ] "church", [pɜɹθ] "Perth"; but [flæː] "flour", [dɒktə] "doctor", [jɪəz] "years". It has been speculated that this feature may derive from the fact that many of the first settlers in coastal South Australia – including Cornish tin-miners, Scottish missionaries, and American whalers – spoke rhotic varieties.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Although New Zealand English is predominantly non-rhotic, Southland and parts of Otago in the far south of New Zealand's South Island are rhotic from apparent Scottish influence. Many Māori and Pasifika people, who tend to speak a specific dialect of English (which is not limited to them) also speak with strong Rs. Older Southland speakers use variably after vowels, but today younger speakers use only with the vowel and occasionally with the vowel. Younger Southland speakers pronounce in "third term" (General NZE pronunciation: ) but sometimes in "farm cart" (same as in General NZE). However, non-prevocalic among non-rhotic speakers is sometimes pronounced in a few words, including "Ireland" , "merely" , "err" , and the name of the letter R (General NZE pronunciations: ). The Māori accent varies from the European-origin New Zealand accent; some Māori speakers are semi-rhotic, although it is not clearly identified to any particular region or attributed to any defined language shift. The Māori language itself tends in most cases to use an r with an alveolar tap , like Scottish dialect.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Some phonemic mergers are characteristic of non-rhotic accents. These usually include one item that historically contained an R (lost in the non-rhotic accent), and one that never did so.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: This merger is present in non-rhotic accents which have undergone the weak vowel merger. Such accents include Australian, New Zealand, most South African speech, and some non-rhotic English speech (e.g. Norfolk, Sheffield). The third edition of "Longman Pronunciation Dictionary" lists (and mentioned below) as possible (though less common than and ) British pronunciations, which means that the merger is an option even in RP.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: A large number of homophonous pairs involve the syllabic "-es" and agentive "-ers" suffixes, such as "merges-mergers" and "bleaches-bleachers". Because there are so many, they are excluded from the list of homophonous pairs below.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: A merger of and occurring for some speakers of Jamaican English making "bud" and "bird" homophones as . The conversion of to or is also found in places scattered around England and Scotland. Some speakers, mostly rural, in the area from London to Norfolk exhibit this conversion, mainly before voiceless fricatives. This gives pronunciation like "first" and "worse" . The word "cuss" appears to derive from the application of this sound change to the word "curse". Similarly, "lurve" is coined from "love".


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In the terminology of John C. Wells, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets and . It is found in all or nearly all non-rhotic accents and is present even in some accents that are in other respects rhotic, such as those of some speakers in Jamaica and the Bahamas.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In some accents, syllabification may interact with rhoticity and result in homophones for which non-rhotic accents have centering diphthongs. Possibilities include "Korea–career", "Shi'a–sheer", and "Maia–mire", and "skua" may be identical with the second syllable of "obscure".


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The merger of the lexical sets , and is possible in Jamaican English and partially also in Northern East Anglian English.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In Jamaica, the merger occurs after deletion of the postvocalic in a preconsonantal position, so that "fade" can be homophonous with "feared" as , but "day" is normally distinct from "dear" , though vowels in both words can be analyzed as belonging to the same phoneme (followed by in the latter case, so that the merger of and / does not occur). In Jamaican Patois, the merged vowel is an opening diphthong and that realization can also be heard in Jamaican English, mostly before a sounded (so that "fare" and "fear" can be both and ), but sometimes also in other positions. Alternatively, can be laxed to before a sounded , which produces a variable Mary-merry merger: .


title: Rhoticity in English

text: It is possible in northern East Anglian varieties (to ), but only in the case of items descended from ME , such as "daze". Those descended from ME (such as "days"), and have a distinctive vowel. The merger appears to be receding, as items descended from ME are being transferred to the class; in other words, a pane-pain merger is taking place. In the southern dialect area, the pane-pain merger is complete and all three vowels are distinct: is , is and is .


title: Rhoticity in English

text: A near-merger of and is possible in General South African English, but the vowels typically remain distinct as (for ) and (for ). The difference between the two phonemes is so sometimes subtle that "they're" can be misheard as "they" (see zero copula). In other varieties the difference is more noticeable, e.g. vs. in Broad SAE and vs. in the Cultivated variety. Even in General SAE, can be or , strongly distinguished from . remains distinct in all varieties, typically as . Kevin Watson reports basically the same, subtle distinction between in and in in Scouse. The latter is used not only for but also in the set, so that "fur" is homophonous with "fair" as - see square-nurse merger. The vowel is not necessarily as front/close as this and pronunciations such as and also occur, with being the more traditional variant.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In the Cardiff dialect can also be similar to cardinal (though long , as in South Africa), but typically has a fully close ending point and thus the vowels are more distinct than in the General South African accent. An alternative realization of the former is an open-mid monophthong . Formerly, was sometimes realized as a narrow diphthong , but this has virtually disappeared by the 1990s. is phonemically distinct, normally as before any (a fleece-near merger) and a disyllabic elsewhere.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In Geordie, the merger of and is recessive and has never been categorical ( has always been a distinct vowel), as can instead be pronounced as the closing diphthong or, more commonly, the close-mid front monophthong . The latter is the most common choice for younger speakers who tend to reject the centering diphthongs for , which categorically undoes the merger for those speakers. Even when is realized as an opening-centering diphthong, it may be distinguished from by the openness of the first element: or for vs. for .


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Some of the words listed below may have different forms in traditional Geordie. For the sake of simplicity, the merged vowel is transcribed with . For a related merger not involving , see near-square merger.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In Wells' terminology, the father–farther merger consists of the merger of the lexical sets and . It is found in the speech of the great majority of non-rhotic speakers, including those of England, Wales, the United States, the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It may be absent in some non-rhotic speakers in the Bahamas.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Minimal pairs are rare in accents without the father-bother merger. In non-rhotic British English (especially the varieties without the trap-bath split) and, to a lesser extent, Australian English, most commonly corresponds to in American English, therefore it is most commonly spelled with . In most non-rhotic American English (that includes non-rhotic Rhode Island, New York City, some Southern U.S., and some African-American accents), the spelling is equally common in non-word-final positions due to the aforementioned father-bother merger. Those accents have the god-guard merger (a merger of and ) in addition to the father–farther merger, yielding a three-way homophony between "calmer" (when pronounced without ), "comma" and "karma", though minimal triplets like this are scarce.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The foot–goose–thought–north–force merger occurs in cockney in fast speech in the word-final position (as long as the historical sequence in the syllable coda is analyzed as ; see Merger of non-prevocalic , , , with and THOUGHT split) and possibly also in the unstressed syllables of compounds (such as "airborne" ), in both cases towards the of . It renders "coup" homophonous with "call" as . The distinction is always recoverable, and the vowels are readily distinguished by length (or length and quality) in more deliberate speech: for , for and, in the non-final positions alone, for . In addition, the allophone of is rather similar to monophthongal (), but the former has a weaker rounding and it is unclear whether the two are ever confused.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: It is unclear whether a contrastive vowel participates in the merger with , which is why it is not mentioned in its name. The cure-force merger is common in cockney, and at least in morphologically open syllables, the cure-force–merged vowel is (the open variety of ). It merges with in fast speech, not - see lot–thought–north–force merger. In morphologically closed syllables, is neutralized with in fast speech whenever the cure-force merger applies.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The goat–thought–north–force merger is a merger of the lexical sets on the one hand and , and on the other. It occurs in certain non-rhotic varieties of British English, such as Bradford English and Geordie (particularly among females). The phonetic outcome of the merger is an open-mid monophthong in Bradford.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In cockney, the –– vowel in morphologically closed syllables (transcribed by Wells as ) sometimes approaches the pre-lateral variant of (transcribed by Wells as , see wholly-holy split). Thus, "bawling" and "bowling" can be nearly homophonous, though "bawling" can be or instead.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The dough–door merger is a merger of and alone. It may be found in some southern U.S. non-rhotic speech, some speakers of African-American English and some speakers in Guyana and Northern Wales. In Northern Wales, a complete goat–thought–north–force merger is sometimes encountered, though this requires further study. In either case, the merger in Welsh English applies only to the items descended from Early Modern English , see toe-tow merger.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The goat–comma-letter merger is a merger of EME and with and . It analogous to the weak vowel merger, and like it occurs only in unstressed positions. In cockney, the merged vowel is usually , so that "yellow" is homophonous with "yeller" as (phonemically ). The mid occurs in other non-rhotic accents. An r-colored occurs instead in parts of the west of England and in Appalachian English, preserving the Middle English phonotactic constraint against final : . In those dialects, the final (as in "data" and "sofa") is distinct, yielding a goat-letter merger. Both are restricted to the broadest varieties of English.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In RP, there are certain prefixes such as "crypto-", "electro-" and "socio-" that have a free variation between and before consonants, although in some words the unreduced is preferred. Before vowels, only occurs.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In cockney, the unstressed vowel joins this neutralization in fast speech, so that "foreword" is variably neutralized with "forward" as . There are almost no minimal pairs to illustrate that merger.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The lot–thought–north–force merger occurs in cockney in fast speech (though only in the morpheme-final position in the case of //; in the morpheme-internal position is used instead - see thought split), so that "ignored" may rhyme with "nod" as vs. . The distinction is always recoverable, and the vowels are readily distinguished by length (or length and quality) in more deliberate speech: or vs. or . Because of the cure-force merger, some of the words also join this neutralization. The lot-thought-north merger (with a distinct vowel ) may be also present in some Eastern New England accents.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: A complete merger of with can be alternatively called the "shot-short merger". The name is inappropriate in the case of cockney, where "short" is always distinct from "shot" . Therefore, the columns labelled as "morpheme-internal" always have a distinct vowel in cockney. Unlike the vowel itself, this neutralization is not restricted to morphologically closed syllables; in morphologically open syllables, // and can also have an -like quality, merge to or stay distinct as vs. . Morpheme-internal (including whenever the cure-force merger applies) and any can neutralize with in fast speech.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In Wells' terminology, the pawn–porn merger consists of the merger of the lexical sets and . It is found in most of the same accents as the "father–farther" merger described above, but is absent from the Bahamas and Guyana.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Labov et al. suggest that, in New York City English, this merger is present in perception not production. As in, although even locals perceive themselves using the same vowel in both cases, they tend to produce the / vowel higher and more retracted than the vowel of .


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Most speakers with the pawn-porn merger also have the same vowels in "caught" and "court" (a merger of and ), yielding a three-way merger of "awe"-"or"-"ore/oar" (see horse-hoarse merger). These include the accents of Southern England (but see THOUGHT split), non-rhotic New York City speakers, Trinidad and the Southern hemisphere.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: The lot-cloth split coupled with those mergers produces a few more homophones, such as "boss–bourse". Specifically, the phonemic merger of the words "often" and "orphan" was a running gag in the Gilbert and Sullivan musical, "The Pirates of Penzance".


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets and . It is found in those non-rhotic accents containing the "caught"–"court" merger that have also undergone the pour–poor merger. Wells lists it unequivocally only for the accent of Trinidad, but it is an option for non-rhotic speakers in England, Australia and New Zealand. Such speakers have a potential four-way merger "taw"–"tor"–"tore"–"tour".


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets and . It may be present in those speakers who have both the "dough–door" merger described above, and also the pour–poor merger. These include some southern U.S. non-rhotic speakers, some speakers of African-American English (in both cases towards ) and some speakers in Guyana.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In Geordie, the merger (towards , phonetically ) is variable and recessive. It is also not categorical, as can instead be pronounced as the close-mid monophthongs and . The central is as stereotypically "Geordie" as the merger itself, though it is still used alongside by young, middle-class males who, as younger speakers in general, reject the centering diphthongs for (females often merge with instead, see thought-goat merger). This categorically undoes the merger for those speakers. Even when is realized as an opening-centering diphthong, it may be distinguished from by the openness of the first element: or vs. .


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets on the one hand and and on the other. It occurs in Black South African English. The outcome of the merger is an open central vowel or, less frequently, an open-mid back vowel . The merger co-occurs with the trap-bath split.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In Australia and New Zealand, the two vowels contrast only by length: . This (as well as -monophthongization in Australian English) introduces phonemic vowel length to those dialects. In Colchester English, the vowels undergo a qualitative near-merger (with the length contrast preserved) as and , at least for middle-class speakers. A more local pronunciation of is front . A qualitative near-merger is also possible in contemporary General British English, where the vowels come close as vs. , with only a slight difference in height in addition to the difference in length.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: A three-way merger of , and is a common pronunciation error among L2 speakers of English whose native language is Italian, Spanish and Catalan. Notably, EFL speakers who aim at the British pronunciation of "can't" but fail to sufficiently lengthen the vowel are perceived as uttering a highly taboo word "cunt" .


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Up-gliding is a diphthongized vowel sound, , used as the pronunciation of the phoneme . This up-gliding variant historically occurred in some completely non-rhotic dialects of American English and is particularly associated with the early twentieth-century (but now extinct or moribund) dialects of New York City, New Orleans, and Charleston, likely developing in the prior century. In fact, in speakers born before World War I, this sound apparently predominated throughout older speech of the Southern United States, ranging from "South Carolina to Texas and north to eastern Arkansas and the southern edge of Kentucky." This variant happened only in an open syllable, so, for example, "stir" was never ; rather "stir" would have been pronounced .


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In some cases, particularly in New York City, the sound gliding from a schwa upwards even led to a phonemic merger of the vowel classes associated with the General American phonemes as in with the of ; thus, words like "coil" and "curl", as well as "voice" and "verse", were homophones. The merged vowel was typically a diphthong , with a mid central starting point, rather than the back rounded starting point of of in most other accents of English. The merger is responsible for the "Brooklynese" stereotypes of "bird" sounding like "boid" and "thirty-third" sounding like "toity-toid". This merger is known for the word "soitanly", used often by the Three Stooges comedian Curly Howard as a variant of "certainly" in comedy shorts of the 1930s and 1940s. The songwriter Sam M. Lewis, a native New Yorker, rhymed "returning" with "joining" in the lyrics of the English-language version of "Gloomy Sunday". Except for New Orleans English, this merger did not occur in the South, despite up-gliding existing in some older Southern accents; instead, a distinction between the two phonemes was maintained due to a down-gliding sound: something like .


title: Rhoticity in English

text: In 1966, according to a survey that was done by William Labov in New York City, 100% of the people 60 and over used for bird. With each younger age group, however, the percentage got progressively lower: 59% of 50- to 59-year-olds, 33% of 40- to 49-year-olds, 24% of 20- to 39-year-olds, and finally, only 4% of people 8–19 years old used . Nearly all native New Yorkers born since 1950, even those whose speech is otherwise non-rhotic, now pronounce "bird" as . However, Labov reports this vowel to be slightly raised compared to other dialects.


title: Rhoticity in English

text: Certain words have spellings derived from non-rhotic dialects or renderings of foreign words through non-rhotic pronunciation. In rhotic dialects, spelling pronunciation has caused these words to be pronounced rhotically anyway. Examples include:


title: Boeing E-6 Mercury

text: The Boeing E-6 Mercury (formerly Hermes) is an airborne command post and communications relay based on the Boeing 707. The original E-6A manufactured by Boeing's defense division entered service with the United States Navy in July 1989, replacing the EC-130Q. This platform, now modified to the E-6B standard, conveys instructions from the National Command Authority to fleet ballistic missile submarines (see communication with submarines), a mission known as TACAMO ("Take Charge And Move Out"). The E-6B model deployed in October 1998 also has the ability to remotely control Minuteman ICBMs using the Airborne Launch Control System. The E-6B replaced Air Force EC-135Cs in the "Looking Glass" role, providing command and control of U.S. nuclear forces should ground-based control become inoperable. With production lasting until 1991, the E-6 was the final new derivative of the Boeing 707 to be built.


title: Boeing E-6 Mercury

text: Like the E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, the E-6 is adapted from Boeing's 707-320 airliner. Rolled out at Boeing's Renton Factory on 18 December 1986, the first E-6 made its maiden flight on 19 February 1987, when it was flown to nearby Boeing Field in south Seattle for fitting of mission avionics; it was delivered to the Navy for testing on .


title: Boeing E-6 Mercury

text: The E-6A, which was initially named Hermes, entered service with squadron VQ-3 on 3 August 1989. A second squadron, VQ-4, received its first E-6As in January 1991, allowing the EC-130Q to be phased out in June that year. The E-6A was renamed Mercury in autumn 1991 by request of the Navy. Sixteen E-6A planes were delivered from 1988 to 1992.


title: Boeing E-6 Mercury

text: The E-6B is an upgrade of the E-6A. It includes a battlestaff area and updated mission equipment. The flight deck systems were later replaced with an off-the-shelf 737 Next Generation cockpit. This greatly increases the situational awareness of the pilot and saves significant cost over the previous custom avionics package. The first E-6B was accepted in December 1997. All 16 E-6A aircraft were modified to the E-6B standard, with the final delivery taking place on 1 December 2006.


title: Boeing E-6 Mercury

text: The E-6 cannot use the probe-and-drogue in-flight refueling method that most other US Navy aircraft use, instead featuring a flying boom receptacle on the upper-forward fuselage, making it, like the USN's Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft, reliant on specific U.S. Air Force aircraft (KC-135 Stratotanker, KC-10 Extender, and KC-46 Pegasus) for in-flight refueling.


title: Boeing E-6 Mercury

text: Codenamed "Looking Glass", it is United States Strategic Command's (USSTRATCOM) Airborne Command Post (ABNCP), designed to take over in case the Global Operations Center (GOC), located at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, is destroyed or incapable of communicating with strategic forces. The term "Looking Glass" is used because the ABNCP "mirrors" the abilities of the US Strategic Command GOC to control nuclear forces.


title: Boeing E-6 Mercury

text: The E-6 fleet is based at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, and operated by Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 3 (VQ-3), VQ-4, and VQ-7.


title: Boeing E-6 Mercury

text: In 2021, one of the E-3D Sentry aircraft that had been in service with the Royal Air Force was purchased for conversion into a dedicated E-6 trainer. This was done as a means of extending the life of the operational fleet by reducing the need for it to be used for training missions.


title: S.A. (corporation)

text: The abbreviation S.A. or SA designates a type of limited company in certain countries, most of which have a Romance language as their official language and employ civil law. Originally, shareholders could be literally anonymous and collect dividends by surrendering coupons attached to their share certificates. Dividends were therefore paid to whoever held the certificate. Share certificates could be transferred privately, and therefore the management of the company would not necessarily know who owned its shares.


title: S.A. (corporation)

text: As with bearer bonds, anonymous unregistered share ownership and dividend collection enabled money laundering, tax evasion, and concealed business transactions in general, so governments passed laws to audit the practice. Nowadays, shareholders of S.A.s are not anonymous, though shares can still be held by a holding company in order to obscure the beneficiary.


title: Junji Ito Collection

text: The anime was first announced June 30, 2017, via Junji Ito's page on the Asahi Shimbun website. In August, the adaptation was confirmed to be a television series with animation by Studio Deen. Shinobu Tagashira, known for his directorial work on "Diabolik Lovers", directed and created the character design for the anime. The announcement also revealed that the series would adapt from two of Ito's manga collections, the 11 volume "Junji Ito Masterpiece Collection" and the single volume "Fragments of Horror", but did not specify which stories would be adapted, as the staff wanted viewers to be surprised when the show aired. The series revealed its official title on October 12, 2017, and also announced that Kaoru Sawada was scripting the series, Hozumi Gōda was serving as sound director, and that Yuki Hayashi would compose the music for the series. The series will also include two OVAs, which will adapt Ito's "Tomie" manga.


title: Junji Ito Collection

text: The opening theme song, , will be performed by The Pinballs, while the ending theme song, , will be performed by JYOCHO.


title: Junji Ito Collection

text: The series was initially scheduled to premiere on Tokyo MX on January 7, 2018, but was later announced for an January 5 premiere on WOWOW's Anime Premium programming block. Additionally, the series received an advance showing on December 23, 2017, which was attended by Ito and voice actor Yūji Mitsuya. The series is being simulcast on Crunchyroll worldwide outside of Asia, and Funimation began streaming an English dub on January 20, 2018.


title: Junji Ito Collection

text: The series ran for 12 episodes and was released as three separate sets on DVD, on March 30, 2018, April 27, 2018, and May 25, 2018. The second and third sets each include an OVA episode.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Nyota Uhura () is a fictional character in the "Star Trek" franchise. In the , the character was portrayed by Nichelle Nichols, who reprised the role for the first six "Star Trek" feature films. A younger Uhura is portrayed by Celia Rose Gooding in the 2022 prequel series "".


title: Nyota Uhura

text: An alternate timeline version of Uhura has been portrayed by actress Zoe Saldaña in the feature films "Star Trek" (2009), "Star Trek Into Darkness" (2013), and "Star Trek Beyond" (2016).


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Uhura is a translator and communications officer who specializes in linguistics, cryptography, and philology. She was an important part of the original series' multicultural crew and one of the first Black characters to be portrayed in a non-menial role on an American television series.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Gene Roddenberry had intended his new female communications officer to be called "Lieutenant Sulu". Herb Solow pointed out how similar this was to "Zulu" and thought it might act against the plan for racial diversity in the show, so the name Sulu remained with George Takei's character. "Uhura" comes from the Swahili word "uhuru", meaning "freedom". Nichols states in her 1994 book "Beyond Uhura" that the name was inspired by Robert Ruark's 1962 book "Uhuru", which she had with her on the day she read for the part. When producer Robert Justman explained to Roddenberry what the word "uhuru" meant, he changed it to Uhura and adopted that as the character's name. Coincidentally, the end credits of the film "" incorrectly refer to Uhura as "Uhuru".


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Uhura's first name was not used in "Star Trek" canon until Abrams's 2009 film. The mystery regarding Uhura's first name is the subject of a running joke in the film, as Captain Kirk repeatedly tries to find out what it is, before finally hearing Spock call her "Nyota" in a moment of intimacy.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Although other non-canon names had previously existed, "Nyota" had been the most common. Two other proposed names were "Penda" and "Samara". The FASA produced "" (1982) gave Uhura's first name as "Samara" while the fanzine collection "The Best of Trek" (18 volumes, 1978–1996) suggests that Uhura's first name is "Penda", coined when a group of fanzine authors suggested it to Nichols at an early convention.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Author William Rotsler created the name "Nyota" for his 1982 licensed tie-in book, "Star Trek II Biographies" published by Wanderer (Pocket) Books. Seeking approval for the name he contacted Gene Roddenberry and Nichelle Nichols. Roddenberry approved of the name. Nichols also approved and was very excited when Rotsler informed her that Nyota means "star" in Swahili. After originating in "Star Trek II Biographies" "Nyota" started appearing in "Star Trek" novels, such as "Uhura's Song" (1985) by Janet Kagan. While guest-starring on the game show "Super Password" on January 7, 1987, Nichols stated that Uhura's first name was "Nyota".


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Soon after the first scripts for "Star Trek" were being written, Roddenberry spoke of a new character, a female communications officer and introduced Herb Solow and Robert Justman to Nichols, who had worked for him on "The Lieutenant". Although "" (the first pilot episode of "Star Trek", featuring a female first officer, Number One) was rejected, Roddenberry continued to seek diversity in his casting for the series, including a greater emphasis on racial diversity, with Nichols as Uhura and George Takei as Sulu. Uhura's role of "answering the phone" has been described as gender normative for the era.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Nichols planned to leave "Star Trek" in 1967 after , wanting to return to musical theater. She changed her mind after talking to Martin Luther King Jr. who was a fan of the show. King explained that her character signified a future of greater racial harmony and cooperation. King told Nichols, "You are our image of where we're going, you're 300 years from now, and that means that's where we are and it takes place now. Keep doing what you're doing, you are our inspiration." As Nichols recounted, ""Star Trek" was one of the only shows that [King] and his wife Coretta would allow their little children to watch. And I thanked him and I told him I was leaving the show. All the smile came off his face. And he said, 'Don't you understand for the first time we're seen as we should be seen. You don't have a black role. You have an equal role.'


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Uhura, from the United States of Africa, speaks Swahili and was born January 19, 2233. James Blish's non-canon novels identify her as Bantu, as does Gene Roddenberry's novelization of "".


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Uhura first appears in the episode "The Man Trap", joining the crew of the USS "Enterprise" as a lieutenant, and serves as chief communications officer under Captain Kirk. She is depicted as a capable bridge officer and readily assumed control of the helm, navigation and science stations on the bridge when the need arose. Uhura was also a talented singer, and enjoyed serenading her shipmates when off-duty; Spock occasionally accompanied her on the Vulcan lyre.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: In "The Lorelei Signal", a 1973 episode of "", Uhura assumes command of the Enterprise when the male officers fall victim to a species of sirens and leads an all-female rescue party. After the sirens are defeated, the Enterprise crew help the sirens, and Uhura bonds with the sirens, who are happy at the thought that they might meet men and have children.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: "" sees Uhura take an assignment in the transporter room as part of a plot to steal the "Enterprise". After locking a colleague in a closet, Uhura uses the transporter station to beam Kirk, Leonard McCoy and Hikaru Sulu to the "Enterprise" so they can use it to rescue Spock from the Genesis Planet. As planned, Uhura later meets up with her crewmates on Vulcan and witnesses Spock's successful renewal.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Uhura has a smaller role in the first, second and third films. "Uhura's Song", a novel published in 1985, developed her character further, placing her at the center of the action and introducing Uhura's interest in alien languages. Elements from this novel influenced her depiction in later films and novels.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Following these events and the destruction of the "Enterprise", Uhura joins her crewmates on a stolen Klingon ship amid a crisis on Earth in "". Traveling to the 20th century, they attempt to save a pair of humpback whales in order to repopulate the species. During a trip to San Francisco, Uhura and Pavel Chekov infiltrate the aircraft carrier USS "Enterprise" and use emissions from the carrier's nuclear reactor to recharge the Klingon vessel's power supply. Kirk and Spock then procure the whales so the crew can return to the 23rd century and save Earth.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: In light of their heroics, Starfleet Command exonerates Uhura and the rest of Kirk's crew for their illegal activities. Kirk is demoted to the rank of captain after a prior promotion to admiral, but is assigned to command the USS "Enterprise"-A. Uhura joins Kirk's crew, and once again serves as chief communications officer throughout the events of "" and "". In "The Final Frontier", a romantic interest between Uhura and Montgomery Scott is briefly implied while Uhura seemingly is under the influence of Sybok, but the subplot is never fully developed in the following movies, leading the viewer to assume that the pair continues as friends.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: A hidden "Star Trek: Picard" season 2 Easter egg reveals Nichelle Nichols’ Uhura became a starship captain after "The Undiscovered Country".


title: Nyota Uhura

text: In the 2009 film "Star Trek", Zoe Saldana plays a young Uhura who is introduced as a cadet at the academy, but is promoted to a communications officer as the movie unfolds. The film is also notable for officially establishing the character's given name, Nyota. This Uhura is initially cold towards Kirk (and is verbally more than a match for him) after he attempts to flirt with her while intoxicated. However, by the end of film, she comes to respect Kirk as captain of the "Enterprise". Although Nichols was not consulted over the character's casting, Saldana personally reached out to Nichols, who in turn helped her prepare for the role.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: A former student of Spock's, Uhura is also romantically involved with him. In "Star Trek", the ongoing comic book series by IDW Publishing, they are shown going on a date during her studies at the Academy. When Uhura is initially assigned to the USS "Farragut" in an attempt by Spock to avoid the appearance of favoritism, she demands that he assign her to the "Enterprise", arguing she would have been assigned there had they not been involved. She persists in her complaints until Spock relents. Had she remained on the "Farragut", she would have been killed, as that vessel is subsequently destroyed by the villain Nero. Uhura quickly receives a field promotion due to her skill with the Romulan language and remains on the bridge for most of the film.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: The 2009 depiction of Nyota Uhura generated much online debate, with some fans praising her portrayal, while other fans (including Kirk/Spock fans) disapproved of her romantic relationship with Spock, or suggested that her expanded role in the film was evidence that she had become a "Mary Sue" character. Other fans suggested that a romance with Spock was hinted in "TOS", but could not be followed up on due to racism at the time, and that it would have been impossible at the time to depict Uhura in a romantic relationship. When discussing her response to the 2009 film, Nichelle Nichols confirmed that "there was always a connection between Uhura and Spock" and that the times did not allow for anything more than "hints". Nichols also discussed meeting with Saldana to discuss Uhura, and praised Saldana's portrayal. The intersectionality of Uhura as a Black woman was considered important when discussing her romance with Spock, because romances between Black women and white men are largely portrayed as cautionary tales in Hollywood films.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: In the first sequel, "Star Trek Into Darkness", Uhura has been serving on the "Enterprise" for a year and is still romantically involved with Spock. She and Kirk have a good working relationship and share their frustrations with Spock's emotional unavailability (Uhura as his lover, Kirk as his best friend). Uhura is called upon several times to act as a field officer, attempting to use her fluency in Klingon to assist in the hunt for the fugitive John Harrison. She later contacts Spock Prime (at her Spock's request) to consult him over Harrison's identity, and at the climax of the film, helps Spock defeat and capture Harrison after a long chase and fierce hand-to-hand combat. In the second sequel, "Star Trek Beyond", her exceptional hearing, first referenced in the 2009 film, reveals the identity of the main antagonist. Spock and Uhura amicably discuss ending their relationship and have some tension over Spock's intention to leave Starfleet to help the Vulcan survivors, in the wake of the death of Spock Prime. Spock later instead chooses to remain in Starfleet, and begins to renew his relationship with Uhura.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: In a 2012 poll conducted by "SFX Magazine" to find the 100 sexiest female characters in science fiction and fantasy, Uhura, as portrayed by Saldana in the 2009 film, was voted number one.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: In "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds", the character is featured as a Cadet serving on the "Enterprise" as part of an advanced placement. The series reveals Uhura's backstory: she is from Kenya and her parents, both university professors, and brother died when she was younger. At a dinner in Captain Pike's quarters, Uhura admits that she joined Starfleet as a way of honoring her grandmother who was a Starfleet officer that raised her when her parents died, but is unsure about continuing in the service. This draws negative reactions from other members of the crew, including Spock. However, after her exemplary performance on her first away mission, Spock softens his tone and tells her that she will make an excellent officer if she decides to stay.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: Whoopi Goldberg, who later played Guinan on "", described Uhura as a role model for her, recalling that she told her family, "I just saw a Black woman on television; and she ain't no maid!" NASA later employed Nichols in a campaign to encourage women and African-Americans to join the service. NASA Astronaut Group 8 yielded the first recruits composed of women and ethnic minorities—three were Black (Guion Bluford, Ronald McNair and Dr. Frederick D. Gregory). Dr. Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to fly aboard the Space Shuttle, cited "Star Trek" as an influence in her decision to join. Jemison herself had a minor role on an episode of "The Next Generation" called "", playing a transporter operator named Lieutenant Palmer. Jemison was the first of several real-life astronauts to appear on "Star Trek".


title: Nyota Uhura

text: When Nichols considered quitting the show in the late 1960s, she was told someone wanted to meet her, claiming to be her biggest fan. The fan was Martin Luther King Jr., who convinced her not to leave the show because "You cannot do that. ... For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen." Nichols decided to stay on the show, explaining her reasons to Roddenberry, who replied "finally, someone gets it."


title: Nyota Uhura

text: On February 29, 2012, Nichols met with President Obama in the White House Oval Office. She later Tweeted about the meeting, ""Months ago Pres Obama was quoted as saying that he'd had a crush on me when he was younger." Nichols also wrote, "I asked about that & he proudly confirmed it! President Obama also confirmed for me that he was definitely a Trekker! How wonderful is that?!"


title: Nyota Uhura

text: In the 1968 episode "Plato's Stepchildren", Uhura and Captain Kirk kiss. For many years this was claimed to be the first example of a scripted inter-racial kiss on United States television, although other examples have come to light. Originally, the scene was meant to be filmed with and without the kiss, so that the network could later decide whether to air the kiss. However, Shatner and Nichols deliberately flubbed every take of the shot without the kiss so that the shot could not be used.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: In 2013, Uhura was ranked among the top 50 sexiest characters of the science-fiction genre. They note the character is "a whipsmart wise-ass who can hold her own against the guys" of the "Enterprise".


title: Nyota Uhura

text: In 2016, Screen Rant rated Uhura as the 16th best character in "Star Trek" overall as presented in television and film up to that time, highlighting the character as a "lingual expert who could handle herself on away missions". In 2018, Comic Book Resources ranked Uhura as the 23rd best Starfleet character of "Star Trek". In 2018, "The Wrap" placed Uhura as 20th out 39 in a ranking of main cast characters of the "Star Trek" franchise.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: In 2016, Uhura was ranked as the 14th most important character of Starfleet within the "Star Trek" science fiction universe by "Wired" magazine.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: In 2017, Screen Rant ranked the Uhura the second most attractive person in the "Star Trek" universe, in between Benjamin Sisko and Jean-Luc Picard.


title: Nyota Uhura

text: In 2017, Comic Book Resources ranked the performance of Mirror Uhura the 14th "fiercest" female character of the "Star Trek" universe.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: A Place to Call Home is an Australian television drama series, created by Bevan Lee for the Seven Network, which premiered in 2013. Set in rural New South Wales after the Second World War, it follows Sarah Adams (Marta Dusseldorp), who has returned to Australia after twenty years abroad to start a new life and ends up clashing with wealthy matriarch Elizabeth Bligh (Noni Hazlehurst). The main cast also includes Brett Climo (George Bligh), Craig Hall (Dr. Jack Duncan), David Berry (James Bligh), Abby Earl (Anna Bligh), Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood (Olivia Bligh), Aldo Mignone (Gino Poletti), Sara Wiseman (Carolyn Bligh), Jenni Baird (Regina Standish), Tim Draxl (Henry Fox), and Frankie J. Holden (Roy Briggs). The show was cancelled after its second season, but obtained further funding and concluded successfully after a total of six seasons in 2018.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: Development for "A Place to Call Home" began after Bevan Lee completed his "domestic trilogy" ("Always Greener", "Packed to the Rafters" and "Winners & Losers"). He took inspiration from film director Douglas Sirk's 1950s films such as "Written on the Wind" (1956) and "All That Heaven Allows" (1955). Lee told "The Age" that he wanted to create a romance-driven melodrama based in the 1950s because people's lives in the present are "relatively bland". He said: "At the end of the day, conflict is drama and we live in relatively conflict-free society. I had to go to a place where there was pain and damage and hurt; after the war there was." The script is co-written by Lee and Trent Atkinson.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: Noni Hazlehurst (Elizabeth Bligh) was the first cast member to be announced for "A Place to Call Home", on 18 June 2012. Marta Dusseldorp (Sarah Adams), Brett Climo (George Bligh) and Frankie J. Holden (Roy Briggs) were announced a month later, with Dusseldorp leading the overall cast. Newcomers David Berry (James Bligh), Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood (Olivia Bligh), Abby Earl (Anna Bligh) and Aldo Mignone (Gino Poletti), made up the rest of the main cast.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: "A Place to Call Home" is set primarily in both the fictional estate "Ash Park" and the nearby fictional country town of "Inverness" in New South Wales. Inverness was also used as the country setting of "Always Greener". Camden and the Southern Highlands in New South Wales serves as the backdrop for Inverness. Ash Park is actually Camelot, a heritage-listed property located at Kirkham, on the outskirts of Camden. Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, is a third location where major events occur, but most city scenes are filmed indoors, aside from some establishing shots such as historic footage of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: Filming for the first season began on 9 July 2012 and concluded on 12 December 2012. Season one was shot on a Sony F65 camera, the first Australian television production to do so.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: In June 2013, Erin McWhirter of "TV Week" announced that "A Place to Call Home" had been renewed for another season. Abby Earl told McWhirter, "We're locked in pre-production in August and then we start filming in September, so there's plenty of time for me to get back in Anna's shoes." The second season started on 11 May 2014 and concluded on 13 July 2014.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: "TV Week" confirmed that a third season had been commissioned. In June 2014, however, the magazine reported that Channel Seven had declined the option to renew the series, and that the cast and crew had been told that they would not be required for a third season.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: On 15 October 2014, it was announced that Foxtel had finalised a deal with Channel Seven that would see a third season written by Bevan Lee, produced by Seven Productions, but aired on Foxtel. On 25 October 2014, "The Daily Telegraph" announced that "A Place to Call Home" was renewed for another two seasons and would return in late 2015, airing on Foxtel channel, SoHo. It was also announced that all the original cast and crew members would return.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: On 16 August 2015 it was announced via the official Facebook page that season 3 would premiere on 27 September 2015 on SoHo. Season 4 premiered on Foxtel's Showcase channel on 11 September 2016.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: Season 5 was announced by Foxtel on 16 November 2016. The timeline of season 5 skips ahead from 1954 to the year 1958. Production of "A Place to Call Home" resumed in February 2017 with principal photography continuing through July 2017. Season 5 premiered on Foxtel's Showcase Channel in Australia starting on 8 October 2017.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: A sixth and final season was announced by Foxtel on 6 December 2017, which was noted to be the last in March 2018. The final season began airing on 19 August 2018 and the final episode aired 21 October 2018.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: When Seven Network revealed its new television series lineup for 2012, "A Place to Call Home" was mentioned alongside other titles. Seven Network's Angus Ross said that it would potentially premiere in late 2012, but would not be rushed to air by a certain date unless "casting and other elements" were right. The first season of "A Place to Call Home" consisted of thirteen episodes. The pilot episode was originally broadcast on 28 April 2013, in the 8:30 pm time slot (previously occupied by "Downton Abbey").


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: Shortly after airing in Australia "A Place to Call Home" started broadcasting on TV One in New Zealand.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: Series one and two began airing on BBC2 in the United Kingdom on 17 November 2014, series three on 25 February 2016, and series four on 13 February 2017. The fifth series was promoted to a BBC1 daytime slot, and began airing daily on 13 March 2018. The sixth and final series begins on BBC1 on 11 February 2019.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: All six seasons are available for streaming in the US and Canada on Acorn TV. The first four seasons were also distributed to television stations by American Public Television.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: In 2020, all six seasons were made available for streaming in Sweden on SVT Play until 17 September, in Norway on NRK TV and in Finland on YLE TV1.


title: A Place to Call Home (TV series)

text: In 2020, the entire series began screening in Greece on ERT2 weekdays from 29 June as "Μια Καινούργια Αρχή" (A New Start).


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: Kaizer Chiefs Football Club (often known as Chiefs) are a South African professional football club based in Naturena, Johannesburg South, that plays in the Premier Soccer League. The team is nicknamed "AmaKhosi", which means "Lords" or "Chiefs" in Zulu, and the "Phefeni Glamour Boys". Chiefs have won 13 league titles (four in the PSL era) and over 50 club trophies. As a result, they hold the most trophies amongst all clubs in South Africa and are the most successful team in South African football history since the start of the top flight in 1970. They are the most supported club in the country, drawing an average home attendance of 16,144 in the 2019–20 season, the highest in the league. The team plays its home matches at the 94,797-capacity FNB Stadium.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: The team has a strong local rivalry with Orlando Pirates, a fellow Soweto team that Chiefs founder Kaizer Motaung played for in his early playing career. Famous players who donned the black-and-gold jersey in the past include former national team captains Neil Tovey and Lucas Radebe as well as Patrick Ntsoelengoe, Gary Bailey, John "Shoes" Moshoeu, Shaun Bartlett, Steve Komphela, Siyabonga Nomvete, and Doctor Khumalo.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: The Kaizer Chiefs were banned by the African Football (CAF) from competing in African club competitions until 2009 after their abrupt withdrawal from the 2005 CAF Confederation Cup. This was the second time in four years that Chiefs had been penalized by CAF for refusal to participate in a competition.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: It is the most supported team in sub-Saharan Africa. Kaizer Chiefs had a support base of over 16,000,000 at the turn of the century. Today, it is estimated at approximately 40,000,000 fans across Southern Africa, the majority of the fanbase in South Africa and neighbouring countries. In January 2020, Kaizer Chiefs celebrated their 50th anniversary.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: Kaiser Chiefs, the British indie rock/britpop band, was named after the club because Lucas Radebe, a former player of Kaizer Chiefs, captained Leeds United, the team that the band members all supported.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: Kaizer Chiefs were founded in January 1970 shortly after the return of Kaizer "Chincha Guluva" Motaung from the United States where he played as a striker for the Atlanta Chiefs of the North American Soccer League (NASL). He combined his own first name with the Atlanta Chiefs to create the name of Kaizer Chiefs. Several other people have played key roles in the formation and growth of Kaizer Chiefs, including the late Gilbert Sekgabi, Clarence Mlokoti, China Ngema, Ewert "The Lip" Nene, and Rabelani Jan Mofokeng, he trailed and quit because of work.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: Kaizer Chiefs are known as ""Amakhosi"" by its fans, a Zulu word meaning "kings" or "chiefs". Their headquarters is "Kaizer Chiefs Village", in Naturena, six kilometres south of Johannesburg.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: The 2001–02 season was one of the Club's most successful in their history as well as their most tragic. They won four major trophies in four months; the Vodacom Challenge, the BP Top Eight, the Coca-Cola Cup, and the African Cup Winners' Cup. At the time the team was said to have been a team that was on ""Operation vat alles"" by its then public relations officer Putco Mafani, ""vat alles"" being an Afrikaans statement meaning ""take everything"" in English. However, the highs of cup wins was contrasted by the lows of the Ellis Park Stadium disaster on 11 April 2001, in which 43 fans were crushed to death during the Soweto Derby between Chiefs and their arch-rivals Orlando Pirates.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: By winning the African Cup Winners' Cup, Chiefs played the 2001 CAF Champions League winners Al Ahly of Egypt in the 2002 CAF Super Cup. In April 2002, Kaizer Chiefs' achievements during 2001 were recognized as they were chosen as the "CAF Club of the Year" by the Confederation of African Football.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: In the 2003–04 season Chiefs were given the Fair Play Award at the Peace Cup in South Korea. Chiefs ended the season as league champions, winning the PSL for the first time in their history.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: During the championship race of the 2004–05 soccer season, Chiefs overtook the season-long leaders (Orlando Pirates) in the last game of the season to defend its PSL championship. Under the leadership of Romanian coach Ted Dumitru, Zambian striker Collins Mbesuma had a record-breaking season scoring 39 goals in all competitions.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: Kaizer Chiefs' forays into Africa were temporarily scuttled by a Confederation of African Football (CAF) ban. However, it still made its presence felt through the annual Vodacom Challenge that pit Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates with an invited European club. Chiefs have won the Vodacom Challenge Cup 5 times since its inception. They beat a young Manchester United side 4–3 on penalties in the 2006 Challenge to win the trophy.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: In March 2007, coach Ernst Middendorp and the club parted company. The club instantly appointed their rival Orlando Pirates' former coach Kosta Papić for the remainder of the 2006–07 season.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: Muhsin Ertuğral returned for the 2007–08 season to begin his second stint with Chiefs, having already coached "The Glamour Boys" from 1999 until 2003.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: On 26 June 2021, the team secured their first CAF Champions League final appearance after defeating Wydad AC by a 1–0 aggregate.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: On 9 July 2021, Kaizer Chiefs confirmed through Twitter that they signed six players for next season after their transfer ban ended. On 17 July 2021, they lost 3–0 against Al Ahly in the Champions League Final.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: During the past years, the "Amakhosi" have used no less than nine stadiums in Johannesburg as their home ground, and often rotated between several stadiums during the season. In August 2006, the club made a strategic decision to sign a "mutual interest agreement" with a stadium developer and the local municipality regarding the construction of a new permanent home venue for Kaizer Chiefs, at a total planned cost of R1.2 billion (£105m), which was to be partly owned by the club. This future home venue was named Amakhosi Stadium, and will be situated in Krugersdorp, roughly 40 km west of Johannesburg. Initially it was planned to open in December 2008, but according to the latest revised construction plan, it is now expected only to be finalised by August 2012. The planned stadium was redesigned into a cheaper project, with a new price tag at R700 million, and the capacity being reduced from 55,000 to 35,000 seats. As part of the new revised construction plan for the stadium, it was announced by Kaizer Chiefs, that they no longer plan to be one of the owners of the stadium, but remain ready to support the stadium as a long time committed tenant.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: The new stadium was initially planned to be part of a greater sports precinct, into which the club would also move its entire ""Kaizer Chiefs Youth Development Programme"". The Gauteng Provincial Government have agreed to develop the needed infrastructures around the stadium, in order to guarantee sufficient road and railway access for the huge crowd of spectators.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: The stadium developers initially had set time lines for the Amakhosi stadium, to open its doors for the public in December 2008. As of July 2010, construction however had not yet started. Kaizer Chiefs announced in August 2010, that construction of Amakhosi Stadium was now expected only to start in autumn 2010, and finalised by August 2012. It had been postponed several years, due to Kaizer Chiefs and its joint partners, facing difficulties to finance the construction. For the football seasons in 2010–12, the team instead planned to use Rand Stadium as their home venue.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: Kaizer Chiefs however only played four of their 15 home games at Rand Stadium in 2010–11, due to some experienced capacity problems, with the transportation related infrastructures around the stadium -and a low spectator attendance. Instead the team during this season, played most of their home games, at the big FNB Stadium -Soccer City.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: FNB Stadium is a stadium located in Johannesburg, with a capacity of 94,736 seats. It is located next to the South African Football Association headquarters ("SAFA House"), where both the FIFA offices and the Local Organising Committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is housed.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: The Soweto Derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates is one of the most fiercely contested matches in world football, and in contrast to most other games in the South African Premier Soccer League, always attracts a large fanbase.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: Kaizer Chiefs qualified to play for the 1997 African Cup Winners' Cup but withdrew from the competition. The team made their first CAF Cup appearance in the year 2000 and only made it to the round of 16. They had the same result in the 2005 CAF Champions League and 2014 CAF Champions League. In the 2018 edition of the CAF Confederations Cup, Kaizer Chiefs reached the playoff round of 30 in which they were eliminated. Kaizer Chiefs are the runner-ups of the 2020-21 CAF Champions League and the 2002 CAF Super Cup after being crowned the Champions of the 2001 African Cup Winners' Cup.


title: Kaizer Chiefs F.C.

text: On 29 October 2012, Kaizer Chiefs announced that they had registered a rugby sevens team to participate in the inaugural 7s Premier League.


title: UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Ankalaev

text: UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Ankalaev (also known as UFC Fight Night 203 and UFC on ESPN+ 61 or UFC Vegas 50) was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that took place on March 12, 2022 at the UFC Apex facility in Enterprise, Nevada, part of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area, United States.


title: UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Ankalaev

text: A light heavyweight bout between former UFC Light Heavyweight Championship challenger Thiago Santos and Magomed Ankalaev served as the event headliner.


title: UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Ankalaev

text: A featherweight bout between Joshua Culibao and Damon Jackson was scheduled for the event. However, Culibao was pulled from the event for undisclosed reasons and was replaced by Kamuela Kirk.


title: UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Ankalaev

text: Former KSW Women's Flyweight Champion Ariane Lipski and JJ Aldrich were scheduled to meet in a women's flyweight bout. However, Lipski was removed due to undisclosed reasons and replaced by Gillian Robertson.


title: UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Ankalaev

text: Mandy Böhm was scheduled to meet Sabina Mazo in a women's flyweight bout at the event. However, Böhm withdrew from the bout due to undisclosed reasons and was replaced by Miranda Maverick.


title: UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Ankalaev

text: A lightweight bout between Ricky Glenn and Drew Dober was expected to take place at the event. However, a week before the event, Glenn withdrew due to a torn groin and was replaced by Terrance McKinney.


title: They Don't Care About Us

text: "They Don't Care About Us" is a song by American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson, released in April 16, 1996 as the fifth single from his ninth album, "" (1995). It is a protest song and remains one of the most controversial pieces Jackson ever composed. In the US, media scrutiny surrounding allegations of antisemitic lyrics were the catalyst for Jackson issuing multiple clarifications, an apology, defense from director Spike Lee and re-releasing the song with a new vocal featuring altered lyrics. The singer countered allegations of antisemitism, arguing that reviews had misinterpreted the context of the song, either unintentionally or deliberately.


title: They Don't Care About Us

text: "They Don't Care About Us" was accompanied by two music videos directed by Lee. The first was shot in two locations in Brazil: in Pelourinho, the historic city center of Salvador; and in Santa Marta, a favela of Rio de Janeiro. State authorities tried to ban production over fears the video would damage their image, the area and prospects of Rio de Janeiro staging the 2004 Olympics. Still, the residents of the area were happy to see the singer, hoping their problems would be made visible to a wider audience. The second video was shot in a prison and contained video footage of multiple references to human rights abuses.