title: Selection sort

text: In computer science, selection sort is an in-place comparison sorting algorithm. It has an O("n") time complexity, which makes it inefficient on large lists, and generally performs worse than the similar insertion sort. Selection sort is noted for its simplicity and has performance advantages over more complicated algorithms in certain situations, particularly where auxiliary memory is limited.


title: Selection sort

text: The algorithm divides the input list into two parts: a sorted sublist of items which is built up from left to right at the front (left) of the list and a sublist of the remaining unsorted items that occupy the rest of the list. Initially, the sorted sublist is empty and the unsorted sublist is the entire input list. The algorithm proceeds by finding the smallest (or largest, depending on sorting order) element in the unsorted sublist, exchanging (swapping) it with the leftmost unsorted element (putting it in sorted order), and moving the sublist boundaries one element to the right.


title: Selection sort

text: The time efficiency of selection sort is quadratic, so there are a number of sorting techniques which have better time complexity than selection sort.


title: Selection sort

text: Selection sort can also be used on list structures that make add and remove efficient, such as a linked list. In this case it is more common to "remove" the minimum element from the remainder of the list, and then "insert" it at the end of the values sorted so far. For example:


title: Selection sort

text: Selection sort is not difficult to analyze compared to other sorting algorithms, since none of the loops depend on the data in the array. Selecting the minimum requires scanning formula_1 elements (taking formula_2 comparisons) and then swapping it into the first position. Finding the next lowest element requires scanning the remaining formula_3 elements and so on. Therefore, the total number of comparisons is


title: Selection sort

text: which is of complexity formula_6 in terms of number of comparisons. Each of these scans requires one swap for formula_2 elements (the final element is already in place).


title: Selection sort

text: Among quadratic sorting algorithms (sorting algorithms with a simple average-case of Θ("n")), selection sort almost always outperforms bubble sort and gnome sort. Insertion sort is very similar in that after the "k"th iteration, the first formula_8 elements in the array are in sorted order. Insertion sort's advantage is that it only scans as many elements as it needs in order to place the formula_9st element, while selection sort must scan all remaining elements to find the formula_9st element.


title: Selection sort

text: Simple calculation shows that insertion sort will therefore usually perform about half as many comparisons as selection sort, although it can perform just as many or far fewer depending on the order the array was in prior to sorting. It can be seen as an advantage for some real-time applications that selection sort will perform identically regardless of the order of the array, while insertion sort's running time can vary considerably. However, this is more often an advantage for insertion sort in that it runs much more efficiently if the array is already sorted or "close to sorted."


title: Selection sort

text: While selection sort is preferable to insertion sort in terms of number of writes (formula_2 swaps versus up to formula_12 swaps, with each swap being two writes), this is roughly twice the theoretical minimum achieved by cycle sort, which performs at most "n" writes. This can be important if writes are significantly more expensive than reads, such as with EEPROM or Flash memory, where every write lessens the lifespan of the memory.


title: Selection sort

text: Selection sort can be implemented without unpredictable branches for the benefit of CPU branch predictors, by finding the location of the minimum with branch-free code and then performing the swap unconditionally.


title: Selection sort

text: Finally, selection sort is greatly outperformed on larger arrays by formula_13 divide-and-conquer algorithms such as mergesort. However, insertion sort or selection sort are both typically faster for small arrays (i.e. fewer than 10–20 elements). A useful optimization in practice for the recursive algorithms is to switch to insertion sort or selection sort for "small enough" sublists.


title: Selection sort

text: Heapsort greatly improves the basic algorithm by using an implicit heap data structure to speed up finding and removing the lowest datum. If implemented correctly, the heap will allow finding the next lowest element in formula_14 time instead of formula_15 for the inner loop in normal selection sort, reducing the total running time to formula_13.


title: Selection sort

text: A bidirectional variant of selection sort (called double selection sort or sometimes cocktail sort due to its similarity to cocktail shaker sort) finds "both" the minimum and maximum values in the list in every pass. This requires three comparisons per two items (a pair of elements is compared, then the greater is compared to the maximum and the lesser is compared to the minimum) rather than regular selection sort's one comparison per item, but requires only half as many passes, a net 25% savings.


title: Selection sort

text: Selection sort can be implemented as a stable sort if, rather than swapping in step 2, the minimum value is "inserted" into the first position and the intervening values shifted up. However, this modification either requires a data structure that supports efficient insertions or deletions, such as a linked list, or it leads to performing formula_17 writes.


title: Selection sort

text: In the bingo sort variant, items are sorted by repeatedly looking through the remaining items to find the greatest value and moving "all" items with that value to their final location. Like counting sort, this is an efficient variant if there are many duplicate values: selection sort does one pass through the remaining items for each "item" moved, while Bingo sort does one pass for each "value". After an initial pass to find the greatest value, subsequent passes move every item with that value to its final location while finding the next value as in the following pseudocode (arrays are zero-based and the for-loop includes both the top and bottom limits, as in Pascal):


title: Selection sort

text: Thus, if on average there are more than two items with the same value, bingo sort can be expected to be faster because it executes the inner loop fewer times than selection sort.


title: Cochise

text: Cochise (; Apache: "Shi-ka-She" or "A-da-tli-chi", lit.: "having the quality or strength of an oak"; later "K'uu-ch'ish" or "Cheis", lit. "oak"; June 8, 1874) was leader of the Chihuicahui local group of the Chokonen and principal nantan of the Chokonen band of the Chiricahua Apache. A key war leader during the Apache Wars, he led an uprising that began in 1861 and persisted until a peace treaty was negotiated in 1872. Cochise County is named after him.


title: Cochise

text: Cochise (or "Cheis") was one of the most noted Apache leaders (along with Geronimo and Mangas Coloradas) to resist intrusions by Mexicans and Americans during the 19th century. He was described as a large man (for the time), with a muscular frame, classical features, and long, black hair, which he wore in traditional Apache style. He was about tall and weighed about . In his own language, his name "Cheis" meant "having the quality or strength of oak."


title: Cochise

text: Cochise and the Chokonen-Chiricahua lived in the area that is now the northern region of Sonora, Mexico; New Mexico, and Arizona, which they had settled in sometime before the arrival of the European explorers and colonists. As Spain and later Mexico attempted to gain dominion over the Chiricahua lands, the indigenous groups became increasingly resistant. Cycles of warfare developed, which the Apache mostly won. Eventually, the Spanish tried a different approach; they tried to make the Apache dependent (thereby placating them), giving them older firearms and liquor rations issued by the colonial government (this was called the "Galvez Peace Policy"). After Mexico gained independence from Spain and took control of this territory, it ended the practice, perhaps lacking the resources (and/or possibly the will) to continue it. The various Chiricahua bands resumed raiding in the 1830s to acquire what they wanted after the Mexicans stopped selling these goods to them.


title: Cochise

text: As a result, the Mexican government began a series of military operations to stop the raiding by the Chiricahua, but they were fought to a standstill by the Apache. Cochise's father was killed in the fighting. Cochise deepened his resolve, and the Chiricahua Apache pursued vengeance against the Mexicans. Mexican forces captured Cochise at one point in 1848 during an Apache raid on Fronteras, Sonora, but he was exchanged for nearly a dozen Mexican prisoners.


title: Cochise

text: Beginning with early Spanish colonization around 1600, the Apache suffered tension and strife with European settlers until the greater part of the area was acquired by the United States in 1850 following the Mexican War. For a time, the two peoples managed peaceful relations. In the late 1850s, Cochise may have supplied firewood for the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach station at Apache Pass.


title: Cochise

text: The tenuous peace did not last, as American encroachment into Apache territory continued. In 1861, the Bascom affair was a catalyst for armed confrontation. An Apache raiding party had driven away a local rancher's cattle and kidnapped his 12-year-old stepson (Felix Ward, who later became known as Mickey Free). Cochise and his band were mistakenly accused of the incident (which had been carried out by another band, Coyotero Apache). Army officer Lt. George Bascom invited Cochise to the Army's encampment in the belief that the warrior was responsible for the incident. Cochise maintained his innocence and offered to look into the matter with other Apache groups, but the officer tried to arrest him. Cochise escaped by drawing a knife and slashing his way out of the tent, but was shot at as he fled.


title: Cochise

text: Bascom captured some of Cochise's relatives, who apparently were taken by surprise as Cochise escaped. Cochise eventually also took hostages to use in negotiations to free the Apache Indians. However, the negotiations fell apart, because the arrival of U.S. troop reinforcements led Cochise to believe that the situation was spiraling out of his control. Both sides eventually killed all their remaining hostages. Cochise went on to carry out about 11 years of relentless warfare, reducing much of the Mexican/American settlements in southern Arizona to a burned-out wasteland. Dan Thrapp estimated the total death toll of settlers and Mexican/American travelers as 5,000, but most historians believe it was more likely a few hundred. The mistaken arrest of Cochise by Lt. Bascom is still remembered by the Chiricahua's descendants today, who describe the incident as "Cut the Tent".


title: Cochise

text: Cochise joined with his father-in-law Mangas Coloradas (Red Sleeves, "Kan-da-zis Tlishishen"), the powerful Chihenne-Chiricahua chief, in a long series of retaliatory skirmishes and raids on the white settlements and ranches. The Battle of Dragoon Springs was one of these engagements. During the raids, many people were killed, but the Apache quite often had the upper hand. The United States was distracted by its own internal conflict of the looming Civil War, and had begun to pull military forces out of the area. Additionally, the Apaches were highly adapted to living and fighting in the harsh terrain of the Southwest. Many years passed before the US Army, using tactics conceived by General George Crook and later adopted by General Nelson A. Miles, was able to effectively challenge the Apache warriors on their own lands.


title: Cochise

text: At Apache Pass in 1862, Cochise and Mangas Coloradas, with around 500 fighters, held their ground against a New Mexico-bound force of California volunteers under General James Henry Carleton until carriage-mounted howitzer artillery fire was brought to bear on their positions in the rocks above.


title: Cochise

text: According to scout John C. Cremony and historian Dan L. Thrapp, the howitzer fire sent the Apaches into an immediate retreat. The Battle of Apache Pass was one of the rare pitched battles the Apaches fought against the Army. Normally, the Apaches' tactics involved guerrilla-style warfare. Capt. Thomas Roberts was persuaded by this conflict that it would be best to find a route around Apache Pass, which he did. Gen. Carleton continued unhindered to New Mexico and subsequently took over as commander of the territory.


title: Cochise

text: In January 1863, Gen. Joseph R. West, under orders from Gen. Carleton, captured Mangas Coloradas by luring him into a conference under a flag of truce. During what was to be a peaceful parley session, the Americans took Mangas Coloradas prisoner and later murdered him. This fanned the flames of enmity between the encroaching Americans and the Apache. Cochise believed that the Americans had violated the rules of war by capturing and killing Mangas Coloradas during a parley session. Cochise and the Apache continued their raids against U.S. and Mexican settlements and military positions throughout the 1860s.


title: Cochise

text: Following various skirmishes, Cochise and his men were gradually driven into Arizona's Dragoon Mountains, but used the mountains for cover and as a base from which to continue attacks against white settlements. Cochise evaded capture and continued his raids against white settlements and travelers until 1872. In 1871, General Oliver O. Howard was ordered to find Cochise, and in 1872, Howard was accompanied by his aide 1st Lt Joseph A. Sladen and Captain Samuel S. Sumner to Arizona to negotiate a peace treaty with Cochise. Tom Jeffords, the Apache leader's only white friend, was also present. A treaty was negotiated on October 12, 1872. Based on statements by Sumner and descriptions by Sladen, modern historians such as Robert M. Utley believe that Cochise's Spanish interpreter was Geronimo.


title: Cochise

text: After the peace treaty, Cochise retired to the short-lived Chiricahua Reservation (1872–1876), with his friend Jeffords as agent. He died of natural causes (probably abdominal cancer) in 1874, and was buried in the rocks above one of his favorite camps in Arizona's Dragoon Mountains, now called the Cochise Stronghold. Only his people and Tom Jeffords knew the exact location of his resting place, and they took the secret to their graves.


title: Cochise

text: Many of Cochise's descendants reside at the Mescalero Apache Reservation near Ruidoso, New Mexico, and in Oklahoma with the Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache.


title: Cochise

text: Whether a portrait of Cochise exists is unknown; a reported portrait is actually that of a 1903 Pueblo of Isleta man named Juan Rey Abeita.


title: Cochise

text: Cochise married Dos-teh-seh ("Dos-tes-ey", "Doh-teh-seh" – "Something-at-the-campfire-already-cooked", b. 1838), the daughter of Mangas Coloradas, who was the leader of the Warm Springs and Mimbreño local groups of the Chihenne band. Their children were Taza (1842–1876) and Naiche (1856–1919).


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Wayland is a communication protocol that specifies the communication between a display server and its clients, as well as a C library implementation of that protocol. A display server using the Wayland protocol is called a "Wayland compositor", because it additionally performs the task of a compositing window manager.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Wayland is developed by a group of volunteers initially led by Kristian Høgsberg as a free and open-source community-driven project with the aim of replacing the X Window System with a modern, secure simpler windowing system in Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. The project's source code is published under the terms of the MIT License, a permissive free software licence.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: As part of its efforts, the Wayland project also develops a reference implementation of a Wayland compositor called "Weston".


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Beginning around 2010, Linux desktop graphics have moved from having "a pile of rendering interfaces... all talking to the X server, which is at the center of the universe" towards putting the Linux kernel and its components (i.e. Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI), Direct Rendering Manager (DRM)) "in the middle", with "window systems like X and Wayland ... off in the corner". This will be "a much-simplified graphics system offering more flexibility and better performance".


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Høgsberg could have added an extension to X as many recent projects have done, but preferred to "[push] X out of the hotpath between clients and the hardware" for reasons explained in the project's FAQ:


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Wayland consists of a protocol and a reference implementation named Weston. The project is also developing versions of GTK and Qt that render to Wayland instead of to X. Most applications are expected to gain support for Wayland through one of these libraries without modification to the application.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Initial versions of Wayland have not provided network transparency, though Høgsberg noted in 2010 that network transparency is possible.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Adam Jackson has envisioned providing remote access to a Wayland application by either "pixel-scraping" (like VNC) or getting it to send a "rendering command stream" across the network (as in RDP, SPICE or X11). As of early 2013, Høgsberg is experimenting with network transparency using a proxy Wayland server which sends compressed images to the real compositor. In August 2017, GNOME saw the first such pixel-scraping VNC server implementation under Wayland.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The Wayland protocol follows a client–server model in which clients are the graphical applications requesting the display of pixel buffers on the screen, and the server (compositor) is the service provider controlling the display of these buffers.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: While the low-level layer was written manually in C, the high-level layer is automatically generated from a description of the elements of the protocol stored in XML format. Every time the protocol description of this XML file changes, the C source code that implements such protocol can be regenerated to include the new changes, allowing a very flexible, extensible and error-proof protocol.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The reference implementation of Wayland protocol is split in two libraries: a library to be used by Wayland clients called codice_1 and a library to be used by Wayland compositors called codice_2.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The Wayland protocol is described as an "asynchronous object-oriented protocol". "Object-oriented" means that the services offered by the compositor are presented as a series of "objects" living on the same compositor. Each object implements an "interface" which has a name, a number of methods (called "requests") as well as several associated "events". Every request and event has zero or more arguments, each one with a name and a data type. The protocol is "asynchronous" in the sense that requests do not have to wait for synchronized replies or ACKs, avoiding round-trip delay time and achieving improved performance.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The Wayland clients can make a request (a method invocation) on some object if the object's interface supports that request. The client must also supply the required data for the arguments of such request. This is the way the clients request services from the compositor. The compositor in turn sends information back to the client by causing the object to emit events (probably with arguments too). These events can be emitted by the compositor as a response to a certain request, or asynchronously, subject to the occurrence of internal events (such as one from an input device) or state changes. The error conditions are also signaled as events by the compositor.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: For a client to be able to make a request to an object, it first needs to tell the server the ID number it will use to identify that object. There are two types of objects in the compositor: global objects and non-global objects. Global objects are advertised by the compositor to the clients when they are created (and also when they are destroyed), while non-global objects are usually created by other objects that already exist as part of their functionality.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The interfaces and their requests and events are the core elements that define the Wayland protocol. Each version of the protocol includes a set of interfaces, along with their requests and events, which are expected to be in any Wayland compositor. Optionally, a Wayland compositor may define and implement its own interfaces that support new requests and events, thereby extending functionality beyond the core protocol. To facilitate changes to the protocol, each interface contains a "version number" attribute in addition to its name; this attribute allows for distinguishing variants of the same interface. Each Wayland compositor exposes not only what interfaces are available, but also the supported versions of those interfaces.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The interfaces of the current version of Wayland protocol are defined in the file of the Wayland source code. This is an XML file that lists the existing interfaces in the current version, along with their requests, events and other attributes. This set of interfaces is the minimum required to be implemented by any Wayland compositor.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: A typical Wayland client session starts by opening a connection to the compositor using the "wl_display" object. This is a special local object that represents the connection and does not live within the server. By using its interface the client can request the "wl_registry" global object from the compositor, where all the global object names live, and bind those that the client is interested in. Usually the client binds at least a "wl_compositor" object from where it will request one or more "wl_surface" objects to show the application output on the display.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: A Wayland compositor can define and export its own additional interfaces. This feature is used to extend the protocol beyond the basic functionality provided by the core interfaces, and has become the standard way to implement Wayland protocol extensions. Certain compositors can choose to add custom interfaces to provide specialized or unique features. The Wayland reference compositor, Weston, used them to implement new experimental interfaces as a testbed for new concepts and ideas, some of which later became part of the core protocol (such as "wl_subsurface" interface added in Wayland 1.4).


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: XDG-Shell protocol (see freedesktop.org for XDG) is an extended way to manage surfaces under Wayland compositors (not only Weston). The traditional way to manipulate (maximize, minimize, fullscreen, etc.) surfaces is to use the wl_shell_*() functions, which are part of the core Wayland protocol and live in . An implementation of the xdg-shell protocol, on the contrary, is supposed to be provided by the Wayland compositor. So you will find the header in the Weston source tree. Each Wayland compositor is supposed to provide its own implementation.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: xdg_shell is a protocol aimed to substitute wl_shell in the long term, but will not be part of the Wayland core protocol. It starts as a non-stable API, aimed to be used as a development place at first, and once features are defined as required by several desktop shells, it can be finally made stable. It provides mainly two new interfaces: xdg_surface and xdg_popup. The xdg_surface interface implements a desktop-style window that can be moved, resized, maximized, etc.; it provides a request for creating child/parent relationship. The xdg_popup interface implements a desktop-style popup/menu; an xdg_popup is always transient for another surface, and also has implicit grab.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: IVI-Shell is an extension to the Wayland core protocol, targeting in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) devices.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The Wayland protocol does not include a rendering API. Instead, Wayland follows a "direct rendering" model, in which the client must render the window contents to a buffer shareable with the compositor. For that purpose, the client can choose to do all the rendering by itself, use a rendering library like Cairo or OpenGL, or rely on the rendering engine of high-level widget libraries with Wayland support, such as Qt or GTK. The client can also optionally use other specialized libraries to perform specific tasks, such as Freetype for font rendering.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The resulting buffer with the rendered window contents are stored in a "wl_buffer" object. The internal type of this object is implementation dependent. The only requirement is that the content data must be shareable between the client and the compositor. If the client uses a software (CPU) renderer and the result is stored in the system memory, then client and compositor can use shared memory to implement the buffer communication without extra copies. The Wayland protocol already natively provides this kind of shared memory buffer through the "wl_shm" and "wl_shm_pool" interfaces. The drawback of this method is that the compositor may need to do additional work (usually to copy the shared data to the GPU) to display it, which leads to slower graphics performance.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The most typical case is for the client to render directly into a video memory buffer using a hardware (GPU) accelerated API such as OpenGL, OpenGL ES or Vulkan. Client and compositor can share this GPU-space buffer using a special handler to reference it. This method allows the compositor to avoid the extra data copy through itself of the main memory buffer client-to-compositor-to-GPU method, resulting in faster graphics performance, and is therefore the preferred one. The compositor can further optimize the composition of the final scene to be shown on the display by using the same hardware acceleration API as an API client.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: When rendering is completed in a shared buffer, the Wayland client should instruct the compositor to present the rendered contents of the buffer on the display. For this purpose, the client binds the buffer object that stores the rendered contents to the surface object, and sends a "commit" request to the surface, transferring the effective control of the buffer to the compositor. Then the client waits for the compositor to release the buffer (signaled by an event) if it wants to reuse the buffer to render another frame, or it can use another buffer to render the new frame, and, when the rendering is finished, bind this new buffer to the surface and commit its contents. The procedure used for rendering, including the number of buffers involved and their management, is entirely under the client control.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: There are several differences between Wayland and X with regard to performance, code maintainability, and security:


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: XWayland is an X Server running as a Wayland client, and thus is capable of displaying native X11 client applications in a Wayland compositor environment. This is similar to the way XQuartz runs X applications in macOS’s native windowing system. The goal of XWayland is to facilitate the transition from X Window System to Wayland environments, providing a way to run unported applications in the meantime. XWayland was mainlined into X.Org Server version 1.16.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Widget toolkits such as Qt5 and GTK3 can switch their graphical back-end at run time, allowing users to choose at load time whether they want to run the application over X or over Wayland. Qt 5 provides the command-line option to that effect, whereas GTK 3 lets users select the desired GDK back-end by setting the Unix environment variable.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Display servers that implement the Wayland display server protocol are also called "Wayland compositors" because they additionally perform the task of a compositing window manager.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Weston is the reference implementation of a Wayland compositor also developed by the Wayland project. It is written in C and published under the MIT License. Weston has official support for only the Linux operating system due to Weston's dependence on certain features of the Linux kernel, such as kernel mode-setting, Graphics Execution Manager (GEM), and udev, which have not been implemented in other Unix-like operating systems. When running on Linux, handling of the input hardware relies on evdev, while the handling of buffers relies on Generic Buffer Management (GBM). However, in 2013 a prototype port of Weston to FreeBSD was announced.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Weston relies on GEM to share application buffers between the compositor and applications. It contains a plug-in system of "shells" for common desktop features like docks and panels. Clients are responsible for the drawing of their window borders and their decorations. For rendering, Weston can use OpenGL ES or the pixman library to do software rendering. The full OpenGL implementation is not used, because on most current systems, installing the full OpenGL libraries would also install GLX and other X Window System support libraries as dependencies.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Maynard is a graphical shell and has been written as a plug-in for Weston, just as the GNOME Shell has been written as a plug-in to Mutter.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The Raspberry Pi Foundation in collaboration with Collabora released Maynard and work on improving performance and memory consumption.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The Weston code for handling input devices (keyboards, pointers, touch screens, etc.) was split into its own separate library, called "libinput", for which support was first merged in Weston 1.5.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Libinput handles input devices for multiple Wayland compositors and also provides a generic X.Org Server input driver. It aims to provide one implementation for multiple Wayland compositors with a common way to handle input events while minimizing the amount of custom input code compositors need to include. libinput provides device detection (via udev), device handling, input device event processing and abstraction.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Version 1.0 of libinput followed version 0.21, and included support for tablets, button sets and touchpad gestures. This version will maintain stable API/ABI.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: As GNOME/GTK and KDE Frameworks 5 have mainlined the required changes, Fedora 22 will replace X.Org's evdev and Synaptics drivers with libinput.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: With version 1.16, the X.Org Server obtained support for the libinput library in form of a wrapper called .


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Wayland Security Module is a proposition that resembles the Linux Security Module interface found in the Linux kernel.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Some applications (especially the ones related to accessibility) require privileged capabilities that should work across different Wayland compositors. Currently, applications under Wayland are generally unable to perform any sensitive tasks such as taking screenshots or injecting input events. Wayland developers are actively looking for feasible ways to handle privileged clients securely and then designing privileged interfaces for them.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Wayland Security Module is a way to delegate security decisions within the compositor to a centralized security decision engine.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The Wayland protocol is designed to be simple so that additional protocols and interfaces need to be defined and implemented to achieve a holistic windowing system. these additional interfaces were being worked on. So, while the toolkits already fully support Wayland, the developers of the graphical shells are cooperating with the Wayland developers creating the necessary additional interfaces.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Desktop environments in process of being ported from X to Wayland include GNOME, KDE Plasma 5 and Enlightenment.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: In November 2015, Enlightenment e20 was announced with full Wayland support. GNOME 3.20 was the first version to have a full Wayland session. GNOME 3.22 included much improved Wayland support across GTK, Mutter, and GNOME Shell. GNOME 3.24 shipped support for the proprietary NVidia drivers under Wayland.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Wayland support for KDE Plasma was delayed until the release of Plasma 5, though previously KWin 4.11 got an experimental Wayland support. The version 5.4 of Plasma was the first with a Wayland session. During 2020 Klipper was ported to Wayland and the next 5.20 release in October 2020 has the goal to improve screen casting and recording.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Kristian Høgsberg, a Linux graphics and X.Org developer who previously worked on AIGLX and DRI2, started Wayland as a spare-time project in 2008 while working for Red Hat. His stated goal was a system in which "every frame is perfect, by which I mean that applications will be able to control the rendering enough that we'll never see tearing, lag, redrawing or flicker." Høgsberg was driving through the town of Wayland, Massachusetts when the underlying concepts "crystallized", hence the name.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: In October 2010, Wayland became a freedesktop.org project. As part of the migration the prior Google Group was replaced by the "wayland-devel" mailing list as the project's central point of discussion and development.


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: The Wayland client and server libraries were initially released under the MIT License, while the reference compositor Weston and some example clients used the GNU General Public License version 2. Later all the GPL code was relicensed under the MIT license "to make it easier to move code between the reference implementation and the actual libraries". In 2015 it was discovered that the license text used by Wayland was a slightly different and older version of the MIT license, and the license text was updated to the current version used by the X.Org project (known as MIT Expat License).


title: Wayland (display server protocol)

text: Wayland works with all Mesa-compatible drivers with DRI2 support as well as Android drivers via the Hybris project.


title: Smog

text: Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a portmanteau of the words "smoke" and "fog" to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odor. The word was then intended to refer to what was sometimes known as pea soup fog, a familiar and serious problem in London from the 19th century to the mid-20th century. This kind of visible air pollution is composed of nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxide, ozone, smoke and other particulates. Man-made smog is derived from coal combustion emissions, vehicular emissions, industrial emissions, forest and agricultural fires and photochemical reactions of these emissions.


title: Smog

text: Smog is often categorized as being either summer smog or winter smog. Summer smog is primarily associated with the photochemical formation of ozone. During the summer season when the temperatures are warmer and there is more sunlight present, photochemical smog is the dominant type of smog formation. During the winter months when the temperatures are colder, and atmospheric inversions are common, there is an increase in coal and other fossil fuel usage to heat homes and buildings. These combustion emissions, together with the lack of pollutant dispersion under inversions, characterize winter smog formation. Smog formation in general relies on both primary and secondary pollutants. Primary pollutants are emitted directly from a source, such as emissions of sulfur dioxide from coal combustion. Secondary pollutants, such as ozone, are formed when primary pollutants undergo chemical reactions in the atmosphere.


title: Smog

text: Photochemical smog, as found for example in Los Angeles, is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes. These pollutants react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine with the primary emissions to form photochemical smog. In certain other cities, such as Delhi, smog severity is often aggravated by stubble burning in neighboring agricultural areas since 2002. The atmospheric pollution levels of Los Angeles, Beijing, Delhi, Lahore, Mexico City, Tehran and other cities are often increased by an inversion that traps pollution close to the ground. The developing smog is usually toxic to humans and can cause severe sickness, a shortened life span, or premature death.


title: Smog

text: Coinage of the term "smog" has been attributed to Dr. Henry Antoine Des Voeux in his 1905 paper, "Fog and Smoke" for a meeting of the Public Health Congress. The 26 July 1905 edition of the London newspaper "Daily Graphic" quoted Des Voeux, "He said it required no science to see that there was something produced in great cities which was not found in the country, and that was smoky fog, or what was known as 'smog'." The following day the newspaper stated that "Dr. Des Voeux did a public service in coining a new word for the London fog."


title: Smog

text: However, the term appeared twenty-five years earlier than Dr. Voeux's paper, in the Santa Cruz & Monterey Illustrated Handbook published in 1880 and also appears in print in a column quoting from the book in the 3 July 1880, Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel. On 17 December 1881, in the publication "Sporting Times," the author claims to have invented the word: "The 'Smog'a word I have invented, combined of smoke and fog, to designate the London atmosphere..."


title: Smog

text: Coal fire can emit significant clouds of smoke that contribute to the formation of winter smog. Coal fires can be used to heat individual buildings or to provide energy in a power-producing plant. Air pollution from this source has been reported in England since the Middle Ages. London, in particular, was notorious up through the mid-20th century for its coal-caused smogs, which were nicknamed "pea-soupers". Air pollution of this type is still a problem in areas that generate significant smoke from burning coal. The emissions from coal combustion are one of the main causes of air pollution in China. Especially during autumn and winter when coal-fired heating ramps up, the amount of produced smoke at times forces some Chinese cities to close down roads, schools or airports. One prominent example for this was China's Northeastern city of Harbin in 2013.


title: Smog

text: Traffic emissions – such as from trucks, buses, and automobiles – also contribute to the formation of smog. Airborne by-products from vehicle exhaust systems cause air pollution and are a major ingredient in the creation of smog in some large cities.


title: Smog

text: The major culprits from transportation sources are carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NO and NO), volatile organic compounds, and hydrocarbons (hydrocarbons are the main component of petroleum fuels such as gasoline and diesel fuel). Transportation emissions also include sulfur dioxides and particulate matter but in much smaller quantities than the pollutants mentioned previously. The nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds can undergo a series of chemical reactions with sunlight, heat, ammonia, moisture, and other compounds to form the noxious vapors, ground level ozone, and particles that comprise smog.


title: Smog

text: Photochemical smog, often referred to as "summer smog", is the chemical reaction of sunlight, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere, which leaves airborne particles and ground-level ozone. Photochemical smog depends on primary pollutants as well as the formation of secondary pollutants. These primary pollutants include nitrogen oxides, particularly nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO), and volatile organic compounds. The relevant secondary pollutants include peroxylacyl nitrates (PAN), tropospheric ozone, and aldehydes. An important secondary pollutant for photochemical smog is ozone, which is formed when hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen oxides (NO) combine in the presence of sunlight; nitrogen dioxide (NO), which is formed as nitric oxide (NO) combines with oxygen (O) in the air. In addition, when SO and NO are emitted they eventually are oxidized in the troposphere to nitric acid and sulfuric acid, which, when mixed with water, form the main components of acid rain. All of these harsh chemicals are usually highly reactive and oxidizing. Photochemical smog is therefore considered to be a problem of modern industrialization. It is present in all modern cities, but it is more common in cities with sunny, warm, dry climates and a large number of motor vehicles. Because it travels with the wind, it can affect sparsely populated areas as well.


title: Smog

text: The composition and chemical reactions involved in photochemical smog were not understood until the 1950s. In 1948, flavor chemist Arie Haagen-Smit adapted some of his equipment to collect chemicals from polluted air, and identified ozone as a component of Los Angeles smog. Haagen-Smit went on to discover that nitrogen oxides from automotive exhausts and gaseous hydrocarbons from cars and oil refineries, exposed to sunlight, were key ingredients in the formation of ozone and photochemical smog. Haagen-Smit worked with Arnold Beckman, who developed various equipment for detecting smog, ranging from an "Apparatus for recording gas concentrations in the atmosphere" patented on 7 October 1952, to "air quality monitoring vans" for use by government and industry.


title: Smog

text: During the morning rush hour, a high concentration of nitric oxide and hydrocarbons are emitted to the atmosphere, mostly via on-road traffic but also from industrial sources. Some hydrocarbons are rapidly oxidized by OH· and form peroxy radicals, which convert nitric oxide (NO) to nitrogen dioxide (NO).


title: Smog

text: Nitrogen dioxide (NO) and nitric oxide (NO) further react with ozone (O) in a series of chemical reactions:


title: Smog

text: This series of equations is referred to as the photostationary state (PSS). However, because of the presence of Reaction 2 and 3, NO and ozone are not in a perfectly steady state. By replacing Reaction 6 with Reaction 2 and Reaction 3, the O molecule is no longer destroyed. Therefore, the concentration of ozone keeps increasing throughout the day. This mechanism can escalate the formation of ozone in smog. Other reactions such as the photooxidation of formaldehyde (HCHO), a common secondary pollutant, can also contribute to the increased concentration of ozone and NO. Photochemical smog is more prevalent during summer days since incident solar radiation fluxes are high, which favors the formation of ozone (reactions 4 and 5). The presence of a temperature inversion layer is another important factor. That is because it prevents the vertical convective mixing of the air and thus allows the pollutants, including ozone, to accumulate near the ground level, which again favors the formation of photochemical smog.


title: Smog

text: There are certain reactions that can limit the formation of O in smog. The main limiting reaction in polluted areas is:


title: Smog

text: This reaction removes NO which limits the amount of O that can be produced from its photolysis (reaction 4). HNO is a sticky compound that can easily be removed onto surfaces (dry deposition) or dissolved in water and be rained out (wet deposition). Both ways are common in the atmosphere and can efficiently remove radicals and nitrogen dioxide.


title: Smog

text: An erupting volcano can emit high levels of sulfur dioxide along with a large quantity of particulates matter; two key components to the creation of smog. However, the smog created as a result of a volcanic eruption is often known as vog to distinguish it as a natural occurrence. The chemical reactions that form smog following a volcanic eruption are different than the reactions that form photochemical smog. The term smog encompasses the effect when a large number of gas-phase molecules and particulate matter are emitted to the atmosphere, creating a visible haze. The event causing a large number of emissions can vary but still result in the formation of smog.


title: Smog

text: Plants are another natural source of hydrocarbons that could undergo reactions in the atmosphere and produce smog. Globally both plants and soil contribute a substantial amount to the production of hydrocarbons, mainly by producing isoprene and terpenes. Hydrocarbons released by plants can often be more reactive than man-made hydrocarbons. For example when plants release isoprene, the isoprene reacts very quickly in the atmosphere with hydroxyl radicals. These reactions produce hydroperoxides which increase ozone formation.


title: Smog

text: Smog is a serious problem in many cities and continues to harm human health. Ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide are especially harmful for senior citizens, children, and people with heart and lung conditions such as emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma. It can inflame breathing passages, decrease the lungs' working capacity, cause shortness of breath, pain when inhaling deeply, wheezing, and coughing. It can cause eye and nose irritation and it dries out the protective membranes of the nose and throat and interferes with the body's ability to fight infection, increasing susceptibility to illness. Hospital admissions and respiratory deaths often increase during periods when ozone levels are high.


title: Smog

text: There is a lack of knowledge on the long-term effects of air pollution exposure and the origin of asthma. An experiment was carried out using intense air pollution similar to that of the 1952 Great Smog of London. The results from this experiment concluded that there is a link between early-life pollution exposure that leads to the development of asthma, proposing the ongoing effect of the Great Smog.


title: Smog

text: Modern studies continue to find links between mortality and the presence of smog. One study, published in Nature magazine, found that smog episodes in the city of Jinan, a large city in eastern China, during 2011–15, were associated with a 5.87% (95% CI 0.16–11.58%) increase in the rate of overall mortality. This study highlights the effect of exposure to air pollution on the rate of mortality in China. A similar study in X'ian found an association between ambient air pollution and increased mortality associated with respiratory diseases.


title: Smog

text: The U.S. EPA has developed an air quality index to help explain air pollution levels to the general public. 8 hour average ozone concentrations of 85 to 104 ppbv are described as "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups", 105 ppbv to 124 ppbv as "unhealthy" and 125 ppb to 404 ppb as "very unhealthy". The "very unhealthy" range for some other pollutants are: 355 μg m – 424 μg m for PM10; 15.5 ppm – 30.4ppm for CO and 0.65 ppm – 1.24 ppm for NO.


title: Smog

text: In 2016, the Ontario Medical Association announced that smog is responsible for an estimated 9,500 premature deaths in the province each year.


title: Smog

text: A 20-year American Cancer Society study found that cumulative exposure also increases the likelihood of premature death from respiratory disease, implying the 8-hour standard may be insufficient.


title: Smog

text: Tiny magnetic particles from air pollution have for the first time been discovered to be lodged in human brains– and researchers think they could be a possible cause of Alzheimer's disease.


title: Smog

text: Researchers at Lancaster University found abundant magnetite nanoparticles in the brain tissue from 37 individuals aged three to 92-years-old who lived in Mexico City and Manchester. This strongly magnetic mineral is toxic and has been implicated in the production of reactive oxygen species (free radicals) in the human brain, which is associated with neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease.


title: Smog

text: A study examining 806 women who had babies with birth defects between 1997 and 2006, and 849 women who had healthy babies, found that smog in the San Joaquin Valley area of California was linked to two types of neural tube defects: spina bifida (a condition involving, among other manifestations, certain malformations of the spinal column), and anencephaly (the underdevelopment or absence of part or all of the brain, which if not fatal usually results in profound impairment). An emerging cohort study in China linked early-life smog exposure to an increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes, in particular oxidative stress.


title: Smog

text: According to a study published in The Lancet, even a very small (5 μg) change in PM2.5 exposure was associated with an increase (18%) in risk of a low birth weight at delivery, and this relationship held even below the current accepted safe levels.


title: Smog

text: Smog can form in almost any climate where industries or cities release large amounts of air pollution, such as smoke or gases. However, it is worse during periods of warmer, sunnier weather when the upper air is warm enough to inhibit vertical circulation. It is especially prevalent in geologic basins encircled by hills or mountains. It often stays for an extended period of time over densely populated cities or urban areas and can build up to dangerous levels.


title: Smog

text: According to the Canadian Science Smog Assessment published in 2012, smog is responsible for detrimental effects on human and ecosystem health, as well as socioeconomic well-being across the country. It was estimated that the province of Ontario sustains $201 million in damages annually for selected crops, and an estimated tourism revenue degradation of $7.5 million in Vancouver and $1.32 million in The Fraser Valley due to decreased visibility. Air pollution in British Columbia is of particular concern, especially in the Fraser Valley, because of a meteorological effect called inversion which decreases air dispersion and leads to smog concentration.


title: Smog

text: For the past few years, cities in northern India have been covered in a thick layer of winter smog. The situation has turned quite drastic in the National Capital, Delhi. This smog is caused by the collection of Particulate Matter (a very fine type of dust and toxic gases) in the air due to stagnant movement of air during winters.


title: Smog

text: Delhi is the most polluted city in the world and according to one estimate, air pollution causes the death of about 10,500 people in Delhi every year. During 2013–14, peak levels of fine particulate matter (PM) in Delhi increased by about 44%, primarily due to high vehicular and industrial emissions, construction work and crop burning in adjoining states. Delhi has the highest level of the airborne particulate matter, PM2.5 considered most harmful to health, with 153 micrograms. Rising air pollution level has significantly increased lung-related ailments (especially asthma and lung cancer) among Delhi's children and women. The dense smog in Delhi during winter season results in major air and rail traffic disruptions every year. According to Indian meteorologists, the average maximum temperature in Delhi during winters has declined notably since 1998 due to rising air pollution.


title: Smog

text: Environmentalists have criticized the Delhi government for not doing enough to curb air pollution and to inform people about air quality issues. Most of Delhi's residents are unaware of alarming levels of air pollution in the city and the health risks associated with it. Since the mid-1990s, Delhi has undertaken some measures to curb air pollution – Delhi has the third highest quantity of trees among Indian cities and the Delhi Transport Corporation operates the world's largest fleet of environmentally friendly compressed natural gas (CNG) buses. In 1996, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) started a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court of India that ordered the conversion of Delhi's fleet of buses and taxis to run on CNG and banned the use of leaded petrol in 1998. In 2003, Delhi won the United States Department of Energy's first 'Clean Cities International Partner of the Year' award for its "bold efforts to curb air pollution and support alternative fuel initiatives". The Delhi Metro has also been credited for significantly reducing air pollutants in the city.


title: Smog

text: However, according to several authors, most of these gains have been lost, especially due to stubble burning, rise in market share of diesel cars and a considerable decline in bus ridership. According to CUE and System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFER), burning of agricultural waste in nearby Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh regions results in severe intensification of smog over Delhi. The state government of adjoining Uttar Pradesh is considering imposing a ban on crop burning to reduce pollution in Delhi NCR and an environmental panel has appealed to India's Supreme Court to impose a 30% cess on diesel cars.


title: Smog

text: Joint research between American and Chinese researchers in 2006 concluded that much of the city's pollution comes from surrounding cities and provinces. On average 35–60% of the ozone can be traced to sources outside the city. Shandong Province and Tianjin Municipality have a "significant influence on Beijing's air quality", partly due to the prevailing south/southeasterly flow during the summer and the mountains to the north and northwest.


title: Smog

text: In 1306, concerns over air pollution were sufficient for Edward I to (briefly) ban coal fires in London. In 1661, John Evelyn's "Fumifugium" suggested burning fragrant wood instead of mineral coal, which he believed would reduce coughing. The "" the same year describes how the smoke "does our lungs and spirits choke, Our hanging spoil, and rust our iron."


title: Smog

text: Severe episodes of smog continued in the 19th and 20th centuries, mainly in the winter, and were nicknamed "pea-soupers," from the phrase "as thick as pea soup". The Great Smog of 1952 darkened the streets of London and killed approximately 4,000 people in the short time of four days (a further 8,000 died from its effects in the following weeks and months). Initially, a flu epidemic was blamed for the loss of life.


title: Smog

text: In 1956 the Clean Air Act started legally enforcing smokeless zones in the capital. There were areas where no soft coal was allowed to be burned in homes or in businesses, only coke, which produces no smoke. Because of the smokeless zones, reduced levels of sooty particulates eliminated the intense and persistent London smog.


title: Smog

text: It was after this that the great clean-up of London began. One by one, historical buildings which, during the previous two centuries had gradually completely blackened externally, had their stone facades cleaned and restored to their original appearance. Victorian buildings whose appearance changed dramatically after cleaning included the British Museum of Natural History. A more recent example was the Palace of Westminster, which was cleaned in the 1980s. A notable exception to the restoration trend was 10 Downing Street, whose bricks upon cleaning in the late 1950s proved to be naturally "yellow"; the smog-derived black color of the façade was considered so iconic that the bricks were painted black to preserve the image. Smog caused by traffic pollution, however, does still occur in modern London.


title: Smog

text: The cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, in Scotland, suffered smoke-laden fogs in 1909. Des Voeux, commonly credited with creating the "smog" moniker, presented a paper in 1911 to the Manchester Conference of the Smoke Abatement League of Great Britain about the fogs and resulting deaths.


title: Smog

text: One Birmingham resident described near black-out conditions in the 1900s before the Clean Air Act, with visibility so poor that cyclists had to dismount and walk in order to stay on the road.


title: Smog

text: On 29 April 2015, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the government must take immediate action to cut air pollution, following a case brought by environmental lawyers at ClientEarth.


title: Smog

text: Due to its location in a highland "bowl", cold air sinks down onto the urban area of Mexico City, trapping industrial and vehicle pollution underneath, and turning it into the most infamously smog-plagued city of Latin America. Within one generation, the city has changed from being known for some of the cleanest air of the world into one with some of the worst pollution, with pollutants like nitrogen dioxide being double or even triple international standards.


title: Smog

text: Similar to Mexico City, the air pollution of Santiago valley, located between the Andes and the Chilean Coast Range, turn it into the most infamously smog-plagued city of South America. Other aggravates of the situation reside in its high latitude (31 degrees South) and dry weather during most of the year.


title: Smog

text: In December 2005, schools and public offices had to close in Tehran and 1600 people were taken to hospital, in a severe smog blamed largely on unfiltered car exhaust.


title: Smog

text: Smog was brought to the attention of the general U.S. public in 1933 with the publication of the book "Stop That Smoke", by Henry Obermeyer, a New York public utility official, in which he pointed out the effect on human life and even the destruction of of a farmer's spinach crop. Since then, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has designated over 300 U.S. counties to be non-attainment areas for one or more pollutants tracked as part of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. These areas are largely clustered around large metropolitan areas, with the largest contiguous non-attainment zones in California and the Northeast. Various U.S. and Canadian government agencies collaborate to produce real-time air quality maps and forecasts. To combat smog conditions, localities may declare "smog alert" days, such as in the Spare the Air program in the San Francisco Bay Area. By 1970, Congress enacted the Clean Air Act to regulate air pollutant emissions.


title: Smog

text: In the United States, smog pollution kills 24,000 Americans every year. The U.S. is among the dirtier countries in terms of smog, ranked 123 out of 195 countries measured, where 1 is cleanest and 195 is most smog polluted.


title: Smog

text: Because of their locations in low basins surrounded by mountains, Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley are notorious for their smog. Heavy automobile traffic, combined with the additional effects of the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles/Long Beach port complexes, frequently contribute to further air pollution.


title: Smog

text: Los Angeles, in particular, is strongly predisposed to the accumulation of smog, because of the peculiarities of its geography and weather patterns. Los Angeles is situated in a flat basin with the ocean on one side and mountain ranges on three sides. A nearby cold ocean current depresses surface air temperatures in the area, resulting in an inversion layer: a phenomenon where air temperature increases, instead of decreasing, with altitude, suppressing thermals and restricting vertical convection. All taken together, this results in a relatively thin, enclosed layer of air above the city that cannot easily escape out of the basin and tends to accumulate pollution.


title: Smog

text: Los Angeles was one of the best-known cities suffering from transportation smog for much of the 20th century, so much so that it was sometimes said that "Los Angeles" was a synonym for "smog." In 1970, when the Clean Air Act was passed, Los Angeles was the most polluted basin in the country, and California was unable to create a State Implementation Plan that would enable it to meet the new air quality standards. However, ensuing strict regulations by state and federal government agencies overseeing this problem (such as the California Air Resources Board and the United States Environmental Protection Agency), including tight restrictions on allowed emissions levels for all new cars sold in California and mandatory regular emission tests of older vehicles, resulted in significant improvements in air quality. For example, air concentrations of volatile organic compounds declined by a factor of 50 between 1962 and 2012. Concentrations of air pollutants such as nitrous oxides and ozone declined by 70% to 80% over the same period of time.


title: Smog

text: In the late 1990s, massive immigration to Ulaanbaatar from the countryside began. An estimated 150,000 households, mainly living in traditional Mongolian gers on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, burn wood and coal (some poor families burn even car tires and trash) to heat themselves during the harsh winter, which lasts from October to April, since these outskirts are not connected to the city's central heating system. A temporary solution to decrease smog was proposed in the form of stoves with improved efficiency, although with no visible results.


title: Smog

text: Coal-fired ger stoves release high levels of ash and other particulate matter (PM). When inhaled, these particles can settle in the lungs and respiratory tract and cause health problems. At two to 10 times above Mongolian and international air quality standards, Ulaanbaatar's PM rates are among the worst in the world, according to a December 2009 World Bank report. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that health costs related to this air pollution account for as much as 4 percent of Mongolia's GDP.


title: Smog

text: Smog is a regular problem in Southeast Asia caused by land and forest fires in Indonesia, especially Sumatra and Kalimantan, although the term haze is preferred in describing the problem. Farmers and plantation owners are usually responsible for the fires, which they use to clear tracts of land for further plantings. Those fires mainly affect Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, and occasionally Guam and Saipan. The economic losses of the fires in 1997 have been estimated at more than US$9 billion. This includes damages in agriculture production, destruction of forest lands, health, transportation, tourism, and other economic endeavours. Not included are social, environmental, and psychological problems and long-term health effects. The second-latest bout of haze to occur in Malaysia, Singapore and the Malacca Straits is in October 2006, and was caused by smoke from fires in Indonesia being blown across the Straits of Malacca by south-westerly winds. A similar haze has occurred in June 2013, with the PSI setting a new record in Singapore on 21 June at 12pm with a reading of 401, which is in the "Hazardous" range.


title: Smog

text: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reacted. In 2002, the Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution was signed between all ASEAN nations. ASEAN formed a Regional Haze Action Plan (RHAP) and established a co-ordination and support unit (CSU). RHAP, with the help of Canada, established a monitoring and warning system for forest/vegetation fires and implemented a Fire Danger Rating System (FDRS). The Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD) has issued a daily rating of fire danger since September 2003. Indonesia has been ineffective at enforcing legal policies on errant farmers.


title: Smog

text: Since the start of the winter season, heavy smog loaded with pollutants covered major parts of Punjab, especially the city of Lahore, causing breathing problems and disrupting normal traffic. A recent study from 2022 shows that the primary cause of pollution in Lahore is from traffic-related PM (both exhausts and non exhaust sources)


title: Smog

text: The severity of smog is often measured using automated optical instruments such as nephelometers, as haze is associated with visibility and traffic control in ports. Haze, however, can also be an indication of poor air quality, though this is often better reflected using accurate purpose-built air indexes such as the American Air Quality Index, the Malaysian API (Air Pollution Index), and the Singaporean Pollutant Standards Index.


title: Smog

text: In hazy conditions, it is likely that the index will report the suspended particulate level. The disclosure of the responsible pollutant is mandated in some jurisdictions.


title: Smog

text: The Malaysian API does not have a capped value. Hence, its most hazardous readings can go above 500. When the reading goes above 500, a state of emergency is declared in the affected area. Usually, this means that non-essential government services are suspended, and all ports in the affected area are closed. There may also be prohibitions on private sector commercial and industrial activities in the affected area excluding the food sector. So far, the state of emergency rulings due to hazardous API levels was applied to the Malaysian towns of Port Klang, Kuala Selangor, and the state of Sarawak during 1997 Southeast Asian haze and the 2005 Malaysian haze.


title: Jay Ryan (actor)

text: Jay Ryan (born 29 August 1981) is a New Zealand actor. He is best known for his roles as Jack Scully in the Australian soap opera "Neighbours", Kevin in the New Zealand comedy-drama programme "Go Girls", Mark Mitcham in the internationally produced New Zealand television programme "Top of the Lake", Vincent Keller in the American television series "Beauty & the Beast" and Detective Ben Wesley in the Canadian television series "Mary Kills People".


title: Jay Ryan (actor)

text: Ryan made his feature film breakthrough playing adult Ben Hanscom in "It Chapter Two", a sequel to the 2017 horror film "It", based on the 1986 novel of the same name.


title: Jay Ryan (actor)

text: Under the name Jay Bunyan, he appeared as "Glen" in the "Scallywag Pirates" (2000) and had a minor role in "". He is known for his portrayal of Jack Scully in the Australian soap opera "Neighbours" from late 2002 until January 2005.


title: Jay Ryan (actor)

text: From 2007 to 2009, Ryan played Seaman William "Billy" Webb aka Spider in the popular Australian drama, "Sea Patrol".


title: Jay Ryan (actor)

text: From a theatre background Ryan has shared the stage with the likes of John Cleese and toured internationally with "The Packer", an acclaimed solo show written by NZ/Niuean playwright Dianna Fuemana.


title: Jay Ryan (actor)

text: From 2009 to 2012, Ryan played Kevin in the New Zealand comedy/drama series "Go Girls". In 2011, he joined the cast of the Australian comedy/drama series "Offspring". Also in 2011, Ryan guest starred on the American science fiction series "Terra Nova", playing a murderer. For this role, Ryan used an American accent.


title: Jay Ryan (actor)

text: In 2012, Ryan was cast as the male lead in the CW's "Beauty & the Beast" pilot. The CW officially announced the series at the May 2012 Up Fronts in New York.


title: Jay Ryan (actor)

text: Ryan starred as the adult Ben Hanscom in the 2019 horror film "It Chapter Two", the sequel to "It" (2017). He shares the character with Jeremy Ray Taylor.


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: Peritonsillar abscess (PTA), also known as quinsy, is an accumulation of pus due to an infection behind the tonsil. Symptoms include fever, throat pain, trouble opening the mouth, and a change to the voice. Pain is usually worse on one side. Complications may include blockage of the airway or aspiration pneumonitis.


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: PTA is typically due to infection by a number of types of bacteria. Often it follows streptococcal pharyngitis. They do not typically occur in those who have had a tonsillectomy. Diagnosis is usually based on the symptoms. Medical imaging may be done to rule out complications.


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: Treatment is by removing the pus, antibiotics, sufficient fluids, and pain medication. Steroids may also be useful. Admission to hospital is generally not needed. In the United States about 3 per 10,000 people per year are affected. Young adults are most commonly affected.


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: Physical signs of a peritonsillar abscess include redness and swelling in the tonsillar area of the affected side and swelling of the jugulodigastric lymph nodes. The uvula may be displaced towards the unaffected side.


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: Unlike tonsillitis, which is more common in children, PTA has a more even age spread, from children to adults. Symptoms start appearing two to eight days before the formation of an abscess. A progressively severe sore throat on one side and pain during swallowing (odynophagia) usually are the earliest symptoms. As the abscess develops, persistent pain in the peritonsillar area, fever, a general sense of feeling unwell, headache, and a distortion of vowels informally known as "hot potato voice" may appear. Neck pain associated with tender, swollen lymph nodes, referred ear pain and foul breath are also common. While these signs may be present in tonsillitis itself, a PTA should be specifically considered if there is limited ability to open the mouth (trismus).


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: While most people recover uneventfully, there is a wide range of possible complications. These may include:


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: PTA usually arises as a complication of an untreated or partially treated episode of acute tonsillitis. The infection, in these cases, spreads to the peritonsillar area (peritonsillitis). This region comprises loose connective tissue and is hence susceptible to formation of an abscess. PTA can also occur "de novo". Both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria can be causative. Commonly involved aerobic pathogens include "Streptococcus, Staphylococcus" and "Haemophilus". The most common anaerobic species include "Fusobacterium necrophorum", " Peptostreptococcus", "Prevotella species", and "Bacteroides".


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: Diagnosis is usually based on the symptoms. Medical imaging may be done to rule out complications. Medical imaging may include CT scan, MRI, or ultrasound is also useful in diagnosis.


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: Medical treatment with antibiotics, volume repletion with fluids, and pain medication is usually adequate, although in cases where airway obstruction or systemic sepsis occurs, surgical drainage may be necessary. Steroids may also be useful. Admission to hospital is generally not needed.


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: The infection is frequently penicillin resistant. There are a number of antibiotics options including amoxicillin/clavulanate, clindamycin, or metronidazole in combination with benzylpenicillin (penicillin G) or penicillin V. Piperacillin/tazobactam may also be used.


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: The pus can be removed by a number of methods including needle aspiration, incision and drainage, and tonsillectomy. Incision and drainage may be associated with a lower chance of recurrence than needle aspiration but the evidence is very uncertain. Needle aspiration may be less painful but again the evidence is very uncertain.


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: Treatment can also be given while a patient is under anesthesia, but this is usually reserved for children or anxious patients. Tonsillectomy can be indicated if a patient has recurring peritonsillar abscesses or a history of tonsillitis. For patients with their first peritonsillar abscess most ENT-surgeons prefer to "wait and observe" before recommending tonsillectomy.


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: The number of new cases per year of peritonsillar abscess in the United States has been estimated approximately at 30 cases per 100,000 people. In a study in Northern Ireland, the number of new cases was 10 cases per 100,000 people per year.


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: In Denmark, the number of new cases is higher and reaches 41 cases per 100,000 people per year. Younger children who develop a peritonsillar abscess are often immunocompromised and in them, the infection can cause airway obstruction.


title: Peritonsillar abscess

text: The condition is often referred to as "quincy", "quinsy", or "quinsey", anglicised versions of the French word "esquinancie" which was originally rendered as squinsey and subsequently quinsy.


title: Martika

text: Marta Marrero (born May 18, 1969), better known by her stage name Martika ( ), is an American pop singer and actress. She released two internationally successful albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which sold over four million copies worldwide. Her biggest hit was "Toy Soldiers", which peaked at #1 for two weeks on the American chart in mid-1989. She is also known for her role as Gloria on "Kids Incorporated".


title: Martika

text: She entered mainstream show business in an uncredited role as one of the girls in the 1982 motion picture "Annie". This led to her being cast as Gloria on the long-running children's show "Kids Incorporated" as one of a group of neighborhood children who rise to local fame by singing staged productions at a corner malt shop. Once the second season began, she formally adopted her stage name Martika Marrero before shortening it to the mononym Martika, which she has used ever since. Martika and many other "Kids Incorporated" cast members were featured in the musical numbers from the Mr. T motivational video "Be Somebody... or Be Somebody's Fool!" in 1984.


title: Martika

text: Following her role in "Kids Incorporated" and "Be Somebody", Martika was signed by Columbia Records. Her first solo release was released only in Japan: "We are Music" was recorded to promote Sony cassette tapes in the Japanese market, where the song was released in 12", 7" and CD formats.


title: Martika

text: In 1987, Martika recorded a version of the Michael Jay/Gregory Smith song "Bounce Back", which included a music video which was aired on "Entertainment '80", although it was not available for purchase.


title: Martika

text: Her first album, 1988's "Martika" (No. 15 US), spawned the song "Toy Soldiers", which she co-wrote with her producer Michael Jay and it became a top-5 hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, and Australia. In the US, "Toy Soldiers" spent two weeks at No. 1 in 1989. "Toy Soldiers" also went to No. 1 in New Zealand.


title: Martika

text: Two additional singles also went top 40 in the US: "More Than You Know" (No. 18) and "I Feel the Earth Move" (No. 25), which was a cover of Carole King's song from her album "Tapestry". Both of those tracks also hit the top 20 on the US Dance charts and the UK Singles Chart. "I Feel the Earth Move" also reached the top 10 in Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. A fourth and final single from the album, "Water", entered the lower regions of the UK and Australian charts.


title: Martika

text: In 1990, Martika co-wrote the track "Kiss Me Quick" with Michael Jay and Marvin Morrow. The track was recorded by freestyle/pop singer Alisha for her 1990 album "Bounce Back", with Martika contributing backing vocals.


title: Martika

text: Martika was encouraged by her agent to combine her love of film and music by scoring soundtracks and, in 1990, she wrote and recorded the song "Blue Eyes Are Sensitive to the Light" for the soundtrack to the film "Arachnophobia". The producers of the album did not like her vocals, so the song was re-recorded by Sara Hickman for the film. The song has also been recorded by Brazilian singers Deborah Blando (on her 1991 debut, "A Different Story"), Elba Ramalho, and Frances Ruffelle.


title: Martika

text: In 1991, Martika approached Prince to do some new tracks. Among these was her second (and last) US Top-10 single, "Love... Thy Will Be Done", which also became a Top-10 hit in the UK and reached No. 1 in Australia. "Love... Thy Will Be Done" started out as a prayer written by Martika, and Prince then changed it into a song.


title: Martika

text: Her second album, "Martika's Kitchen", peaked at No. 111 on the "Billboard" Top Albums chart. The title track received only minor airplay in the US, and reached No. 93 on "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. However, the album was a bigger success abroad, though on a lesser scale than her debut. It peaked at No. 15 in the UK Albums Chart, No. 9 in Australia, and spawned further hits with the songs "Coloured Kisses" and the title track, "Martika's Kitchen". "Temptation", another track from this album, was covered by Patti LaBelle on her album "Burnin'".


title: Martika

text: Martika played the role of the lounge singer Dahlia Mendez in the crime drama TV series "Wiseguy" in 1990, opposite Steven Bauer who took over from Ken Wahl for the fourth and final season.


title: Martika

text: She eventually faded from the public eye in 1991/1992 after walking away from the music industry, due to burnout and feeling overwhelmed with the burden of fame.


title: Martika

text: During the 2000 explosion of Latin pop, Martika sang backing vocals on various projects and contributed lyrics to releases by other artists, although she failed to receive any major-label attention for herself. Instead, she built martika.net in 2001, a website for her fans, and released a remix of a newly self-recorded song, "The Journey". She also recorded a track "Monday" for a new solo album which the website stated was on its way. Eventually, however, her website was shut down and the album never materialized.


title: Martika

text: In 2003, Martika and her husband, musician Michael Mozart formed the band Oppera. Adopting a Latin pop sound, she and Mozart released Oppera's debut album "Violince", in 2004. Rapper Eminem used a sample of her biggest US hit, "Toy Soldiers", for "Like Toy Soldiers", a track on his 2004 album "Encore" and featured Martika on the chorus of the track. In response, Martika's British greatest hits album was repackaged with its title altered to "Toy Soldiers: The Best of Martika". A biography was added to the album insert reflecting the new Eminem sample, though it asserted that she had not released any albums since "Martika's Kitchen".


title: Martika

text: Oppera released a self-titled second album in 2005. Martika promoted "Oppera"s release with a Borders bookstore tour.


title: Martika

text: In 2010, Martika, using the stage name Vida Edit, starred as Lolly Pop and co-produced a web-based television action program "J8ded".


title: Martika

text: In October 2011, Martika stopped using the stage name Vida Edit and launched a new personal website. A year later, she announced an Australian tour, but it was canceled. She performed in 2014 alongside Debbie Gibson, Samantha Fox, and Rick Astley at a HitParade Festival in Chile.


title: Martika

text: In July 2016, she was part of the Totally 80s Tour of Australia. The concerts included seven international 1980s acts, including Martika, Berlin, Limahl of Kajagoogoo, Paul Lekakis, Katrina of Katrina and the Waves, Men Without Hats and Stacey Q. For her performance at the tour, she received positive reviews from the Australian press.


title: Martika

text: Martika lived in Dayton, Ohio, for several years with her musician husband, concentrating on married life.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: The Mitsubishi F-15J/DJ Eagle is a twin-engine, all-weather air superiority fighter based on the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle in use by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF). The F-15J was produced under license by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The subsequent F-15DJ and F-15J Kai variants were also produced. Japan is the largest customer of the F-15 Eagle outside the United States. In addition to combat, F-15DJ roles include training. The F-15J Kai is a modernized version of the F-15J.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: In June–July1975, the Japan Defense Agency (JDA, now Ministry of Defense) examined the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle as one of the 13 candidates for the replacement of the F-104J/DJ Starfighter and F-4EJ Phantom II. A single-seat F-15C and a twin-seat F-15D were evaluated at Edwards Air Force Base, and in , the F-15 has announced the winner, with the government intending to purchase 187 F-15J/DJs. By April 1978, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was designated as the primary contractor and licensing for the F-15C/D was achieved.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: After congressional review, the Department of Defense (DoD) withheld the aircraft's electronic warfare and engine systems from the licensing. Initially, the aircraft were produced in the U.S. and exported to Japan. This initial export production contributed to aircraft development under the defense industry of Japan while facilitating base production of aircraft, achieving the goal of producing a fighter to Japan's requirements.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) acquired 203F-15Js and 20F-15DJs, of which 2F-15Js and 12F-15DJs were built by McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, Missouri. Dubbed the "Peace Eagle" by the DoD FMS program, the first F-15J built in St. Louis was delivered to the United States Air Force for its first flight on , and a subsequent cruise on 15 July to Japan. Additionally, 8F-15Js were manufactured in large components and shipped to Japan for final assembly by Komaki of Mitsubishi, the first of these (serial number 12–8803) making its maiden flight on . Companies divided the remainder share and produced it under license from 1981, with final assembly of aircraft performed by Mitsubishi.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: In 1980, the Japanese government applied for access to advanced technology through the U.S.-Japan Forum (S&TF) but this was rejected. The JDA and the DoD held annual meetings about relaxation of the regulation after a program was started. In these meetings, the DoD official gave an answer that permitted access to initially prohibited technology of various types including composite material.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: In the latter period of 1981, the first F-15J/DJ aircraft were sent to 202nd Tactical Fighter Squadron, which was reorganized as an Eagle FTU and renamed the 23 Flying Training Squadron at Nyutabaru base on 21 December 1982. The JASDF developed a plan to form the first squadron after the KAL007 shootdown by a Soviet Su-15 on 1 September 1983. In March 1984, new F-15Js began replacing the 203rd Tactical Fighter Squadron's F-104Js at Chitose Air Base, located across the La Pérouse Strait from the Soviet fighter base on Sakhalin Island.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: On , it was announced that Japan is considering selling their F-15s to the U.S. in order to acquire funds to purchase F-35s.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: The Japanese Ministry of Defense confirmed on February 4, 2022 that 68F-15Js will be upgraded through the Japan Super Interceptor (JSI) programme under a cost of JPY646.5 billion (USD5.6 billion). Boeing was awarded an undefinitized contract not-to-exceed $24,550,000 for the F-15 Japan Super Interceptor program.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: F-15J/DJs are identical to F-15C/Ds aside from the ECM, radar warning system, and nuclear equipment. The AN/ALQ-135 Internal Countermeasures System is replaced by the indigenous J/ALQ-8 and the AN/ALR-56 Radar Warning Receiver is replaced by the J/APR-4. The engine is the Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan, produced under license by IHI Corporation. Some aircraft still have an inertial measurement unit, an old type of the Inertial navigation system. All F-15J/DJs have two UHF radios, which are also VHF capable.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: The F-15J is characterized by an indigenous data link, but they do not support Link 16 FDL mounted by USAF F-15Cs. It works as a basic bidirectional link with the Japanese ground-controlled intercept network, and it is limited because it is not a true network.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: Mitsubishi received the F-15C/D Multistage Improvement Program (MSIP) and in 1987 began upgrading the F-15J/DJs. Improvements included an uprated central computer, engines, armament control set and added the J/APQ-1 countermeasures set. The F100-PW-220 (IHI-220) was upgraded to the F100-PW-220E (IHI-220E) with a digital engine electronic control retrofit. Differences in appearance from earlier F-15Js include the J/ALQ-8 ICS with an ICS antenna mounted under the intake. The J/APQ-4 RWR antenna position on the F-15J/DJs is the same as F-15C/Ds, but the lens of F-15J/DJ MSIPs is black rather than white for F-15C/Ds.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: F-15Js have been equipped with the Japanese-built AAM-3 missile, an improved AIM-9 Sidewinder follow-on with distinctive "barbed" forward fins. Japan has been investigating an advanced fighter to replace the F-15, meanwhile the F-15J fleet is being modernized. On 28 July 2003, the first upgraded F-15J (#928) made its first flight, and it was delivered to the JASDF Air Development Test Wing on 21 October 2003.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: On 10 December 2004, the Japanese Government approved a Mid-Term Defense Program (MTDP) to modernize the F-15J MSIPs over five years in accordance with new National Defense Program Guidelines. The upgrade is being implemented in phases, but ultimately the upgrade will include a new ejection seat; replaced IHI-220E engines; more powerful processor; uprated electrical generation and cooling capabilities to support more avionics and the Raytheon AN/APG-63(V)1 radar. which has been produced under license by Mitsubishi Electric since 1997. Raytheon expects the radar will ultimately be installed in 80 F-15Js. The new radar will support the AAM-4 missile, the Japanese answer to the AMRAAM.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: The Ministry of Defense (MoD) requested the modernization and deployment of reconnaissance aircraft in June 2007, and it was planned to upgrade some F-15Js with synthetic aperture radar pods; these aircraft would replace the RF-4 Phantom IIs currently in service.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: On 17 December 2009, the reconnaissance upgrade disappeared from the budget after the Democratic Party of Japan took power following the 2009 general election, and priority was given instead to improvement of the F-15J and the Mitsubishi F-2. The number of F-15J upgrades was increased from 26 to 48, and the MoD purchased part of the modernization for 38 fighters. However, the full budget for modernization is incomplete. 48 F-15Js will get a Link 16 datalink and helmet-mounted sight. The helmet-mounted sight will support the AAM-5 dogfighting missile, which will replace the AAM-3.


title: Mitsubishi F-15J

text: In late October 2019 the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency approved a possible sale to Japan of up to 103 APG-82(v)1 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radars, 116 Advanced Display Core Processor II Mission System Computers and 101 AN/ALQ-239 Digital Electronic Warfare Systems for the upgrade of 98 F-15Js to a "Japanese Super Interceptor" (JSI) configuration for an estimated cost of $4.5 billion. It can also carry a large air-to-surface weapon on its centerline weapon station, such as an AGM-158B JASSM-ER or AGM-158C LRASM, giving the aircraft an air-to-ground and anti-ship capability. In July 2020, Boeing signed an agreement with MHI to provide assistance and support to the program. Work is set to start in 2022.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, (born 11 March 1932) is a British Conservative Party politician and journalist. He was a Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Blaby from 1974 to 1992, and served in the cabinet of Margaret Thatcher from 1981 to 1989. Prior to entering the Cabinet, he served as the Financial Secretary to the Treasury from May 1979 until his promotion to Secretary of State for Energy. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in June 1983, and served until his resignation in October 1989. In both Cabinet posts, Lawson was a key proponent of Thatcher's policies of privatisation of several key industries. Lawson oversaw the sudden deregulation of financial markets in 1986, commonly referred to as the 'Big Bang', which decisively strengthened London's place as a financial capital.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Lawson was a backbencher from 1989 until he retired in 1992, and now sits in the House of Lords but has announced his intention to retire with effect on 31 December 2022. He has remained active in politics as President of Conservatives for Britain, a campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, and is a prominent critic of the European Union. He also served as chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation think tank, and was an active supporter of Vote Leave.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Lawson is the father of six children, including Nigella Lawson, a food writer and celebrity cook, Dominic Lawson, a journalist, and Tom Lawson, headmaster of Eastbourne College.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Lawson was born on 11 March 1932 to a non-orthodox Jewish family living in Hampstead, London. His father, Ralph Lawson (1904–1982), was the owner of a tea-trading firm in the City of London, while his mother, Joan Elizabeth (Davis), was also from a prosperous family of stockbrokers. His paternal grandfather, Gustav Leibson, a merchant from Mitau (now Jelgava in Latvia), changed his name from Leibson to Lawson in 1925, having become a British subject in 1911.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Lawson was educated at Westminster School in London (following in his father's footsteps), and Christ Church, Oxford, where he gained a first-class honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Lawson carried out his National Service as a Royal Navy officer, during which time he commanded the fast-patrol boat HMS "Gay Charger".


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Lawson began his career as a journalist at the "Financial Times" in 1956, subsequently writing the Lex column. He progressed to the positions of City editor of "The Sunday Telegraph" in 1961 – where he introduced Jim Slater's "Capitalist" investing column – and then editor of "The Spectator" (1966–1970).


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Lawson stood unsuccessfully at the 1970 general election for the Eton and Slough seat, before becoming the Member of Parliament for Blaby in Leicestershire in February 1974, which he held until retiring at the 1992 general election.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: While in Opposition, Lawson co-ordinated tactics with rebellious Government backbenchers Jeff Rooker and Audrey Wise to secure legislation providing for the automatic indexation of tax thresholds to prevent the tax burden being increased by inflation (typically in excess of 10% per annum during that Parliament).


title: Nigel Lawson

text: On the election of Margaret Thatcher's government, Lawson was appointed to the post of Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Although this is the fourth-ranking political position in the UK Treasury, Lawson's energy in office was reflected in such measures as the ending of unofficial state controls on mortgage lending, the abolition of exchange controls in October 1979 and the publication of the Medium Term financial Strategy. This document set the course for both the monetary and fiscal sides of the new government's economic policy, though the extent to which the subsequent trajectory of policy and outcome matched that projected is still a matter for debate.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: In the Cabinet reshuffle of September 1981, Lawson was promoted to the position of Secretary of State for Energy. In this role his most significant action was to prepare for what he saw as an inevitable full-scale strike in the coal industry (then state-owned since nationalisation by the post-war Labour party government of Clement Attlee) over the closure of deep coal mines whose uneconomic operation accounted for the coal industry's business losses and consequent requirement for state subsidy. He was a key proponent of the Thatcher Government's privatisation policy. During his tenure at the Department of Energy he set the course for the later privatisations of the gas and electricity industries and on his return to the Treasury he worked closely with the Department of Trade and Industry in privatising British Airways, British Telecom, and British Gas.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Following the Thatcher Government's re-election in 1983, Lawson was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in succession to Geoffrey Howe. The early years of Lawson's chancellorship were associated with tax reform. The 1984 Budget reformed corporate taxes by a combination of reduced rates and reduced allowances. The 1985 Budget continued the trend of shifting from direct to indirect taxes by reducing National Insurance contributions for the lower-paid while extending the base of value added tax.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: During these two years Lawson's public image remained low-key, but from the 1986 Budget (in which he resumed the reduction of the standard rate of personal Income tax from the 30% rate to which it had been lowered in Howe's 1979 Budget), his stock rose as unemployment began to fall from the middle of 1986 (employment growth having resumed over three years earlier). Lawson also changed the budget deficit from £10.5 billion (3.7% of GDP) in 1983 to a budget surplus of £3.9 billion in 1988 and £4.1 billion in 1989, the year of his resignation. During these years, however, the UK's current account deficit similarly rose from below 1% of GDP in 1986 to almost 5% in 1989, with Lawson asserting that an external deficit based on private-sector behaviour is no reason for concern. During his tenure the rate of taxation also came down. The basic rate was reduced from 30% in 1983 to 25% by 1988. The top rate of tax also came down from 60% to 40% in 1988 and the four other higher rates were removed, leaving a system of personal taxation in which there was no rate anywhere in excess of 40%.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: In 1986, the City of London's financial markets were deregulated in the so-called 'Big Bang'. In an interview in 2010, Lawson said that an unintended consequence of the Big Bang and the associated end of the separation that had existed between merchant and retail banking was the financial crisis of 2007–2008.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: The trajectory taken by the UK economy from this point on is typically described as "The Lawson Boom" by analogy with the phrase "The Barber Boom" which describes an earlier period of rapid expansion under the tenure as Chancellor of Anthony Barber in the Conservative Government of Prime Minister Heath (1970 to 1974). Critics of Lawson assert that a combination of the abandonment of monetarism, the adoption of a "de facto" exchange-rate target of 3 Deutsche Marks to the pound, and excessive fiscal laxity (in particular the 1988 Budget) unleashed an inflationary spiral.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Lawson, in his own defence, attributes the boom largely to the effects of various measures of financial deregulation. Insofar as Lawson acknowledges policy errors, he attributes them to a failure to raise interest rates during 1986 and considers that had Margaret Thatcher not vetoed the UK joining the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in November 1985 it might have been possible to adjust to these beneficial changes in the arena of microeconomics with less Macroeconomics turbulence. Lawson also ascribes the difficulty of conducting monetary policy to Goodhart's law.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Lawson's tax cuts, beginning in 1986, resulted in the "Lawson Boom" of the British economy, which halved unemployment from more than 3,000,000 by the end of 1989. However, this might have led to a rise in inflation from 3% to more than 8% during 1988, which resulted in interest rates doubling to 15% in the space of 18 months, and remaining high in spite of the 1990–1992 recession which saw unemployment rise nearly as high as the level seen before the boom began.


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Lawson reflected on the 1987 United Kingdom general election in his memoir and wrote that the 1987 manifesto was not thought through properly and if it had not been for the economic growth of the country at the time then the manifesto would have been a disaster because "as it was, it was merely an embarrassment".


title: Nigel Lawson

text: The budget in March 1988 was remembered for taking almost two hours to deliver due to continuous interruptions and protest from opposition members. Scottish National Party MP Alex Salmond was suspended from the House and several MPs voted against the amendment of the law bill (which is typically agreed by all members of the House).


title: Nigel Lawson

text: Lawson opposed the introduction of the Community Charge (nicknamed the "poll tax") as a replacement for the previous rating system for the local financing element of local government revenue. His dissent was confined to deliberations within the Cabinet, where he found few allies and where he was over-ruled by the Prime Minister and by the ministerial team of the department responsible (Department of the Environment).