title: Parallel computing

text: Not all parallelization results in speed-up. Generally, as a task is split up into more and more threads, those threads spend an ever-increasing portion of their time communicating with each other or waiting on each other for access to resources. Once the overhead from resource contention or communication dominates the time spent on other computation, further parallelization (that is, splitting the workload over even more threads) increases rather than decreases the amount of time required to finish. This problem, known as parallel slowdown, can be improved in some cases by software analysis and redesign.


title: Parallel computing

text: Applications are often classified according to how often their subtasks need to synchronize or communicate with each other. An application exhibits fine-grained parallelism if its subtasks must communicate many times per second; it exhibits coarse-grained parallelism if they do not communicate many times per second, and it exhibits embarrassing parallelism if they rarely or never have to communicate. Embarrassingly parallel applications are considered the easiest to parallelize.


title: Parallel computing

text: Michael J. Flynn created one of the earliest classification systems for parallel (and sequential) computers and programs, now known as Flynn's taxonomy. Flynn classified programs and computers by whether they were operating using a single set or multiple sets of instructions, and whether or not those instructions were using a single set or multiple sets of data.


title: Parallel computing

text: The single-instruction-single-data (SISD) classification is equivalent to an entirely sequential program. The single-instruction-multiple-data (SIMD) classification is analogous to doing the same operation repeatedly over a large data set. This is commonly done in signal processing applications. Multiple-instruction-single-data (MISD) is a rarely used classification. While computer architectures to deal with this were devised (such as systolic arrays), few applications that fit this class materialized. Multiple-instruction-multiple-data (MIMD) programs are by far the most common type of parallel programs.


title: Parallel computing

text: According to David A. Patterson and John L. Hennessy, "Some machines are hybrids of these categories, of course, but this classic model has survived because it is simple, easy to understand, and gives a good first approximation. It is also—perhaps because of its understandability—the most widely used scheme."


title: Parallel computing

text: From the advent of very-large-scale integration (VLSI) computer-chip fabrication technology in the 1970s until about 1986, speed-up in computer architecture was driven by doubling computer word size—the amount of information the processor can manipulate per cycle. Increasing the word size reduces the number of instructions the processor must execute to perform an operation on variables whose sizes are greater than the length of the word. For example, where an 8-bit processor must add two 16-bit integers, the processor must first add the 8 lower-order bits from each integer using the standard addition instruction, then add the 8 higher-order bits using an add-with-carry instruction and the carry bit from the lower order addition; thus, an 8-bit processor requires two instructions to complete a single operation, where a 16-bit processor would be able to complete the operation with a single instruction.


title: Parallel computing

text: Historically, 4-bit microprocessors were replaced with 8-bit, then 16-bit, then 32-bit microprocessors. This trend generally came to an end with the introduction of 32-bit processors, which has been a standard in general-purpose computing for two decades. Not until the early 2000s, with the advent of x86-64 architectures, did 64-bit processors become commonplace.


title: Parallel computing

text: A computer program is, in essence, a stream of instructions executed by a processor. Without instruction-level parallelism, a processor can only issue less than one instruction per clock cycle (). These processors are known as "subscalar" processors. These instructions can be re-ordered and combined into groups which are then executed in parallel without changing the result of the program. This is known as instruction-level parallelism. Advances in instruction-level parallelism dominated computer architecture from the mid-1980s until the mid-1990s.


title: Parallel computing

text: All modern processors have multi-stage instruction pipelines. Each stage in the pipeline corresponds to a different action the processor performs on that instruction in that stage; a processor with an "N"-stage pipeline can have up to "N" different instructions at different stages of completion and thus can issue one instruction per clock cycle (). These processors are known as "scalar" processors. The canonical example of a pipelined processor is a RISC processor, with five stages: instruction fetch (IF), instruction decode (ID), execute (EX), memory access (MEM), and register write back (WB). The Pentium 4 processor had a 35-stage pipeline.


title: Parallel computing

text: Most modern processors also have multiple execution units. They usually combine this feature with pipelining and thus can issue more than one instruction per clock cycle (). These processors are known as "superscalar" processors. Superscalar processors differ from multi-core processors in that the several execution units are not entire processors (i.e. processing units). Instructions can be grouped together only if there is no data dependency between them. Scoreboarding and the Tomasulo algorithm (which is similar to scoreboarding but makes use of register renaming) are two of the most common techniques for implementing out-of-order execution and instruction-level parallelism.


title: Parallel computing

text: Task parallelisms is the characteristic of a parallel program that "entirely different calculations can be performed on either the same or different sets of data". This contrasts with data parallelism, where the same calculation is performed on the same or different sets of data. Task parallelism involves the decomposition of a task into sub-tasks and then allocating each sub-task to a processor for execution. The processors would then execute these sub-tasks concurrently and often cooperatively. Task parallelism does not usually scale with the size of a problem.


title: Parallel computing

text: Superword level parallelism is a vectorization technique based on loop unrolling and basic block vectorization. It is distinct from loop vectorization algorithms in that it can exploit parallelism of inline code, such as manipulating coordinates, color channels or in loops unrolled by hand.


title: Parallel computing

text: Main memory in a parallel computer is either shared memory (shared between all processing elements in a single address space), or distributed memory (in which each processing element has its own local address space). Distributed memory refers to the fact that the memory is logically distributed, but often implies that it is physically distributed as well. Distributed shared memory and memory virtualization combine the two approaches, where the processing element has its own local memory and access to the memory on non-local processors. Accesses to local memory are typically faster than accesses to non-local memory. On the supercomputers, distributed shared memory space can be implemented using the programming model such as PGAS. This model allows processes on one compute node to transparently access the remote memory of another compute node. All compute nodes are also connected to an external shared memory system via high-speed interconnect, such as Infiniband, this external shared memory system is known as burst buffer, which is typically built from arrays of non-volatile memory physically distributed across multiple I/O nodes.


title: Parallel computing

text: Computer architectures in which each element of main memory can be accessed with equal latency and bandwidth are known as uniform memory access (UMA) systems. Typically, that can be achieved only by a shared memory system, in which the memory is not physically distributed. A system that does not have this property is known as a non-uniform memory access (NUMA) architecture. Distributed memory systems have non-uniform memory access.


title: Parallel computing

text: Computer systems make use of caches—small and fast memories located close to the processor which store temporary copies of memory values (nearby in both the physical and logical sense). Parallel computer systems have difficulties with caches that may store the same value in more than one location, with the possibility of incorrect program execution. These computers require a cache coherency system, which keeps track of cached values and strategically purges them, thus ensuring correct program execution. Bus snooping is one of the most common methods for keeping track of which values are being accessed (and thus should be purged). Designing large, high-performance cache coherence systems is a very difficult problem in computer architecture. As a result, shared memory computer architectures do not scale as well as distributed memory systems do.


title: Parallel computing

text: Processor–processor and processor–memory communication can be implemented in hardware in several ways, including via shared (either multiported or multiplexed) memory, a crossbar switch, a shared bus or an interconnect network of a myriad of topologies including star, ring, tree, hypercube, fat hypercube (a hypercube with more than one processor at a node), or n-dimensional mesh.


title: Parallel computing

text: Parallel computers based on interconnected networks need to have some kind of routing to enable the passing of messages between nodes that are not directly connected. The medium used for communication between the processors is likely to be hierarchical in large multiprocessor machines.


title: Parallel computing

text: Parallel computers can be roughly classified according to the level at which the hardware supports parallelism. This classification is broadly analogous to the distance between basic computing nodes. These are not mutually exclusive; for example, clusters of symmetric multiprocessors are relatively common.


title: Parallel computing

text: A multi-core processor is a processor that includes multiple processing units (called "cores") on the same chip. This processor differs from a superscalar processor, which includes multiple execution units and can issue multiple instructions per clock cycle from one instruction stream (thread); in contrast, a multi-core processor can issue multiple instructions per clock cycle from multiple instruction streams. IBM's Cell microprocessor, designed for use in the Sony PlayStation 3, is a prominent multi-core processor. Each core in a multi-core processor can potentially be superscalar as well—that is, on every clock cycle, each core can issue multiple instructions from one thread.


title: Parallel computing

text: Simultaneous multithreading (of which Intel's Hyper-Threading is the best known) was an early form of pseudo-multi-coreism. A processor capable of concurrent multithreading includes multiple execution units in the same processing unit—that is it has a superscalar architecture—and can issue multiple instructions per clock cycle from "multiple" threads. Temporal multithreading on the other hand includes a single execution unit in the same processing unit and can issue one instruction at a time from "multiple" threads.


title: Parallel computing

text: A symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) is a computer system with multiple identical processors that share memory and connect via a bus. Bus contention prevents bus architectures from scaling. As a result, SMPs generally do not comprise more than 32 processors. Because of the small size of the processors and the significant reduction in the requirements for bus bandwidth achieved by large caches, such symmetric multiprocessors are extremely cost-effective, provided that a sufficient amount of memory bandwidth exists.


title: Parallel computing

text: A distributed computer (also known as a distributed memory multiprocessor) is a distributed memory computer system in which the processing elements are connected by a network. Distributed computers are highly scalable. The terms "concurrent computing", "parallel computing", and "distributed computing" have a lot of overlap, and no clear distinction exists between them. The same system may be characterized both as "parallel" and "distributed"; the processors in a typical distributed system run concurrently in parallel.


title: Parallel computing

text: A cluster is a group of loosely coupled computers that work together closely, so that in some respects they can be regarded as a single computer. Clusters are composed of multiple standalone machines connected by a network. While machines in a cluster do not have to be symmetric, load balancing is more difficult if they are not. The most common type of cluster is the Beowulf cluster, which is a cluster implemented on multiple identical commercial off-the-shelf computers connected with a TCP/IP Ethernet local area network. Beowulf technology was originally developed by Thomas Sterling and Donald Becker. 87% of all Top500 supercomputers are clusters. The remaining are Massively Parallel Processors, explained below.


title: Parallel computing

text: Because grid computing systems (described below) can easily handle embarrassingly parallel problems, modern clusters are typically designed to handle more difficult problems—problems that require nodes to share intermediate results with each other more often. This requires a high bandwidth and, more importantly, a low-latency interconnection network. Many historic and current supercomputers use customized high-performance network hardware specifically designed for cluster computing, such as the Cray Gemini network. As of 2014, most current supercomputers use some off-the-shelf standard network hardware, often Myrinet, InfiniBand, or Gigabit Ethernet.


title: Parallel computing

text: A massively parallel processor (MPP) is a single computer with many networked processors. MPPs have many of the same characteristics as clusters, but MPPs have specialized interconnect networks (whereas clusters use commodity hardware for networking). MPPs also tend to be larger than clusters, typically having "far more" than 100 processors. In an MPP, "each CPU contains its own memory and copy of the operating system and application. Each subsystem communicates with the others via a high-speed interconnect."


title: Parallel computing

text: IBM's Blue Gene/L, the fifth fastest supercomputer in the world according to the June 2009 TOP500 ranking, is an MPP.


title: Parallel computing

text: Grid computing is the most distributed form of parallel computing. It makes use of computers communicating over the Internet to work on a given problem. Because of the low bandwidth and extremely high latency available on the Internet, distributed computing typically deals only with embarrassingly parallel problems.


title: Parallel computing

text: Most grid computing applications use middleware (software that sits between the operating system and the application to manage network resources and standardize the software interface). The most common grid computing middleware is the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC). Often volunteer computing software makes use of "spare cycles", performing computations at times when a computer is idling.


title: Parallel computing

text: Within parallel computing, there are specialized parallel devices that remain niche areas of interest. While not domain-specific, they tend to be applicable to only a few classes of parallel problems.


title: Parallel computing

text: Reconfigurable computing is the use of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) as a co-processor to a general-purpose computer. An FPGA is, in essence, a computer chip that can rewire itself for a given task.


title: Parallel computing

text: FPGAs can be programmed with hardware description languages such as VHDL or Verilog. However, programming in these languages can be tedious. Several vendors have created C to HDL languages that attempt to emulate the syntax and semantics of the C programming language, with which most programmers are familiar. The best known C to HDL languages are Mitrion-C, Impulse C, and Handel-C. Specific subsets of SystemC based on C++ can also be used for this purpose.


title: Parallel computing

text: AMD's decision to open its HyperTransport technology to third-party vendors has become the enabling technology for high-performance reconfigurable computing. According to Michael R. D'Amour, Chief Operating Officer of DRC Computer Corporation, "when we first walked into AMD, they called us 'the socket stealers.' Now they call us their partners."


title: Parallel computing

text: General-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is a fairly recent trend in computer engineering research. GPUs are co-processors that have been heavily optimized for computer graphics processing. Computer graphics processing is a field dominated by data parallel operations—particularly linear algebra matrix operations.


title: Parallel computing

text: In the early days, GPGPU programs used the normal graphics APIs for executing programs. However, several new programming languages and platforms have been built to do general purpose computation on GPUs with both Nvidia and AMD releasing programming environments with CUDA and Stream SDK respectively. Other GPU programming languages include BrookGPU, PeakStream, and RapidMind. Nvidia has also released specific products for computation in their Tesla series. The technology consortium Khronos Group has released the OpenCL specification, which is a framework for writing programs that execute across platforms consisting of CPUs and GPUs. AMD, Apple, Intel, Nvidia and others are supporting OpenCL.


title: Parallel computing

text: Several application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) approaches have been devised for dealing with parallel applications.


title: Parallel computing

text: Because an ASIC is (by definition) specific to a given application, it can be fully optimized for that application. As a result, for a given application, an ASIC tends to outperform a general-purpose computer. However, ASICs are created by UV photolithography. This process requires a mask set, which can be extremely expensive. A mask set can cost over a million US dollars. (The smaller the transistors required for the chip, the more expensive the mask will be.) Meanwhile, performance increases in general-purpose computing over time (as described by Moore's law) tend to wipe out these gains in only one or two chip generations. High initial cost, and the tendency to be overtaken by Moore's-law-driven general-purpose computing, has rendered ASICs unfeasible for most parallel computing applications. However, some have been built. One example is the PFLOPS RIKEN MDGRAPE-3 machine which uses custom ASICs for molecular dynamics simulation.


title: Parallel computing

text: A vector processor is a CPU or computer system that can execute the same instruction on large sets of data. Vector processors have high-level operations that work on linear arrays of numbers or vectors. An example vector operation is "A" = "B" × "C", where "A", "B", and "C" are each 64-element vectors of 64-bit floating-point numbers. They are closely related to Flynn's SIMD classification.


title: Parallel computing

text: Cray computers became famous for their vector-processing computers in the 1970s and 1980s. However, vector processors—both as CPUs and as full computer systems—have generally disappeared. Modern processor instruction sets do include some vector processing instructions, such as with Freescale Semiconductor's AltiVec and Intel's Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE).


title: Parallel computing

text: Concurrent programming languages, libraries, APIs, and parallel programming models (such as algorithmic skeletons) have been created for programming parallel computers. These can generally be divided into classes based on the assumptions they make about the underlying memory architecture—shared memory, distributed memory, or shared distributed memory. Shared memory programming languages communicate by manipulating shared memory variables. Distributed memory uses message passing. POSIX Threads and OpenMP are two of the most widely used shared memory APIs, whereas Message Passing Interface (MPI) is the most widely used message-passing system API. One concept used in programming parallel programs is the future concept, where one part of a program promises to deliver a required datum to another part of a program at some future time.


title: Parallel computing

text: Efforts to standardize parallel programming include an open standard called OpenHMPP for hybrid multi-core parallel programing. The OpenHMPP directive-based programming model offers a syntax to efficiently offload computations on hardware accelerators and to optimize data movement to/from the hardware memory using remote procedure calls.


title: Parallel computing

text: The rise of consumer GPUs has led to support for compute kernels, either in graphics APIs (referred to as compute shaders), in dedicated APIs (such as OpenCL), or in other language extensions.


title: Parallel computing

text: Automatic parallelization of a sequential program by a compiler is the "holy grail" of parallel computing, especially with the aforementioned limit of processor frequency. Despite decades of work by compiler researchers, automatic parallelization has had only limited success.


title: Parallel computing

text: Mainstream parallel programming languages remain either explicitly parallel or (at best) partially implicit, in which a programmer gives the compiler directives for parallelization. A few fully implicit parallel programming languages exist—SISAL, Parallel Haskell, SequenceL, System C (for FPGAs), Mitrion-C, VHDL, and Verilog.


title: Parallel computing

text: As a computer system grows in complexity, the mean time between failures usually decreases. Application checkpointing is a technique whereby the computer system takes a "snapshot" of the application—a record of all current resource allocations and variable states, akin to a core dump—; this information can be used to restore the program if the computer should fail. Application checkpointing means that the program has to restart from only its last checkpoint rather than the beginning. While checkpointing provides benefits in a variety of situations, it is especially useful in highly parallel systems with a large number of processors used in high performance computing.


title: Parallel computing

text: As parallel computers become larger and faster, we are now able to solve problems that had previously taken too long to run. Fields as varied as bioinformatics (for protein folding and sequence analysis) and economics (for mathematical finance) have taken advantage of parallel computing. Common types of problems in parallel computing applications include:


title: Parallel computing

text: Parallel computing can also be applied to the design of fault-tolerant computer systems, particularly via lockstep systems performing the same operation in parallel. This provides redundancy in case one component fails, and also allows automatic error detection and error correction if the results differ. These methods can be used to help prevent single-event upsets caused by transient errors. Although additional measures may be required in embedded or specialized systems, this method can provide a cost-effective approach to achieve n-modular redundancy in commercial off-the-shelf systems.


title: Parallel computing

text: The origins of true (MIMD) parallelism go back to Luigi Federico Menabrea and his "Sketch of the Analytic Engine Invented by Charles Babbage".


title: Parallel computing

text: In April 1958, Stanley Gill (Ferranti) discussed parallel programming and the need for branching and waiting. Also in 1958, IBM researchers John Cocke and Daniel Slotnick discussed the use of parallelism in numerical calculations for the first time. Burroughs Corporation introduced the D825 in 1962, a four-processor computer that accessed up to 16 memory modules through a crossbar switch. In 1967, Amdahl and Slotnick published a debate about the feasibility of parallel processing at American Federation of Information Processing Societies Conference. It was during this debate that Amdahl's law was coined to define the limit of speed-up due to parallelism.


title: Parallel computing

text: In 1969, Honeywell introduced its first Multics system, a symmetric multiprocessor system capable of running up to eight processors in parallel. C.mmp, a multi-processor project at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1970s, was among the first multiprocessors with more than a few processors. The first bus-connected multiprocessor with snooping caches was the Synapse N+1 in 1984.


title: Parallel computing

text: SIMD parallel computers can be traced back to the 1970s. The motivation behind early SIMD computers was to amortize the gate delay of the processor's control unit over multiple instructions. In 1964, Slotnick had proposed building a massively parallel computer for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His design was funded by the US Air Force, which was the earliest SIMD parallel-computing effort, ILLIAC IV. The key to its design was a fairly high parallelism, with up to 256 processors, which allowed the machine to work on large datasets in what would later be known as vector processing. However, ILLIAC IV was called "the most infamous of supercomputers", because the project was only one-fourth completed, but took 11 years and cost almost four times the original estimate. When it was finally ready to run its first real application in 1976, it was outperformed by existing commercial supercomputers such as the Cray-1.


title: Parallel computing

text: In the early 1970s, at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert started developing the "Society of Mind" theory, which views the biological brain as massively parallel computer. In 1986, Minsky published "The Society of Mind", which claims that “mind is formed from many little agents, each mindless by itself”. The theory attempts to explain how what we call intelligence could be a product of the interaction of non-intelligent parts. Minsky says that the biggest source of ideas about the theory came from his work in trying to create a machine that uses a robotic arm, a video camera, and a computer to build with children's blocks.


title: Parallel computing

text: Similar models (which also view the biological brain as a massively parallel computer, i.e., the brain is made up of a constellation of independent or semi-independent agents) were also described by:


title: Orange County, Florida

text: Orange County is located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,429,908, making it Florida's fifth most populous county. The county seat is Orlando. Orange County is the central county of the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: The land that is Orange County was part of the first land to come up from below the Early Oligocene sea 33.9–28.4 million years ago and is known as Orange Island. Orange County's Rock Spring location is a Pleistocene fossil-bearing area and has yielded a vast variety of birds and mammals including giant sloth, mammoth, camel, and the dire wolf dating around 1.1 million years ago.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: Immediately following the transfer of Florida to the United States in 1821, Governor Andrew Jackson created two counties: Escambia to the west of the Suwannee River and St. Johns to the east. In 1824, the area to the south of St. Johns County was organized as Mosquito County, and Enterprise was named its county seat. This large county took up much of central Florida. It was renamed as Orange County in 1845 when Florida became a state. After population increased in the region, the legislature organized several counties, such as Osceola, Seminole, Lake, and Volusia, from its territory.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: During the post-Reconstruction period, white people committed a high rate of racial violence against black people in Orange County; they exercised terrorism to re-establish and maintain white supremacy. Whites lynched 33 African Americans here from 1877 to 1950; most were killed in the decades around the turn of the 20th century. This was the highest total of any county in the state, and sixth highest of any county in the country. Florida had the highest per-capita rate of lynchings of any state in the South, where the great majority of these extrajudicial murders took place.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: Among the terrorist lynchings was the death of Julius "July" Perry of Ocoee, whose body was found November 3, 1920, hanged from a lightpole in Orlando, near the house of a judge known to be sympathetic to black voting. But this was part of a much larger story of KKK and other white attempts to suppress black voting in Ocoee and the state. African Americans had organized for a year to increase voter turnout for the 1920 presidential election, with organizations helping prepare residents for voter registration, paying for poll taxes, and similar actions. On Election Day in Ocoee, blacks were turned away from the polls. Perry, a prosperous farmer, was suspected of sheltering Mose Norman, an African-American man who had tried to vote. After Norman was twice turned away, white violence broke out, resulting in a riot through the black community, leaving an estimated 50 to 60 African-Americans dead and all the properties destroyed. Many blacks fled from Ocoee to save their lives, and the town became all-white. Voting efforts were suppressed for decades.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: Orange County was named for the fruit that constituted the county's main commodity crop. At its peak in the early 1970s, some were planted in citrus in Orange County. The dark-green foliage of orange trees filled the county, as did the scent of the orange blossoms when in bloom. Fewer commercial orange groves remained by the end of the twentieth century. The majority of groves were destroyed by the freezing temperatures that occurred in December 1983, January 1985, and December 1989, the worst since 1899.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: The financial setbacks, not the first in the grove region's history, were too challenging for many growers. Economically destroyed, many walked away from the land. Others awaited other opportunities. One of the region's major land owners and growers was the Tropicana company. They withdrew rather than try to come back from these seemingly endless generational decimation. With no realistic avenues for agricultural use of this rural land, and Florida's continuing strong population growth and its attendant needs (aided and supported by the success of nearby Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Florida), these areas began to be developed for housing. However, several packing facilities and wholesalers still remain in Orange County.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (10.0%) is water.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,429,908 people, 468,075 households, and 309,344 families residing in the county.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: In 2010, 5.9% of the population considered themselves to be of only "American" ancestry (regardless of race or ethnicity.)


title: Orange County, Florida

text: There were 421,847 households, out of which 30.81% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.50% were married couples living together, 15.65% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.18% were non-families. 24.85% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.08% (1.71% male and 4.37% female) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 3.19.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: In the county, the population was spread out, with 23.6% under the age of 18, 12.8% from 18 to 24, 29.8% from 25 to 44, 24.1% from 45 to 64, and 9.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.9 males.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: The median income for a household in the county was $50,138, and the median income for a family was $57,473. Males had a median income of $40,619 versus $31,919 for females. The per capita income for the county was $25,490. About 10.0% of families and 13.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.2% of those under age 18 and 9.4% of those aged 65 or over.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: In 2010, 19.1% of the county's population was foreign born, with 43.8% being naturalized American citizens. Of foreign-born residents, 68.9% were born in Latin America, 17.8% born in Asia, 8.1% were born in Europe, 3.0% born in Africa, 2.0% in North America, and 0.2% were born in Oceania.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: As of 2010, 67.43% of all residents spoke only English at home, while 22.59% spoke Spanish, 2.44% French Creole (mostly Haitian Creole), 1.23% Portuguese, 0.88% Vietnamese, 0.78% Indian languages (including Gujarati and Hindi), 0.58% Tagalog, 0.53% Chinese, 0.50% French, and 0.45% Arabic. In total, 32.57% of the population spoke languages other than English at home.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: The county functions under a charter form of government. The charter serves as a constitution, detailing the structure and operation of the local government. A Charter Review Commission has the power to consider and place amendments on the ballot. Voters then decide whether to accept or reject all amendments put forth. If voters approve an amendment, it is then inserted into the charter.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: District 9 encompasses all of Osceola County, eastern Polk County and eastern and south central Orange County


title: Orange County, Florida

text: Orange County is served by a board of commissioners. The board consists of an elected mayor and six commissioners. The mayor is elected At-large, while commissioners are elected from single-member districts. The mayor and commissioners each serve staggered four-year terms. Commissioners from Districts 1, 3, and 5 are elected in presidential election years, while the mayor and commissioners from Districts 2, 4, and 6 are elected in alternate years. The county is also served by a clerk of courts, sheriff, property appraiser, tax collector, supervisor of elections, state attorney, and public defender. All positions are four-year terms, requiring direct election by voters in presidential election years.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: The Orange County Public Schools deliver public education to students countywide. Its functions and expenditures are overseen by an elected school board composed of a chairman, elected at-large; and seven members, elected from single-member districts. Each member is elected to a four-year term: the chairman and three other members are elected in gubernatorial election years, while the other four are elected in presidential election years. As of the 2021–2022 school year, the school system operated 205 schools (127 elementary, 9 K-8, 39 middle, 22 high, and 8 exceptional learning), with 206,246 students. It is the fourth-largest school district statewide and ninth in the nation.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: The University of Central Florida is the sole 4-year public university. As of the Fall 2020 semester, a total of 71,948 students attended the university, making it the largest university in the nation by enrollment. The university's 1,415 acre main campus is situated in northeast Orange County.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: Nearby Winter Park is home to Rollins College, a private college situated only a few miles from Downtown Orlando. In 2012, it was ranked #1 by U.S. News & World Report amongst regional universities in the South.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: With six campuses spread throughout the county, Valencia College offers two-year degree programs, as well three baccalaureate programs.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: The law schools for Barry University and Florida A&M are also conveniently located in Downtown Orlando.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: Full Sail University is a for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. Full Sail is not regionally accredited, but is nationally accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC) to award associate's, bachelor's degrees, and master's degrees in audio, film, design, computer animation, business, and other fields.[10] The school offers 35 degree programs and 2 graduate certificates and has a student population of more than 16,800.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: Orange County is served by the Orange County Library System, which was established in 1923. Before the opening of the Albertson Public Library in 1923, a circulating library maintained by the Sorosis Club of Orlando offered book lending services to patrons on a subscription basis. The Albertson Public Library was established with the collection of Captain Charles L. Albertson and the library was named in his honor. In 1924, the Booker T. Washington Branch of the Albertson Library was established to service the African American community of Orlando. In 1966, the current Orlando Public Library building was completed on the grounds of the Albertson Public Library. Currently there are 16 libraries within the Orange County Library system. The library systems offers a diverse selection of materials, free programs and free access to various databases. In addition, the library offers free delivery of most items through its MAYL service.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: One exception exists in the cities of Maitland and Winter Park which are each part of a separate library taxing districts and as a result residents of these cities are not entitled to receive resident borrowing privileges at OCLS branches even though they are technically and legally residents of Orange County, instead an agreement was reached between Maitland, Winter Park and the OCLS whereas a resident of those cities can go to any OCLS branch and request a "Reciprocal borrower card" which is provided free of charge. The Reciprocal borrower cards is valid for one year and can be used at any OCLS branch with the exception of the Melrose Center at the Orlando Public Library which requires a separate Melrose Center specific card which is issued after the user applies for the card and goes through a mandatory orientation class. Access to the OCLS Internet on library owned PCs requires a Reciprocal borrower to pay small session access fee. The OCLS Wi-Fi network which is available at all branches remains free of charge to all users including Reciprocal borrowers and visitors who use their own iPad, Mac, PC, Smartphone or tablet devices. Maitland and Winter Park Library do not provide reciprocal privileges to OCLS patrons and charge non-residents a yearly user fee.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: Orange County is located along the pivotal Interstate 4 corridor, a powerful swing region in one of the country's most critical swing states. Many close elections are won or lost depending on the voting outcome along the corridor. Voters are considered independent, traditionally splitting their votes, electing Democrats and Republicans on the same ballot. As a result of such independence, voters are inundated with non-stop television and radio ads months preceding a general election.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: Orange County was one of the first areas of Florida to turn Republican. It swung from a 15-point victory for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 to a seven-point victory for Thomas E. Dewey in 1948. It eventually became one of the stronger Republican bastions in Florida, as evidenced when it gave Barry Goldwater 56 percent of its vote in 1964. For most of the second half of the 20th century, it was one of the more conservative urban counties in Florida and the nation. From 1948 to 1988, Democrats only cracked the 40 percent barrier twice, in 1964 and 1976. However, the Republican edge narrowed considerably in the 1990s. George H. W. Bush fell from 67 percent of the vote in 1988 to only 45.9 percent in 1992. In 1996, Bob Dole only won the county by 520 votes.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: In September 2000, Democrats overtook Republicans in voter registration. This was a factor in Al Gore becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the county since 1944. John Kerry narrowly carried the county in 2004. In 2008, however, Orange County swung hard to Barack Obama, who won it by the largest margin for a Democrat since Roosevelt. In the years since, it has become one of the strongest Democratic bastions in Florida.


title: Orange County, Florida

text: Since 2000, Republicans have yet to retake the advantage they once enjoyed. In the twelve years that followed, Democrats experienced a modest increase in their voter registration percentage from 41.40% to 42.73% of the electorate. Minor party voters also had modest growth, increasing from 2.17% to 2.37%. In contrast, Republicans experienced a sharp decrease in registered voters, sliding from 40.95% in 2000 down to 29.85% in 2012. The beneficiary of the Republican losses have been unaffiliated voters. The percentage of the electorate identifying as an unaffiliated voter increased from 15.47% to 25.06% during this same period. Orange County is one of two different counties in the entire nation to have voted for Al Gore in 2000 after voting for Dole in 1996, a distinction it shares with Charles County, Maryland.


title: Lee Yi-kyung

text: Lee made his acting debut in 2011, and first gained recognition from playing a rebellious student in the teen drama "School 2013". Thereafter, he played supporting roles in television dramas such as "My Love from the Star" (2013) and "Descendants of the Sun" (2016). Lee gained popularity following his comedic role in "Confession Couple", and was cast in his first major role in "Welcome to Waikiki" (2018). 2018 was professionally successful for Lee, as he also played the lead actor in the critically well-received "Children of Nobody".


title: Lee Yi-kyung

text: Lee has also appeared in both independent and commercial films, notably Leesong Hee-il's "White Night" (2012) and Kim Ki-duk's "One on One" (2014). In 2018, he stars in two films - drama film "Monsters" (also known as "Wretches") which tackles teenage bullying; and omnibus horror film "Pension: Dangerous Encounter".


title: Lee Yi-kyung

text: On March 8, 2022, it was reported that Lee's contract with HB Entertainment has ended. Later on March 25, 2022, Lee signed with Screening ENT after the expiration of his contract with the original agency.


title: Lee Yi-kyung

text: In April 2018, it was announced Lee was dating his "Welcome to Waikiki" co-star Jung In-sun. The couple was introduced by Lee's friend actor Lee Ki-woo and had been dating for a year before the news broke. However, in June 2018, the couple confirmed they have broken up.


title: Equus (play)

text: Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer written in 1973, telling the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious fascination with horses.


title: Equus (play)

text: Shaffer was inspired to write "Equus" when he heard of a crime involving a 17-year-old who blinded six horses in a small town in Suffolk. He set out to construct a fictional account of what might have caused the incident, without knowing any of the details of the crime. The play's action is something of a detective story, involving the attempts of the child psychiatrist Dr. Martin Dysart to understand the cause of the boy's (Alan Strang) actions while wrestling with his own sense of purpose.


title: Equus (play)

text: The original stage production ran at the National Theatre in London between 1973 and 1975, directed by John Dexter. Alec McCowen played Dysart, and Peter Firth played Alan Strang. Later came the Broadway productions that starred Anthony Hopkins as Dysart (later played by Richard Burton, Leonard Nimoy, and Anthony Perkins) and from the London production, Peter Firth as Alan. When Firth left for Broadway, Dai Bradley took over the role of Alan in the London production, playing opposite Michael Jayston as Dr. Dysart. Tom Hulce replaced Firth during the Broadway run. The Broadway production ran for 1,209 performances. Marian Seldes appeared in every single performance of the Broadway run, first in the role of Hesther and then as Dora. Shaffer also adapted his play for a 1977 film of the same name.


title: Equus (play)

text: Numerous other issues inform the narrative. Most important are religious and ritual sacrifice themes, as well as the manner in which character Alan Strang constructs a personal theology involving the horses and the supreme godhead, "Equus". Alan sees the horses as representative of God and confuses his adoration of his "God" with sexual attraction. Also important is Shaffer's examination of the conflict between personal values and satisfaction and societal mores, expectations, and institutions. By employing classical structure, themes, and characterisation, Shaffer dramatizes the conflict between Apollonian and Dionysian values and systems in human life.


title: Equus (play)

text: Martin Dysart is a psychiatrist in a psychiatric hospital. He begins with a monologue in which he outlines the case of 17-year-old Alan Strang, who blinded six horses. He also divulges his feeling that his occupation is not all that he wishes it to be and his feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment about his barren life. Dysart finds that the supply of troubled young people for him to "adjust" back into "normal" living is never-ending, but he doubts the value of treating these youths, since they will simply return to a dull, normal life that lacks any commitment and "worship" (a recurring theme). He comments that Alan Strang's crime was extreme, but adds that just such extremity is needed to break free from the chains of existence.


title: Equus (play)

text: A court magistrate, Hesther Saloman, visits Dysart, believing that he has the skills to help Alan come to terms with what he did. At the hospital, Dysart has a great deal of difficulty making any kind of headway with Alan, who at first responds to questioning by singing TV advertising jingles.


title: Equus (play)

text: Dysart reveals a dream he has had, in a Homeric Grecian setting, in which he is a public official presiding over a mass ritual sacrifice. One after another, he slices open the abdomens of hundreds of children, and pulls out their entrails. He becomes disgusted with what he is doing, but fears being murdered in the same manner if discovered as a "non-believer" by the other priests, so does not stop. Eventually the other priests, aware of his misgivings, grab the knife from his hand—at which point he awakens from the dream.


title: Equus (play)

text: Dysart interviews Alan's parents. He learns that, from an early age, Alan has been receiving conflicting views on religion from his parents. Alan's mother, Dora, is a devout Christian who has read to him daily from the Bible. This practice has antagonized Alan's father Frank, a non-believer.


title: Equus (play)

text: Slowly, Dysart makes contact with Alan by playing a game where each of them asks a question, which must be answered honestly.


title: Equus (play)

text: Dysart learns that Frank, concerned that Alan was taking far too much interest in the more violent aspects of the Bible, destroyed a violent picture of the Crucifixion that Alan had hung at the foot of his bed. Alan replaced the picture with one of a horse, with large, staring eyes.


title: Equus (play)

text: Alan reveals to Dysart that, during his youth, his attraction to horses came about by way of his mother's biblical tales, a horse story that she had read to him, Western movies, and his grandfather's interest in horses and riding. Alan's sexual education began with his mother, who told him he could find true love and contentment by way of religious devotion and marriage. During this time, Alan also begins to develop a sexual attraction to horses, desiring to pet their thick coats, feel their muscular bodies, and smell their sweat. Alan reveals to Dysart that he had first encountered a horse at age six, on the beach. A rider approached him, and took him up on the horse. Alan was visibly excited, but his parents found him and Frank pulled him violently off the horse. The horse rider scoffed at the father and rode off.


title: Equus (play)

text: Dysart hypnotizes Alan and, during the hypnosis, reveals elements of his terrifying dream of the ritual murder of children. Dysart begins to jog Alan's memory by filling in blanks and asking questions. Alan reveals that he wants to help the horses by removing the bit, which enslaves them.


title: Equus (play)

text: After turning 17, Alan took a job working in a shop selling electrical goods, where he met Jill Mason, an outgoing and free-spirited young woman. She visits the shop wanting to purchase blades for horse-clippers. Alan was instantly interested when he discovered that Jill has such close contact with horses after she tells him that she works for a local stable owner. Jill suggested that Alan work for the owner of the stables, Harry Dalton. Alan agrees.


title: Equus (play)

text: Dysart meets with Dalton, who tells him that he first held Alan to be a model worker, since he kept the stables immaculately clean and grooms the horses, including one named Nugget. Through Dysart's questioning, it becomes clear that Alan is erotically fixated on Nugget (or "Equus") and secretly takes him for midnight rides, bareback and naked. Alan also envisions himself as a king, on the godhead Equus, both destroying their enemies.


title: Equus (play)

text: Dysart gives Alan a placebo "truth pill". Revealing a tryst with Jill, he begins to re-enact the event:


title: Equus (play)

text: Jill, who has taken an interest in Alan, asks him to take her to a porno theatre. While there, they run into Alan's father, Frank. Alan is traumatized, particularly when he realizes that his father is lying to justify his presence in the theatre. However, this allows Alan to realize that sex is a natural thing for all men, even his father. Alan walks Jill home after they leave and she convinces Alan to come to the stables with her.


title: Equus (play)

text: Once there, Jill seduces Alan and the two undress and attempt to have sex. However, Alan hesitates when he hears the horses making noises in the stables beneath, which he blames as the reason for his inability to get an erection. Jill tries to ask Alan what the problem is, but he shouts at her to leave. After Jill dresses and walks out of the stables, the still nude Alan begs the horses for forgiveness, as he sees the horses as God-like figures. "Mine!...You're mine!...I am yours and you are mine!" cries Equus through Dysart's voice, but then he becomes threatening: "The Lord thy God is a jealous God," Equus/Dysart seethes, "He sees you, he sees you forever and ever, Alan. He sees you!...He sees you!" Alan screams, ""God seest!"" and then he says "No more. No more, Equus!" Alan then uses a steel spike to blind the six horses in the stable, whose eyes have "seen" his very soul.


title: Equus (play)

text: In the final scene, Dysart delivers a monologue questioning the fundamentals of his practice and whether his methods will help Alan, as the effect of his treatment will make him "normal", but at the cost of his humanity.


title: Equus (play)

text: The play opened on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre on 24 October 1974, ending on 11 September 1976. It then opened at the Helen Hayes Theatre on 5 October 1976, ending on 2 October 1977, for a total of 1,209 performances.


title: Equus (play)

text: Shaffer adapted the play for a 1977 film starring Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Eileen Atkins, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright, and Jenny Agutter, directed by Sidney Lumet. Unlike stage productions, where the horses are portrayed by human actors, often muscular men wearing tribal-style masks, Lumet did not believe this could adequately be done in a film version, concluding a degree of realism was required, "because the reality he [Alan] was being watched he was going to create the dilemma within him."


title: Equus (play)

text: Comparing the film to the play, English Professor James M. Welsh felt using real horses in the film was understandable, but argued the outdoor scenes infringed on the "abstract theatrical design" that gave the play its creativity. Welsh also felt the explicit blinding was "potentially repulsive," and "much of the spirit of the play is lost as a consequence."


title: Equus (play)

text: The first Midwest U.S. production of "Equus" opened March 1978 in Lansing, Michigan, at Boarshead Theatre. Directed by John Peakes, it featured Richard Thomsen as Dysart, David Kropp as Alan, Carmen Decker as Dora, and Lisa Hodge as Jill. Local controversy over the nude scene was largely mitigated by casting a married couple as Jill and Alan. This production went on to win Boarshead Theatre's annual awards for Best Production and Best Supporting Actor (Kropp).


title: Equus (play)

text: The Lovegrove Alley Theatre of Baltimore staged a production of "Equus" in 1979. The production starred a pre-Broadway Charles S. Dutton in the role of Dysart. Director Brad Mays did double duty in the role of Alan Strang. A young actress named Lauren Raher played Jill Mason, and her real-life mother Rhona Raher portrayed Dora, Alan's mother.


title: Equus (play)

text: West End producers David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers revived "Equus" in 2007, starring Richard Griffiths, Daniel Radcliffe, and Joanna Christie in the leading roles. The production was directed by Thea Sharrock, and opened in February 2007 at the Gielgud Theatre. The production attracted press attention since both Radcliffe and Griffiths appeared in the "Harry Potter" film series (as Harry Potter and Vernon Dursley, respectively). In particular, the casting of then-17-year-old Radcliffe caused some controversy since the role of Alan Strang required him to appear nude onstage. Radcliffe insisted that the nude scene was not "gratuitous" and that he should portray the character and the scene as called for by the script. The 2007 London revival was then transferred to Broadway, at the Broadhurst Theatre, running through 8 February 2009. Radcliffe and Griffiths reprised their roles, and Thea Sharrock returned as director. The cast also included Kate Mulgrew, Anna Camp, Carolyn McCormick, Lorenzo Pisoni, T. Ryder Smith, Graeme Malcolm, and Sandra Shipley, with Collin Baja, Tyrone Jackson, Spencer Liff, Adesola Osakalumi, and Marc Spaulding. Radcliffe eventually received a nomination for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play.


title: Equus (play)

text: The first illustrated edition of the play text was produced as a large-format artist's book by the Old Stile Press, with images and an afterword by the British artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins, in 2009.


title: Equus (play)

text: City Lights Theater Company of San Jose, California revived "Equus" in March 2011. This production, featuring actors Sean Gilvary as Alan Strang and Steve Lambert as Martin Dysart, received rave reviews. The "San Jose Mercury News" labelled Gilvary and Lambert as "haunting," stating Gilvary "...exposing emotions and epidermis, rides bareback in every sense. He gradually manages to make a rather unattractive young creature seem not only sympathetic but redeemable while retaining his hostility and humanity." "StarkInsider" rated the production 4.5 out of 5 stars, calling Lambert "superb" and having a "pitch-perfect performance," while calling Gilvary "dazzling" and having "a preternatural ability to inhabit the very soul of his character. Like the troubled teen that he portrays, both he and Strang possess a passion for something that is an inseparable part of their personality." This production received a Standout Classic Production Award by Silicon Valley Small Theatre Awards.


title: Equus (play)

text: "Equus" was revived in Houston, for a limited run in July 2014 at Frenetic Theater. The production was largely funded by donations on Kickstarter and was well received by critics and audiences alike. "Broadway World" called the production 'dark, daunting and sensual' and commending its 'stellar cast'. "Houston Press" said it was 'astonishingly good... a must see' while Culturemap listed the show as one of the hottest shows of the year.


title: Manish Paul

text: Maniesh Paul (born 3 August 1981) is an Indian television presenter, anchor, model, singer, actor and comedian in Bollywood. Starting his career as an RJ and VJ, he moved to acting before taking up stand-up comedy and hosting.


title: Manish Paul

text: Paul was born and brought up in Delhi to a Punjabi family originally from Sialkot to Delhi, involved in the financial business.


title: Manish Paul

text: He did his schooling from Apeejay School, Sheikh Sarai New Delhi. After his schooling, he did his B.A. in Tourism from College of Vocational Studies, University of Delhi. then he lived with his grandmother in Chembur, Mumbai.


title: Manish Paul

text: Paul started his career in Delhi, as a host, compering cultural events in schools and colleges. later he shifted to Mumbai, where his first break was hosting "Sunday Tango" on Star Plus in 2002. He also remained a VJ with Zee Music, and a radio jockey with Radio City's morning drive time show "Kasakai Mumbai".


title: Manish Paul

text: Later he entered channel Star One's "Ghost Bana Dost" to play the role of a ghost. Paul has acted in many serials such as "Radhaa Ki Betiyaan Kuch Kar Dikhayengi" on NDTV Imagine, "Zindadil" on ZeeNext, "Ssshhhh...Phir Koi Hai" on Star One, "Wheel Ghar Ghar Mein" and "Kahani Shuru with Love Guru" on Zee TV and "Kuchh Cook Hota Hai" on 9X. However, finding it unsatisfying, he quit daily soaps and was even out of work for eight months in 2008.


title: Manish Paul

text: Though he had appeared in cameo roles such as in the Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif-starrer "Tees Maar Khan" (2010), Paul made his debut in a lead role of the computer geek "Mickey" in " Mickey Virus" (2013) which received a lot of appreciation.


title: Manish Paul

text: Subsequently, Paul started his career as a television host and presenter, and gained recognition after hosting "Saa Ree Gaa Maa Paa Chhote Ustaad", and later also appeared in the stand-up comedy series "Comedy Circus". He also hosted "Dance India Dance Li'l Masters" on Zee TV. He also participated in "Star Ya Rockstar", a celebrity singing show on Zee TV, and co-hosted the celebrity dance-reality competition "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 7" on Colors TV with Ranvir Shorey.


title: Manish Paul

text: Paul has also hosted "Science of Stupid" on National Geographic. Over the years, Paul has hosted numerous award shows. In 2018, he hosted Sony TV's "Indian Idol 10". Next, he hosted Star Plus's "Nach Baliye 9".


title: Manish Paul

text: He is married to Sanyukta Paul (m. 2007), who is a Bengali. They met each other in their school and started dating in late 1998. Soon, their families got to know each other and they finally got married in 2007. They have a daughter born in 2011 and a son born in 2016.


title: Pony car

text: Pony car is an American car classification for affordable, compact, highly styled coupés or convertibles with a "sporty" or performance-oriented image. Common characteristics include rear-wheel drive, a long hood, a short decklid, a wide range of options to individualize each car and use of mass-produced parts shared with other models.


title: Pony car

text: There is much debate among enthusiasts about the exact definition of a pony car, and what differentiates it from a muscle car. The general consensus is that pony cars are smaller and more refined than muscle cars. A few intermediate-size vehicles, such as the Dodge Challenger, may be considered to belong to both categories.


title: Pony car

text: In the early 1960s, Ford, Plymouth, and AMC began noticing the rising interest in small, sporty cars, and the increasing importance of younger customers. In order to convince the management of Ford to approve a small, sporty car for production, the Budd Company built a prototype two-seat roadster called the XT-Bird. The XT-Bird was built using the compact car chassis of the Ford Falcon with a modified 1957 Ford Thunderbird body. Ford rejected the proposal, preferring to design a four-seat sporty car instead which would expand its sales volume.


title: Pony car

text: The Budd Company then approached American Motors Corporation (AMC) with the Budd XR-400 prototype, which was based on a 1962 AMC Ambassador two-door with a shortened chassis and the body moved rearward to allow for a longer hood (bonnet). The automaker's "management expressed interest in a new car with a sports flair" and work on the AMC Rambler Tarpon, a 2+2 coupe with an elongated fastback roof, began in early 1963.


title: Pony car

text: Examples of production cars that included sporty and youthful appeal were the 1960 Chevrolet Corvair. Initially positioned as an economy car, the Corvair's plusher-trimmed and sportier Monza model sold around 144,000 units by 1961. The Corvair Monza's bucket seats and floor-mounted transmission shifter started a trend toward these features being offered in cars ranging from compacts to full-size cars. Competing models inspired by the Corvair Monza included the Ford Falcon Futura and Futura Sprint models and the Rambler American 440-H and Rogue models. Most sporty compacts were powered by the same economical six-cylinder engines as their more mundane platform counterparts, but in some cases, optional V8 engines were available along with four-speed manual transmissions.


title: Pony car

text: The first pony car to be released was the Plymouth Barracuda, which went on sale on April 1, 1964, (two weeks before the Ford Mustang). The Barracuda was released as a fastback coupe, based on the platform of the Plymouth Valiant compact car. Chrysler's precarious financial situation meant that there was a limited development budget for the Barracuda, which led to a compromised design. The Barracuda was criticized for having insufficient distinction from the Valiant and the styling drew mixed reactions. As a result, Barracuda sales were a fraction of the Mustang's.


title: Pony car

text: At the Ford Motor Company, executive Lee Iacocca had commissioned marketing studies that suggested that if a unique-looking sporty car could be offered at an affordable price, it would find many buyers. Therefore Ford continued development of a sporty 2+2 car based on the Ford Falcon platform, leading to the launch of the 1965 Ford Mustang on April 17, 1964. The Mustang was available as a two-door coupé and convertible, and had a unique "long hood, short deck" appearance. In its base specification, the drivetrain was typical of an economy car: a six-cylinder engine and three-speed manual transmission. Its attractive base price included bucket seats, carpeting, floor shifter, sport steering wheel, and full-wheel covers. However, options such as V8 engines, a four-speed manual gearbox, air conditioning and power steering could increase the price by up to 60%, which made such versions very profitable for Ford.


title: Pony car

text: The Mustang was an enormous success, with first-year sales forecasts of 100,000 units being shattered on the first day, when Ford dealers took orders for 22,000 vehicles, forcing the company to shift production mid-year. The extended model year sales totaled 618,812 Mustangs. The Mustang broke all post-World War II automobile sales records, "creating the 'pony car' craze soon adopted by competitors."


title: Pony car

text: The 1965 Mustang provided the template for the new class of automobiles. The term "pony car" to describe members of its ranks was coined by "Car Life" magazine editor Dennis Shattuck. The characteristics of a pony car were defined as:


title: Pony car

text: Many pony cars were produced with economical six-cylinder or small V8 engines and although powerful engines and performance packages were offered, the majority were sold with six-cylinder engines or relatively small V8 engines. The high-performance models saw limited sales and were largely limited to drag racing, road racing or motorsport homologation purposes.


title: Pony car

text: Initially, General Motors believed that the restyled 1965 Chevrolet Corvair (a rear-engined compact car) would be an adequate challenger for the Mustang. However, when it became clear that the Corvair itself was doomed, the more conventional Nova-based Chevrolet Camaro was introduced for the 1967 model year built on the new GM F-body platform and used a conventional front-engine layout. A few months later, the Camaro-based Pontiac Firebird was introduced.


title: Pony car

text: The Mustang was redesigned for the 1967 model year and became the basis for the upscale Mercury Cougar on a longer wheelbase.


title: Pony car

text: American Motors introduced its first pony car in 1967 with the AMC Javelin. It was described as a "roomy, comfortable, peppy and handsome example of a so-called "pony car", the type of automobile that's showing up more and more on US highways."


title: Pony car

text: In 1969, the Dodge Challenger joined the already crowded pony car segment. The Challenger was essentially an enlarged Barracuda.


title: Pony car

text: The pony car market segment was maturing and all four domestic automakers were building versions of the long hood/short deck template that Ford had developed. The term pony car applied to all versions of these nameplates, from base models to the high-performance muscle car models, developed in league with factory supported racing to gain a marketing edge. The competition between the manufacturers was so fierce the Trans-Am Series from 1966 to 1972 is described as "The Pony Car Wars".


title: Pony car

text: While sales were strong throughout the end of the 1960s, pony cars' greater value was in generating brand loyalty, particularly among the crucial youth market. In 1970 "Car and Driver" reported that while very few pony car drivers bought a second, around 50% purchased another model from the same manufacturer. Even so, by as early as 1969 sales were beginning to slide, dropping to 9% of the total market from a peak of 13% in 1967.


title: Pony car

text: Directly inspired by the Ford Mustang, Ford of Europe began production of the Ford Capri in 1968, (using the Cortina MkII platform and driveline and a few components from the Escort) while GM of Europe introduced the Opel Manta and Vauxhall Firenza. In April 1970, the Capri began to be imported from Europe and was sold in Lincoln-Mercury dealerships.


title: Pony car

text: The success of the Mustang also inspired the creation of the Toyota Celica compact coupe, which was released in 1970, while Toyota had earlier introduced the 1967 Toyota 1600GT 2-door hardtop and installed a DOHC I4 cylinder engine with dual carburetors and a 5-speed manual transmission. Like the Mustang, the Celica was built using the platform of an economy car; although the Celica was shorter than the Mustang and did not offer a V8 engine. Several Japanese automakers sold compact coupes in the United States as smaller competitors to pony cars. However, no Japanese manufacturer produced a pony car.


title: Pony car

text: As with many automobile redesigns, each subsequent generation of the pony cars grew larger, heavier, costlier, and more comfort-oriented. This trend towards larger and more comfort-oriented pony cars was also influenced by many buyers in the late 1960s and early 1970s purchasing optional equipment and models with higher prices. Examples of the increasing size and weight of pony cars are:


title: Pony car

text: Big block V8 engines became available in pony cars, which increased straight-line performance but underscored the limitations of the suspension, brakes, and tires. The six-cylinder and lower-specification V8 engines struggled with the increased mass of the pony cars.


title: Pony car

text: By 1970 buyers were moving away from the pony cars, either toward smaller compact cars or the more luxurious personal luxury cars. The pony car market was also hindered by high insurance rates and increased restrictions on performance cars. In the following years, power outputs of the performance models began to erode as a result of stricter vehicle emissions controls. By 1972, small imported sports cars were increasing in popularity, and the domestic pony cars were not selling well. Industry observers believed that the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird might be discontinued after the 1973 model year.


title: Pony car

text: The 1973 oil crisis left the large and heavy pony cars out of step with the marketplace. The Mustang, which had grown to become an intermediate-sized car and alienated buyers, was downsized for its second-generation; this 1974 Ford Mustang II was marketed as a fuel-efficient subcompact with luxury or sporty trim packages. Inspired by smaller imported sporty cars such as the Toyota Celica and Ford Capri, the new Mustang II was unveiled a few months prior to the 1973 oil embargo. To compete with these sporty subcompacts, General Motors introduced the 1975 Chevrolet Monza and its badge-engineered variants. GM's pony cars (the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird) were almost canceled, but remained in production.


title: Pony car

text: Chrysler Corporation did not downsize its pony car models, it discontinued the Dodge Challenger and Plymouth Barracuda after the 1974 model year. The AMC Javelin was also canceled after 1974. The 1974 Mercury Cougar—originally designed as an upscale version of the Ford Mustang—left the pony car segment, as it was upsized and marketed in the personal luxury car segment.


title: Pony car

text: The popularity of pony cars increased in the late 1970s with examples appearing in movies and TV programs like the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am in "Smokey and the Bandit", the Pontiac Firebird in "The Rockford Files" and the Ford Mustang II Cobra II in "Charlie's Angels". The "Z28" high-performance option for the Chevrolet Camaro had been discontinued after 1974, however it was resurrected for 1977 due to the popularity of the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.


title: Pony car

text: The 1979 Ford Mustang (third generation) was redesigned using the larger Ford Fox platform, and marketed with a renewed sporty image. The redesigned Mustang also formed the basis of the Mercury Capri (second generation), which replaced the European built first-generation and was now available with a V8 engine.


title: Pony car

text: Chrysler Corporation, beset by financial problems, did not revive the pony car, instead offering smaller coupes such as the Dodge Daytona and Chrysler Conquest (a badge-engineered Mitsubishi Starion) as their sporting models.


title: Pony car

text: American Motors Corporation remained absent from the pony car segment, however the 1979 AMC Spirit subcompact was marketed as a competitor to the hatchback versions of the Ford Mustang. The Spirit was available with four-cylinder, six-cylinder and V8 engines, and the model range included sporty "GT" and "AMX" models. In 1982, the Spirit GT became America's first pony car with a 5-speed manual.


title: Pony car

text: In the early 1980s, concerns about fuel economy prompted Ford to seriously consider replacing the Mustang with a smaller front-wheel drive model (which eventually appeared as the Ford Probe instead). The Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird escaped a similar fate with General Motors' front-wheel drive "GM-80" program canceled late in development. Emissions and fuel economy concerns also led the 1982 Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird to be available with four-cylinder engines for the first time.


title: Pony car

text: The introduction of fuel-injection on V8 engines in the mid-1980s—such as the Ford "5.0" engine (available in the 1986 Ford Mustang) and the General Motors "LB9" engine (introduced in the 1985 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z and Pontiac Firebird Trans Am)—benefitted the pony cars with increased power and fuel economy. However, declining sales and the growing popularity of light trucks and sport utility vehicles ultimately led to the Firebird and Camaro being discontinued after 2002, leaving the Mustang as the only remaining American-built pony car until the 2008 Dodge Challenger was introduced.


title: Pony car

text: Since the 1980s, the dilemma facing car manufacturers in offering pony cars is the lack of mass-produced automobile platforms to use as a basis for building them. Unlike the mid-1960s, the majority of modern compact cars are front-wheel drive with four- or six-cylinder engines, and engineering a dedicated rear-wheel drive performance vehicle platform specifically for a pony car is an expensive proposition.


title: Pony car

text: The 2005 Ford Mustang (fifth generation) was the sole remaining pony car at the time of its introduction. The success of the Mustang inspired the 2008 Dodge Challenger (third-generation) to be introduced, followed by the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro (fifth generation). Unlike previous pony cars, the Challenger and fifth-gen Camaro were built on the platforms from full-size cars. The Mustang and Camaro were sold with coupe and convertible body styles, whereas the Challenger was sold only as a coupe.


title: Pony car

text: The next generation of pony cars consisted of the 2015 Ford Mustang (sixth generation) and the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro (sixth generation) in 2015. The Mustang was the first pony car with independent rear suspension, a turbocharged four-cylinder engine, and right-hand drive required for specific export markets. The sixth-generation Camaro was downsized from a full-sized platform to a mid-sized platform more in line with its traditional size.


title: Pony car

text: The seventh-generation Mustang will debut in 2024. It is very similar to the sixth generation in size, configuration, and options.


title: Pony car

text: The current Dodge Challenger and Charger are expected to be discontinued after the 2023 model year, and replaced with a new, fully electric, retro-styled Charger, which will most likely be a 2-door coupe similar to the current Challenger. Ford plans to debut the fully electric eighth-generation Mustang in 2028, and GM is considering an electric Camaro coupe as well.


title: Pony car

text: The 2000s pony car revival also saw a renewed focus on motor racing, beginning with the NASCAR Xfinity Series (then called the "Nationwide Series") in 2010, where the Dodge Challenger and Ford Mustang silhouette racing cars were introduced. Modern pony cars have also competed in the Rolex Sports Car Series, SCCA World Challenge, and the Michelin Pilot Challenge. The Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro have been homologated for Group GT3 racing, and the Ford Mustang was homologated in 2017 for GT4 European Series. Pony cars like the Dodge Challenger, Ford Mustang, and Chevrolet Camaro are still used today in the NASCAR Pinty's Series


title: Alexei Leonov

text: Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov (30 May 1934 – 11 October 2019) was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut, Air Force major general, writer, and artist. On 18 March 1965, he became the first person to conduct a spacewalk, exiting the capsule during the Voskhod 2 mission for 12 minutes and 9 seconds. He was also selected to be the first Soviet person to land on the Moon although the project was cancelled.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: In July 1975, Leonov commanded the Soyuz capsule in the Apollo-Soyuz mission, which docked in space for two days with an American Apollo capsule.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: Leonov was born on 30 May 1934 in Listvyanka, West Siberian Krai, Russian SFSR. His grandfather had been forced to relocate to Siberia for his role in the 1905 Russian Revolution. Alexei was the eighth of nine surviving children born to Yevdokia and Arkhip. His father was an electrician and miner.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: In 1936, his father was arrested and declared an "enemy of the people". Leonov wrote in his autobiography: "He was not alone: many were being arrested. It was part of a conscientious drive by the authorities to eradicate anyone who showed too much independence or strength of character. These were the years of Stalin's purges. Many disappeared into remote gulags and were never seen again."


title: Alexei Leonov

text: The family moved in with one of his married sisters in Kemerovo. His father rejoined the family in Kemerovo after he was released. He was compensated for his wrongful imprisonment. Leonov used art as a way to provide more food for the family. He began his art career by drawing flowers on ovens and later painted landscapes on canvasses.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: The Soviet government encouraged its citizens to move to Soviet-occupied Prussia, so in 1948 his family relocated to Kaliningrad. Leonov graduated from secondary school (No. 21) in 1953. He applied to the Academy of Arts in Riga, Latvia, but decided not to attend due to the high tuition costs. Leonov decided to join a Ukrainian preparatory flying school in Kremenchug. He made his first solo flight in May 1955. While indulging in his passion for art by studying part-time in Riga, Leonov started an advanced two-year course to become a fighter pilot at the Chuguev Higher Air Force Pilots School in the Ukrainian SSR.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: On 30 October 1957, Leonov graduated with an honours degree and was commissioned a lieutenant in the 113th Parachute Aviation Regiment, part of the 10th Engineering Aviation Division of the 69th Air Army in Kyiv. On 13 December 1959, he married Svetlana Pavlovna Dozenko. The next day he moved to East Germany to his new assignment with the 294th Reconnaissance Regiment of the 24th Air Army.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: He was one of the 20 Soviet Air Forces pilots selected to be part of the first cosmonaut training group in 1960. As with most cosmonauts, Leonov was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. His walk in space was originally to have taken place on the Voskhod 1 mission, but this was cancelled, and the historic event happened on the Voskhod 2 flight instead. He was outside the spacecraft for 12 minutes and nine seconds on 18 March 1965, connected to the craft by a tether.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: At the end of the spacewalk, Leonov's spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum of space to the point where he could not re-enter the airlock. He opened a valve to allow some of the suit's pressure to bleed off and was barely able to get back inside the capsule. While on the mission, Leonov drew a small sketch of an orbital sunrise, producing the first ever work of art made in outer space. Leonov had spent eighteen months undergoing weightlessness training for the mission.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: In 1968, Leonov was selected to be commander of a circumlunar Soyuz 7K-L1 flight. This was cancelled because of delays in achieving a reliable circumlunar flight (only the later Zond 7 and Zond 8 members of the programme were successful) and the Apollo 8 mission had already achieved that step in the Space Race. He was also selected to be the first Soviet person to land on the Moon, aboard the LOK/N1 spacecraft. This project was also cancelled. (The design required a spacewalk between lunar vehicles, something that contributed to his selection.) Leonov was to have been commander of the 1971 Soyuz 11 mission to Salyut 1, the first crewed space station, but his crew was replaced with the backup after one of the members, cosmonaut Valery Kubasov, was suspected to have contracted tuberculosis (the other member was Pyotr Kolodin).


title: Alexei Leonov

text: Leonov was to have commanded the next mission to Salyut 1, but this was scrapped after the deaths of the Soyuz 11 crew members, and the space station was lost. The next two Salyuts (actually the military Almaz station) were lost at launch or failed soon after, and Leonov's crew stood by. By the time Salyut 4 reached orbit, Leonov had been switched to a more prestigious project.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: Leonov's second trip into space was as commander of Soyuz 19, the Soviet half of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission—the first joint space mission between the Soviet Union and the United States.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: During the project Leonov became lasting friends with the US commander Thomas P. Stafford, with Leonov being the godfather of Stafford's younger children. Stafford gave a eulogy in Russian at Leonov's funeral in October 2019.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: From 1976 to 1982, Leonov was the commander of the cosmonaut team ("Chief Cosmonaut") and deputy director of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, where he oversaw crew training. He also edited the cosmonaut newsletter "Neptune". He retired in 1992.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: Leonov was an accomplished artist whose published books include albums of his artistic works and works he did in collaboration with his friend Andrei Sokolov. Leonov took coloured pencils and paper into space, where he sketched the Earth, becoming the first artist in space, and drew portraits of the Apollo astronauts who flew with him during the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: Arthur C. Clarke wrote in his notes to his 1982 novel "" that, after a 1968 screening of "", Leonov pointed out to him that the alignment of the Moon, Earth, and Sun shown in the opening is essentially the same as that in Leonov's 1967 painting "", although the painting's diagonal framing of the scene was not replicated in the film. Clarke kept an autographed sketch of this painting—which Leonov made after the screening—hanging on his office wall. Clarke dedicated "2010: Odyssey Two" to Leonov and Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov. The fictional spaceship in the book is named "Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov".


title: Alexei Leonov

text: Together with Valentin Selivanov, Leonov wrote the script for the 1980 science fiction film "The Orion Loop".


title: Alexei Leonov

text: In 2001, he was a vice president of Moscow-based Alfa-Bank and an adviser to the first deputy of the Board.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: In 2004, Leonov and former American astronaut David Scott began work on a dual memoir covering the history of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Titled "Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race", it was published in 2006. Neil Armstrong and Tom Hanks both wrote introductions to the book.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: Leonov was interviewed by Francis French for the 2007 book "Into That Silent Sea" by Colin Burgess and French.


title: Alexei Leonov

text: Leonov died on 11 October 2019 after a long illness in Moscow. His funeral took place on 15 October. He was 85 and the last living member of the five cosmonauts in the Voskhod programme. He was survived by his wife Svetlana Dozenko, daughter Oksana, and two grandchildren; his other daughter, Viktoria, died in 1996.


title: Jon Ronson

text: Jon Ronson (born 10 May 1967) is a British-American journalist, author, and filmmaker whose works include "" (2001), "The Men Who Stare at Goats" (2004), and "The Psychopath Test" (2011). He has been described as a gonzo journalist, becoming a "faux-naïf" character in his stories. He produces informal but sceptical investigations of controversial fringe politics and science. He has published nine books and his work has appeared in publications such as "The Guardian", "City Life" and "Time Out". He has made several BBC Television documentary films and two documentary series for Channel 4.


title: Jon Ronson

text: Ronson was born in Cardiff on 10 May 1967. He attended Cardiff High School and later worked for CBC Radio in Cardiff before moving to London to study for a media degree at the Polytechnic of Central London.


title: Jon Ronson

text: Ronson's first book, "Clubbed Class" (1994), is a travelogue in which he bluffs his way into a jet set lifestyle, in search of the world's finest holiday.


title: Jon Ronson

text: His second book, "" (2001), chronicles his experiences with people labelled as extremists. Subjects in the book include David Icke, Randy Weaver, Omar Bakri Muhammad, Ian Paisley, Alex Jones, and Thomas Robb. Ronson also follows independent investigators of secretive groups such as the Bilderberg Group. The narrative tells of Ronson's attempts to infiltrate the "shadowy cabal" fabled, by these conspiracy theorists, to rule the world. The book was described by Louis Theroux as a "funny and compulsively readable picaresque adventure through a paranoid shadow world." "Variety" magazine announced in September 2005 that "Them" was purchased by Universal Pictures for a feature film.


title: Jon Ronson

text: Ronson's third book, "The Men Who Stare at Goats" (2004), deals with the secret New Age unit within the United States Army called the First Earth Battalion. Ronson investigates people such as Major General Albert Stubblebine III, former head of intelligence, who believe that people can walk through walls with the right mental preparation, and that goats can be killed simply by staring at them. Much was based on the ideas of Lt. Col. Jim Channon, ret., who wrote the "First Earth Battalion Operations Manual" in 1979, inspired by the emerging Human Potential Movement of California. The book suggests that these New Age military ideas mutated over the decades to influence interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay. An eponymous film of the book was released in 2009, in which Ronson's investigations were fictionalised and structured around a journey to Iraq. Ronson is played by the actor Ewan McGregor in the film.


title: Jon Ronson

text: Ronson's fourth book, "Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness" (2006; Picador and Guardian Books) is a collection of his "Guardian" articles, mostly those concerning his domestic life. A companion volume was "What I Do: More True Tales of Everyday Craziness" (2007).


title: Jon Ronson

text: "The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry" (2011) is Ronson's fifth book. In it, he explores the nature of psychopathic behaviour, learning how to apply the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, and investigating its reliability. He interviews people in facilities for the criminally insane as well as potential psychopaths in corporate boardrooms. The book's findings have been rejected by The Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy and by Robert D. Hare, creator of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. Hare described the book as "frivolous, shallow, and professionally disconcerting".


title: Jon Ronson

text: Ronson's book "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" (2015) concerns the effects of public humiliation in the internet age.


title: Jon Ronson

text: Ronson's main radio work is the production and presentation of a BBC Radio 4 programme, "Jon Ronson on..." The program has been nominated for a Sony award four times. In August 2008, Radio 4 aired "Robbie Williams and Jon Ronson Journey to the Other Side", a documentary by Jon Ronson about pop star Williams' fascination with UFOs and the paranormal.


title: Jon Ronson

text: In the early 1990s, Ronson was offered the position of sidekick on Terry Christian's Show on Manchester radio station KFM. Ronson also co-presented a KFM show with Craig Cash, who went on to write and perform in "The Royle Family" and "Early Doors".


title: Jon Ronson

text: Ronson contributes to Public Radio International in the United States, particularly the program "This American Life". , he has contributed segments to 13 episodes including "Them" (#201), "Naming Names" (#211), "Family Physics" (#214), "Habeas Schmabeas" (#310), "It's Never Over" (#314), "The Spokesman" (#338), "Pro Se" (#385), "First Contact" (#411), "The Psychopath Test" (#436), "Secret Identity" (#506), "Tarred and Feathered" (#522), "To Be Real" (#620), "Beware the Jabberwock" (#670).


title: Jon Ronson

text: Ronson hosted and wrote the podcast "The Butterfly Effect", which was released in November 2017 by Audible and was made subsequently available on other podcasting platforms. The show focuses on internet pornography, and Fabian Thylmann and PornHub's effect on the industry. Ronson subsequently also hosted and wrote the podcast "The Last Days of August", released in January 2019. It focuses on the 2017 death of pornographic actress August Ames.


title: Jon Ronson

text: Ronson returned to the BBC in 2021 with "Things Fell Apart": a podcast on the Culture Wars for BBC Sounds in a similar format to his previous efforts for Amazon.


title: Jon Ronson

text: In the late 1980s, Ronson replaced Mark Radcliffe as the keyboard player for the Frank Sidebottom band for a number of performances.


title: Jon Ronson

text: Ronson presented the late nineties talk show "For the Love of...", in which each week he would interview a gathering of guests and experts on different phenomena and conspiracy theories. Ronson has also appeared as a guest on various shows, including "".


title: Jon Ronson

text: Ronson sold the film rights to "The Men Who Stare at Goats", and subsequently a film of the same name was released in 2009 as a comedy war film directed by Grant Heslov and written by Peter Straughan. According to Ronson's DVD-commentary, the journalist-character Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) did experience some elements of Ronson's self-recounted story from the book. However, unlike Ronson, Wilton was an American from Ann Arbor. Also, unlike Ronson, Wilton went to Iraq.


title: Jon Ronson

text: In the process of visiting the set during the shoot, Ronson began a collaborative writing project with Straughan. This was the screenplay for "Frank", a fictitious feature film inspired by Ronson's time in Frank Sidebottom's band.


title: Jon Ronson

text: Ronson is [[Jewish]] and calls himself a "distinguished supporter" of [[Humanists UK]]. He is a fan of the football team [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal FC]] and has spoken of his "adoration" of the club.


title: Jon Ronson

text: In an interview for Louis Theroux's Grounded podcast, Ronson states that he became a naturalised American citizen in early 2020.


title: Bismillah

text: Bismillah () is a phrase in Arabic meaning "in the name of Allah". It is also the first word in the Qur'an, and refers to the Qur'an's opening phrase, the Basmala. It may also refer to:


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: The 2016 Australian federal election was a double dissolution election held on Saturday 2 July to elect all 226 members of the 45th Parliament of Australia, after an extended eight-week official campaign period. It was the first double dissolution election since the 1987 election and the first under a new voting system for the Senate that replaced group voting tickets with optional preferential voting.


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: In the 150-seat House of Representatives, the one-term incumbent Coalition government was reelected with a reduced 76 seats, marking the first time since 2004 that a government had been reelected with an absolute majority. Labor picked up a significant number of previously government-held seats for a total of 69 seats, recovering much of what it had lost in its severe defeat of 2013. On the crossbench, the Greens, the Nick Xenophon Team, Katter's Australian Party, and independents Wilkie and McGowan won a seat each. For the first time since federation, a party managed to form government without winning a plurality of seats in the two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria. One re-count was held by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) for the Division of Herbert, confirming that Labor won the seat by 37 votes.


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: The final outcome in the 76-seat Senate took over four weeks to complete. Announced on 4 August, the results revealed a reduced plurality of 30 seats for the Coalition, 26 for Labor, and a record 20 for crossbenchers including 9 Greens, 4 from One Nation and 3 from the Xenophon Team. Former broadcaster and Justice Party founder Derryn Hinch won a seat, while Jacqui Lambie, Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm and Family First's Bob Day retained theirs. The Coalition will require nine additional votes for a Senate majority, an increase of three. Both major parties agreed to allocate six-year terms to the first six senators elected in each state, while the last six would serve three-year terms. Labor and the Coalition each gained a six-year Senator at the expense of Hinch and the Greens, who criticised the major parties for rejecting the "recount" method despite supporting it in two bipartisan senate resolutions in 1998 and 2010.


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: A number of initially-elected senators were declared ineligible a result of the 2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, and replaced after recounts.


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: Elections in Australia use a full-preferential system in one vote, one value single-member seats for the 150-member House of Representatives (lower house) and in time for this election changed from full-preferential group voting tickets to an optional-preferential single transferable vote system of proportional representation in the 76-member Senate (upper house). Voting is compulsory but subject to constitutional constraints. The decision as to the type of election and its date is for the Prime Minister, who advises the Governor-General to set the process in motion by dissolving the lower or both houses and issuing writs for election.


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: Section 13 of the constitution requires that in half-Senate elections the election of state senators must take place within one year before the places become vacant. Since the normal terms of half the senators would have ended on 30 June 2017, the writs for a half-Senate election could not be issued earlier than 1 July 2016, and the earliest possible date for a simultaneous House/half-Senate election would have been 6 August 2016. There is no constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections for the Senate and the House of Representatives, and there are precedents for separate elections; however, governments and the electorate have long preferred that elections for the two Houses take place simultaneously.


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: A House-only election can be called at any time during a parliamentary term. Whether held simultaneously with a Senate election or separately, an election for the House of Representatives was required to have been held on or before 14 January 2017, which is calculated under provisions of the constitution and the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (CEA). Section 28 of the Constitution of Australia provides that the term of a House expires three years from the first sitting of the House, unless it is dissolved earlier. The previous federal election was held on 7 September 2013. The 44th Parliament of Australia opened on 12 November 2013 and its term would have expired on 11 November 2016. Writs for an election can be issued up to ten days after a dissolution or expiry of the House. Up to 27 days can be allowed for nominations, and the actual election can be set for a maximum of 31 days after close of nominations, resulting in the latest possible House of Representatives election date of Saturday, 14 January 2017.


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: A double dissolution cannot take place within six months before the date of the expiry of the House of Representatives. That meant that a double dissolution could not be granted after 11 May 2016. Allowing for the same stages indicated above, the last possible date for a double dissolution election was 16 July 2016.


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: On 2 November 2015, Prime Minister Turnbull stated: "I would say around September–October [2016] is when you should expect the next election to be." However, in December 2015, ABC News reported that some "senior Liberal MPs" had been seeking an election as early as March 2016. An election held at this time would have required a separate half-Senate election to be held in late 2016 or early 2017.


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: On 21 March 2016, Turnbull announced that the parliament would be recalled for both houses to sit on 18 April to consider for a third time the bills to reinstate the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC). Turnbull also said that if the Senate failed to pass the bill, then there would be a double dissolution of parliament and an election would be held on 2 July. The delivery of the federal budget was also brought forward from 10 May to 3 May. On 18 April, the Senate once again rejected the bills to reinstate the ABCC. On 8 May Malcolm Turnbull attended Government House to advise the Governor-General to issue the writs for a double dissolution on 9 May. This confirmed the date of the election; 2 July 2016. In the weeks after 8 May, there were 132,000 additions to the electoral roll, and a total of 687,000 enrolment transactions, and it was estimated that 95% of eligible Australians were enrolled for the election, with a participation rate of those under 24 of 86.7%.


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: By 18 April 2016 there were four bills that met the requirements of Section 57 of the constitution for a double dissolution.


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: On 19 April the Prime Minister confirmed that, following the 2016 federal budget set for 3 May, he would advise the Governor-General to call a double dissolution election on Saturday 2 July. Any or all of these four bills could have been cited in his advice. On Sunday 8 May 2016, Turnbull visited Government House and formally advised Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove to dissolve both Houses of Parliament and issue the writs for a double dissolution election to be held on 2 July 2016. The advice was based on Parliament's inability to pass the following three bills:


title: 2016 Australian federal election

text: The Governor-General accepted the advice and dissolved both houses of the Parliament the following day, 9 May 2016.