title: Barefoot Gen

text: The German Rowohlt Verlag published only the first volume in 1982 under their mass-market label "rororo". Carlsen Comics tried it again in 2004 but cancelled the publication after four volumes. Both publishers took the name "Barfuß durch Hiroshima" ("Barefoot through Hiroshima").


title: Barefoot Gen

text: The first volume was published in Norwegian in 1986 by GEVION norsk forlag A/S. The Norwegian title is "Gen, Gutten fra Hiroshima" ("Gen, the Boy from Hiroshima"). A similar edition in Swedish ("Gen – Pojken från Hiroshima") was published in 1985 by Alvglans förlag, which may have been the earliest published manga in Swedish.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: The first volume was published in Finnish in 1985 by Jalava, becoming the first Japanese comic to be published in Finland, but publishing was likewise abandoned. The Finnish title is "Hiroshiman poika" (The Son of Hiroshima), and Finnish translation was done by Kaija-Leena Ogihara. In 2006 Jalava republished the first volume (with its original translation) and continued with publication of second volume.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: All 10 volumes were published in Poland by Waneko in 2004–2011 under the title "Hiroszima 1945: Bosonogi Gen".


title: Barefoot Gen

text: An Arabic translation was published in Egypt by Maher El-Sherbini, a professor in the department of Japanese Language and Japanese literature at Cairo University, he began the project in 1992 when he was an exchange student at the Hiroshima University Graduate School of Letters, where he had completed his master’s and doctorate’s degrees. The first volume was released in January 2015 and since then all 10 Volumes have been translated.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: New Society Publishers produced a second English-language run of the series in graphic novel format (as "Barefoot Gen: The Cartoon Story of Hiroshima") starting in 1988.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: A new English translation has been released by Last Gasp (starting in 2004) with an introduction by Art Spiegelman, who has compared the work to his own work, "Maus" (which is about the experiences of Spiegelman's father during the Holocaust in Europe).


title: Barefoot Gen

text: Nakazawa planned to present a set of the series to US President Barack Obama to caution against nuclear proliferation.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: In 1976, 1977 and 1980, Tengo Yamada directed three live-action film adaptations. In 2009, a Hollywood producer expressed interest in a studio version of the manga.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: Two animated films were based on the manga, in 1983 and 1986, both directed by Mori Masaki for a production company that Nakazawa founded.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: "Barefoot Gen 2" is set three years after the bomb fell. It focuses on the continuing survival of Gen and orphans in Hiroshima.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: Initially released individually on dub-only VHS tape by Streamline Pictures, and then dub-only DVD by Image Entertainment, Geneon eventually sold bilingual versions of the film on DVD as a set. On September 18, 2017, Discotek Media announced via Facebook that both films would be coming to blu ray with both the Japanese and English languages available in it. The single disc set was released on December 26 of that year.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: In July 1996, the first stage adaptation in English was premiered at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, UK. The production was a collaboration between the Crucible Theatre and Theatre Zenshinza, Tokyo, Japan. In 1994 British theatre director Bryn Jones travelled to Japan to request Mr. Nakazawa's permission to adapt the first volume as a play. Permission was granted and Jones returned to Sheffield to prepare the production; research, design and dramatisation with the Crucible company, Tatsuo Suzuki and Fusako Kurahara. Mr. Nakazawa subsequently travelled to the UK to attend final rehearsals and gave post show talks after the opening performances. The final manuscript was adapted and dramatised by Tatsuo Suzuki and Bryn Jones and translated by Fusako Kurahara. The production received a Japan Festival Award 1997 "for outstanding achievements in furthering the understanding of Japanese culture in the United Kingdom."


title: Barefoot Gen

text: In December 2012, access to "Barefoot Gen" became restricted in elementary schools and junior high schools of Matsue city in Japan, after a claim was made that "Barefoot Gen" "describes atrocities by Japanese troops that did not take place". This was reviewed after 44 of 49 school principals polled in the city wanted the restriction removed – the curb was later lifted in August 2013.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: Nakazawa’s widow, Misayo, had expressed shock that children’s access to the work was being curbed, explaining that "War is brutal. It expresses that in pictures, and I want people to keep reading it."


title: West Coast Avengers

text: The West Coast Avengers is a fictional group of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team first appeared in "The West Coast Avengers" #1 (Sept. 1984), created by Roger Stern and Bob Hall. It was the first spin-off publication for the Avengers.


title: West Coast Avengers

text: The West Coast Avengers first appear in a four-issue limited series published from September to December 1984. The series was written by Roger Stern and drawn by Bob Hall and Brett Breeding. This was followed by a 102-issue series of the same name that ran from October 1985 to January 1994. The series was initially written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott. It was the first spin-off series for the Avengers. From issue #42 to 57, the title was written and illustrated by John Byrne. The series was renamed Avengers West Coast on the cover of issue #47 (Aug. 1989) and in the indicia in issue #48 (Sept. 1989). Writers Roy and Dann Thomas and artist Paul Ryan became the new creative team with issue #60 and Dave Ross replaced Ryan with issue #71. The second series was accompanied by eight annuals published from 1986 to 1993.


title: West Coast Avengers

text: In 2018, a new incarnation of the West Coast Avengers appeared in the "Fresh Start" that consists of Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, Gwenpool, America Chavez, Quentin Quire, and Kate's boyfriend Johnny Watts who takes the codename Fuse. This series was cancelled as of issue #10 cover dated June 2019.


title: West Coast Avengers

text: The team is founded by the Avenger Hawkeye in response to a suggestion by fellow Avenger, the Vision, who at the time (as team chairman) wished to expand the Avengers' influence. Hawkeye recruits Mockingbird, Wonder Man, Tigra, and Iron Man, with the last actually being Jim Rhodes as opposed to Tony Stark, a fact initially unknown to the team. Together the team defeat a petty criminal called the Blank and later the Avengers foe Graviton.


title: West Coast Avengers

text: The team would later take on Henry Pym as a scientific advisor and compound manager and battle a range of both old foes – including the Grim Reaper, Ultron, Graviton, and Zodiac – and new opponents such as Master Pandemonium. Former Fantastic Four member Thing and the heroine Firebird briefly allied themselves with the team. Henry Pym, who is saved by Firebird from a suicide attempt, and the adventurer Moon Knight formally join, while Iron Man is expelled for his actions during the Armor Wars. The "Lost in Space-Time" storyline began in issue #17 (February 1987) when Dominus sent the team back in time. The marriage of Hawkeye and Mockingbird is placed in jeopardy when, during this arc, she allows the Old West hero the Phantom Rider to die in a fall for deceiving and raping her.


title: West Coast Avengers

text: After a trip to Hungary to investigate a report on Pym's second wife, the Wasp, the Scarlet Witch, and the Vision assist the team. Mockingbird, Tigra and Moon Knight leave the team together as a new short lived team called the Ex-WACOs over the Avengers rule of not killing in regards to Mockingbird's encounter with Phantom Rider. The Vision and the Scarlet Witch join the team as to not leave it short handed. Former Avenger ally Mantis makes a brief appearance. Agents from multiple governments then abduct the Vision and dismantle him due to his return to the team. The Avengers recover the parts and Dr. Pym rebuilds the Vision but with a chalk-white complexion. Wonder Man, however, does not allow his brain patterns to be used again to provide a matrix for the Vision's emotions, explaining that the original process, done without his consent, had "ripped out his soul". Although Wonder Man's own love for the Scarlet Witch leads him to feel guilt, he justifies his actions by claiming the Vision was never anything but a copy of him, a claim that a number of other Avengers, including the Wasp, accept. This, along with damage to the Vision's synthetic skin when he was dismantled, results in the synthezoid's resurrection as a colorless and emotionless artificial human. The unstable U.S. Agent is assigned to the team as a watchdog by the US government to monitor the team's activities.


title: West Coast Avengers

text: A group of odd super-humans decide to mimic the Avengers and become the Great Lakes Avengers, while the original Human Torch returns from his own apparent demise. This casts doubt on the Vision's identity, who was previously believed to have been created from the Torch's body. The Vision and the Scarlet Witch's children conceived via the Scarlet Witch's hex powers are then revealed to be fragments of the soul of the demon Mephisto, who had been broken apart by Franklin Richards shortly before the birth of the twins. The twins were absorbed back into Mephisto, which temporarily drives the Scarlet Witch insane. Although she eventually recovers, the Scarlet Witch and the Vision separate, each operating on a different Avengers team.


title: West Coast Avengers

text: Iron Man rejoins, and the mutant Quicksilver assists the team when the Scarlet Witch aligns herself with their father Magneto during a period in which she suffers from a mental breakdown. Immortus is finally confronted and revealed to be the cause of much of the team's misfortune, and is finally defeated. Hank Pym, the Wasp and Quicksilver then leave the team, with Machine Man becoming reservists and Spider-Woman and the Living Lightning joining as full-time members. Spider-Man guest-stars in issues #84–86.


title: West Coast Avengers

text: The team battle Ultron and his new creation Alkhema several times, and Hawkeye assumes his old identity of Goliath, during the Avengers crossover Operation: Galactic Storm, and reconciles with Mockingbird. Iron Man and Wonder Man leave the team, and are replaced by War Machine (Jim Rhodes, one of the founding West Coast Avengers) and Darkhawk, with the latter acting as a reservist. During a battle with the demons Mephisto and Satannish, Mockingbird is killed. Due to constant in-fighting and a general lack of organization, Captain America intervenes and disbands the team. Several members of the West Coast team—including a returned Iron Man—are unhappy about the decision and leave to form another team, called Force Works. This team, however, has several setbacks and quickly disbands, with the members returning to the main Avengers team.


title: West Coast Avengers

text: Years later, the West Coast Avengers compound would be reopened as the new campus for the Avengers Academy following the destruction of the Infinite Avengers Mansion as seen in the "Fear Itself" storyline.


title: West Coast Avengers

text: During the Fresh Start relaunch, both Hawkeyes – team founder Clint Barton and his successor Kate Bishop – decided to revive the West Coast Avengers following an attack by land sharks in Santa Monica. For that, they recruited America Chavez and Kate's boyfriend Johnny "Fuse" Watts, who helped in the mission, and were eventually joined by Gwenpool and Kid Omega. Given their lack of funds, the newly formed team tried to get financiers by starring in a reality show following their exploits.


title: West Coast Avengers

text: In the Ultimate Marvel reality, a secret team of Ultimates was formed in the "". The team members include Quake as the leader, Wonder Man, the Vision, the Black Knight, and Tigra. The team was assigned to kill a wanted terrorist until Wonder Man went unstable. This forced the abandonment of the mission and Nick Fury put the team into stasis until needed. Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. had planned to use them against the villainous Reed Richards and his Children of Tomorrow, but thanks to the civil war, California Governor Ford discovered the newly christened West Coast Ultimates and set them against the Ultimates.


title: Cristina Scabbia

text: Cristina Adriana Chiara Scabbia (; born 5 June 1972) is an Italian singer, best known as one of the two vocalists of gothic metal band Lacuna Coil.


title: Cristina Scabbia

text: Scabbia used to write an advice column in the popular rock magazine "Revolver", alongside musician Vinnie Paul. Scabbia is featured in a Megadeth song "À Tout le Monde (Set Me Free)". She also featured on "The Theory of Everything", an album from Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Ayreon project, with which she is cast as the Mother. She is also the featured artist in the Apocalyptica song "S.O.S. (Anything But Love)" and another version of the Alter Bridge song "Watch Over You". Scabbia performed a duet with the Italian ex-singer of Linea 77 Emiliano Audisio on the track "Beautiful Lie" to be part of the soundtrack for the 2013 Italian film "Passione sinistra".


title: Cristina Scabbia

text: In 1991, Scabbia began singing professionally as a touring musician for other bands and providing backing vocals. Later that year, she met the male vocalist Andrea Ferro and bass player Marco Coti Zelati of Lacuna Coil in Milan's Midnight club and started dating Marco after. At the time, the band was named Ethereal, and Scabbia was asked to do vocals by her then boyfriend and bass player, Marco. She was employed to record vocals on the demo tapes, and invited to be a permanent member.


title: Cristina Scabbia

text: After several changes in the band's line-up, the members were reduced to Ferro, Coti Zelati and Scabbia. The members recorded a two track demo in May 1996, and were soon signed by the German branch of Century Media, eventually joining with the American branch of the label. Once signed, the band changed their name to Lacuna Coil after learning that a Greek band signed to Century Media had already claimed the name Ethereal. Adding new band members, Lacuna Coil began, releasing their first album in 1999.


title: Wait Until Dark (film)

text: Wait Until Dark is a 1967 American psychological thriller film directed by Terence Young and produced by Mel Ferrer, from a screenplay by Robert Carrington and Jane-Howard Carrington, based on the 1966 play of the same name by Frederick Knott. The film stars Audrey Hepburn as a young blind woman, Alan Arkin as a violent criminal searching for some drugs, and Richard Crenna as another criminal, supported by Jack Weston, Julie Herrod, and Efrem Zimbalist Jr.


title: Wait Until Dark (film)

text: Audrey Hepburn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1967, and Zimbalist was nominated for a Golden Globe in the supporting category. The film is ranked #55 on AFI's 2001 "100 Years...100 Thrills" list, and its climax is ranked tenth on Bravo's "100 Scariest Movie Moments".


title: Wait Until Dark (film)

text: A woman named Lisa (Samantha Jones) takes a flight from Montreal to New York City, smuggling bags of heroin sewn inside an old-fashioned doll. When she disembarks, Lisa becomes worried upon seeing a man watching her at the airport and gives the doll to a fellow passenger, professional photographer Sam Hendrix (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), for safekeeping. She is roughly escorted away by the other man.


title: Wait Until Dark (film)

text: A few days later, con artists Mike Talman (Richard Crenna) and Carlino (Jack Weston) arrive at the apartment of Sam and his blind wife, Susy (Audrey Hepburn), believing it to be Lisa's residence. Harry Roat (Alan Arkin), the man who met Lisa at the airport, arrives to persuade Talman and Carlino to help him find the doll. After the con men discover Lisa's body, Roat blackmails them into helping him dispose of it and convinces them to help him find the doll. While Sam is on a photography assignment, the criminals begin an elaborate con game, using Susy's blindness against her and posing as different people to win her trust. Implying that Lisa has been murdered and that Sam will be suspected, the men persuade Susy to help them find the doll. Mike gives her the number for the phone booth across the street as his own after falsely warning her of a police car outside.


title: Wait Until Dark (film)

text: Gloria (Julie Herrod), a girl who lives upstairs and who had borrowed the doll earlier, sneaks in to return it. She reveals to Susy that there is no police car outside. After calling Mike and realizing it is the phone booth's number, Susy realizes that the three are criminals and hides the doll. She tells them that the doll is at Sam's studio and the three leave after Roat cuts the telephone cord. Carlino stays behind to stand guard outside the building. Susy sends Gloria to the bus station to wait for Sam. When she discovers that the telephone cord has been cut, she prepares to defend herself by breaking all the lightbulbs in the apartment except for that of the safelight. When Mike returns, he realizes that she knows the truth and demands the doll, but she refuses to cooperate. Mike admits to Susy that he and his confederates are part of a criminal plot, while Roat is the particular danger. He assures her that he has sent Carlino to kill Roat. However, having anticipated their plan, Roat has killed Carlino instead, and he then kills Mike on the doorstep of Susy's apartment.


title: Wait Until Dark (film)

text: Intent on acquiring the doll, Roat threatens to set the apartment on fire. Susy finally agrees to give him the doll but throws a chemical at Roat's face and unplugs the safelight as the apartment is plunged into darkness. Roat uses matches to see, but Susy douses him with gasoline, forcing him to put out the match. Roat finally produces light by opening the refrigerator. Susy, realizing that she has lost the battle, pulls the doll out from its hiding place and hands it to him. While Roat is distracted with it, Susy is able to arm herself with a kitchen knife. Roat then tries to walk Susy to the bedroom, but she stabs him and flees. She is unable to escape the chained front door and stumbles toward the kitchen window to scream for help, but Roat leaps from the darkness and grabs her ankle. She wrenches free and conceals herself behind the refrigerator door. Just as he stands to stab her, she unplugs the refrigerator, leading to total darkness yet again. The police arrive with Sam and Gloria. Susy is found, unharmed, behind the refrigerator door, while the dead Roat rests nearby, disabled by a toppled shelf.


title: Wait Until Dark (film)

text: To immerse viewers in the suspense of the climactic scene, movie theater owners dimmed their lights to the legal limits, and then turned them off, one by one until the audiences were in complete darkness.


title: Wait Until Dark (film)

text: Bosley Crowther called it a "barefaced melodrama, without character revelation of any sort, outside of the demonstration of a person with the fortitude to overcome an infirmity"; he liked Hepburn's performance, saying "the sweetness with which Miss Hepburn plays the poignant role, the quickness with which she changes and the skill with which she manifests terror attract sympathy and anxiety to her and give her genuine solidity in the final scenes".


title: Wait Until Dark (film)

text: "Time" magazine said the film had a "better scenario, set and cast" than the play's Broadway production that preceded it, and while "the story is as full of holes as a kitchen colander", "Hepburn's honest, posture-free performance helps to suspend the audience's disbelief" and she is "immensely aided by the heavies: Jack Weston, Richard Crenna, and Alan Arkin...With virtuosity, Hepburn and Arkin collaborate to revive an old theme—The-Helpless-Girl-Against-the-Odds—that has been out of fashion since Dorothy McGuire and Barbara Stanwyck screamed for help in "The Spiral Staircase" and "Sorry, Wrong Number".


title: Wait Until Dark (film)

text: Roger Ebert gave the movie three and a half stars and wrote "Miss Hepburn is perhaps too simple and trusting, and Alan Arkin (as a sadistic killer) is not particularly convincing in an exaggerated performance. But there are some nice, juicy passages of terror (including that famous moment when every adolescent girl in the theater screams), and after a slow start the plot does seduce you."


title: Wait Until Dark (film)

text: Rotten Tomatoes reported that 96% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 8.04/10. The critical consensus reads: "Nail-bitingly tense and brilliantly acted, "Wait Until Dark" is a compact thriller that makes the most of its fiendishly clever premise." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". The film was ranked tenth on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments for its riveting climax.


title: Wait Until Dark (film)

text: Despite the film's acclaim and receiving an Oscar nomination, Hepburn stepped away from film acting after "Wait Until Dark's" release and would not appear on film again until "Robin and Marian" in 1976.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Distortion and overdrive are forms of audio signal processing used to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments, usually by increasing their gain, producing a "fuzzy", "growling", or "gritty" tone. Distortion is most commonly used with the electric guitar, but may also be used with other electric instruments such as electric bass, electric piano, synthesizer and Hammond organ. Guitarists playing electric blues originally obtained an overdriven sound by turning up their vacuum tube-powered guitar amplifiers to high volumes, which caused the signal to distort. While overdriven tube amps are still used to obtain overdrive, especially in genres like blues and rockabilly, a number of other ways to produce distortion have been developed since the 1960s, such as distortion effect pedals. The growling tone of a distorted electric guitar is a key part of many genres, including blues and many rock music genres, notably hard rock, punk rock, hardcore punk, acid rock, and heavy metal music, while the use of distorted bass has been essential in a genre of hip hop music and alternative hip hop known as "SoundCloud rap".


title: Distortion (music)

text: The effects alter the instrument sound by clipping the signal (pushing it past its maximum, which shears off the peaks and troughs of the signal waves), adding sustain and harmonic and inharmonic overtones and leading to a compressed sound that is often described as "warm" and "dirty", depending on the type and intensity of distortion used. The terms "distortion" and "overdrive" are often used interchangeably; where a distinction is made, "distortion" is a more extreme version of the effect than "overdrive". Fuzz is a particular form of extreme distortion originally created by guitarists using faulty equipment (such as a misaligned valve (tube); see below), which has been emulated since the 1960s by a number of "fuzzbox" effects pedals.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Distortion, overdrive, and fuzz can be produced by effects pedals, rackmounts, pre-amplifiers, power amplifiers (a potentially speaker-blowing approach), speakers and (since the 2000s) by digital amplifier modeling devices and audio software. These effects are used with electric guitars, electric basses (fuzz bass), electronic keyboards, and more rarely as a special effect with vocals. While distortion is often created intentionally as a musical effect, musicians and sound engineers sometimes take steps to avoid distortion, particularly when using PA systems to amplify vocals or when playing back prerecorded music.


title: Distortion (music)

text: The first guitar amplifiers were relatively low-fidelity, and would often produce distortion when their volume (gain) was increased beyond their design limit or if they sustained minor damage. Around 1945, Western-swing guitarist Junior Barnard began experimenting with a rudimentary humbucker pick-up and a small amplifier to obtain his signature "low-down and dirty" bluesy sound. Many electric blues guitarists, including Chicago bluesmen such as Elmore James and Buddy Guy, experimented in order to get a guitar sound that paralleled the rawness of blues singers such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, replacing often their originals with the powerful Valco "Chicagoan" pick-ups, originally created for lap-steel, to obtain a louder and fatter tone. In early rock music, Goree Carter's "Rock Awhile" (1949) featured an over-driven electric guitar style similar to that of Chuck Berry several years later, as well as Joe Hill Louis' "" (1950).


title: Distortion (music)

text: In the early 1950s, guitar distortion sounds started to evolve based on sounds created earlier in the decade by accidental damage to amps, such as in the popular early recording of the 1951 Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm song "Rocket 88", where guitarist Willie Kizart used a vacuum tube amplifier that had a speaker cone slightly damaged in transport. Electric guitarists began intentionally "doctoring" amplifiers and speakers in order to emulate this form of distortion.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Electric blues guitarist Willie Johnson of Howlin' Wolf′s band began deliberately increasing gain beyond its intended levels to produce "warm" distorted sounds. Guitar Slim also experimented with distorted overtones, which can be heard in his hit electric blues song "The Things That I Used to Do" (1953). Chuck Berry's 1955 classic "Maybellene" features a guitar solo with warm overtones created by his small valve amplifier. Pat Hare produced heavily distorted power chords on his electric guitar for records such as James Cotton's "" (1954) as well as his own "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby" (1954), creating "a grittier, nastier, more ferocious electric guitar sound," accomplished by turning the volume knob on his amplifier "all the way to the right until the speaker was screaming."


title: Distortion (music)

text: In 1956, guitarist Paul Burlison of the Johnny Burnette Trio deliberately dislodged a vacuum tube in his amplifier to record "The Train Kept A-Rollin" after a reviewer raved about the sound Burlison's damaged amplifier produced during a live performance. According to other sources Burlison's amp had a partially broken loudspeaker cone. Pop-oriented producers were horrified by that eerie "two-tone" sound, quite clean on trebles but strongly distorted on basses, but Burnette insisted to publish the sessions, arguing that "that guitar sounds like a nice horn section".


title: Distortion (music)

text: In the late 1950s, Guitarist Link Wray began intentionally manipulating his amplifiers' vacuum tubes to create a "noisy" and "dirty" sound for his solos after a similarly accidental discovery. Wray also poked holes in his speaker cones with pencils to further distort his tone, used electronic echo chambers (then usually employed by singers), the recent powerful and "fat" Gibson humbucker pickups, and controlled "feedback" (Larsen effect). The resultant sound can be heard on his highly influential 1958 instrumental, "Rumble" and Rawhide.


title: Distortion (music)

text: In 1961, Grady Martin scored a hit with a fuzzy tone caused by a faulty preamplifier that distorted his guitar playing on the Marty Robbins song "Don't Worry". Later that year Martin recorded an instrumental tune under his own name, using the same faulty preamp. The song, on the Decca label, was called "The Fuzz." Martin is generally credited as the discoverer of the "fuzz effect." The recording engineer from Martin's sessions, Glenn Snoddy, partnered with fellow WSM radio engineer Revis V. Hobbs to design and build a stand-alone device that would intentionally create the fuzzy effect. The two engineers sold their circuit to Gibson, who introduced it as the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone in 1962, one of the first commercially-successful mass-produced guitar pedals.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Shortly thereafter, the American instrumental rock band The Ventures asked their friend, session musician and electronics enthusiast Orville "Red" Rhodes for help recreating the Grady Martin "fuzz" sound. Rhodes offered The Ventures a fuzzbox he had made, which they used to record "2000 Pound Bee" in 1962.


title: Distortion (music)

text: In 1964, a fuzzy and somewhat distorted sound gained widespread popularity after guitarist Dave Davies of The Kinks used a razor blade to slash his speaker cones for the band's single "You Really Got Me".


title: Distortion (music)

text: In May 1965 Keith Richards used a Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone to record "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". The song's success greatly boosted sales of the device, and all available stock sold out by the end of 1965. Other early fuzzboxes include the Mosrite FuzzRITE and Arbiter Group Fuzz Face used by Jimi Hendrix, the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi used by Hendrix and Carlos Santana, and the Vox Tone Bender used by Paul McCartney to play fuzz bass on "Think for Yourself" and other Beatles recordings.


title: Distortion (music)

text: In 1966, Jim Marshall of the British company Marshall Amplification began modifying the electronic circuitry of his amplifiers so as to achieve a "brighter, louder" sound and fuller distortion capabilities. Also in 1966, Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd created the song Interstellar Overdrive, a song made entirely in electric distortion. It was released a year later in modified form on their debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.


title: Distortion (music)

text: In the late 1960s and early 1970s hard rock bands such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath forged what would eventually become the heavy metal sound through a combined use of high volumes and heavy distortion.


title: Distortion (music)

text: The word distortion refers to any modification of wave form of a signal, but in music it is used to refer to nonlinear distortion (excluding filters) and particularly to the introduction of new frequencies by memoryless nonlinearities. In music the different forms of linear distortion have specific names describing them. The simplest of these is a distortion process known as "volume adjustment", which involves distorting the amplitude of a sound wave in a proportional (or ‘linear’) way in order to increase or decrease the volume of the sound without affecting the tone quality. In the context of music, the most common source of (nonlinear) distortion is clipping in amplifier circuits and is most commonly known as overdrive.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Clipping is a non-linear process that produces frequencies not originally present in the audio signal. These frequencies can be harmonic overtones, meaning they are whole number multiples of one of the signal's original frequencies, or "inharmonic", resulting from general intermodulation distortion. The same nonlinear device will produce both types of distortion, depending on the input signal. Intermodulation occurs whenever the input frequencies are not already harmonically related. For instance, playing a power chord through distortion results in intermodulation that produces new subharmonics.


title: Distortion (music)

text: "Soft clipping" gradually flattens the peaks of a signal which creates a number of higher harmonics which share a harmonic relationship with the original tone. "Hard clipping" flattens peaks abruptly, resulting in higher power in higher harmonics. As clipping increases, a tone input progressively begins to resemble a square wave which has odd number harmonics. This is generally described as sounding "harsh".


title: Distortion (music)

text: Distortion and overdrive circuits each 'clip' the signal before it reaches the main amplifier (clean boost circuits do not necessarily create 'clipping') as well as boost signals to levels that cause distortion to occur at the main amplifier's front end stage (by exceeding the ordinary input signal amplitude, thus "overdriving" the amplifier) Note : product names may not accurately reflect type of circuit involved - see above.


title: Distortion (music)

text: A fuzz box alters an audio signal until it is nearly a square wave and adds complex overtones by way of a frequency multiplier.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Vacuum tube or "valve" distortion is achieved by "overdriving" the valves in an amplifier. In layman's terms, overdriving is pushing the tubes beyond their normal rated maximum. Valve amplifiers—particularly those using class-A triodes—tend to produce asymmetric soft clipping that creates both even and odd harmonics. The increase in even harmonics is considered to create "warm"-sounding overdrive effects.


title: Distortion (music)

text: A basic triode valve (tube) contains a cathode, a plate and a grid. When a positive voltage is applied to the plate, a current of negatively charged electrons flows to it from the heated cathode through the grid. This increases the voltage of the audio signal, amplifying its volume. The grid regulates the extent to which plate voltage is increased. A small negative voltage applied to the grid causes a large decrease in plate voltage.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Valve amplification is more or less linear—meaning the parameters (amplitude, frequency, phase) of the amplified signal are proportional to the input signal—so long as the voltage of the input signal does not exceed the valve's "linear region of operation". The linear region falls between


title: Distortion (music)

text: Multiple stages of valve gain/clipping can be "cascaded" to produce a thicker and more complex distortion sound. In layperson's terms, a musician will plug a fuzz pedal into a tube amp that is being "cranked" to a clipping "overdriven" condition; as such, the musician will get the distortion from the fuzz which is then distorted further by the amp. During the 1990s, some Seattle grunge guitarists chained together as many as four fuzz pedals to create a thick "wall of sound" of distortion.


title: Distortion (music)

text: In some modern valve effects, the "dirty" or "gritty" tone is actually achieved not by high voltage, but by running the circuit at voltages that are too low for the circuit components, resulting in greater non-linearity and distortion. These designs are referred to as "starved plate" configurations, and result in an "amp death" sound.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Solid-state amplifiers incorporating transistors and/or op amps can be made to produce hard clipping. When symmetrical, this adds additional high-amplitude odd harmonics, creating a "dirty" or "gritty" tone. When asymmetrical, it produces both even and odd harmonics. Electronically, this is usually achieved by either amplifying the signal to a point where it is clipped by the DC voltage limitation of the power supply rail, or by clipping the signal with diodes. Many solid-state distortion devices attempt to emulate the sound of overdriven vacuum valves using additional solid-state circuitry. Some amplifiers (notably the Marshall JCM 900) utilize hybrid designs that employ both valve and solid-state components.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Guitar distortion can be produced by many components of the guitar's signal path, including effects pedals, the pre-amplifier, power amplifier, and speakers. Many players use a combination of these to obtain their "signature" tone.


title: Distortion (music)

text: The pre-amplifier section of a guitar amplifier serves to amplify a weak instrument signal to a level that can drive the power amplifier. It often also contains circuitry to shape the tone of the instrument, including equalization and gain controls. Often multiple cascading gain/clipping stages are employed to generate distortion. Because the first component in a valve amplifier is a valve gain stage, the output level of the preceding elements of the signal chain has a strong influence on the distortion created by that stage. The output level of the guitar's pickups, the setting of the guitar's volume knob, how hard the strings are plucked, and the use of volume-boosting effects pedals can drive this stage harder and create more distortion.


title: Distortion (music)

text: During the 1980s and 1990s, most valve amps featured a "master volume" control, an adjustable attenuator between the preamp section and the power amp. When the preamp volume is set high to generate high distortion levels, the master volume lowered, keeping the output volume at manageable levels.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Analog overdrive/distortion pedals work on similar principles to preamplifier distortion. Because most effects pedals are designed to operate from battery voltages, using vacuum tubes to generate distortion and overdrive is impractical; instead, most pedals use solid-state transistors, op-amps and diodes. Classic examples of overdrive/distortion pedals include the Boss OD series (overdrives), the Ibanez Tube Screamer (an overdrive), the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (a fuzz box) and the Pro Co RAT (a distortion). Typically, "overdrive" pedals are designed to produce sounds associated with classic rock or blues, with "distortion" pedals producing the "high gain, scooped mids" sounds associated with heavy metal; fuzz boxes are designed to emulate the distinctive sound of the earliest overdrive pedals such as the Big Muff and the Fuzz Face.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Most overdrive/distortion pedals can be used in two ways: a pedal can be used as a "boost" with an already overdriven amplifier to drive it further into saturation and "color" the tone, or it can be used with a completely clean amplifier to generate the whole overdrive/distortion effect. With care—and with appropriately chosen pedals—it is possible to "stack" multiple overdrive/distortion pedals together, allowing one pedal to act as a 'boost' for another.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Fuzz boxes and other heavy distortions can produce unwanted dissonances when playing chords. To get around this, guitar players (and keyboard players) using these effects may restrict their playing to single notes and simple "power chords" (root, fifth, and octave). Indeed, with the most extreme fuzz pedals, players may choose to play mostly single notes, because the fuzz can make even single notes sound very thick and heavy. Heavy distortion also tends to limit the player's control of dynamics (loudness and softness)—similar to the limitations imposed on a Hammond organ player (Hammond organ does not produce louder or softer sounds depending on how hard or soft the performer plays the keys; however, the performer can still control the volume with drawbars and the expression pedal). Heavy metal music has evolved around these restrictions, using complex rhythms and timing for expression and excitement. Lighter distortions and overdrives can be used with triadic chords and seventh chords; as well, lighter overdrive allows more control of dynamics.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Power valves (tubes) can be overdriven in the same way that pre-amplifier valves can, but because these valves are designed to output more power, the distortion and character they add to the guitar's tone is unique. During the 1960s to early 1970s, distortion was primarily created by overdriving the power valves. Because they have become accustomed to this sound , many guitar players favour this type of distortion, and thus set their amps to maximum levels in order to drive the power section hard. Many valve-based amplifiers in common use have a push-pull output configuration in their power section, with matched pairs of tubes driving the output transformer. Power amplifier distortion is normally entirely symmetric, generating predominantly odd-order harmonics.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Because driving the power valves this hard also means maximum volume, which can be difficult to manage in a small recording or rehearsal space, many solutions have emerged that in some way divert some of this power valve output from the speakers, and allow the player to generate power valve distortion without excessive volume. These include built-in or separate power attenuators and power-supply-based power attenuation, such as a VVR, or Variable Voltage Regulator to drop the voltage on the valves' plates, to increase distortion whilst lowering volume. Guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen have been known to use variacs before VVR technology was invented. Lower-power valve amps (such as a quarter-watt or less), speaker isolation cabinets, and low-efficiency guitar speakers are also used to tame the volume.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Power-valve distortion can also be produced in a dedicated rackmount valve power amp. A modular rackmount setup often involves a rackmount preamp, a rackmount valve power amp, and a rackmount dummy load to attenuate the output to desired volume levels. Some effects pedals internally produce power-valve distortion, including an optional dummy load for use as a power-valve distortion pedal. Such effects units can use a preamp valve such as the 12AX7 in a power-valve circuit configuration (as in the Stephenson's Stage Hog), or use a conventional power valve, such as the EL84 (as in the H&K Crunch Master compact tabletop unit). However, because these are usually placed before the pre-amplifier in the signal chain, they contribute to the overall tone in a different way. Power amplifier distortion may damage speakers.


title: Distortion (music)

text: A Direct Inject signal can capture the power-tube distortion sound without the direct coloration of a guitar speaker and microphone. This DI signal can be blended with a miked guitar speaker, with the DI providing a more present, immediate, bright sound, and the miked guitar speaker providing a colored, remote, darker sound. The DI signal can be obtained from a DI jack on the guitar amp, or from the Line Out jack of a power attenuator.


title: Distortion (music)

text: The output transformer sits between the power valves and the speaker, serving to match impedance. When a transformer's ferromagnetic core becomes electromagnetically saturated a loss of inductance takes place, since the back E.M.F. is reliant on a change in flux in the core. As the core reaches saturation, the flux levels off and cannot increase any further. With no change in flux there is no back E.M.F. and hence no reflected impedance. The transformer and valve combination then generate large 3rd order harmonics. So long as the core does not go into saturation, the valves will clip naturally as they drop the available voltage across them. In single ended systems the output harmonics will be largely even ordered due to the valve's relatively non linear characteristics at large signal swings. This is only true however if the magnetic core does NOT saturate.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Early valve amplifiers used unregulated power supplies. This was due to the high cost associated with high-quality high-voltage power supplies. The typical anode (plate) supply was simply a rectifier, an inductor and a capacitor. When the valve amplifier was operated at high volume, the power supply voltage would dip, reducing power output and causing signal attenuation and compression. This dipping effect is known as "sag", and is sought-after by some electric guitarists. Sag only occurs in class-AB amplifiers. This is because, technically, sag results from more current being drawn from the power supply, causing a greater voltage drop over the rectifier valve. Class AB amplifiers draw the most power at both the maximum and minimum point of the signal, putting more stress on the power supply than class A, which only draws maximum power at the peak of the signal.


title: Distortion (music)

text: As this effect is more pronounced with higher input signals, the harder "attack" of a note will be compressed more heavily than the lower-voltage "decay", making the latter seem louder and thereby improving sustain. Additionally, because the level of compression is affected by input volume, the player can control it via their playing intensity: playing harder results in more compression or "sag". In contrast, modern amplifiers often use high-quality, well-regulated power supplies.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Guitar loudspeakers are designed differently from high fidelity stereo speakers or public address system speakers. While hi-fi and public address speakers are designed to reproduce the sound with as little distortion as possible, guitar speakers are usually designed so that they will shape or color the tone of the guitar, either by enhancing some frequencies or attenuating unwanted frequencies.


title: Distortion (music)

text: When the power delivered to a guitar speaker approaches its maximum rated power, the speaker's performance degrades, causing the speaker to "break up", adding further distortion and colouration to the signal. Some speakers are designed to have much clean headroom, while others are designed to break up early to deliver grit and growl.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Guitar amp modeling devices and software can reproduce various guitar-specific distortion qualities that are associated with a range of popular "stomp box" pedals and amplifiers. Amp modeling devices typically use digital signal processing to recreate the sound of plugging into analogue pedals and overdriven valve amplifiers. The most sophisticated devices allow the user to customize the simulated results of using different preamp, power-tube, speaker distortion, speaker cabinet, and microphone placement combinations. For example, a guitarist using a small amp modeling pedal could simulate the sound of plugging their electric guitar into a heavy vintage valve amplifier and a stack of 8 X 10" speaker cabinets.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Guitar distortion is obtained and shaped at various points in the signal processing chain, including multiple stages of preamp distortion, power valve distortion, output and power transformer distortion, and guitar speaker distortion. Much of the distortion character or voicing is controlled by the frequency response before and after each distortion stage. This dependency of distortion voicing on frequency response can be heard in the effect that a wah pedal has on the subsequent distortion stage, or by using tone controls built into the guitar, the preamp or an EQ pedal to favor the bass or treble components of the guitar pickup signal prior to the first distortion stage. Some guitarists place an equalizer pedal after the distortion effect, to emphasize or de-emphasize different frequencies in the distorted signal.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Increasing the bass and treble while reducing or eliminating the centre midrange (750 Hz) results in what is popularly known as a "scooped" sound (since the midrange frequencies are "scooped" out). Conversely, decreasing the bass while increasing the midrange and treble creates a punchy, harsher sound. Rolling off all of the treble produces a dark, heavy sound.


title: Distortion (music)

text: While musicians intentionally create or add distortion to electric instrument signals or vocals to create a musical effect, there are some musical styles and musical applications where as little distortion as possible is sought. When DJs are playing recorded music in a nightclub, they typically seek to reproduce the recordings with little or no distortion. In many musical styles, including pop music, country music and even genres where the electric guitars are almost always distorted, such as heavy metal, punk and hard rock, sound engineers usually take a number of steps to ensure that the vocals sounding through the sound reinforcement system are undistorted (the exception is the rare cases where distortion is purposely added to vocals in a song as a special effect).


title: Distortion (music)

text: Sound engineers prevent unwanted, unintended distortion and clipping using a number of methods. They may reduce the gain on microphone preamplifiers on the audio console; use attenuation "pads" (a button on audio console channel strips, DI unit and some bass amplifiers); and use electronic audio compressor effects and limiters to prevent sudden volume peaks from vocal mics from causing unwanted distortion.


title: Distortion (music)

text: Though some bass guitar players in metal and punk bands intentionally use fuzz bass to distort their bass sound, in other genres of music, such as pop, big band jazz and traditional country music, bass players typically seek an undistorted bass sound. To obtain a clear, undistorted bass sound, professional bass players in these genres use high-powered amplifiers with a lot of "headroom" and they may also use audio compressors to prevent sudden volume peaks from causing distortion. In many cases, musicians playing stage pianos or synthesizers use keyboard amplifiers that are designed to reproduce the audio signal with as little distortion as possible. The exceptions with keyboards are the Hammond organ as used in blues and the Fender Rhodes as used in rock music; with these instruments and genres, keyboardists often purposely overdrive a tube amplifier to get a natural overdrive sound. Another example of instrument amplification where as little distortion as possible is sought is with acoustic instrument amplifiers, designed for musicians playing instruments such as the mandolin or fiddle in a folk or bluegrass style.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in addition to leading American literary trends. It was acquired by Random House in 1960, and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group division of Penguin Random House which is owned by the German conglomerate Bertelsmann. The Knopf publishing house is associated with its borzoi colophon, which was designed by co-founder Blanche Knopf in 1925.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: Knopf was founded in 1915 by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. along with Blanche Knopf, on a $5,000 advance from his father, Samuel Knopf. The first office was located in New York's Candler Building. The publishing house was officially incorporated in 1918, with Alfred Knopf as president, Blanche Knopf as vice president, and Samuel Knopf as treasurer.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: From the start, Knopf focused on European translations and high-brow works of literature. Among their initial publications were French author Émile Augier's "Four Plays", Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol's "Taras Bulba", Polish novelist Stanisław Przybyszewski's novel "Homo Sapiens", and French writer Guy de Maupassant's "Yvette, a Novelette, and Ten Other Stories". During World War I these books were cheap to obtain and helped establish Knopf as an American firm publishing European works. Their first bestseller was a new edition of "Green Mansions", a novel by W. H. Hudson which went through nine printings by 1919 and sold over 20,000 copies. Their first original American novel, "The Three Black Pennys" by Joseph Hergesheimer, was published in 1917.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: With the start of the 1920s Knopf began using innovative advertising techniques to draw attention to their books and authors. Beginning in 1920, Knopf produced a chapbook, for the purpose of promoting new books. was published periodically over the years, the first being a hardback called the Borzoi and sometimes quarterly as the Borzoi Quarterly. For Floyd Dell's coming-of-age novel, "Moon-Calf", they paid men to walk the streets of the financial and theatre districts dressed in artist costumes with sandwich boards. The placards had a copy of the book for browsing and directed interested buyers to local book shops.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: The unique look of their books along with their expertise in advertising their authors drew Willa Cather to leave her previous publisher Houghton Mifflin to join Alfred A. Knopf. As she was still under contract for her novels, the Knopfs suggested publishing a collection of her short stories, "Youth and the Bright Medusa" in 1920. Cather was pleased with the results and the advertisement of the book in "The New Republic" and would go on to publish sixteen books with Knopf including their first Pulitzer prize winner, "One of Ours".


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: Before they had married, Alfred had promised Blanche that they would be equal partners in the publishing company, but it was clear by the company's fifth anniversary that this was not to be the case. Knopf published a celebratory 5th anniversary book in which Alfred was the focus of anecdotes by authors and Blanche's name was only mentioned once to note that "Mrs. Knopf" had found a manuscript. This despite ample evidence from authors and others that Blanche was in fact the soul of the company. This was covered extensively in "The Lady with the Borzoi" by Laura Claridge.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: In 1923 Knopf also started publishing periodicals, beginning with "The American Mercury", founded by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan, which it published through 1934.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: 1923 also marked the year that Knopf published Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet". Knopf had published Gibran's earlier works which had disappointing sales. In its first year, "The Prophet" only sold 1,159 copies. It would double sales the next year and keep doubling becoming one of the firm's most successful books. In 1965 the book sold 240,000 copies.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: Approaching it's 100 year anniversary in 2023 The Prophet has been translated into over 100 Languages and to date has never gone out of print for Knopf.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: In the 1920s, Knopf sometimes withdrew or censored their books when threatened by John Sumner, such as Floyd Dell's "Janet March" or George Egerton's 1899 translation of "Hunger".


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: Samuel Knopf died in 1932. William A. Koshland joined the company in 1934, and worked with the firm for more than fifty years, rising to take the positions of president and chairman of the board. Blanche became president in 1957 when Alfred became chairman of the board, and worked steadily for the firm until her death in 1966. Alfred Knopf retired in 1972, becoming chairman emeritus of the firm until his death in 1984. Alfred Knopf also had a summer home in Purchase, New York.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: Following the Good Neighbor policy, Blanche Knopf visited South America in 1942, so the firm could start producing texts from there. She was one of the first publishers to visit Europe after World War II. Her trips, and those of other editors, brought in new writers from Europe, South America, and Asia. Alfred traveled to Brazil in 1961, which spurred a corresponding interest on his part in South America. Penn Publishing Company was acquired in 1943. The Knopfs' son, Alfred "Pat" Jr., was hired on as secretary and trade books manager after the war.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: In 1952, editor Judith Jones joined Knopf as an editor. Jones, who had discovered "Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl" while working at Doubleday, acquired Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" for Knopf. Jones would remain with Knopf, retiring in 2011 as a senior editor and vice-president after a career that included working with John Updike and Anne Tyler.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: Pat Knopf left his parents' publishing company in 1959 to launch his own, Atheneum Publishers, with two other partners. The story made the front page of "The New York Times".


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: In a 1957 advertisement in "The Atlantic Monthly", Alfred A. Knopf published the Borzoi Credo. The credo includes a list of what Knopf's beliefs for publishing including the statement that he never published an unworthy book. Among a list of beliefs listed is the final one—"I believe that magazines, movies, television, and radio will never replace good books."


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: In 1960 Random House acquired Alfred A. Knopf. It is believed that the decision to sell was prompted by Alfred A. Knopf Jr., leaving Knopf to found his own book company, Atheneum Books, in 1959.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: Since its founding, Knopf has paid close attention to design and typography, employing notable designers and typographers including William Addison Dwiggins, Harry Ford, Steven Heller, Chip Kidd, Lorraine Louie, Peter Mendelsund, Bruce Rogers, Rudolf Ruzicka, and Beatrice Warde. Knopf books conclude with an unnumbered page titled "A Note on the Type", which describes the history of the typeface used for the book. In addition, Knopf books date the year of the book's current printing on the title page.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: Knopf published textbooks until 1988, when Random House's schools and colleges division was sold to McGraw Hill.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: In 1991, Knopf revived the "Everyman's Library" series, originally published in England in the early 20th century. This series consists of classics of world literature in affordable hardcover editions. The series has grown over the years to include lines of "Children's Classics" and "Pocket Poets".


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: Random House was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998. In late 2008 and early 2009, the Knopf Publishing Group merged with Doubleday to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Random House has been owned since its 2013 merger of Penguin Group by Penguin Random House, a joint venture between Bertelsmann (53%) and Pearson PLC (47%).


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: Many of Knopf's hardcover books are published later as Vintage paperbacks. Vintage Books is a sister imprint of Random House.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: In October 2012, Bertelsmann entered into talks with rival conglomerate Pearson plc, over the possibility of combining their respective publishing companies, Random House and Penguin Group. The merger was completed on 1 July 2013 and the new company is Penguin Random House. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the joint venture while Pearson owns 47%. At the time of the acquisition the combined companies controlled 25% of the book business, with more than 10,000 employees and 250 independent publishing imprints and with about $3.9 billion in annual revenues. The move to consolidate was to provide leverage against Amazon.com and battle the shrinking state of bookstores.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: In 2015, Knopf celebrated its 100th anniversary by publishing a commemorative book, "Alfred A. Knopf, 1915–2015: A Century of Publishing."


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: While there have been many notable editors at Knopf there have only been four editors-in-chief: Alfred A. Knopf, Sr., Robert Gottlieb, Sonny Mehta (who died in 2019) and Reagan Arthur. Other influential editors at Knopf included Harold Strauss (Japanese literature), Herbert Weinstock (biography of musical composers), Judith Jones (culinary texts), Peter Mendelsund (art director and book cover designer) as well as Angus Cameron, Charles Elliott, Gary Fisketjon, Lee Goerner, Ashbel Green, Carol Brown Janeway, Michael Magzis, Anne McCormick, Nancy Nicholas, Daniel Okrent, Regina Ryan, Sophie Wilkins, and Victoria Wilson. Knopf also employed literary scouts to good advantage.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: Alfred A. Knopf has published thousands of books from thousands of authors, including Albert Camus, John Banville, Carl Bernstein, Elizabeth Bowen, Frederick Buechner, Robert Caro, Willa Cather, Julia Child, Bill Clinton, Miguel Covarrubias, Joan Didion, Bret Easton Ellis, James Ellroy, Martin Gardner, Kahlil Gibran, Lee H. Hamilton, Kazuo Ishiguro, John Keegan, Anne Rice, Nella Larsen, Jack London, Gabriel García Márquez, Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, Christopher Paolini, Edgar Allan Poe, Ezra Pound, Dorothy Richardson, Stephen M. Silverman, Oswald Spengler, Susan Swan, Anne Tyler, Andrew Vachss, James D. Watson, and Elinor Wylie.


title: Alfred A. Knopf

text: The logo for Knopf is a Russian wolfhound or Borzoi. Blanche Knopf suggested the Borzoi for the logo to imply motion and the logo was used on both the spine and the title page of their books.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo (; born 17 January 1973) is a Mexican politician and former professional footballer who is the current Governor of Morelos under the coalition "Juntos Haremos Historia". He formerly served as the municipal president of Cuernavaca, Morelos. As a footballer, Blanco was known for his attacking ability and played most of his career as a deep-lying forward and his last years as an attacking midfielder. Blanco is considered to be one of the greatest Mexican footballers of all time, as well as one of the best penalty takers of all time.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco was born in Mexico City, in the district of Tlatilco, but grew up in Tepito. Born to Faustino Blanco and Hortensia Bravo, he was named after the last Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc, in which the name means "one who has descended like an eagle".


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco started his career with América in 1992, where he won various awards, both team-based and individual, and had various loan stints with Necaxa, Spanish club Real Valladolid, and Veracruz. In 2007, he joined the Chicago Fire, with a loan stint with Santos Laguna for the 2008 Apertura championship. In 2010, he returned to Mexico to trek throughout various teams, joining Veracruz again, Irapuato, Dorados, and Puebla-based teams Lobos BUAP and Puebla, where he retired with the latter in 2015. The following year, he came out of retirement to officially end his career with América.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Having played most of his career in América, with 333 appearances and 135 goals, Blanco has become an idol to the club's supporters and an important figure in the history of the team.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco made his debut in the Mexican Primera División in 1992 at the age of 19 with América. He won his first Golden Boot with 16 goals in the Winter 1998 season for "Las Aguilas". He was loaned for Winter 1997 and Summer 1998 at Necaxa, in which he scored 13 goals in 28 appearances. Blanco was later loaned to Real Valladolid of La Liga for the 2000–01 season. However, he suffered a broken leg while on international duty which kept out of the side for six months. Blanco returned to Valladolid for another loan spell the following season, but he struggled with homesickness and regaining his form. He had a knack for scoring great goals in La Liga, with most notable, a free-kick against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, he returned to Mexico.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco spent the 2004 Apertura season with Veracruz, where they ended up winning their group, but were defeated in the playoffs by UNAM. Blanco was a popular player during his time there. In May 2005, Blanco won his first club championship as a player, leading Club América to its tenth league title, when Club América defeated U.A.G. by an aggregate score of 7–4 (1–1, 6–3). In the next three consecutive years between 2005 and 2007, he was awarded the MVP.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: On 2 April 2007, Blanco ventured on to Major League Soccer in the United States and signed with Chicago Fire. He was welcomed by 5,000 fans at Toyota Park as he conducted interviews with the media, signed autographs and greeted with fans.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: He was later voted as a finalist for both the MVP and Newcomer of the Year awards in 2007. Blanco was the 2007 Goal of the Year winner, for his goal against Real Salt Lake.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco was the second-highest paid player in Major League Soccer, after LA Galaxy midfielder David Beckham, earning $2.7 million a year. Once again, he was a finalist for the MVP of the year award.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: On 24 July 2008, in the All-Stars Game against West Ham United, Blanco won the MVP award with one assist and one goal, a game in which he only played 46 minutes. The MLS All-stars won 3–2.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: On 19 November 2008, it was announced that Santos Laguna signed Blanco on a loan to play only for the Apertura 2008 championship, after the injury of their Ecuadorian striker Christian Benítez. Blanco was formally presented to the press the next day, wearing the number 9 jersey, and stated that he looked forward to giving Santos a back-to-back championship. On 29 November 2008, Blanco scored his first goal with Santos, a penalty in the second leg of the championship quarter-finals against San Luis.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: In October 2009, Blanco announced he would not be renewing his contract with Chicago Fire and would instead sign with Veracruz of the Ascenso MX beginning in January 2010. However, after 6 months with Veracruz he left for Irapuato. Led by Blanco, Irapuato won the 2011 Clausura, but the team failed to advance to the Primera División, losing to Tijuana in the promotional final.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: In December 2011, Blanco joined Dorados de Sinaloa of Liga de Ascenso. During Apertura 2012, Blanco won the Copa MX with Dorados. Despite Blanco announcing he would retire after the end of 2012, he changed his mind and played for another six months with Dorados. However, after the tournament ended, he did not renew his contract and was released from the team in June 2013.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco signed for Lobos BUAP for the Apertura 2013 Liga de Ascenso season. After one year with the club, he did not renew his contract with BUAP and was released from the club at the end of the season, in which the club failed to qualify for the play-offs.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: After considering retirement, Blanco signed with Puebla for one last season in the Liga MX. On 21 April 2015, he played in the Clausura's Copa MX final against Guadalajara, coming off the bench. Puebla went on to win the cup, and sent Blanco off as a champion in what was supposed to be the final game of his career.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: On 22 February 2016, a month into his political career, it was announced that Blanco would participate in an official Liga MX match during the Week 9 of Clausura 2016 for the club that started his career, Club América. It would allow him to officially end his career, while playing for the club. On 5 March, Blanco started the match wearing a number 100 jersey, and played 36 minutes for América at the Estadio Azteca in a match against Morelia, before being replaced by Darwin Quintero. During the match, Blanco demonstrated his signature move the "Cuauhtemiña", and had two shots on goal, one of which hit the crossbar from the outside of the penalty box. The match was eventually won by América, 4–1.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco represented Mexico from 1995 to 2010 (with a special appearance in 2014). He was capped 120 times, and scored 38 goals; he is the third highest goalscorer for his country. He is the only Mexican to have won Confederations Cup awards, being awarded the Silver Ball and Silver Boot at the 1999 Confederations Cup after a first-place finish on home soil, until Oswaldo Sanchez's Golden Glove award in 2005. In 2010, he became the first Mexican to score at three World Cup tournaments, a feat later equalled by Rafael Márquez and Javier Hernández, appearing in the 1998, 2002, and 2010 editions of the tournament.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco made his debut with the senior national team under Bora Milutinovic in a friendly match against Uruguay on 1 February 1995. Blanco has played for Mexico at three World Cups; he was part of the squad at France 1998, Korea-Japan 2002 and South Africa 2010. He was also a member of the team that won the Confederations Cup in 1999 where he was the tournament's leading scorer with six goals, including the winning goal at the Estadio Azteca against Brazil in the final. He was awarded the "Silver Shoe" and "Silver Ball" for outstanding player of the tournament. Blanco holds the record along with Brazilian Ronaldinho as the highest scoring players in the Confederations Cup with nine goals, three in 1997 and six in 1999.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: In the selection for the final 23-man squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, then national team coach Ricardo La Volpe left Blanco out of the team. While the ostensible reason given was that Blanco was frequently injured and not in good form, some people considered this to be a consequence of the previous year's constant bickering, due to on-going personal problems between coach and player.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco became part of the squad that played the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, scoring one penalty goal, and the 2007 Copa América, where he scored 2 goals also from penalty kicks. On 13 September 2008, he earned his 100th cap for his country in its 2–1 World Cup qualifier victory over Canada at Tuxtla Gutiérrez, coming on with only 15 seconds left in regulation time. After the match, he announced his retirement from international football.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco announced his return to the national team in May 2009. He became a regular member of returning coach Javier Aguirre's squad, playing in all the games throughout the Hexagonal of the World Cup Qualifying. Since then, Blanco has become an important factor in Mexico's team regaining form and confidence.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: On 10 October 2009, Blanco provoked the first opposition own goal and scored the second goal in a 4–1 victory over El Salvador to help Mexico clinch a spot in the 2010 World Cup. On 17 June 2010, he scored a penalty in the 78th minute of the 2–0 win against France at the World Cup's second round of group stage matches in South Africa. With this goal he became the first Mexican to score a goal in three World Cup tournaments and the third-oldest goalscorer in World Cup history.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco played a tribute game in 2014 against Israel at the Estadio Azteca, which symbolized his official retirement from international football. Mexico went on to win the match 3–0.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco is considered to be one of the greatest Mexican footballers of all time, as well as one of the best penalty takers of all time, having scored 71 out of 73 penalties in his career, giving him a 97.26% success rate form the spot.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: His brash, aggressive, and confrontative playing style is reflected both on and off the field, pulling ingenious plays and being combative against the press, players, and coaches alike.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco is also remembered for the "Cuauhtemiña", or Blanco Trick, which he performed notably at the 1998 World Cup. In the trick, when two or more opposition players are trying to take the ball from him, he traps the ball between his feet and jumps through the defenders – releasing the ball in the air and landing with it under control as he leaves the opposition players behind. The trick is easy to perform but is eye-catching and has been incorporated as a special skill into the FIFA series of football video games.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco himself has accepted on Mexican television and to the press that his goal celebration is an imitation of the "Archer" celebration created by former Atletico de Madrid striker Kiko Narvaez. In a 2005 interview with Mexican newspaper "El Universal", Blanco explains that while watching a Spanish league game accompanied by his teammate Germán Villa, both players agreed to celebrate their next goal by imitating the "Archer" gesture. In the end, only Blanco did it, and jokingly reprimanded Villa for not keeping his word. However, the Chicago Fire official website claimed that Blanco celebrates scoring a goal by acting like the Prehispanic Tlatoani Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc, "in order to show respect for the Mexican people, and their indigenous Amerindian heritage".


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: Blanco is considered one of the most influential figures in recent Mexican footballing history. Tom Marshall of "ESPN" states "the battles, brawls, "golazos", insults, intensity and passion with which Blanco [...] lived both on and off the pitch, he left a deep imprint on the Mexican game and a colorful story painted by the kind of character arguably lacking at present."


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: In January 2015, Blanco registered as a Social Democratic Party candidate for the municipal presidential elections of the city of Cuernavaca, the capital of the Mexican state of Morelos, and was formally nominated two months later. In the 2015 legislative elections, he won in a closely contested election, narrowly defeating Maricela Velázquez of the incumbent Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). In a subsequent vote recount Blanco was confirmed the winner of the municipal presidential race.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: As municipal president, Blanco struggled with accusations about his residency in the city, allegations that he had accepted a bribe to run for office, and even murder. None of these allegations ever went anywhere. In June 2016, he left the Social Democratic Party and dismissed the secretary of the city council, Roberto Yañez Moreno, which marked the beginning of a dispute between Blanco and the party.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: For the 2018 general elections, the National Regeneration Movement proposed having Senator Rabindranath Salazar Solorio as the candidate under the coalition "Juntos Haremos Historia" for the Governor of Morelos but PES, also part of the coalition, argued Blanco was the better choice for the coalition's candidate. In December 2015, it was determined there would be an internal election to see who would become the candidate for the coalition.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: On 28 January 2018, "Juntos Haremos Historia" presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced Blanco would be the coalition's candidate after winning the nominee process against Senator Rabindranath Salazar Solorio. On 11 March 2018 he formally registered to become candidate for Governor of Morelos and on 2 April 2018, he was separated from his post as municipal president of Cuernavaca, succeeded by Denisse Arizmendi Villegas, in order to formally participate in the gubernatorial elections. Polls indicated he was in the lead.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: On 1 July 2018, he won the 2018 gubernatorial elections by a landslide, becoming the first former footballer to win a state governor election in Mexico. He began his term as Governor on 1 October 2018. His greatest challenges as governor are finding adequate funding for the state university (UAEM) and resolving the high incidence of crime in the state. Only three months into his term, he was already faced with marches denouncing his administration. On 13 February 2019 Blanco formally charged his predecessor, Graco Ramirez, with organized crime, operations with resources of illicit origin, and tax fraud.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: One year into his job as governor, people have begun to doubt Blanco's administration. Politically, he has had disputes with Morena and PT, partners in "Juntos Haremos Historia" that got him elected. He has been promoting PES, which has been dissolved on a national level but remains strong locally. Crime in on the rise, with an increase of 41% in murder, kidnapping 375%, and extorsion 680%. 80 women have been killed, 22 of which have been classified as femicide. On top of that, a tax debt of MXN $302,230 (US$15,800) from his time as a footballer was pardoned by the federal Tax Administration Service. Roberto Soto Pastor, a former collaborator of Graco Ramirezs, has sued Blanco for hiring several members of his family and friends, including: his half-brother Ulises Bravo, sister-in-law Liu León Luna, uncles Carlos Juárez López, Jaime Juárez López, and Armando Shajid Bravo López, and a close friend named Baltazar Jonathan Alegría Mejía. All receive salaries that range from MXN $45,000 to $60,000 (US$2,300 to $3,100) per month. The suit says their hiring is a violation of "Código Penal de Morelos, Artículo 276" (Morelos penal code, Article 276) which prohibits nepotism. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador personally bawled Blanco out for nepotism in a meeting on 11 October. The governor denies allegations of nepotism.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: On 8 January 2020, Arias Consultores released a poll that describes the best and worst governors. Sinaloa governor Quirino Ordaz Coppel is chosen best, while Puebla governor L. Miguel Barbosa Huerta was declared the worst. Cuauhtemoc Blanco was second-to-last at No. 31.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: He was previously married to Marisela Santoyo from 1996 to 2003, with whom he has a son, Cuauhtémoc Jr., born the same year of their wedding. After their separation in 2000, Blanco had an affair with Liliana Lago, which produced a daughter, Bárbara, born in 2002. In 2015, Blanco married Natalia Rezende. The couple have a son named Roberto, born in 2016.


title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco

text: He appeared on the North American front cover of the "FIFA 10" video game along with Frank Lampard and Sacha Kljestan.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: The Companions of the Prophet (; aṣ-ṣaḥāba meaning "the companions", from the verb meaning "accompany", "keep company with", "associate with") were the disciples and followers of Muhammad who saw or met him during his lifetime, while being a Muslim and were physically in his presence. "Al-ṣaḥāba" is definite plural; the indefinite singular is masculine ('), feminine (').


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: Later Islamic scholars accepted their testimony of the words and deeds of Muhammad, the occasions on which the Quran was revealed and other various important matters of Islamic history and practice. The testimony of the companions, as it was passed down through trusted chains of narrators ("isnad"s), was the basis of the developing Islamic tradition. From the traditions ("hadith") of the life of Muhammad and his companions are drawn the Muslim way of life ("sunnah"), the code of conduct ("sharia") it requires, and the jurisprudence ("fiqh") by which Muslim communities should be regulated.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: The two largest Islamic denominations, the Sunni and Shia, take different approaches to weighing the value of the companions' testimonies, have different "hadith" collections and, as a result, have different views about the ṣaḥābah.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: The second generation of Muslims after the ṣaḥāba, born after the death of Muhammad, who knew at least one ṣaḥāba, are called "Tābi'ūn" (also "the successors"). The third generation of Muslims after the "Tābi'ūn", who knew at least one "Tābi", are called "tābi' al-tābi'īn". The three generations make up the "salaf" of Islam.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: In Islam, companions of Muḥammad are classified into categories including the Muhajirun who accompanied Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, the Ansar who lived in Medina, and the Badriyyun who fought at the Battle of Badr.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: Two important groups among the companions are the Muhajirun "migrants", those who had faith in Muhammad when he began to preach in Mecca and who departed with him when he was persecuted there, and the Ansar, the people of Medina who welcomed Muhammad and his companions and stood as their protectors.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: Lists of prominent companions usually run to 50 or 60 names, the people most closely associated with Muhammad. However, there were clearly many others who had some contact with Muhammad and their names and biographies were recorded in religious reference texts such as ibn Sa'd's early "Book of the Major Classes". Al-Qurtubi's "Istīʻāb fī maʻrifat al-Aṣhāb", who died in 1071, consists of 2770 biographies of male and 381 biographies of female ṣaḥābah.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: According to an observation in al-Qastallani's "Al-Muwahib al-Ladunniyyah", an untold number of persons had already converted to Islam by the time Muhammad died. There were 10,000 by the time of the Conquest of Mecca and 70,000 during the Expedition of Tabuk in 630. Some Muslims assert that they were more than 200,000 in number: it is believed that 124,000 witnessed the Farewell Sermon Muhammad delivered after making Farewell Pilgrimage to Mecca.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: The most widespread definition of a companion is someone who met Muhammad, believed in him, and died a Muslim. The Sunni scholar ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d.852 H) said,


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: Anyone who died after rejecting Islam and becoming an apostate is not considered as a companion. Those who saw him but held off believing in him until after his passing are not considered ṣahābah but tābiʻūn.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: According to Sunni scholars, Muslims of the past should be considered companions if they had any contact with Muhammad, and they were not liars or opposed to him and his teachings. If they saw him, heard him, or were in his presence even briefly, they are companions. All companions are assumed to be just ("ʻudul") unless they are proven otherwise; that is, Sunni scholars do not believe that companions would lie or fabricate hadith unless they are proven liars, untrustworthy or opposed to Islam.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: Some Quranic references are important to Sunni Muslim views of the reverence due to all companions; It sometimes admonishes them, as when Aisha, daughter of the first Sunni caliph Abu Bakr and the wife of Muhammad, was accused of infidelity.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: Differing views on the definition of a companion were also influenced by the debate between the Traditionalists and the Muʿtazila with the traditionalists preferring to extend the definition to as many people as possible and the Mu'tazilites preferring to restrict it.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: The Shia as well as some Sunni scholars like Javed Ahmad Ghamidi and Amin Ahsan Islahi state that not every individual who met or had accidentally seen Muhammad can be considered a companion. In their view, the Qurʻan has outlined a high level of faith as one of the distinctive qualities of the ṣaḥābah. Hence, they admit to this list only those individuals who had substantial contact with Muhammad, lived with him, and took part in his campaigns and efforts at proselytizing. In other words, companion is used to refer to sahaba of the prophet who were in a long-term relationship with him and support him in an essential event up to their death.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: In view of such admonitions, the Shia have different views on each ṣaḥābiyy, depending on what they accomplished. They do not accept that the testimony of nearly all ṣaḥābah is an authenticated part of the chain of narrators in a hadith and that not all the ṣaḥābah were righteous just because they saw or were with Muhammad. The Shia further argue that the righteousness of ṣaḥābah can be assessed by their loyalty towards Muhammad's family after his death and they accept hadith from the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt, believing them to be cleansed from sin through their interpretation of the Qurʻan and the hadith of the Cloak.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: Shia Muslims believe that some of the companions are accountable for the loss of the caliphate by Ali's family.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: As verses 30-33 from Al-Aḥzāb, Shias believe their argument that one must discriminate between the virtues of the companions by verses relating to Muhammad's wives.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: The Baháʼí Faith recognises the companions of Muhammad. They are mentioned in the Kitáb-i-Íqán, the primary theological work of the Baháʼí religion.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: According to the "History of the Prophets and Kings", after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Abu Bakr, Umar and Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah and the Anṣār of Medina held consultations and selected Abu Bakr as the first caliph. Then Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf and Uthman, companion and son-in-law of Muhammad and also essential chief of the Banu Umayyah, selected Umar as the second caliph after the death of Abū Bakr and the other Anṣar and Muhajirun accepted him.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: Sunni Muslim scholars classified companions into many categories, based on a number of criteria. The hadith quoted above shows ranks of "ṣaḥābah, tābi'īn," and "tābi' at-tābi'īn." Al-Suyuti recognized eleven levels of companionship.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: The general involvement in military campaign with Muhammad by Sahabah were highlighted by Third generation scholar named Ibn al-Mubarak, that once asked about who is better between Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, who were famous for his piety. Ibn Mubarrak simply responded: ""...dust particles in Muawiyah Nose (while fighting in Hunayn under Muhammad) were better than six hundred Umar (ibn Abd al Aziz)...""


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: Following the consultation of companions about the successor of Muhammad, Shi'i scholars, therefore, deprecate hadith believed to have been transmitted from alleged unjust companions and place much more reliance on hadith believed to have been related by Muhammad's family members and companions who supported Ali. The Shia claim that Muhammad announced his successor during his lifetime at Dawat Zul Asheera then many times during his prophethood and finally at the event of Ghadir Khumm.


title: Companions of the Prophet

text: Shias consider that any hadith where Muhammad is claimed to have absolved all ṣaḥābah from sin is a false report by those who opposed the Ahl al-Bayt.


title: Public sex

text: Public sex is sexual activity that takes place in a public context. It refers to one or more persons performing a sex act in a public place, or in a private place that can be viewed from a public place.


title: Public sex

text: Such a private place may be a back yard, a barn, balcony or a bedroom with the curtains open. Public sex also includes sexual acts in semi-public places where the general public is free to enter, such as shopping malls. Public sex acts can be performed in a car (colloquially called "parking"), on a beach, in a forest, theatre, bus, aeroplane, street, toilet cubicle, or cemetery, besides other locations.


title: Public sex

text: According to a large study in 2008, having sex in a public place is a common fantasy and a significant number of couples or individuals have done so. The fantasy is at times depicted in art or film.


title: Public sex

text: In ancient Greece, it was recorded that Crates of Thebes, the Cynic philosopher, had sexual intercourse with his wife Hipparchia of Maroneia, another Cynic philosopher, in public.


title: Public sex

text: In September 2003, the BBC reported on a "dogging" craze fueled by Internet publicity. Dogging is a British English slang term for engaging in public sex, usually in a car park or country park, while others watch. Dogging has aspects of exhibitionism and voyeurism.


title: Public sex

text: There is some evidence on the Internet that "dogging" has begun to spread to other countries, such as the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Barbados, Brazil, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Poland, and Sweden.


title: Public sex

text: Outdoor public sex purportedly takes place often in parks and beaches in Vancouver and San Francisco. According to the "New York" magazine, public sex occurs frequently in New York City, and is a fantasy common to many people.


title: Public sex

text: Social views related to public sex and sexuality vary greatly between cultures and different times. There are many and varied laws that apply to sex in public, which use a variety of terms such as indecent exposure, public lewdness, gross indecency, and others. In some jurisdictions, an offense is committed only if the participants are seen by others, so that a sex act may occur in a closed toilet cubicle without an offense being committed.


title: Public sex

text: In the United Kingdom, there has been a rise in public sex venues, possibly due to a more relaxed approach to the enforcement of laws relating to public sex since the early 1990s.


title: Public sex

text: In the United Kingdom, the legal status of public sexual acts was considered as part of the "Sexual Offences Act 2003". Section 71 of the Act makes it an offence to engage in sexual activity in a public lavatory. In the United Kingdom public sex comes under laws related to voyeurism, exhibitionism or public displays of sexual behaviour, but public sex law enforcement remains ambiguous. Prosecution is possible for a number of offences under section 5 of the "Public Order Act 1986," exposure under section 66 of the "Sexual Offences Act 2003", or under the common law offence of outraging public decency. The policy of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is that arrests are a last resort and a more gradual approach should be taken in such circumstances.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: The AAI RQ-7 Shadow is an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used by the United States Army, Australian Army, Swedish Army, Turkish Air Force and Italian Army for reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and battle damage assessment. Launched from a trailer-mounted pneumatic catapult, it is recovered with the aid of arresting gear similar to jets on an aircraft carrier. Its gimbal-mounted, digitally stabilized, liquid nitrogen-cooled electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) camera relays video in real time via a C-band line-of-sight data link to the ground control station (GCS).


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: The US Army's 2nd Battalion, 13th Aviation Regiment at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, trains soldiers, Marines, and civilians in the operation and maintenance of the Shadow UAS. The Shadow is operated in the U.S. Army at brigade-level.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: The RQ-7 Shadow is the result of a continued US Army search for an effective battlefield UAS after the cancellation of the Alliant RQ-6 Outrider aircraft. AAI Corporation followed up their RQ-2 Pioneer with the Shadow 200, a similar, more refined UAS. In late 1999, the army selected the Shadow 200 to fill the tactical UAS requirement, redesignating it the RQ-7. Army requirements specified a UAS that used an aviation gasoline engine, could carry an electro-optic/infrared imaging sensor turret, and had a maximum range of 31 miles (50 kilometers) with four-hour, on-station endurance. The Shadow 200 offered at least twice that range. The specifications also dictated that UAS would be able to land in an athletic field.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: The RQ-7 Shadow 200 unmanned aircraft system is of a high-wing, constant chord pusher configuration with a twin-tailboom empennage and an inverted v-tail. The aircraft is powered by a AR741-1101 Wankel engine designed and manufactured by UAV Engines Ltd in the United Kingdom. Onboard electrical systems are powered by a GEC/Plessey 28 volt, direct current, 2 kW generator.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: Currently, the primary load of the aircraft is the Israeli Aircraft Industries POP300 Plug-in Optical Payload which consists of a forward-looking infrared camera, a daytime TV camera with a selectable near-infrared filter and a laser pointer. The aircraft has fixed tricycle landing gear. Takeoffs are assisted by a trailer-mounted pneumatic launcher which can accelerate the 170 kg (375 pound) aircraft to in .


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: Landings are guided by a Tactical Automatic Landing System, developed by the Sierra Nevada Corporation, which consists of a ground-based micro-millimeter wavelength radar and a transponder carried on the aircraft. Once on the ground, a tailhook mounted on the aircraft catches an arresting wire connected to two disk brake drums which can stop the aircraft in less than .


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: The aircraft is part of a larger system which currently uses the M1152-series of Humvees for ground transport of all ground and air equipment. A Shadow 200 system consists of four aircraft, three of which are transported in the Air Vehicle Transporter (AVT). The fourth is transported in a specially designed storage container to be used as a spare. The AVT also tows the launcher.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: The AVT Support Vehicle and trailer contain extra equipment to launch and recover the aircraft, such as the Tactical Automatic Landing System. Maintenance equipment for the aircraft is stored in the Maintenance Section Multifunctional (MSM) vehicle and trailer as well as the M1165 MSM Support Vehicle and its associated trailer.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: Two Humvee-mounted Ground Control Stations (GCS), also part of the Shadow 200 system, control the aircraft in flight. Each station has an associated Ground Data Terminal (GDT), which takes commands generated by the GCS and modulates them into radio waves received by the aircraft in flight. The GDT receives video imagery from the payload, as well as telemetry from the aircraft, and sends this information to the GCS.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: A trailer, towed by the M1165 GCS support vehicle, carries the GDT and houses a 10 kW Tactical Quiet Generator to provide power for its associated GCS. The Shadow 200 system also includes a Portable Ground Control Station (PGCS) and Portable Ground Data Terminal (PGDT), which are stripped-down versions of the GCS and GDT designed as a backup to the two GCSs.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: A fielded Shadow 200 system requires 22 soldiers to operate it. Army modelling indicates that crew workload is highest at takeoff, and second-highest at landing.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: The Shadow is restricted from operating in bad weather conditions, not being meant to fly through rain and with sensors that cannot see through clouds.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: By July 2007, the Shadow platform accumulated 200,000 flight hours, doubling its previous record of 100,000 hours in 13 months. The system then surpassed 300,000 flight hours in April 2008, and by May 2010, the Shadow system had accumulated over 500,000 flight hours. As of 2011, the Shadow had logged over 709,000 hours. The Shadow platform has flown over 37,000 sorties in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan by US Army and Army National Guard units.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: On 6 August 2012, AAI announced that the Shadow had achieved 750,000 flight hours during more than 173,000 missions. More than 900,000 flight hours had been logged by Shadow UAVs by the end of June 2014.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: The Shadow did not see service in the Afghanistan campaign of 2001–2002, but it did fly operational missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The operating conditions in Iraq proved hard on the UAVs, with heat and sand leading to engine failures, resulting in a high-priority effort to find fixes with changes in system technology and operating procedures. Shadow UAS have since flown more than 600,000 combat hours in support of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: In 2007, the United States Marine Corps began to transition from the RQ-2 Pioneer to the RQ-7 Shadow. VMU-1, VMU-2 completed their transition from the RQ-2 to the RQ-7 and ScanEagle while VMU-3 and VMU-4 were activated as Shadow and ScanEagle elements. VMU-3 was activated on 12 September 2008 and VMU-4 conducted its inaugural flight on 28 September 2010 in Yuma, Arizona. In October 2007, VMU-1 became the first Marine Corps squadron to see combat in Iraq. VMU-2 deployed a Shadow detachment to Afghanistan in 2009, with VMU-3 following in January 2010.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: The Navy provided personnel for four Shadow platoons in support of army brigades deployed in Iraq. The first two platoons returned from 6-month tours in Iraq in January and February 2008. The Navy personnel went through the Army's training program at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: The U.S. Army is implementing a plan to reform its aerial scout capabilities by scrapping its fleet of OH-58 Kiowa helicopters from 2015 to 2019 and replacing them with AH-64 Apache attack helicopters teamed with Shadow and MQ-1C Gray Eagle UAVs. Using unmanned assets to scout ahead would put the pilots of manned aircraft out of reach of potential harm. Reformed combat aviation brigades (CAB) would consist of a battalion of 24 Apaches for attack missions and an armed reconnaissance squadron of another 24 Apaches teamed with three Shadow platoons totaling 12 RQ-7s overall; it would also include a Gray Eagle company. The manned-unmanned teaming of Apaches and Unmanned Aircraft (UA) can meet 80 percent of aerial scout requirements.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: On 16 March 2015, the 1st Battalion, 501st Aviation Regiment was reflagged the 3rd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, making it the first of 10 Apache battalions to be converted to a heavy attack reconnaissance squadron by eliminating the Kiowa scout helicopter and having three RQ-7 Shadow platoons organically assigned; the attack battalions will also be aligned with an MQ-1C Gray Eagle company assigned to each division. Moving Shadows from brigade combat team level to the battalions themselves reduces lines of communication, distance issues, and allows operators and pilots to better train and work together.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: In early July 2014, the U.S. Army sent RQ-7 Shadows to Baghdad as part of efforts to protect embassy personnel against Islamic State militant attacks, along with Apache attack helicopters which could use them through manned and unmanned teaming to share information and designate targets.


title: AAI RQ-7 Shadow

text: On 29 July 2018, the U.S. Marine conducted its final launch of the RQ-7B during RIMPAC exercises before retiring it. Since first deploying with Marines to Iraq in October 2007, the aircraft eventually equipped four tactical UAS squadrons, flying some 39,000 hours during 11 operational deployments. The Shadow was replaced by the RQ-21 Blackjack, which was first deployed in 2014.