title: Frankish language

text: However, as already stated above, it may be more accurate to think of these dialects not as early Old Franconian but as Istvaeonic dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic.


title: Frankish language

text: At around 500 AD the Franks probably spoke a range of related dialects and languages rather than a single uniform dialect or language. The language of both government and the Church was Latin.


title: Frankish language

text: During the expansion into France and Germany, many Frankish people remained in the original core Frankish territories in the north (i.e. southern Netherlands, Flanders, a small part of northern France and the adjoining area in Germany centred on Cologne). The Franks united as a single group under Salian Frank leadership around 500 AD. Politically, the Ripuarian Franks existed as a separate group only until about 500 AD, after which they were subsumed into the Salian Franks. The Franks were united, but the various Frankish groups must have continued to live in the same areas, and speak the same dialects, although as a part of the growing Frankish Kingdom.


title: Frankish language

text: There must have been a close relationship between the various Franconian dialects. There was also a close relationship between Old Low Franconian (i.e. Old Dutch) and its neighbouring Old Saxon and Old Frisian languages and dialects to the north and northeast, as well as the related Old English (Anglo-Saxon) dialects spoken in southern and eastern Britain.


title: Frankish language

text: A widening cultural divide grew between the Franks remaining in the north and the rulers far to the south. Franks continued to reside in their original territories and to speak their original dialects and languages. It is not known what they called their language, but it is possible that they always called it "Diets" (i.e. "the people's language"), or something similar.


title: Frankish language

text: Philologists think of Old Dutch and Old West Low Franconian as being the same language. However, sometimes reference is made to a transition from the language spoken by the Salian Franks to Old Dutch. The language spoken by the Salian Franks must have developed significantly during the seven centuries from 200 to 900 AD. At some point the language spoken by the Franks must have become identifiably Dutch. Because Franconian texts are almost non-existent and Old Dutch texts scarce and fragmentary, it is difficult to determine when such a transition occurred, but it is thought to have happened by the end of the 9th century and perhaps earlier. By 900 AD the language spoken was recognisably an early form of Dutch, but that might also have been the case earlier. Old Dutch made the transition to Middle Dutch around 1150. A Dutch-French language boundary came into existence (but this was originally south of where it is today). Even though living in the original territory of the Franks, these Franks seem to have broken with the endonym "Frank" around the 9th century. By this time the Frankish identity had changed from an ethnic identity to a national identity, becoming localized and confined to the modern "Franconia" in Germany and principally to the French province of "Île-de-France".


title: Frankish language

text: The Franks expanded south into Gaul. Although the Franks would eventually conquer almost all of Gaul, speakers of Old Franconian apparently expanded only into northern Gaul in numbers sufficient to have a linguistic effect. For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (Vulgar Latin and Franconian). The language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Eventually, the Franks who had settled more to the south of this area in northern Gaul started adopting the Vulgar Latin of the local population. This Vulgar Latin language acquired the name of the people who came to speak it (Frankish or "Français"); north of the French-Dutch language boundary, the language was no longer referred to as "Frankish" (if it ever was referred to as such) but rather came to be referred to as "Diets", i.e. the "people's language". Urban T. Holmes has proposed that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.


title: Frankish language

text: The Franks also expanded their rule southeast into parts of Germany. Their language had some influence on local dialects, especially for terms relating to warfare.


title: Frankish language

text: However, since the language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, this unification did not lead to the development of a supra-regional variety of Franconian nor a standardized German language. At the same time that the Franks were expanding southeast into what is now southern Germany, there were linguistic changes taking place in the region. The High German consonant shift (or second Germanic consonant shift) was a phonological development (sound change) that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest written records in the High German language were made in the 9th century. The resulting language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with Low Franconian, which for the most part did not experience the shift.


title: Frankish language

text: The set of dialects of the Franks who continued to live in their original territory in Germany eventually developed in three different ways and eventually formed three modern branches of Franconian languages.


title: Frankish language

text: The Frankish Empire later extended throughout neighbouring France and Germany. The language of the Franks had some influence on the local languages (especially in France), but did not develop into the standard language or lingua franca.


title: Frankish language

text: The Franks conquered adjoining territories of Germany (including the territory of the Allemanni). The Frankish legacy survives in these areas, for example, in the names of the city of Frankfurt and the area of Franconia.


title: Frankish language

text: The Franks brought their language with them from their original territory and, as in France, it must have had an effect on the local dialects and languages. However, it is relatively difficult for linguists today to determine what features of these dialects are due to Frankish influence, because the latter was in large part obscured, or even overwhelmed, by later developments.


title: Frankish language

text: Most French words of Germanic origin came from Frankish, often replacing the Latin word which would have been used. It is estimated that modern French took approximately 1000 stem words from Old Franconian. Many of these words were concerned with agriculture (e.g. "garden"), war (e.g. "war") or social organization (e.g. "baron"). Old Franconian has introduced the modern French word for the nation, France (Francia), meaning "land of the Franks". According to one hypothesis, the name for the Paris region, Île-de-France was also given by the Franks.


title: Frankish language

text: The influence of Franconian on French is decisive for the birth of the early Langue d'oïl compared to the other Romance languages, that appeared later such as Langue d'oc, Romanian, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, etc., because its influence was greater than the respective influence of Visigothic and Lombardic (both Germanic languages) on the "langue d'oc", the Romance languages of Iberia, and Italian. Not all of these loanwords have been retained in modern French. French has also passed on words of Franconian origin to other Romance languages, and to English.


title: Frankish language

text: Old Franconian has also left many etyma in the different Northern Langues d'oïls such as Picard, Champenois, Bas-Lorrain and Walloon, more than in Common French, and not always the same ones.


title: Frankish language

text: See below a non-exhaustive list of French words of Frankish origin. An asterisk prefixing a term indicates a reconstructed form of the Frankish word. Most Franconian words with the phoneme "w" changed it to "gu" when entering Old French and other Romance languages; however, the northern langue d'oïl dialects such as Picard, Northern Norman, Walloon, Burgundian, Champenois and Bas-Lorrain retained the [w] or turned it into [v]. Perhaps the best known example is the Franconian *"werra" ("war" < Old Northern French "werre", compare Old High German "werre" "quarrel"), which entered modern French as "guerre" and "guerra" in Italian, Occitan, Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese. Other examples include "gant" ("gauntlet", from *"want") and "garder" ("to guard", from *"wardōn"). Franconian words starting with "s" before another consonant developed it into "es"- (e.g. Franconian "skirm" and Old French "escremie" > Old Italian "scrimia" > Modern French "escrime").


title: Frankish language

text: Franconian speech habits are also responsible for the replacement of Latin "cum" ("with") with "od" ← "apud" "at", then with "avuec" ← "apud hoc" "at it" ≠ Italian, Spanish "con") in Old French (Modern French "avec"), and for the preservation of Latin nominative "homo" "man" as an impersonal pronoun: cf. "homme" ← "hominem" "man (accusative)" and Old French "hum, hom, om" → modern "on", "one" (compare Dutch "man" "man" and "men", "one").


title: Frankish language

text: Middle English also adopted many words with Franconian roots from Old French; e.g. "random" (via Old French "randon", Old French verb "randir", from "*rant" "a running"), "standard" (via Old French "estandart", from "*standhard" "stand firm"), "scabbard" (via Anglo-French *"escauberc", from *"skar-berg"), "grape", "stale", "march" (via Old French "marche", from *"marka") among others.


title: Delicacy

text: A delicacy is usually a rare and expensive food item that is considered highly desirable, sophisticated, or peculiarly distinctive within a given culture. Irrespective of local preferences, such a label is typically pervasive throughout a region. Often this is because of unusual flavors or characteristics or because it is rare or expensive compared to standard staple foods.


title: Delicacy

text: Delicacies vary per different countries, customs and ages. Flamingo tongue was a highly prized dish in ancient Rome, but is not commonly eaten in modern times. Lobsters were considered poverty food in North America until the mid-19th century when they started being treated, as they were in Europe, as a delicacy. Some delicacies are confined to a certain culture, such as fugu in Japan, bird's nest soup (made out of swiftlet nests) in China, and ant larvae (escamoles) in Mexico or refer to specific local products, such as porcino, venison or anchovy.


title: Browser extension

text: A browser extension is a small software module for customizing a web browser. Browsers typically allow a variety of extensions, including user interface modifications, cookie management, ad blocking, and the custom scripting and styling of web pages.


title: Browser extension

text: Browser plug-ins are a separate type of module. The main difference is that extensions are distributed as source code, while plug-ins are distributed as executables (i.e. object code). Plug-ins are no longer supported by the major browsers, but extensions are widely used. The most popular browser, Google Chrome, has over 100,000 extensions available but stopped supporting plug-ins in 2020.


title: Browser extension

text: Internet Explorer was the first major browser to support extensions, with the release of version 4 in 1999. Firefox has supported extensions since its launch in 2004. Opera began supporting extensions in 2009, and both Google Chrome and Safari did so the following year. Microsoft Edge added extension support in 2016.


title: Browser extension

text: In 2015, a community working group formed under the W3C to create a single standard application programming interface (API) for browser extensions. While that goal is unlikely to be achieved, the majority of browsers already use the same or very similar APIs due to the popularity of Google Chrome.


title: Browser extension

text: Chrome was the first browser with an extension API based solely on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Beta testing for this capability began in 2009, and the following year Google opened the Chrome Web Store. As of June 2012, there were 750 million total installations of extensions and other content hosted on the store. In the same year, Chrome overtook Internet Explorer as the world's most popular browser, and its market share continued to grow, reaching 60% in 2018.


title: Browser extension

text: Because of Chrome's success, Microsoft created a very similar extension API for its Edge browser, with the goal of making it easy for Chrome extension developers to port their work to Edge. But after three years Edge still had a disappointingly small market share, so Microsoft rebuilt it as a Chromium-based browser. (Chromium is Google's open-source project that serves as the functional core of Chrome and many other browsers.) Now that Edge has the same API as Chrome, extensions can be installed directly from the Chrome Web Store.


title: Browser extension

text: With its own market share in decline, Mozilla also decided to conform. In 2015, the organization announced that the long-standing XUL and XPCOM extension capabilities of Firefox would be replaced with a less-permissive API very similar to Chrome's. This change was enacted in 2017. Firefox extensions are now largely compatible with their Chrome counterparts.


title: Browser extension

text: Until 2020, Apple was the lone major exception to this trend, but with the release of Safari 14 for macOS, the browser added support for extensions conforming to the Chrome API. The following year, extensions were enabled in the iOS version for the first time.


title: Browser extension

text: Browser extensions typically have access to sensitive data, such as browsing history, and they have the ability to alter some browser settings, add user interface items, or replace website content. As a result, there have been instances of malware, so users need to be cautious about what extensions they install.


title: Browser extension

text: There have also been cases of applications installing browser extensions without the user's knowledge, making it hard for the user to uninstall the unwanted extension.


title: Browser extension

text: Some Google Chrome extension developers have sold their extensions to third-parties who then incorporated adware. In 2014, Google removed two such extensions from the Chrome Web Store after many users complained about unwanted pop-up ads. The following year, Google acknowledged that about five percent of visits to its own websites had been altered by extensions with adware.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: Fascist symbolism is the use of certain images and symbols which are designed to represent aspects of fascism. These include national symbols of historical importance, goals, and political policies. The best-known are the fasces, which was the original symbol of fascism, and the swastika of Nazism.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: Organized fascist movements have militarist-appearing uniforms for their members; use historical national symbols as symbols of their movement; and use orchestrated rallies for propaganda purposes. Fascist movements are led by a "Leader" (e.g. "Duce", "Führer", "Caudillo") who is publicly idolized in propaganda as the nation's saviour. A number of fascist movements use a straight-armed salute.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: The use of symbols, graphics, and other artifacts created by fascist, authoritarian and totalitarian governments has been noted as a key aspect of their propaganda. Most fascist movements adopted symbols of Ancient Roman or Greek origin, for example the German use of Roman standards during rallies and the Italian adoption of the "fasces" symbol. The Spanish Falange took its name from the Spanish word for the Greek phalanx.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: Organized fascist movements typically use military-like uniforms with the symbol of their movement on them.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: In Italy, the Italian Fascist movement in 1919 wore black military-like uniforms, and were nicknamed Blackshirts. In power, uniforms during the Fascist era extended to both the party and the military which typically bore "fasces" or an eagle clutching a fasces on their caps or on the left arm section of the uniform.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: In Germany, the fascist Nazi movement was similar to the Italian Fascists in that they initially used a specifically colored uniform for their movement, the tan-brown colored uniform of the SA paramilitary group earned the group and the Nazis themselves the nickname of the Brownshirts. The Nazis used the swastika for their uniforms and copied the Italian Fascists' uniforms, with an eagle clutching a wreathed swastika instead of a fasces, and a Nazi flag arm sash on the left arm section of the uniform for party members.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: Other fascist countries largely copied the symbolism of the Italian Fascists and German Nazis for their movements. Like them, their uniforms looked typically like military uniforms with Nationalist type insignia of the movement. The Spanish Falange adopted dark blue shirts for their party members, symbolizing Spanish workers, many of whom wore blue shirts. Berets were also used, representing their Carlist supporters. The Spanish Blue Division expeditionary volunteers sent to the Eastern Front of WWII in (relatively indirect) support of the Germans likewise wore blue shirts, berets and their army trousers.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: Fascist governments often saw the need to change the heraldry of their nations; in Germany, the arms of Coburg, featuring the head of Saint Maurice, was looked down upon for its religious and un-Aryan nature. It was replaced in 1934 with a coat of arms featuring a sword and swastika. Thuringia also saw the need to support the Nazi regime by adding a swastika to the paws of the lion on its coat of arms. In Italy, the chief of a coat of arms is often used to indicate political allegiance. Under the government of Mussolini, many families and locales adopted a red chief charged with a fasces to indicate allegiance to the National Fascist Party; this chief was called the "capo del littorio". Francisco Franco, Chief of State of Francoist Spain, used a personal coat of arms featuring the Royal Band of Castile, a heraldic symbol used by the Crown of Castile.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: The original symbol of fascism in Italy under Benito Mussolini was the fasces. This is an ancient Imperial Roman symbol of power carried by lictors in front of magistrates; a bundle of sticks featuring an axe, indicating the power over life and death. Before the Italian Fascists adopted the fasces, the symbol had been used by Italian political organizations of various political ideologies, called "Fasci" ("leagues") as a symbol of strength through unity.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: Italian Fascism utilized the color black as a symbol of their movement, black being the color of the uniforms of their paramilitaries, known as Blackshirts. The blackshirt derived from Italy's daredevil elite shock troops known as the "Arditi", soldiers who were specifically trained for a life of violence and wore unique blackshirt uniforms. The colour black, as used by the Arditi, symbolized death.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: Other symbols used by the Italian Fascists included the "aquila", the Capitoline Wolf, and the SPQR motto, each related to Italy's ancient Roman cultural history, which the Fascists attempted to resurrect.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: The nature of German fascism, as encapsulated in Nazism was similar to Italian Fascism ideologically and borrowed symbolism from the Italian Fascists such as the use of mass rallies, the straight-armed Roman salute, and the use of pageantry. Nazism was different from Italian Fascism in that it was officially racist. Its symbol was the swastika, at the time a commonly seen symbol in the world that had experienced a revival in use in the western world in the early 20th century. German völkisch Nationalists claimed the swastika was a symbol of the Aryan race, who they claimed were the foundation of Germanic civilization and were superior to all other races.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: As the Italian Fascists adapted elements of their ethnic heritage to fuel a sense of Nationalism by use of symbolism, so did Nazi Germany. Turn-of-the-century German-Austrian mystic and author Guido von List was a big influence on Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, who introduced various ancient Germanic symbols (filtered through von List's writings) more thoroughly into the SS, including the stylized double Sig Rune (von List's then-contemporary Armanen rune version of the ancient "sowilo" rune) for the organization itself.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: The black-white-red tricolor of the German Empire was utilized as the color scheme of the Nazi flag. The color brown was the identifying color of Nazism (and fascism in general), due to its being the color of the SA paramilitaries (also known as Brownshirts).


title: Fascist symbolism

text: Other historical symbols that were already in use by the German Army to varying degrees prior to the Nazi Germany, such as the Wolfsangel and Totenkopf, were also used in a new, more industrialized manner on uniforms and insignia.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: Although the swastika was a popular symbol in art prior to the regimental use by Nazi Germany and has a long heritage in many other cultures throughout history - and although many of the symbols used by the Nazis were ancient or commonly used prior to the advent of Nazi Germany - because of association with Nazi use, the swastika is often considered synonymous with Nazism and some of the other symbols still carry a negative post-World War II stigma in Western countries, to the point where some of the symbols are banned from display altogether.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: The fascist Falange in Spain utilized the yoke and arrows as their symbol. It historically served as the symbol of the shield of the monarchy of Ferdinand and Isabella and subsequent Catholic monarchs, representing a united Spain and the "symbol of the heroic virtues of the race". The original uniform of the "Falangistas" was the blue shirt – derived from the blue overalls of industrial workers – which was later combined with the red beret of the Carlists to represent their merger by Franco.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: Several Polish far-right and nationalist organizations have used the "Mieczyk Chrobrego" ([Boleslaus] the Brave's Sword), which resembles the Szczerbiec, or the coronation sword of Polish kings. The same organisations have used the "falanga sword", a symbol associated with the extreme right in the country after "Mieczyk Chrobrego" was banned; most notably it is used by the ONR and NOP as their main identifying symbols. Among other symbols Toporzeł is also used, a symbol with strong anti-Semitic connotations.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: Many other fascist movements did not win power or were relatively minor regimes in comparison and their symbolism is not well-remembered today in many parts of the world, although the BUF's Flash and Circle was later used by the non-fascist People's Action Party of Singapore.


title: Fascist symbolism

text: Some neo-Nazi organizations continue to use the swastika, but many have moved away from such inflammatory symbols of early fascism. Some neo-fascist groups use symbols that are reminiscent of the swastika or other cultural or ancestral symbols that may evoke nationalistic sentiment but do not carry the same racist connotations.


title: Blood donation

text: A blood donation occurs when a person voluntarily has blood drawn and used for transfusions and/or made into biopharmaceutical medications by a process called fractionation (separation of whole blood components). Donation may be of whole blood, or of specific components directly (apheresis). Blood banks often participate in the collection process as well as the procedures that follow it.


title: Blood donation

text: Today in the developed world, most blood donors are unpaid volunteers who donate blood for a community supply. In some countries, established supplies are limited and donors usually give blood when family or friends need a transfusion (directed donation). Many donors donate for several reasons, such as a form of charity, general awareness regarding the demand for blood, increased confidence in oneself, helping a personal friend or relative, and social pressure. Despite the many reasons that people donate, not enough potential donors actively donate. However, this is reversed during disasters when blood donations increase, often creating an excess supply that will have to be later discarded. In countries that allow paid donation some people are paid, and in some cases there are incentives other than money such as paid time off from work. People can also have blood drawn for their own future use (autologous donation). Donating is relatively safe, but some donors have bruising where the needle is inserted or may feel faint.


title: Blood donation

text: Potential donors are evaluated for anything that might make their blood unsafe to use. The screening includes testing for diseases that can be transmitted by a blood transfusion, including HIV and viral hepatitis. The donor must also answer questions about medical history and take a short physical examination to make sure the donation is not hazardous to their health. How often a donor can donate varies from days to months based on what component they donate and the laws of the country where the donation takes place. For example, in the United States, donors must wait 56 days (eight weeks) between whole-blood donations but only seven days between platelet apheresis donations and twice per seven-day period in plasmapheresis.


title: Blood donation

text: The amount of blood drawn and the methods vary. The collection can be done manually or with automated equipment that takes only specific components of the blood. Most of the components of blood used for transfusions have a short shelf life, and maintaining a constant supply is a persistent problem. This has led to some increased interest in autotransfusion, whereby a patient's blood is salvaged during surgery for continuous reinfusion—or alternatively, is self-donated prior to when it will be needed. Generally, the notion of donation does not refer to giving to one's self, though in this context it has become somewhat acceptably idiomatic.


title: Blood donation

text: Charles Richard Drew (1904–1950) was an American surgeon and medical researcher. He researched in the field of blood transfusions, developing improved techniques for blood storage, and applied his expert knowledge to developing large-scale blood banks early in World War II. This allowed medics to save thousands of lives of the Allied forces. As the most prominent African American in the field, Drew protested against the practice of racial segregation in the donation of blood, as it lacked scientific foundation, and resigned his position with the American Red Cross, which maintained the policy until 1950.


title: Blood donation

text: Blood donations are divided into groups based on who will receive the collected blood. An 'allogeneic' (also called 'homologous') donation is when a donor gives blood for storage at a blood bank for transfusion to an unknown recipient. A 'directed' donation is when a person, often a family member, donates blood for transfusion to a specific individual. Directed donations are relatively rare when an established supply exists. A 'replacement donor' donation is a hybrid of the two and is common in developing countries. In this case, a friend or family member of the recipient donates blood to replace the stored blood used in a transfusion, ensuring a consistent supply. When a person has blood stored that will be transfused back to the donor at a later date, usually after surgery, that is called an 'autologous donation'. Blood that is used to make medications can be made from allogeneic donations or from donations exclusively used for manufacturing.


title: Blood donation

text: Blood is sometimes collected using similar methods for therapeutic phlebotomy, similar to the ancient practice of bloodletting, which is used to treat conditions such as hereditary hemochromatosis or polycythemia vera. This blood is sometimes treated as a blood donation, but may be immediately discarded if it cannot be used for transfusion or further manufacturing.


title: Blood donation

text: The actual process varies according to the laws of the country, and recommendations to donors vary according to the collecting organization. The World Health Organization gives recommendations for blood donation policies, but in developing countries many of these are not followed. For example, the recommended testing requires laboratory facilities, trained staff, and specialized reagents, all of which may not be available or too expensive in developing countries.


title: Blood donation

text: An event where donors come to donate allogeneic blood is sometimes called a 'blood drive' or a 'blood donor session'. These can occur at a blood bank, but they are often set up at a location in the community such as a shopping center, workplace, school, or house of worship.


title: Blood donation

text: Donors are typically required to give consent for the process, and meet a certain criteria such as weight and hemoglobin levels, and this requirement means minors cannot donate without permission from a parent or guardian. In some countries, answers are associated with the donor's blood, but not name, to provide anonymity; in others, such as the United States, names are kept to create lists of ineligible donors. If a potential donor does not meet these criteria, they are 'deferred'. This term is used because many donors who are ineligible may be allowed to donate later. Blood banks in the United States may be required to label the blood if it is from a therapeutic donor, so some do not accept donations from donors with any blood disease. Others, such as the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, accept blood from donors with hemochromatosis. It is a genetic disorder that does not affect the safety of the blood.


title: Blood donation

text: The donor's race or ethnic background is sometimes important since certain blood types, especially rare ones, are more common in certain ethnic groups. Historically, in the United States donors were segregated or excluded on race, religion, or ethnicity, but this is no longer a standard practice.


title: Blood donation

text: Donors are screened for health risks that could make the donation unsafe for the recipient. Some of these restrictions are controversial, such as restricting donations from men who have sex with men (MSM) because of the risk of transmitting HIV. In 2011, the UK (excluding Northern Ireland) reduced its blanket ban on MSM donors to a narrower restriction which only prevents MSM from donating blood if they have had sex with other men within the past year. A similar change was made in the US in late 2015 by the FDA. In 2017, the UK and US further reduced their restrictions to three months. Autologous donors are not always screened for recipient safety problems since the donor is the only person who will receive the blood. Since the donated blood may be given to pregnant women or women of child-bearing age, donors taking teratogenic (birth defect-causing) medications are deferred. These medications include acitretin, etretinate, isotretinoin, finasteride, and dutasteride.


title: Blood donation

text: Donors are examined for signs and symptoms of diseases that can be transmitted in a blood transfusion, such as HIV, malaria, and viral hepatitis. Screening may include questions about risk factors for various diseases, such as travel to countries at risk for malaria or variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD). These questions vary from country to country. For example, while blood centers in Québec and the rest of Canada, Poland, and many other places defer donors who lived in the United Kingdom for risk of vCJD, donors in the United Kingdom are only restricted for vCJD risk if they have had a blood transfusion in the United Kingdom.


title: Blood donation

text: The donor is also examined and asked specific questions about their medical history to make sure that donating blood is not hazardous to their health. The donor's hematocrit or hemoglobin level is tested to make sure that the loss of blood will not make them anemic, and this check is the most common reason that a donor is ineligible. Accepted hemoglobin levels for blood donations, by the American Red Cross, is 12.5g/dL (for females) and 13.0g/dL (for males) to 20.0g/dL, anyone with a higher or lower hemoglobin level cannot donate. Pulse, blood pressure, and body temperature are also evaluated. Elderly donors are sometimes also deferred on age alone because of health concerns. In addition to age, weight and height are important factors when considering the eligibility for donors. For example, the American Red Cross requires a donor to be or more for whole blood and platelet donation and at least (males) and at least (females) for power red donations (double red erythrocytapheresis). The safety of donating blood during pregnancy has not been studied thoroughly, and pregnant women are usually deferred until six weeks after the pregnancy.


title: Blood donation

text: The donor's blood type must be determined if the blood will be used for transfusions. The collecting agency usually identifies whether the blood is type A, B, AB, or O and the donor's Rh (D) type and will screen for antibodies to less common antigens. More testing, including a crossmatch, is usually done before a transfusion. Type O negative is often cited as the "universal donor" but this only refers to red cell and whole blood transfusions. For plasma and platelet transfusions the system is reversed: AB positive is the universal platelet donor type while both AB positive and AB negative are universal plasma donor types.


title: Blood donation

text: Most blood is tested for diseases, including some STDs. The tests used are high-sensitivity screening tests and no actual diagnosis is made. Some of the test results are later found to be false positives using more specific testing. False negatives are rare, but donors are discouraged from using blood donation for the purpose of anonymous STD screening because a false negative could mean a contaminated unit. The blood is usually discarded if these tests are positive, but there are some exceptions, such as autologous donations. The donor is generally notified of the test result.


title: Blood donation

text: Donated blood is tested by many methods, but the core tests recommended by the World Health Organization are these four:


title: Blood donation

text: The WHO reported in 2006 that 56 out of 124 countries surveyed did not use these basic tests on all blood donations.


title: Blood donation

text: A variety of other tests for transfusion transmitted infections are often used based on local requirements. Additional testing is expensive, and in some cases the tests are not implemented because of the cost. These additional tests include other infectious diseases such as West Nile fever and babesiosis. Sometimes multiple tests are used for a single disease to cover the limitations of each test. For example, the HIV antibody test will not detect a recently infected donor, so some blood banks use a p24 antigen or HIV nucleic acid test in addition to the basic antibody test to detect infected donors. Cytomegalovirus is a special case in donor testing in that many donors will test positive for it. The virus is not a hazard to a healthy recipient, but it can harm to infants and other recipients with weak immune systems.


title: Blood donation

text: There are two main methods of obtaining blood from a donor. The most frequent is to simply take the blood from a vein as whole blood. This blood is typically separated into parts, usually red blood cells and plasma, since most recipients need only a specific component for transfusions. A typical donation is 450 millilitres (or approximately one U.S. pint) of whole blood, though 500 millilitre donations are also common. Historically, blood donors in India would donate only 250 or 350 millilitre and donors in the People's Republic of China would donate only 200 millilitres, though larger 300 and 400 millilitre donations have become more common.


title: Blood donation

text: The other method is to draw blood from the donor, separate it using a centrifuge or a filter, store the desired part, and return the rest to the donor. This process is called apheresis, and it is often done with a machine specifically designed for this purpose. This process is especially common for plasma, platelets, and red blood cells.


title: Blood donation

text: For direct transfusions a vein can be used but the blood may be taken from an artery instead. In this case, the blood is not stored, but is pumped directly from the donor into the recipient. This was an early method for blood transfusion and is rarely used in modern practice. It was phased out during World War II because of problems with logistics, and doctors returning from treating wounded soldiers set up banks for stored blood when they returned to civilian life.


title: Blood donation

text: The blood is drawn from a large arm vein close to the skin, usually the median cubital vein on the inside of the elbow. The skin over the blood vessel is cleaned with an antiseptic such as iodine or chlorhexidine to prevent skin bacteria from contaminating the collected blood and also to prevent infections where the needle pierced the donor's skin.


title: Blood donation

text: A large needle (16 to 17 gauge) is used to minimize shearing forces that may physically damage red blood cells as they flow through the needle. A tourniquet is sometimes wrapped around the upper arm to increase the pressure of the blood in the arm veins and speed up the process. The donor may also be prompted to hold an object and squeeze it repeatedly to increase the blood flow through the vein.


title: Blood donation

text: The most common method is collecting the blood from the donor's vein into a container. The amount of blood drawn varies from 200 millilitres to 550 millilitres depending on the country, but 450–500 millilitres is typical. The blood is usually stored in a flexible plastic bag that also contains sodium citrate, phosphate, dextrose, and adenine. This combination keeps the blood from clotting and preserves it during storage up to 42 days. Other chemicals are sometimes added during processing.


title: Blood donation

text: The plasma from whole blood can be used to make plasma for transfusions or it can also be processed into other medications using a process called fractionation. This was a development of the dried plasma used to treat the wounded during World War II and variants on the process are still used to make a variety of other medications.


title: Blood donation

text: Apheresis is a blood donation method where the blood is passed through an apparatus that separates out one particular constituent and returns the remainder to the donor. Usually the component returned is the red blood cells, the portion of the blood that takes the longest to replace. Using this method an individual can donate plasma or platelets much more frequently than they can safely donate whole blood. These can be combined, with a donor giving both plasma and platelets in the same donation.


title: Blood donation

text: Platelets can also be separated from whole blood, but they must be pooled from multiple donations. From three to ten units of whole blood are required for a therapeutic dose. Plateletpheresis provides at least one full dose from each donation.


title: Blood donation

text: During a platelet donation, the blood is drawn from the patient and the platelets are separated from the other blood components. The remainder of the blood, red blood cells, plasma, and white blood cells are returned to the patient. This process is completed several times for a period of up to two hours to collect a single donation.


title: Blood donation

text: Plasmapheresis is frequently used to collect source plasma that is used for manufacturing into medications much like the plasma from whole blood. Plasma collected at the same time as plateletpheresis is sometimes called "concurrent plasma".


title: Blood donation

text: Apheresis is also used to collect more red blood cells than usual in a single donation (commonly known as "double reds") and to collect white blood cells for transfusion.


title: Blood donation

text: Donors are usually kept at the donation site for 10–15 minutes after donating since most adverse reactions take place during or immediately after the donation. Blood centers typically provide light refreshments, such as orange juice and cookies, or a lunch allowance to help the donor recover. The needle site is covered with a bandage and the donor is directed to keep the bandage on for several hours. In hot climates, donors are advised to avoid dehydration (strenuous exercise and games, alcohol) until a few hours after donation.


title: Blood donation

text: Donated plasma is replaced after 2–3 days. Red blood cells are replaced by bone marrow into the circulatory system at a slower rate, on average 36 days in healthy adult males. In one study, the range was 20 to 59 days for recovery. These replacement rates are the basis of how frequently a donor can donate blood.


title: Blood donation

text: Plasmapheresis and plateletpheresis donors can donate much more frequently because they do not lose significant amounts of red cells. The exact rate of how often a donor can donate differs from country to country. For example, plasmapheresis donors in the United States are allowed to donate large volumes twice a week and could nominally donate 83 litres (about 22 gallons) in a year, whereas the same donor in Japan may only donate every other week and could only donate about 16 litres (about 4 gallons) in a year.


title: Blood donation

text: Iron supplementation decreases the rates of donor deferral due to low hemoglobin, both at the first donation visit and at subsequent donations. Iron-supplemented donors have higher hemoglobin and iron stores. On the other hand, iron supplementation frequently causes diarrhea, constipation and epigastric abdominal discomfort. The long-term effects of iron supplementation without measurement of iron stores are unknown.


title: Blood donation

text: Donors are screened for health problems that would put them at risk for serious complications from donating. First-time donors, teenagers, and women are at a higher risk of a reaction.


title: Blood donation

text: One study showed that 2% of donors had an adverse reaction to donation. Most of these reactions are minor. A study of 194,000 donations found only one donor with long-term complications. In the United States, a blood bank is required to report any death that might possibly be linked to a blood donation. An analysis of all reports from October 2008 to September 2009 evaluated six events and found that five of the deaths were clearly unrelated to donation, and in the remaining case they found no evidence that the donation was the cause of death.


title: Blood donation

text: Hypovolemic reactions can occur because of a rapid change in blood pressure. Fainting is generally the worst problem encountered.


title: Blood donation

text: The process has similar risks to other forms of phlebotomy. Bruising of the arm from the needle insertion is the most common concern. One study found that less than 1% of donors had this problem. A number of less common complications of blood donation are known to occur. These include arterial puncture, delayed bleeding, nerve irritation, nerve injury, tendon injury, thrombophlebitis, and allergic reactions.


title: Blood donation

text: Donors sometimes have adverse reactions to the sodium citrate used in apheresis collection procedures to keep the blood from clotting. Since the anticoagulant is returned to the donor along with blood components that are not being collected, it can bind the calcium in the donor's blood and cause hypocalcemia. These reactions tend to cause tingling in the lips, but may cause convulsions, seizure, hypertension, or more serious problems. Donors are sometimes given calcium supplements during the donation to prevent these side effects.


title: Blood donation

text: In apheresis procedures, the red blood cells are returned. If this is done manually and the donor receives the blood from a different donor, a transfusion reaction can take place. Manual apheresis is extremely rare in the developed world because of this risk and automated procedures are as safe as whole blood donations.


title: Blood donation

text: The final risk to blood donors is from equipment that has not been properly sterilized. In most cases, the equipment that comes in direct contact with blood is discarded after use. Re-used equipment was a significant problem in China in the 1990s, and up to 250,000 blood plasma donors may have been exposed to HIV from shared equipment.


title: Blood donation

text: The collected blood is usually stored in a blood bank as separate components, and some of these have short shelf lives. There are no storage methods to keep platelets for extended periods of time, though some were being studied as of 2008. The longest shelf life used for platelets is seven days.


title: Blood donation

text: Red blood cells (RBC), the most frequently used component, have a shelf life of 35–42 days at refrigerated temperatures. For (relatively rare) long-term storage applications, this can be extended by freezing the blood with a mixture of glycerol, but this process is expensive and requires an extremely cold freezer for storage. Plasma can be stored frozen for an extended period of time and is typically given an expiration date of one year and maintaining a supply is less of a problem.


title: Blood donation

text: The American Red Cross states that in the United States, someone needs blood every two seconds, and someone needs platelets every thirty seconds. There is not a consistent demand for each blood type. One type of blood being in stock does not guarantee that another type is. Blood banks may have some units in stock but lack others, ultimately causing the patients that need units for specific blood types to have delayed or canceled procedures. Additionally, every year there is an increase of around 5-7% for transfusions without an increase of donors to balance it as well as a growing population of elderly people that will need more transfusions in the future without a predicted increase in donations to reflect those growing numbers. This was supported in 1998 where blood donations to the Red Cross increased to 8%, totaling 500,000 units but hospitals' need for donations increased by 11%.


title: Blood donation

text: Blood donations tend to always be high in demand with numerous accounts repeatedly stating periodic shortages over the decades. However, this trend is disrupted during national disasters. The trend demonstrates that people are donating the most during catastrophes when, arguably, donations are not as needed compared to periods without disasters. From 1988 to 2013, it has been reported that during every national disaster, there was a surplus of donations; a surplus that consisted of over 100 units. One of the most notable examples of this pattern was the September 11th attacks. A study observed that compared to the four weeks before September 11, there was an estimated increase of 18,700 donations from first-time donors for the first week after the attack: 4,000 was the average of donations from first-time donors before the attack which increased to about 22,700 donations; while repeat donors increased their donations by 10,000 per week: initially, donations were estimated to be around 16,400 which increased to 26,400 donations after September 11. Therefore, in the first week after the attack on 9/11, there was an overall estimated 28,700 increase in donations compared to the average weekly donations made four weeks prior to the attack. Increases in donations were observed in all blood donation centers, beginning on the day of the attack. While blood donations were above average after the first few weeks following 9/11, the number of donations fell from an estimated 49,000 donations in the first week to 26,000–28,000 donations between the second and fourth weeks after 9/11. Despite the substantial increase of donors, the rate that first-time donors would become repeat donors were the same before and after the attack.


title: Blood donation

text: The limited storage time means that it is difficult to have a stockpile of blood to prepare for a disaster. The subject was discussed at length after the September 11 attacks in the United States, and the consensus was that collecting during a disaster was impractical and that efforts should be focused on maintaining an adequate supply at all times. Blood centers in the U.S. often have difficulty maintaining even a three-day supply for routine transfusion demands.


title: Blood donation

text: The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes World Blood Donor Day on 14 June each year to promote blood donation. This is the birthday of Karl Landsteiner, the scientist who discovered the ABO blood group system. The theme of the 2012 World Blood Donor Day campaign, "Every blood donor is a hero" focuses on the idea that everyone can become a hero by giving blood. Based on data reported by 180 countries between 2011 and 2013, the WHO estimated that approximately 112.5 million units of blood were being collected annually.


title: Blood donation

text: In the United States it is estimated that 111 million citizens are eligible blood donors, or 37% of the population. However less than 10% of the 37% eligible blood donors donate annually. In the UK the NHS reports blood donation levels at "only 4%" while in Canada the rate is 3.5%.


title: Blood donation

text: Multiple studies have shown that the main reason people donate is due to selflessness, charity, general awareness regarding the demand for blood, increased confidence in oneself, helping a personal friend/relative, and social pressure. On the other hand, lack of blood donations can occur due to fear, lack of faith in the medical professionals, inconvenience, and the lack of consideration for donating. Pathologist Leo McCarthy states that blood shortages routinely occur between July 4 and Labor day and between Christmas and New Year.


title: Blood donation

text: In patients prone to iron overload, blood donation prevents the accumulation of toxic quantities. Donating blood may reduce the risk of heart disease for men, but the link has not been firmly established and may be from selection bias because donors are screened for health problems.


title: Blood donation

text: Research published in 2012 demonstrated that in patients with metabolic syndrome, repeated blood donation is effective in reducing blood pressure, blood glucose, HbA1c, low-density lipoprotein/high-density lipoprotein ratio, and heart rate.


title: Blood donation

text: A study published in JAMA Network Open tracked PFAS levels in a clinical trial and showed that regular blood or plasma donations resulted in a significant reduction in PFAS levels for the participants.


title: Blood donation

text: The World Health Organization set a goal in 1997 for all blood donations to come from unpaid volunteer donors, but as of 2006, only 49 of 124 countries surveyed had established this as a standard. Some countries, such as Tanzania, have made great strides in moving towards this standard, with 20 percent of donors in 2005 being unpaid volunteers and 80 percent in 2007, but 68 of 124 countries surveyed by WHO had made little or no progress. Most plasmapheresis donors in the United States are still paid for their donations. Donors are now paid between $25 and $50 per donation. In some countries, for example Brazil and the United Kingdom, it is illegal to receive any compensation, monetary or otherwise, for the donation of blood or other human tissues.


title: Blood donation

text: Regular donors are often given some sort of non-monetary recognition. Time off from work is a common benefit. For example, in Italy, blood donors receive the donation day as a paid holiday from work. Blood centers will also sometimes add incentives such as assurances that donors would have priority during shortages, free T-shirts, first aid kits, windshield scrapers, pens, and similar trinkets. There are also incentives for the people who recruit potential donors, such as prize drawings for donors and rewards for organizers of successful drives. Recognition of dedicated donors is common. For example, the Singapore Red Cross Society presents awards for voluntary donors who have made a certain number of donations under the Blood Donor Recruitment Programme starting with a "bronze award" for 25 donations. The government of Malaysia also offers free outpatient and hospitalization benefits for blood donors, for example, 4 months of free outpatient treatment and hospitalization benefits after every donation. In Poland, after donating a specific amount of blood (18 litres for men and 15 for women), a person is gifted with the title of "Distinguished Honorary Blood Donor" as well as a medal. In addition, a popular privilege in larger Polish cities is the right to free use of public transport, but the conditions for obtaining a privilege may vary depending on the city. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many US blood centers advertised free COVID-19 antibody testing as an incentive to donate, however these antibody tests were also useful for blood centers in determining which donors could be flagged for convalescent plasma donations.


title: Blood donation

text: Most allogeneic blood donors donate as an act of charity and do not expect to receive any direct benefit from the donation. The sociologist Richard Titmuss, in his 1970 book "The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy", compared the merits of the commercial and non-commercial blood donation systems of the US and the UK, coming down in favor of the latter. The book became a bestseller in the US, resulting in legislation to regulate the private market in blood. The book is still referenced in modern debates about turning blood into a commodity. The book was republished in 1997 and the same ideas and principles are applied to analogous donation programs, such as organ donation and sperm donation.


title: Virginia Dare

text: Virginia Dare (born August 18, 1587, in Roanoke Colony, date of death unknown) was the first English child born in a New World English colony.


title: Virginia Dare

text: What became of Virginia and the other colonists remains a mystery. The fact of her birth is known because John White, Virginia's grandfather and the governor of the colony, returned to England in 1587 to seek fresh supplies. When White eventually returned three years later, the colonists were gone.


title: Virginia Dare

text: During the past four hundred years, Virginia Dare has become a prominent figure in American myth and folklore, symbolizing different things to different groups of people. She has been featured as a main character in books, poems, songs, comic books, television programs, and films. Her name has been used to sell different types of goods, from vanilla products to soft drinks, as well as wine and spirits. Many places in North Carolina and elsewhere in the Southern United States have been named in her honor.


title: Virginia Dare

text: Virginia Dare was born in the Roanoke Colony in what is now North Carolina in August 1587, the first child of English parents born in the New World. "Elenora, daughter to the governor of the city and wife to Ananias Dare, one of the assistants, was delivered of a daughter in Roanoke".


title: Virginia Dare

text: Little is known of the lives of either of her parents. Her mother Eleanor was born in London around 1563, and was the daughter of John White, the governor of the ill-fated Roanoke Colony. Eleanor married Ananias Dare (born c. 1560), a London tiler and bricklayer, at St Bride's Church on Fleet Street in the City of London. He, too, was part of the Roanoke expedition. Virginia Dare was one of two infants born to the colonists in 1587 and the only female child known to have been born to the settlers.


title: Virginia Dare

text: Nothing else is known of Virginia Dare's life, as the Roanoke Colony did not endure. Virginia's grandfather John White sailed for England for fresh supplies at the end of 1587, having established his colony. Because England's war with Spain brought about a pressing need for ships to defend against the Spanish Armada, he was unable to return to Roanoke until August 18, 1590, by which time he found that the settlement had been long deserted. The buildings had collapsed and "the houses [were] taken down". Worse, White was unable to find any trace of his daughter or granddaughter, or indeed any of the 80 men, 17 women, and 11 children who made up the "Lost Colony".


title: Virginia Dare

text: Nothing is known for certain of the fate of Virginia Dare or her fellow colonists. Governor White found no sign of a struggle or battle. The only clue to the colonists' fate was the word "Croatoan" carved into a post of the fort, and the letters "Cro" carved into a nearby tree. All the houses and fortifications had been dismantled, suggesting that their departure had not been hurried. Before he had left the colony, White had instructed them that, if anything happened to them, they should carve a Maltese cross on a tree nearby, indicating that their disappearance had been forced. There was no cross, and White took this to mean that they had moved to Croatoan Island (now known as Hatteras Island), but he was unable to conduct a search.


title: Virginia Dare

text: There are a number of theories regarding the fate of the colonists, the most widely accepted one being that they sought shelter with local Indian tribes, and either intermarried with the natives or were killed. In 1607, John Smith and other members of the successful Jamestown Colony sought information about the fate of the Roanoke colonists. One report indicated that the survivors had taken refuge with friendly Chesapeake Indians, but Chief Powhatan claimed that his tribe had attacked the group and killed most of the colonists. Powhatan showed Smith certain artifacts that he said had belonged to the colonists, including a musket barrel and a brass mortar and pestle. However, no archaeological evidence exists to support this claim. The Jamestown Colony received reports of some survivors of the Lost Colony and sent out search parties, but none were successful. Eventually they determined that they were all dead.


title: Virginia Dare

text: William Strachey, a secretary of the Jamestown Colony, wrote in "The History of Travel into Virginia Britannia" in 1612 that there were reportedly two-story houses with stone walls at the Indian settlements of Peccarecanick and Ochanahoen. The Indians supposedly learned how to build them from the Roanoke settlers. There were also reported sightings of European captives at various Indian settlements during the same time period. Strachey also wrote that four English men, two boys, and one maid had been sighted at the Eno settlement of Ritanoc, under the protection of a chief called Eyanoco. The captives were forced to beat copper. The captives, he reported, had escaped the attack on the other colonists and fled up the Chaonoke river, the present-day Chowan River in Bertie County, North Carolina.


title: Virginia Dare

text: Virginia Dare has become a prominent figure in American myth and folklore in the more than four hundred years since her birth, representing different things to different people. A 2000 article in the Piedmont (North Carolina) Triad "News and Record" noted that she symbolizes innocence and purity for many Americans (particularly Southerners), "new beginnings, promise, and hope" as well as "adventure and bravery" in a new land. She also symbolizes mystery because of her mysterious fate.


title: Virginia Dare

text: For some residents of North Carolina, she has been an important symbol of the state and symbolizes a desire to keep it predominantly of European descent. In the 1920s, a group in Raleigh that opposed suffrage for women feared that black women would get the vote, urging "that North Carolina remain white ... in the name of Virginia Dare". Today, Virginia Dare's name serves as the inspiration for the VDARE website which is associated with white supremacy, white nationalism, and the alt-right.


title: Virginia Dare

text: Some see Dare as a symbol of women's rights. In the 1980s, feminists in North Carolina called for state residents to approve the Equal Rights Amendment and "Honor Virginia Dare."


title: Virginia Dare

text: There is a memorial to Virginia Dare in St Bride's Church, Fleet Street in the City of London, where her parents were married prior to their journey to Roanoke. The bronze sculpture was created by Clare Waterhouse in 1999. It replaced a marble sculpture of Dare carved by Marjorie Meggit in 1957, which was stolen in 1999 and never recovered.


title: Virginia Dare

text: Virginia's death and the fate of the other colonists were purportedly described in a series of inscribed stones written by Eleanor Dare and others. Most of these were later revealed to be forgeries, with the authenticity of one remaining in dispute.


title: Virginia Dare

text: In 1937, the United States Mint issued a half-dollar commemorative coin that depicted Virginia Dare as the first English child born in the New World. This was also the first time that a child was depicted on United States currency.


title: Virginia Dare

text: Virginia Dare quickly entered into folklore as the first white child born in British America. The fate of Virginia Dare and the Lost Colony has been the subject of many literary, film, and television adaptations, all of which have added to her myth:


title: Virginia Dare

text: Virginia Dare's name has become a tourist attraction for North Carolina. Many locations are named after her, including Dare County, North Carolina; the Virginia Dare Trail, a section of NC 12; Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge, the second, newest, and widest bridge spanning the Croatan Sound connecting Roanoke Island to Manns Harbor, carrying US 64. Residents of Roanoke Island celebrate Virginia Dare's birthday each year with an Elizabethan Renaissance fair. A statue of Virginia as a grown woman, nude and wrapped in a fishnet, is on display in the Elizabethan Gardens on the island. At Smith Mountain Lake, a reservoir in Virginia created by damming the Roanoke River, there is an active tour boat named Virginia Dare.


title: Virginia Dare

text: Virginia Dare's name has also been used to sell a number of products. Virginia Dare was the name of the first commercial wine to sell after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. The Virginia Dare Extract Company, a maker of vanilla products, sells its products with a symbol of Virginia as a fresh-faced, blonde girl wearing a white ruffled mob cap. The company's Web site notes that Virginia Dare symbolizes "wholesomeness and purity". In Rancho Cucamonga, California, a now-defunct winery called Virginia Dare is on the corner of Haven Avenue and Foothill Boulevard (U.S. Route 66).


title: Purple Disco Machine

text: Tino Piontek (born 1980), also known as Tino Schmidt and the stage name Purple Disco Machine, is a German disco and house music producer and DJ.


title: Purple Disco Machine

text: Tino Piontek grew up in the German Democratic Republic. Through his father, he got to know western rock music at a young age. In 1996 he started producing with the program Cubase and some synthesizers; at the same time he discovered house music on the Dresden nightlife scene. He became active as a DJ himself and in 2012 his first productions appeared. From then on, international DJ performances began and in 2017 his debut album was released on the label Sony Music Entertainment.


title: Purple Disco Machine

text: He celebrated his greatest success so far in August 2020 with the song "Hypnotized", which he recorded for the vocals together with Sophie and the Giants, which peaked at number two on the Italian singles chart, receiving double platinum certification. In the same year he produced the official remixes of Dua Lipa's "Don't Start Now", Kylie Minogue's "Magic" and Lady Gaga's "Rain on Me". He has his own SiriusXM show on Studio 54 on Fridays called "Purple Disco Tales".


title: Purple Disco Machine

text: He is open first round match at Paris Masters between Márton Fucsovics and Fabio Fognini and round of 16 between Hugo Gaston and Carlos Alcaraz with "Dopamine"


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: The Hongdu JL-8 (Nanchang JL-8), also known as the Karakorum-8 or K-8 for short, is a two-seat intermediate jet trainer and a light attack aircraft designed in the People's Republic of China by China Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation. The primary contractor is the Hongdu Aviation Industry Corporation.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: The JL-8 trainer was proposed as a joint cooperation effort between the governments of Pakistan and the People's Republic of China in 1986. The name was changed on the suggestion of Pakistan's then President Zia ul Haq to Karakoram-8 to represent the friendship between the two countries. Work on the design started in 1987 at Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Company (NAMC) at Nanchang, Jiangshi Province in South Central China. The Chinese chief designer of the aircraft was Shi Ping (), heading a team of over 100 Chinese Engineers, while Air Cdr Muhammad Younas Tbt (M), SI(M) was the chief designer from the Pakistani side leading a team of over 20 Pakistani engineers.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: Initially, the aircraft was to feature many parts manufactured in the United States, including Garrett TFE-731 engine and several cockpit displays along with communication and avionics systems, but due to political developments and an embargo from the US at the end of the 1980s following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, other suppliers had to be used. The first prototype was built in 1989, with the first flight taking place on 21 November 1990 by Chief Test Pilot Col Yang Yao (). Flight testing continued from 1991 to 1993 by a Flight Test Team consisting of four Chinese and two Pakistani pilots.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: After four prototypes were built, production of a small batch of 24 aircraft was launched in 1992. The Chinese share out of these was 18, while the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) received six K-8s in 1994. In 1995, the PAF decided to order 75 more K-8s to gradually replace its fleet of Cessna T-37 Tweet basic trainers. In 2010, the number of K-8 aircraft in the PAF inventory was estimated to be around 40. The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) received its first six JL-8 trainers in 1995 following additional upgrades. The Chinese model uses a Chinese-manufactured version of the Ukrainian Ivchenko AI-25 (DV-2) engine, designated WS-11. The PLAAF is anticipated to continue adding the JL-8 trainer to its fleet to replace its obsolete trainers, such as the Chengdu JJ-5. In 2008, the number of JL-8s in PLAAF inventory was estimated to be over 120 aircraft.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: Other countries have shown interest in the trainer and it now also serves in the air forces of Egypt, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. While the type primarily serves as a basic and advanced trainer, it can also be used in the close air support or even air combat role when appropriately armed.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: The export-variant K-8 Karakorum Basic Common Advanced Jet Trainer is co-produced by China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC) for export markets other than Pakistan, while later aircraft for Pakistan have been built by the Aircraft Manufacturing Factory (AMF), Pakistan Aeronautical Complex. The latest export variant is the K-8P version, which currently is operated by the PAF. The K-8P has an advanced avionics package of integrated head-up display (HUD), multi-function displays (MFDs) and comes equipped with MFD-integrated GPS and ILS/TACAN systems. It also features hardpoints for carrying a variety of training and operational bombs up to 250 kg, pod mounted 23 mm cannon as well as PL-5 / 7 /AIM-9 P launchers. In September 2011, NAMC rolled out another 12 K-8P for an undisclosed foreign client.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: In 2008 Venezuela announced the purchase of 18 K-8 aircraft. The K-8 has been marketed by China to the air forces of the Philippines , and to Indonesia, as a replacement for Indonesia's BAE Hawk jet trainers. In 2009, the Bolivian government approved a deal to purchase 6 K-8P aircraft for use in anti-drug operations. In 2010 the total number of K-8 aircraft produced in all variants was estimated to be more than 500, with a continual production rate of approximately 24 aircraft per year.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: The JL-8 / K-8 has a multi-role capability for training and, with little modification, can also be used for airfield defense. The aircraft is supposed to be as cost-effective as possible, with a short turn-around time and low maintenance requirements. The JL-8 for the domestic Chinese market and its export variants, K-8E and K-8P, have different powerplants and avionics.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: A low-wing monoplane design primarily constructed of aluminum alloys, the JL-8 / K-8 airframe structure is designed for an 8,000 flight hour service life.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: The landing gear is of tricycle configuration, with hydraulically operated wheel brakes and nose-wheel steering.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: The flight control system operates a set of conventional flight control surfaces with a rigid push-rod transmission system, which itself is electrically or hydraulically operated. The aileron control system, of irreversible servo-control type, is composed of a hydraulic booster, an artificial-feel device, a feel trim actuator and a rigid push-rod transmission mechanism. The elevator and rudder control systems are of reversible push-rod type.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: The JL-8 / K-8 cockpit arrangement is designed to be as close to that of a combat aircraft as possible. A transparent plastic canopy covering both cockpits, which are arranged in a tandem seating position, is supposed to give a good all-round field of view.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: A Rockwell Collins Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) is fitted, with multi-function displays (MFDs) in the front and rear cockpits showing information to the pilots. The emergency cockpit escape system is made up of two Martin-Baker MK-10L rocket-assisted ejection seats which are zero-zero capable, meaning they can be used safely at zero altitude and zero speed. Although JL-8 is designed to have limited capability to deliver air-to-ground weapons, the first rocket attack practice was only completed in May 2011.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: Ultra high frequency (UHF) and very high frequency (VHF) radio communication systems are present, along with a Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) and automatic direction finder (ADF). An instrument landing system (ILS) is also available. These systems can be tailored to meet the requirements of the customer.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: A strap-on Environmental control system (ECS) from AlliedSignal provides air conditioning to the cockpit. It is capable of operating when the aircraft is on the ground, under ambient temperatures of -40 to +52 °C, as well as in the air.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: The JL-8, for the Chinese domestic market, was originally powered by the Ukrainian Ivchenko-Progress AI-25TLK turbofan jet engine with 16.9 kN of thrust, but this has been replaced by the WS-11, the Chinese-manufactured version of the AI-25TLK. Export variants (K-8P, K-8E) use the lower-thrust (15.6 kN) Honeywell TFE731-2A-2A modular turbofan, which has digital electronic engine control (DEEC), provided the US government approves sale of the engine to the customer.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: A hydro-mechanical fuel control system delivers fuel to the engine. The aircraft's fuel system consists of the fuel tanks and the fuel supply/transfer, vent/pressurization, fuel quantity measuring/indicating, fuel refueling and fuel drain subsystems. The total fuel is contained in two fuselage bladder-type rubber tanks and a wing integral tank of 1720 lb. The capacity of each drop tank is 250 litres.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: The K-8 took part in its first aerial display in 1993 at the Singapore Air Show and since then has participated at Air Shows at numerous places including Dubai, Paris, Farnborough, Bangkok, Zhuhai etc. It was shown to the Pakistani public for the first time on 23 March 1994 at the Pakistan Day Parade. It became part of the Sherdils (Lion Hearts) aerobatics team of the Pakistan Air Force in 2009 and carried out its first public display on 6 April 2010. K-8 replaced the team's previous T-37 Tweet aircraft.


title: Hongdu JL-8

text: In late December 2012 and early January 2013, during the Kachin conflict, K-8s of the Myanmar Air Force were used to strike Kachin Independence Army positions in the north of the country.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: Nicknamed as El Potrillo by the media and his fans, he has sold over 20 million records worldwide, making him one of the most successful Hispanic music artists. He is the son of the Mexican singer Vicente Fernández. He originally specialized in traditional, earthy forms of Mexican folk, such as mariachi and charro, until he successfully branched out into pop music.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: Over the course of his career, he has been awarded two Latin Grammy Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: Alejandro Fernández was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco. His first appearance in the spectacular presentation was in 1976; in one of his father's shows.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: Fernández released his first album "Alejandro Fernández" under Sony Music. Its main hits were "Necesito olvidarla", "Brumas" and "Equivocadamente". With this material, Alejandro began a tour in Mexico and some cities of the United States. In 1993, he performed with his father in a concert at the Palacio de los Deportes, and he continued for a season at the Teatro Blanquita in Mexico City. The same year Alejandro released the successful "Piel de Niña", produced by Pedro Ramírez. The songs "Piel de Niña", "A La Vera del Camino", and "Cascos Ligeros" were some of the main hits on the album. At the Lo Nuestro Awards of 1993 Fernández was nominated for Male Artist, New Artist and Regional Mexican Album of the Year for his debut album, winning none.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: In 1994 he released the album "Grandes Éxitos a la Manera de Alejandro Fernández", covering pieces from legendary composers such as Armando Manzanero, Luis Demetrio and Agustín Lara. At the 9th Lo Nuestro Awards, Fernández received a nomination for Regional Mexican Male Performer of the Year.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: In 1995, he released the album "Que Seas Muy Feliz". The song "Como Quien Pierde Una Estrella" became his first international hit. It was heavily promoted on radio and television shows.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: In 1996, his release "Muy Dentro de Mi Corazón" was an instant success. Songs like "Moño Negro", "Nube Viajera" and "Abrazame" became hits in Mexico and several countries in Latin America. That same year he recorded "Puedes Llegar", the theme song for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, with singers Gloria Estefan, Jon Secada and Ricky Martin, among others. In 1997, he recorded the album "Me Estoy Enamorando", produced by Emilio Estefan, Jr. The album is a fusion of bolero, romantic ballad, orchestral arrangements and elements of Mexican mariachi that became popular in the Latin music sector. "Si Tú Supieras" was the most successful hit of that production, and it was chosen as the theme of the hit soap opera of the time, ""Maria Isabel"". It also conquered the U.S. market, lasting seven weeks at the top of "Billboard" Hot Latin Tracks. He became the first Latin singer to hold first place with three hits: "Si tu supieras" was followed by "En El Jardín" (with Gloria Estefan) and "No Sé Olvidar". "Me Estoy Enamorando" sold 2.2 million copies worldwide and was nominated for Best Latin Pop Performance at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards. In December 1998, he recorded "Christmas in Vienna VI" with the tenor Plácido Domingo and Patricia Kaas. His performance was praised by critics but it did not achieve much popularity among the audience.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: With the album "Mi Verdad" of 1999, Fernández returned to ranchera music. Mi Verdad was nominated for Best Mexican-American performance at the 42nd annual Grammy Awards. "Si He Sabido Amor" became a big hit and was the theme of the hit soap opera "Infierno en el Paraíso".


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: In 2000, he released the album "Entre Tus Brazos", the eighth in his career and the second one with Emilio Estefan, Jr. as the producer. "Quiéreme" was the first single, a fast-tempo pop song that showed his musical versatility. For the first time in his career, he included a song from his own inspiration: "Entre Tus Brazos". The album contains mostly romantic ballads with energetic Latin rhythms. That same year, he and Julio Iglesias recorded the song "Dos Corazones, Dos Historias;" it appeared on Julio's album "Noche de Cuatro Lunas".


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: In 2001, he recorded "Orígenes". The single "Tantina Pena" (a flamenco-style mariachi bolero) became an international hit. In 2002, he launched his production "Un Canto De México", which contains twenty-two classic ranchera songs. It was recorded live at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. In 2003, Alejandro began a Latin American tour with his father Vicente, and recorded the show called """", which was witnessed by thousands of fans, culminating in Mexico City at the Foro Sol, with over five hours of music in front of nearly 60,000 spectators. That same year he recorded his next album "Niña amada mía". The title song became a hit and the theme of a popular soap opera of the same name. That same year, Alejandro toured Latin America and the United States. Later he participated in the Christmas special "En mi país", recorded in Puerto Rico and broadcast by Telemundo. Fernández and Ednita Nazario performed a duet of "Triste Navidad" ("Sad Christmas").


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: In 2004, he played the lead role in "", a movie about the Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata by filmmaker Alfonso Arau. That same year, "A Corazón Abierto" reunited Alejandro with Grammy-winning producer and songwriter Kike Santander, who penned his greatest hits from "Me Estoy Enamorando". He also recruited multiple talented younger songwriters, including Gian Marco, Leonel García (of pop duo Sin Bandera), Reyli Barba (former member of pop band Elefante) and Mexican group Tres De Copas.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: ""Romanticism is something that will never die"", declared Alejandro Fernández, explaining his choice of songs on "A Corazón Abierto", his breakthrough recording about lost love, love that is never forgotten and the capacity to always love again. ""I'm super, ultra passionate. We're releasing an album that's an x-ray of myself. That's why it's titled "A Corazón Abierto" ("In Open Heart"). It was something very honest. Not naked, but something deeper than that"". The album released the singles: "¿Que voy a hacer con mi amor?", "Qué lastima", "Me dediqué a perderte" and the smash hit "Canta corazón".


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: In 2005, Alejandro released "" ("Mexico – Madrid: Nonstop"), featuring 13 tracks including one new song. Produced by Aureo Baquiero and filmed in front of a live audience at Spain's "Palacio de Congresos IFEMA", the production features Fernández performing some of his biggest hits accompanied by a 28-piece orchestra and some of Spain's most important voices on three of the songs: Amaia Montero from La Oreja de Van Gogh joins him on "Me dediqué a perderte"; Malú duets with him on "Contigo aprendí", and with flamenco star Diego El Cigala perform a fast-tempo version of "Como quien pierde una estrella", accompanied on cajón by famed flamenco guitarist Niño Josele. That same year, Alejandro was chosen to sing along with the tenors José Carreras and Plácido Domingo in a special concert celebrating the opening of the "Forum Internacional de las Culturas" in Monterrey. At first his father Vicente was invited but he turned it down. Alejandro showed his skilled vocals and operatic tenor range, singing pieces of opera such as "Granada"; his performance was praised by the audience. He also recorded a duet with the tenor Mario Frangoulis called "Hay más" from the album Follow Your Heart. After that, Alejandro went on tour with two Latin American stars: Marc Anthony and Chayanne, passing through several major U.S. cities. On 2 December 2005, Los Angeles, gave him a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: In 2007, he released "Viento A Favor" featuring tunes written by Leonel García and Noel Schajris (better known as emotive Latin-pop duo Sin Bandera) and Mexican singer Reyli Barba. The first two singles were "Te Voy A Perder", and "Amor Gitano", a duet with Beyoncé. After that "Cuando Estamos Juntos" and "No Se Me Hace Fácil", became hits; "Eres" was the last single of the album.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: In 2008, Alejandro started a tour in Spain, covering cities such as Madrid, Valencia and A Coruña. He released the album ""; it features classic romantic ballads and boleros such as "El Reloj" and "Regálame esta noche", songs that he recorded previously but never released.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: In 2009, his voice was the theme of "Mañana es para siempre", the most successful Mexican soap opera of the year. The Grammy-winning singer, composer and producer Nelly Furtado invited Alejandro to perform in a duet for her album "Mi Plan". The song "Sueños" was recorded in Miami.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: "Dos Mundos" ("Two Worlds"), is a double production, releasing two albums simultaneously: "". One of them is pop, produced by Aureo Baqueiro, and the other is ranchera and mariachi, produced by Joan Sebastian. No Latin artist had done anything similar before. On 11 November 2009 he simultaneously released the videos of the singles "Estuve" and "Se Me Va la Voz". He released the videos of the singles "Me Hace Tanto Bien" and "Bandida". On 22 November 2010, Alejandro released the live album "" that includes live versions of songs from his album " Dos mundos: Evolución / Dos mundos: Tradición", two unreleased tracks "Tu Sabes Quien", "Felicidades" and the song "Vamos a darnos tiempo" originally performed by the iconic singer José José.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: Between June and August 2011, he went on his Dos Mundos: Revolucion Tour. On 1 August 2011, Alejandro released the song "Bajo un mismo sol", which was released as the theme of the 2011 Pan American Games. He toured Latin America along with fellow singer Marc Anthony in a series of concerts named "Dos Mundos, un Concierto" "(Two Worlds, one Concert)". Alejandro collaborated with Christina Aguilera on a cover of the song "Hoy Tengo Ganas de Ti", released as the theme song for the soap opera "La tempestad". After only 17 days, the song was certified platinum in Mexico, with 65,000 sales from digital downloads. On 27 August 2013, he released the album "Confidencias." It includes the duet with Christina Aguilera, along with duets with Vicente Fernández and Rod Stewart. In 2014, his song "Te Amare" was released as the theme song for the soap opera "Hasta el fin del mundo" replacing the original theme of Pedro Fernández. In 2015, Alejandro collaborated with Alejandro Sanz on a cover of the song "A que no me dejas", released as the theme song for the soap opera "A que no me dejas". In 2016, Fernández was inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame. In February 2017, he released the album "Rompiendo Fronteras" and the single "Sé que te duele" became an instant hit.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: The international record label Sony Music was sued by Alejandro Fernández after they tried to release an album with some of his unreleased songs after his contract with the label had ended. Federal Police arrived at the Sony headquarters in Mexico City and seized about 6,000 copies of the album. The song "Diferente", was released on the internet as the first single of the album.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: Following the steps of his father, Fernández began his musical career focusing on ranchera music. Since his 1997 album "Me Estoy Enamorando" he has branched out successfully into pop music. In his live presentations, he begins the show with his ranchera repertoire, then removes his charro outfit to sing pop songs.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: Fernández has a baritone tessitura. His vocal ability and versatility have allowed him to perform romantic ballads, pop and ranchera music simultaneously. He has performed with artists such as Plácido Domingo, Marc Anthony, José Carreras, Chayanne, Amaia Montero, Joan Sebastian, Gloria Estefan, Malú, Ha*Ash, Julio Iglesias, Patricia Kaas, Miguel Bosé, Mario Frangoulis, Ednita Nazario, Yuri, Franco De Vita, Diego El Cigala, Nelly Furtado, Beyoncé, Christina Aguilera, Rod Stewart, Morat, Los Tigres Del Norte, Sebastián Yatra, David Bisbal, Christian Nodal, Héctor Acosta, Calibre 50, Mon Laferte as well as family members; his father Vincente Fernández, his daughter Camila Fernández, and his son Alex Fernández.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: Fernández was born in Mexico City and raised in Guadalajara. He studied to become an architect, but turned to singing in 1991 with the encouragement of his father. He is the youngest son of his family. He has two older brothers, Vicente, Jr., and Gerardo, and a sister, Alejandra. He and his brothers are known in Mexico as "Los tres potrillos" (The three colts).


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: In the late 1990s, Fernández's older brother Vicente, Jr., was kidnapped by a band of organized crime. The kidnappers cut off one of his fingers and sent it to his father as a warning. After Vicente Fernández allegedly paid a large sum of money, Vicente, Jr., was released. The exact amount was never announced.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: Fernández is co-owner of a shopping center in Guadalajara called "Unicenter", containing various businesses and employing around 170 people.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: He collaborated with his family in the construction of Arena VFG, with a capacity for 11,000 people. The arena hosts mainly musical performances and charreria competitions. Fernández is an expert in horse riding and charreria. He is a supporter of the Mexican football team Atlas, and is good friends with iconic footballer Rafael Márquez.


title: Alejandro Fernández

text: Fernández has five children: three (Alejandro, Jr. and the twin girls América and Camila) with his ex-wife América Guinart, and two (Emiliano and Valentina) with Colombian model Ximena Díaz. In the mid-2000s, he claimed to have undergone a vasectomy.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: Bellona () was an ancient Roman goddess of war. Her main attribute is the military helmet worn on her head; she often holds a sword, spear, or shield, and brandishes a torch or whip as she rides into battle in a four-horse chariot. She had many temples throughout the Roman Empire. She is known for her temple outside of Rome being the official decision making centre in regards to war and for her bloodlust and madness in battle. Her iconography was extended by painters and sculptors following the Renaissance.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: The name of the goddess of war "Bellōna" stems from an earlier "Duellona", itself a derivative of Old Latin "duellum" ('war, warfare'), which likewise turned into "bellum" in Classical Latin.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: The etymology of "duellum" remains obscure. Linguist Georges-Jean Pinault has proposed a derivation from "*duenelo-" ('quite good, quite brave'), a reconstructed diminutive of the word "duenos", attested on an eponymous inscription as an early Old Latin antecedent of the word "bonus" ('good'). According to linguist Michiel de Vaan, the use of "*duenelo-" "in the context of war ("bella acta, bella gesta") could be understood as a euphemism, ultimately yielding a meaning 'action of valour, war' for the noun "bellum"."


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: Bellona was originally an ancient Sabine goddess of war identified with Nerio, the consort of the war god Mars, and later with the Greek war goddess Enyo. Her temple in Rome was dedicated in 296 BCE near the Circus Flaminius by Appius Claudius Caecus, during the war with the Etruscans and Samnites. This temple was the first location to have decorative shields dedicated to mortals hung in a holy place. Appius Claudius hung the shields and dedicated them to his family.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: Her festival was celebrated on 3 June, and her priests were known as Bellonarii and used to wound their own arms or legs as a blood sacrifice to her. These rites took place on 24 March, called the day of blood ("dies sanguinis"), after the ceremony. In consequence of this practice, which approximated to the rites dedicated to Cybele in Asia Minor, both Enyo and Bellona became identified with her Cappadocian aspect, Ma.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: The Roman Campus Martius area, in which Bellona’s temple was situated, had extraterritorial status. Ambassadors from foreign states, who were not allowed to enter the city proper, stayed in this complex. Since the area of the temple was outside the pomerium, the Senate met there with ambassadors and received victorious generals prior to their triumphs. Beside the temple was the war column ("columna bellica"), which represented non-Roman territory. To declare war on a distant state, a javelin was thrown over the column by one of the priests concerned with diplomacy ("fetiales") in a modification of the archaic practice, from Roman territory toward the direction of the enemy land and this symbolical attack was considered the opening of war. The first enemy declared in this fashion was Pyrrhus in 280 BC.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: There were many people willing to assist in the upkeep and improvement of her temples and shrines. In addition, they were also willing to incur the cost upon themselves. Because she was widely believed to be a volatile goddess, she was rarely worshipped openly and most of her worshippers preferred to quietly assuage her. Despite their subtlety, evidence of her worship can be found throughout Rome. At least seven inscriptions that are affiliated with the worship of Bellona have been found. An early inscription in the Forum of Augustus harkens back to the time of the war with Pyrrhus. Five of the inscriptions are found around the "Aedem Bellonae" (a shrine of Bellona's) and the other two inscriptions are damaged. The worship of her was not limited to Rome, however. Bellona had a temple as far north as York, England, where the church of St. Peter currently stands.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: The worship of Bellona and beliefs about her were often gory or frightening. It was believed that when she went to war, Discordia, Strife, and the Furies would accompany her and terrify her enemies. The belief in her bloodlust and madness in battle is widely accepted and is one of the more prevalent beliefs. According to Ammianus Marcellinus, the Scordici people believed in the violent worship of Bellona. They were brutal and they worshipped both Mars and Bellona with savagery. They would offer up human sacrifices and drink blood from the skulls of their victims.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: In the military cult of Bellona, she was associated with Virtus, the personification of valour. She then travelled outside Rome with the imperial legions and her temples have been recorded in France, Germany, Britain, and North Africa.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: Often in poetry, the name Bellona is used simply as a synonym for war, although in the "Thebaid" of Statius the goddess appears as a character, representing the destructive and belligerent aspect of war. There she is described as carrying a spear and a flaming torch or riding in a chariot and waving a blood-stained sword. Classical allusions to Bellona later appear in Shakespeare's plays in the appropriate context of warrior characters: Hotspur describes the goddess as "the fire-eyed maid of smoky war", for example, and Macbeth is referred to as "Bellona's bridegroom", that is to say, the equivalent of Mars.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: In more modern times, Adam Lindsay Gordon dedicated an energetic Swinburnean evocation of the "false goddess" who leads men astray in his poem "Bellona", published in Australia in 1867. She also figures in Arthur Graeme West's World War I poem "The Traveller". There the poet describes himself as marching toward the front line in the company of Art, the god Pan, and the works of Walter Pater. Meeting Bellona as they approach the fighting, one by one the pleasurable companions are forced to flee before the violence of war, until the goddess rejoices in having him to herself.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: Bellona appears in the prologue of Rameau's opera, "Les Indes Galantes" (1735), in which the call of love ultimately triumphs over that of war. In a Bach "dramma per musica" performed two years before, "Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten!" BWV 214, the goddess even puts aside her usual ferocity in order to congratulate Maria Josepha of Austria, Princess Elector of Saxony and Queen of Poland, on her birthday on 8 December 1733.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: She retains her harsh aspect in "Prometheus Absolved" by Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca (1718–1795), however. In this cantata celebrating the birth of the Archduchess Isabella in 1762, the deities sit in judgement on Prometheus, some arguing for clemency, while Bellona and others demand rigour. She also plays her proper part in the 'heroic cantata' created by the composer Francesco Bianchi and the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, entitled "The Wedding of the Thames and Bellona" ("Le nozze del Tamigi e Bellona"). This was performed in London to mark the British naval victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797).


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: Bellona is commonly portrayed wearing a plumed helmet and dressed in armour, or at least a breastplate with a skirt beneath. In her hand she carries a spear, shield, or other weapons, and occasionally, she sounds a trumpet for the attack. Anciently, she was associated with the winged Victory, holding a laurel crown in her hand, a statue of whom she sometimes carries; when she appears on war memorials she may hold that attribute.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: Examples of such an armoured figure appear in the 1633 painting attributed to Rembrandt in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and statues by Johann Baptist Straub (1770) and Johann Wilhelm Beyer (1773–80). In the latter, she appears with the god Janus, since both were associated with the Roman ceremonies of declaring war. In the case of Janus, the doors to his temple were left open during the whole period of hostilities.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: Straub's statue (below) has a gorgon head on her shield to instil terror in her enemies, as does the Rembrandt painting, although this was added later, probably as a response to other examples of this new iconographical departure. In the bust by Bertram Mackennal she wears a gorgon mounted on her helmet, while in other depictions it is on the breastplate. Jean-Léon Gérôme takes the representation of the horror of war even further in his glazed bust of the goddess (1892). Not only is she wearing a head about her neck, but the fierce demeanour of the screaming face, surmounted by an angular winged helmet, makes her resemble a gorgon herself.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: Another common innovation was Bellona’s association with cannons, as in the drawing by Hans Krieg (1590–1645) and the 1700 ceiling fresco at Hammerschloss Schmidmühlen by Hans Georg Asam (1649–1711). An early Dutch engraving in a series of prints depicting "Personifications of Industrial and Professional Life" suggests that it is this goddess who inspires the invention of war materiels, showing her seated in a factory workshop with all manner of arms at her feet (plate 6, see the Gallery below). In the fresco by Constantino Brumidi in the U.S. Capitol (1855–60), her image is updated. There she is shown standing next to an artillery piece and has the stars and stripes on her shield.


title: Bellona (goddess)

text: Not all representations of Bellona wear armour. The statues by Alvise Tagliapietra at St. Petersburg (c.1710) and that at the J. Paul Getty Museum by Augustin Pajou (1775/85) are largely naked, although otherwise wearing or carrying some of the other attributes of the goddess. There are Classical references that sanction this, however. In Gaius Valerius Flaccus' "Argonautica", for example, appears the description "Bellona with bare flank, her brazen weapons clanging as she moved" (3. 60). A further poetic reference taken up by a painter occurs in Louis Jean François Lagrenée's "Bellona Presenting the Reins of his Horses to Mars" (1766). This illustrates a speech from Claudian's "In Ruffinum" where Mars requests "Let Bellona bring my helmet and Terror guide the reins" ("Fer galleam Bellona mihi, nexusque rotarum tende Pavor"). Jan van Mieris’ allegorical painting of "Wisdom restraining Bellona" (1685) is also poetic. There the seated figure of Wisdom clasps the right hand of the helmeted goddess, who is turning to leave, her cloak fluttering behind her and her shield held high in her outstretched left hand.