title: Royal Rumble (2006)

text: The second match was a divas match between Mickie James and Ashley Massaro. Trish Stratus was the Special Guest Referee for this match. Before the match started, Mickie told Trish backstage that she loved her. While the match started, Ashley worked over Mickie's arm. While Ashley pounded Mickie into the corner, Trish pulled Mickie. Mickie would later up work out on Ashley's back and neck. Ashley made a comeback in the match but finally Mickie powerbombed her to win the match.


title: Royal Rumble (2006)

text: In the third match The Boogeyman faced John "Bradshaw" Layfield (with his valet Jillian Hall). In the match, JBL tried to do everything to measure out Boogeyman. Finally, JBL had Boogeyman measured and went for the Clothesline from Hell but he missed the move and was sent crashing shoulder first into the post. Boogeyman nailed JBL with a pumphandle slam to win the match. After the match, he tried to throw worms in JBL's mouth but JBL threw his valet Jillian into the ring and Boogeyman threw worms in her mouth.


title: Royal Rumble (2006)

text: The fourth match was the 2006 Royal Rumble match. Triple H drew as the No. 1 entrant while Rey Mysterio drew No. 2. Mysterio and Triple H fought off each other in the beginning of the match. Later on, the two teamed up to eliminate No. 3 entrant Simon Dean. Mysterio eliminated No. 4 entrant Psicosis on his own. Ric Flair drew No. 5 but he made a mistake by charging Triple H near the ropes. Triple H simply sidestepped the charge and eliminated Flair from the match. No. 6 entrant was Big Show and No. 7 entrant was Jonathan Coachman. Coach was quickly eliminated with a swat of Big Show's hand. Bobby Lashley drew No. 8 while Big Show's World Tag Team Championship partner at the time, Kane drew No. 9, while making made his tenth appearance in a Royal Rumble match, tying the record for most Royal Rumble appearances with Rikishi. It also marked his eighth consecutive appearance in the Royal Rumble as Kane, breaking the previous record of seven consecutive appearances held by himself, Owen Hart and Rick Martel.


title: Royal Rumble (2006)

text: Big Show and Kane teamed up to eliminate Lashley and then the two targeted each other trying to eliminate each other at the ropes. Triple H took the advantage and eliminated both men from behind. In addition, Tatanka and Rob Van Dam returned to WWE television in this Royal Rumble match with Tatanka drawing No. 15 while RVD drawing No. 20. RVD taking down all superstars in the ring (except Mysterio). He went to eliminate Road Warrior Animal, Goldust, and later Carlito. Shawn Michaels entered No. 25 into the match and started attacking his enemies. He went on to eliminate Trevor Murdoch, Johnny Nitro and Shelton Benjamin.


title: Royal Rumble (2006)

text: As Michaels eliminated Benjamin from the match, Mr. McMahon's music played which distracted Michaels. McMahon made his way to the ring while Shane McMahon (not an official entrant) eliminated Michaels from behind. Michaels returned to the ring and tried to attack Shane until Triple H beat him and Michaels delivered Sweet Chin Music to Triple H. As a result, Triple H, Mysterio, Carlito, RVD and Randy Orton remained the final five participants. Carlito worked on RVD but RVD countered and threw him out of the ring with the final four participants remaining. Mysterio and RVD formed an alliance against two former Evolution partners Triple H and Orton. RVD tried to perform a five-star frog splash on Orton, but Triple H attacked RVD and then threw Mysterio into RVD which sent RVD crashing to the floor.


title: Royal Rumble (2006)

text: Triple H, Mysterio and Orton were the final three participants. Triple H and Orton teamed to eliminate Mysterio but failed to do so, instead Mysterio performed a 619 on both men, and then eliminated Triple H from the match. As retaliation, Triple H assaulted Mysterio and threw him into the steel steps, before rolling him back into the ring for Orton to eliminate. Orton tried to eliminate Mysterio, but Mysterio countered and was able to eliminate Orton to win the 2006 Royal Rumble match. Mysterio paid tribute to Guerrero by winning the match saying that he had won the match for Guerrero. Mysterio broke the record for lasting the longest in a Royal Rumble match, 1:02:12. The previous record was 1:01:30, set by Chris Benoit at the 2004 Royal Rumble. Finally, Mysterio was the second person to win from the #2 slot, the first being Vince McMahon in the 1999 Royal Rumble.


title: Royal Rumble (2006)

text: The fifth match was between Edge and John Cena for the WWE Championship, with Edge defending the title in their New Year's Revolution rematch. Cena entered the ring on a large steel catwalk-like scaffold that had been lowered from the ceiling. Before Cena's entrance, fireworks started throughout the arena. Cena had the match in control in the beginning but later on he was forced to retreat to the floor on multiple occasions. Finally, Cena had enough and followed him, but Edge used Lita as a decoy. Edge speared Cena into the steel ring steps and following a baseball slide which threw Cena into the crowd. Edge remained in control and set Cena on the top rope but was subsequently pushed down. Cena went for a top rope splash but Edge moved away. Cena would make a comeback and try an FU but failed. Cena made a comeback during the conclusion of the match. He went for a Five Knuckle Shuffle but was distracted when Lita jumped on the apron to draw Cena's attention. Edge recovered as Cena and Lita argued, but when Edge charged, Cena sidestepped and Edge ran into Lita. Cena took advantage of the situation and quickly executed an FU on Edge and then put him into an STFU. Edge couldn't escape so he submitted making Cena the new WWE Champion.


title: Royal Rumble (2006)

text: The main event was between Kurt Angle and Mark Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship. Angle defended the title in this match against Henry. The match marked the first time that two former Olympians battled for a world title in history. Angle began the match in trying to put Henry down but instead, Henry dumped him to the floor, where Angle was beaten by former manager Daivari. Henry controlled Angle using his power but Angle managed to apply the ankle lock. After Henry kicked out after an Angle Slam, Angle locked in an ankle lock once more. Daivari distracted the referee and when Henry broke the hold again, he sent Angle crashing into the referee. At that point, Kurt got a chair. Daivari tried to stop him but Angle hit Daivari with the chair. When Angle tried to use the chair, Henry blocked the attempt and tossed Angle to the mat. As Henry advanced though, Angle low blowed Henry, which was followed by two chair shots. Angle went for the pin but Henry kicked out. Angle untied one of the turnbuckle pads on the middle rope. Angle ended up in that corner, but as Henry charged, Angle sidestepped and tripped him into the exposed steel. Angle rolled up Henry to retain the World Heavyweight Championship but as Angle celebrated, there was all darkness and The Undertaker's music played. Undertaker made his return to WWE television, in his first appearance since Armageddon, entering on a horse-drawn chariot. He intimidated Angle and then the ropes went down and the ring collapsed.


title: Royal Rumble (2006)

text: Chris Benoit and Booker T continued their feud over the WWE United States Championship. Benoit went on to win the title from Booker at No Way Out. Rey Mysterio was awarded a match against Kurt Angle for the World Heavyweight Championship which was scheduled to take place at WrestleMania 22 but before that, Mysterio defended his spot against Randy Orton at No Way Out. Orton won the match and Rey's title shot. Mysterio would later be readded to the match, forming a Triple Threat match between Angle, Mysterio and Orton. At No Way Out, Angle successfully defended the World Heavyweight Championship against The Undertaker, but lost the title to Mysterio at WrestleMania.


title: Royal Rumble (2006)

text: In February, the "Road to WrestleMania" tournament was arranged to determine a new number one contender to Cena's WWE Championship. This was an 8-man tournament on "Raw". Triple H, Rob Van Dam and Big Show faced each other in the final round of the tournament which was a triple threat match. RVD performed a Five Star Frog Splash on Big Show, but when he made the pin, Triple H pulled the referee. While the referee was distracted, Big Show was able to kick out. Triple H took advantage and performed a Pedigree on RVD to win the tournament and become the number one contender to the WWE Championship. At WrestleMania 22, Cena defeated Triple H to retain the WWE Championship via submission after forcing Triple H to submit with the STFU.


title: Royal Rumble (2006)

text: In mid-2006, WWE launched a third brand dubbed ECW, which featured wrestlers from the former Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion, as well as newer talent. Additionally, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship was reactivated to be the brand's top championship, and third concurrently active world title in WWE.


title: Royal Rumble (2006)

text: (*) Rey Mysterio broke the longevity record for lasting 1:02:12, previous record held by Chris Benoit (lasting 1:01:30) in Royal Rumble 2004.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: Universal Flash Storage (UFS) is a flash storage specification for digital cameras, mobile phones and consumer electronic devices. It was designed to bring higher data transfer speed and increased reliability to flash memory storage, while reducing market confusion and removing the need for different adapters for different types of cards. The standard encompasses both packages permanently attached (embedded) within a device (), and removable UFS memory cards.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: UFS uses NAND flash. It may use multiple stacked 3D TLC NAND flash dies (integrated circuits) with an integrated controller.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: The proposed flash memory specification is supported by consumer electronics companies such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix. UFS is positioned as a replacement for and SD cards. The electrical interface for UFS uses the M-PHY, developed by the MIPI Alliance, a high-speed serial interface targeting 2.9 Gbit/s per lane with up-scalability to 5.8 Gbit/s per lane. UFS implements a full-duplex serial LVDS interface that scales better to higher bandwidths than the 8-lane parallel and half-duplex interface of . Unlike eMMC, Universal Flash Storage is based on the SCSI architectural model and supports SCSI Tagged Command Queuing. The standard is developed by, and available from, the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: In 2010, the Universal Flash Storage Association (UFSA) was founded as an open trade association to promote the UFS standard.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: In September 2013, JEDEC published JESD220B UFS 2.0 (update to UFS v1.1 standard published in June 2012). JESD220B Universal Flash Storage v2.0 offers increased link bandwidth for performance improvement, a security features extension and additional power saving features over the UFS v1.1.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: On 30 January 2018 JEDEC published version 3.0 of the UFS standard, with a higher 11.6 Gbit/s data rate per lane (1450 MB/s) with the use of MIPI M-PHY v4.1 and UniProSM v1.8. At the MWC 2018, Samsung unveiled embedded UFS () v3.0 and uMCP (UFS-based multi-chip package) solutions.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: On 30 January 2020 JEDEC published version 3.1 of the UFS standard. UFS 3.1 introduces Write Booster, Deep Sleep, Performance Throttling Notification and Host Performance Booster for faster, more power efficient and cheaper UFS solutions. The Host Performance Booster feature is optional.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: In 2022 Samsung announced version 4.0 doubling from 11.6 Gbit/s to 23.2 Gbit/s with the use of MIPI M-PHY v5.0 and UniPro v2.0.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: In February 2013, semiconductor company Toshiba Memory (now Kioxia) started shipping samples of a 64GB NAND flash chip, the first chip to support the then new UFS standard.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: In April 2015, Samsung's Galaxy S6 family was the first phone to ship with storage using the UFS 2.0 standard.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: On 7 July 2016, Samsung announced its first UFS cards, in 32, 64, 128, and 256 GB storage capacities. The cards were based on the UFS 1.0 Card Extension Standard. The 256GB version was reported to offer sequential read performance up to 530 MB/s and sequential write performance up to 170 MB/s and random performance of 40,000 read IOPS and 35,000 write IOPS. However, they were apparently not actually released to the public.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: On 14 May 2019, OnePlus introduced the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro, the first phones to feature built-in 3.0 (The Galaxy Fold, originally planned to be the first smartphone to feature UFS 3.0 was ultimately delayed after the OnePlus 7's launch).


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: The first UFS cards began to be publicly sold in early 2020. According to a Universal Flash Storage Association press release, Samsung planned to transition its products to UFS cards during 2020. Several consumer devices with UFS card slots have been released in 2020.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: On 30 March 2016, JEDEC published version 1.0 of the UFS Card Extension Standard (JESD220-2), which offered many of the features and much of the same functionality as the existing UFS 2.0 embedded device standard, but with additions and modifications for removable cards.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: Also in March 2016, JEDEC published version 1.1 of the UFS Unified Memory Extension (JESD220-1A), version 2.1 of the UFS Host Controller Interface (UFSHCI) standard (JESD223C), and version 1.1A of the UFSHCI Unified Memory Extension standard (JESD223-1A).


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: On January 30, 2018, the UFS Card Extension standard was updated to version 1.1 (JESD220-2A), and the UFSHCI standard was updated to version 3.0 (JESD223D), to align with UFS version 3.0.


title: Universal Flash Storage

text: A UFS drive's rewrite life cycle affects its lifespan. There is a limit to how many write/erase cycles a flash block can accept before it produces errors or fails altogether. Each write/erase cycle causes a flash memory cell's oxide layer to deteriorate. The reliability of a drive is based on three factors: the age of the drive, total terabytes written over time and drive writes per day. This is typical of flash memory in general.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: The Battle of Cape Matapan () was a naval battle during the Second World War between the Allies, represented by the navies of the United Kingdom and Australia, and the Royal Italian navy, from 27 to 29 March 1941. Cape Matapan is on the south-western coast of the Peloponnesian Peninsula of Greece.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: After the interception and decryption of Italian signals by the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park (the decrypted intelligence codenamed Ultra), ships of the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy, under the command of Royal Navy Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, intercepted and sank or severely damaged several ships of the Italian "Regia Marina" under Squadron-Vice-Admiral Angelo Iachino. The opening actions of the battle are also known in Italy as the Battle of Gaudo.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: In late March 1941, as British ships of the Mediterranean Fleet covered troop movements to Greece, Mavis Batey, a cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park, made a breakthrough, reading the Italian naval Enigma for the first time. The first message, the cryptic "Today’s the day minus three," was followed three days later by a second message reporting the sailing of an Italian battle fleet comprising one battleship, six heavy and two light cruisers, plus destroyers to attack the merchant convoys supplying British forces. As always with Enigma, the intelligence breakthrough was concealed from the Italians by ensuring there was a plausible, visible reason for the Allies to have detected and intercepted their fleet. In this case, it was a carefully directed reconnaissance plane.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: As a further deception, Admiral Cunningham made a surreptitious exit after dark from a golf club in Alexandria to avoid being seen boarding his flagship, the battleship . He had made a point of arriving at the club the same afternoon with his suitcase as if for an overnight stay, and spent some time on the golf course within sight of the Japanese consul. An evening party on his flagship was advertised for that night but was never meant to take place.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: At the same time, there was a failure of intelligence on the Axis side. The Italians had been incorrectly informed by the Germans that the British Mediterranean Fleet had only one operational battleship and no aircraft carriers. In fact the Royal Navy had three battleships, while the damaged British aircraft carrier had been replaced by .


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: The Allied force was the British Mediterranean fleet, consisting of the aircraft carrier HMS "Formidable" and three s, , , and . The main fleet was accompanied by the 10th Destroyer Flotilla ( and , and , commanded by Commander "Hec" Waller, RAN), and the 14th Destroyer Flotilla (, , , and , commanded by Philip Mack); also present were and . Force B, under Admiral Sir Henry Pridham-Wippell, consisted of the British light cruisers , , and , the Australian light cruiser , and the British destroyers , , and . The Australian had returned to Alexandria. Allied warships attached to convoys were available: , , and waited in the Kithira Channel and , , , and and were nearby.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: The Italian fleet was led by Admiral Iachino's flagship, the modern battleship , screened by destroyers "Alpino", "Bersagliere", "Fuciliere", and "Granatiere" of the 13th Flotilla. The fleet also included most of the Italian heavy cruiser force: , , and , accompanied by four destroyers (, , , and ) of the 9th Flotilla; and the heavy cruisers , , and , accompanied by three destroyers ("Ascari", "Corazziere", and "Carabiniere") of the 12th Flotilla. Joining them were the light cruisers and (8th division) and two destroyers of the 16th Flotilla ( and ) from Brindisi. Significantly, none of the Italian ships had radar, unlike several of the Allied ships.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: On 27 March, Vice-Admiral Pridham-Wippell—with the cruisers "Ajax", "Gloucester", "Orion" and "Perth" and a number of destroyers—sailed from Greek waters for a position south of Crete. Admiral Cunningham with "Formidable", "Warspite", "Barham" and "Valiant" left Alexandria on the same day to meet the cruisers.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: The Italian Fleet was spotted by a Sunderland flying boat at 12:00, depriving Iachino of any advantage of surprise. The Italian admiral also learned that "Formidable" was at sea, thanks to the decryption team aboard . Nevertheless, after some discussion, the Italian headquarters decided to go ahead with the operation, to show the Germans their will to fight and confidence in the higher speed of their warships.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: On 28 March, an IMAM Ro.43 floatplane launched by "Vittorio Veneto" spotted the British cruiser squadron at 06:35. At 07:55, the "Trento" group encountered Admiral Pridham-Wippell's cruiser group south of the Greek island of Gavdos. The British squadron was heading to the south-east. Thinking they were attempting to run from their larger ships, the Italians gave chase, opening fire at 08:12 from . The three heavy cruisers fired repeatedly until 08:55, with "Trieste" firing 132 armour-piercing rounds, "Trento" firing 204 armour-piercing and 10 explosive shells and "Bolzano" firing another 189 armour piercing shells, but the Italians experienced trouble with their rangefinding equipment and scored no significant hits. HMS "Gloucester" fired three salvos in return. These fell short but did cause the Italians to make a course change.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: As they had not reduced the distance significantly after an hour of pursuit, the Italian cruisers broke off the chase, turning to the north-west on a course to rejoin "Vittorio Veneto". The Allied ships changed course in turn, following the Italian cruisers at extreme range. Iachino allowed the British approach in the hope of luring them within the range of "Vittorio Veneto"s guns.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: An officer on "Orion"s bridge remarked to a companion, "What's that battleship over there? I thought ours were miles away." The Italians eavesdropped on "Orion"s signal that she had sighted an unknown unit and was going to investigate. At 10:55, "Vittorio Veneto" joined the Italian cruisers and immediately opened fire on the shadowing Allied cruisers. She fired 94 rounds in 29 salvos from a distance of , all well aimed, but again with an excessive dispersal of her salvos. (Another 11 rounds got jammed in the barrels.) The Allied cruisers, until then unaware of the presence of a battleship, withdrew, suffering slight damage from shell fragments. A series of photographs taken from HMS "Gloucester" showing Italian salvos falling amongst Allied warships was published by "Life" magazine on 16 June 1941.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: Cunningham's force, which had been attempting to rendezvous with Pridham-Wippell, launched an attack by Fairey Albacore torpedo bombers from HMS "Formidable" at 09:38. They attacked "Vittorio Veneto" without direct effect, but the required manoeuvring made it difficult for the Italian ships to maintain their pursuit. The Italian ships fired 152, 100 and 90 mm guns and also 37, 20 and 13.2 mm guns when at close range, repelling the attack, while one of the two Junkers Ju 88s escorting the Italian fleet was shot down by a Fairey Fulmar. Iachino broke off the pursuit at 12:20, retiring towards his own air cover at Taranto.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: A second aerial attack at 15:09 surprised the Italians; Lieutenant-Commander John Dalyell-Stead (DSO) was able to fly his Albacore to within 1,000m of "Vittorio Veneto" before releasing a torpedo which hit her outer port propeller and caused of flooding. Dalyell-Stead and his crew were killed when their aircraft was shot down by anti-aircraft fire from the battleship. The ship stopped while the damage was repaired, but she was able to get under way again at 16:42, making . Cunningham heard of the damage to "Vittorio Veneto", and started a pursuit.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: A third attack by six Albacores and two Fairey Swordfish of 826 and 828 Naval Air Squadrons from "Formidable" and two Swordfish of 815 squadron from Crete took place between 19:36 and 19:50. Admiral Iachino deployed his ships in three columns and used smoke, searchlights, and a heavy barrage to protect "Vittorio Veneto". The tactics prevented further damage to the battleship, but one torpedo hit "Pola", which had nearly stopped to avoid running into "Fiume" and could not take any evasive action. This blow knocked out five boilers and the main steam line, causing "Pola" to lose electric power and drift to a stop. The torpedo was apparently dropped by Lieutenant Grainger Williams. Williams was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, primarily for the part he played in bringing about the ensuing naval engagement.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: Unaware of Cunningham's pursuit, a squadron of cruisers and destroyers was ordered to return and help "Pola". This squadron included "Pola"s sister ships, "Zara" and "Fiume". The squadron did not start to return towards "Pola" until about an hour after the order had been given by Iachino, officially due to communication problems, while "Vittorio Veneto" and the other ships continued to Taranto.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: At 20:15, "Orion"s radar picked up a ship six miles to port, apparently dead in the water; she was the crippled "Pola". The bulk of the Allied forces detected the Italian squadron on radar shortly after 22:00, and were able to close without being detected. The Italian ships had no radar and could not detect British ships by means other than sight; Italian thinking did not envisage night actions and their main gun batteries were not prepared for action. At 22:20 they spotted the Allied squadron, but thought them to be Italian ships. The battleships "Barham", "Valiant", and "Warspite" were able to close to – point blank range for battleship guns – at which point they opened fire. The Allied searchlights (including those under the command of Midshipman Prince Philip aboard "Valiant") illuminated their enemy. Some British gunners saw main turrets flying dozens of metres into the air from the Italian cruisers. "Fiume" and "Zara" were destroyed in minutes. "Fiume" sank at 23:30, while "Zara" was finished off by a torpedo from the destroyer HMS "Jervis" at 02:40 of 29 March.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: Two Italian destroyers, "Vittorio Alfieri" (flagship of the flotilla commander, Captain Salvatore Toscano) and "Giosuè Carducci", were sunk in the first five minutes. The other two, "Gioberti" and "Oriani", managed to escape in a smoke screen, the former with heavy damage, after being chased and fired at by the British destroyers "Griffin" and "Greyhound". Towing "Pola" to Alexandria as a prize was considered, but daylight was approaching, and it was thought that the danger of enemy air attack was too high. British boarding parties seized a number of much-needed Breda anti-aircraft machine guns. "Pola"s crew was taken off and she was sunk by torpedoes from the destroyers "Jervis" and "Nubian" shortly after 04:00. The only known Italian reaction after the shocking surprise was a fruitless torpedo charge by "Oriani" and "Gioberti" and the aimless fire of one of "Zara"s 40 mm guns in the direction of the British warships.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: The Allied ships took on survivors but left the scene in the morning, fearing Axis air strikes. Admiral Cunningham ordered a signal to be made on the Merchant Marine emergency band. This signal was received by the Italian High Command. It informed them that, due to the risk of air strikes, the Allied ships had ceased their rescue operations and granted safe passage to a hospital ship for rescue purposes. The location of the remaining survivors was broadcast, and the Italian hospital ship "Gradisca" came to recover them. Allied casualties during the battle were a single torpedo bomber shot down by "Vittorio Veneto"s 90 mm (3.5-inch) anti-aircraft batteries, with the loss of the three-man crew. Italian losses were up to 2,303 sailors, most of them from "Zara" and "Fiume". The Allies rescued 1,015 survivors, while the Italians saved another 160.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: The naval historian Vincent O'Hara described the Battle of Matapan as "Italy's greatest defeat at sea, subtracting from its order of battle a cruiser division, but the battle was hardly decisive." The British in the Mediterranean lost the heavy cruiser and the new light cruiser "Bonaventure" in the same period (26–31 March 1941), but while the Royal Navy lost four heavy cruisers during the war ("York", , and , the latter two in a single engagement), at Matapan the Regia Marina lost three in a night. That the Italians had sortied so far to the east established a potential threat that forced the British to keep their battleships ready to face another sortie during the operations off Greece and Crete.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: The Italian fleet did not venture into the Eastern Mediterranean again until the fall of Crete two months later and it did not come out in full force until the Battle of mid-June 1942. Despite his impressive victory, Admiral Cunningham was somewhat disappointed with the failure of the destroyers to make contact with "Vittorio Veneto". The fact that the Italian battleship had escaped intact was, in the words of the British admiral, "much to be regretted".


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: For reasons of secrecy, code breakers at the GC&CS were very rarely informed of the operational effects of their work, but their impact on the Battle of Cape Matapan was an exception. A few weeks after the battle, Admiral Cunningham dropped into Bletchley Park to congratulate Dilly and his girls, with a positive impact on morale: Mavis Batey, one of the code breakers, remembers: "Our sense of elation knew no bounds when Cunningham himself came down in person to thank and congratulate us". Admiral John Godfrey, the Director of Naval Intelligence, stated: "Tell Dilly that we have won a great victory in the Mediterranean and it is entirely due to his girls".


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: There is still controversy in Italy regarding the orders given by the Italian Admiral Angelo Iachino to the "Zara" division to recover the "Pola", when it was clear that an enemy battleship force was approaching rapidly from the opposite direction.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: For decades after the end of the Second World War, the involvement of the GC&CS, as well as the code-breaking methods used, were kept secret. A number of controversial theories were published before more complete accounts emerged after records were eventually declassified in 1978. Only later, after Dilly's rodding method was demonstrated by Mavis Batey to the Admiral in charge of naval history, were Italian official records corrected. In 1966, H. Montgomery Hyde published a story alleging that an American spy, Betty Thorpe, had seduced Admiral Alberto Lais (the Italian naval attaché in Washington, D.C.), and that she had obtained a codebook used by the British to defeat the Italians at Matapan. Hyde was found guilty of libelling the dead, but evidence of GC&CS involvement was not made public at that time. In 1980, the BBC series "Spy!" included similar allegations about a spy called 'Cynthia' who obtained a codebook. In 1974, Frederick Winterbotham in "The Ultra Secret" falsely credited the decryption of "Luftwaffe" Enigma traffic.


title: Battle of Cape Matapan

text: Force A, 14th Destroyer Flotilla, 10th Destroyer Flotilla (of Force C), Force B, 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, Force D


title: Stolperstein

text: A ' (; plural '; literally 'stumbling stone', metaphorically a 'stumbling block') is a sett-size, concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.


title: Stolperstein

text: The project, initiated by the German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992, aims to commemorate individuals at exactly the last place of residency—or, sometimes, work—which was freely chosen by the person before they fell victim to Nazi terror, forced euthanasia, eugenics, deportation to a concentration or extermination camp, or escaped persecution by emigration or suicide. , 75,000 have been laid, making the project the world's largest decentralized memorial.


title: Stolperstein

text: The majority of commemorate Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Others have been placed for Sinti and Romani people (then also called "gypsies"), Poles, homosexuals, the physically or mentally disabled, Jehovah's Witnesses, black people, members of the Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the anti-Nazi Resistance, the Christian opposition (both Protestants and Catholics), and Freemasons, along with International Brigade soldiers in the Spanish Civil War, military deserters, conscientious objectors, escape helpers, capitulators, "habitual criminals", looters, and others charged with treason, military disobedience, or , as well as Allied soldiers.


title: Stolperstein

text: The name of the project invokes multiple allusions. In Nazi Germany, an antisemitic saying, when accidentally stumbling over a protruding stone, was: "A Jew must be buried here". In a metaphorical sense, the German term can mean "potential problem". The term "to stumble across something", in German and English, can also mean "to find out (by chance)". Thus, the term provocatively invokes an antisemitic remark of the past, but at the same time intends to provoke thoughts about a serious issue. are not placed prominently, but are rather discovered by chance, only recognizable when passing by at close distance. In contrast to central memorial places, which according to Demnig can be easily avoided or bypassed, represent a much deeper intrusion of memory into everyday life.


title: Stolperstein

text: Research about future locations is usually done by local school children and their teachers, victims' relatives, or local history organizations. The database of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the online database version of the 1939 Germany Minority Census are used to search for names and residential addresses of Nazi victims.


title: Stolperstein

text: When research on a particular person is completed, Demnig sets out to manufacture an individual . The person's name and dates of birth, deportation and death, if known, are engraved into the brass plate. The words ('Here lived...') are written on most of the plates, emphasizing that the victims of persecution did not live and work at any anonymous place, but "right here". The is then inserted at flush level into the roadway or sidewalk, at the individual's last known place of freely chosen residence or work, with the intention to "trip up the passer-by" and draw attention to the memorial.


title: Stolperstein

text: The costs of are covered by individual donations, local public fund raising, contemporary witnesses, school classes, or community funds. From the beginning of the project until 2012, one cost €95. In 2012, the price increased to €120. Each individual is still manufactured by hand, so that only about 440 of them can be produced per month. Today, it may take up to several months from the application for a new until it is finally installed.


title: Stolperstein

text: Starting in 2005, Michael Friedrichs-Friedländer has partnered with Gunter Demnig to install about 63,000 in 20 different languages. Friedrichs-Friedländer explained to a reporter that he has not changed the engraving process and all engraving continues to be completed by hand; this is purposeful, to prevent the process from becoming anonymous.


title: Stolperstein

text: On 16 December 1992, 50 years had passed since Heinrich Himmler had signed the so-called ('Auschwitz decree'), ordering the deportation of Sinti and Roma to extermination camps. This order marks the beginning of the mass deportation of Jews from Germany. To commemorate this date, Gunter Demnig traced the "road to deportation" by pulling a self-built, rolling pavement-printing machine through the inner city to the train station, where the deportees had boarded the trains to the extermination camps. Afterward, he installed the first in front of Cologne's historic City Hall. On its brass plate were engraved the first lines of the Auschwitz decree. Demnig also intended to contribute to the debate, ongoing at that time, about granting the right of residence in Germany to Roma people who had fled from former Yugoslavia.


title: Stolperstein

text: Gradually, the idea arose of expanding the commemoration project to include all victims of Nazi persecution, as well as always doing so at the last places of residence which they were free to choose. A would symbolically bring back the victims to their neighbourhoods, to the places where they rightfully belonged, even many years after they had been deported. Gunter Demnig published further details of his project in 1993, and outlined his artistic concept in a contribution to the project ('Megalomania: Art Projects for Europe'). In 1994, he exhibited 250 "Stolpersteine" for murdered Sinti and Roma at St Anthony's Church in Cologne, encouraged by Kurt Pick, the parish priest. This church, located prominently in Cologne city centre, was already serving as an important commemorative institution, and is part of the Cross of Nails community since 2016. In January 1995, these were brought to different locations in the city of Cologne, and laid into the pavements.


title: Stolperstein

text: Another 55 were set up in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin in 1996, during the "Artists Research Auschwitz" project. In 1997, the first two were laid in St. Georgen, Austria, commemorating Jehovah's Witnesses Matthias and Johann Nobis. This had been suggested by Andreas Maislinger, founder of Arts Initiative KNIE and the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service. Friedrich Amerhauser was the first mayor who granted permission to install within his city. Four years later, Demnig received permission to install 600 more in Cologne.


title: Stolperstein

text: By October 2007, Gunter Demnig had laid more than 13,000 in more than 280 cities. He expanded his project beyond the borders of Germany to Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Hungary. Some were scheduled to be laid in Poland on 1 September 2006, but permission was withdrawn, and the project was cancelled.


title: Stolperstein

text: On 24 July 2009, the 20,000th was unveiled in the Rotherbaum district of Hamburg, Germany. Gunter Demnig, representatives of the Hamburg government and its Jewish community, and descendants of the victims attended. By May 2010, more than 22,000 had been set in 530 European cities and towns, in eight countries which had formerly been under Nazi control or occupied by Nazi Germany.


title: Stolperstein

text: By July 2010 the number of had risen to more than 25,000, in 569 cities and smaller towns. By June 2011 Demnig had installed 30,000 .


title: Stolperstein

text: During a talk at TEDxKoeln on 14 May 2013, Gunter Demnig announced the installation of the 40,000th , which had taken place in (), Netherlands, on 3 July 2013. It was one of the first 10 in memory of Dutch communists who were executed by the German occupation forces after their betrayal by countrymen for hiding Jews and Roma.


title: Stolperstein

text: On 23 October 2018, the 70,000th was installed in Frankfurt, Germany, for Willy Zimmerer, a victim of Nazi euthanasia who was murdered at Hadamar on 18 December 1944, when he was 43 years old.


title: Stolperstein

text: On 29 December 2019, the 75,000th was installed in Memmingen (Bavaria) for Martha and Benno Rosenbaum.


title: Stolperstein

text: are always installed in front of the last home which the victim had chosen freely. The most important source for potential locations is the so-called ('Jews register'), which was set up at the 1939 census of Germany as of 17 May 1939. In cases where the actual houses were destroyed during World War II or during later restructuring of the cities, some have been installed at the former site of the house.


title: Stolperstein

text: By the end of 2016, Gunter Demnig and his co-workers had installed about 60,000 stones in more than 1,200 towns and cities throughout Europe:


title: Stolperstein

text: Since 2007, Demnig has frequently been invited to place in the Netherlands. The first city to do so was Borne. As of 2016, 82 have been installed there. By January 2016, in total, more than 2,750 have been laid in 110 Dutch cities and townships, including Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam, but particularly in smaller cities like Hilversum (92 ), Gouda (183), Eindhoven (244), Oss and Oudewater (263 each). In March 2016 Demnig was in the Netherlands again, placing stones in Hilversum, Monnickendam, and Gouda, and Amsterdam. In the latter city he placed 74 stones; 250 had already been placed, and there were requests for 150 more.


title: Stolperstein

text: In the Czech Republic, the work on started on 8 October 2008 in Prague and was initiated by the Czech Union of Jewish Students. Today, are found across almost the entire area of the country. As of January 2016 the exact number of has not yet been established, but the main work was done in the larger cities, including Prague, Brno, Olomouc and Ostrava. In the small cities of Tišnov there are 15, and in Lomnice u Tišnova nine . One of them commemorates Hana Brady, who was murdered at the age of 13. Since 2010, a in Třeboň also commemorates her father.


title: Stolperstein

text: Work in Italy began in Rome on 28 January 2010; there are now 207 (in Italian called "pietre d'inciampo") there. In 2012, work continued in the regions of Liguria, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Lombardia. Veneto and Tuscany joined in 2014, Emilia-Romagna in 2015, Apulia, Abruzzo and Friuli-Venezia Giulia in 2016, Marche in 2017. In Italy, marked differences are observed, as compared to other countries: many are dedicated not only to Jewish people and members of the political resistance, but also to soldiers of the Italian army who were disarmed, deported to Germany, and had to work as forced laborers there. They were given special status, so that they were not protected as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions after Italy left the coalition of the Axis powers after 8 September 1943.


title: Stolperstein

text: In France where 75,000 Jews were deported to the concentration camps, initial efforts to install were rejected. Notably, after a year-long campaign in 2011 led by a schoolgirl in the coastal town of La Baule-Escoublac (where 32 Jewish residents, including eight children, were deported), the Mayor refused to allow a request for to be installed, claiming that to do so might infringe the French constitutional principles of secularism ("laïcité") and freedom of opinion ("liberté d'opinion") and that they would therefore need to consult the Conseil d'État, France's constitutional court. In fact, contain no reference to the religion of the victim who is commemorated, and 'freedom of opinion/expression' has never been invoked in either French or European jurisprudence to justify the refusal to commemorate individual victims of war crimes. The Mayor of La Baule has consistently refused to elaborate on his reasoning, and there is no record of the Municipal Council of La Baule having sought a declaration from the Conseil d'Etat in respect of these objections.


title: Stolperstein

text: have also been installed in Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, though these countries were never occupied. in Switzerland mostly remember people who were caught smuggling illegal written material at the German border. In Spain, a large number of Republicans who fled to France after Francisco Franco's victory were caught by the Nazis after they had invaded France, and were either handed over to the Vichy regime, or deported to Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. About 7,000 Spanish people were held prisoner there, and were subjected to forced labour; more than half of them were murdered. The survivors were denationalized by the Franco regime, and became stateless persons, who were denied any form of recognition as victims, and deprived of any reparation. In Sweden, since 2019, the few remember Jewish refugees who escaped there only to be captured by German spies and taken to the camps.


title: Stolperstein

text: In Helsinki, Finland, there are seven to honor Austrian Jewish refugees who had arrived to the country but who were given over to the Gestapo in November 1942. They were taken to Auschwitz and only one of the eight people survived.


title: Stolperstein

text: In Dublin, Ireland, six (unveiled in 2022) commemorate six Irish Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust: Ettie Steinberg, her Belgian-born husband Wojtech Gluck and their son Leon Gluck, who were all murdered at Auschwitz in 1942; Isaac Shishi, killed at Viekšniai, Lithuania in 1941; and siblings Ephraim and Jeanne (Lena) Saks, murdered at Auschwitz in 1944. Shishi and the Sakses were all born in Dublin but moved to continental Europe before war broke out.


title: Stolperstein

text: In November 2022 the first in the UK was installed in Golden Square, Soho, London, commemorating Ada von Dantzig, who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1943 after she returned to the Netherlands, to rescue her family, who also became victims.


title: Stolperstein

text: Even in countries where no are installed, such as the United States, the decentralized monument of the has attracted media attention.


title: Stolperstein

text: In special cases, Demnig also installs his so-called "" ('stumbling thresholds'), measuring , which serve to commemorate entire groups of victims, where there are too many individuals to remember at one single place. The text usually starts with the words: "" ('From here...'). are installed at Stralsund main station. From there, 1,160 mentally ill persons were deported in December 1939, victims of the forced euthanasia program Action T4, and murdered in Wielka Piaśnica.


title: Stolperstein

text: Other commemorate female forced labourers from Geißlingen, who were imprisoned in the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp, the victims of the Holocaust in Luxemburg in Ettelbrück, forced laborers in Glinde and Völklingen, victims of forced euthanasia in Merseburg, and the first deportees, Roma and Sinti from Cologne. Further exist in Bad Buchau, Berlin-Friedenau, Nassau, another in Stralsund, and one in Weingarten. A was set up in Thessaloniki in front of the house in which Alois Brunner and Adolf Eichmann had planned the deportation and annihilation of 96.5% of the Jewish population of the town.


title: Stolperstein

text: The city of Villingen-Schwenningen heatedly debated the idea of allowing in 2004, but voted against them. There is a memorial at the railway station and there are plans for a second memorial.


title: Stolperstein

text: Unlike many other German cities, the city council of Munich in 2004 rejected the installation of on public property, following objections raised by Munich's Jewish community (and particularly its chairwoman, Charlotte Knobloch, then also President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and herself a former victim of Nazi persecution). She objected to the idea that the names of murdered Jews be inserted in the pavement, where people might accidentally step on them. The vice president of the Central Council, Salomon Korn, however, warmly welcomed the idea at the same time. Christian Ude, then mayor of Munich, warned against an "inflation of monuments". Demnig also took part in the discussion, stating that "he intends to create a memorial at the very place where the deportation started: at the homes where people had lived last". The rejection was reconsidered and upheld in 2015; other ways of commemoration, like plaques on the walls of individual houses, and a central memorial displaying the names of the people deported from Munich, will be set up. The city's rejection of participation in the project only affects public property, however. As of 2020 around a hundred have been installed on private property.


title: Stolperstein

text: In other cities, permission for the project was preceded by long and sometimes emotional discussions. In Krefeld, the vice-chairman of the Jewish community, Michael Gilad, said that Demnig's memorials reminded him of how the Nazis had used Jewish gravestones as slabs for sidewalks. A compromise was reached that a could be installed if a prospective site was approved by both the house's owner and (if applicable) the victim's relatives. The city of Pulheim denied permission to install a for 12-year-old Ilse Moses, who was deported from Pulheim and murdered by the Nazi regime. The majority in the city council, CDU and FDP, opposed the project and prevented it. Starting in 2009, 23 for the Belgian city of Antwerp have been produced; however, owing to local resistance to the project, they have been unable to be installed. They have been stored in Brussels, where they are regularly exhibited.


title: Stolperstein

text: The Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) has expressed reservations towards the project, noting that the form of the memorial, particularly its location on regular sidewalks, which are regularly stomped over by passersby, is not respectful. Another criticism from IPN has concerned inadequate level of detail provided on , such as lack of context clarifying that most of the perpetrators of the Holocaust were Germans and not Poles. IPN officials have repeatedly suggested that instead of , the more respectful, informative and traditional form of remembrance that the IPN is willing to support instead takes the form of larger memorial plaques on the walls of nearby buildings.


title: Stolperstein

text: The majority of German cities welcome the installation of "Stolpersteine". In Frankfurt am Main, which had a long tradition of Jewish life before the Holocaust, the 1000th stolperstein was set in May 2015, and newspapers publish progress reports and invitations for citizens to sponsor further memorial stones. In Frankfurt, the victim's descendants are not allowed to sponsor ; these have to be paid for by the current inhabitants of the house, ensuring that they will respect the monument.


title: Stolperstein

text: People's attention is drawn towards the by reports in newspapers and their personal experience. Their thoughts are directed towards the victims. Cambridge historian Joseph Pearson argues that "It is not what is written [on the stolpersteine] which intrigues, because the inscription is insufficient to conjure a person. It is the emptiness, void, lack of information, the maw of the forgotten, which gives the monuments their power and lifts them from the banality of a statistic."


title: Stolperstein

text: Often the installation of a new is announced in local newspapers or on the cities' official websites and is accompanied by a remembrance gathering. Citizens, school children and relatives of the persons who are commemorated on the plates are invited to take part. Often the citizens state that they are motivated by the idea that "they were our neighbors", and that they wish to remember the victim's names, or, symbolically, allow the deported to return to the place where they rightfully belong. If the person remembered on the plate was Jewish, their descendants are invited to attend the installation of the stone, and pray Kaddish, if they wish to do so.


title: Stolperstein

text: In May 2016, the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" published an invitation to all citizens to clean the in front of their homes on 5 May 2016, the same day when Israel officially celebrated Yom HaShoah.


title: Juan Nepomuceno Guerra

text: Juan Nepomuceno Guerra Cárdenas (July 18, 1915 – July 12, 2001) was a Mexican drug lord who founded and led the Gulf Cartel for over 50 years. He is often considered the "godfather" of U.S-Mexico border cartels.


title: Juan Nepomuceno Guerra

text: He began his criminal career in the 1930s by smuggling alcohol from Mexico during the Prohibition in the United States. He later diversified to other cross-border smuggling activities. He is the uncle of Juan García Ábrego, his successor in the cartel and once considered Mexico's most-wanted man.


title: Juan Nepomuceno Guerra

text: During the 1930s he began smuggling whisky across the Mexico–United States border through south Texas. Through shrewd political connections he had fostered, Nepomuceno Guerra was able to control all the contraband moving across the Rio Grande.


title: Juan Nepomuceno Guerra

text: According to news sources, despite allegedly founding one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico, Juan Nepomuceno Guerra never spent more than "a few hours in jail" for his crimes.


title: Juan Nepomuceno Guerra

text: On June 18, 2015, the Governor of Tamaulipas Egidio Torre Cantú inaugurated a street under his name, "Juan N. Guerra", in Reynosa, Tamaulipas. The street was inaugurated along with seven others and is located in the working-class neighborhood Reserva Territorial Campestre.


title: Ruler

text: A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines.


title: Ruler

text: Rulers have long been made from different materials and in multiple sizes. Some are wooden. Plastics have also been used since they were invented; they can be molded with length markings instead of being scribed. Metal is used for more durable rulers for use in the workshop; sometimes a metal edge is embedded into a wooden desk ruler to preserve the edge when used for straight-line cutting. in length is useful for a ruler to be kept on a desk to help in drawing. Shorter rulers are convenient for keeping in a pocket. Longer rulers, e.g., , are necessary in some cases. Rigid wooden or plastic yardsticks, 1 yard long, and meter sticks, 1 meter long, are also used. Classically, long measuring rods were used for larger projects, now superseded by tape measure, surveyor's wheel or laser rangefinders.


title: Ruler

text: Desk rulers are used for three main purposes: to measure, to aid in drawing straight lines, and as a straight guide for cutting and scoring with a blade. Practical rulers have distance markings along their edges.


title: Ruler

text: A line gauge is a type of ruler used in the printing industry. These may be made from a variety of materials, typically metal or clear plastic. Units of measurement on a basic line gauge usually include inches, agate, picas, and points. More detailed line gauges may contain sample widths of lines, samples of common type in several point sizes, etc.


title: Ruler

text: Measuring instruments similar in function to rulers are made portable by folding (carpenter's folding rule) or retracting into a coil (metal tape measure) when not in use. When extended for use, they are straight, like a ruler. The illustrations on this page show a carpenter's rule, which folds down to a length of to easily fit in a pocket, and a tape, which retracts into a small housing.


title: Ruler

text: A flexible length-measuring instrument which is not necessarily straight in use is the tailor's fabric tape measure, a length of tape calibrated in inches and centimeters. It is used to measure around a solid body, e.g., for a person's waist measurement, as well as for linear measurement, e.g., for the inside leg length. It is rolled up when not in use, taking up little space.


title: Ruler

text: A "ruler software program" can be used to measure pixels on a computer screen or mobile phone. These programs are also known as screen rulers.


title: Ruler

text: In geometry, a ruler without any marks on it (a straightedge) may be used only for drawing straight lines between points. A straightedge is also used to help draw accurate graphs and tables.


title: Ruler

text: A ruler and compass construction refers to constructions using an unmarked ruler and a compass. It is possible to bisect an angle into two equal parts with a ruler and compass. It can be proved, though, that it is impossible to divide an angle into three equal parts using only a compass and straightedge — the problem of angle trisection. However, should two marks be allowed on the ruler, the problem becomes solvable.


title: Ruler

text: In the history of measurement many distance units have been used which were based on human body parts such as the cubit, hand and foot and these units varied in length by era and location. In the late 18th century the metric system came into use and has been adopted to varying degrees in almost all countries in the world.


title: Ruler

text: The oldest preserved measuring rod is a copper-alloy bar that dates from 2650 BCE and was found by the German Assyriologist Eckhard Unger while excavating at the Sumerian city of Nippur (present day Iraq).


title: Ruler

text: Rulers made of ivory were in use by the Indus Valley civilization period prior to 1500 BCE. Excavations at Lothal (2400 BCE) have yielded one such ruler calibrated to about . Ian Whitelaw holds that the Mohenjo-Daro ruler is divided into units corresponding to and these are marked out in decimal subdivisions with amazing accuracy, to within . Ancient bricks found throughout the region have dimensions that correspond to these units.


title: Ruler

text: The equivalent of a ruler for drawing or reproducing a smooth curve, where it takes the form of a rigid template, is known as a French curve. A flexible device that can be bent to the desired shape is known as a flat spline, or (in its more modern incarnation) a "flexible curve". Historically, a flexible lead rule used by masons that could be bent to the curves of a molding was known as a lesbian rule.


title: Ruler

text: Ludwig Wittgenstein famously used rulers as an example in his discussion of language games in the "Philosophical Investigations". He pointed out that the standard meter bar in Paris was the criterion against which all other rulers were determined to be one meter long, but that there was no analytical way to demonstrate that the standard meter bar itself was one meter long. It could only be asserted as one meter as part of a language game.


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: Bubbles is a fictional character in the television series "Trailer Park Boys". The character is portrayed by Mike Smith. Bubbles is one of the three main protagonists on the show along with Ricky and Julian. He was created by series creator Mike Clattenburg. Bubbles also appears in three feature-length films: "" (2006), "" (2009), and "" (2014). Bubbles also appears in numerous spin-offs, including "Out of the Park: Europe", "Out of the Park: USA", and "", voiced by Mike Smith.


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: Bubbles is the youngest primary character, Julian and Ricky's closest friend, and the series' breakout character. In the first season, like most of the characters in the show, Bubbles maintains a somewhat-reserved demeanour to look good on camera. As the series progresses, he reveals many sides to his personality.


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: Bubbles' full name is never revealed, and he is simply referred to by hospitals, courts, and other officials as "Bubbles." A Haligonian, he is known for his hoarse Maritimer English, sensitive nature, pearl snap shirts, and thick glasses that magnify his eyes to a considerable degree. These glasses are likely due to aphakia, a condition where the lens in one's eye is missing and that is known for requiring glasses of that strength. Bubbles has never been seen without his glasses, even while sleeping, and in photographs of him as a child.


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: The episode "Propane, Propane" reveals that Bubbles may be legally blind, as he cannot see how many fingers are held up directly before his face by a truck-driving instructor who admonishes him for not being able to see "jack shit".


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: Bubbles often acts as the Boys' conscience and tries to be the voice of reason during their misadventures. He is intelligent and has a larger general knowledge than most of the other residents, displaying knowledge of Greek philosophy, classical literature, as well as a strong interest in spaceflight and rocket science, which results in one special episode in which he and the Boys meet Canadian astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield and participate in a spaceflight training simulation. Bubbles regularly chastises Julian and Ricky for being "drunk and on drugs," although he also occasionally consumes marijuana and alcohol (the latter usually when he is depressed). Bubbles gets upset whenever Ricky and Julian fight and he is often forced to act as a peacemaker between the two in such scenarios. He also believes in (and harbors a fear of) Sasquatches (which he calls "samsquanches").


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: When he was age 6, Bubbles' parents fled the trailer park to escape debt collectors, and he was placed with Julian's grandmother. Bubbles lives in a tool shed with his numerous cats, who are his only family. In "Don't Legalize It" he acquires a school bus that he inherited from his parents, although it isn't shown or mentioned again by Season 8. Bubbles has taken it upon himself to care for every stray cat in Sunnyvale, including a mountain lion he named Steve French ("If You Love Something, Set It Free").


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: At the beginning of the series, he makes his living by salvaging shopping carts, repairing them, and selling them back to stores. In later seasons, he attempts to start various legitimate enterprises, which are always promptly usurped by the Boys as fronts for illegal operations and ultimately destroyed. Despite this, he is usually willing to partake in the Boys' various get-rich-quick schemes with only mild objections, because he considers Ricky and Julian to be his only family other than his "kitties." While Bubbles isn't always spared the consequences for their activities (especially in later seasons), he usually is able to escape jail time because Ricky and Julian often cover up his involvement in their schemes when facing arrest. However, Bubbles gets arrested at the end of Season 4 after he was caught driving with a fake license as part of a scheme. He also brings heat upon himself and Julian and Ricky in Season 7, after stealing Patrick Swayze's personal model train while in Maine to arrange a drug deal with singer Sebastian Bach. The theft leads to a $50,000 reward for Bubbles, causing Jim Lahey (at that point reinstated as police officer) to violate their peace treaty to make an attempt to arrest the Boys in the hopes of getting the reward.


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: Although his life is not always easy, Bubbles takes great pride in being a self-made man and prefers his simple life of independence to any offer of free lodging from his friends. Bubbles has a sentimental, kind nature and often cries when threatened, upset, or moved by kind gestures. The episode "Dear Santa Claus, Go Fuck Yourself" reveals that Julian's grandmother promised Bubbles' parents that Julian would always look after him.


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: Bubbles dislikes violence and firearms and is often appalled at the dangerous situations that Ricky and Julian get themselves into, but when he is forced into a shootout his firearms of choice are Ak-47 variants, such as the Galil MAR and Type 56 assault rifle. Bubbles' wrestling alter-ego is the "Green Bastard". His favorite band is Rush, and was Alex Lifeson's guitar tech at a concert.


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: Conky is a ventriloquist puppet that Bubbles allegedly received from a family member who used him in vaudeville times. Conky wears a sweater over a flannel shirt and large glasses similar to Bubbles. Bubbles treats Conky as a trusted friend, but bestows him with a caustic, annoying, and domineering personality. Conky tends to insult people, especially Ricky; his utterances even shock Bubbles himself. Not long after Bubbles created Conky, Ricky and Julian stole Conky and threw him into the local swamp because they were tired of "his" insults and worried about Bubbles' sanity.


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: In Season 4 Episode 5, they must recover Conky to convince Bubbles to go to the hospital to have an infected tooth treated. Conky immediately resumes insulting Ricky and bullying Bubbles. After convincing Ricky not to shoot Conky, Julian shoots Conky "dead," demolishing the puppet's face. Julian and Ricky dispose of the remains in the swamp as a distraught Bubbles looks on.


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: At the end of Season 7, a stressed-out Bubbles retrieves and restores Conky. During this time, it is implied that Conky might have his own sentient consciousness, as he calls the police on the boys while everyone, including Bubbles, is seemingly asleep. Eventually, Bubbles realizes that he needs to lose Conky for good and "drowns" him. Conky reappears briefly in Season 8, but is not seen nor heard from again afterwards.


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: In Season 7 Episode 9, Bubbles tells how his grandfather, a vaudeville ventriloquist, left Conky to him. This could be a retcon for Conky's origin or an indication of Conky's warping influence on Bubbles' sense of reality.


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: American musician Axl Rose has been described as a big fan of the series and of Bubbles. Axl brought the character's actor, Mike Smith, on tour with him.


title: Bubbles (Trailer Park Boys)

text: In 2005, Mike Smith in character as Bubbles, along with Robb Wells and John Paul Tremblay as Ricky and Julian, threw out the first pitch at the home opener of the 2005 Toronto Blue Jays season at the Rogers Centre. A "Trailer Park Boys"-themed restaurant was opened in Halifax, Nova Scotia called "Bubbles Mansion". It was partly owned by Mike Smith and closed in 2010.


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: From Under the Cork Tree is the second studio album by the American rock band Fall Out Boy, released on May 3, 2005, through Island Records as the band's major label debut. The music was composed by lead vocalist and guitarist Patrick Stump, with all lyrics penned by bassist Pete Wentz, continuing the band's songwriting approach they took for some songs on their prior 2003 effort "Take This to Your Grave". Neal Avron handled production duties. Commenting on the record's lyrical themes, Wentz said the lyrics were about "the anxiety and depression that goes along with looking at your own life." In support of their release the group headlined tours worldwide and played at various music festivals. For their Black Clouds and Underdogs tour the album was re-released as "From Under the Cork Tree (Limited "Black Clouds and Underdogs" Edition)", featuring new songs and remixes.


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: The album was Fall Out Boy's breakthrough mainstream success. Spearheaded by the lead single "Sugar, We're Goin Down", the album debuted at No. 9 on the US "Billboard" 200 with 168,000 first week sales, a position it stayed at for two non-consecutive weeks, earning the band their first top 10 album and becoming their longest charting and best-selling album. It logged 14 weeks in the top 20 out of its 78 chart weeks. The album as well as its singles won several awards and achieved 2× Platinum status. It has sold over 2.5 million units in the United States, and over seven million worldwide. The album produced two hugely popular hit singles, "Sugar, We're Goin Down" and "Dance, Dance" peaking at No. 8 and No. 9 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 respectively and receiving regular radio play at both Pop and Alternative stations. In 2005 the album was ranked 18th on the "Top 100 best-selling albums of the year in the US" and at No. 43 on IFPI's list of the "Top 50 Best Selling Albums of 2005" worldwide. Internationally it impacted in the UK and Canada.


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: Fall Out Boy formed near Chicago, Illinois, in 2001. The band debuted with a self-released demo in the same year, and in 2002 released a split EP with Project Rocket through Uprising Records. A first mini-album, "Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girlfriend" was recorded in 2002 but released in 2003 by Uprising against the band's wishes. Both releases helped Fall Out Boy gain notoriety on the internet and attention from record labels. The band signed with indie label Fueled by Ramen and received an advance from major label Island Records, which financed the production of "Take This to Your Grave". "Grave" became an underground success and helped the band gain a dedicated fanbase. Fall Out Boy returned to the studio in November 2004 to begin work on a new album.


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: However, the group suffered a setback in February 2005 after Wentz's anxieties about creating a new record culminated in a suicide attempt. Wentz explained, "It was overwhelming. I was either totally anxious or totally depressed. It is particularly overwhelming when you are on the cusp of doing something very big and thinking that it will be a big flop. I was racked with self-doubt." After undergoing therapy, Wentz rejoined the band and headed to Burbank, California to record the album.


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: "From Under the Cork Tree" was recorded in Burbank, California, and served as the first time the band had stayed in California for an extended period of time. The group lived in corporate housing during the making of the album. In contrast to "Take This to Your Grave"'s rushed recording schedule, Fall Out Boy took a much more gradual pace while working on "From Under the Cork Tree". It was the first Fall Out Boy record in which Stump created all the music and Wentz wrote all the lyrics, continuing the approach they took for some songs on "Grave". Stump felt that this process was much more "smooth" as every member was able to focus on their individual strengths. He explained: "We haven't had any of those moments when I play the music and he'll say, 'I don't like that,' and he'll read me lyrics and I'll say, 'I don't like those lyrics.' It's very natural and fun." Despite this, the band had great difficulty creating its desired sound for the album, constantly scrapping new material. Two weeks before recording sessions began, the group abandoned ten songs and wrote eight more, including the album's first single, "Sugar, We're Goin Down".


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: The chorus of "Sugar, We're Goin Down" was nearly thrown away by the group's label, but it was ultimately salvaged. Wentz recalled, "Our label told us the chorus was too wordy and the guitars were too heavy and that the radio wasn’t going to play it." Island Records also intervened when the band wanted to title the album's first track "My Name Is David Ruffin And These Are The Temptations". Wentz stated "Our label said, 'You're going to get sued for doing that,' and our lawyer said, 'You're definitely going to get sued for doing that,' which totally sucked. So we said, 'OK, why don't we immortalize you in a song?'" The group subsequently retitled the song "Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued".


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: Stump served as the primary composer for "From Under the Cork Tree". He said of the album's musical style: "We experimented quite a bit with all sorts of stuff. Some metal, some folk, some R&B. But ultimately, your band sounds like your band. You can put those things in it, but it's still going to sound like you." Niyaz Pirani of the "Orange County Register" referred to "Dance, Dance" as "pop-punk-meets-swing-dance glory". Critics have described the album as being pop-punk and emo.


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: On earlier works, Stump collaborated with Wentz on the lyrics. For "From Under the Cork Tree" and albums thereafter, Wentz handled all the lyrical duties. He called them "more introspective" than the group's previous album. ""Take This To Your Grave" was very reactionary," says Wentz. "It was like this person does this to you. But part of growing up is understanding that if you end up in the same situation over and over again you probably have to examine your own self and wonder whether that's one of the reasons that you have ended up in the same situation repeatedly. This time the lyrics were more about the anxiety and depression that goes along with looking at your own life." He also said of his lyrics, "This is where we're going to be a year from now, and this is what you're going to be saying about us." Wentz described "I've Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea that Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song)" as "looking in the mirror and not feeling safe in your own skin".


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: The band wanted to create a record that was "a lot more developed," Wentz said. "When we did "Take This to Your Grave", we were really young, we had two weeks to do it and it was like, make it or break it, this is your only shot. This time we had more time to sit with the songs and make them work and more of a chance to plan things out. To us, we're throwing the fight, but we didn't write a record that's throwing a fight. We wrote a record that means a lot to us but maybe isn't going to mean a lot to the people who are hyping us as the next big thing. And that's fine. We don't want to be the saviors of anything — we just want to be ourselves. We made a record we really like, and that's all we ever wanted. Fall Out Boy have never been about goals or ambitions. We started out just for fun, and it became this huge thing. In 2007, it emerged that the band had reached an out of court settlement with American Nightmare vocalist Wesley Eisold, over the use of his poetry in some songs from "From Under the Cork Tree" and "Infinity on High". The settlement led to future pressings of both albums listing Eisold in the credits.


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: The title is taken from a line in the 1936 children's book "The Story of Ferdinand" by Munro Leaf, which Wentz was intrigued by. The story focuses on a bull named Ferdinand who would rather sniff flowers under a cork tree than participate in fights. The album cover features a van with a trailer in a slump of snow. This is a reference to the car accident the band was in while they were driving to New York City to film the video for "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" from their album "Take This to Your Grave".


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: Critical reaction to "From Under the Cork Tree" was generally positive. In an extremely positive review of the album, Johnny Loftus of AllMusic said: "Musically, Cork Tree's first five tracks are relentless, with razor-sharp melodies that seem familiar but sound totally unique at the same time. The 'Oh! Oh!'s and punchy chords of 'Of All the Gin Joints in All the World' are a thrill greater than any Jimmy Eat World album ever; 'Sugar, We're Going Down' 's half-time shifts are triumphs of tumbling words; and the opening track meditates wryly on all-ages shows' fame. Further, when Fall Out Boy rip into 'Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year,' summer 2005 will not be able to ignore them. 'We're the therapists pumping through your speakers/Delivering just what you need,' they sing. It's obviously time to embrace our inner mall kid." "Entertainment Weekly" gave the album a B+ in one of its "short takes" and called it "Peppy pop-punk aimed at the Warped Tour crowd. If the infectious songs don't get you, the snarky titles will".


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: However, mixed criticism was dealt by reviewers for the band being part of a saturated scene of pop-punk bands. In "Rolling Stone"'s review, they gave it 3 stars out of 5 saying "...FOB's knack for crafting ginormous, soaring anthems is in full-force: even with its demented, inscrutable lyrics, "Sugar, We're Goin Down" will likely still be blasting from radios ten years on." Music critic Robert Christgau, in a C+ review of the album, said that "these Warped Tour cover boys aren't terrible, but are they ever ordinary. Only their record company would claim that emotional vocals, dramatic dynamics, poppy-punky tempos, and not actually all that catchy tunes add up to their own sound." "IGN" was very negative towards the album, giving it a 3.6 out of 10 saying: "Pop-punk had to begin somewhere, and when it rains, it apparently pours; Fall Out Boy is merely another addition to a stable bursting at the seams."


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: "Rolling Stone" listed it among the "40 Greatest Emo Albums of All Time" in 2016, with Brittany Spanos writing it "changed the course of emo-punk, pop-punk and pop itself with "From Under the Cork Tree", which brought the scene mainstream."


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: "From Under the Cork Tree" debuted at No. 9 on the US "Billboard" 200 with 168,000 copies sold in its first week. It became the band's first top 10 effort, as their 2003 album "Take This to Your Grave" did not chart in the top 200. Logging 78 weeks on the chart, "Cork Tree" has sold over 2 million copies in the US and over three million worldwide, making it Fall Out Boy's best selling album. It is certified RIAA 2× platinum for shipments of two million copies. During Christmas 2005, the album again reached its peak of No. 2 with 257,000 sales, posting the band's second biggest sales week to date as of 2013. Upon the release of Fall Out Boy's 2007 follow-up album "Infinity on High", which debuted at No. 1 on the "Billboard" 200, "From Under the Cork Tree" re-entered the "Billboard" 200 at No. 168 with 5,300 sales. In early 2015, the album re-entered the "Billboard" 200 at No. 190 for a 78th week on the strength of the band's "American Beauty/American Psycho" No. 1 album release.


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: On the 2005 year-end charts, "Cork Tree" was No. 53 on the "Billboard" 200, No. 26 in 2006, and No. 187 on the 2000s decade-end chart.


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: Three singles were released from this album: "Sugar, We're Goin Down", "Dance, Dance" and "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More "Touch Me"". The first two singles enjoyed mainstream and commercial success and exposed Fall Out Boy to a new audience. "From Under the Cork Tree"s lead single, "Sugar, We're Goin Down", debuted on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 at No. 93 and eleven weeks later it peaked at No. 8 in September 2005. It spent five weeks in the top 10 and 20 weeks (five months) in the top 20, logging a total of 42 weeks on the chart before it was retired. The track received heavy airplay spins on Alternative as well as Pop stations, being a crossover hit. It reached No. 3 on "Billboard" Alternative Songs. Its MTV2-award-winning video enjoyed regular rotation on TV music programs. This exposed the band to the mainstream audience and helped them reach great popularity. In the UK, "Sugar" also reached No. 8, and spent 21 weeks in the top 75. "Sugar, We're Goin Down" has sold over two million copies in the US and was certified Triple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting the shipment of three million copies. It stands as the band's best-selling single to date.


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: The second single from the album, "Dance, Dance" was also released to commercial success, charting at No. 9 in the US in January 2006 and No. 8 in the UK, a second top 10 hit single for the band in both regions. In the US it spent 14 weeks in the top 20 out of a total of 30 chart weeks before it was retired, being certified Platinum by the RIAA for the shipment of one million units. "Dance, Dance" is Fall Out Boy's highest hit on Alternative radio, peaking at No. 2 on "Billboard" Alternative Songs. It charted at No. 35 on Ireland's singles chart. "Dance, Dance"'s music video won awards for "Viewer's Choice" and "Best Group" at the 2006 MTV awards, two Teen Choice Awards for "Rock Track" and "Single", and helped the band win "People's Choice: Favorite International Group" at the MuchMusic Video Awards.


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More "Touch Me"", the album's third and last single, was much less popular than "Cork Tree"s first two singles but managed to reach No. 65 on the Hot 100. It charted for 13 weeks. On "Billboard" Alternative Songs, it peaked at No. 38. In the UK, "Sixteen Candles" reached No. 38 on the singles chart. The band considered between "A Little Less Sixteen Candles..." and "Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year" as the third and last single, deciding on the former.


title: From Under the Cork Tree

text: On March 14, 2006, a separate version of the album was released entitled "From Under the Cork Tree (Limited "Black Clouds and Underdogs" edition)". This consisted of a total 18 tracks, the first 13 being the original release. The album rose to No. 9 on the "Billboard" 200 upon its re-release, its second week at its peak position. The three new songs and two dance remixes are as follows and in this order:


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 is the second solo studio album by the English singer-songwriter George Michael, released on 3 September 1990 by Columbia Records (Epic Records in the UK). The album was Michael's final album of all-new material on Columbia until 2004's "Patience". "Listen Without Prejudice" was a stark departure from Michael's previous album, 1987's "Faith", with largely acoustic instrumentation and a sombre intensity in many of the lyrics and melodies. While the album topped the UK Albums Chart, disappointing sales in the United States led to Michael's legal battles against Sony Music, in which he accused the corporation of not fully supporting him as an artist.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: "Listen Without Prejudice" was reissued across a number of formats on 20 October 2017 and again topped the UK Albums Chart, 27 years after it first reached number one on the chart.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: After the massive success of George Michael's 1987 album "Faith", expectations for his follow-up album were also high. Michael wanted to be taken more seriously as a songwriter, which resulted in a more thoughtful, often moody recording.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1" is largely devoted to ballads and folk-styled rock songs, although there are a few dance tracks like "Freedom" and "Soul Free". There was also a remix of "Freedom" that incorporated elements of Soul II Soul's "Back to Life", which was released as a twelve-inch single and received a good deal of club play. Like "Faith", each track was produced and arranged by Michael himself.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1" was released in September 1990. The album sold approximately eight million copies worldwide, a disappointing number compared to the 20 million copies of "Faith". Sales were particularly poor in the United States, where "Faith" had been the best-selling album of 1988. At two million copies sold, "Listen Without Prejudice" was a commercial disappointment for a successful artist. The album entered the "Billboard" 200 at number 22 and peaked at number two, blocked from the top by MC Hammer's "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em". The album spent the rest of 1990 in the top ten, with a total of 42 weeks on the entire chart—fewer than half the 87 weeks spent by "Faith".


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: In the United Kingdom, the album was a huge success, eclipsing sales of "Faith". "Listen Without Prejudice" debuted on the UK Albums Chart at number one, where it remained for a week. It stayed at number two for the following two weeks. It spent 34 consecutive weeks in the top 20, and jumped from number 13 to number three in its 24th week. It spent a total of 88 weeks on the chart, and was certified quadruple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry on 2 January 1992.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: The follow-up album "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 2" (ostensibly scheduled to follow in June 1991) was scrapped for reasons known only to Michael and his record company. Three of the tracks intended for that album appear on the 1992 charity compilation "Red Hot + Dance", while a fourth ("Crazy Man Dance") turned up on the B-side of that compilation's first single, "Too Funky".


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: The first single from "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1", "Praying for Time", was released in August 1990, reaching number six on the UK Singles Chart and number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100—Michael's final US number one as a solo artist.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: The second single (third in the US), "Waiting for That Day", was issued a month after the album's release. Owing to a borrowed lyric from The Rolling Stones' hit "You Can't Always Get What You Want", co-writer credits were given to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. It reached number 23 in the UK, and, after being released there in spring 1991, number 27 in the US.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: In the US, "Mother's Pride", the "Waiting for That Day" B-side, reached number 46; given its subject matter, it received considerable airplay on American radio during the Gulf War.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: The album's third single (second in the US), "Freedom! '90", became one of Michael's signature songs. It was a great success in the US, where it reached number eight and earned a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. It charted lower in Michael's homeland, where it peaked at number 28.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: The fifth single from "Listen Without Prejudice", "Cowboys and Angels", entered the UK Singles Chart in March and peaked at number 45.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: "Soul Free" was commercially released as the sixth and final single in Australia and Japan, in Australia it peaked at number 95 on the ARIA chart.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: Michael refused to appear in the music videos for the album's singles. Accordingly, the video for "Praying for Time" consisted of the song's lyrics projected onto a dark background, while the video for "Freedom! '90", directed by David Fincher, featured several supermodels lip syncing its lyrics, and the destruction by fire and explosion of several icons from Michael's recent "Faith" period.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1" was reissued on 20 October 2017 as "Listen Without Prejudice / MTV Unplugged". The reissue was first announced in September 2016. The 2CD version includes the original remastered album on the first disc, and Michael's "MTV Unplugged" concert, recorded at 3 Mills Studios, London on 11 October 1996, on the second disc. "MTV Unplugged" contains performances of "I Can't Make You Love Me" and "The Strangest Thing" that are identical to those previously released as B-sides to the single "Older", and the 2017 version of "Fantasy", reworked by Nile Rodgers and released as a single in September 2017.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: The 3CD+DVD deluxe edition includes two more discs: a CD with B-sides, remixes and rarities, and a DVD with a documentary and music videos. Rarities on the third disc include: "If You Were My Woman" (recorded live at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert in 1988 and featured on the "Praying for Time" single), "Crazy Man Dance", and "Do You Really Want to Know" and "Happy" (from "Red Hot + Dance"). The original remastered album was also reissued on vinyl. "Listen Without Prejudice / MTV Unplugged" entered the UK Albums Chart at number one with first-week sales of 56,088 copies, 27 years after the original album first topped the chart.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1" was met with critical acclaim from music critics upon release. Reviewing the album for "Rolling Stone", James Hunter stated that the album mostly "succeeds in its effort to establish Michael's seriousness and deliver him from caricature." "Los Angeles Times" critic Chris Willman wrote that, "some self-seriousness aside", "Listen Without Prejudice" "is an impressive piece of work in which Michael's rich feel for melodies and instinctively perfect production skills have finally met up with songs that have the ring of personal, not commercial, passion." Greg Kot of the "Chicago Tribune" particularly complimented the album's spare sound, which he viewed as a welcome contrast to the more dance-leaning music dominating contemporary hit radio.


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: "Entertainment Weekly"s Greg Sandow was less enthusiastic, finding "Listen Without Prejudice" less "vital" and "fun" than "Faith", "and, for all its noble sentiment, entirely unchallenging". Robert Christgau of "The Village Voice" said that Michael's retreat from dance music resulted in less interesting songs, and asserted that Michael "doesn't know as much about stardom as he thinks".


title: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

text: In 2010, "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1" was included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". In a positive appraisal of the album's 2017 reissue, "Pitchfork" writer Alfred Soto situated the album in the context of the then-burgeoning HIV/AIDS pandemic: "[George Michael] understood black music as the product of a familiarity with death leavened by the banalities of earth: love, sex, comfort. Something was happening that autumn to gay artists closeted from their fans. In October [1990], Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe released "Behaviour", the quietest album of the Pet Shop Boys' career. The unceasing piling up of bodies killed by HIV had made, for the moment, the bacchanal into a gauche if not repulsive gesture of sentimentality." According to Soto: "For those of us too young for the plague years—who can imagine, at least, a life lived instead of convulsing in agony on a hospital bed—chastising Michael for leaning on elegies and ballads in 1990 strikes me as glib. In its original form, "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1" was the follow-up that "Faith" demanded; in this new incarnation, it's a miscellany unruffled by notions of coherence, an attempt to make art out of George Michael's quarrels with himself."


title: Île de la Cité

text: Île de la Cité (; English: City Island) is an island in the river Seine in the center of Paris. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of the Roman governor. In 508, Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, established his palace on the island. In the 12th century, it became an important religious center, the home of Notre-Dame cathedral, and the royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, as well as the city's first hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu. It is also the site of the city's oldest surviving bridge, the Pont Neuf.


title: Île de la Cité

text: With the departure of the French kings to the Louvre Palace, and then to the Palace of Versailles, the island became France's judicial centre. In 1302, it hosted the first meeting of the Parliament of Paris and was later the site of the trials of aristocrats during the French Revolution. Today, it is the home of the Prefecture de Police, the Palais de Justice, and the Tribunal de commerce de Paris. The Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation, a memorial to the 200,000 people deported from Vichy France to Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War, is located at the eastern end of the island. The city's most famous landmark, Notre-Dame de Paris, was badly damaged by a fire in 2019 and is closed, but it is expected to reopen in time for the Paris Olympics in 2024. As of 2016, the island's population was 891.


title: Île de la Cité

text: A Gallic settlement, called Lutetia, may have existed on the island since at least the 3rd century BC. The nearby area was inhabited by the Parisii, a small Gallic tribe. The island may have served them as a convenient place to cross the Seine, a base for a flourishing trading network by river, and a place of refuge in times of invasion. However, no significant traces of a settlement earlier than the 1st century AD have been found to date on the island.


title: Île de la Cité

text: The Parisii were famous traders, taking advantage of the trade routes by river throughout Europe. Coins minted by the Parisii, dating to about 100 BC, have been found in excavations across France and other parts of Europe. The island was the most convenient river crossing point, with bridges on both sides of the island.


title: Île de la Cité

text: The first recorded mention of the island is in the "Commentaries" of Julius Caesar. In 53 BC, during the conquest of Gaul, Caesar came to Lutetia and met with the leaders of the Gallic tribes. They agreed to submit to Rome, but then almost immediately rebelled. Caesar sent one of his generals, Titus Labienus, to subdue the Parisii. The Parisii burned the bridges to prevent his passage, but they were outmaneuvered and defeated in battle on the Plain of Auteuil.


title: Île de la Cité

text: An academic debate about the original location of Lutetia began in 2006, following the excavation in 1994–2005 of a large Gallic necropolis, with residences and temples, at Nanterre, along the Seine in the Paris suburbs. Some historians have put forward this settlement at Nanterre as the Lutetia of the Gauls, rather than Île de la Cité. Other historians point out that Caesar described "Lutetia, fortress ('oppidum') of the Parisii, situated on an island." They say that the absence of traces of pre-Roman settlement discovered so far on Île de la Cité is due primarily to the continuous building and rebuilding on the island over the centuries.


title: Île de la Cité

text: After the conquest of the Parisii, the Roman town of Lutetia developed mainly on the Left Bank, where the temples and baths were located. However, in the 3rd century AD, a series of invasions by Germanic tribes began; the Roman town on the left bank was sacked in 275–76. Afterwards, the left bank was largely abandoned. Beginning in 307 AD, the forum, amphitheater, and other structures were demolished and the stone was used to construct a rampart around the island, as well as to construct new buildings. The stone wall was not very high - only about two meters - but was apparently topped by a further wooden palisade. The island became an important defensive position on the northern flank of the Roman Empire. In 451, during the late Roman Empire, when the Huns occupied the left bank, Saint Genevieve led the defence of the city from the island.


title: Île de la Cité

text: The Roman Emperor Julian, residing in Gaul from 355 to 361, described "a small island lying in the river; a wall entirely surrounds it, and wooden bridges lead to it on both sides." At what was then the western end of the island was the residence of the Roman governor, near the present Palais de Justice. It was described as a "Palace", but appears to have been a very modest residence.


title: Île de la Cité

text: The Roman also built a new wharf, where the Parvis Notre-Dame – Place Jean-Paul II is today. The island was much smaller then; the Roman wharf is now well inland, far from the present edge of the island. Remains of the wharf can be seen in the archeological crypt under the Parvis, in front of Notre Dame de Paris. One important monument left by the Parisii was discovered here: the Pillar of the Boatmen, a group of statues erected by the boatmen of the city in the 1st century AD, honouring both Roman and Gallic gods.


title: Île de la Cité

text: In addition to the residence of the Roman governor, the island contained the civic basilica, which held the courts of justice. It was located near the present flower market and Metro station, and was a large rectangular building 70 by 35 meters in size, with a central nave and two collateral aisles. Its foundations were discovered during the construction of the Metro station in 1906. It, too, was built with stones taken from the forum on the Left Bank.


title: Île de la Cité

text: In 486, Saint Genevieve negotiated the submission of Paris to Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, who chose Paris as his capital, in 508. The "first cathedral of Paris", that of Saint Etienne, was constructed in 540–545, close to the west front of the present Notre Dame de Paris and just a few hundred meters from the Royal Palace.


title: Île de la Cité

text: Hugh Capet (c. 941–996), the founder of the Capetian dynasty, began as ruler of a kingdom not much larger than the Paris region, but through conquest and marriage, he and his descendants made the Kingdom of France into an important European power. The visible symbol of Capetian power was the Palais de la Cité, which he and his descendants enlarged and embellished. Philippe IV built the Grand Chamber and new walls, with two towers: the Tower of Caesar and the Tower of Silver. Louis VI (1081–1137) tore down the old tower and built an even larger one, which remained until the 18th century.


title: Île de la Cité

text: Louis IX built his new chapel, the jewel-like Sainte-Chapelle, between 1242 and 1248. During the same period, the most famous landmark of the island was constructed: the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. An earlier cathedral, the Cathedral of Saint-Etienne, had been constructed in the Romanesque style. In 1160, the bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully, began construction of a cathedral in the new Gothic style, to match the magnificence of the palace. The first stones of the foundation of the new cathedral were laid by Pope Alexander III, in 1163. Its construction spanned two centuries.


title: Île de la Cité

text: During this period, new streets and houses were constructed on the island, which became more and more densely populated. The crowding of the island, and the resulting problems of narrow streets jammed with traffic, pollution, and foul smells, caused the Kings of France to search for a new residence. A rebellion of the Parisians in 1358, led by Etienne Marcel, the provost of the merchants, at a time when the French King was a hostage of the English, caused the next King, Charles V of France, to move his residence to the edge of the city: first to the Hotel Saint-Pol, then to the Bastille, and finally to the Louvre Palace.


title: Île de la Cité

text: In the following centuries, after the Kings departed, the island retained its importance as an administrative center. It was home to the courts and tribunals, as well as the Parlement of Paris: an assembly of nobles who formally registered royal proclamations. It included the Conciergerie, which contained the royal prisons and judicial offices. Other important transformations were made to the island. In 1585, work began on the Pont Neuf at the far west end of the island. In 1607, Henry IV gave up the royal garden on the island, which was transformed into the Place Dauphine, and the Pont Neuf was completed.


title: Île de la Cité

text: When the Pont Neuf was built, two small islands, Île à la Gourdaine and Île aux Juifs, which were just to the west of the island, were joined to it. The Ilot des Juifs had been the site of the burning at the stake of Jacques de Molay, the leader of the Knights Templar, in 1314, as the island was just below the towers of the Royal Palace. The junction of the small islands was completed in 1607, and the land was developed into the Place Dauphine and the Square du Vert-Galant.