title: Loftus Road

text: In August 2013, QPR started discussions with Hammersmith and Fulham Council about moving into a new stadium, believed to be set for Old Oak Common, and soon after, in December, confirmed that they would be leaving Loftus Road for the short move across west London. However, in July 2014, these plans suffered a setback, with the current tenants at Old Oak – Car Giant – suggesting the club's plans were "speculative and presumptuous". It was planned to be called New Queens Park.


title: Loftus Road

text: The stadium has a capacity of 18,439. The four stands are the Loftus Road End (often shortened to The Loft), The Stanley Bowles Stand, South Africa Road Stand and the School End, the Upper Tier of which is used by away supporters with the lower tier also allocated when demand justifies it.


title: Loftus Road

text: Because of the size of the stadium, supporters find themselves much closer to the pitch compared to many other stadiums. All four of the modern stands meet with no gaps, giving the overall impression of a tightly enclosed stadium. All the stands have two tiers, with the exception of the Stanley Bowles Stand.


title: Loftus Road

text: The South Africa Road stand is the biggest of the four stands. It is a two tier stand which includes The Paddocks and contains a row of executive boxes separating The Paddocks and the upper tier. It also houses the dugouts, changing rooms, executive suites, tunnel, club offices, club shop, box office and press conference rooms. The Paddocks area is the cheapest in the ground, whereas the upper tier is the most expensive. The exclusive W12 and C Clubs are located here.


title: Loftus Road

text: The Loft is a two tier stand built in 1981 behind the goal and is traditionally where most members and season ticket holders sit. The lower tier became a Family Stand in the summer of 2012. This is the third most expensive stand to sit in. QPR generally opt to attack this end in the second half because it is believed to be good luck. The police crowd observation box is located in this stand and it is home to the members' bar in the ground, The Blue and White Bar. A new colour scoreboard is located at this end, installed in Summer 2008, on the advertising boards between the upper and lower tiers. As of August 2022 The Lower Loft contains 726 rail seats used for safe standing in Blocks ML, NL and PL.


title: Loftus Road

text: The Stanley Bowles Stand, formerly known at the Ellerslie Road stand, was rebuilt in 1972. It is a single tiered stand and is the smallest in height, but not in noise and capacity. It is home to the "R Block" where, along with the Loft's Q and P blocks QPR's loudest and most partisan following are located. The R Block contains 237 rail seats so the rowdiest fans can stand during the game. This stand is a favourite of some fans because of the view and atmosphere, and is the second most expensive stand in the stadium. It is also home to the commentary and television camera gantry, and is the only stand whose seat colours are not arranged in blue and white hoops, spelling out "QPR" instead.


title: Loftus Road

text: At the west end of the stadium is the School End which has been all seated since 1990 after the Taylor Report. The Upper Tier Has 1,850 seats which are allocated to away supporters for league matches with away teams given the lower tier if demand requires it.


title: Loftus Road

text: Loftus Road was home to professional rugby union team London Wasps from September 1996 to the end of the 2001–02 season, having moved from their home in Sudbury, Middlesex, as part of the deal in which Chris Wright took control of both Wasps and QPR. Wasps won the English Premiership in their first season at Loftus Road. It was part of a 7-year ground share deal negotiated by Chris Wright who had just bought Wasps as rugby union became professional. Wasps agreed to move out, to Wycombe Wanderers' Adams Park ground, at the end of the 2001–02 season to allow Fulham F.C. to rent for 2 seasons between 2002 and 2004, while their ground, Craven Cottage, was redeveloped. It was Fulham's preferred temporary ground, with the other suggested alternative being West Ham's Upton Park. It was open for Wasps to return, but Wasps decided not to move back after Fulham left. It has also been used to host the final of the British Universities and Colleges Sport football tournaments.


title: Loftus Road

text: The venue has also been used to host boxing in the past, with the most notable bout being between Irishman Barry McGuigan and Panamanian Eusebio Pedroza on 8 June 1985 for the WBA featherweight championship in front of a sold out capacity of 27,000 spectators. The stadium was transformed into a little bit of Ireland for the evening, with the "Ireland's Saturday Night" on sale, and man dressed as a leprechaun dancing around the ring before the main event. McGuigan knocked the Panamanian down in the 7th round en route to a unanimous decision win: Pedroza was making the nineteenth defense of his title, and Ireland had not had a boxing world champion for 35 years. The band Yes performed at the stadium on 10 May 1975, which was recorded and featured on "The Old Grey Whistle Test".


title: Loftus Road

text: Loftus Road hosted two England B internationals. The first was against France B in 1992 with the hosts winning, 2–0, and the other was against Russia-2 in 1998 and won, 4–1.


title: Loftus Road

text: It was the first 'neutral' venue to capitalise on hosting international friendlies not involving England.


title: Loftus Road

text: A testimonial match for Simon Barker saw QPR lose to the Jamaica national team by 2–1 in March 1998, with the national team returning to Loftus Road in 2002 to play Nigeria where they lost, 1–0. Israel requested to play their Euro 2004 qualifying match against Cyprus as UEFA had banned Israel from hosting home games on its own territory due to security concerns. The application was rejected as there were already five scheduled matches over the course of thirteen days as it was during the time that QPR were sharing Loftus Road with Fulham. QPR themselves played the Iranian national team in a pre-season friendly on 23 July 2005. On 14 November 2006, Australia drew 1–1 with Ghana in an international friendly at the ground. In 2007 Denmark won, 3–1, against Australia at Loftus Road. In 2008, Australia played another friendly at Loftus Road against South Africa, the match ended 2–2. South Korea won, 2–0, against Ivory Coast at Loftus Road on 3 March 2010.


title: Loftus Road

text: Loftus Road hosted the 2015 Saudi Super Cup between Al Nassr and Al Hilal, marking the first time that the competition was held outside of Saudi Arabia.


title: Loftus Road

text: The stadium hosted two rugby league internationals. The first was a 2004 Rugby League Tri-Nations match between Australia and New Zealand on Saturday 23 October 2004 with Australia winning, 32–16. The other was a 2005 Rugby League Tri-Nations match between Great Britain and New Zealand on 29 October 2005 with New Zealand winning, 42–26.


title: Loftus Road

text: There are several London Underground stations near the stadium, the closest being White City, which is on the Central line, about five minutes walk away from the stadium. A further two minutes walk away is Wood Lane on the Hammersmith & City line. Shepherd's Bush Market is also on the Hammersmith & City line. Other nearby stations include those at Shepherd's Bush on the Central line, and Shepherd's Bush which operates trains on the London Overground and Southern networks. The Underground stations have on rare occasions been a means for Away teams to arrive, e.g. Coventry City's players arrived via the tube station in 2008 after their coach got stuck in traffic.


title: Loftus Road

text: A number of London Bus routes run near the stadium. From South Africa Road to the north, the 228 runs in both directions, terminating at Maida Hill and Central Middlesex Hospital. On the same road, the 283 runs through to East Acton, and although it doesn't stop when running in the other direction on South Africa Road, it does stop on the adjacent Bloemfontein Road. Other buses nearby are the 260, 207 and 607, each of which run down the Uxbridge Road.


title: Pipa

text: The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 31. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa. The pear-shaped instrument may have existed in China as early as the Han dynasty, and although historically the term "pipa" was once used to refer to a variety of plucked chordophones, its usage since the Song dynasty refers exclusively to the pear-shaped instrument.


title: Pipa

text: The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China. Several related instruments are derived from the pipa, including the Japanese biwa and Korean bipa in East Asia, and the Vietnamese đàn tỳ bà in Southeast Asia. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer widely used.


title: Pipa

text: There are some confusions and disagreements about the origin of pipa. This may be due to the fact that the word pipa was used in ancient texts to describe a variety of plucked chordophones of the period from the Qin to the Tang dynasty, including the long-necked spiked lute and the short-necked lute, as well as the differing accounts given in these ancient texts. Traditional Chinese narrative prefers the story of the Han Chinese Princess Liu Xijun sent to marry a barbarian Wusun king during the Han dynasty, with the "pipa" being invented so she could play music on horseback to soothe her longings. Modern researchers such as Laurence Picken, Shigeo Kishibe, and John Myers suggested a non-Chinese origin.


title: Pipa

text: The earliest mention of pipa in Chinese texts appeared late in the Han dynasty around the 2nd century AD. According to Liu Xi's Eastern Han dynasty "Dictionary of Names", the word pipa may have an onomatopoeic origin (the word being similar to the sounds the instrument makes), although modern scholarship suggests a possible derivation from the Persian word "barbat", the two theories however are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Liu Xi also stated that the instrument called "pipa", though written differently ( or ) in the earliest texts, originated from amongst the Hu people (a general term for non-Han people living to the north and west of ancient China). Another Han Dynasty text, "Fengsu Tongyi", also indicates that, at that time, "pipa" was a recent arrival, although later 3rd-century texts from the Jin dynasty suggest that pipa existed in China as early as the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). An instrument called "xiantao" (弦鼗), made by stretching strings over a small drum with handle, was said to have been played by labourers who constructed the Great Wall of China during the late Qin Dynasty. This may have given rise to the "Qin pipa", an instrument with a straight neck and a round sound box, and evolved into "ruan", an instrument named after Ruan Xian, one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and known for playing similar instrument. Yet another term used in ancient text was "Qinhanzi" (秦漢子), perhaps similar to Qin pipa with a straight neck and a round body, but modern opinions differ on its precise form.


title: Pipa

text: The pear-shaped pipa is likely to have been introduced to China from Central Asia, Gandhara, and/or India. Pear-shaped lutes have been depicted in Kusana sculptures from the 1st century AD. The pear-shaped pipa may have been introduced during the Han dynasty and was referred to as Han pipa. However, depictions of the pear-shaped pipas in China only appeared after the Han dynasty during the Jin dynasty in the late 4th to early 5th century. Pipa acquired a number of Chinese symbolisms during the Han dynasty - the instrument length of three feet five inches represents the three realms (heaven, earth, and man) and the five elements, while the four strings represent the four seasons.


title: Pipa

text: Depictions of the pear-shaped pipas appeared in abundance from the Southern and Northern dynasties onwards, and pipas from this time to the Tang Dynasty were given various names, such as Hu pipa (胡琵琶), bent-neck pipa (曲項琵琶, quxiang pipa), some of these terms however may refer to the same pipa. Apart from the four-stringed pipa, other pear-shaped instruments introduced include the five-stringed, straight-necked, wuxian pipa (五弦琵琶, also known as Kuchean pipa (龜茲琵琶)), a six-stringed version, as well as the two-stringed hulei (忽雷). From the 3rd century onwards, through the Sui and Tang dynasty, the pear-shaped "pipas" became increasingly popular in China. By the Song dynasty, the word pipa was used to refer exclusively to the four-stringed pear-shaped instrument.


title: Pipa

text: The pipa reached a height of popularity during the Tang dynasty, and was a principal musical instrument in the imperial court. It may be played as a solo instrument or as part of the imperial orchestra for use in productions such as "daqu" (大曲, grand suites), an elaborate music and dance performance. During this time, Persian and Kuchan performers and teachers were in demand in the capital, Chang'an (which had a large Persian community). Some delicately carved "pipa"s with beautiful inlaid patterns date from this period, with particularly fine examples preserved in the Shosoin Museum in Japan. It had close association with Buddhism and often appeared in mural and sculptural representations of musicians in Buddhist contexts. For example, masses of "pipa"-playing Buddhist semi-deities are depicted in the wall paintings of the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang. The four and five-stringed "pipas" were especially popular during the Tang dynasty, and these instruments were introduced into Japan during the Tang dynasty as well as into other regions such as Korea and Vietnam. The five-stringed "pipa" however had fallen from use by the Song dynasty, although attempts have been made to revive this instrument in the early 21st century with a modernized five-string pipa modeled on the Tang dynasty instrument.


title: Pipa

text: During the Song dynasty, "pipa" fell from favour at the imperial court, perhaps a result of the influence of neo-Confucian nativism as "pipa" had foreign associations. However, it continued to be played as a folk instrument that also gained the interest of the literati. The "pipa" underwent a number of changes over the centuries. By the Ming dynasty, fingers replaced plectrum as the popular technique for playing pipa, although finger-playing techniques existed as early as Tang. Extra frets were added; the early instrument had 4 frets (相, "xiāng") on the neck, but during the early Ming dynasty extra bamboo frets (品, pǐn) were affixed onto the soundboard, increasing the number of frets to around 10 and therefore the range of the instrument. The short neck of the Tang "pipa" also became more elongated.


title: Pipa

text: In the subsequent periods, the number of frets gradually increased, from around 10 to 14 or 16 during the Qing dynasty, then to 19, 24, 29, and 30 in the 20th century. The 4 wedge-shaped frets on the neck became 6 during the 20th century. The 14- or 16-fret "pipa" had frets arranged in approximately equivalent to the western tone and semitone, starting at the nut, the intervals were T-S-S-S-T-S-S-S-T-T-3/4-3/4-T-T-3/4-3/4, (some frets produced a 3/4 tone or "neutral tone"). In the 1920s and 1930s, the number of frets was increased to 24, based on the 12 tone equal temperament scale, with all the intervals being semitones. The traditional 16-fret "pipa" became less common, although it is still used in some regional styles such as the pipa in the southern genre of "nanguan"/nanyin. The horizontal playing position became the vertical (or near-vertical) position by the Qing dynasty, although in some regional genres such as nanguan the pipa is still held guitar fashion. During the 1950s, the use of metal strings in place of the traditional silk ones also resulted in a change in the sound of the pipa which became brighter and stronger.


title: Pipa

text: Early literary tradition in China, for example in a 3rd-century description by Fu Xuan, "Ode to Pipa", associates the Han pipa with the northern frontier, Wang Zhaojun and other princesses who were married to nomad rulers of the Wusun and Xiongnu peoples in what is now Mongolia, northern Xinjiang and Kazakhstan. Wang Zhaojun in particular is frequently referenced with pipa in later literary works and lyrics, for example Ma Zhiyuan's play "Autumn in the Palace of Han" (漢宮秋), especially since the Song dynasty (although her story is often conflated with other women including Liu Xijun), as well as in music pieces such as "Zhaojun's Lament" (昭君怨, also the title of a poem), and in paintings where she is often depicted holding a pipa.


title: Pipa

text: There are many references to pipa in Tang literary works, for example, in "A Music Conservatory Miscellany" Duan Anjie related many anecdotes associated with pipa. The "pipa" is mentioned frequently in Tang dynasty poetry, where it is often praised for its expressiveness, refinement and delicacy of tone, with poems dedicated to well-known players describing their performances. A famous poem by Bai Juyi, "Pipa xing" (琵琶行), contains a description of a pipa performance during a chance encounter with a female pipa player on the Yangtze River:


title: Pipa

text: The encounter also inspired a poem by Yuan Zhen, "Song of Pipa" (琵琶歌). Another excerpt of figurative descriptions of a pipa music may be found in a eulogy for a pipa player, "Lament for Shancai" by Li Shen:


title: Pipa

text: During the Song dynasty, many of the literati and poets wrote "ci" verses, a form of poetry meant to be sung and accompanied by instruments such as "pipa". They included Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, and Su Shi. During the Yuan dynasty, the playwright Gao Ming wrote a play for "nanxi" opera called "Pipa ji" (琵琶記, or "Story of the Pipa"), a tale about an abandoned wife who set out to find her husband, surviving by playing the "pipa". It is one of the most enduring work in Chinese theatre, and one that became a model for Ming dynasty drama as it was the favorite opera of the first Ming emperor. The Ming collection of supernatural tales "Fengshen Yanyi" tells the story of Pipa Jing, a pipa spirit, but ghost stories involving "pipa" existed as early as the Jin dynasty, for example in the 4th century collection of tales "Soushen Ji". Novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties such as "Jin Ping Mei" showed "pipa" performance to be a normal aspect of life in these periods at home (where the characters in the novels may be proficient in the instrument) as well as outside on the street or in pleasure houses.


title: Pipa

text: The name "pipa" is made up of two Chinese syllables, "pí" (琵) and "pá" (琶). These, according to the Han dynasty text by Liu Xi, refer to the way the instrument is played – "pí" is to strike outward with the right hand, and "pá" is to pluck inward towards the palm of the hand. The strings were played using a large plectrum in the Tang dynasty, a technique still used now for the Japanese biwa. It has however been suggested that the long plectrum depicted in ancient paintings may have been used as a friction stick like a bow. The plectrum has now been largely replaced by the fingernails of the right hand. The most basic technique, "tantiao" (彈挑), involves just the index finger and thumb ("tan" is striking with the index finger, "tiao" with the thumb). The fingers normally strike the strings of pipa in the opposite direction to the way a guitar is usually played, i.e. the fingers and thumb flick outward, unlike the guitar where the fingers and thumb normally pluck inward towards the palm of the hand. Plucking in the opposite direction to "tan" and "tiao" are called "mo" (抹) and "gou" (勾) respectively. When two strings are plucked at the same time with the index finger and thumb (i.e. the finger and thumb separate in one action), it is called "fen" (分), the reverse motion is called "zhi" (摭). A rapid strum is called "sao" (掃), and strumming in the reverse direction is called "fu" (拂). A distinctive sound of pipa is the tremolo produced by the "lunzhi" (輪指) technique which involves all the fingers and thumb of the right hand. It is however possible to produce the tremolo with just one or more fingers.


title: Pipa

text: The left hand techniques are important for the expressiveness of pipa music. Techniques that produce vibrato, portamento, glissando, pizzicato, harmonics or artificial harmonics found in violin or guitar are also found in pipa. String-bending for example may be used to produce a glissando or portamento. Note however that the frets on all Chinese lutes are high so that the fingers and strings never touch the fingerboard in between the frets, this is different from many Western fretted instruments and allows for dramatic vibrato and other pitch changing effects.


title: Pipa

text: In addition, there are a number of techniques that produce sound effects rather than musical notes, for example, striking the board of the pipa for a percussive sound, or strings-twisting while playing that produces a cymbal-like effect.


title: Pipa

text: The strings are usually tuned to although there are various other ways of tuning. Since the revolutions in Chinese instrument-making during the 20th century, the softer twisted silk strings of earlier times have been exchanged for nylon-wound steel strings, which are far too strong for human fingernails, so false nails are now used, constructed of plastic or tortoise-shell, and affixed to the fingertips with the player's choice of elastic tape. However, false nails made of horn existed as early as the Ming period when finger-picking became the popular technique for playing pipa.


title: Pipa

text: The pipa is held in a vertical or near-vertical position during performance, although in the early periods the instrument was held in the horizontal position or near-horizontal with the neck pointing slightly downwards, or upside down. Starting about the 10th century, players began to hold the instrument "more upright", as the fingernail style became more important. Through time, the neck was raised and by the Qing dynasty the instrument was mostly played upright.


title: Pipa

text: Pipa has been played solo, or as part of a large ensemble or small group since the early times. Few pieces for pipa survived from the early periods, some, however, are preserved in Japan as part of togaku (Tang music) tradition. In the early 20th century, twenty-five pieces were found amongst 10th-century manuscripts in the Mogao caves near Dunhuang, most of these pieces however may have originated from the Tang dynasty. The scores were written in tablature form with no information on tuning given, there are therefore uncertainties in the reconstruction of the music as well as deciphering other symbols in the score. Three Ming dynasty pieces were discovered in the "High River Flows East" (高河江東, "Gaohe Jiangdong") collection dating from 1528 which are very similar to those performed today, such as "The Moon on High" (月兒高, "Yue-er Gao"). During the Qing dynasty, scores for pipa were collected in "Thirteen Pieces for Strings". During the Qing dynasty there originally two major schools of "pipa" — the Northern and Southern schools, and music scores for these two traditions were collected and published in the first mass-produced edition of solo pieces for pipa, now commonly known as the "Hua Collection" (華氏譜). The collection was edited by Hua Qiuping (華秋萍, 1784–1859) and published in 1819 in three volumes. The first volume contains 13 pieces from the Northern school, the second and third volumes contain 54 pieces from the Southern school. Famous pieces such as "Ambushed from Ten Sides", "The Warlord Takes Off His Armour", and "Flute and Drum at Sunset" were first described in this collection. The earliest-known piece in the collection may be "Eagle Seizing a Crane" (海青挐鶴) which was mentioned in a Yuan dynasty text. Other collections from the Qing dynasty were compiled by Li Fangyuan (李芳園) and Ju Shilin (鞠士林), each representing different schools, and many of the pieces currently popular were described in these Qing collections. Further important collections were published in the 20th century.


title: Pipa

text: The pipa pieces in the common repertoire can be categorized as "wen" (文, civil) or "wu" (武, martial), and "da" (大, large or suite) or "xiao" (小, small). The "wen" style is more lyrical and slower in tempo, with softer dynamic and subtler colour, and such pieces typically describe love, sorrow, and scenes of nature. Pieces in the "Wu" style are generally more rhythmic and faster, and often depict scenes of battles and are played in a vigorous fashion employing a variety of techniques and sound effects. The "wu" style was associated more with the Northern school while the "wen" style was more the Southern school. The "da" and "xiao" categories refer to the size of the piece – "xiao" pieces are small pieces normally containing only one section, while "da" pieces are large and usually contain multiple sections. The traditional pieces however often have a standard metrical length of 68 measures or beat, and these may be joined together to form the larger pieces "dagu".


title: Pipa

text: Most of the above are traditional compositions dating to the Qing Dynasty or early 20th century, new pieces however are constantly being composed, and most of them follow a more Western structure. Examples of popular modern works composed after the 1950s are "Dance of the Yi People" and "Heroic Little Sisters of the Grassland" (草原英雄小姐妹). Non-traditional themes may be used in these new compositions and some may reflect the political landscape and demands at the time of composition, for example "Dance of the Yi People" which is based on traditional melodies of the Yi people, may be seen as part of the drive for national unity, while "Heroic Little Sisters of the Grassland" extols the virtue of those who served as model of exemplary behaviour in the People's commune.


title: Pipa

text: There are a number of different traditions with different styles of playing pipa in various regions of China, some of which then developed into schools. In the narrative traditions where the pipa is used as an accompaniment to narrative singing, there are the Suzhou "tanci" (蘇州彈詞), Sichuan "qingyin" (四川清音), and Northern "quyi" (北方曲藝) genres. Pipa is also an important component of regional chamber ensemble traditions such as Jiangnan sizhu, Teochew string music and Nanguan ensemble. In Nanguan music, the pipa is still held in the near-horizontal position or guitar-fashion in the ancient manner instead of the vertical position normally used for solo playing in the present day.


title: Pipa

text: There were originally two major schools of pipa during the Qing Dynasty — the Northern (Zhili, 直隸派) and Southern (Zhejiang, 浙江派) schools, and from these emerged the five main schools associated with the solo tradition. Each school is associated with one or more collections of pipa music and named after its place of origin –


title: Pipa

text: These schools of the solo tradition emerged by students learning playing the pipa from a master, and each school has its own style, performance aesthetics, notation system, and may differ in their playing techniques. Different schools have different repertoire in their music collection, and even though these schools share many of the same pieces in their repertoire, a same piece of music from the different schools may differ in their content. For example, a piece like "The Warlord Takes off His Armour" is made up of many sections, some of them metered and some with free meter, and greater freedom in interpretation is possible in the free meter sections. Different schools however can have sections added or removed, and may differ in the number of sections with free meter. The music collections from the 19th century also used the gongche notation which provides only a skeletal melody and approximate rhythms sometimes with the occasional playing instructions given (such as tremolo or string-bending), and how this basic framework can become fully fleshed out during a performance may only be learnt by the students from the master. The same piece of music can therefore differ significantly when performed by students of different schools, with striking differences in interpretation, phrasing, tempo, dynamics, playing techniques, and ornamentations.


title: Pipa

text: In more recent times, many pipa players, especially the younger ones, no longer identify themselves with any specific school. Modern notation systems, new compositions as well as recordings are now widely available and it is no longer crucial for a pipa players to learn from the master of any particular school to know how to play a score.


title: Pipa

text: Pipa is commonly associated with Princess Liu Xijun and Wang Zhaojun of the Han dynasty, although the form of pipa they played in that period is unlikely to be pear-shaped as they are now usually depicted. Other early known players of "pipa" include General Xie Shang from the Jin Dynasty who was described to have performed it with his leg raised. The introduction of pipa from Central Asia also brought with it virtuoso performers from that region, for example Sujiva (蘇祇婆, "Sujipo") from the Kingdom of Kucha during the Northern Zhou dynasty, Kang Kunlun (康崑崙) from Kangju, and Pei Luoer (裴洛兒) from Shule. Pei Luoer was known for pioneering finger-playing techniques, while Sujiva was noted for the "Seven modes and seven tones", a musical modal theory from India. (The heptatonic scale was used for a time afterwards in the imperial court due to Sujiva's influence until it was later abandoned). These players had considerable influence on the development of "pipa" playing in China. Of particular fame were the family of "pipa" players founded by Cao Poluomen (曹婆羅門) and who were active for many generations from the Northern Wei to Tang dynasty.


title: Pipa

text: Texts from Tang dynasty mentioned many renowned pipa players such as He Huaizhi (賀懷智), Lei Haiqing (雷海清), Li Guaner (李管兒), and Pei Xingnu (裴興奴). Duan Anjie described the duel between the famous pipa player Kang Kunlun and the monk Duan Shanben (段善本) who was disguised as a girl, and told the story of Yang Zhi (楊志) who learned how to play the pipa secretly by listening to his aunt playing at night. Celebrated performers of the Tang Dynasty included three generations of the Cao family — Cao Bao (曹保), Cao Shancai (曹善才) and Cao Gang (曹剛), whose performances were noted in literary works.


title: Pipa

text: During the Song Dynasty, players mentioned in literary texts include Du Bin (杜彬). From the Ming dynasty, famous pipa players include Zhong Xiuzhi (鍾秀之), Zhang Xiong (張雄, known for his playing of "Eagle Seizing Swan"), the blind Li Jinlou (李近樓), and Tang Yingzeng (湯應曾) who was known to have played a piece that may be an early version of "Ambushed from Ten Sides".


title: Pipa

text: In Qing dynasty, apart from those of the various schools previously mentioned, there was Chen Zijing (陳子敬), a student of Ju Shilin and known as a noted player during late Qing dynasty.


title: Pipa

text: In the 20th century, two of the most prominent "pipa" players were Sun Yude (孙裕德; 1904–1981) and Li Tingsong (李廷松; 1906–1976). Both were pupils of Wang Yuting (1872–1951), and both were active in establishing and promoting "Guoyue" ("national music"), which is a combination of traditional regional music and Western musical practices. Sun performed in the United States, Asia, and Europe, and in 1956 became deputy director of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. As well as being one of the leading pipa players of his generation, Li held many academic positions and also carried out research on pipa scales and temperament. Wei Zhongle (卫仲乐; 1903－1997) played many instruments, including the "guqin". In the early 1950s, he founded the traditional instruments department at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Players from the Wang and Pudong schools were the most active in performance and recording during the 20th century, less active was the Pinghu school whose players include Fan Boyan (樊伯炎). Other noted players of the early 20th century include Liu Tianhua, a student of Shen Zhaozhou of the Chongming school and who increased the number of frets on the "pipa" and changed to an equal-tempered tuning, and the blind player Abing from Wuxi.


title: Pipa

text: Lin Shicheng (林石城; 1922–2006), born in Shanghai, began learning music under his father and was taught by Shen Haochu (沈浩初; 1899–1953), a leading player in the Pudong school style of pipa playing. He also qualified as a doctor of Chinese medicine. In 1956, after working for some years in Shanghai, Lin accepted a position at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Liu Dehai (1937–2020), also born in Shanghai, was a student of Lin Shicheng and in 1961 graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Liu also studied with other musicians and has developed a style that combines elements from several different schools. Ye Xuran (叶绪然), a student of Lin Shicheng and Wei Zhongle, was the Pipa Professor at the first Musical Conservatory of China, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He premiered the oldest Dunhuang Pipa Manuscript (the first interpretation made by Ye Dong) in Shanghai in the early 1980s.


title: Pipa

text: Other prominent students of Lin Shicheng at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing include Liu Guilian (刘桂莲, born 1961), Gao Hong and Wu Man. Wu Man is probably the best known "pipa" player internationally, received the first-ever master's degree in pipa and won China's first National Academic Competition for Chinese Instruments. She lives in San Diego, California and works extensively with Chinese, cross-cultural, new music, and jazz groups. Shanghai-born Liu Guilian graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music and became the director of the Shanghai Pipa Society, and a member of the Chinese Musicians Association and Chinese National Orchestral Society, before immigrating to Canada. She now performs with Red Chamber and the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble. Gao Hong graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music and was the first to do a joint tour with Lin Shicheng in North America. They recorded the critically acclaimed CD "Eagle Seizing Swan" together.


title: Pipa

text: Noted contemporary pipa players who work internationally include Min Xiao-Fen, Yang Jin(杨瑾), Zhou Yi, Qiu Xia He, Liu Fang, Cheng Yu, Jie Ma, Yang Jing, Yang Wei (杨惟), Guan Yadong (管亚东), Jiang Ting (蔣婷), Tang Liangxing (湯良興), and Lui Pui-Yuen (呂培原, brother of Lui Tsun-Yuen). Some other notable pipa players in China include Yu Jia (俞嘉), Wu Yu Xia (吳玉霞), Fang Jinlong (方錦龍) and Zhao Cong (赵聪).


title: Pipa

text: In the late 20th century, largely through the efforts of Wu Man (in USA), Min Xiao-Fen (in USA), composer Yang Jing (in Europe) and other performers, Chinese and Western contemporary composers began to create new works for the pipa (both solo and in combination with chamber ensembles and orchestra). Most prominent among these are Minoru Miki, Thüring Bräm, YANG Jing, Terry Riley, Donald Reid Womack, Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Tan Dun, Bright Sheng, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Bun-Ching Lam, and Carl Stone.


title: Pipa

text: Cheng Yu researched the old Tang Dynasty five-stringed pipa in the early 2000s and developed a modern version of it for contemporary use. It is very much the same as the modern pipa in construction save for being a bit wider to allow for the extra string and the reintroduction of the soundholes at the front. It has not caught on in China but in Korea (where she also did some of her research) the bipa was revived since then and the current versions are based on Chinese pipa, including one with five-strings. The 5 String Pipa is tuned like a Standard Pipa with the addition of an Extra Bass String tuned to an E2 (Same as the Guitar) which broadens the range (Tuning is E2, A2, D3, E3, A3). Jiaju Shen from The Either also plays an Electric 5 String Pipa/Guitar hybrid that has the Hardware from an Electric Guitar combined with the Pipa, built by an instrument maker named Tim Sway called "Electric Pipa 2.0".


title: Pipa

text: The pipa has also been used in rock music; the California-based band Incubus featured one, borrowed from guitarist Steve Vai, in their 2001 song "Aqueous Transmission," as played by the group's guitarist, Mike Einziger. The Shanghai progressive/folk-rock band Cold Fairyland, which was formed in 2001, also use "pipa" (played by Lin Di), sometimes multi-tracking it in their recordings. Australian dark rock band The Eternal use the "pipa" in their song "Blood" as played by singer/guitarist Mark Kelson on their album "Kartika". The artist Yang Jing plays "pipa" with a variety of groups. The instrument is also played by musician Min Xiaofen in "I See Who You Are", a song from Björk's album "Volta". Western performers of pipa include French musician Djang San, who integrated jazz and rock concepts to the instrument such as power chords and walking bass.


title: Pipa

text: The electric pipa was first developed in the late 20th century by adding electric guitar–style magnetic pickups to a regular acoustic pipa, allowing the instrument to be amplified through an instrument amplifier or PA system.


title: Pipa

text: A number of Western pipa players have experimented with amplified pipa. Brian Grimm placed the contact mic pickup on the face of the pipa and wedged under the bridge so he is able to plug into pedalboards, live computer performance rigs, and direct input (DI) to an audio interface for studio tracking. In 2014, French zhongruan player and composer Djang San, created his own electric pipa and recorded an experimental album that puts the electric pipa at the center of music. He was also the first musician to add a strap to the instrument, as he did for the zhongruan, allowing him to play the pipa and the zhongruan like a guitar.


title: Pipa

text: In 2014, an industrial designer residing in the United States Xi Zheng (郑玺) designed and crafted an electric pipa – "E-pa" in New York. In 2015, pipa player Jiaju Shen (沈嘉琚) released a mini album composed and produced by Li Zong (宗立), with E-pa music that has a strong Chinese flavor within a modern Western pop music mould.


title: Shweta Mohan

text: Shweta Mohan (born 19 November 1985) is an Indian playback singer. She has received four Filmfare Awards South for Best Female Playback Singer, one Kerala State Film Award and one Tamil Nadu State Film Award. She has recorded more than 700


title: Shweta Mohan

text: songs and albums in all the four south Indian languages namely Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, she has also recorded songs for Hindi films and has established herself as a leading playback singer of South Indian cinema.


title: Shweta Mohan

text: Shweta Mohan was born on 19 November 1985 to a Malayali family in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She is the daughter of Krishna Mohan and playback singer Sujatha Mohan. She completed her schooling at Good Shepherd Convent, Chennai and graduated from Stella Maris College, Chennai. She is married to her long-time friend, Ashwin Shashi. Shweta Mohan and Ashwin Shashi have a daughter, Sresta Ashwin, who was born in 2017.


title: Shweta Mohan

text: Shweta started her training in Carnatic music at the age of 9. As a child artiste, she recorded for the chorus of the songs 'Kuchi kuchi rakkamma' (Bombay) and 'Accham accham illai' (Indira) in the music direction of A. R. Rahman. Shweta has sung for music directors in India like Ilayaraja, A. R. Rahman, Vidyasagar, M M Keeravani, M. Jayachandran, Johnson, Sharreth, Ousepachan, Deepak Dev, Harris Jayaraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja, V. Harikrishna, G. V. Prakash, Mani Sharma, Kannan, N. R. Raghunanthan, Manikanth Kadri, Devi Sri Prasad and Anirudh Ravichander. Shweta is being trained in Carnatic classical vocal currently under Binni Krishnakumar who is also a playback singer.


title: Satya Pal Malik

text: Satya Pal Malik (born 24 July 1946) is an Indian politician. Malik was the Governor of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, from August 2018 to October 2019, and it was during his tenure that the constitutional decision to abrogate Article 370, which gave special status to J&K, was taken on 5 August 2019. Later he was moved to Goa as its 18th governor, and after that he served as the 21st Governor of Meghalaya until October 2022.


title: Satya Pal Malik

text: His first prominent stint as a politician was as a member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly during 1974–77. He represented Uttar Pradesh in Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1986 and 1986–89. He was member of the 9th Lok Sabha from Aligarh, from 1989 to 1991, as member of Janata Dal. He was the Governor of Bihar from October 2017 to August 2018. On 21 March 2018 he was also given additional charge to serve as Governor of Odisha up to 28 May 2018. In August 2018, he was appointed Governor to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.


title: Satya Pal Malik

text: Malik was born in Hisawada village of Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh in a Jat family. He pursued Bachelor of Science and LLB degrees from Meerut College. In 1968-69, Malik was elected as the students union president, commencing his political career.


title: Satya Pal Malik

text: Malik was first elected to any public office was as a member of legislative assembly from Baghpat after he successfully contested the election as member of Charan Singh's Bharatiya Kranti Dal. He won the election by receiving 42.36% of the votes cast and defeating his nearest rival Acharya Deepankar of the Communist party of India who got 31.57% of the total votes cast. Later, after the formation of Bharatiya Lok Dal, he joined the party and become the general secretary of Lok Dal.


title: Satya Pal Malik

text: On 8 November 2021, Malik was invited to Global Jat Summit and in his speech, he used provocative messages against the Indian government regarding the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest and said "you will not be able to overcome the Sikhs. The Guru's four children were slaughtered, but the Guru refused to surrender. You cannot defeat the Jats either."


title: Satya Pal Malik

text: He also added, "Indira Gandhi knew that she would be killed and she was killed [for ordering Bluestar]. They killed General Vaidya in Pune [for leading Bluestar] and Michael O'Dwyer in London. I have even said that don't test the patience of the Sikh community."


title: Antifeminism

text: Antifeminism, also spelled anti-feminism, is opposition to some or all forms of feminism. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, antifeminists opposed particular policy proposals for women's rights, such as the right to vote, educational opportunities, property rights, and access to birth control. In the mid and late 20th century, antifeminists often opposed the abortion-rights movement and, in the United States, the Equal Rights Amendment.


title: Antifeminism

text: In the early 21st century, some antifeminists in the United States see their ideology as a response to one rooted in hostility towards men, holding feminism responsible for several social problems, including lower college entrance rates of young men, gender differences in suicide and a perceived decline in manliness in American culture. 21st century antifeminism has sometimes been an element of violent, far-right extremist acts.


title: Antifeminism

text: Canadian sociologists Melissa Blais and Francis Dupuis-Déri write that antifeminist thought has primarily taken the form of masculinism, in which "men are in crisis because of the feminization of society".


title: Antifeminism

text: The term "antifeminist" is also used to describe public female figures, some of whom (such as Naomi Wolf, Camille Paglia, and Katie Roiphe) define themselves as feminists, based on their opposition to some or all elements of feminist movements. Other feminists label writers such as Roiphe, Christina Hoff Sommers, Jean Bethke Elshtain, and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese as antifeminist because of their positions regarding oppression and lines of thought within feminism.


title: Antifeminism

text: The meaning of antifeminism has varied across time and cultures, and antifeminism attracts both men and women. Some women, like those in the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League, campaigned against women's suffrage.


title: Antifeminism

text: Men's studies scholar Michael Kimmel defines antifeminism as "the opposition to women's equality". He says that antifeminists oppose "women's entry into the public sphere, the re-organization of the private sphere, women's control of their bodies, and women's rights generally." Kimmel further writes that antifeminist argumentation relies on "religious and cultural norms" while proponents of antifeminism advance their cause as a means of "'saving' masculinity from pollution and invasion". He argues that antifeminists consider the "traditional gender division of labor as natural and inevitable, perhaps also divinely sanctioned."


title: Antifeminism

text: Some antifeminists argue that feminism, despite claiming to advocate for equality, ignores rights issues unique to men. They believe that the feminist movement has achieved its aims and now seeks higher status for women than for men via special rights and exemptions, such as female-only scholarships, affirmative action, and gender quotas.


title: Antifeminism

text: Antifeminism might be motivated by the belief that feminist theories of patriarchy and disadvantages suffered by women in society are incorrect or exaggerated; that feminism as a movement encourages misandry and results in harm or oppression of men; or driven by general opposition towards women's rights.


title: Antifeminism

text: Furthermore, antifeminists view feminism as a denial of innate psychological sex differences and an attempt to reprogram people against their biological tendencies. They have argued that feminism has resulted in changes to society's previous norms relating to sexuality, which they see as detrimental to traditional values or conservative religious beliefs. For example, the ubiquity of casual sex and the decline of marriage are mentioned as negative consequences of feminism. In a report from anti-extremism charity HOPE not Hate, half of young men from UK believe that feminism has "gone too far and makes it harder for men to succeed".


title: Antifeminism

text: Moreover, other antifeminists oppose women's entry into the workforce, political office, or the voting process, as well as the lessening of male authority in families. They argue that a change of women's roles is a destructive force that endangers the family, or is contrary to religious morals. For example, Paul Gottfried maintains that the change of women's roles "has been a social disaster that continues to take its toll on the family" and contributed to a "descent by increasingly disconnected individuals into social chaos".


title: Antifeminism

text: The "women's movement" began in 1848, most famously articulated by Elizabeth Cady Stanton demanding voting rights, joined by Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony and others who also pushed for other rights such as education, job freedom, marital and property rights, and the right to choose when or whether to become a mother. However, by the end of the century, a cultural counter movement had begun. Janet Chafetz identified in a study 32 first-wave antifeminist movements, including those in the 19th century and early 20th century movements. These countermovements were in response to some women's growing demands, which were perceived as threatening to the standard way of life. Though men were not the only antifeminists, men experienced what some have called a "crisis of masculinity" in response to traditional gender roles being challenged. Men's responses to increased feminism varied. Some men even subscribed to feminist ideology, but others went the other direction and became decidedly antifeminist. The men who believed in this model cited religious models and natural law to emphasize women's need to return to the private sphere, in order to preserve the current social order.


title: Antifeminism

text: In the 19th century, one of the major focal points of antifeminism was opposition to women's suffrage, which began as a grassroots movement in 1848 and spanned for 72 years. Opponents of women's entry into institutions of higher learning argued that education was too great a physical burden on women. In "Sex in Education: or, a Fair Chance for the Girls" (1873), Harvard professor Edward Clarke predicted that if women went to college, their brains would grow bigger and heavier, and their wombs would atrophy. Other antifeminists opposed women's entry into the labor force, their right to join unions, to sit on juries, or to obtain birth control and control of their sexuality.


title: Antifeminism

text: The pro-family movement appeared in the late 19th century, by about 1870. This movement was intended to halt the rising divorce rate and reinforce traditional family values. The National League for the Protection of the Family, formerly known as the Divorce Reform League, took over the movement in 1881. Samuel Dike was one of the founders of the League, and was considered an early expert on divorce. Through his efforts, the League garnered attention from pro-family advocates. It underwent a shift from fighting against divorce to promoting marriage and traditional family. Speaking on behalf of the League in an 1887 address to the Evangelical Alliance Conference, Samuel Dike described the ideal family as having "one man and one woman, united in wedlock, together with their children". This movement built the foundation for many pro-family arguments in contemporary antifeminism.


title: Antifeminism

text: Women's suffrage was achieved in the US in 1920, and early 20th-century antifeminism was primarily focused on fighting this. Suffragists scoffed at antisuffragists. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) from 1904 to 1915, presumed, perhaps unfairly, that the antisuffragists were merely working under the influence of male forces. Later historians tended to dismiss antisuffragists as subscribing to the model of domestic idealism, that a woman's place is in the home. This undermines and belittles the true power and numbers behind the antisuffrage movement, which was primarily led by women themselves. Arguments employed by antisuffragists at the turn of the century had less to do with a woman's place in the home as much as it had to do with a woman's proper place in the public realm. In fact, leaders of the movement often encouraged other women to leave the home and participate in society. What they opposed was women participating in the political sphere.


title: Antifeminism

text: There were two reasons antisuffragists opposed women participating in the political realm. Some argued that women were already overburdened. The majority of them, however, argued that a woman's participation in the political realm would hinder her participation in social and civic duties. If they won the right to vote, women would consequently have to align with a particular party, which would destroy their ability to be politically neutral. Antisuffragists feared this would, in fact, hinder their influence with legislative authorities.


title: Antifeminism

text: In 1951, two journalists published "Washington Confidential." The novel claimed that Communist leaders used their men and women to recruit a variety of minorities in the nation's capital, such as females, colored males, and homosexual males. The vast popularity of the book caused such a buzz that the Civil Service Commission had to create a "publicity campaign to improve the image of federal employees" in hopes to save their federal employees from losing their jobs. This ploy failed once the journalists linked feminism to communism in their novel and ultimately reinforced antifeminism by implying that defending the "white, Christian, heterosexual, patriarchal family" was the only way to oppose communism.


title: Antifeminism

text: The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a perennially proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would grant equal rights and opportunities to every citizen of the United States, regardless of their sex. In 1950 and 1953, ERA was passed by the Senate with a provision known as "the Hayden rider", making it unacceptable to ERA supporters. The Hayden rider was included to keep special protections for women. A new section to the ERA was added, stating: "The provisions of this article shall not be construed to impair any rights, benefits, or exemptions now or hereafter conferred by law upon persons of the female sex." That is, women could keep their existing and future special protections that men did not have. By 1972, the amendment was supported by both major parties and was immensely popular. However, it was defeated in Congress when it failed to get the vote of 38 legislatures by 1982. Supporters of an unaltered ERA rejected the Hayden rider, believing an ERA containing the rider did not provide for equality.


title: Antifeminism

text: Jerome Himmelstein identified two main theories about the appeal of antifeminism and its role in opposition to the ERA. One theory is that it was a clash between upper-class liberal voters and the older, more conservative lower-class rural voters who often serve as the center for right-wing movements; in other words, this theory identifies particular social classes as more inherently friendly to antifeminism. Another theory holds that women who feel vulnerable and dependent on men are likely to oppose anything that threatens that tenuous stability; under this view, while educated, independent career women may support feminism, housewives who lack such resources are more drawn to antifeminism. Himmelstein, however, says both views are at least partially wrong, arguing that the primary dividing line between feminists and antifeminists is cultural rather than stemming from differences in economic and social status. There are, in fact, similarities between income between activists on both sides of the ERA debate. As it turned out, the most indicative factors when predicting ERA position, especially among women, were race, marital status, age, and education. ERA opposition was much higher among white, married, older, and less educated citizens. Women who opposed the ERA tended to fit characteristics consistent with the Religious Right.


title: Antifeminism

text: Val Burris, meanwhile, says that high-income men opposed the amendment because they would gain the least with it being passed; that those men had the most to lose, since the ratification of the ERA would mean more competition for their jobs and possibly a lowered self-esteem. Because of the support of antifeminism from conservatives and the constant "conservative reactions to liberal social politics", such as the New Deal attacks, the attack on the ERA has been called a "right-wing backlash". Their methods include actions such as "insults proffered in emails or on the telephone, systematic denigration of feminism in the media, Internet disclosure of confidential information (e.g. addresses) on resources for battered women" and more.


title: Antifeminism

text: Abortion remains one of the most controversial topics in the United States. "Roe v. Wade" was decided in 1973, and abortion was utilized by many antifeminists to rally supporters. Antiabortion views helped further several right-wing movements, including explicit antifeminism, and helped right-wing politicians rise to power. Antiabortion writings and conservative commentary in the late 20th century criticized the feminist movement's embrace of the right to abortion as selfish and self-centered.


title: Antifeminism

text: Some current antifeminist practices can be traced back to the rise of the religious right in the late 1970s. BBC and "Time", among others, have covered the 2014 social media trend #WomenAgainstFeminism. These antifeminists contend that feminism demonizes men (misandry) and that women are not oppressed in 21st century Western countries.


title: Antifeminism

text: British newspaper "The Guardian" and the website Jezebel have also reported on an increasing number of women and female celebrities rejecting feminism and instead subscribing to humanism. As a response to a pro-feminism speech by Australian Labor Senator Penny Wong, several women who identify as being humanist and antifeminist argued in an article for the "Guardian" that feminism is a discriminatory ideology and continues to portray women as victims.


title: Antifeminism

text: In response to the social media trend, modern day feminists also began to upload similar pictures to websites such as Twitter and Tumblr. Most used the same hashtag, "womenagainstfeminism", but instead made satirical and bluntly parodic comments. In November 2014, "Time" magazine included "feminist" on its annual list of proposed banished words. After initially receiving the majority of votes (51%), a "Time" editor apologized for including the word in the poll and removed it from the results.


title: Antifeminism

text: In March 2019, the German Language Association organized a petition proclaiming that billions of Euros are being wasted on women's studies, gender work equality and gender studies in Germany. This is money the organization believes can be better used to fund hospitals, natural science faculties and virus research institutes.


title: Antifeminism

text: In April 2022, far-right political party Leviathan, with a significant public profile of almost 300,000 Facebook followers, missed out on a seat in parliament in Serbia's 2022 election. The Leviathan party portrays migrants as criminals, and themselves as the defenders of Serbian women. The group has been praised by some in Serbia for defending ‘traditional family values’ and hierarchical gender roles, while opposing the empowerment of women and feminist ideologies.


title: Antifeminism

text: Social improvements by women have sparked an anti-feminist backlash, in which disgruntled young men have become vocal critics of feminism and feminist women who speak out in public. Yoon Suk-yeol narrowly won South Korea's 2022 presidential election. During his run for presidency, he called for the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to be abolished, and accused its officials of treating men like “potential sex criminals.” Yoon also said that he doesn't think systemic structural discrimination based on gender exists in South Korea, despite Korean women being near the bottom of the developed world according to several economic and social indicators.


title: Antifeminism

text: Founded in the U.S. by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972, Stop ERA, now known as "Eagle Forum", lobbied successfully to block the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. It was also Schlafly who forged links between Stop ERA and other conservative organizations, as well as single-issue groups against abortion, pornography, gun control, and unions. By integrating Stop ERA with the thus-dubbed "new right", she was able to leverage a wider range of technological, organizational and political resources, successfully targeting pro-feminist candidates for defeat.


title: Antifeminism

text: In India, the Save Indian Family Foundation is an antifeminist organization opposed to a number of laws that they claim to have been used against men.


title: Antifeminism

text: The Concerned Women of America (CWA) are also an antifeminist organization. Like other conservative women's groups, they oppose abortion and same-sex marriage and make appeals for maternalism and biological differences between women and men.


title: Antifeminism

text: The Independent Women's Forum (IWF) is another antifeminist, conservative, women-oriented group. It's younger and less established than the CWA, though the two organizations are often discussed in relation to each other. It was founded to take on the "old feminist establishment". Both of these organizations pride themselves on rallying women who do not identify with feminist rhetoric together. These organizations frame themselves as being by women, for women, in order to fight the idea that feminism is the only women-oriented ideology. These organizations chastise feminists for presuming to universally speak for all women. The IWF claims to be "the voice of "reasonable" women with important ideas who embrace common sense over divisive ideology".


title: Antifeminism

text: According to Amherst College sociology professor Jerome L. Himmelstein, antifeminism is rooted in social stigmas against feminism and is thus a purely reactionary movement. Himmelstein identifies two prevailing theories that seek to explain the origins of antifeminism: the first theory, proposed by Himmelstein, is that conservative opposition in the abortion and Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) debates has created a climate of hostility toward the entire feminist movement.


title: Antifeminism

text: The second theory Himmelstein identifies states that the female antifeminists who lead the movement are largely married, low education, and low personal income women who embody the "insecure housewife scenario" and seek to perpetuate their own situation in which women depend on men for fiscal support. However, numerous studies have failed to correlate the aforementioned demographic factors with support for antifeminism, and only religiosity correlates positively with antifeminist alignment.


title: Antifeminism

text: Authors Janet Saltzman Chafetz and Anthony Gary Dworkin, writing for "Gender and Society", argue that the organizations most likely to formally organize against feminism are religious. This is because women's movements may demand access to male-dominated positions within the religious sector, like the clergy, and women's movements threaten male-oriented values of some religions. The more successful a feminist movement is in challenging the authority of male-dominated groups, the more these groups will organize a countermovement.


title: Antifeminism

text: University of Illinois at Chicago sociology professor Danielle Giffort argues that the stigma against feminism created by antifeminists has resulted in organizations that practice "implicit feminism", which she defines as the "strategy practiced by feminist activists within organizations that are operating in an anti- and post-feminist environment in which they conceal feminist identities and ideas while emphasizing the more socially acceptable angles of their efforts". Due to the stigma against feminism, some activists, such as those involved with Girls Rock, may take the principles of feminism as a foundation of thought and teach girls and women independence and self-reliance without explicitly labeling it with the stigmatized brand of feminism. Thus, most women continue to practice feminism in terms of seeking equality and independence for women, yet avoid the label.


title: Antifeminism

text: Antifeminism has been identified as an underlying motivation in far-right extremism. For example, the perpetrators of the Christchurch massacre and the El Paso shooting appear to have been motivated by the conspiracy theory that white people are being replaced by non-whites largely as a result of feminist stances in Western societies.


title: Antifeminism

text: Many who affiliate with the white nationalist alt-right movement are antifeminist, with antifeminism and resentment of women being a common recruitment gateway into the movement.


title: Antifeminism

text: Media researcher Michele White argues that contemporary antifeminism often supports antisemitism and white supremacy, citing the example of the Neo-Nazi websites "Stormfront" and "The Daily Stormer", which often claim that feminism represents a Jewish plot to destroy Western civilization.


title: Antifeminism

text: According to Helen Lewis, the far-right ideology considers it vital to control female reproduction and sexuality: "Misogyny is used predominantly as the first outreach mechanism", where "You were owed something, or your life should have been X, but because of the ridiculous things feminists are doing, you can’t access them." Similar strands of thought are found in the incel subculture, which centers around misogynist fantasies about punishing women for not having sex with them.


title: Sagan Tosu

text: "Sagan" is a coined word with a couple of meanings behind it. One of its homophones is in Japanese. This symbolises many small elements uniting to form one formidable object, for example as a metaphor for a team. Also, "Sagan Tosu" can be interpreted as in the area's dialect.


title: Sagan Tosu

text: In February 1997, Sagan was established as a new club which virtually took over Tosu Futures, which became insolvent in the previous month, and were admitted to participate Japan Football League from 1997 to 1998, as well as J. League Cup in 1997 as a preferential measure, although J. League Associate Membership status was not awarded to Sagan. In 1999 they were admitted to the new J. League Division 2 (J2) as one of the "Original Ten", which were the ten first members of the J2. They remained at the league until their promotion to J1 at the end of the 2011 season. Little by little, Sagan Tosu started to establish itself as one of the top clubs in the country with the new President & Chief Operating Officer Minoru Takehara, who is also part owner of the club.


title: Sagan Tosu

text: In their first season at the J. League Division 1 in 2012, confounding the prediction of many critics about their immediate relegation to J2, they have been maintaining their position between 5th and 11th places all the way through the season, except on Matchweek 2, in which they were ranked 13th. They were ranked third after the 33rd week, having a chance to qualify for the 2013 AFC Champions League if they hadn't lost to Yokohama F. Marinos in the last match of the season. However, they have lost to Yokohama by 0–1, wrapping up the season in 5th place, while Urawa Red Diamonds defeated Nagoya Grampus and were ranked 3rd. They also became the first club in Asia to sign a partnership with Warrior Sports, who sponsor many overseas clubs, including English side Liverpool FC.


title: Sagan Tosu

text: In 2013, they made it to the semifinal of the Emperor's Cup for the first time in the club's history, becoming the first club based in Kyushu to make it to the semifinal of the Emperor's Cup since Nippon Steel Yawata SC had done in the 1981 edition. In 2013, they invited A-League team Sydney FC along with the former Italian international player Alessandro Del Piero, for a Japan Tour for the first time.


title: Sagan Tosu

text: In 2014, the club had been in their most successful season in J. League Division 1, being ranked on the top of 2014 J. League Division 1 on the 1st, 2nd, 13th, and 18th matchweek. However, the club made an announcement on 8 August which announced the termination of contract with the head coach Yoon Jung-Hwan all of a sudden, despite the apparently good season. During the course of the year, they continued on its international expansion and started a partnership with Italian side Juventus FC, for its Juventus Under-16 Japan Tour 2014. On July 10, 2018, the club reached an agreement with former World Cup, UCL and Europa League winner, Fernando Torres. The aging star would play 35 games for the side, netting 5 goals before finally hanging up his boots on his star-studded career.


title: Miosis

text: Miosis, or myosis (), is excessive constriction of the pupil. The opposite condition, mydriasis, is the dilation of the pupil. Anisocoria is the condition of one pupil being more dilated than the other.


title: Miosis

text: Light entering the eye strikes three different photoreceptors in the retina: the familiar rods and cones used in image forming and the more newly discovered photosensitive ganglion cells. The ganglion cells give information about ambient light levels, and react sluggishly compared to the rods and cones. Signals from photosensitive ganglion cells have multiple functions including acute suppression of the hormone melatonin, entrainment of the body's circadian rhythms and regulation of the size of the pupil.


title: Miosis

text: The retinal photoceptors convert light stimuli into electric impulses. Nerves involved in the resizing of the pupil connect to the pretectal nucleus of the high midbrain, bypassing the lateral geniculate nucleus and the primary visual cortex. From the pretectal nucleus neurons send axons to neurons of the Edinger-Westphal nucleus whose visceromotor axons run along both the left and right oculomotor nerves. Visceromotor nerve axons (which constitute a portion of cranial nerve III, along with the somatomotor portion derived from the Edinger-Westphal nucleus) synapse on ciliary ganglion neurons, whose parasympathetic axons innervate the iris sphincter muscle, producing miosis.


title: Decentralized application

text: A decentralised application (DApp, dApp, Dapp, or dapp) is an application that can operate autonomously, typically through the use of smart contracts, that run on a decentralized computing, blockchain or other distributed ledger system. Like traditional applications, DApps provide some function or utility to its users. However, unlike traditional applications, DApps operate without human intervention and are not owned by any one entity, rather DApps distribute tokens that represent ownership. These tokens are distributed according to a programmed algorithm to the users of the system, diluting ownership and control of the DApp. Without any one entity controlling the system, the application is therefore decentralised.


title: Decentralized application

text: Decentralised applications have been popularised by distributed ledger technologies (DLT), such as the Ethereum blockchain, on which DApps are built, amongst other public blockchains.


title: Decentralized application

text: The trustless and transparent nature of DApps have led to greater developments in the utilisation of these features within the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.


title: Decentralized application

text: DApps are divided into numerous categories: exchanges, games, finance, gambling, development, storage, high-risk, wallet, governance, property, identity, media, social, security, energy, insurance, health, etc.


title: Decentralized application

text: Traditional definitions of a decentralised application require a DApp to be open-source. That is, the application operates autonomously without a centralised entity in control of the majority of the application’s associated tokens. DApps also have a public, decentralised blockchain that is used by the application to keep a cryptographic record of data, including historical transactions.


title: Decentralized application

text: Although traditional DApps are typically open-source, DApps that are fully closed-source and partially closed-source have emerged as the cryptocurrency industry evolves. As of 2019, only 15.7% of DApps are fully open-source while 25% of DApps are closed source. In other words, the proportion of DApps with publicly available code is less than the proportion of Dapps without publicly available code. DApps that are open-source generally have higher transaction volumes than closed-source DApps.


title: Decentralized application

text: Secondly, tokens, required for application use and user rewards must be generated by the application as per a programmed algorithm or criteria. A portion of the application’s tokens is typically distributed at the beginning of the application’s operation.


title: Decentralized application

text: Lastly, the protocols of the application must be able to adapt in favor of majority consensus by the application’s users, such to make improvements to the application based on market feedback.


title: Decentralized application

text: Bitcoin is open-source. All transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain are open, public, immutable, and operates without the control of any centralized entity. This means every Bitcoin transaction since the beginning can be seen by everyone. Bitcoin generates its own Bitcoin tokens, through block rewards to miners for securing the network. Block rewards are halved every 210,000 blocks mined, or roughly every four years, to limit the inflationary effects on Bitcoin; thus, capping the number of total Bitcoins at 21 million. Changes to Bitcoin must be made through Bitcoin’s proof-of-work mechanism which can only be done by majority consensus of Bitcoin’s users.


title: Decentralized application

text: DApps can be classified based on whether they operate on their own block chain, or whether they operate on the block chain of another DApp. By this classification, DApps are divided into three types.


title: Decentralized application

text: Type I DApps operate on their own block chain. Block chains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum can be classified as Type I DApps.


title: Decentralized application

text: Type II DApps are protocols that operate on the block chain of a Type I DApp. These protocols themselves have tokens that are required for their function.


title: Decentralized application

text: Type III DApps are protocols that operate using the protocols of a Type II DApp. Similar to Type II DApps, Type III DApps also have tokens that are required for their function.


title: Decentralized application

text: Smart contracts are used by developers to maintain data on the block chain and to execute operations. Multiple smart contracts can be developed for a single DApp to handle more complex operations. Over 75% of DApps are supported by a single smart contract, with the remainder using multiple smart contracts.


title: Decentralized application

text: DApps incur gas, that is fees paid to the validators of the block chain, due to the cost of deploying and executing the DApp's smart contracts. The amount of gas required of a DApp's functions is dependent on the complexity of its smart contracts. A complex smart contract of a DApp that operates on the Ethereum blockchain may fail to be deployed if it costs too much gas, leading to lower throughput and longer wait times for execution.


title: Decentralized application

text: Consensus mechanisms are used by DApps to establish consensus on the network. The two most common mechanisms to establish consensus are proof-of-work (POW) and proof-of-stake (POS).


title: Decentralized application

text: Proof-of-work utilises computational power to establish consensus through the process of mining. Bitcoin uses the proof-of-work mechanism. Proof-of-stake is a consensus mechanism that supports DApps through validators that secure the network by having a stake and percent ownership over the application.


title: Decentralized application

text: DApps distribute their tokens through three main mechanisms: mining, fund-raising and development. In mining, tokens are distributed as per a predetermined algorithm as rewards to miners that secure the network through transaction verification. Tokens can also be distributed through fundraising, whereby tokens are distributed in exchange for funding in the initial development phase of the DApp, as in an initial coin offering. Lastly, the development mechanism distributes tokens that are set aside for the purpose of developing the DApp through a pre-determined schedule.


title: Decentralized application

text: There are three main steps that always occur in the formation and development of any DApp: the publishing of the DApp’s whitepaper, the distribution of initial tokens, and the distribution of ownership. Firstly, the whitepaper is published, describing the DApp’s protocols, features and implementation. Then, required software and scripts are made available to the miners and stakeholders that support the validation and fundraising of the network. In exchange, they are rewarded with the initial tokens distributed by the system. Lastly, as greater numbers of participants join the network, either through utilisation of the DApp or through contributions to the DApp’s development, token ownership dilutes, and the system becomes less centralised.


title: Decentralized application

text: DApps have their backend code running on a decentralized peer-to-peer network, as opposed to typical applications where the backend code is running on centralized servers. A DApp can have frontend code and user interfaces written in any language that can make calls to its backend.


title: Decentralized application

text: DApps have been utilized in decentralized finance (DeFi), in which dapps perform financial functions on blockchains. Decentralized finance validating peer-to-peer transactions to disrupt centralized finance and lower the cost.


title: Decentralized application

text: All the DApps have an identifying code that may only work on a specific platform. Not all DApps work on standard web browsers. Some of them only work on special websites with a customized code, adjusted to open certain DApps.


title: Decentralized application

text: The performance of a DApp is tied to its latency, throughput, and sequential performance. Bitcoin's system for transaction validation is designed so that the average time for a Bitcoin to be mined is 10 minutes. Ethereum offers a reduced latency of one transaction every 15 seconds. For comparison, Visa handles approximately 10,000 transactions per second. More recent DApp projects, such as Solana, have attempted to exceed that rate.


title: Decentralized application

text: Internet connectivity is a core dependency of blockchain systems, which includes DApps. High monetary costs also act as a barrier. Transactions of small monetary values can comprises a large proportion of the transferred amount. Greater demand for the service also leads to increased fees due to increased network traffic. This is an issue for Ethereum, which is attributed to increased network traffic caused by DApps built on the Ethereum blockchain, such as those used by Non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Transaction fees are affected by the complexity of a DApp's smart contracts, and by the particular blockchain.


title: Decentralized application

text: Ethereum is the distributed ledger technology (DLT) that has the largest DApp market. The first DApp on the Ethereum blockchain was published on April 22, 2016. From May 2017, the number of DApps being developed have grown at a higher rate. After February 2018, DApps have been published every day. Less than one fifth of DApps capture almost all the DApp users on the Ethereum blockchain. About 5% of DApps capture 80% of Ethereum transactions. 80% of DApps on Ethereum are used by less than 1000 users. On Ethereum, DApps that are exchanges capture 61.5% of transaction volume, finance DApps capture 25.6%, gambling DApps capture 5%, high-risk DApps capture 4.1%, and games capture 2.5%.


title: Decentralized application

text: DApps have not achieved wide adoption. Potential users may not have the skill or knowledge to be able to effectively analyse the differences between DApps and traditional applications, and also may not value those differences. This skill and information can be difficult to access for mainstream users. Additionally, the user experience for DApps is often poor, as they are often developed to prioritize functionality, maintenance and stability.


title: Decentralized application

text: Many DApps struggle to attract users, particularly in their founding stages, and even those that attract widespread initial popularity struggle to retain it.


title: Decentralized application

text: A notable example was the DApp CryptoKitties, which heavily slowed down the Ethereum network at the height of its popularity. CryptoKitties and another similar gaming-based DApp Dice Games have failed to attract similar traction since.


title: Bibi Andersson

text: Berit Elisabet Andersson (11 November 1935 – 14 April 2019), known professionally as Bibi Andersson (), was a Swedish actress who was best known for her frequent collaborations with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.


title: Bibi Andersson

text: Andersson was born in Kungsholmen, Stockholm, the daughter of Karin ("née" Mansion), a social worker, and Josef Andersson, a businessman.


title: Bibi Andersson

text: Her first collaboration with Ingmar Bergman came in 1951, when she participated in his production of an advertisement for the detergent Bris. She also worked as an extra on film sets as a teenager, and studied acting at the Terserus Drama School and at the Royal Dramatic Theatre School (1954–1956). She then joined the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.


title: Bibi Andersson

text: In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Andersson starred in 10 motion pictures and three television films directed by Bergman. With Ingrid Thulin, Eva Dahlbeck and Barbro Hiort af Ornäs, she shared the Best Actress Prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival for the director's "Brink of Life", a film set in a maternity ward. The other films included "The Seventh Seal", "Wild Strawberries", "The Magician", "The Passion of Anna", "The Touch", and "Persona".


title: Bibi Andersson

text: In 1963, Andersson won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival for her performance in Vilgot Sjöman's "The Mistress".


title: Bibi Andersson

text: Andersson's intense portrayal of a nurse in the film "Persona" (1966) – in which actress Elizabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann), suffering from a psychosomatic condition, is mostly mute – involved her delivering the majority of the dialogue. For her performance in "Persona", she won the award for Best Actress at the 4th Guldbagge Awards. That year, she was seen alongside James Garner and Sidney Poitier in the Western "Duel at Diablo". More Bergman collaborations followed, and she worked with John Huston ("The Kremlin Letter", 1970) and Robert Altman ("Quintet", 1979, with Paul Newman). She was actor Steve McQueen's co-star in his only film with credit as a producer, a stage adaptation by Arthur Miller of Henrik Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People" (1977).


title: Bibi Andersson

text: Andersson made her debut in American theatre in 1973 with a production of Erich Maria Remarque's "Full Circle". Her most famous American film is "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" (1977), which also starred Kathleen Quinlan.


title: Bibi Andersson

text: In 1990, Andersson worked as a theatre director in Stockholm, directing several plays at Dramaten. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she worked primarily in television and as a theatre actress, working with Bergman and others. She was also a supervisor for the Road to Sarajevo, a humanitarian project.


title: Bibi Andersson

text: In 1996, Andersson published her autobiography, "Ett ögonblick" ("A Moment", or, literally, "A Blink of the Eye"). She was married first to the director Kjell Grede (1960, divorced) with whom she had a daughter; and secondly to politician and writer Per Ahlmark (1979, divorced). Andersson then married Gabriel Mora Baeza on 29 May 2004. In 2009, she had a stroke; an article published the following year says that from that time on she had been hospitalized and was unable to speak.


title: Richard Harrington (actor)

text: Harrington was born in Gurnos and brought up in Heolgerrig, Merthyr Tydfil. Harrington speaks Welsh as a second language; he came from an English-speaking family but studied in a Welsh Medium school in Merthyr. He has said that filming "Y Gwyll" improved his fluency significantly.


title: Richard Harrington (actor)

text: Harrington has two children with a former girlfriend and a son, born in 2019, with his partner Hannah Daniel, with whom he lives in Crystal Palace, London.


title: Richard Harrington (actor)

text: Harrington took part in the 2012 and 2013 Snowdonia Marathon alongside his friend and fellow actor Mark Lewis Jones. They both ran Marathon des Sables in 2014.


title: Richard Harrington (actor)

text: Harrington has had starring roles in the Welsh show "Hinterland" (known as "Y Gwyll" in Welsh), "Bleak House", Jimmy McGovern's "Gunpowder, Treason & Plot", and Gavin Claxton's comedy feature film "The All Together". He has also had roles in "Coronation Street", "Spooks", "Casualty", "Holby City", "Hustle", "Dalziel and Pascoe", "Silent Witness", "Lark Rise to Candleford, and Poldark." He won a BAFTA Cymru Award for his portrayal of a young gay hustler in the BBC film "Dafydd", part of the "Wales Playhouse" programme.


title: Richard Harrington (actor)

text: On stage, Harrington has toured with Fiction Factory/Y Cwmni's productions of Ed Thomas's plays "House of America", "Gas Station Angel" and "Stone City Blue". He also appeared in the 1997 film version of "House of America".


title: Richard Harrington (actor)

text: In 2015, Harrington won another BAFTA Cymru Award for his role as DCI Tom Matthias in "Y Gwyll" / "Hinterland".


title: Richard Harrington (actor)

text: In April 2017, Harrington presented the BBC Two Wales programme "Richard Harrington: My Grandfather's War", in which he followed the journey his grandfather had made through Spain in 1937 in order to fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War.


title: Richard Harrington (actor)

text: In February 2021, speaking of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Harrington revealed that he had worked as a Deliveroo driver to supplement his income during lockdown, due to the lack of work.


title: Utah Beach

text: Utah, commonly known as Utah Beach, was the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944 (D-Day), during World War II. The westernmost of the five code-named landing beaches in Normandy, Utah is on the Cotentin Peninsula, west of the mouths of the Douve and Vire rivers. Amphibious landings at Utah were undertaken by United States Army troops, with sea transport, mine sweeping, and a naval bombardment force provided by the United States Navy and Coast Guard as well as elements from the British, Dutch and other Allied navies.


title: Utah Beach

text: The objective at Utah was to secure a beachhead on the Cotentin Peninsula, the location of important port facilities at Cherbourg. The amphibious assault, primarily by the US 4th Infantry Division and 70th Tank Battalion, was supported by airborne landings of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division. The intention was to rapidly seal off the Cotentin Peninsula, prevent the Germans from reinforcing Cherbourg, and capture the port as quickly as possible. Utah, along with Sword on the eastern flank, was added to the invasion plan in December 1943. These changes doubled the frontage of the invasion and necessitated a month-long delay so that additional landing craft and personnel could be assembled in England. Allied forces attacking Utah faced two battalions of the 919th Grenadier Regiment, part of the 709th Static Infantry Division. While improvements to fortifications had been undertaken under the leadership of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel beginning in October 1943, the troops assigned to defend the area were mostly poorly equipped non-German conscripts.


title: Utah Beach

text: D-Day at Utah began at 01:30, when the first of the airborne units arrived, tasked with securing the key crossroads at Sainte-Mère-Église and controlling the causeways through the flooded farmland behind Utah so the infantry could advance inland. While some airborne objectives were quickly met, many paratroopers landed far from their drop zones and were unable to fulfill their objectives on the first day. On the beach itself, infantry and tanks landed in four waves beginning at 06:30 and quickly secured the immediate area with minimal casualties. Meanwhile, engineers set to work clearing the area of obstacles and mines, and additional waves of reinforcements continued to arrive. At the close of D-Day, Allied forces had only captured about half of the planned area and contingents of German defenders remained, but the beachhead was secure.


title: Utah Beach

text: The 4th Infantry Division landed 21,000 troops on Utah at the cost of only 197 casualties. Airborne troops arriving by parachute and glider numbered an additional 14,000 men, with 2,500 casualties. Around 700 men were lost in engineering units, 70th Tank Battalion, and seaborne vessels sunk by the enemy. German losses are unknown. Cherbourg was captured on June 26, but by this time the Germans had destroyed the port facilities, which were not brought back into full operation until September.


title: Utah Beach

text: The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion of continental Europe within the next year was taken at the Trident Conference, held in Washington in May 1943. The Allies initially planned to launch the invasion on May 1, 1944, and a draft of the plan was accepted at the Quebec Conference in August 1943. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). General Bernard Montgomery was named as commander of the 21st Army Group, which comprised all of the land forces involved in the invasion.


title: Utah Beach

text: On December 31, 1943, Eisenhower and Montgomery first saw the plan, which proposed amphibious landings by three divisions and two-thirds of an airborne division. The two generals immediately insisted that the scale of the initial invasion be expanded to five divisions, with airborne descents by three divisions, to allow operations on a wider front. The change doubled the frontage of the invasion from to . This would allow for quicker offloading of men and materiel, make it more difficult for the Germans to respond, and speed up the capture of the port at Cherbourg. Eisenhower and Lieutenant General Omar Bradley selected for Utah the VII Corps. Major General J. Lawton Collins, who had experience with amphibious operations in the Pacific Theater of Operations (though not in the initial assaults), replaced Major General Roscoe Woodruff as commander of VII Corps.


title: Utah Beach

text: The coastline of Normandy was divided into seventeen sectors, with codenames using a spelling alphabet—from Able, west of Omaha, to Roger on the east flank of Sword. Utah was originally designated "Yoke" and Omaha was "X-ray", from the phonetic alphabet. The two names were changed on 3 March 1944. "Omaha" and "Utah" were probably suggested by Bradley. Eight further sectors were added when the invasion was extended to include Utah. Sectors were further subdivided into beaches identified by the colors Green, Red, and White.


title: Utah Beach

text: Utah, the westernmost of the five landing beaches, is on the Cotentin Peninsula, west of the mouths of the Douve and Vire rivers. The terrain between Utah and the neighboring Omaha was swampy and difficult to cross, which meant that the troops landing at Utah would be isolated. The Germans had flooded the farmland behind Utah, restricting travel off the beach to a few narrow causeways. To help secure the terrain inland of the landing zone, rapidly seal off the Cotentin Peninsula, and prevent the Germans from reinforcing the port at Cherbourg, two airborne divisions were assigned to airdrop into German territory in the early hours of the invasion.


title: Utah Beach

text: The need to acquire or produce extra landing craft and troop carrier aircraft for the expanded operation meant that the invasion had to be delayed to June. Production of landing craft was ramped up in late 1943 and continued into early 1944, and existing craft were relocated from other theaters. More than 600 Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft and their crews took a circuitous route to England in early 1944 from Baer Field, Indiana, bringing the number of available troop carrier planes to over a thousand.


title: Utah Beach

text: Amphibious landings at Utah were to be preceded by airborne landings further inland on the Cotentin Peninsula commencing shortly after midnight. Forty minutes of naval bombardment was to begin at 05:50, followed by air bombardment, scheduled for 06:09 to 06:27.


title: Utah Beach

text: The amphibious landing was planned in four waves, beginning at 06:30. The first consisted of 20 Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVPs) carrying four companies from the 8th Infantry Regiment. The ten craft on the right were to land on Tare Green beach, opposite the strongpoint at Les Dunes de Varreville. The ten craft on the left were intended for Uncle Red beach, south. Eight Landing Craft Tanks (LCTs), each carrying four amphibious DD tanks of 70th Tank Battalion, were scheduled to land a few minutes before the infantry.


title: Utah Beach

text: The second wave, scheduled for 06:35, consisted of 32 LCVPs carrying four more companies of 8th Infantry, as well as combat engineers and naval demolition teams that were to clear the beach of obstacles. The third wave, scheduled for 06:45, consisted of eight LCTs bringing more DD tanks plus armored bulldozers to assist in clearing paths off the beach. It was to be followed at 06:37 by the fourth wave, which had eight Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM) and three LCVPs with detachments of the 237th and 299th Combat Engineer Battalions, assigned to clear the beach between the high and low water marks.


title: Utah Beach

text: Troops involved in Operation Overlord, including members of the 4th Division scheduled to land at Utah, left their barracks in the second half of May and proceeded to their coastal marshalling points. To preserve secrecy, the invasion troops were as much as possible kept out of contact with the outside world. The men began to embark onto their transports on June 1, and the 865 ships of Force U (the naval group assigned to Utah) left from Plymouth on June 3 and 4.


title: Utah Beach

text: A 24-hour postponement of the invasion necessitated by bad weather meant that one convoy had to be recalled and then hastily refuelled at Portland. Convoy U2A from Salcome and Dartmouth left on 4 June but did not receive the broadcast recall notices, and was headed for France alone. An all-day search by a Walrus reconnaissance biplane located the convoy and dropped two coded messages in canisters; the second one was acknowledged when the convoy was from Normandy. The convoy of about 150 vessels was carrying the 4th Infantry Division of Major-General Raymond O. Barton.


title: Utah Beach

text: The ships met at a rendezvous point (nicknamed "Piccadilly Circus") southeast of the Isle of Wight to assemble into convoys to cross the Channel. Minesweepers began clearing lanes on the evening of June 5.


title: Utah Beach

text: Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, overall commander on the Western Front, reported to Hitler in October 1943 regarding the weak defences in France. This led to the appointment of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to oversee the construction of enhanced fortifications along the Atlantic Wall, with special emphasis on the most likely invasion front, which stretched from the Netherlands to Cherbourg. Rommel believed that the Normandy coast could be a possible landing point for the invasion, so he ordered the construction of extensive defensive works along that shore. In addition to concrete gun emplacements at strategic points along the coast, he ordered wooden stakes, metal tripods, mines, and large anti-tank obstacles to be placed on the beach to delay the approach of landing craft and impede the movement of tanks. Expecting the Allies to land at high tide so that the infantry would spend less time exposed on the beach, he ordered many of these obstacles to be placed at the high-tide mark. The terrain at Utah is flat, offering no high ground on which to place fortifications. The shallow beach varies in depth from almost nothing to , depending on the tides. The Germans flooded the flat land behind the beach by damming up streams and opening the floodgates at the mouth of the Douve to admit seawater.


title: Utah Beach

text: Defense of this sector of eastern coast of the Cotentin Peninsula was assigned to "Generalleutnant" Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben and his 709th Static Infantry Division. The unit was not well equipped, lacking motorized transport and provided with captured French, Soviet, and Czech equipment. Many of the men were "Ostlegionen" (non-German conscripts recruited from Soviet prisoners of war, Georgians, and Poles), known to be deeply unreliable. The southernmost of the sector was manned by about 700 troops stationed in nine strongpoints spaced from apart. Tangles of barbed wire, booby traps, and the removal of ground cover made both the beach and the terrain around the strongpoints hazardous for infantry. The German 91st Infantry Division and 6th "Fallschirmjäger" Regiment, who arrived in May, were stationed inland as reserves. Detecting this move, the Allies shifted their intended airborne drop zones to the southeast.


title: Utah Beach

text: Bombing of Normandy began around midnight with over 2,200 British and American bombers attacking targets along the coast and further inland. Some 1,200 aircraft departed England just before midnight to transport the airborne divisions to their drop zones behind enemy lines. Paratroops from 101st Airborne were dropped beginning around 01:30, tasked with controlling the causeways behind Utah and destroying road and rail bridges over the Douve. Gathering together into fighting units was made difficult by a shortage of radios and by the bocage terrain, with its hedgerows, stone walls, and marshes. Troops of the 82nd Airborne began arriving around 02:30, with the primary objective of destroying two additional bridges over the Douve and capturing intact two bridges over the Merderet. They quickly captured the important crossroads at Sainte-Mère-Église (the first town liberated in the invasion) and began working to protect the western flank. "Generalleutnant" Wilhelm Falley, commander of 91st Infantry Division, was trying to return to his headquarters near Picauville from war games at Rennes when he was killed by a paratrooper patrol. Two hours before the main invasion force landed, a raiding party of 132 members of 4th Cavalry Regiment swam ashore at 04:30 at Îles Saint-Marcouf, thought to be a German observation post. It was unoccupied, but two men were killed and seventeen wounded by mines and German artillery fire.