title: Hough transform

text: Fernandes and Oliveira suggested an improved voting scheme for the Hough transform that allows a software implementation to achieve real-time performance even on relatively large images (e.g., 1280×960). The Kernel-based Hough transform uses the same formula_32 parameterization proposed by Duda and Hart but operates on clusters of approximately collinear pixels. For each cluster, votes are cast using an oriented elliptical-Gaussian kernel that models the uncertainty associated with the best-fitting line with respect to the corresponding cluster. The approach not only significantly improves the performance of the voting scheme, but also produces a much cleaner accumulator and makes the transform more robust to the detection of spurious lines.


title: Hough transform

text: Limberger and Oliveira suggested a deterministic technique for plane detection in unorganized point clouds whose cost is formula_33 in the number of samples, achieving real-time performance for relatively large datasets (up to formula_34 points on a 3.4 GHz CPU). It is based on a fast Hough-transform voting strategy for planar regions, inspired by the Kernel-based Hough transform (KHT). This 3D kernel-based Hough transform (3DKHT) uses a fast and robust algorithm to segment clusters of approximately co-planar samples, and casts votes for individual clusters (instead of for individual samples) on a (formula_35) spherical accumulator using a trivariate Gaussian kernel. The approach is several orders of magnitude faster than existing (non-deterministic) techniques for plane detection in point clouds, such as RHT and RANSAC, and scales better with the size of the datasets. It can be used with any application that requires fast detection of planar features on large datasets.


title: Hough transform

text: Although the version of the transform described above applies only to finding straight lines, a similar transform can be used for finding any shape which can be represented by a set of parameters. A circle, for instance, can be transformed into a set of three parameters, representing its center and radius, so that the Hough space becomes three dimensional. Arbitrary ellipses and curves can also be found this way, as can any shape easily expressed as a set of parameters.


title: Hough transform

text: The generalization of the Hough transform for detecting analytical shapes in spaces having any dimensionality was proposed by Fernandes and Oliveira. In contrast to other Hough transform-based approaches for analytical shapes, Fernandes' technique does not depend on the shape one wants to detect nor on the input data type. The detection can be driven to a type of analytical shape by changing the assumed model of geometry where data have been encoded (e.g., euclidean space, projective space, conformal geometry, and so on), while the proposed formulation remains unchanged. Also, it guarantees that the intended shapes are represented with the smallest possible number of parameters, and it allows the concurrent detection of different kinds of shapes that best fit an input set of entries with different dimensionalities and different geometric definitions (e.g., the concurrent detection of planes and spheres that best fit a set of points, straight lines and circles).


title: Hough transform

text: For more complicated shapes in the plane (i.e., shapes that cannot be represented analytically in some 2D space), the Generalised Hough transform is used, which allows a feature to vote for a particular position, orientation and/or scaling of the shape using a predefined look-up table.The Hough transform accumulates contributions from all pixels in the detected edge.


title: Hough transform

text: If we do not know the radius of the circle we are trying to locate beforehand, we can use a three-dimensional accumulator space to search for circles with an arbitrary radius. Naturally, this is more computationally expensive.


title: Hough transform

text: This method can also detect circles that are partially outside of the accumulator space, as long as enough of the circle's area is still present within it.


title: Hough transform

text: Hough transform can also be used for the detection of 3D objects in range data or 3D point clouds. The extension of classical Hough transform for plane detection is quite straightforward. A plane is represented by its explicit equation formula_40 for which we can use a 3D Hough space corresponding to formula_41, formula_42 and formula_43. This extension suffers from the same problems as its 2D counterpart i.e., near horizontal planes can be reliably detected, while the performance deteriorates as planar direction becomes vertical (big values of formula_41 and formula_42 amplify the noise in the data). This formulation of the plane has been used for the detection of planes in the point clouds acquired from airborne laser scanning and works very well because in that domain all planes are nearly horizontal.


title: Hough transform

text: For generalized plane detection using Hough transform, the plane can be parametrized by its normal vector formula_46 (using spherical coordinates) and its distance from the origin formula_47 resulting in a three dimensional Hough space. This results in each point in the input data voting for a sinusoidal surface in the Hough space. The intersection of these sinusoidal surfaces indicates presence of a plane. A more general approach for more than 3 dimensions requires search heuristics to remain feasible.


title: Hough transform

text: Hough transform has also been used to find cylindrical objects in point clouds using a two step approach. The first step finds the orientation of the cylinder and the second step finds the position and radius.


title: Hough transform

text: One common variation detail. That is, finding the bins with the highest count in one stage can be used to constrain the range of values searched in the next.


title: Hough transform

text: A high-dimensional parameter space for the Hough transform is not only slow, but if implemented without forethought can easily overrun the available memory. Even if the programming environment allows the allocation of an array larger than the available memory space through virtual memory, the number of page swaps required for this will be very demanding because the accumulator array is used in a randomly accessed fashion, rarely stopping in contiguous memory as it skips from index to index.


title: Hough transform

text: Consider the task of finding ellipses in an 800x600 image. Assuming that the radii of the ellipses are oriented along principal axes, the parameter space is four-dimensional. ("x", "y") defines the center of the ellipse, and "a" and "b" denote the two radii. Allowing the center to be anywhere in the image, adds the constraint 0<x<800 and 0<y<600. If the radii are given the same values as constraints, what is left is a sparsely filled accumulator array of more than 230 billion values.


title: Hough transform

text: A program thus conceived is unlikely to be allowed to allocate sufficient memory. This doesn't mean that the problem can't be solved, but only that new ways to constrain the size of the accumulator array are to be found, which makes it feasible. For instance:


title: Hough transform

text: By applying just the first three of these constraints to the example stated about, the size of the accumulator array is reduced by almost a factor of 1000, bringing it down to a size that is much more likely to fit within a modern computer's memory.


title: Hough transform

text: Yonghong Xie and Qiang Ji give an efficient way of implementing the Hough transform for ellipse detection by overcoming the memory issues. As discussed in the algorithm (on page 2 of the paper), this approach uses only a one-dimensional accumulator (for the minor axis) in order to detect ellipses in the image. The complexity is O(N) in the number of non-zero points in the image.


title: Hough transform

text: The Hough transform is only efficient if a high number of votes fall in the right bin, so that the bin can be easily detected amid the background noise. This means that the bin must not be too small, or else some votes will fall in the neighboring bins, thus reducing the visibility of the main bin.


title: Hough transform

text: Also, when the number of parameters is large (that is, when we are using the Hough transform with typically more than three parameters), the average number of votes cast in a single bin is very low, and those bins corresponding to a real figure in the image do not necessarily appear to have a much higher number of votes than their neighbors. The complexity increases at a rate of formula_48 with each additional parameter, where formula_49 is the size of the image space and formula_50 is the number of parameters. (Shapiro and Stockman, 310) Thus, the Hough transform must be used with great care to detect anything other than lines or circles.


title: Hough transform

text: Finally, much of the efficiency of the Hough transform is dependent on the quality of the input data: the edges must be detected well for the Hough transform to be efficient. Use of the Hough transform on noisy images is a very delicate matter and generally, a denoising stage must be used before. In the case where the image is corrupted by speckle, as is the case in radar images, the Radon transform is sometimes preferred to detect lines, because it attenuates the noise through summation.


The 2022 United States Senate election in Kansas was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Kansas. Incumbent Republican Senator Jerry Moran was first elected in 2010, winning the seat vacated by Sam Brownback, and ran for re-election to a third term in office. Democrat Mark Holland, the former mayor of Kansas City, was Moran's opponent in the general election. Moran ultimately won the election.


title: The Three Mothers

text: The Three Mothers (Italian: Le Tre madri) is a trilogy of supernatural horror films by Italian filmmaker Dario Argento. It consists of "Suspiria", "Inferno" and "Mother of Tears". Each film deals with one of the titular "Mothers", a triumvirate of ancient witches and satanists whose powerful magic allows them to manipulate world events on a global scale, killing anyone who discover their whereabouts, and who are determined to rule the world.


title: The Three Mothers

text: During the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, Argento stated he had not ruled out the possibility of shooting a fourth film dealing with the Three Mothers. His daughter Asia has suggested that there might be a prequel.


title: The Three Mothers

text: The story of the Three Mothers begins at the dawn of the 11th century, when three sisters created the pernicious art of witchcraft on the coast of the Black Sea. In the years that followed, they wandered the world and amassed great personal wealth and power, leaving death in their wake.


title: The Three Mothers

text: In the late 19th century the women commissioned E. Varelli, an Italian architect based in London, to design and construct three stately buildings. From these enchanted, bastion-like homes the Three Mothers "rule the world". According to Varelli's memoirs, entitled "The Three Mothers" by an anonymous colleague, the architect learned too late of the women's evil nature. (At least six copies of the book are known to have existed. Four may have been destroyed at the end of "Inferno".) The residences he designed will become so corrupted that eventually, the land they were built on will become pestilential.


title: The Three Mothers

text: Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs, is the oldest and wisest of the Three Mothers, her given name is Helena Markos. She is also known as The Black Queen; any mention of Helena Markos being one of the Three Mothers would not be made until "Inferno" three years later. Lela Svasta, who portrayed Markos in "Suspiria," was uncredited. According to Jessica Harper, "the witch was a ninety-year-old ex-hooker Dario had found on the streets of Rome."


title: The Three Mothers

text: Markos, a Greek émigré, was exiled from many European countries and had written several books on a variety of arcane subjects. In 1895, she founded the Tanz Akademie ("Dance Academy" in German), a school for dance and the occult sciences, in the Black Forest outside Freiburg, Germany. The locals feared her, having intuited that she was a witch. As Markos' wealth grew, so did suspicion about her true nature. To avert this unwanted scrutiny, she faked her own death in a fire in 1905. Control of the academy, which became solely a ballet school, was said to have gone to Markos' prize pupil. In reality, this was Markos herself. (As the original Freiburg building "Haus zum Walfisch" the Akademie bears a plaque stating that Desiderius Erasmus once lived there.)


title: The Three Mothers

text: In "Suspiria", Markos is the Directress whose presence is concealed by her coven, headed by Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett). A young American, Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper), discovers the hidden chambers beneath the school after several pupils are killed by Markos' proxies. The aged witch attempts to use her magic to kill the girl, but her powers — including those of invisibility, illusion casting, and telekinesis — prove insufficient due to her feeble state. Bannion defeats Markos by stabbing her through the neck. The witch's death causes the foundations of her home and coven to fail.


title: The Three Mothers

text: In "The Mother of Tears", it is revealed that before the events of "Suspiria", Elisa Mandy (Daria Nicolodi), a white witch, sought to challenge Markos' evil might. The two battled in Freiburg, and Markos slew both Elisa and her husband. According to Father Johannes (Udo Kier) in the third film, the battle left Suspiriorum "a shell of her former self". Elisa's daughter Sarah would later defeat Mater Lachrymarum in Rome.


title: The Three Mothers

text: In the 2018 remake of "Suspiria", the roles of both Madame Blanc and Helena Markos, referred throughout as Mother Markos, are played by Tilda Swinton. Markos is depicted as an ancient, disfigured, centuries-old crone maintaining control over the coven and seeking to acquire a new, younger body as her current one is riddled in leprous sores, tumorous growths and immobile infants' limbs growing out of her own. In this version, it is revealed in the climax that Markos is a fraud and Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) is the real Mater Suspiriorum.


title: The Three Mothers

text: Mater Tenebrarum, the Mother of Darkness, is the youngest and cruellest of the Three Mothers. Her true name is not given; her home is located in New York City and was christened in 1910. The house's number is 49 and bears a plaque that states that Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff once resided there.


title: The Three Mothers

text: In "Inferno", the character is portrayed by Veronica Lazar. She masquerades as Professor Arnold's nurse for much of the film. At the climax, Mark Elliot (Leigh McCloskey) descends into the bowels of her home to confront her. He learns that Arnold is, in fact, the architect Varelli, and essentially Tenebrarum's slave. Tenebrarum's bloodlust would ultimately be her own undoing, as one of her victims, a maid, was inadvertently responsible for the house catching fire in the midst of her death throes. When Elliot comes across her, Tenebrarum laments cryptically that "It's all going to burn down... just like before." Tenebrarum is perhaps referring to "Suspiria"'s finale, during which Mater Suspiriorum is killed and her home eventually burns to the ground. After sealing the room, she laughs psychotically, makes an ambiguous speech, and disappears. However, her reflection remains in a mirror and bursts out moments later as the skeletal incarnation of Death. Elliot flees the room by breaking down the door. Tenebrarum is last seen in her skeletal form, screaming as burning debris of her home collapses around her, apparently perishing in the flames.


title: The Three Mothers

text: Mater Lachrymarum, the Mother of Tears, is the most beautiful and powerful of the Three Mothers. Like Tenebrarum, her true name is unknown. "Inferno" suggests that her home in Rome, Italy may be located near No. 49 Via Dei Bagni - the Abertny Foundation's Biblioteca Filosofica - when Sara (Eleonora Giorgi) notices a strange sweet smell in the air. In "The Mother of Tears", Lachrymarum's home is revealed to be the Palazzo Varelli.


title: The Three Mothers

text: In "Inferno" Lachrymarum attempted to spellbind Mark Elliot during a music lecture in Rome. According to Argento, Ania Pieroni did not return to reprise her role as Lachrymarum in "The Mother of Tears" because "she now has five kids!"


title: The Three Mothers

text: Lachrymarum is portrayed by Israeli actress Moran Atias in "The Mother of Tears". After the deaths of her sisters, the witch has been hibernating, and is awakened when Sarah Mandy (Asia Argento) opens the urn in which her most powerful relic, a red tunic, is stored. As her minions wreak havoc on the city above, Lachrymarum hides below ground in the catacombs of her Palazzo, regaining her strength. She is defeated when Sarah Mandy discovers her subterranean lair and rips and burns her tunic, causing the Palazzo to collapse. Lachrymarum is killed when an ornamental obelisk from the top of the building crashes into the ceremonial chamber, impaling her.


title: The Three Mothers

text: The idea of "Three Mothers" comes from "Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow", a section of Thomas de Quincey's "Suspiria de Profundis". The piece asserts that just as there are three Fates and Graces, there are also three Sorrows. They include Mater Lachrymarum (Our Lady of Tears), Mater Suspiriorum (Our Lady of Sighs), and Mater Tenebrarum (Our Lady of Darkness). The attribute of each woman (tears, sighs, shadows/darkness) is a direct translation of her name from Latin ("mater" being the Latin word for "mother").


title: The Three Mothers

text: "Suspiria" clearly derives its title from the woman delineated in de Quincey's work. However, "Inferno"'s title does not reference Mater Tenebrarum.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 is the ninth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 8. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8, 2015, and was released on September 16, 2015. It was succeeded by iOS 10 on September 13, 2016.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 incorporated many feature updates to built-in apps. Most notably, Notes received the ability to draw sketches with different tools, image insertion, prominent visual appearance for website links and map locations, and advanced list formatting; an all-new Apple News app aggregates articles from different sources; and Apple Maps received mass transit support, although in a limited number of locations at launch. Major new system updates include proactivity, where Siri and advanced search are combined to make the operating system more contextually aware of information (such as time and location), and can provide the user with information ahead of time. For searching, the proactive intelligence can display instant results in a widget-like format, including weather, sports, news, and more. iOS 9 also added multiple forms of multitasking to the iPad. In iOS 9.3, Apple added a Night Shift mode that changes the color of the device's display to a warmer, less "blue light" containing shade, to reduce any negative eye health effects on users' circadian rhythms. Additionally, iOS 9 brought new user experience functions, including Quick Actions, and Peek and Pop, based on the touch-sensitive display technology in the iPhone 6S. Quick Actions are shortcuts on home screen app icons. Users can preview ("Peek") at content without moving away from the current screen before they enter ("Pop") the previewed content into full view.


title: IOS 9

text: Reception of iOS 9 was positive. Critics praised proactivity and Siri for making the Notification Center a central location for all information, and the potential for future updates to improve the functionality. The new multitasking features for the iPad were complimented, as were drawing and photo insertion in the Notes app. However, Apple News was criticized for a low number of decent-looking articles, and Apple Maps was criticized for the limited geographical availability of mass transit support.


title: IOS 9

text: Five days after release, Apple announced that iOS 9 had been installed on more than 50% of "active" iOS devices, which Apple described as the "fastest adoption rate ever for a new operating system".


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 is the last iOS operating system to feature slide to unlock. With the release of iOS 10, Apple introduced the Today view, which was accessed on the lock screen by swiping to the right. Apple removed slide to unlock in iOS 10 because it would create confusion when users were trying to unlock their phone by sliding the screen, but of unlocking the phone, it took them to the new Today view.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 was introduced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8, 2015, with the first beta version made available to registered developers after the keynote, and a public beta made available in July. This marked the first time that the general public had been able to test new versions of iOS before official release, with Eddy Cue, Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, telling "Fast Company" that the public beta program was started "because of Maps", referring to the company's Apple Maps launch that had significant issues in its early days.


title: IOS 9

text: On the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, a touch-sensitive display feature called 3D Touch is incorporated into iOS 9. It is similar to Force Touch, which can be found on the trackpad of some Apple MacBook computers. Quick Actions and shortcuts are added to apps that support the 3D Touch feature and are triggered by pressing slightly harder on the app icon. It also introduces actions known as Peek and Pop, which lets users firmly hold to preview ("Peek") any kind of content in a hovering window, before they optionally apply more pressure to enter ("Pop") the content into full view.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 comes with two important battery-saving updates. When a phone has been placed face-down, the screen will not light up upon receiving notifications. Apple has also added Low Power Mode, which modifies the amount of energy dedicated to background services and animations. For example, background app refresh and push email are paused during Low Power Mode. When a phone reaches 20% battery level, users are automatically prompted to turn on Low Power Mode, which changes the color of the battery icon in the top row status bar on the screen to yellow. When the battery goes higher than the 80% level, Low Power Mode automatically turns back off.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 added a new battery widget to the Notification Center that displayed the battery life and charging status of any connected Bluetooth device.


title: IOS 9

text: When the shift button is inactive, lowercase letters are displayed on the keyboard, instead of the all-caps representation on previous iOS versions.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 is a smaller update than iOS 8, requiring just 1.3 GB of space, compared to 4.58 GB for iOS 8. Additionally, iOS 9 includes an option to temporarily delete apps to allow the update to install. Once the update has been installed, the apps will be automatically reinstalled from the App Store. iOS 9 also features "app thinning" functionality, whereby only the necessary assets needed to run apps on each individual device is downloaded rather than the entire app, potentially saving space. For example, with the new app thinning technology, when a user downloads a new app onto their new iPhone 6S, the download would only include the images and data that are required on that device, so that no space is required for the images and data that would not be used on the device.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 adds a number of features to the iPad to improve productivity. These include Slide Over, Split Screen, and Picture in Picture, for enhanced multitasking, similar to the experience found on OS X El Capitan. Slide Over allows the user to pull in a second app with a swipe from the right edge of the display. This app takes up 1/3 of the screen and sticks to the right side of the screen, while interactivity within the full-screen app is disabled while left inactive in the background. The feature allows users to perform quick tasks and then dismiss the app again.


title: IOS 9

text: If the user taps on the handle next to the Slide Over window or extends the window further towards the left of the screen, the user enters Split Screen, which allows them to interact with two apps simultaneously side-by-side in a 50/50 split. Users can also switch to another app in either Slide Over mode or Split Screen view by pulling down on the handle on top of either app and selecting another app from the list to replace the existing one.


title: IOS 9

text: Picture in Picture mode allows users to minimize FaceTime calls or supported videos to a smaller window and continue watching them while doing other tasks on the iPad.


title: IOS 9

text: The Split Screen multitasking feature is only available for iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4, and iPad Pro, while the Slide Over and Picture in Picture features are available on the iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 2 and newer, and the iPad Pro.


title: IOS 9

text: When banner notifications are tapped, causing another app to open, a back button at the top-left corner of the screen has been added, bringing the user back to the previous app.


title: IOS 9

text: Night Shift is a display mode introduced in iOS 9.3. The mode shifts the colors of the device's display to be warmer, similar to F.lux, a popular program for Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS computers. When enabled, it uses the device's clock and geographic location to determine when to turn the feature on or off. Optionally, the user can set a manual schedule, or not have a schedule at all. For ease of access, there is a new Night Shift toggle in the Control Center. The settings for Night Shift are located under "Display and Brightness" in the Settings app, and on top of enabling the feature and setting a schedule, the user can also set the warmth of the display.


title: IOS 9

text: Despite being introduced in iOS 9.3 in March 2016, it wasn't possible to use Night Shift and Low Power Mode simultaneously until the release of iOS 9.3.2 two months later. Night Shift requires a 64-bit processor only found in the Apple A7 or newer chips, which means older iOS devices, including the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5C, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, first-generation iPad Mini, and 5th generation iPod Touch, do not receive Night Shift mode.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 includes performance and speed improvements thanks to the expanded use of the Metal API. Metal was introduced in iOS 8 and was previously limited to game developers. In iOS 9, the use of Metal is expanded to let it handle many of the core user interface elements and graphics.


title: IOS 9

text: Intelligence is one of the main features in iOS 9, consisting of the newly integrated Siri and Search (previously known as Spotlight), as well as "proactivity" throughout the operating system. iOS is now more aware of contextual information (such as time and location), and proactively provides the user with what they may need in advance to save them time and effort. When typing, Search has also been improved to display instant answers in an at-a-glance, widget-like format, similar to that provided in the Siri interface. Search can display current weather, sports scores, news, and more. The Search screen with proactive suggestions can be accessed either by pulling down the notifications window, in the Safari web browser through the search bar, and to the left on the home screen.


title: IOS 9

text: The intelligence also extends into apps. For instance, in Mail, events can be automatically added to Calendar if details are found in the message content, and likely additional recipients are suggested during message composition. Siri is also aware of what is currently on screen when it is engaged by holding down the home button.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 introduces multiple security enhancements. It introduces a 6-digit passcode as a default, an extra two digits from the previous 4-digit default, as well as support for two-factor authentication. 6-digit passcodes were much more secure because there were now 1 million possible passcode combinations compared to just 10,000 for 4-digit passcodes.


title: IOS 9

text: The original iOS 9 release in September 2015 fixed a security issue within previous iOS versions where a "flaw allowed anyone within range of an AirDrop user to install malware on a target device and tweak iOS settings so the exploit would still work if the victim rejected an incoming AirDrop file".


title: IOS 9

text: The Settings app in iOS 9 includes a new search bar that makes it easier to find settings and options. The user also has options to have notifications be grouped by which app they came from, and the ability to turn on or off Shake to Undo.


title: IOS 9

text: On iPad, a two-finger drag on the keyboard moves the cursor freely like a traditional trackpad, making positioning the cursor and selecting text easier. The keyboard-to-trackpad feature is also extended to iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, in which users can 3D Touch (force press) the keyboard to enable the trackpad. Also on the iPad, a shortcut bar has been added for cut, copy, paste, undo, and redo functions, and folders display 16 apps per page in a 4-by-4 arrangement, compared to 9 on the iPhone, allowing for an increased total of 240 apps in a single folder.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 introduced Wi-Fi Assist, a feature, on by default, that automatically switches the phone to cellular data when the Wi-Fi connection is spotty.


title: IOS 9

text: Whenever the user is presented with flight information, the user can click on a link to view a preview for that flight.


title: IOS 9

text: With iOS 9.3 and later, PDFs saved to the iBooks application via Safari or iTunes can be synced with iCloud.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 has a setting that enables an iCloud Drive app on the home screen. iCloud Drive lets the user save and browse files and folders in iCloud.


title: IOS 9

text: The Health app, introduced in iOS 8, has received landscape mode on iPhone. It also added support for reproductive health, UV exposure, water intake and sedentary state data types.


title: IOS 9

text: Messages (previously iChat) now allows the user to search for text and have that text be highlighted (and scrolled).


title: IOS 9

text: Apple Maps adds support for transit directions in Baltimore, Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York City, Paris, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Toronto, and Washington D.C., along with "over 300 locations in China."


title: IOS 9

text: The Maps app now also has enhanced location details, including a Nearby feature that recommends shops, restaurants and places to drink in close proximity to the user. For places serving food, users can specify exactly what type of food they want.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 includes a new Apple News app (replacing the Newsstand app), which aggregates news from different sources in a similar style as Flipboard. The app features a "mobile-formatted layout that loads quickly and has informative animations and full-bleed images". Additionally, News supports RSS feeds from the Safari web browser. At launch, the News app was only available in the United States, but it was expanded to the United Kingdom and Australia with the iOS 9.1 update.


title: IOS 9

text: The Notes app has received a number of enhancements in iOS 9, including the ability to draw sketches with a number of different tools, including a ruler for straight lines. Images can also be added, and links to websites and Map locations get a more prominent, visual appearance when added to notes. On the iPad, and on iPhone in landscape mode, Notes has a range of color options for drawing, as well as an eraser. Advanced formatting options including checked, bulleted, dashed and numbered lists.


title: IOS 9

text: A secure notes feature, introduced in iOS 9.3, lets an iOS user protect their notes with either a passcode or Touch ID.


title: IOS 9

text: The Photos app on iOS 9 included the improved scrubber bar in the photo viewer, "Screenshots" and "Selfies" albums, and the ability to hold and select multiple photos easily, without having to delete them individually. It also allows the user to hide sensitive material through a new Hide option. The app also allows the user to pinch to zoom while playing a video.


title: IOS 9

text: With the release of iOS 9, the Safari web browser allows for third-party content blocking apps. Safari also allows users to customize the appearance of the Reader mode, with options for font and background color.


title: IOS 9

text: A few days after the release of iOS 9, ad blocking software had topped the App Store charts, with Marco Arment, developer of a Peace app, saying that "web advertising and behavioral tracking is out of control. They're unacceptably creepy, bloated, annoying, and insecure, and they're getting worse at an alarming pace."


title: IOS 9

text: The Passbook application was renamed Wallet in iOS 9 and includes many new changes, such as support for store loyalty cards, gift cards, Discover credit/debit cards, and Apple Pay in the UK. The Wallet app can also be accessed from the lock screen.


title: IOS 9

text: In iOS 9.3, a "Music API" allows developers to integrate apps into the Apple Music streaming service.


title: IOS 9

text: iOS 9 received mostly positive reviews. Dan Seifert of "The Verge" praised the improvements in Proactivity and Siri, highlighting how the notification drop-down contains most, if not all, the information the user needs. Although he pointed out that Google's Google Now and Microsoft's Cortana personal assistants offer similar services, sometimes with "better and more varied ways" of achieving results, the improvements to iOS "lay the foundation for even more capabilities in the future." Chris Velazco of "Engadget" liked the "small, thoughtful" design changes, but was most impressed by the new multitasking features for the iPad, referring to Split Screen as a "lovely little feature." He did, however, criticize the low number of decent-looking articles in Apple News, writing that "you'll notice a discrepancy in how some articles are handled – most are just formatted text on a white background with the outlet's logo up top" and also noted the limited number of locations in Apple Maps that, at launch, supported mass transit directions. Matt Swider of "TechRadar" wrote that Siri and Proactivity lists were "robust," and enjoyed that notifications were sorted chronologically rather than by app. Samuel Gibbs of "The Guardian" welcomed the changes to the built-in apps such as drawing and photo insertion in Notes, unknown number identification from emails through Phone, and Siri automatically launching the Music app upon plugging in headphones. He also praised the updates to the keyboard, calling it "much easier to use."


title: IOS 9

text: Apple is facing a $5 million lawsuit over allegedly slowing the iPhone 4S with iOS 9. This is because according to the lawsuit, the iOS 9 update slowed down the iPhone 4S to the point that the phone was unusable (as performance was sluggish) and that Apple knew this fact (planned obsolescence).


title: IOS 9

text: On September 21, 2015, Apple announced that iOS 9 had been installed on more than 50% of "active" iOS devices, as measured by the App Store. According to Apple, this was "the fastest adoption rate ever for a new operating system".


title: IOS 9

text: In February 2016, news outlets reported that users who updated to iOS 9 on a particular device that had components repaired by a third-party (notably the Touch ID fingerprint recognition sensor) rendered their phone unusable. The issue, named "Error 53", was, according to iFixIt, limited to iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices. Apple stated:


title: IOS 9

text: We protect fingerprint data using a secure enclave, which is uniquely paired to the Touch ID sensor. When iPhone is serviced by an authorised Apple service provider or Apple retail store for changes that affect the Touch ID sensor, the pairing is re-validated. ... This check ensures the device and the iOS features related to Touch ID remain secure. Without this unique pairing, a malicious Touch ID sensor could be substituted, thereby gaining access to the secure enclave. When iOS detects that the pairing fails, Touch ID, including Apple Pay, is disabled so the device remains secure.


title: IOS 9

text: In February 2016, a bug was discovered that could render 64-bit devices unusable. The bug, caused by setting the time to January 1, 1970, would cause the device to get stuck in a reboot process until the battery died or the time setting shifted past January 1. A similar bug also applies to 32-bit devices, where the battery would report 0% of charge, and the Wi-Fi would be disabled. iOS 9.3, released on March 21, 2016, fixed the issue.


title: IOS 9

text: In May 2016, Apple released iOS 9.3.2. The update was followed by reports that it bricked some 9.7-inch iPad Pros, with a "Connect to iTunes" message, and an "Error 56" message in iTunes that it couldn't restore the tablet.


title: IOS 9

text: Apple temporarily stopped offering the 9.3.2 update, until a re-release of the version in June 2016 fixed the issue.


title: IOS 9

text: The release of iOS 9.3.3 in July 2016 was followed by reports that the iBooks store crashed. However, Apple explained in August that the timing was a coincidence, and the iBooks app crash was a result of a server issue, not the software update.


title: IOS 9

text: The release of iOS 9.3.5 in August 2016 fixed three critical security vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities could be exploited to silently enable a jailbreak and allow the malicious installation of a spyware called "Pegasus". Pegasus could intercept and read text messages, emails, track calls, trace phone location, activate the microphone, and gather information from apps, including (but not limited to) iMessage, Gmail, Viber, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Skype.


title: IOS 9

text: The discovery of the vulnerabilities dated 10 days before the 9.3.5 update was released. Arab human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor received a suspicious text message with a link and sent it to Citizen Lab. An investigation ensued with collaboration from Lookout that revealed that if Mansoor clicked the link, it would have jailbroken his phone and implanted it with the spyware. Citizen Lab linked the attack to an Israeli surveillance company known as NSO Group that sells Pegasus to governments for "lawful interception."


title: IOS 9

text: Regarding how widespread the issue was, Lookout explained in a blog post: "We believe that this spyware has been in the wild for a significant amount of time based on some of the indicators within the code" and pointed out that the code shows signs of a "kernel mapping table that has values all the way back to iOS 7."


title: IOS 9

text: News of the spyware received significant media attention, particularly for being called the "most sophisticated" smartphone attack ever, and for being the first time in iPhone history that a remote jailbreak exploit has been detected.


title: IOS 9

text: In July 2017, information on a critical Wi-Fi security vulnerability affecting 1 billion iOS and Android devices was published. The issue, named "Broadpwn", allows an attacker to remotely take control of nearby vulnerable devices and turn affected devices into "rogue access points", further spreading the infection to other nearby devices. Apple released a security patch for the issue as part of its iOS 10.3.3 update, though older devices running iOS 9, including the iPad 2, 3rd generation iPad, iPhone 4S, the first-generation iPad Mini, and the 5th generation iPod Touch were left without an available update, causing concerns over the safety of the iPad 2, 3rd generation iPad, and the first-generation iPad Mini in schools.


title: IOS 9

text: On December 22, 2015, Apple faced a class-action lawsuit for crippling the iPhone 4S with the iOS 9 update, with some people even going so far as to say that iOS 9 rendered their devices unusable. The 4S only had 512MB of RAM, so it could not handle the iOS 9 update.


title: IOS 9

text: With this release, Apple did not drop support for any iOS devices, with all devices supporting iOS 8 also able to run iOS 9.


title: Paul LePage

text: Paul Richard LePage (; born October 9, 1948) is an American politician who served as the 74th Governor of Maine from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, LePage served two terms as a city councilor in Waterville, Maine, before being elected Mayor of Waterville in 2004, serving until 2011.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage ran for governor of Maine in the 2010 election, winning the general election with a plurality, 37.6%, in a five-candidate race. He was re-elected with a stronger plurality, 48.2% of the vote, in a three-candidate election in 2014. During his tenure as the Governor of Maine, he made extensive use of his veto power, vetoing 652 bills as of July 2018, more than the total by all Maine governors over the previous 100 years combined. As governor he made controversial remarks regarding abortion, the LGBTQ community, racial minorities, the death penalty, voting rights, campaign financing, the government and the environment that sparked widespread national criticism including calls for impeachment.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage left office with an approval rating of 39%. His disapproval figure of 54% was the fourth-highest of the governors at the time. LePage was blocked by Maine's term limits from serving a third consecutive term. His plurality wins and unpopular tenure contributed to Maine voters changing their voting system from plurality voting to ranked-choice voting in a 2016 ballot initiative even though it is currently not applicable for gubernatorial elections.


title: Paul LePage

text: In April 2021, he announced that he would be a candidate for governor again in 2022. He faced no primary opposition but lost to incumbent Janet Mills by 13 percentage points in the November general election.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage was born in Lewiston, Maine, on October 9, 1948. The eldest son of eighteen children of Theresa (née Gagnon) and Gerard LePage, both of French Canadian descent, he grew up speaking French in an impoverished home with an abusive father who was a mill worker. His father drank heavily and terrorized the children, and his mother was too intimidated to stop him. At age eleven, after his father beat him and broke his nose, he ran away from home and lived on the streets of Lewiston, where he at times stayed in horse stables and at a "strip joint". After spending roughly two years homeless, he began to earn a living shining shoes, washing dishes at a café, and hauling boxes for a truck driver. He later worked at a rubber company and a meat-packing plant and was a short order cook and bartender. LePage was the only person among his parents and siblings to graduate from the 8th grade. He graduated from Lewiston High School in 1967.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage applied to Husson College in Bangor, but was rejected due to a poor verbal score on the SAT because English was his second language. He has said that State Representative Peter Snowe—the first husband of former U.S. senator Olympia Snowe—persuaded Husson to give LePage a written exam in French, which allowed LePage to show his reading comprehension skills and gain admission. At Husson, LePage improved his English-language skills and became editor of the college newspaper. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in business administration in finance and accounting and later earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maine.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage worked for a lumber company in New Brunswick, Canada, that was owned by his first wife's family from 1972 to 1979, and later for Scott Paper in Winslow, Maine. He founded the business consulting firm LePage & Kasevich Inc., which specialized in aiding foundering companies. In 1996, LePage became general manager of Marden's Surplus and Salvage, a Maine-based discount store chain.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage served two terms as a Waterville city councilor before becoming mayor in 2003, retaining that post until taking office as governor in January 2011. During his time as mayor, LePage reorganized city hall, lowered taxes, and increased the city's rainy day fund balance from $1 million to $10 million.


title: Paul LePage

text: On September 22, 2009, LePage announced that he would be seeking the 2010 Republican nomination for governor of Maine. He won 38% of the vote in a seven-way primary election, despite being outspent ten-to-one by his closest challenger. John Morris, LePage's campaign chief-of-staff, credited LePage's win with a campaign strategy (devised by chief strategist Brent Littlefield) that he referred to as the "three onlys" theme before the June primary election. This theme focused on particular aspects of LePage's biography that supposedly set him apart from the other candidates. These were, according to Morris, LePage "was the only candidate who had a compelling life story, ... the only candidate who had a successful experience as a chief executive officer of a government entity, ... the only candidate who was the executive of a prosperous Maine business."


title: Paul LePage

text: In the general election, LePage was backed by local Tea Party activists and faced Democratic state senator Libby Mitchell, and three independents – Eliot Cutler, Shawn Moody, and Kevin Scott. During the campaign, he told an audience that when he became governor, they could expect to see newspaper headlines stating, "LePage Tells Obama to Go to Hell". He was subsequently criticized by Libby Mitchell's campaign as being disrespectful towards the office of the president.


title: Paul LePage

text: With 94% of precincts reporting on the day after the election, the "Bangor Daily News" declared LePage the winner, carrying 38.1% of the votes. Independent Cutler was in second place with 36.7% of the votes (fewer than 7,500 votes behind LePage), while Democrat Mitchell was a distant third with 19%. Moody and Scott had 5% and 1%, respectively. LePage was the first popularly elected, Franco-American governor of Maine and the first Republican since John R. McKernan Jr.'s re-election in 1990. In his victory speech, LePage promised he would shrink government, lower taxes, decrease business regulation, and put "Maine people ahead of politics".


title: Paul LePage

text: On May 7, 2013, LePage stated that it was likely that he would seek re-election in 2014. He had already filed paperwork to form a campaign committee in August 2011 to be able to hold fundraisers to raise campaign funds. On June 21, 2013, when asked if he was concerned about hurting his re-election campaign, he replied, "Who said I'm running?", and, that "everything was on the table"—including entering the race for Maine's Second Congressional District; retiring; or "going back to Marden's to stock shelves". He later backed off the reference to entering a congressional run, but stated that he would have a family meeting to discuss the possibility of him not seeking re-election, citing the passage of a 2013–2014 budget by the legislature—in override of his veto of it—as the type of devastating mistake that Maine could not recover from. At a fundraiser with former Florida governor Jeb Bush on July 2, he told supporters that he was indeed running for re-election.


title: Paul LePage

text: At 12:04 AM on November 5, the "Bangor Daily News" declared that Paul LePage had won re-election to a second term, defeating Democratic Congressman Mike Michaud and independent candidate Eliot Cutler. He received 48.2% of the vote.


title: Paul LePage

text: As governor, LePage attempted to roll back child labor laws, proposing a $5.25 subminimum wage. He also proposed that children aged 12 and up should be able to work. In a speech at the 73rd annual Maine Agricultural Trades Show, he stated his view supporting child labor adding “If the revenues go up, I can go golfing. If not, I’m going to have to continue working 80 hours a week.” LePage was the first Maine governor to use social media to promote the annual State of the State address, when he used Twitter to send several tweets previewing his February 5, 2013, speech. As Governor, LePage issued 642 vetoes, which broke the record of 118 set by Governor James B. Longley and was more than all his predecessors since 1917 combined. Most of LePage's vetoes have come since 2013, when Democrats regained control of the Legislature from the Republicans. In the 2015 session of the Legislature, LePage promised to veto every bill sponsored by a Democrat, regardless of its merits, in retaliation for the rejection of his proposal for a constitutional amendment referendum to eliminate Maine's income tax. LePage later expanded his veto threat to all bills sponsored by all legislators in order to force needing a 2/3 vote on them for passage. He stated that he feels it is the only way he can "get the most representation that I can for the people of the state of Maine" and that Democrats had convinced Republicans to sponsor bills to get around his initial veto threat.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage initially endorsed Chris Christie for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, but after Christie dropped out LePage endorsed Donald Trump just hours after Christie in February 2016. Earlier in February, LePage had urged Republican governors to draft an open letter "to the people", disavowing Trump and his politics.


title: Paul LePage

text: During LePage's tenure as governor, Maine enacted a change in the voting system from plurality voting to ranked-choice voting. Maine had a history of independent candidates running and being competitive in elections, which gave rise to strategic voting and concerns over spoiler candidates. LePage's wins in 2010 and 2014, both times with a plurality, not majority, of the vote, and his unpopular tenure, has been cited as a primary motivating factor for the change in voting systems. The shift from plurality voting to ranked-choice voting was approved by voters in a 2016 ballot referendum. LePage opposed the change in voting systems.


title: Paul LePage

text: In February 2019, the "Portland Press Herald" reported that LePage and his staff had spent at least $22,000 of tax-payer money to stay at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C., a luxury hotel owned by President Trump's family. During his last two years in office, LePage and his staff spent approximately $170,000 in out-of-state travel. In comparison, LePage's predecessor, Governor John Baldacci, spent approximately $45,000 during the last two years of his tenure.


title: Paul LePage

text: Starting in 2015, LePage stated he was "very strongly" considering entering the 2018 U.S. Senate race against incumbent independent Senator Angus King, citing King's caucusing with Senate Democrats. He was also critical of King for switching his 2014 gubernatorial election endorsement from independent candidate Eliot Cutler to Democratic nominee Mike Michaud. He has also said that he would not run if Hillary Clinton won the 2016 presidential election, saying "If it's Hillary Clinton, forget it, I'm gonna retire." He has also said that Ann LePage was not convinced that a Senate run is the best idea, and he would not run if she did not approve, or if he was serving in a Donald Trump administration. He ultimately announced on May 10, 2017, that he would not run, preferring to focus on being governor.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage unsuccessfully ran for a third non-consecutive term in 2022. LePage had previously indicated his interest in the 2022 election based on whether Governor Janet Mills could implement Maine's Medicaid expansion referendum in what he believes to be a sustainable way. On July 5, 2021, he officially announced his candidacy for governor. He was later endorsed by Maine's Republican U.S. Senator, Susan Collins. LePage faced no primary opposition, and was the Republican nominee to run against Mills in the November general election.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage opposes abortion. He has appeared at the annual anti-abortion Hands Around the Capitol rally at the Maine State House, first doing so at the 2011 event.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage is opposed to the Maine Clean Elections Act, which provides funding for publicly financed campaigns in Maine without prohibiting private campaign contributions. He proposed eliminating all funding for the act in his 2014–2015 biennial budget and stated his opposition to a proposal to reform the act by increasing the amount of money that would be distributed. He calls such aid "welfare for politicians" and a "scam," saying that "Our democracy is being corrupted by the role of big money in politics."


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage supports the death penalty in cases of the murder of a baby. He stated this view regarding the case of Ethan Henderson, a 10-week-old baby who was allegedly killed by his father. He also has expressed support for giving the death penalty to drug dealers whose drugs cause a fatal overdose. Maine abolished the death penalty in 1887.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage supports the idea of the state removing the children of welfare recipients from their homes if the recipients are found to be using illegal drugs and refuse to enter rehab. Current law allows the removal of children only due to neglect and abuse, which can result from drug use, but is not drug use itself.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage has expressed opposition to the legalization of marijuana, seeing it as a gateway to more powerful drugs like heroin, but has said that if legalization were approved by referendum, he would honor it. However, in 2018 he vetoed a bill to establish retail sales of cannabis in Maine in accordance with an initiative that voters approved in 2016.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage has called for additional Maine DEA agents, judges, and prosecutors to fight drugs. The Maine Legislature approved six additional agents, two prosecutors, and two judges in the 2015–16 state budget, but LePage criticized that as "chump change" and has asked for more. He has criticized legislative Democrats skeptical of his proposals, stating "If I didn't know better, I was a real cynic, I'd think that the Democrats like drug dealers." He has stated he would use the Maine National Guard for drug enforcement if necessary, and has actually done so. He further called for drug traffickers to be put in "super-max" facilities. He has also said, "Everybody in Maine, we have constitutional carry, load up and get rid of the drug dealers," which he clarified meant that an environment should be created that will keep drug dealers away from Maine, not that people should engage in vigilantism.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage has said that the permitting process to start a business in Maine is too cumbersome and expensive and he will look for ways to make it cheaper and easier. He opposed raising any taxes during his term as governor and supported the creation of a 5% flat tax on all households earning more than $30,000. During the gubernatorial campaign, he also wanted to reduce the auto registration tax by 20% and use the actual sale price rather than MSRP as the tax basis.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage has criticized Maine's child labor laws, stating that the minimum work age of 16 without a work permit in Maine "is doing damage to the economy" and that "there is nothing wrong with being a paperboy at 12 years old, or at a store sorting bottles at 12 years old." In an interview with Downeast Magazine, he stated that "I’m all for not allowing a 12-year-old to work 40 hours, but a 12-year-old working eight to 10 hours a week or a 14-year-old working 12 to 15 hours a week is not bad." Citing his own experiences working at that age, he said that these hours should be permitted as it would instill a healthy work ethic in children. LePage has proposed allowing businesses to pay child workers a training wage of $5.25 an hour, loosening time-based requirements for children working during the school year, and streamlining the process for children to obtain a work permit by removing school superintendents from the process in the summer, all of which did not pass the Legislature.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage opposes the expansion of casino gambling in Maine, believing that any economic benefit to additional casinos would come at the expense of Maine's existing casinos. LePage has also said that if he was sent a bill to abolish the Maine State Lottery, he would sign it, saying it "absolutely" targets the poor.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage has vetoed at least one bill for increasing Maine's minimum wage, believing that wages should be increased by creating an environment for higher-paying jobs in Maine through lowering energy costs and lowering taxes. He has supported preventing municipalities like Portland from having local minimum wages higher than the state's. In response to a citizen initiated referendum to raise Maine's minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020, he stated that he supported a competing proposal to raise it to $10 an hour as less harmful to businesses who would have to pay the full minimum wage to tipped employees under the referendum.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage supports a school voucher system and structuring pay to reward teachers for performance. He has stated that curriculum should be determined by local school boards.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage signed a bill to bring Maine in alignment with the Common Core State Standards Initiative on April 1, 2011, making the state the 42nd to do so. By 2013, however, LePage expressed opposition to the standards, citing fears of a federal takeover of education and student privacy concerns. On September 4, he issued an executive order prohibiting the Maine Department of Education from implementing any federal education standards, from applying for grants where implementing such standards is a condition of the grant, and from sharing personal student information with the federal government.


title: Paul LePage

text: On November 18, 2013, LePage pledged $10,000 from his official contingency account to a program run by Portland-based LearningWorks for helping new immigrants learn the English language. LePage met with Somali immigrants in Lewiston to make the announcement, and discussed other difficulties immigrants had in obtaining education and employment, which LePage related to given his life with French as his first language.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage rejects the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change, which states that climate change is dangerous and primarily human-caused. According to Democratic state senator Brownie Carson, during LePage's time in office "he not only didn't care about the environment, he was actively hostile toward it". LePage supported increased use of fossil fuels, vetoed clean energy bills, sought to eliminate environmental regulations, was the lone Atlantic coast governor to promote offshore drilling, refused to issue voter-approved conservation bonds, attempted to tax protected forestland and/or open it to development, and refused to put up signs to direct tourists to the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument designated by former President Barack Obama.


title: Paul LePage

text: In February 2011, LePage proposed zoning of northern Maine for development, repealing laws that require manufacturers to take back recyclable goods for disposal, and other sweeping changes to environmental laws. In a statement LePage said, "Job creation and investment opportunities are being lost because we do not have a fair balance between our economic interests and the need to protect the environment."


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage has claimed, despite an abundance of scientific research to the contrary, that climate change may be beneficial, arguing that the opening of the Northern Passage through the melting of arctic ice could have an advantage for Maine. "Everybody looks at the negative effects of global warming, but with the ice melting, the Northern Passage has opened up. So maybe, instead of being at the end of the pipeline, we're now at the beginning of a new pipeline."


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage opposes efforts to ban the baiting and trapping of bears in Maine, including a 2014 referendum to do so which did not succeed.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage has criticized wind power and in particular the large-scale expansion of installed capacity mandated by Maine's 2008 Wind Energy Act and wind energy's large role in the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard. LePage argues that the policies are a major cause of the relatively high cost per kW of electricity in Maine—34% above the national average.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage believes that government policies should consider the effect of greenhouse gases, but opposes regulations. He has said he would support shallow-water offshore drilling in Maine waters, but not deep-water drilling, which he considers more hazardous. He has stated that some requirements for environmental impact studies should be reduced or weakened because they frequently impose undue burden on economic activity. In June 2012, LePage criticized the removal of the Great Works dam on the Penobscot River in Old Town to enhance the migration of fish in the river, despite the project leading to no loss of electricity generation, calling the removal of hydroelectric dams in general "irresponsible". In August 2012, he was reported saying that he supported efforts to invest in renewable energy, though only ones he thought were both economically feasible and effective: "There are renewables that work," he said. "Like hydro, hydro and more hydro." In the same report, he said that wind could not support the baseload energy needs of the state, calling it a "boutique energy source."


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage has stated that the size of state government is likely too large and that he would probably seek to reduce the number of state employees.


title: Paul LePage

text: He has called for the abolition of term limits for Maine legislators, who are limited to four consecutive two-year terms, saying that they have resulted in a legislature full of young people with "firm agendas" who pass bills that hurt Maine in the long term. He cited former longtime Democratic House Speaker John Martin as an example of how an experienced legislator would be beneficial for Maine.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage has been critical of Maine's citizen initiative process, by which citizens can put an issue to referendum, stating that the process should be reformed to return to a "representative government" and that Mainers don't understand what they are voting for on referendum questions. He has expressed support for requiring petition signatures to be gathered in each Maine county and for requiring a greater total number of signatures to qualify an issue for the ballot.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage was opposed to efforts to change Maine's voting system from plurality voting to ranked choice voting, even though it was ruled unconstitutional with regards to elections to state offices.


title: Paul LePage

text: He has called for repeal of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, saying he believes it is unconstitutional, and had encouraged Maine's attorney general William Schneider to join the federal lawsuit by other state attorneys general challenging the bill. Upon the United States Supreme Court's ruling upholding the majority of the act, LePage stated that the law was an "enormous tax" and that "Washington, D.C., now has the power to dictate how we, as Americans, live our lives." He later referred to the Internal Revenue Service, which is charged with enforcing the insurance mandate, as "the new Gestapo" and that the "decision has made America less free". He has also compared the ACA with Canada's health care system, stating that Canada rations care and that many Canadians come to the U.S. to get treatment because of it, and that similar rationing here would result in deaths.


title: Paul LePage

text: He has said that coverage mandates for Maine insurance policies should be pared back because they make insurance policies too expensive. He believes that MaineCare, the state Medicaid program, has too many enrollees and is too easy to qualify for. He vetoed a bill to expand MaineCare under the Affordable Care Act on June 17, 2013, and has criticized efforts by the Legislature to write an expansion bill that will obtain enough votes to override a veto, stating that the Legislature has "no compassion".


title: Paul LePage

text: On July 3, 2013, LePage pledged $50,000 of his emergency fund to a drug treatment center in Ellsworth. The Open Door Recovery Center provides treatment for clients regardless of their ability to pay.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage has stated that he feels there are too many hospitals in Maine, noting that New Hampshire's 1.3 million people have 26 hospitals, while Maine's 1.2 million have 39.


title: Paul LePage

text: In March 2014, LePage drew national attention related to his opposition to a bill that would allow caregivers, health care professionals and more emergency responders to administer naloxone, a drug which has been used for many years as an antidote for drug overdoses, saying it could raise Medicaid costs and encourage drug addiction. Recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), naloxone was formulated to be used both for opioid drug overdoses and for people who have life-threatening drug interactions. Speaking in a statement at the announcement of the approval, the FDA commissioner said that drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury death in the United States, largely due to prescription drug overdoses. LePage vetoed a similar bill in 2013. In an interview LePage stated, "I think we need to treat, Let's deal with the treatment, the proper treatment and not say, Go overdose, and oh, by the way, if you do I'll be there to save you. I think we need to deal with the bigger, basic problem of drug addiction, drug trafficking and drug abuse in the state. That's all I'm interested in."


title: Paul LePage

text: During his tenure as governor, LePage vetoed Medicaid expansion six times. After voters approved a 2017 referendum for expanding Medicaid coverage, LePage refused to implement the program, citing a lack of funding, and expansion advocates sued LePage in response. LePage has said he would rather go to jail than implement the expansion without a funding mechanism that meets his criteria.


title: Paul LePage

text: In 2009, LePage opposed allowing same-sex couples to marry. He does support the state recognizing only civil unions of all couples, believing it would give everyone the same legal standing. During his gubernatorial campaign, he iterated his opposition to same-sex marriage and expressed support for unspecified legal measures to protect committed same-sex couples. In October 2010 he stated that gay marriage should be left to the voters and that he had no personal views on the matter, though he would have vetoed a same-sex marriage bill if it reached his desk.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage was critical of the Maine Education Associations' support of the 2012 same-sex marriage initiative, believing the union's taking of political positions hurts the education of Maine students. When asked about LePage's own position on the initiative, his spokeswoman declined to comment.


title: Paul LePage

text: On the topic of transgender students in grades K–12, he said he did not understand "how people, at least sane people, would want to allow transgender in our primary schools and our high schools." LePage then pledged to oppose legislation for transgender students, saying, "I think it's gone too far and we have to push back. As governor, I would never allow that to be signed into law." In 2018, LePage vetoed a bill banning conversion therapy, arguing that the proposed legislation would undermine the ability of therapists to converse with their clients. The next year the bill was signed by newly elected governor Janet Mills.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage advocates eliminating Maine's income tax, believing it to be an impediment to economic growth for the state. He stated that his goal was to do so before the end of his second term, and he proposed a constitutional amendment to do so, though he expected the legislature to reject it. He opposed one bipartisan plan to replace the current progressive income tax rates, which have a top rate of 7.95%, with a 4% flat income tax rate and a broader, higher sales tax because he believes it is not revenue-neutral. After his re-election he expressed support for the general idea of increasing or broadening the sales tax to reduce or eliminate the income tax which he later proposed in his 2015–2016 budget. He has said he will "spend the rest of my days" fighting opponents of his tax proposals, especially in the legislative election year of 2016.


title: Paul LePage

text: Welfare reform was a centerpiece of LePage's gubernatorial campaign. In December 2011, citing a budget shortfall, LePage proposed sweeping changes to MaineCare (Maine's Medicaid program). Those changes include dropping 5,000 to 6,000 low-income senior citizens with disabilities from the Drugs for the Elderly program (which provides low-cost prescription drugs to low-income elderly patients), and ending Medicaid coverage for up to 65,000 recipients, including many who are disabled or elderly. Reimbursement to hospitals and other medical providers would be reduced by up to 10 percent, which could trigger the elimination of up to 4,400 health care jobs. The changes could also result in higher premiums and higher co-pays for people with private health insurance.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage expressed an intent to reform welfare eligibility requirements, though he did not specify how he would do so. He also supports lifetime limits on welfare support, requiring recipients to perform work in the community, and a tiered payment system that gradually removes benefits as recipients earn more money working, rather than cutting them off entirely at a certain income level.


title: Paul LePage

text: Speaking before a conservative women's group in Falmouth on October 14, 2013, LePage said that "About 47 percent of able-bodied people in the state of Maine don't work ... It's really bad." It is uncertain where LePage obtained his figures since Maine's unemployment rate is actually below the national average. According to an analysis posted on PolitiFact, only about ten percent of "able-bodied people" age 18 to 64 in Maine were not working, and if unemployed Maine residents who were looking for work were excluded from the count, the number not working drops to 3.6 percent. Pointing to a report issued by a conservative think tank, the Maine Heritage Policy Center, LePage's spokeswoman, Adrienne Bennett, said, "Liberal activists are determined to increase the number of residents who take tax dollars by expanding the size of government and the benefits government workers get and increasing the welfare rolls."


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage supports reforms in how EBT cards are used. Proposals he favors include putting photos of cardholders on the card to prevent their sale by the holder, an idea that he proposed after hearing of several incidents where EBT cards turned up in drug busts. He also wants to better prohibit their use to purchase alcohol or cigarettes. He has stated that such fraud is a large problem and he will devote resources to investigating it and generating further proposals to combat it. He has also suggested that he would be willing to shut down the entire EBT program if the federal government will not allow Maine to take measures to combat fraud.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage is opposed to the distribution of General Assistance welfare funds to illegal immigrants by municipalities. He has threatened to cut off all state reimbursement of such funds unless municipalities stop doing so, citing federal laws which don't allow welfare funds to go to illegal immigrants unless a state passes a law to specifically allow it. Maine Attorney General Janet Mills has stated that the governor implementing such a policy without using the established rulemaking process or legislative action is likely against the Maine Constitution. LePage responded to that criticism by stating he found it "inexcusable" that the state's top law enforcement official would advocate violating federal law, and adding that he believes Congress passing the federal laws in question meets the requirement for legislative involvement.


title: Paul LePage

text: Governor LePage is opposed to offering a home for asylum seekers in Maine. In a February 2016 town meeting he called asylum seekers "the biggest problem in our state". It is his opinion that "they're bringing hepatitis C, tuberculosis, AIDS, HIV and the 'ziki fly'," apparently referring to the Zika virus.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage is known for his bombastic and off-the-cuff remarks that have, during his tenure as mayor of Waterville and governor of Maine, drawn domestic and national controversy as well as critical acclaim. He has cited the fact that French was his first language as a reason for his controversial statements. Public opinion for LePage has been wide-ranging during his entire tenure as governor, due to his comments regarding women, African Americans, Native Americans, the poor, local colleges and universities, and government activities. At the beginning of his term as governor, he was criticized for refusing either to attend Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in Portland or Orono or to meet with Maine representatives of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), telling the press the group could "kiss my butt". His actions were called "astonishing and troubling" by civil rights group leaders and local newspapers.


title: Paul LePage

text: In February 2011, LePage again gained national attention when he spoke on a local TV news program saying he hoped to repeal the Maine ban of Bisphenol A, voted for unanimously by the Maine Board of Environmental Protection, because "there hasn't been any science that identifies that there is a problem." On March 28, it was reported that the LePage administration had dropped its opposition to the new BPA regulations. After a unanimous vote in the Senate, the Maine legislature on April 22 passed a bill to ban the use of BPA in beverage containers. LePage refused to sign the bill, but it became law without his signature.


title: Paul LePage

text: On March 23, 2011, LePage sparked protests when he announced that he planned to remove a large mural depicting the history of the state's labor movement from the lobby of the Maine Department of Labor offices. Despite protests, on March 28 it was disclosed that the murals had been removed over the weekend. The Portland Museum of Art issued a statement that said LePage's decision has tarnished the state's reputation as a haven for artists. His actions sparked furthered backlash, and lawsuits were brought forward regarding the murals.


title: Paul LePage

text: On April 27, 2012, LePage stated that Maine's "middle management" was corrupt, sparking backlash from worker groups and Maine politicians. Maine State Employees Association President Ginette Rivard responded to the criticism of state workers by stating, "For LePage to call them 'corrupt' is baseless and insulting to every public worker who has dedicated their lives to making Maine a great place to live, work and raise a family."


title: Paul LePage

text: In his second year in office, LePage made a proposal to allow public funds to go to religious schools; the proposal was found unconstitutional by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. He later drew negative publicity for urging any commission members who were not up to meeting the state's expectations to resign. On July 25, 2012, LePage and his Commissioner of Education, Stephen Bowen, unveiled a second round of reform proposals which issued that domestic students were getting "poorer" educational practice, regarding required examinations for admission. His proposals were criticized by the Maine Education Association, Maine Democrats, and many college students attending school out of state who stated they did not experience the poor treatment LePage purported.


title: Paul LePage

text: On July 8, 2012, LePage said, while discussing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was "the new Gestapo" due to their role in enforcing the law. Some Democrats, Jewish groups, and unions levied heavy criticism towards LePage over his statement, and demanded an apology. Prominent members of LePage's own party were generally less critical. Maine Republican Party chairman Charlie Webster felt that "most regular people knew what he meant." A day later, LePage issued a written statement stating that his intent was not to "insult anyone, especially the Jewish community, or to minimize the fact that millions of people were murdered," and that his message had been "clouded" by his use of the word "Gestapo". In response, both Maine Senator Roger Katz, who is Jewish, and U.S. Senator Susan Collins stated they were pleased LePage had backed away from his comments.


title: Paul LePage

text: On March 21, 2013, LePage summoned a dozen state employees of the Bureau of Unemployment to the Blaine House for a luncheon to discuss the state's unemployment compensation hearing and appeals process. Although LePage described the meeting as "cordial", the workers described it as pressuring and used to intimidate them to give more rulings on unemployment claim appeals in favor of businesses, as well as to state that they were doing their jobs poorly. LePage called the accusation "outrageous" and said that David Webbert, the president of the Maine Employment Lawyers Association who made the allegation, was making it up. The situation spurred statewide backlash including a federal investigation of the alleged intimidation, which concluded that LePage's administration improperly acted with "what could be perceived as a bias toward employers".


title: Paul LePage

text: On May 23, 2013, LePage announced that he would move his office out of the Maine State Capitol and work from The Blaine House due to what he called efforts by majority Democrats in the Legislature to censor his speech. This included the refusal of the Appropriations Committee to allow him to address them on May 19, and later being asked to obtain permission from the Legislative Council to have a TV outside of his office displaying the number of days since his budget was proposed. Senate President Justin Alfond criticized LePage's announcement by saying such behavior was "embarrassing and not helpful to getting things done for the people of Maine." On June 20, 2013, after speaking at a rally opposed to the bipartisan biennial budget proposal voted out of the Legislature, LePage responded to criticism from Democratic Assistant Majority Leader Senator Troy Dale Jackson that LePage was "delusional" to say Democratic leaders were unwilling to negotiate with him. LePage stated that Jackson "claims to be for the people but he's the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline." He further stated people like Jackson, a logger by trade, "ought to go back into the woods and cut trees and let someone with a brain come down here and do some good work," along with other negative personal remarks. The remark about Vaseline was heavily criticized by public figures on all sides, including Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves, who called the comment "obscene" and criticized its being on the evening news when children could hear it.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage is known for his dislike of Maine newspapers, once telling students at a school that "Reading newspapers in the state of Maine is like paying somebody to tell you lies." While telling the editorial board of "The Portsmouth Herald" he did not want their endorsement for reelection, he said that newspapers were against him and "It's futile. There's a bias in the press I can't change." After a three-part report published by the "Portland Press Herald", "Kennebec Journal", and "Morning Sentinel" which alleged his Department of Environmental Protection commissioner was favoring former clients, he ordered his administration to not grant interviews to reporters of those newspapers or cooperate with their information requests. The order did not seem to extend to all state agencies, as the Department of Public Safety's spokesman said he had been given no such instructions. Nine days after the U.S. federal government shutdown on October 1, 2013, LePage declared a civil emergency in Maine ending 17 days later. He said that the declaration was necessary in order to cope with the loss of federally funded positions during the shutdown, such as by transferring state-funded personnel to functions originally carried out by the federally funded personnel to minimize layoffs. His move to do so was met with widespread negative criticism, and was labeled as an unnecessary "overreach of power".


title: Paul LePage

text: On June 30, 2014, the website "Talking Points Memo" reported that LePage had met eight times with members of the sovereign citizen movement between January and September 2013. According to participants, the sovereign citizens group used these meetings, some of which lasted nearly three hours, to inform LePage of their beliefs, which include assertions that the U.S. dollar and Maine state courts are illegal, that Maine Senate President Justin Alfond and Maine House Speaker Mark Eves are guilty of treason and should be executed, and that the U.S. government and the United Nations are planning for a war against Americans. LePage set up a meeting between Kennebec County sheriff Randall Liberty and the sovereign citizens group and asked Liberty to take the group's concerns to the state attorney general.


title: Paul LePage

text: In June 2015, Good Will-Hinckley, a charitable organization for at-risk youths that runs two charter schools, hired Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves to be their next president. LePage, however, threatened to withhold $500,000 of state funding for the school if they hired Eves, due to his voting record against charter schools in Maine. LePage's choice to do so was labeled as "blackmail" as well as "political interference". The incident was subject to a federal investigation, but no charges were issued. Some Democrats in the Legislature launched an effort to impeach LePage over this and other matters on January 14, 2016, but the effort was indefinitely postponed, effectively killing it, on a 96–52 vote.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage generated national headlines by stating at a January 6, 2016, town hall meeting in Bridgton regarding drug dealers:


title: Paul LePage

text: (Drug dealers) are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty; these types of guys, they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we have to deal with down the road.


title: Paul LePage

text: The comment was condemned as racist by some Republicans and Democrats, as well as the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, though a spokesman for LePage denied the comment had anything to do with race.


title: Paul LePage

text: On August 24, LePage was asked about these comments; he denied being a racist but said that he had been compiling a binder of drug arrestees since January and that "90-plus per cent of those pictures in my book, and it's a three-ringed binder, are black and Hispanic people." When asked to provide the binder, LePage replied, "Let me tell you something: black people come up the highway and they kill Mainers. You ought to look into that. You make me so sick." The "Portland Herald" subsequently filed a Freedom of Information Act request for LePage's binder.


title: Paul LePage

text: The following day, a reporter insinuated to LePage that Democratic State Representative Drew Gattine had called him a racist. LePage responded by calling Gattine and leaving him a voicemail message:


title: Paul LePage

text: Mr. Gattine, this is Governor Paul Richard LePage. I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you cocksucker. I want to talk to you. You want — I want you to prove that I'm a racist. I've spent my life helping black people and you little son of a bitch, socialist cocksucker. You — I need you to just fricking — I want you to record this and make it public because I am after you. Thank you.


title: Paul LePage

text: He later invited reporters from the "Portland Press Herald" and WMTW to an interview to explain the comments, saying that


title: Paul LePage

text: I wish it were 1825 and we would have a duel, that's how angry I am, and I would not put my gun in the air, I guarantee you ... I would point it right between his eyes, because he is a snot-nosed little runt and he has not done a damn thing since he's been in this legislature to help move the state forward.


title: Paul LePage

text: Gattine responded by calling LePage's message "upsetting, inappropriate and uncalled for." LePage produced a binder of drug arrestees and went through some of the mugshots with the press. While admitting that the binder contained photos of both blacks and whites, LePage produced a page with a photo and press clipping of a young white woman who had been arrested, LePage called her a "very lovely young Mainer, maybe 20 years old." He then held up another page with a picture of a black man on it and said, "That's the other culprit." Reporting on the incident, "Portland Press Herald" quoted figures showing that according to the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Service, in 2014 of the 1,211 people in Maine arrested on charges of drug sales or manufacturing only 14.1 percent were black, and almost all the rest were white. LePage's comments were widely condemned by Democrats and some Republicans, including U.S. Senator Susan Collins, State Senate President Michael Thibodeau, State House Minority Leader Kenneth Fredette, State Senator Roger Katz, and State Senator David Woodsome. Leading Democrats have called LePage "unfit" to serve and have demanded his resignation.


title: Paul LePage

text: On August 30, 2016, days after making his controversial remarks, LePage said that he was strongly considering resigning. In that case Maine's Senate President would assume the office of governor.


title: Paul LePage

text: On November 8, 2016, LePage was accused by students of two colleges in Lewiston of distributing orange fliers containing false information about fees and residency requirements. The fliers said that in order to register to vote in Lewiston, students must pay to change their driver's licenses to a Lewiston address "within 30 days". They also said students must pay "hundreds of dollars" to re-register vehicles and did not give a time frame. The president of Bates College, Clayton Spencer, labeled the situation as "clearly a deliberate attempt at voter suppression," which prompted backlash from LePage. He asserted the flyer's validity, stating, "Democrats for decades have encouraged college students from out of state to vote in Maine, even though there is no way to determine whether these college students also voted in their home states." The Maine Democratic Party leader, Phil Bartlett, and Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said the information was false and said enrolled students living in the community could vote. State law does not require a Maine driver's license to vote, and establishing residency for voting doesn't mean one has to pay any fees. Dunlap said LePage's remarks "inflame an atmosphere of doubt and fear among the voters."


title: Paul LePage

text: While governor, LePage issued 236 pardons to 115 people. One of his last acts as governor was to pardon former Republican state representative Jeffrey Pierce for a felony drug trafficking conviction 35 years prior. Pierce lost his reelection effort after Democrats discussed his felony conviction during the campaign and he then conceded that he had used firearms to hunt after his felony conviction, which would be illegal for a felon. Hunting license applications also ask the applicant if they have been convicted of a crime. The matter was being investigated by the Maine Warden Service, an investigation that the pardon may affect. The pardon generated controversy when it was revealed it was granted against the advice of Maine's clemency board. Further information is restricted due to state law making information related to pardons confidential. The Associated Press, through a public records request, learned that Pierce's pardon as well as a pardon for the grandson of LePage's late mentor were given without a public hearing and consultation with the clemency board. A former clemency board chair stated that in their 27 years on the board they never saw a governor grant a pardon without a public hearing.


title: Paul LePage

text: Despite his re-election, LePage was generally unpopular for most of his second term. In 2016, his approval ratings registered at 38%, making him one of ten state executives with higher disapproval (58%). LePage was consistently ranked as one of the most unpopular governors in the United States, and he left office with an approval split of 39–53%.


title: Paul LePage

text: In 1971 LePage married Sharon Crabbe, whose family owned a lumber business in New Brunswick, where LePage worked as treasurer and general manager. After the wedding they resided in Perth-Andover, New Brunswick. Their two daughters were born in 1975 and 1976. Paul LePage and Sharon Crabbe divorced in 1980. Crabbe now resides in Fredericton along with her two daughters.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage has two children with his second wife, Ann DeRosby, whom he married in 1984. Since 2002, his household has also included a young man from Jamaica, whom he calls an adopted son. LePage and his wife purchased a home in Boothbay on July 30, 2014, for $215,000 that they intended to live in once his term as governor had concluded. Just before the 2018 election to select his successor, he stated that he would move to Florida for a majority of the year and become a legal resident there in order to pay no income tax and less in property taxes. He also sold the Boothbay residence. He did return to Maine in June 2019 to take a job as a bartender at McSeagulls Restaurant in Boothbay, where Ann already had a job as a server while he was governor. The restaurant owner stated hiring LePage was not a publicity stunt, citing the difficulty of hiring new workers. LePage and Ann DeRosby have had conflicts with Florida tax authorities since they have claimed full-time residence in the state while not fulfilling the requirement to live there for the required amount of time to do so.


title: Paul LePage

text: LePage revealed to radio station WLOB on January 11, 2017, that he had undergone bariatric surgery and lost , after his doctor warned that he was at risk of diabetes if he did not lose weight. It was unclear whether the procedure was paid for by his state health insurance or out of pocket.


title: Jonathan Loughran

text: Jonathan Loughran is an American actor who is in most Happy Madison films with his friend and actor Adam Sandler.


title: From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

text: From the Earth to the Moon is a 12-part 1998 HBO television miniseries co-produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Tom Hanks, and Michael Bostick telling the story of the Apollo program during the 1960s and early 1970s in docudrama format. Largely based on Andrew Chaikin's 1994 book, "A Man on the Moon", the series is known for its accurate telling of the story of Apollo and the special effects under visual director Ernest D. Farino.


title: From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

text: The series takes its title from, but is not based upon, the 1865 Jules Verne science fiction novel "From the Earth to the Moon". Hanks appears in every episode, introducing each of the first eleven. The last episode is represented in a pseudo-documentary format narrated by Blythe Danner, interspersed with a reenactment of the making of Georges Méliès' 1902 film "Le Voyage dans la Lune", which was in part inspired by Verne's novel. Hanks narrates and appears in these scenes as Méliès' assistant.


title: From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

text: The miniseries has a fairly large cast, driven in part by the fact that it portrays 30 of the 32 astronauts who flew, or were preparing to fly, the twelve missions of the Apollo program. (The only two Apollo astronauts not portrayed by credited actors are Apollo 13 Command Module pilot Jack Swigert, who is heard but not seen in Episode 8, and Apollo 17 Command Module pilot Ronald Evans, who has a brief appearance in the liftoff scene of Apollo 17 in the final episode.) Members of many of the astronauts' families, and other NASA and non-NASA personnel, are also portrayed.


title: From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

text: Several fictional (or fictionalized) characters are also included, notably television newscaster Emmett Seaborn (Lane Smith) who appears in nine of the twelve episodes.


title: From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

text: The twelve episodes, each directed by different individuals, use a variety of viewpoints and themes, while sequentially covering the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Lane Smith portrays Emmett Seaborn, a seasoned reporter for a fictional television network, who covers the U.S. space program from its earliest days, providing continuity for most of the episodes.


title: From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

text: The miniseries, concentrating on the Apollo space program, was produced with an intent not to repeat other dramatic portrayals of events of the space race.


title: From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

text: Project Mercury, which was portrayed in the 1983 film "The Right Stuff", was briefly summarized in the first episode. Miniseries producers Hanks, Howard and Grazer, who had previously produced the 1995 film "Apollo 13", shot the episode "We Interrupt This Program" from the perspective of the media covering that flight, as the film had already covered the story from the point of view of the crew and the mission control team.


title: From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

text: Many of the actors had opportunity to interact and form friendships with the real life astronauts they were portraying. Brett Cullen, who played Apollo 9 Command Module pilot and Apollo 15 commander David Scott, was invited to the Scott family home each time an episode he appeared in was first televised. Two short clips from the final scenes of "Apollo 13" were used in "That's All There Is"; a splashdown sequence, and a view of the recovery ship USS "Iwo Jima" (portrayed by USS "New Orleans").


title: From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

text: The original series was shot in Super 35, intended to be viewed on standard television sets of the time in 1.33:1 aspect ratio. With the proliferation of widescreen flat-panel TV sets the series was remastered in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio and re-released in 2005 as a 5-disc DVD box set. As is the case with most material shot in this format, the widescreen framing causes the loss (in some shots) of the top and bottom parts of the frames from the original broadcast, but reveals additional information on the left and right. This is not always noticeable because of careful transfer process, but in some scenes important details are lost. For example, in the first episode, when the Gemini 8 / Agena assembly is tumbling around in space with a stuck thruster, the thruster is not visible in the new widescreen version, as it is cut off by the top of the frame. Some captions have also been compromised.


title: From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

text: Parts of the miniseries were filmed at the Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney's Hollywood Studios) in Orlando, Florida. Scenes of the moonwalks were shot inside the blimp hangars on a former Marine base in Tustin, California. Approximately half the area inside was converted to the Moon's surface, with the remainder used to hold production trailers. To simulate lunar surface gravity, weather balloons filled with helium were attached to the backs of the actors playing the astronauts in the lunar extravehicular activity scenes, effectively reducing their weights to one-sixth.


title: From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

text: The score of "Spider" prominently features an imitation of the main title theme from the 1963 World War II movie "The Great Escape", and Tom Kelly jokes about having a crew digging a tunnel out of the Grumman plant. The episode also featured a real Apollo Lunar Module (LM-13), which had been built for the Apollo 18 mission but was never used due to budget cuts.


title: From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)

text: The series was nominated for seventeen Emmy awards and won three: Outstanding Miniseries, Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries or a Movie and Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special. In addition, the series won a 1999 Golden Globe Award for Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV.


title: MathWorks

text: MathWorks is an American privately held corporation that specializes in mathematical computing software. Its major products include MATLAB and Simulink, which support data analysis and simulation.


title: MathWorks

text: The company's key product, MATLAB, was created in the 1970s by Cleve Moler, who was chairman of the computer science department at the University of New Mexico at the time. It was a free tool for academics. Jack Little, who would eventually set up the company, came across the tool while he was a graduate student in electrical engineering at Stanford University.