title: Battle of Wuhan

text: In the north of the Dabie Mountains, the Chinese 3rd Army Group of the Fifth War Zone stationed the 19th and 51st Army Groups and the 77th Army in the Liuan and Huoshan regions in Anqing. The 71st Army was tasked with the defense of Fujin Mountain and Gushi County in Henan. The Chinese 2nd Group Army was stationed in Shangcheng, Henan and Macheng, Hubei. The Chinese 27th Army Group and the 59th Army were stationed in the Yellow River region, and the 17th Army was deployed in the Xinyang region to organize the defensive works.


title: Battle of Wuhan

text: The Japanese attacked in late August with the 2nd Army Group marching from Hefei by two different routes. The 13th Division, on the southern route, breached the Chinese 77th Army's defensive line and captured Huoshan, when it turned towards Yejiaji. The nearby Chinese 71st Army and the 2nd Army Group made use of their existing positions to resist the Japanese onslaught, which halted the Japanese 13th Division. The 16th Division was thus called in to reinforce the attack. On 16 September, the Japanese captured Shangcheng. The defenders retreated southwards out of the city and used their strategic strongholds in the Dabie Mountains to continue the resistance. On 24 October, the Japanese occupied Macheng.


title: Battle of Wuhan

text: The 10th Division was the main force in the northern route. It breached the Chinese 51st Army's defensive line and captured Liuan on 28 August. On 6 September, it captured Gushi and continued its advance westwards. The Chinese 27th Army Group and the 59th Army gathered in the Yellow River region to resist. After ten days of fierce fighting, the Japanese crossed the Yellow River on 19 September. On the 21st, the Japanese 10th Division defeated the Chinese 17th Group Army and 45th Army and captured Lushan.


title: Battle of Wuhan

text: The 10th Division then continued to move westward but met a Chinese counterattack east of Xinyang and was forced to withdraw back to Lushan. The Japanese 2nd Army Group ordered the 3rd Division to assist the 10th Division in taking Xinyang. On 6 October, the 3rd Division circled back to Xintang and captured the Liulin station of Pinghan Railway. On the 12th, the Japanese 2nd Army captured Xinyang and moved south of the Pinghan Railway to attack Wuhan, together with the 11th Army.


title: Battle of Wuhan

text: The continuing stalemate around Wuhan and the continued influx of foreign aid to Chinese forces from ports in the south made the IJA decide to deploy three reserve divisions to pressure the naval shipping lines. It thus decided to occupy the Guangdong port by an amphibious landing. Because of the fighting in Wuhan, a significant portion of Chinese forces in Guangzhou had been transferred elsewhere. As such, the pace of the occupation was much smoother than expected, and Guangzhou fell to the Japanese on 21 October.


title: Battle of Wuhan

text: The loss of the Guangzhou area meant the loss of the main supply line of foreign aid to central China—the two railways linking Kowloon to Guangzhou and Guangzhou to Wuhan. Thus, the strategic value of Wuhan was greatly diminished. The Chinese Army, hoping to save its remaining forces, thus abandoned the city on 25 October. The Japanese Army captured Wuchang and Hankou on 26 October and captured Hanyang on the 27th, which concluded the campaign in Wuhan.


title: Battle of Wuhan

text: According to Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, Emperor Shōwa authorized by specific orders ("rinsanmei") the use of chemical weapons against the Chinese. During the Battle of Wuhan, Prince Kan'in Kotohito transmitted the emperor's orders to use toxic gas 375 times, from August to October 1938, despite the 1899 Hague Declaration "IV, 2 - Declaration on the Use of Projectiles the Object of Which is the Diffusion of Asphyxiating or Deleterious Gases", Article 23 (a) of the 1907 Hague Convention "IV - The Laws and Customs of War on Land", and Article 171 of the Versailles Peace Treaty. According to another memorandum discovered by the historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi, Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni authorized the use of poison gas against the Chinese on 16 August 1938. A resolution adopted by the League of Nations on 14 May condemned the use of toxic gas by the Imperial Japanese Army.


title: Battle of Wuhan

text: Japan made heavy use of chemical weapons against China to make up for its lack of numbers in combat and because China did not have any poison gas stockpiles of its own to retaliate. Japan used poison gas at Hankow in the Battle of Wuhan to break fierce Chinese resistance after conventional Japanese assaults had been repelled by Chinese defenders. Rana Mitter wrote, "Under General Xue Yue, some 100,000 Chinese troops pushed back Japanese forces at Huangmei. At the fortress of Tianjiazhen, thousands of men fought until the end of September, with Japanese victory assured only with the use of poison gas. Yet even now, top Chinese generals seemed unable to work with each other at Xinyang, Li Zongren's Guangxi troops were battered to exhaustion. They expected that the troops of Hu Zongnan, another general close to Chiang Kai-shek, would relieve them, but instead Hu led his troops away from the city." Japan also used poison gas against Chinese Muslim armies at the Battle of Wuyuan and the Battle of West Suiyuan.


title: Battle of Wuhan

text: After four months of intense fighting, both the Chinese Air Force and the Chinese Navy were decimated since the IJA had captured Wuhan. However, the main Chinese land force remained largely intact, and the IJA was significantly weakened. The Battle of Wuhan bought more time for Chinese forces and equipment in Central China to move farther inland to the mountainous fortress of Chongqing and lay the foundation for an extended war of resistance. Wuhan and Hubei Province now provided the Japanese with new airbases and logistics to support the massive "joint-strike force" terror-bombing campaign against Chongqing and Chengdu under the codename "Operation 100". After the capture of Wuhan, the IJA advance in central China was slowed down significantly by multiple battles around Changsha in 1939, 1941, and 1942. No more major offensives were launched until Operation Ichi-Go in 1944; between 1942 and 1944, limited Japanese offensives were mounted for the sole purpose of training recruits. The Chinese managed to preserve their strength to continue resisting the weakened IJA, which reduced its capability to respond to rising tensions between Japan and the Soviet Union at the northeastern borders.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Newark ( ) is a small city in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. It is located west-southwest of Wilmington. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the city is 31,454. Newark is home to the University of Delaware.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Newark was founded by Scots-Irish and Welsh settlers in 1694. The town was officially established when it received a charter from George II of Great Britain in 1758.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Schools have played a significant role in the history of Newark. A grammar school, founded by Francis Alison in 1743, moved from New London, Pennsylvania to Newark in 1765, becoming the Newark Academy. Among the first graduates of the school were three signers of the Declaration of Independence: George Read, Thomas McKean, and James Smith. Two of these, Read and McKean, went on to have schools named after them in the state of Delaware: George Read Middle School and Thomas McKean High School.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: During the American Revolutionary War, British and American forces clashed outside Newark at the Battle of Cooch's Bridge. Tradition holds that the Battle of Cooch's Bridge was the first instance of the Stars and Stripes being flown in battle.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: The state granted a charter to a new school in 1833, which was called Newark College. Newark Academy and Newark College joined together in the following year, becoming Delaware College. The school was forced to close in 1859, but was resuscitated eleven years later under the Morrill Act when it became a joint venture between the State of Delaware and the school's Board of Trustees. In 1913, pursuant to legislative Act, Delaware College came into sole ownership of the State of Delaware. The school would be renamed the University of Delaware in 1921.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Newark received a license from King George II to hold semi-annual fairs and weekly markets for agricultural exchange in 1758. A paper mill, the first sizable industrial venture in Newark, was created around 1798. This mill, eventually known as the Curtis Paper Mill, was the oldest paper mill in the United States until its closing in 1997. Methodists built the first church in 1812 and the railroad arrived in 1837.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: One of Newark's major sources of employment and revenue was the Chrysler Newark Assembly plant which was built in 1951. Jamaican reggae star, Bob Marley worked as an assembly-line worker at the plant during his short stint in Delaware in the 1960s. Originally constructed to build tanks for the US Army, the plant was 3.4 million square feet in size. It employed 1,100 employees in 2008 which was down from 2,115 in 2005. This turn was due largely to the decline of sales of the Durango and Aspen vehicle models that were being produced. The plant stood for more than 50 years, providing jobs and revenue to the state of Delaware. The factory produced a wide variety of automobile models during its run. The plant was closed in late 2008 due to the recession and limited demand for larger cars.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Newark is located at (39.6837226, −75.7496572). It is located directly east of the Maryland state line, adjacent to the unincorporated community of Fair Hill, and is less than one mile south of the tripoint where Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania meet, known as The Wedge.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. Originally surrounded by farmland, Newark is now surrounded by housing developments in some directions, although farmland remains just over the state lines in Maryland and Pennsylvania. To the north and west are small hills, but south and east of the city, the land is flat (part of Newark falls in the Piedmont geological region and part of the city is in the Coastal Plain geological region, as is the majority of the land in the State of Delaware).


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Newark is surrounded by a large amount of public parkland—over – although the city is located roughly halfway between Philadelphia (approximately away) and Baltimore (approximately away) and is part of densely populated New Castle County. To the south is Iron Hill Park (part of the New Castle County Park System), to the west (in Cecil County, Maryland) is Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area, and to the North is White Clay Creek State Park and White Clay Creek Preserve (in Chester County, Pennsylvania). Also nearby is Middle Run Valley Natural Area, which is part of the New Castle County Park System. These parks provide ample hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding opportunities. The Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area and large portions of White Clay Creek State Park consist of land formerly owned by the Du Pont family that was later ceded to the states of Maryland and Delaware, respectively.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Newark has a humid subtropical climate (abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps). Winters are moderate-to-cold, with snow common in December, January and February. Summers are hot and humid, with frequent afternoon thunderstorms. The hardiness zone is 7a.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 28,547 people, 8,989 households, and 4,494 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 9,294 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 87.29% White, 6.00% Black, 0.16% Native American, 4.07% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.86% from other races, and 1.57% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.53% of the population. 16.8% were of Irish, 13.5% Italian, 13.4% German, 10.2% English and 5.1% Polish ancestry according to Census 2000.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Of the 8,989 households, 20.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.5% were married couples living together, 7.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 50.0% were non-families. 27.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 2.91.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 12.5% under the age of 18, 43.6% from 18 to 24, 19.8% from 25 to 44, 14.9% from 45 to 64, and 9.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 23 years. For every 100 females, there were 85.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.3 males.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: The median household income was $48,758, and the median family income was $75,188. Males had a median income of $45,813 versus $33,165 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,376. About 4.1% of families and 20.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.0% of those under age 18 and 7.1% of those age 65 or over.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Public education in Newark is managed by the Christina School District and, for regional vocational schools, the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District. The Christina School District manages public education for Newark and environs, and also for parts of Wilmington.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Shue/Medill Middle School, in an unincorporated area, serves most of the Newark city limits while small parts are zoned to Gauger-Cobbs Middle School in Brookside. George Kirk Middle School, also in Brookside, previously served sections.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Newark High School serves almost all of the city limits, with small portions in the south zoned to Glasgow High School. Christiana High School (grades 9-12) has a Newark postal address but does not, as of 2008, serve any of the Newark city limits.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Delaware School for the Deaf (grades K-12), operated by the State of Delaware, is in nearby Brookside.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Until 1884 Newark's public education system was grades 1-8 only, with Wilmington having the nearest public high school, and with the private Newark Academy being the private option. The Old Newark Comprehensive School served as the first public high school for Newark.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Newark is home to the University of Delaware (UD). The school has programs in a broad range of subjects, but is probably best known for its business, chemical engineering, chemistry and biochemistry programs, drawing from the historically strong presence of the nation's chemical and pharmaceutical industries in the state of Delaware. In 2006, UD's graduate engineering program was ranked number 11 in the nation by The Princeton Review. Newark's Main Street is popular among both the University of Delaware students as well as the residents of Newark, offering many restaurant and boutique options.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Newark is a recognized center of US and international figure skating, mostly due to the many national, world, and Olympic champions (including many foreign nationals) that have trained at the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club (an independent club operating within UD facilities) and at The Pond Ice Rink. In 2009, "Sporting News" ranked Newark 192 in its list of the 400 Best Sports Cities.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: The University of Delaware offers 21 varsity sports, which compete in the NCAA Division I. The athletic teams at Delaware are known as the Fightin' Blue Hens, named after the Blue Hen of Delaware, the state bird of Delaware. The official mascot of the University of Delaware is YouDee.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: The Delaware 87ers were a professional basketball team that played in the NBA G League (formerly the NBA D-League) as the affiliate of the Philadelphia 76ers. From 2013 until 2018, they played their home games at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark on the University of Delaware campus. They moved to nearby Wilmington and the 76ers' new Fieldhouse, rebranded as the Delaware Blue Coats.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Several highways pass through the Newark area. Interstate 95, the main interstate highway through the northeast urban seaboard corridor, passes to the south of Newark on the tolled Delaware Turnpike. Delaware Route 896 serves as the main north-south route through the Newark area, interchanging with I-95 to the south and continuing north through the city, bypassing the University of Delaware campus to the west. Delaware Route 72 runs north-south, bypassing Newark to the east. Major east–west highways through the Newark area include Delaware Route 273, which passes through the heart of Newark, Delaware Route 2, which heads east to Wilmington, Delaware Route 4, which bypasses Newark to the south on the Christiana Parkway, and Delaware Route 279, which heads southwest towards Elkton, Maryland.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: The City of Newark Parking Division regulates parking in the downtown area of Newark with 457 on-street parking meters, three off-street hourly parking lots offering a total of 577 spaces, and two long-term monthly parking lots offering a total of 151 spaces. The city regulates parking in residential areas of Newark with residential parking permits. The University of Delaware regulates parking at various lots and garages on-campus.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: The closest airport to Newark is the Wilmington Airport in New Castle County. The closest airport to Newark that provides full domestic and international service is Philadelphia International Airport.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Newark has a Rail Station (Map, via Google Maps) located to the south of downtown near the University of Delaware campus that is serviced by both SEPTA and Amtrak on the Northeast Corridor. Newark is the last stop on the SEPTA Wilmington/Newark Line, one of the farthest points out on the system. SEPTA service to Newark consists of a few trains in both directions during the morning and evening rush hours on weekdays only. There is limited Amtrak service in Newark with one train in each direction on weekdays, an additional northbound train on Thursdays and Fridays and an additional southbound train on Fridays, and three trains in each direction on weekends. Newark is also served by two freight railroads. Norfolk Southern provides freight service via trackage rights on the Northeast Corridor line and the Delmarva Secondary line that splits to the south to run toward the Delmarva Peninsula and an interchange with the Delmarva Central Railroad in Porter. Norfolk Southern operates the Newark Yard adjacent to the former Newark Assembly plant used by Chrysler that is now owned by the University of Delaware. CSX passes through the northern part of Newark along the Philadelphia Subdivision line.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Newark is served by DART First State bus routes No. 6, 10, 33, 42, 46, 53, 55, and 302 and Cecil Transit bus route No. 4, providing service to Wilmington, the Christiana Mall, Elkton, MD, and Dover. Most routes travel through the university campus and also stop at the rail station. The Newark Transit Hub is located in the eastern part of the town and serves several of the bus routes. There is also a UNICITY bus, run jointly through the city and the University of Delaware, free for everyone to ride, which acts as a community circulator. Unicity operates three routes (N1, N2, and N3) Monday through Friday except major holidays and when city and university offices are closed. The University of Delaware also operates the UD Shuttle bus system, available and free to all students and those associated with the university. OurBus provides intercity bus service from Newark to New York City and Washington, D.C., stopping at a park and ride lot at the intersection of DE 4 and DE 896. Megabus and OurBus provide intercity bus service from Newark to New York City, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.. The Megabus stop is located at the University of Delaware campus. The OurBus stop is located at the Route 896 & Route 4 Park and Ride.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: The City of Newark Electric Department provides electricity within the city limits. The city's electric department purchases electricity on the wholesale market, serving about 12,800 customers and maintaining of electric lines. The electric department is a member of the Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation. The City of Newark Public Works and Water Resources Department provides trash collection, recycling, water, and wastewater service to Newark. Water service is provided to 33,000 customers in Newark, with of water pipes serving the city. The city's water supply comes from the Newark Reservoir. The city maintains of sewer lines, with wastewater pumped through the New Castle County system to the Wilmington Regional Wastewater Treatment facility. Natural gas service in Newark is provided by Delmarva Power, a subsidiary of Exelon.


title: Newark, Delaware

text: Christiana Care Health System operates the Christiana Hospital to the east of Newark. The hospital has 907 beds, 22 hospital operating rooms, 10 outpatient operating rooms, an emergency room with the only Level I trauma center in Delaware, the state's only Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit, the state's largest maternity center, the Center for Heart & Vascular Health, and the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center.


title: Tiptoes

text: Tiptoes is a 2003 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Matthew Bright, in what is, as of 2022, his last film. The film stars Gary Oldman, Kate Beckinsale, Patricia Arquette and Matthew McConaughey. The film's plot revolves around an average-sized man (McConaughey) who struggles with revealing to his pregnant fiancée (Beckinsale) that his entire family are little people, as he worries that their unborn child may be born with dwarfism. The film attracted controversy for the casting of non-dwarf actor Gary Oldman as a dwarf. Oldman is also 11 years older than McConaughey, despite playing his twin brother.


title: Tiptoes

text: The film debuted in a 150-minute director's cut at Harry Knowles' Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival. Bright was fired from the film during post-production, and subsequently had his screenwriting credit removed, after the film was re-edited without his involvement. The 90 minute producers' cut screened at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, where Bright criticized the film and the producers for re-editing it. The producers' cut went on to receive negative reviews, and in some reviews has been called one of the worst movies ever made.


title: Tiptoes

text: Carol—a talented painter and independent woman—falls in love with Steven without knowing much about him other than he is the perfect man. But when Carol finds herself pregnant it forces Steven to expose his darkest secret—his family. Steven happens to be the only average-sized person in a family of dwarfs, including his twin brother Rolfe. Carol and Steven are then forced to come to terms with the fact that the baby she carries may be born a dwarf. This terrifies Steven, who does not want his child to suffer the same way Rolfe did. As Carol decides to carry the child, she and Steven grow further apart, and she begins to rely on Rolfe to teach her about life as a dwarf.


title: Tiptoes

text: Matthew Bright conceived the film when he was 18, as "a raucous comedy about little people fucking each other". Thirty years after the screenplay was written, Bright's stepfather gave a copy of the script to "Cops" creator John Langley, who was interested in producing "Tiptoes".


title: Tiptoes

text: Gary Oldman's portrayal of a dwarf was achieved through Oldman walking on his knees, and various prosthetics designed to hide his actual legs, as well as a double. Kate Beckinsale agreed to star in the film for scale if she would be allowed to wear her "lucky hat" during filming, and Bright agreed. On her first day of filming, the producers demanded that Bright tell her to remove the hat, and Bright refused, as this was the only reason she was in the film for a low salary. Arguments between Bright and producers persisted during filming.


title: Tiptoes

text: After turning in his director's cut, Bright was fired from the film. The film was re-edited without Bright's involvement. Bright attempted to have his name removed from the film, but while he was allowed to remove his screenwriting credit, replacing it with the alias Bill Weiner, he could not remove his directing credit, as he was not a member of the Director's Guild.


title: Tiptoes

text: "Tiptoes" debuted in a 150-minute director's cut at Harry Knowles' Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival. At the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, where the 90-minute version screened, Bright criticized the film and lambasted the producers for re-editing his film, leading them to drag him off stage. Subsequently, Bright would not ever direct another film; he later said the film's failure hurt his career.


title: Tiptoes

text: The 90-minute producers' cut of "Tiptoes" received largely negative reviews. In particular, the casting of Gary Oldman as an individual with dwarfism was considered offensive to little people, with Nathan Rabin comparing this casting to blackface. Co-star Peter Dinklage defended the casting. Another criticism was that Oldman, despite playing his twin brother, is 11 years older than McConaughey.


title: Tiptoes

text: Bill Gibron of "PopMatters" called the film "insensitive", adding: "Clearly crafted as a wake-up call to all the nasty 'normals' out there, it substitutes schmaltz for sincerity to create a heated hate crime all its own." "Variety" reviewer Lisa Nesselson described the film as "an honorable failure" that "comes up short in many departments", despite its "bracingly peculiar premise and astonishingly fine [performance] from Gary Oldman". Based on 10 reviews, the film carries a "rotten" rating of 20% at the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.


title: Tiptoes

text: Dinklage said the director's cut of the film was "gorgeous", but criticized the producers' cut, calling it a "rom-com with dwarves". Oldman was included in BBC critic Mark Kermode's "Great Acting in Bad Films" in 2012. Film director Nicolas Winding Refn has expressed admiration for the film, and after hearing of Refn's fandom, producer Chris Hanley sent Refn a copy of the director's cut. Bright has stated that he hopes that his director's cut will be released one day.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Fielding in the sport of cricket is the action of fielders in collecting the ball after it is struck by the striking batter, to limit the number of runs that the striker scores and/or to get a batter out by either catching a hit ball before it bounces, or by running out either batter before they can complete the run they are currently attempting. There are a number of recognised fielding positions, and they can be categorised into the offside and leg side of the field. Fielding also involves preventing the ball from going to or over the edge of the field (which would result in runs being scored by the batting team in the form of a boundary).


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: A "fielder" or "fieldsman" may field the ball with any part of his body. However, if while the ball is in play he wilfully fields it otherwise (e.g. by using his hat), the ball becomes dead and five penalty runs are awarded to the batting side, unless the ball previously struck a batter not attempting to hit or avoid the ball. Most of the rules covering fielders are in Law 28 of the "Laws of cricket".


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Fake fielding is the action caused by a fielder when he makes movements of some of his body parts as if he were fielding only to confuse batters into making mistakes. It is now a punishable offence under the ICC rules.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: There are 11 players in a team: one is the bowler and another is the wicket-keeper, so only nine other fielding positions can be occupied at any time. Where fielders are positioned is a tactical decision made by the captain of the fielding team. The captain (usually in consultation with the bowler and sometimes other members of the team) may move players between fielding positions at any time except when a bowler is in the act of bowling to a batter, though there are exceptions for fielders moving in anticipation of the ball being hit to a particular area.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: There are a number of named basic fielding positions, some of which are employed very commonly and others that are used less often. However, these positions are neither fixed nor precisely defined, and fielders can be placed in positions that differ from the basic positions. The nomenclature of the positions is somewhat esoteric, but roughly follows a system of polar coordinates – one word (leg, cover, mid-wicket) specifies the angle from the batter, and is sometimes preceded by an adjective describing the distance from the batter (silly, short, deep or long). Words such as "backward", "forward", or "square" can further indicate the angle.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: The image shows the location of most of the named fielding positions based on a right-handed batter. The area to the left of a right-handed batter (from the batter's point of view – facing the bowler) is called the "leg side" or "on side", while that to the right is the "off side". If the batter is left-handed, the leg and off sides are reversed and the fielding positions are a mirror image of those shown.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Some fielding positions are used offensively. That is, players are put there with the main aim being to catch out the batter rather than to stop or slow down the scoring of runs. These positions include Slip (often there are multiple slips next to each other, designated "First slip", "Second slip", "Third slip", etc., numbered outwards from the wicket-keeper – collectively known as the "slip cordon") meant to catch balls that just edge off the bat; Gully; Fly slip; Leg slip; Leg gully; the "short" and "silly" positions. "Short leg", also known as "bat pad", is a position specifically intended to catch balls that unintentionally strike the bat and leg pad, and thus end up only a metre or two to the leg side.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Also the bowler, after delivering the ball, must avoid running on the pitch so usually ends up fielding near silly mid on or silly mid off, but somewhat closer to the pitch.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Additionally, commentators or spectators discussing the details of field placement will often use the terms for descriptive phrases such as "gully is a bit wider than normal" (meaning he is more to the side than normal) or "mid off is standing too deep, he should come in shorter" (meaning he is too far away and should be positioned closer to the batter).


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Fielders may be placed anywhere on the field, subject to the following rules. At the time the ball is bowled:


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: If any of these rules is violated, an umpire will call the delivery a no-ball. Additionally a player may not make any significant movement after the ball comes into play and before the ball reaches the striker. If this happens, an umpire will call and signal 'dead ball'. For close fielders, anything other than minor adjustments to stance or position in relation to the striker is significant. In the outfield, fielders may move in towards the striker or striker's wicket; indeed, they usually do. However, anything other than slight movement off line or away from the striker is to be considered significant.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: With only nine fielders (in addition to the bowler and wicket-keeper), there are not enough to cover every part of the field simultaneously. The captain of the fielding team must decide which fielding positions to use, and which to leave vacant. The placement of fielders is one of the major tactical considerations for the fielding captain.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: The main decision for a fielding captain is to strike a balance between setting an "attacking" field and a "defensive" field. An attacking field is one in which fielders are positioned in such a way that they are likely to take catches, and thus likely to get the batter out. Such a field generally involves having many fielders close to the batter. For a pace bowler, an attacking field will usually include multiple slips (termed a "cordon") and a gully; these are common positions for catching miss-hit shots. For a spin bowler, attacking positions include one or two slips, short leg or silly point.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: A defensive field is one in which most of the field is within easy reach of one or more fielders; the batter will therefore find it difficult to score runs. This generally involves having most fielders some distance from, and in front of, the batter, in positions where the ball is most likely to be hit. Defensive fields generally have multiple fielders stationed close to the boundary rope to prevent fours being scored, and others close to the fielding circle, where they can prevent singles.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Many elements govern the decisions on field placements, including: the tactical situation in the match; which bowler is bowling; how long the batter has been in; the wear on the ball; the state of the wicket; the light and weather conditions; or the time remaining until the next interval in play.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Another consideration when setting a field is how many fielders to have on each side of the pitch. With nine fielders to place, the division must necessarily be unequal, but the degree of inequality varies.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: When describing a field setting, the numbers of fielders on the off side and leg side are often abbreviated into a shortened form, with the off side number quoted first. For example, a "5–4 field" means 5 fielders on the off side and 4 on the leg side.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Usually, most fielders are placed on the off side. This is because most bowlers tend to concentrate the line of their deliveries on or outside the off stump, so most shots are hit into the off side.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: When attacking, there may be 3 or 4 slips and 1 or 2 gullies, potentially using up to six fielders in that region alone. This would typically be accompanied by a mid off, mid on, and fine leg, making it a 7–2 field. Although there are only two fielders on the leg side, they should get relatively little work as long as the bowlers maintain a line outside off stump. This type of field leaves large gaps in front of the wicket, and is used to entice the batters to attack there, with the hope that they make a misjudgment and edge the ball to the catchers waiting behind them.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: As fields get progressively more defensive, fielders will move out of the slip and gully area to cover more of the field, leading to 6–3 and 5–4 fields.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: If a bowler, usually a leg spin bowler, decides to attack the batter's legs in an attempt to force a stumping, bowl him behind his legs, or induce a catch on the leg side, the field may stack 4–5 towards the leg side. It is unusual to see more than 5 fielders on the leg side, because of the restriction that there must be no more than two fielders placed behind square leg.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Sometimes a spinner will bowl leg theory and have seven fielders on the leg side, and will bowl significantly wide of the leg stump to prevent scoring. Often the ball is so wide that the batter cannot hit the ball straight of mid-on while standing still, and cannot hit to the off side unless they try unorthodox and risky shots such as a reverse sweep or pull, or switch their handedness. The batter can back away to the leg side to hit through the off side, but can expose their stumps in doing so.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: The reverse tactic can be used, by fast and slow bowlers alike, by placing seven or eight fielders on the off side and bowling far outside off stump. The batter can safely allow the ball to pass without fear of it hitting the stumps, but will not score. If they want to score they will have to try and risk an edge to a wide ball and hit through the packed off side, or try to drag the ball from far outside the stumps to the sparsely-populated leg side.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Another attacking placement on the leg side is the "leg side trap", which involves placing fielders near the boundary at deep square and backward square leg and bowling bouncers to try to induce the batter to hook the ball into the air. For slower bowlers, the leg trap fieldsmen tend to be placed within 10–15 m from the bat behind square, to catch leg glances and sweeps.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: No member of the fielding side other than the wicket-keeper may wear gloves or external leg guards, though fielders (in particular players fielding near to the bat) may also wear shin protectors, groin protectors ('boxes') and chest protectors beneath their clothing. Apart from the wicket-keeper, protection for the hand or fingers may be worn only with the consent of the umpires.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Fielders are permitted to wear a helmet and face guard. This is usually employed in a position such as silly point or silly mid-wicket, where proximity to the batter gives little time to avoid a shot directly at their head. If the helmet is only being used for overs from one end, it will be placed behind the wicketkeeper when not in use. Some grounds have purpose-built temporary storage for the helmet, shin pads etc., in the form of a cavity beneath the field, accessed through a hatch about across flush with the grass. 5 penalty runs are awarded to the batting side should the ball touch a fielder's headgear whilst it is not being worn, unless the ball previously struck a batter not attempting to hit or avoid the ball. This rule was introduced in the 19th century to prevent the unfair practice of a fielder using a hat (often a top hat) to take a catch.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: As cricket balls are hard and can travel at high speeds off the bat, protective equipment is recommended to prevent injury. There have been a few recorded deaths in cricket, but they are extremely rare, and not always related to fielding.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Close catchers require the ability to be able to take quick reaction catches with a high degree of consistency. This can require considerable efforts of concentration as a catcher may only be required to take one catch in an entire game, but his success in taking that catch may have a considerable effect on the outcome of the match.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Infielders field between 20 and 40 yards away from the batter. The ball will often be hit at them extremely hard, and they require excellent athleticism as well as courage in stopping it from passing them. Infield catches range from simple, slow moving chances known as "dollies" to hard hit balls that require a spectacular diving catch. Finally, infielders are the main source of run outs in a game of cricket, and their ability to get to the ball quickly, throw it straight and hard and make a direct hit on the stumps is an important skill.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: Outfielders field furthest from the bat, typically right on the boundary edge. Their main role is to prevent the ball from going over the boundary and scoring four or six runs. They need good footspeed to be able to get around the field quickly, and a strong arm to be able to make the 50–80-yard throw. Outfielders also often have to catch high hit balls that go over the infield.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: However, players are rarely selected purely because of their fielding skills, and all players are expected to win their place in the team as either a specialist batter or bowler (or both). This even applies to wicket keepers, who are generally expected to be competent middle-order batters (see Wicket-keeper-batter, where more than one wicketkeeper can be selected to play as an on-field substitution). Some wicketkeepers may also be called on to bowl, though this is extremely rare.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: There have been many competitions for throwing a cricket ball the furthest distance, particularly in the earlier years of the game. "Wisden" describes how the record was set around 1882, by one Robert Percival at Durham Sands Racecourse, at 140 yards and two feet (128.7 m). Former Essex all-rounder Ian Pont threw a ball 138 yards (126.19 m) in Cape Town in 1981. There are unconfirmed reports that Jānis Lūsis, the non-cricketer Soviet javelin thrower, who won the Olympic gold medal in 1968, once threw a ball 150 yards.


title: Fielding (cricket)

text: The use of specialist fielding coaches has become more prevalent since the turn of the 21st century, following the trend of specialist batting and bowling coaches within professional cricket. According to cricket broadcaster Henry Blofeld, "Dressing rooms were once populated by the team and the twelfth man, one physiotherapist at most, perhaps a selector and the occasional visitor. That was all. Now, apart from the two main coaches, there are 'emergency fielders' galore; you can hardly see yourself for batting, bowling, fielding coaches, psychoanalysts and statistical wizards[,] and a whole army of physiotherapists". Baseball fielding coaches have been sought out for this purpose before.


title: Zero-shot learning

text: Zero-shot learning (ZSL) is a problem setup in machine learning, where at test time, a learner observes samples from classes which were not observed during training, and needs to predict the class that they belong to. Zero-shot methods generally work by associating observed and non-observed classes through some form of auxiliary information, which encodes observable distinguishing properties of objects. For example, given a set of images of animals to be classified, along with auxiliary textual descriptions of what animals look like, an artificial intelligence model which has been trained to recognize horses, but has never been given a zebra, can still recognize a zebra when it also knows that zebras look like striped horses. This problem is widely studied in computer vision, natural language processing, and machine perception.


title: Zero-shot learning

text: The first paper on zero-shot learning in natural language processing appeared in 2008 at the AAAI’08, but the name given to the learning paradigm there was "dataless classification". The first paper on zero-shot learning in computer vision appeared at the same conference, under the name "zero-data learning". The term "zero-shot learning" itself first appeared in the literature in a 2009 paper from Palatucci, Hinton, Pomerleau, and Mitchell at NIPS’09. This direction was popularized later in another computer vision paper and the term "zero-shot learning" caught up, as a take-off on "one-shot learning" that was introduced in computer vision years earlier.


title: Zero-shot learning

text: In computer vision, zero-shot learning models learned parameters for seen classes along with their class representations and rely on representational similarity among class labels so that, during inference, instances can be classified into new classes.


title: Zero-shot learning

text: In natural language processing, the key technical direction developed builds on the ability to "understand the labels"—represent the labels in the same semantic space as that of the documents to be classified. This supports the classification of a "single example" without observing any annotated data, the purest form of zero-shot classification. The original paper made use of the Explicit Semantic Analysis (ESA) representation but later papers made use of other representations, including dense representations. This approach was also extended to multilingual domains, fine entity typing and other problems. Moreover, beyond relying solely on representations, the computational approach has been extended to depend on transfer from other tasks, such as textual entailment and question answering.


title: Zero-shot learning

text: The original paper also points out that, beyond the ability to classify a single example, when a collection of examples is given, with the assumption that they come from the same distribution, it is possible to bootstrap the performance in a semi-supervised like manner (or transductive learning).


title: Zero-shot learning

text: Unlike standard generalization in machine learning, where classifiers are expected to correctly classify new samples to classes they have already observed during training, in ZSL, no samples from the classes have been given during training the classifier. It can therefore be viewed as an extreme case of domain adaptation.


title: Zero-shot learning

text: Naturally, some form of auxiliary information has to be given about these zero-shot classes, and this type of information can be of several types.


title: Zero-shot learning

text: The above ZSL setup assumes that at test time, only zero-shot samples are given, namely, samples from new unseen classes. In generalized zero-shot learning, samples from both new and known classes, may appear at test time. This poses new challenges for classifiers at test time, because it is very challenging to estimate if a given sample is new or known. Some approaches to handle this include:


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten ( Nevills; January 5, 1893 – June 29, 1987) was an American folk and blues musician. She was a self-taught left-handed guitarist who played a guitar strung for a right-handed player, but played it upside down. This position meant that she would play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: Cotten was born in 1893 to a musical family near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in an area that would later be incorporated as Carrboro. Her parents were George Nevill (also spelled Nevills) and Louisa (or Louise) Price Nevill. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. She named herself on her first day of school, when the teacher asked her name, because at home she was only called "Li'l Sis". By the age of eight, she was playing songs. At age nine, she was forced to quit school and began work as a domestic worker. At the age of twelve, she had a live-in job at Chapel Hill. She earned a dollar a month, that her mother saved up to buy her first guitar. The guitar, a Sears and Roebuck brand instrument, cost $3.75 (). Although self-taught, she became proficient at playing the instrument, and her repertoire included a large number of rags and dance tunes.


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: By her early teens, she was writing her own songs, one of which, "Freight Train", became one of her most recognized. She wrote the song in remembrance of a nearby train that she could hear from her childhood home. The 1956 UK recording of the song by Chas McDevitt and Nancy Whiskey was a major hit and is credited as one of the main influences on the rise of skiffle in the UK.


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: Around the age of 13, Cotten began working as a maid along with her mother. On November 7, 1910, at the age of 17, she married Frank Cotten. The couple had a daughter, Lillie, and soon after Elizabeth gave up guitar playing for family and church. Elizabeth, Frank and their daughter Lillie moved around the eastern United States for a number of years, between North Carolina, New York City, and Washington, D.C., finally settling in the D.C. area. When Lillie married, Elizabeth divorced Frank and moved in with her daughter and her family.


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: Cotten retired from playing the guitar for 25 years, except for occasional church performances. She did not begin performing publicly and recording until she was in her 60s. She was discovered by the folk-singing Seeger family while she was working for them as a housekeeper.


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: While working briefly in a department store, Cotten helped a child wandering through the aisles find her mother. The child was Peggy Seeger, and the mother was the composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. Soon after this, Cotten again began working as a maid, this time for Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger, and caring for their children, Mike, Peggy, Barbara, and Penny. Seeger family kids, who were too young to pronounce "Elizabeth", began calling her "Libba", and she embraced that nickname later in life. While working with the Seegers (a voraciously musical family that included Pete Seeger, a son of Charles from a previous marriage), she remembered her own guitar playing from 40 years prior and picked up the instrument again and relearned to play it, almost from scratch.


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: In the later half of the 1950s, Mike Seeger began making bedroom reel-to-reel recordings of Cotten's songs in her house. These recordings later became the album "Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar", which was released by Folkways Records. Since the release of that album, her songs, especially her signature song, "Freight Train" — which she wrote when she was a teenager — have been covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary, Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan, Joe Dassin, Joan Baez, Devendra Banhart, Laura Gibson, Laura Veirs, His Name Is Alive, Doc Watson, Taj Mahal, Geoff Farina, and Country Teasers.


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: Peggy Seeger took the song "Freight Train" with her to England, where it became popular in folk music circles. British songwriters Paul James and Fred Williams subsequently misappropriated it as their own composition and copyrighted it. Under their credit, it was then recorded by British skiffle singer Chas McDevitt, who recorded the song in December 1956. Under advice from his manager (Bill Varley), McDevitt then brought in folk-singer Nancy Whiskey and re-recorded the song with her doing the vocal; the result was a chart hit. McDevitt's version influenced many young skiffle groups of the day, including The Quarrymen. Under the advocacy of the influential Seeger family, the copyright was eventually restored to Cotten. Nevertheless, it remains mis-credited in many sources.


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: Shortly after that first album, she began playing concerts with Mike Seeger, the first of which was in 1960 at Swarthmore College.


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: In the early 1960s, Cotten went on to play concerts with some of the big names in the burgeoning folk revival. Some of these included Mississippi John Hurt, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters at venues such as the Newport Folk Festival and the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife.


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: The newfound interest in her work inspired her to write more songs to perform, and in 1967 she released a record created with her grandchildren, which took its name from one of her songs, "Shake Sugaree". The song featured 12-year-old Brenda Joyce Evans, Cotten's great-grandchild, and future Undisputed Truth singer.


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: Using profits from her touring, record releases and awards given to her for her own contributions to the folk arts, Cotten was able to move with her daughter and grandchildren from Washington, D.C., and buy a house in Syracuse, New York. She was also able to continue touring and releasing records well into her 80s. In 1984, she won the Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording, for the album "Elizabeth Cotten Live", released by Arhoolie Records. When accepting the award in Los Angeles, her comment was, "Thank you. I only wish I had my guitar so I could play a song for you all." In 1989, Cotten was one of 75 influential African-American women included in the photo documentary "I Dream a World."


title: Elizabeth Cotten

text: Cotten began writing music while toying with her older brother's banjo. She was left-handed, so she played the banjo in reverse position. Later, when she transferred her songs to the guitar, she formed a unique style, since on a 5-string banjo the uppermost string is not a bass string, but a short, high-pitched string which ends at the fifth fret. This required her to adopt a unique style for the guitar. She first played with the "all finger down strokes" like a banjo. Later, her playing evolved into a unique style of fingerpicking. Her signature alternating bass style is now known as "Cotten picking". Her fingerpicking techniques have influenced many other musicians.


title: Cantopop

text: Cantopop (a contraction of "Cantonese pop music") or HK-pop (short for "Hong Kong pop music") is a genre of pop music written in standard Chinese and sung in Cantonese. Cantopop is also used to refer to the cultural context of its production and consumption. The genre began in the 1970s and became associated with Hong Kong popular music from the middle of the decade. Cantopop then reached its height of popularity in the 1980s and 1990s before slowly declining in the 2000s and experiencing a slight revival in the 2010s. The term "Cantopop" itself was coined in 1978 after "Cantorock", a term first used in 1974. In the eighties Cantopop has reached its highest glory with fanbase and concerts from allover the world, especially from Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan. This is even more obvious with the influx of songs from Hong Kong movies during the time.


title: Cantopop

text: Besides Western pop music, Cantopop is also influenced by other international genres, including jazz, rock and roll, R&B, disco, electronic and others. Cantopop songs are almost invariably performed in Cantonese. Boasting a multi-national fanbase in Southeast Asian nations such as Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as in East Asian regions of South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi in southeastern mainland China, Hong Kong, and occasionally Macau, remain the most significant hubs of the genre.


title: Cantopop

text: Western-influenced music first came to China in the 1920s, specifically through Shanghai. Artists like Zhou Xuan () acted in films and recorded popular songs.


title: Cantopop

text: In 1949 when the People's Republic of China was established by the Chinese Communist Party, one of the first actions taken by the government was to denounce pop music (specifically Western pop) as decadent music. Beginning in the 1950s, massive waves of immigrants fled Shanghai to destinations like North Point in Hong Kong. As a result, many first generation Cantopop artists and composers hail from Shanghai.


title: Cantopop

text: By the 1960s, Cantonese music in Hong Kong was still limited largely to traditional Cantonese opera and comic renditions of western music. Tang Kee-chan, Cheng Kuan-min (), and Tam Ping-man () were among the earliest artists releasing Cantonese records.


title: Cantopop

text: The generation at the time preferred British and American exports. Western culture was at the time equated with education and sophistication, and Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and The Ladybirds were popular.


title: Cantopop

text: Conversely, those who did not prefer Cantonese music were not considered fashioned or educated. and Chan Chung-chug () were two popular Cantonese singers who specifically targeted the younger generation. Connie Chan Po-chu is generally considered to be Hong Kong's 657th teen idol, mostly due to her career longevity. Josephine Siao is also another artist of the era.


title: Cantopop

text: Local bands mimicked British and American bands. Two types of local Cantonese music appeared in the market nearly concurrently in 1973: one type cashed in on the popularity of TVB's drama series based on the more traditional lyrical styles. The other was more western style music largely from Polydor Hong Kong (). Notable singers from the era include Liza Wang and Paula Tsui. At the same time, television was fast becoming a household must-have that offered free entertainment to the public. For example, "The Fatal Irony" () and "Games Gamblers Play" () took the local music scene by storm as soon as they were broadcast on the radio and television.


title: Cantopop

text: Soap operas were needed to fill TV air time, and popular Cantonese songs became TV theme songs. Around 1971, Sandra Lang, a minor singer who had never sung Cantopop before, was invited to sing the first Cantonese TV theme song "A marriage of Laughter and Tears" (). This song was a collaboration between songwriters Yip Siu-dak () and the legendary Joseph Koo. It was ground-breaking and topped local charts. Other groups that profited from TV promotion included the Four Golden Flowers.


title: Cantopop

text: Sam Hui is regarded by some to be the earliest Cantopop star. He was the lead singer of the band Lotus formed in the late 1960s, signed to Polydor in 1972. The song that made him famous was the theme song to "Games Gamblers Play" (), also starring Hui.


title: Cantopop

text: The star of TV theme tunes was Roman Tam. Three of the most famous TV soap opera singers were Jenny Tseng, Liza Wang and Adam Cheng. The Wynners and George Lam also amassed a big fan base with their new style. Samuel Hui continued to dominate the charts and won the Centennial Best Sales Award in the first and second IFPI Gold Disc Presentations twice in a row in 1977 and 1978. Polydor became PolyGram () in 1978.


title: Cantopop

text: It was at this time that the term "Cantopop" was first coined. The "Billboard" correspondent Hans Ebert, who had earlier coined the term "Cantorock" in 1974, noted a change in its style to something similar to British-American soft rock, therefore started to use the term Cantopop instead in 1978.


title: Cantopop

text: In 1974, as the theme song of "The Fatal Irony" () was very successful, TVB sold to the mainland and other countries and Cantopop reached overseas audiences through drama series.


title: Cantopop

text: During the 1980s, Cantopop soared to great heights with artists, producers and record companies working in harmony. Cantopop stars such as Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, George Lam, Alan Tam, Sally Yeh, Priscilla Chan, Sandy Lam, and Danny Chan quickly became household names. The industry used Cantopop songs in TV dramas and movies, with some of the biggest soundtracks coming from films such as "A Better Tomorrow" (). Sponsors and record companies became comfortable with the idea of lucrative contracts and million-dollar signings. There are also Japanese songs with Cantonese lyrics.


title: Cantopop

text: The most successful Chinese recording artist, "Queen of Mandarin songs" Teresa Teng also crossed over to Cantopop. She achieved commercial success with her original Cantonese Hits under the Polygram Label in the early 1980s. Jenny Tseng was a notable addition from Macau.


title: Cantopop

text: In the 1980s, there came the second wave of "band fever" (the first wave came in the 1960–70s, which was much influenced by the global Beatlemania at that time. Young people thought that forming bands was fashionable. Many new bands emerged at that time, such as Samuel Hui's Lotus, The Wynners, and the Teddy Robin and the Playboys. However, the bands emerged in this first wave were just copying the western music style, mostly covering British and American rock songs, and prefer singing in English rather than Cantonese). Different from the first wave in the 60s, the "band fever" in the 80s did not show an obvious relationship with the global culture at the time being, but much related with the marketing strategy of the local record companies and mass media. Many independent bands and music groups were signed by big record companies, and this made a positive impact to the Hong Kong pop music world, as their works were highly original, with strong individuality, and they were all devoted to writing songs in local language, i.e. Cantonese. The subjects of their works were different from the mainstream (which was mostly love ballads). Politics and social life were popular subjects for the bands in their creation. The "band fever" also brought variety in musical style to the Hong Kong mainstream music world (which was almost monopolised by Pop-ballad for a long time). Styles like Rock, Metal, Pop-Rock, Folk, Neo-Romantic, Pop and some experimental styles (e.g. Cantorock) were introduced. Among them, Beyond and Tat Ming Pair () gave the greatest impact to the Hong Kong music world. Some renowned bands and groups included: Beyond, , Tat Ming Pair, Tai Chi (), Grasshopper (), (), (), (), , (), Citybeat ().


title: Cantopop

text: The second wave of "band fever" also brought a group of new music lovers to the Hong Kong mainstream music world. Most of them were the just-grew-up generation, or the music lovers of the western Avant-garde music, also the Euro-American Rock-band lovers. This contributed to a great change in the population and age distribution of the music listeners from the 70s. Record companies were laying ever more stress on the buying power of these young new customers. The second wave of "band fever" emerged from the mid 1980s (around 1984) and reached its climax in 1986–87. However the "band fever" cannot put for a long time. Along with the death of the legendary Wong Ka Kui, the leader and co-founder of Beyond, in 1993, and the disband-tide emerged in the early 90s (Tat Ming Pair disbanded in 1990), the "band fever" gradually faded away and totally got down in the early 1990s.


title: Cantopop

text: As Cantopop gained large followings in Chinese communities worldwide, Hong Kong entrepreneurs' ingenious use of the then new Laserdisc technology prompted yet another explosion in the market.


title: Cantopop

text: In the 1990s in Hong Kong, the "Four Heavenly Kings" ()—Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai—dominated music, and coverage in magazines, TV, advertisements and cinema.


title: Cantopop

text: The sovereignty handover created a culturally challenging atmosphere for the industry. Establishment of Basic Law and language ordinances made the adoption of Mandarin inevitable.


title: Cantopop

text: In 2019, Andy Lau spoke of his desire for a reunion of the Four Heavenly Kings in an interview with the press.


title: Cantopop

text: At the turn of the century, Cantonese was still dominant in the domain of Chinese pop. The deaths of stars Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui in 2003 rocked the industry. A transitional phase also took place with many overseas-raised artists such as Nicholas Tse and Coco Lee gaining recognition. As a result, Cantopop is no longer restricted to Hong Kong, but has become part of a larger music movement.


title: Cantopop

text: In 2005 Cantopop began a new upswing. Major companies that drove much of the HK segment included Gold Typhoon Music Entertainment (EMI, Gold Label), Universal Music Group, East Asia Entertainment () and Amusic and Emperor Entertainment Group.


title: Cantopop

text: The decade was also dubbed a "People's singer" era (), as most performers were frequently seen promoting publicly, contrasting the 1990s when previous era "big-name" singers () seemed unapproachable.


title: Cantopop

text: A number of scandals struck some of the stars later in the decade. In 2008 the Edison Chen photo scandal involving Edison Chen and Twins singer Gillian Chung, among others, who were the subject of explicit photos uploaded online. The scandal occupied the front pages of the local press for a solid month, and also garnered the attention of international media. The scandal tarnished the image of the previously "squeaky-clean" Twins, and resulted in their going into hiatus in late June 2008, four months after Gillian was caught up in the scandal. Other events include the street fight between Gary Chaw and Justin Lo. In 2009, Jill Vidal and her singer boyfriend Kelvin Kwan were arrested in Tokyo on 24 February 2009 over allegations of marijuana possession. Kwan was released without charge after 32 days in jail, while Vidal later pleaded guilty in Tokyo court to heroin possession, and was sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment, suspended for 3 years.


title: Cantopop

text: Mandarin became more important as a result of fast growing culturally and economically in China, the influence of Cantonese became vulnerable. Nevertheless, in addition to the 7 million people of Hong Kong and Macau, the genre continues to enjoy popularity among a Cantonese-speaking audience of in excess of 100 million in southern China, plus 10 million Cantonese-speaking diaspora in Canada, Australia and the United States. In 2010, a proposal that Guangzhou Television station should increase its broadcast in Mandarin led to protests in Guangzhou. While the authorities relented, this event reflects attempts at marginalising Cantonese and the ascendency of Mandopop.


title: Cantopop

text: The first major award of the decade 09 JSG award was a highly controversial one with the ongoing HKRIA tax case. The case was reportedly solved in early 2012 though. In January 2012, the 11 JSG award was again controversial since one of the biggest awards, Record of the Year, was handed to Raymond Lam with his unpopular song "Chok".


title: Cantopop

text: Interest in Cantopop was renewed in the early 2020s in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, which led to border closures and restriction of travel. In addition to the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests and the passing of the Hong Kong national security law in June 2020, the resurgence of Hong Kong pride had led many Cantonese natives to support local music artistes. The Cantopop boy group Mirror, which was formed through the ViuTV singing competition in "Good Night Show - King Maker" in 2018, skyrocketed in popularity during this time due to their distinctively local image. Media had described them as "the new kings of Cantopop" and a "Cantopop phenomenon."


title: Cantopop

text: In February 2021, Hong Kong's biggest television broadcaster, TVB, historically lifted its ban on four of Hong Kong's biggest record labels, opening the doors for non-TVB artistes to perform on the network. The move was described by local media as "reviving the Cantopop music industry."


title: Cantopop

text: Early Cantopop was developed from Cantonese opera music hybridised with Western pop. The musicians soon gave up traditional Chinese musical instruments like zheng and Erhu fiddle in favour of western style arrangements. Cantopop songs are usually sung by one singer, sometimes with a band, accompanied by piano, synthesizer, drum set and guitars. They are composed under verse-chorus form and are generally monophonic. Practically all early Cantopop songs feature a descending bassline.


title: Cantopop

text: Cantonese is a pitch sensitive tonal language. The word carries a different meaning when sung in a different relative pitch. Matching Cantonese lyrics to Western music was particularly difficult because the Western musical scale has 12 semitones. Through the work of pioneers like Samuel Hui, James Wong () and Jimmy Lo Kwok Jim (), those that followed have more stock phrases for reference.


title: Cantopop

text: Tonal constraints have been blamed for the decline of Cantopop in the late 1990s, for source of creativity being "mined out". Its ramification includes interpretive constraint, where singers have less room for ad-lib change of pitch without sacrificing intelligibility. As a result, pitch change often encountered in western pop music becomes foreign to most of Hong Kong's singers.


title: Cantopop

text: The first type is the poetic lyrics written in literary or classical Wenyan Chinese (). In the past, Cantopop maintained the Cantonese Opera tradition of matching the musical notes with tones of the language. Relatively few Cantopop songs use truly colloquial Cantonese terms, and fewer songs contain lyrics. Songs written in this style are usually reserved for TV shows about ancient China. Since the 1980s, increasing numbers of singers have departed from this tradition, though some big names like Roman Tam stayed true to traditional techniques.


title: Cantopop

text: The second type is less formal. The lyrics written in colloquial Cantonese make up the majority with compositions done in modern written Chinese. TV shows filmed under modern contexts will use songs written with these lyrics. Most songs share an over-riding characteristic, in which every last word of a phrase is rhymed.


title: Cantopop

text: The following is an example from the song ""Impression"" () by Samuel Hui. The last word of every phrase ends with '–oeng'.


title: Cantopop

text: Cantopop was born in the 1970s and became a cultural product with the popularity of two popular TVB drama's themes songs in the early 1970s: "Tower Ballad" (, 1972) and "A marriage of Laughter and Tears" (, 1974). The majority of "hit" Cantopop, however, is not entirely local produced but the cover versions of "hit" foreign melodies. Since the 1970s, covering "hit" external songs mainly from Japan, Korea, Taiwan or other Western countries became a common practice among Hong Kong record companies. At that time, Hong Kong's constantly growing music industry acknowledges simply by using those hits, whose already gained popularity, will be the easiest way to reach success in the market. Cover versions were also widely used as a solution to address the shortage of the local hits due to the lack of local composers. Another reason for the use of cover versions is to minimise the production costs. The practice is also done for business reasons of filling up albums and re-capitalizing on songs with a proven record.


title: Cantopop

text: The Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards, which is one of the major music awards in Hong Kong since 1979, can reflect the great reliance on Japanese melodies in Cantopop. During the 1980s, 139 out of 477 songs from weekly gold songs chart were cover versions, and 52% of the cover versions were covers of Japanese songs. Numerous legendary songs of Cantopop superstars Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui, for example "Craziness" (1983), "Monica" (1984), "Foggy Love" (1984), "For Your Love Only" (1985), "Evil Girl" (1985), "The Past Love" (1986), "The First Tear" (1986), and "Fired Tango", were cover versions of Japanese hits, showing that covers contributed to the success of superstars to a certain degree.


title: Cantopop

text: By definition hybrids are still considered Cantonese songs due to the Cantonese lyrics, though the rights borrowed varies country to country. Songs like "Tomorrow sounds like today" () by Jenny Tseng, "Life to seek" () by Danny Chan, "Snowing" () by Priscilla Chan, and "Can't afford" () by Jade Kwan were originally composed outside of Hong Kong. Many critics disapprove of the practice of covering foreign music and consider it lacking in originality, and many albums promoted themselves as "cover-free".


title: Cantopop

text: January 29, 2010, Jacky Cheung released his Private Corner album coining the phrase "Canto-jazz", to describe the concept of the album and the musical style of the songs.


title: Cantopop

text: In The South China Morning Post, Rachel Mok described "Canto-jazz" as a "unique fusion of the two music styles" of "light jazz" and canto-pop creating a fresh sound with a uniquely local flavour".  She cited Jacky Cheung's Private Corner and Karen Mok's "Somewhere I Belong" among artists who have recorded Cantonese language albums in the new jazz genre coined "canto-jazz".


title: Cantopop

text: An educational study traced the development of jazz in Greater China and explored the cross-cultural issues in rearranging a cantopop song for big band or jazz combo arrangement.


title: Cantopop

text: Talent is unusually secondary to the success of a Cantopop singer in Hong Kong. Most times, image sells albums, as it is one of the characteristics of mainstream music similarly mirrored in the United States and Japan. Publicity is vital to an idol's career, as one piece of news could make or break a future. Almost all modern Cantopop stars go into the movie business regardless of their ability to act; however, the reverse may also occur with actors releasing albums and embarking on concerts regardless of singing talent. They immediately expand to the Mandarin market once their fame is established, hence pure Cantopop stars are almost nonexistent. Outside of music sales, their success can also be gauged by their income. For example, according to some reports, Sammi Cheng earned HK$46M (around US$6M) from advertisement and merchandise endorsements in one month alone. Many artists, however, begin with financial hardships. For example, Yumiko Cheng owed her company thousands of dollars. Others include Elanne Kong crying in public with only HK$58 left.


title: Cantopop

text: PolyGram, EMI, Sony, Warner and BMG were established in Hong Kong since the 1970s. Local record companies such as Crown Records (), Wing Hang Records (), Manchi Records () and Capital Artists () in the past have become successful local labels. As TV drama themes lost favour in the mid-1980s, market power soon drifted to the multi-national labels. Sales are tracked at the IFPI HK Annual Sales Chart.


title: Denise Austin

text: Denise Austin (née Katnich; born February 13, 1957) is an American fitness instructor, author, and columnist, and a former member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.


title: Denise Austin

text: Austin was born in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. She started gymnastics at the age of 12, which led to an athletic scholarship at the University of Arizona.


title: Denise Austin

text: Denise is married to sports agent and former tennis player Jeff Austin, brother of US Open champion Tracy Austin. They have been married since April 30, 1983, and have two daughters, Kelly (b. 1990) and Katie (b. 1993). Katie is a fitness instructor like her mother and has her own YouTube channel. As of 2012, the Austins resided in Alexandria, Virginia. In 2018, the Austins moved to Hermosa Beach, California.


title: Denise Austin

text: Austin initially attended the University of Arizona on a gymnastics scholarship, reaching the rank of number 9 in the NCAA on balance beam. She later transferred to California State University, Long Beach, graduating with a bachelor's degree in physical education, and a minor in exercise physiology.


title: Denise Austin

text: Since then, she has been teaching classes, producing fitness shows, creating exercise video tapes, and writing books and columns on exercise and staying fit. Examples include "Shrink Your Female Fat Zones", "Pilates for Every Body", and "Eat Carbs, Lose Weight". In 2002, president George W. Bush named Austin as a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, and began her second term in 2006.


title: Denise Austin

text: Austin promoted the Reebok Freestyle sneaker, which was the first athletic shoe designed for women, making it an instant hit in the gym in the 1980s. "I absolutely loved this time in my career, I was the first spokesperson for the very first aerobic shoe," Austin said in a November, 22, 2019 Facebook post.


title: Denise Austin

text: Austin is known for her emphasis on staying fit naturally, emphasizing that she herself exercises only about 30 minutes a day and does not skip meals. She also prefers the use of sugar and butter over artificial sweeteners and margarine, though she does emphasize portion control, proper nutrient balance, and exercise. Austin supports a balanced program of exercise and proper diet, and encourages people to stay away from fad diets or "crazy claims" for quick fixes. Her exercise programs often integrate a variety of methods including yoga, pilates, cross training, and aerobic exercise.


title: Denise Austin

text: Austin had a long-running exercise television program "Getting Fit with Denise Austin" on ESPN2, reruns of which can currently be seen on ESPN Classic and Altitude Sports and Entertainment. The show moved to weekday mornings on Lifetime Television, where it was renamed "Fit and Lite" and "Denise Austin's Daily Workout". Austin produced these shows each fall, spending four months on location in resorts in the Caribbean and Arizona. Lifetime cancelled the shows in April 2008. Austin said she was developing a new TV show later that year. It was in the planning stages for 2010.


title: Denise Austin

text: According to "The Washington Post", Austin was headed back to Lifetime in January 2011. She is on the morning program "The Balancing Act". Austin before had said on her website that she was getting a new show ready for debut in the fall of 2008, though the show did not debut. When she was interviewed by Erin Whitehead in 2009, it was reported her new show would be back on in the fall of that year. In April 2007 a Washington, DC alternative weekly newspaper called the "Washington City Paper" featured an article on Austin under their "Cheap Seats" column, where she was questioned about how some of her exercise shows on YouTube are like pornography to some people. Austin said that she was totally unaware. She also reportedly said, with a giggle, that she was worried about it.


title: Fort Apache (film)

text: Fort Apache is a 1948 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda. The film was the first of the director's "cavalry trilogy" and was followed by "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1949) and "Rio Grande" (1950), both also starring Wayne. The screenplay was inspired by James Warner Bellah's short story "Massacre" (1947). The historical sources for "Massacre" have been attributed both to George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn and to the Fetterman Fight.


title: Fort Apache (film)

text: The film was one of the first to present an authentic and sympathetic view of Native Americans. In his review of the DVD release of "Fort Apache" in 2012, "New York Times" movie critic Dave Kehr called it "one of the great achievements of classical American cinema, a film of immense complexity that never fails to reveal new shadings with each viewing" and "among the first 'pro-Indian' Westerns" in its portrayal of indigenous Americans with "sympathy and respect".


title: Fort Apache (film)

text: The film was awarded the Best Director and Best Cinematography awards by the Locarno International Film Festival of Locarno, Switzerland. Screenwriter Frank S. Nugent was nominated for best screenplay by the Writers Guild of America.


title: Fort Apache (film)

text: After the American Civil War, highly respected veteran Captain Kirby York (John Wayne) is expected to replace the outgoing commander at Fort Apache, an isolated U.S. cavalry post. York had commanded his own regiment during the Civil War and was well-qualified to assume permanent command. To the surprise and disappointment of the company, command of the regiment was given to Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday (Henry Fonda). Thursday, a West Point graduate, was a general during the Civil War. Despite his Civil War combat record, Lieutenant Colonel Thursday is an arrogant and egocentric officer who lacks experience dealing with Native Americans, and in particular local tribes with their unique cultures and traditions.


title: Fort Apache (film)

text: Accompanying widower Thursday is his daughter, Philadelphia (Shirley Temple). She becomes attracted to Second Lieutenant Michael Shannon O'Rourke (John Agar), the son of Sergeant Major Michael O'Rourke (Ward Bond). The elder O'Rourke was a recipient of the Medal of Honor as a major with the Irish Brigade during the Civil War, entitling his son to enter West Point and become an officer. However, the class-conscious Thursday forbids his daughter to see someone whom he does not consider an equal and a gentleman.


title: Fort Apache (film)

text: When unrest arises among the Apache, led by Cochise (Miguel Inclán), Thursday ignores York's advice to treat the tribes with honor and to remedy problems on the reservation caused by corrupt Apache agent Silas Meacham (Grant Withers). Thursday's inability to deal with Meacham effectively, due to his rigid interpretation of Army regulations stating that Meacham is an agent of the United States government, so entitled to Army protection (despite his own personal contempt for the man), coupled with Thursday's prejudicial and arrogant ignorance regarding the Apache, drives the Apaches to rebel. Eager for glory and recognition, Thursday orders his regiment into battle on Cochise's terms, a direct charge into the hills, despite York's urgent warnings that such a move would be suicidal. Thursday relieves York and orders him to stay back, replacing him with Captain Sam Collingwood (George O'Brien).


title: Fort Apache (film)

text: Following Thursday's orders, York spares the younger O'Rourke from battle. Thursday's command is nearly wiped out, but a few soldiers manage to escape back to the ridge where Captain York is positioned. Thursday himself survives, but then returns to die with the last of his trapped men. Cochise spares York and the rest of the detachment because he knows York to be an honorable man.


title: Fort Apache (film)

text: Several years later, a now Lieutenant Colonel Kirby York commands the regiment. Meeting with correspondents, he introduces Lt. O'Rourke, now married to Philadelphia Thursday with a young son. A reporter asks Colonel York if he has seen the famous painting depicting "Thursday's Charge". York, about to command a new and arduous campaign to bring in the Apaches, while believing that Thursday was a poor tactician who led a foolhardy and suicidal charge, says it is completely accurate and then reminds the reporters that the soldiers will never be forgotten as long as the regiment lives.


title: Fort Apache (film)

text: The Irish theme to the background of some of the troopers may be a nod to the service on both sides during the Civil War, as does the recruit who had allegedly served under Nathan Bedford Forrest. The role of Sergeant Major Michael O'Rourke (and his son) may be a thinly disguised tribute to 'Paddy' Patrick O'Rorke killed leading the 140th New York Volunteer Regiment in a desperate charge to shore up the right flank of Strong Vincent's Brigade on Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863.


title: Fort Apache (film)

text: Some exteriors for the film's location shooting were shot in Monument Valley, Arizona. The exteriors involving the fort itself and the renegade Apache agent's trading post were filmed at the Corriganville Movie Ranch, a former Simi Hills movie ranch that is now a regional park in the Simi Valley of Southern California.


title: Fort Apache (film)

text: The film is recognized by American Film Institute in its 2008 AFI's 10 Top 10: Nominated Western film


title: Fort Apache (film)

text: "Fort Apache" is commonly ranked among the most significant films of the "cowboy/western" genre, including these rankings:


title: Coach (bus)

text: A coach (or coach bus/motorcoach) is a bus used for longer-distance service, in contrast to transit buses that are typically used within a single metropolitan region. Often used for touring, intercity, and international bus service, coaches are also used for private charter for various purposes. Coaches are also related and fall under a specific category/type of RVs.


title: Coach (bus)

text: Deriving the name from horse-drawn carriages and stagecoaches that carried passengers, luggage, and mail, modern motor coaches are almost always high-floor buses, with separate luggage hold mounted below the passenger compartment. In contrast to transit buses, motor coaches typically feature forward-facing seating, with no provision for standing. Other accommodations may include onboard restrooms, televisions, and overhead luggage space.


title: Coach (bus)

text: Horse-drawn chariots and carriages ("coaches") were used by the wealthy and powerful where the roads were of a high enough standard from possibly 3000 BC. In Hungary, during the reign of King Matthias Corvinus in the 15th century, the wheelwrights of Kocs began to build a horse-drawn vehicle with steel-spring suspension. This "cart of Kocs" as the Hungarians called it () soon became popular all over Europe. The imperial post service employed the first horse-drawn mail coaches in Europe since Roman times in 1650, and as they started in the town of Kocs, the use of these mail coaches gave rise to the term "coach". Stagecoaches (drawn by horses) were used for transport between cities from about 1500 in Great Britain until displaced by the arrival of the railways.


title: Coach (bus)

text: One of the earliest motorized vehicles was the charabanc, which was used for short journeys and excursions until the early years of the 20th century. The first "motor coaches" were purchased by operators of those horse-drawn vehicles in the early 20th century by operators such as Royal Blue Coach Services, who purchased their first charabanc in 1913 and were running 72 coaches by 1926.


title: Coach (bus)

text: Coaches, as they hold passengers for significant periods of time on long journeys, are designed for comfort. They vary considerably in quality from country to country and within countries. Higher specification vehicles include luxury seats and air conditioning. Coaches typically have only a single, narrow door, but sometimes they have two doors, as an increased loading time is acceptable due to infrequent stops. Some characteristics include:


title: Coach (bus)

text: Coaches, like buses, may be fully built by integrated manufacturers, or a separate chassis consisting of only an engine, wheels and basic frame may be delivered to a coachwork factory for a body to be added. A few coaches are built with monocoque bodies without a chassis frame. Integrated manufacturers (most of whom also supply chassis) include Autosan, Scania, Fuso, and Alexander Dennis. Major coachwork providers (some of whom can build their own chassis) include Van Hool, Neoplan, Marcopolo, Irizar, MCI, Prevost, Volvo and Designline.


title: Coach (bus)

text: In some European countries following the 1958 type certification treaty, coach (that is vehicle of type M2 or M3) type certification is regulated by regulation number 107 from the UNECE. In the U.S., commercial drivers of motorcoaches are regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).


title: Coach (bus)

text: A representative selection of vehicles currently (or recently) in use in different parts of the world.


title: All My Friends Hate Me

text: All My Friends Hate Me is a 2021 British comedy horror film directed by Andrew Gaynord and written by Tom Palmer and Tom Stourton, who also stars in the film. It was released on 11 March 2022 in theatres with a digital release on March 25. It premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.


title: All My Friends Hate Me

text: Pete (Stourton) has returned from volunteering in a refugee camp and is celebrating the weekend of his 31st birthday at a country estate owned by his friend George (McGuire). Pete's girlfriend Sonia (Clive) is expected the following day but his first evening is spent reconnecting with university friends, George and his wife Fig (Campbell), 'foppish cokehound' Archie (Dickson), and Pete's ex-girlfriend Claire (Clarke). However, as the night goes on, Pete's friends' behaviour becomes more and more unsettling and Pete becomes more paranoid and insecure, as he suspects Harry (Demri-Burns) of plotting to replace him in the group. His paranoia soon boils over into a full-on psychotic breakdown during which his suspicions are debunked one by one.


title: Confinity

text: Confinity Inc. was an American software company based in Silicon Valley, best known as the creator of PayPal. It was founded in December 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek, initially as a Palm Pilot payments and cryptography company.


title: Confinity

text: Many of Confinity's initial recruits were alumni of "The Stanford Review," also co-founded by Thiel, and most early engineers hailed from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, recruited by Levchin. Early investors included Nokia Ventures, Deutsche Bank, and William N. Melton, the founder of CyberCash.


title: Confinity

text: Confinity's second office, 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto, California, is also known for being the former office of Google and Logitech.


title: Confinity

text: Confinity launched its milestone product, PayPal, in late 1999. Confinity merged with X.com, founded by Elon Musk, in March 2000. The merged company became known as X.com because this was thought to be a name with broader long-term potential than Confinity or PayPal. However, surveys showed that a majority of consumers considered the name X.com vague and potentially pornographic and preferred that the company simply be called PayPal. After a corporate restructuring, which involved the removal of Elon Musk from the company, the company adopted the name PayPal Inc.


title: Confinity

text: PayPal made an Initial Public Offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange on February 14, 2002. The company was purchased by eBay in a $1.3 billion stock deal announced on July 8, 2002. eBay and PayPal became separate companies in 2015.


title: Tarvaris Jackson

text: Tarvaris D'Andre Jackson (April 21, 1983 – April 12, 2020) was an American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). Jackson played college football for both Alabama State and Arkansas. He played professionally for the Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks and Buffalo Bills.


title: Tarvaris Jackson

text: The Vikings selected Jackson in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft, and Jackson played for the Vikings from 2006 to 2010. A reserve quarterback for much of his time with the Vikings, Jackson was starting quarterback for the 2007 season and part of the 2008 season, after which Jackson started the Vikings' . In 2011, Jackson signed with the Seahawks and was starting quarterback for the 2011 season. Jackson was then traded to the Bills before the 2012 NFL season but never played a game. Jackson returned to the Seahawks in 2013. He was the backup quarterback for Russell Wilson during their Super Bowl XLVIII win over the Denver Broncos.


title: Tarvaris Jackson

text: Jackson was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, and graduated from Sidney Lanier High School of Montgomery in 2001. Jackson then enrolled at the University of Arkansas and played three games for the Razorbacks as a freshman but suffered a season-ending injury. Consequently, Jackson received a medical redshirt for the season. Jackson finished 2001 with 3 of 9 passes completed for 53 yards and one interception and rushed 14 yards on seven carries. In 2002, Jackson played 8 games. He completed 14 of 39 passes for 143 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions and rushed –16 yards in 14 carries.


title: Tarvaris Jackson

text: In 2003, after trailing on the depth chart to future first round draft pick Matt Jones, Jackson transferred to Alabama State University and led the Hornets to an 8–5 record, Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Eastern Division title, and berth in the SWAC Championship Game. He completed 160 of 316 passes for 2,342 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions and rushed 444 yards on 91 carries including five touchdowns. As a junior in 2004, Jackson won SWAC Championship MVP in Alabama State's second 10-win season in school history. With 11 starts in 12 games, Jackson passed for 2,556 yards, 20 touchdowns, and nine interceptions. He had 67 carries for 215 yards and three touchdowns. In his senior season in 2005, Jackson was named team captain and was a second-team All-SWAC selection. He threw for 2,655 yards, 25 touchdowns, and five interceptions. He rushed for 271 yards and two touchdowns on 95 carries.


title: Tarvaris Jackson

text: Vikings scouts and personnel had reportedly been watching him closely in secret over his senior season, particularly liking his performance in the East-West Shrine Game. They were also impressed by his workout at the scouting combine (among the top 5 quarterbacks in ball speed and the 40-yard dash). Several NFL teams, including the Vikings, had arranged secret workouts with him too. Jackson was selected with the last pick in the 2nd round (64th overall) of the 2006 NFL Draft, while he was projected to go much later, in the sixth or seventh round. The Vikings traded two 3rd round picks to get the 2nd round pick with which they drafted Jackson, fearing he might get picked sooner than anticipated. Jackson's early selection caused some surprise, as he was the 5th quarterback taken and the 1st Division I-AA player selected (the previous I-AA quarterback drafted was Spergon Wynn in 2000). He was also the first quarterback from Alabama State to be drafted into the NFL since Ricky Jones in 1992. Even Jackson was surprised by the pick, saying, "I was more focused on [getting drafted in] the third round and even that was stretching it". Most pre-draft publications did not even have him listed as one of the top 10 eligible quarterbacks, while he was the 5th selected. On July 26, 2006, Jackson signed a four-year deal with Minnesota, including a $1 million signing bonus.


title: Tarvaris Jackson

text: Vikings coach Brad Childress was quoted days before the draft as saying he was interested in finding a "developmental guy", a "diamond in the rough" quarterback of the future, raw talent he could teach a system.


title: Tarvaris Jackson

text: The day after the draft, Childress was quoted by the "St. Paul Pioneer Press" as saying: "I think you judge quarterbacks a little bit differently...When you see what you want at the quarterback position, you need to go get it. And that's exactly what I see with Tarvaris Jackson is a guy that's a piece of clay, that has all the skills in terms of, No. 1, what's he look like throwing the football?...He's got a great throwing motion; he's athletic. He has all those things that we're looking for, and he's wired right. That's important for a quarterback. I think he's a flatline guy. I think he's a sponge. You're talking about a guy that never had a coach there as a quarterback coach. So what can he do with coaching?"


title: Tarvaris Jackson

text: Jackson's 2006 pre-season passer rating was 106.1, 15th in the league out of 110 quarterbacks who performed. Only one quarterback from his draft class (Jay Cutler) did better. He also showed great scrambling skills averaging 11.3 yards in rushing (the only Viking other than Brad Johnson to average more than 3.3 yards in rushing). ESPN analyst Mike Tirico referred to Jackson as a right-handed Michael Vick. His pre-season performance was enough to surpass second and third-string quarterbacks Mike McMahon and J. T. O'Sullivan on the depth chart. After the pre-season, McMahon and O'Sullivan were cut from the team and Brooks Bollinger was brought in, whom Jackson then competed against for the number two spot.


title: Tarvaris Jackson

text: On September 25, 2006, Jackson had minor knee surgery to repair the meniscus in his knee. He returned to limited practice after two weeks, and then came back to play his first NFL game with the Vikings in week 13 against the Chicago Bears in the fourth quarter after Johnson was benched for throwing four interceptions and backup quarterback Brooks Bollinger was injured. Jackson completed three of his four passes before fumbling the ball to Chicago and the Bears then ran the clock out. Following this game, when Jackson was asked if he was ready to take over as starter, he said: "Not really...We still have a chance to make the playoffs, so we're still trying to do that. So it's obvious that Brad is still our quarterback so we can stay on that."


title: Tarvaris Jackson

text: In Week 15, Johnson started the game but was benched in the fourth quarter when the Vikings had been underperforming the entire game losing by a score of 26–7 at the time Jackson went in late in the third quarter against the New York Jets. Although Johnson had not thrown an interception that game and had a respectable passer rating of 94.2 in the game, the Minnesota fans jeered Johnson throughout the game and chanted "We want Jackson!" at numerous points because Johnson had only thrown nine touchdowns all season (in 14 games) and had a career worst 71.9 passer rating throughout the season. Jackson received a standing ovation as he trotted out onto the field. A landmark in Jackson's career happened that game when Jackson completed his first touchdown pass to Mewelde Moore. Jackson threw 177 yards, one touchdown, and ran three times for 20 yards while the Jets protected their large lead. He also threw an interception in the red zone.


title: Tarvaris Jackson

text: Jackson was named the starting quarterback for Minnesota towards the end of his rookie season. Jackson's first game was a week 16 night game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Game conditions were very poor. A steady rain fell throughout the evening and the kickoff temperature was only 36 degrees Fahrenheit. The Vikings lost by a score of 9–7 with the only Vikings score coming from an interception for a touchdown by defensive back Fred Smoot. The offense set a franchise low record of only three first downs the whole game, did not get close enough to the end zone to even attempt a field goal, and only had 27 passing yards gained against the NFL's 19th ranked defense (ranked 26th against the pass). Jackson had a passer rating of 36.5, had a 50% completion rate (10–20 for 50 yards), one interception, and one fumble. Packers quarterback Brett Favre only managed a slightly better 52% completion rate (26–50) and threw two interceptions. He threw for 285 yards with no touchdowns.


title: Tarvaris Jackson

text: Jackson did not live up to the Vikings' expectations in 2007 despite finishing 8–4 as a starter. Jackson had nine touchdowns and 12 interceptions, along with a 159 yards per game, causing the Vikings to have the second-worst passing offense in the NFL. His 70.8 passer rating was 28th among NFL quarterbacks. Jackson missed three games because of injuries, which included a strained groin, a concussion and a fractured index finger. The Vikings failed to make the playoffs. Analysts put the Vikings' 8–8 record on the successful running of Chester Taylor and rookie Adrian Peterson, which took the pressure off of Jackson and the defense.