title: Mammoth steppe

text: During the Last Glacial Maximum, the mammoth steppe, also known as steppe-tundra, was the Earth's most extensive biome. It spanned from Spain eastward across Eurasia to Canada and from the arctic islands southward to China. The mammoth steppe was cold and dry. The vegetation was dominated by palatable high-productivity grasses, herbs and willow shrubs. The animal biomass was dominated by reindeer, bison, horses, and woolly mammoth. This ecosystem covered wide areas of the northern part of the globe, thrived for approximately 100,000 years without major changes, but then diminished to small regions around 12,000 years ago.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: At the end of the 19th century, Alfred Nehring (1890) and Jan Czerski (Iwan Dementjewitsch Chersky, 1891) proposed that during the last glacial period a major part of northern Europe had been populated by large herbivores and that a steppe climate had prevailed there. In 1982, the scientist R. Dale Guthrie coined the term "mammoth steppe" for this paleoregion.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: The last glacial period, commonly referred to as the 'Ice Age', spanned from 126,000 YBP–11,700 YBP and was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age which occurred during the last years of the Pleistocene epoch. This arctic environment was very cold and dry and probably dusty, resembling mountaintop environments (alpine tundra), and was very different from today's swampy tundra. It reached its peak during the last glacial maximum, when ice sheets commenced advancing from 33,000 years BP and reached their maximum positions 26,500 years BP. Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere approximately 19,000 years BP, and in Antarctica approximately 14,500 years BP, which is consistent with evidence that it was the primary source for an abrupt rise in the sea level at that time.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: During the peak of the last glacial maximum, a vast mammoth steppe stretched from the Iberian Peninsula across Eurasia and over the Bering land bridge into Alaska and the Yukon where it was stopped by the Wisconsin glaciation. This land bridge existed because more of the planet's water was locked up in ice than now, hence sea levels were lower. When the sea levels began to rise this bridge was inundated around 11,000 years BP.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: During glacial periods, there is clear evidence for intense aridity due to water being held in glaciers and their associated effects on climate. The mammoth steppe was like a huge 'inner court' that was surrounded on all sides by moisture-blocking features: massive continental glaciers, high mountains, and frozen seas. These kept rainfall low and created more days with clear skies than are seen today, which increased evaporation in the summer leading to aridity, and radiation of warmth from the ground into the night sky in winter leading to cold. This is thought to have been caused by seven factors:


title: Mammoth steppe

text: Animal biomass and plant productivity of the mammoth steppe were similar to today's African savanna. There is no comparison to it today.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: The paleo-environment changed across time, a proposal that is supported from mammoth dung samples found in northern Yakutia. During Pleniglacial interstadials, alder, birch, and pine trees survived in northern Siberia, however during the Last Glacial Maximum only a treeless steppe vegetation existed. At the onset of the Late Glacial Interstadial (15,000–11,000 BP), global warming resulted in shrub and dwarf birch in northeastern Siberia, which was then colonized by open woodland with birch and spruce during the Younger Dryas (12,900–11,700 YBP). By the Holocene (10,000 YBP), patches of closed larch and pine forests developed. Researchers had previously concluded that the mammoth steppe must have been very unproductive because they assumed that its soils had a very low carbon content; however, these soils (yedoma) were preserved in the permafrost of Siberia and Alaska and are the largest reservoir of organic carbon known. It was a highly productive environment. The vegetation was dominated by palatable high-productivity grasses, herbs and willow shrubs. Herbs were far more widespread than they are today, and were the main food source of the large plant eating mammals.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: The mammoth steppe was dominated in biomass by reindeer, bison, horse, and the woolly mammoth, and was the center for the evolution of the Pleistocene woolly fauna. Megaloceros, saiga antelope and musk ox also lived on the mammoth steppe (the first one not in the northernmost parts). In the Siberian parts were animals like the argali, Snow sheep and the Mongolian gazelle. Not so far before the last glacial maximum (roughly 40.000 years ago), an extinct paleospecies of argali ("Ovis argaloides") lived also in Europe. Notable carnivores found across the whole range of the mammoth steppe included "Panthera spelaea", the Wolverine, the wolf "Canis lupus" and the brown bear "Ursus arctos". While the cave hyena was part of mammoth steppe faunas in Europe, it did not extend into the core high latitude north Asian range of the biome. Bird remains are rare because of their fragile structure, but there is some evidence for snowy owl, willow ptarmigan, gyrfalcon, common raven and great bustard. Other bird species are white-tailed eagle and golden eagle. Vultures like griffon vulture and cinereous vulture are not known but they were likely common scavengers on the mammoth steppe, following the large herds and scavenging on dead animals. On Wrangel Island, the remains of woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, horse, bison and musk ox have been found. Reindeer and small animal remains do not preserve, but reindeer excrement has been found in sediment. Small animals on the mammoth steppe were, for example, steppe pika, ground squirrels and alpine marmot. In the most arid regions of the mammoth steppe that were to the south of Central Siberia and Mongolia, woolly rhinoceros were common but woolly mammoths were rare. Reindeer live in the far north of Mongolia today and historically their southern boundary passed through Germany and along the steppes of eastern Europe, indicating they once covered much of the mammoth steppe. Mammoths survived on the Taimyr Peninsula until the Holocene. A small population of mammoths survived on St. Paul Island, Alaska, up until 3750 BC, and the small mammoths of Wrangel Island survived until 1650 BC. Bison in Alaska and the Yukon, and horses and muskox in northern Siberia, have survived the loss of the mammoth steppe. One study has proposed that a change of suitable climate caused a significant drop in the mammoth population size, which made them vulnerable to hunting from expanding human populations. The coincidence of both of these impacts in the Holocene most likely set the place and time for the extinction of the woolly mammoth.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: The mammoth steppe had a cold, dry climate. During the past interglacial warmings, forests of trees and shrubs expanded northward into the mammoth steppe, when northern Siberia, Alaska and the Yukon (Beringia) would have formed a mammoth steppe refugium. When the planet grew colder again, the mammoth steppe expanded. This ecosystem covered wide areas of the northern part of the globe, thrived for approximately 100,000 years without major changes, but then diminished to small regions around 12,000 years ago.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: The Climatic Hypothesis assumes that the vast mammoth ecosystem could have only existed within a certain range of climatic parameters. At the beginning of the Holocene 10,000 years ago, mossy forests, tundra, lakes and wetlands displaced mammoth steppe. It has been assumed that in contrast to other previous interglacials the cold dry climate switched to a warmer wetter climate that, in turn, caused the disappearance of the grasslands and their dependent megafauna.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: The extinct steppe bison ("Bison priscus") survived across the northern region of central eastern Siberia until 8000 years ago. A study of the frozen mummy of a steppe bison found in northern Yakutia, Russia indicated that it was a pasture grazer in a habitat that was becoming dominated by shrub and tundra vegetation. Higher temperature and rainfall led to a decrease in its previous habitat during the early Holocene, and this led to population fragmentation followed by extinction.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: The mammoth steppe was covered all winter with snow, which reflected sunlight back up into space and thus delayed the spring warming. With no more mammoths left to push trees down to get at their leaves to eat, the area became covered in tall forest sticking up above the snow all winter and catching the early sunlight and thus causing an early spring warming.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: In 2017 a study looked at the environmental conditions across Europe, Siberia and the Americas from 25,000 to 10,000 YBP. The study found that prolonged warming events leading to deglaciation and maximum rainfall occurred just before the transformation of the rangelands that supported megaherbivores into widespread wetlands that supported herbivore-resistant plants. The study proposes that moisture-driven environmental change led to the megafaunal extinctions, and that Africa's trans-equatorial position allowed rangeland to continue to exist between the deserts and the central forests; therefore fewer megafauna species became extinct there.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: The Ecosystem Hypothesis assumes that the vast mammoth ecosystem extended over a range of many regional climates and was not affected by climate fluctuations. Its highly productive grasslands were maintained by animals trampling any mosses and shrubs, and actively transpiring grasses and herbs dominated. At the beginning of the Holocene the rise in precipitation was accompanied by increased temperature, and so its climatic aridity did not change substantially. As a result of human hunting, the decreasing density of the mammoth ecosystem animals was not enough to stop forest from spreading over the grasslands, leading to an increase in forests, shrubs and mosses with further animal reduction due to loss of feed. The mammoth continued to exist on isolated Wrangel Island until a few thousand years ago, and some of the other megafauna from that time still exist today, which indicates that something other than climate change was responsible for megafaunal extinctions.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: Remains of mammoth that had been hunted by humans 45,000 YBP have been found at Yenisei Bay in the central Siberian Arctic. Two other sites in the Maksunuokha River valley to the south of the Shirokostan Peninsula, northeast Siberia, dated between 14,900 and 13,600 years ago showed the remains of mammoth hunting and the production of micro-blades similar to those found in northwest North America, suggesting a cultural connection.


title: Mammoth steppe

text: During the Holocene, the arid-adapted species became extinct or were reduced to minor habitats. Cold and dry conditions similar to the last glacial period are found today in the eastern Altai-Sayan mountains of Central Eurasia, with no significant changes occurring between the cold phase of the Pleistocene and the Holocene. Recent paleo-biome reconstruction and pollen analysis suggest that some present-day Altai-Sayan areas could be considered the closest analogy to the mammoth steppe environment. The environment of this region is considered to have been stable for the past 40,000 years. The Eastern part of the Altai-Sayan region forms a Last Glacial refugium. In both the Last Glacial and modern times, the eastern Altai-Sayan region has supported large herbivore and predator species adapted to the steppe, desert and alpine biomes where these biomes have not been separated by forest belts. None of the surviving Pleistocene mammals live in temperate forest, taiga, or tundra biomes. The areas of Ukok-Sailiugem in the southern Altai Republic, and Khar Us Nuur and Uvs Nuur (Ubsunur Hollow) in western Mongolia, have supported reindeer and saiga antelope since the glacial period.


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: The Frégate de Défense et d'Intervention () or FDI, also known as the Frégate de Taille Intermédiaire () or FTI, is a planned class of French frigates. As of February 2022, five ships have been ordered for the French Navy, with the lead ship being named "Amiral Ronarc'h", and an additional three, more heavily armed vessels, for the Hellenic Navy, with the lead ship named "Kimon".


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: First steel was cut in October 2019, beginning construction on the lead unit. The lead ship was laid down on 17 December 2021. Commissioning is planned from 2024 onwards.


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: The Intermediate Frigate (FTI) program responds to the need for a fleet of fifteen first-class frigates and allows the French Navy to operate in a crisis zone, as recommended in the White Paper on Defense and National Security of 2013. These frigates join the ten examples of the FREMM multipurpose frigate ("Aquitaine" class) and .


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced the launch of the program on 29 May 2015 at the naval aviation base in Lann-Bihoué (Ploemeur, Morbihan). A total of five ships are planned for production, with delivery of the first taking the place within the time period originally planned for the last three planned "Aquitaine"-class frigates. In 2021 it was reported that work on the second and third frigates in the series would be accelerated with first steel cut for modules of the second ship of the class envisaged for October. The subsequent deal between France and Greece in 2021 to supply three FDI-class frigates to the Hellenic Navy meant that these two vessels would now be built for the Hellenic Navy. This pushed the delivery date for the next ships in the French Navy to 2026 and 2027.


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: The FTIs, of a contained size, would better correspond to the demands of the export markets according to the Direction générale de l'armement and also make it possible to maintain the development and production capacities of the French shipyards.


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: These ships will incrementally supersede the s ship for ship, in the role of first rank frigates. In the interim, a modernization of three vessels in the "La Fayette" class is being undertaken to extend their useful lives into the early 2030s. In November 2022 it was announced that the first two FDI frigates ("Amiral Ronarc'h" and "Amiral Louzeau") would be used to strengthen the French Navy in the Atlantic and be based at Brest.


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: According to Admiral Bernard Rogel and the Direction générale de l'Armement, the FDI are being endowed with significant anti-aircraft capabilities with active antenna radar and fixed planes, anti-submarine means (helicopter and towed sonar), and would have a displacement of .


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: The French Defence Ministry announced the attribution to DCNS of a contract for the development and construction of five intermediate-size frigates (FTIs) intended for the French Navy on 21 April 2017. The new frigate, to be named "Amiral Ronarc'h", will be equipped with electronic systems and sensors developed by Thales and will be equipped with Aster 30 missiles from MBDA Aster 15/30;


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: In September 2021, Greece signed an agreement with France's Naval Group to purchase three FDI frigates with an option for one more for the Hellenic Navy as part of a $5 billion defence package.


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: It was reported that the Hellenic Navy ships would eventually carry a more extensive weapons fit with launch tubes capable of carrying up to 32 Aster-30 air defence missiles (in 4 Sylver A-50 or 3 A-50 and 1 A-70 for 8 MdCN missile. This will permit the Hellenic Navy eventually to operate three ships with 32 aerial defence missiles plus 21 point defence missiles being also equipped with one Mk31 21-cell launcher of RAM Block 2B surface-to-air missiles, 8 Block 3 Exocet anti-ship missiles, 2 dual launchers MU90 torpedoes and CANTO torpedo countermeasures. Two of the vessels, destined for the French Navy in 2025, now will be delivered to the Hellenic Navy. The date of the construction agreement was anticipated to be at late 2021 or early 2022. In December 2021 it was reported that an agreement for construction had been signed by France and Greece with the actual contract for the construction of the ships having been signed on 24 March 2022. In February 2022, documents released by the Greek Parliament indicated that initially the first two frigates for the Hellenic Navy would be equipped similar to their French counterparts in a "Standard-1" configuration (with 16 Sylver A50 cells). By 2027 the two ships would be upgraded to a "Standard-2" configuration with 32 A-50 cells as well as with the RAM Block 2B. The third Hellenic Navy frigate would be built from the outset in the "Standard-2" configuration.


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: In this context, agreements have been signed between Naval Group and Greek companies participating in the frigates' construction.


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: According to the Hellenic Navy, the ships will be named after three great ancient Greek admirals: Cimon (), Nearchus (, ) and Phormio (, ). These names had previously been used for the ex-US s in service with the Hellenic Navy from 1991–2004.


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: From ship 4 in the program, the French Navy's "Amiral Louzeau", some ship blocks are being produced at the Salamis Shipyards in Greece. The blocks are then transported to France for the final assembly process.


title: Frégate de défense et d'intervention

text: NOTE: The French Navy does not use the term "destroyer" but rather classifies these vessels as "first-rate frigates". Nevertheless, they are marked with the NATO "D" hull code which ranks them in the destroyer class, instead of ranking them with an "F" designation as frigates.


title: Christopher Bailey (fashion designer)

text: Christopher Paul Bailey CBE (born 11 May 1971) is a British fashion designer who was president and chief creative officer of Burberry. In May 2014, he took up the role of chief creative officer and president, following the departure of former CEO Angela Ahrendts. In February 2018, he was succeeded as chief creative officer by Riccardo Tisci.


title: Christopher Bailey (fashion designer)

text: Christopher Paul Bailey was born in Yorkshire, England, the son of a carpenter and a window dresser for Marks and Spencer. He graduated from the Royal College of Art with a master's degree in 1994, where he was later awarded an honorary fellowship in 2004 and, in 2013, an honorary-doctorate degree.


title: Christopher Bailey (fashion designer)

text: From 1994 to 1996, he was the womenswear designer at Donna Karan and senior designer of womenswear at Gucci in Milan from 1996 to 2001. He joined Burberry in May 2001 as design director and became creative director in 2004, and chief creative officer in November 2009.


title: Christopher Bailey (fashion designer)

text: In 2008, Bailey, alongside Angela Ahrendts, established the Burberry Foundation, dedicated to helping young people realise their dreams and potential through the power of their creativity. The Burberry Foundation invests in select charities focused on supporting young people in the key cities in regions where the majority of Burberry employees live and work, and where they are able to participate in volunteer roles.


title: Christopher Bailey (fashion designer)

text: On 15 October 2013, Bailey was named as the next CEO of Burberry following Angela Ahrendts's departure to Apple in mid-2014. Bailey took up the role of chief creative officer and CEO on 1 May 2014.


title: Christopher Bailey (fashion designer)

text: Bailey is credited with transforming the fortunes of the company, turning it into the luxury industry's digital leader and overseeing a reinvigoration of the company's design. Bailey masterminded the design of Burberry's largest store, 121 Regent Street in London, opened in 2012, a bricks-and-mortar incarnation of the brand's website. He also oversaw the design and development of the Burberry Global Headquarters at Horseferry House in London, opened in 2009.


title: Christopher Bailey (fashion designer)

text: In July 2016, it was announced that Marco Gobbetti, CEO of Céline, would be the next CEO of Burberry. Gobbetti took over from Bailey in November 2017, who then transitioned


title: Christopher Bailey (fashion designer)

text: to the role of president while also retaining the title of chief creative officer. In July 2017, Gobbetti replaced Bailey as CEO. Bailey resigned from the board in March 2018 and departed entirely from Burberry the following December.


title: Christopher Bailey (fashion designer)

text: While in Milan, Bailey met and began dating Geert Cloet, brand designer for Miu Miu. He split his time between his home in Milan and England. When Cloet was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2004, he and Bailey moved to Yorkshire to be near Bailey's family. Cloet died the next year.


title: Christopher Bailey (fashion designer)

text: Bailey has been in a relationship with British actor Simon Woods since 2009, and they married in 2012. They have two daughters, Iris and Nell.


title: Christopher Bailey (fashion designer)

text: Bailey is mentoring emerging British creative talent from UK institutions including the Royal College of Art and the University of Huddersfield.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include "Steps to an Ecology of Mind" (1972) and "Mind and Nature" (1979).


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Bateson's interest in systems theory forms a thread running through his work. He was one of the original members of the core group of the Macy conferences in Cybernetics (1941–1960), and the later set on Group Processes (1954–1960), where he represented the social and behavioral sciences. He was interested in the relationship of these fields to epistemology. His association with the editor and author Stewart Brand helped widen his influence.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Bateson was born in Grantchester in Cambridgeshire, England, on 9 May 1904. He was the third and youngest son of (Caroline) Beatrice Durham and the distinguished geneticist William Bateson. He was named Gregory after Gregor Mendel, the Austrian monk who founded the modern science of genetics.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: The younger Bateson attended Charterhouse School from 1917 to 1921, obtained a Bachelor of Arts in biology at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1925, and continued at Cambridge from 1927 to 1929.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: According to Lipset (1982), Bateson's life was greatly affected by the death of his two brothers. John Bateson (1898–1918), the eldest of the three, was killed in World War I. Martin Bateson (1900–1922), the second brother, was then expected to follow in his father's footsteps as a scientist, but came into conflict with his father over his ambition to become a poet and playwright. The resulting stress, combined with a disappointment in love, resulted in Martin's public suicide by gunshot under the statue of Anteros in Piccadilly Circus on 22 April 1922, which was John's birthday. After this event, which transformed a private family tragedy into public scandal, the parents' ambitious expectations fell on Gregory.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: From 1931 to 1937, he was a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. He spent the years before World War II in the South Pacific in New Guinea and Bali doing anthropology.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Although initially reluctant to join the intelligence services, Bateson served in OSS during World War II along with dozens of other anthropologists. He was stationed in the same offices as Julia Child (then Julia McWilliams), Paul Cushing Child, and others. He spent much of the war designing 'black propaganda' radio broadcasts. He was deployed on covert operations in Burma and Thailand, and worked in China, India, and Ceylon as well. Bateson used his theory of schismogenesis to help foster discord among enemy fighters. He was upset by his wartime experience and disagreed with his wife over whether science should be applied to social planning or used only to foster understanding rather than action.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: In Palo Alto, California, Bateson developed the double-bind theory, together with his colleagues Donald Jackson, Jay Haley and John H. Weakland, also known as the "Bateson Project" (1953–1963).


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Bateson was one of the original members of the core group of the Macy conferences in cybernetics (1941–1960), and the later set on Group Processes (1954–1960), where he represented the social and behavioral sciences.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: In the 1970s, he taught at the Humanistic Psychology Institute in San Francisco, renamed the Saybrook University, and in 1972 joined the faculty of Kresge College at the University of California, Santa Cruz.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: California Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to the Regents of the University of California, a position he held until his death, although he resigned from the Special Research Projects committee in 1979 in opposition to the university's work on nuclear weapons.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Bateson spent the last decade of his life developing a "meta-science" of epistemology to bring together the various early forms of systems theory developing in different fields of science.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: From 1936 until 1950, he was married to American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead. He applied his knowledge to the war effort before moving to the United States. Bateson and Mead had a daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson (1939–2021), who also became an anthropologist. Bateson separated from Mead in 1947, and they were divorced in 1950. In 1951, he married Elizabeth "Betty" Sumner, the daughter of the Episcopalian Bishop of Oregon, Walter Taylor Sumner. They had a son, John Sumner Bateson (1951–2015), as well as twins who died shortly after birth in 1953. Bateson and Sumner were divorced in 1957, after which Bateson was married a third time, to therapist and social worker Lois Cammack (born 1928), in 1961. They had one daughter, Nora Bateson (born 1969).


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Bateson was a lifelong atheist, as his family had been for several generations. He was a member of William Irwin Thompson's esoteric Lindisfarne Association.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: The 2014 novel "Euphoria" by Lily King is a fictionalized account of Bateson's relationships with Mead and Reo Fortune in pre-WWII New Guinea.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Where others might see a set of inexplicable details, Bateson perceived simple relationships. In "From Versailles to Cybernetics," Bateson argues that the history of the twentieth century can be perceived as the history of a malfunctioning relationship. In his view, the Treaty of Versailles exemplifies a whole pattern of human relationships based on betrayal and hate. He therefore claims that the treaty of Versailles and the development of cybernetics—which for him represented the possibility of "improved" relationships—are the only two anthropologically important events of the twentieth century.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Bateson's beginning years as an anthropologist were spent floundering, lost without a specific objective in mind. He began in 1927 with a trip to New Guinea, spurred by mentor A. C. Haddon. His goal, as suggested by Haddon, was to explore the effects of contact between the Sepik natives and whites. Unfortunately for Bateson, his time spent with the Baining of New Guinea was halted and difficult. The Baining were not particularly accommodating of his research, and he missed out on many communal activities. They were also not inclined to share their religious practices with him. He left the Baining frustrated. Next, he set out to study the Sulka, belonging to another native population of New Guinea. Although the Sulka were very different from the Baining and their culture more easily observed, he felt their culture was dying, which left him dispirited and discouraged.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: He experienced more success with the Iatmul people, an indigenous people living along New Guinea's Sepik River. The observations he made among the Iatmul people allowed him to develop his concept of schismogenesis. In his 1936 book "Naven" he defined the term, based on his Iatmul fieldwork, as "a process of differentiation in the norms of individual behaviour resulting from cumulative interaction between individuals" (p. 175). The book was named after the 'naven' rite, an honorific ceremony among the Iatmul, still continued today, that celebrates first-time cultural achievements. The ceremony entails behaviours that are otherwise forbidden during everyday social life. For example, men and women reverse and exaggerate gender roles; men dress in women's skirts, and women dress in men's attire and ornaments. Additionally, some women smear mud in the faces of other relatives, beat them with sticks, and hurl bawdy insults. Mothers may drop to the ground so their celebrated 'child' walks over them. And during a male rite, a mother's brother may slide his buttocks down the leg of his honoured sister's son, a complex gesture of masculine birthing, pride, and insult, rarely performed before women, that brings the honoured sister's son to tears. Bateson suggested the influence of a circular system of causation, and proposed that:


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Women watched for the spectacular performances of the men, and there can be no reasonable doubt that the presence of an audience is a very important factor in shaping the men's behavior. In fact, it is probable that the men are more exhibitionistic because the women admire their performances. Conversely, there can be no doubt that the spectacular behavior is a stimulus which summons the audience together, promoting in the women the appropriate behavior.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: In short, the behaviour of person X affects person Y, and the reaction of person Y to person X's behaviour will then affect person X's behaviour, which in turn will affect person Y, and so on. Bateson called this the "vicious circle." He then discerned two models of schismogenesis: symmetrical and complementary. Symmetrical relationships are those in which the two parties are equals, competitors, such as in sports. Complementary relationships feature an unequal balance, such as dominance-submission (parent-child), or exhibitionism-spectatorship (performer-audience). Bateson's experiences with the Iatmul led him to publish a book in 1936 titled "Naven: A Survey of the Problems suggested by a Composite Picture of the Culture of a New Guinea Tribe drawn from Three Points of View" (Cambridge University Press). The book proved to be a watershed in anthropology and modern social science.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Until Bateson published "Naven," most anthropologists assumed a realist approach to studying culture, in which one simply described social reality. Bateson's book argued that this approach was naive, since an anthropologist's account of a culture was always and fundamentally shaped by whatever theory the anthropologist employed to define and analyse the data. To think otherwise, stated Bateson, was to be guilty of what Alfred North Whitehead called the "fallacy of misplaced concreteness." There was no singular or self-evident way to understand the Iatmul naven rite. Instead, Bateson analysed the rite from three unique points of view: sociological, ethological, and eidological. The book, then, was not a presentation of anthropological analysis but an epistemological account that explored the nature of anthropological analysis itself.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: The sociological point of view sought to identify how the ritual helped bring about social integration. In the 1930s, most anthropologists understood marriage rules to regularly ensure that social groups renewed their alliances. But Iatmul, argued Bateson, had contradictory marriage rules. Marriage, in other words, could not guarantee that a marriage between two clans would at some definite point in the future recur. Instead, Bateson continued, the naven rite filled this function by regularly ensuring exchanges of food, valuables, and sentiment between mothers' brothers and their sisters' children, or between separate lineages. Naven, from this angle, held together the different social groups of each village into a unified whole.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: The ethological point of view interpreted the ritual in terms of the conventional emotions associated with normative male and female behaviour, which Bateson called ethos. In Iatmul culture, observed Bateson, men and women lived different emotional lives. For example, women were rather submissive and took delight in the achievement of others; men fiercely competitive and flamboyant. During the ritual, however, men celebrated the achievement of their nieces and nephews while women were given ritual license to act raucously. In effect, naven allowed men and women to experience momentarily the emotional lives of each other, and thereby to achieve a level of psychological integration.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: The third and final point of view, the eidological, was the least successful. Here Bateson endeavoured to correlate the organisation structure of the naven ceremony with the habitual patterns of Iatmul thought. Much later, Bateson would harness the very same idea to the development of the double-bind theory of schizophrenia.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: In the Epilogue to the book, Bateson was clear: "The writing of this book has been an experiment, or rather a series of experiments, in methods of thinking about anthropological material." That is to say, his overall point was not to describe Iatmul culture of the naven ceremony but to explore how different modes of analysis, using different premises and analytic frameworks, could lead to different explanations of the same sociocultural phenomenon. Not only did Bateson's approach re-shape fundamentally the anthropological approach to culture, but the naven rite itself has remained a locus classicus in the discipline. In fact, the meaning of the ritual continues to inspire anthropological analysis.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Bateson next travelled to Bali with his new wife Margaret Mead to study the people of the village Bajoeng Gede. Here, Lipset states, "in the short history of ethnographic fieldwork, film was used both on a large scale and as the primary research tool." Bateson took 25,000 photographs of their Balinese subjects.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: He discovered that the people of Bajoeng Gede raised their children very unlike children raised in Western societies. Instead of attention being paid to a child who was displaying a climax of emotion (love or anger), Balinese mothers would ignore them. Bateson notes, "The child responds to [a mother's] advances with either affection or temper, but the response falls into a vacuum. In Western cultures, such sequences lead to small climaxes of love or anger, but not so in Bali. At the moment when a child throws its arms around the mother's neck or bursts into tears, the mother's attention wanders". This model of stimulation and refusal was also seen in other areas of the culture. Bateson later described the style of Balinese relations as stasis instead of schismogenesis. Their interactions were "muted" and did not follow the schismogenetic process because they did not often escalate competition, dominance, or submission.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: In 1938, Bateson and Mead returned to the Sepik River, and settled into the village of Tambunum, where Bateson had spent three days in the 1920s. They aimed to replicate the Balinese project on the relationship between childraising and temperament, and between conventions of the body – such as pose, grimace, holding infants, facial expressions, etc. – reflected wider cultural themes and values. Bateson snapped some 10,000 black and white photographs, and Mead typed thousands of pages of fieldnotes. But Bateson and Mead never published anything substantial from this research.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Bateson's encounter with Mead on the Sepik river (Chapter 16) and their life together in Bali (Chapter 17) is described in Mead's autobiography "Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years" (Angus and Robertson. London. 1973). Their daughter Catherine's birth in New York on 8 December 1939 is recounted in Chapter 18.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: In 1956 in Palo Alto, Bateson and his colleagues Donald Jackson, Jay Haley, and John Weakland articulated a related theory of schizophrenia as stemming from double bind situations. The double bind refers to a communication paradox described first in families with a schizophrenic member. The first place where double binds were described (though not named as such) was according to Bateson, in Samuel Butler's "The Way of All Flesh" (a semi-autobiographical novel about Victorian hypocrisy and cover-up).


title: Gregory Bateson

text: The strange behaviour and speech of schizophrenics was explained by Bateson et al. as an expression of this paradoxical situation, and were seen in fact as an adaptive response, which should be valued as a cathartic and transformative experience.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: The double bind was originally presented (probably mainly under the influence of Bateson's psychiatric co-workers) as an explanation of part of the etiology of schizophrenia. Currently, it is considered to be more important as an example of Bateson's approach to the complexities of communication which is what he understood it to be.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Bateson writes about how the actual physical changes in the body occur within evolutionary processes. He describes this through the introduction of the concept of "economics of flexibility". In his conclusion he makes seven statements or theoretical positions which may be supported by his ideology.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: The first is the idea that although environmental stresses have theoretically been believed to guide or dictate the changes in the soma (physical body), the introduction of new stresses do not automatically result in the physical changes necessary for survival as suggested by original evolutionary theory. In fact the introduction of these stresses can greatly weaken the organism. An example that he gives is the sheltering of a sick person from the weather or the fact that someone who works in an office would have a hard time working as a rock climber and vice versa. The second position states that though "the economics of flexibility has a logical structure-each successive demand upon flexibility fractioning the set of available possibilities". This means that theoretically speaking each demand or variable creates a new set of possibilities. Bateson's third conclusion is "that the genotypic change commonly makes demand upon the adjustive ability of the soma". This, he states, is the commonly held belief among biologists although there is no evidence to support the claim. Added demands are made on the soma by sequential genotypic modifications is the fourth position. Through this he suggests the following three expectations:


title: Gregory Bateson

text: The fifth theoretical position which Bateson believes is supported by his data is that characteristics within an organism that have been modified due to environmental stresses may coincide with genetically determined attributes. His sixth position is that it takes less economic flexibility to create somatic change than it does to cause a genotypic modification. The seventh and final theory he believes to be supported is the idea that in rare occasions there will be populations whose changes will not be in accordance with the thesis presented within this paper. According to Bateson, none of these positions (at the time) could be tested but he called for the creation of a test which could possibly prove or disprove the theoretical positions suggested within.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: In his book "Steps to an Ecology of Mind", Bateson applied cybernetics to the field of ecological anthropology and the concept of homeostasis. He saw the world as a series of systems containing those of individuals, societies and ecosystems. Within each system is found competition and dependency. Each of these systems has adaptive changes which depend upon feedback loops to control balance by changing multiple variables. Bateson believed that these self-correcting systems were conservative by controlling exponential slippage. He saw the natural ecological system as innately good as long as it was allowed to maintain homeostasis and that the key unit of survival in evolution was an organism and its environment.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Bateson also viewed that all three systems of the individual, society and ecosystem were all together a part of one supreme cybernetic system that controls everything instead of just interacting systems. This supreme cybernetic system is beyond the self of the individual and could be equated to what many people refer to as God, though Bateson referred to it as Mind. While Mind is a cybernetic system, it can only be distinguished as a whole and not parts. Bateson felt Mind was immanent in the messages and pathways of the supreme cybernetic system. He saw the root of system collapses as a result of Occidental or Western epistemology. According to Bateson, consciousness is the bridge between the cybernetic networks of individual, society and ecology and the mismatch between the systems due to improper understanding will result in the degradation of the entire supreme cybernetic system or Mind. Bateson thought that consciousness as developed through Occidental epistemology was at direct odds with Mind.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: At the heart of the matter is scientific hubris. Bateson argues that Occidental epistemology perpetuates a system of understanding which is purpose or means-to-an-end driven. Purpose controls attention and narrows perception, thus limiting what comes into consciousness and therefore limiting the amount of wisdom that can be generated from the perception. Additionally Occidental epistemology propagates the false notion that man exists outside Mind and this leads man to believe in what Bateson calls the philosophy of control based upon false knowledge.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Bateson presents Occidental epistemology as a method of thinking that leads to a mindset in which man exerts an autocratic rule over all cybernetic systems. In exerting his autocratic rule man changes the environment to suit him and in doing so he unbalances the natural cybernetic system of controlled competition and mutual dependency. The purpose-driven accumulation of knowledge ignores the supreme cybernetic system and leads to the eventual breakdown of the entire system. Bateson claims that man will never be able to control the whole system because it does not operate in a linear fashion and if man creates his own rules for the system, he opens himself up to becoming a slave to the self-made system due to the non-linear nature of cybernetics. Lastly, man's technological prowess combined with his scientific hubris gives him the potential to irrevocably damage and destroy the supreme cybernetic system, instead of just disrupting the system temporally until the system can self-correct.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: Bateson argues for a position of humility and acceptance of the natural cybernetic system instead of scientific arrogance as a solution. He believes that humility can come about by abandoning the view of operating through consciousness alone. Consciousness is only one way in which to obtain knowledge and without complete knowledge of the entire cybernetic system disaster is inevitable. The limited conscious must be combined with the unconscious in complete synthesis. Only when thought and emotion are combined in whole is man able to obtain complete knowledge. He believed that religion and art are some of the few areas in which a man is acting as a whole individual in complete consciousness. By acting with this greater wisdom of the supreme cybernetic system as a whole man can change his relationship to Mind from one of schism, in which he is endlessly tied up in constant competition, to one of complementarity. Bateson argues for a culture that promotes the most general wisdom and is able to flexibly change within the supreme cybernetic system.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: In 1984, his daughter Mary Catherine Bateson published a joint biography of her parents (Bateson and Margaret Mead).


title: Gregory Bateson

text: His other daughter the filmmaker Nora Bateson released "An Ecology of Mind", a documentary that premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival. This film was selected as the audience favourite with the "Morton Marcus Documentary Feature Award" at the 2011 Santa Cruz Film Festival, and honoured with the 2011 "John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in the Field of Media Ecology" by the Media Ecology Association.


title: Gregory Bateson

text: The Bateson Idea Group (BIG) initiated a web presence in October 2010. The group collaborated with the American Society for Cybernetics for a joint meeting in July 2012 at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in California.


title: Acoustic Kitty

text: Acoustic Kitty is a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project launched by the Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Science & Technology in the 1960s, which intended to use cats to spy on the Kremlin and Soviet embassies.


title: Acoustic Kitty

text: In an hour-long procedure, a veterinary surgeon implanted a microphone in the cat's ear canal, a small radio transmitter at the base of its skull, and a thin wire into its fur. This would allow the cat to innocuously record and transmit sound from its surroundings. Due to problems with distraction, the cat's sense of hunger had to be addressed in another operation. Victor Marchetti, a former CIA officer, said Project Acoustic Kitty cost about $20 million.


title: Acoustic Kitty

text: The first Acoustic Kitty mission was to eavesdrop on two men in a park outside the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C. The cat was released nearby, but was hit and allegedly killed by a taxi almost immediately. However, this was disputed in 2013 by Robert Wallace, a former director of the CIA's Office of Technical Service, who said that the project was abandoned due to the difficulty of training the cat to behave as required, and "the equipment was taken out of the cat; the cat was re-sewn for a second time, and lived a long and happy life afterwards". Subsequent tests also failed. Shortly thereafter the project was considered a failure and declared to be a total loss. However, other accounts report more success for the project.


title: Acoustic Kitty

text: The project was cancelled in 1967. A closing memorandum said that the CIA researchers believed that they could train cats to move short distances, but that "the environmental and security factors in using this technique in a real foreign situation force us to conclude that for our (intelligence) purposes, it would not be practical." The project was disclosed in 2001, when some CIA documents were declassified.


title: Kevin Quinn (actor)

text: Kevin Gerard Quinn (born May 21, 1997) is an American actor. He is known for his starring role as Xander in the Disney Channel original series "Bunk'd" (2015–2017), and for his roles in the 2016 Disney Channel Original Movie "Adventures in Babysitting" and the 2021 Netflix film "A Week Away".


title: Kevin Quinn (actor)

text: Quinn was born in Chicago, and grew up in Wilmette, Illinois. His parents are Brian Quinn, an advertising executive, and Tamara Quinn, founder of Pulling Down the Moon. He has a twin sister. Growing up, Quinn was involved in Musical Theater productions at the Children's Theater of Winnetka, a lesser known theater company near his hometown.


title: Kevin Quinn (actor)

text: He began his professional career by appearing in episodes of "Shameless" and "Chicago P.D." Before being on Disney, he auditioned for season 12 of "American Idol". He wound up being one of the top 60 males in the country. He then played Jonny in Steppenwolf Theater's production of "Lord of the Flies", and the role of “Boy” in the Chicago Shakespeare Theater adaption of "Henry V".


title: Kevin Quinn (actor)

text: In 2015, Quinn was cast on the spinoff Disney Channel series "Bunk'd". In 2016, he appeared in the Disney Channel Original Movie "Adventures in Babysitting". In 2018, he played the supporting role of Brian Sudermill in the drama film "Canal Street". In 2019, Quinn played the supporting role of Danny Scanton in the Hallmark Channel original film, "A Christmas Love Story", alongside Kristin Chenoweth.


title: Kevin Quinn (actor)

text: In 2020, he played a minor role in Adam Sandler's comedy film "Hubie Halloween". In 2021, Quinn starred in teen Christian musical drama, "A Week Away", alongside Bailee Madison, which premiered on Netflix in March 2021.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: The Gods We Can Touch is the third studio album by Norwegian singer-songwriter and record producer Aurora. It was released on 21 January 2022 by Decca and Glassnote Records. As in her other releases, Aurora worked with Magnus Skylstad and Askjell Solstrand, along with new collaborations with Jamie Hartman, Martin Sjølie and Matias Tellez on its production.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: Conceived as a departure from the concept and sound of her previous works, "The Gods We Can Touch" has been characterised to be an electropop record, along with folk-pop, ethereal, art pop, electro-folk, and synth-pop. Its sound incorporates an eclectic and multifaceted style with electronic textures, Western elements, and intimate orchestrations. Inspired predominantly by Greek mythology, the lyrics explore themes of self-empowerment, abuse, heartbreak, morality and desire, with a maximal and introspective style. "The Gods We Can Touch" received critical acclaim upon release, with music critics praising its "ethereal" vocal performance and experimental musical direction.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: "The Gods We Can Touch" was supported by eight singles, four of which were supplemented by music videos. "Exist for Love" was promoted by an online music festival organized by Aurora. "Cure for Me", "Giving in to the Love", and "Heathens" were released between October and December 2021. "A Dangerous Thing" and "Everything Matters", featuring French singer Pomme, were released as a double single. "A Temporary High" followed alongside the album's release. The record debuted atop the Norwegian albums chart as Aurora's second number-one album in Norway, while also reaching the top ten in Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the US "Billboard" Heatseekers Albums chart. To further promote the album, Aurora performed several songs at the concert film "A Touch of the Divine" and embarked on her fourth headlining concert tour.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: Aurora began writing songs for the album in January 2019, right after she chose the title for her new record. According to her, two days after the release of her second studio album "A Different Kind of Human (Step 2)" (2019), she already had planned what she wanted for her next project. During the writing process she read about the history of religion, which was a source of inspiration for the themes of the album.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: Aurora stated in an interview with "Billboard Japan" that production for two upcoming albums began in November 2019, one of them being the yet-untitled "The Gods We Can Touch". In an interview with "Riff Magazine", she revealed that the closer album had a bigger perspective in comparison to her previous efforts, concluding that "it's an album for every individual within the big army of love." She further detailed the album in an interview with Motley, adding that it "will be dressed in an armour of hardness. But I'm also really exploring the soft, delicate part of me."


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: The first recorded song for the album was "Exist for Love", which was recorded in January 2020 at the Office in Norway, a month before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in Norway. The track was made in collaboration with Isobel Waller-Bridge, who contributed with string arrangements. In November 2020, Aurora rented Barony Rosendal to record "The Gods We Can Touch". Other recording locations included The Jungle and Blanca Studio, all located in Norway. In April 2021, Aurora's single "Runaway" began growing in popularity on TikTok. In an interview with "NME" regarding the song's newfound success, Aurora described the themes of the upcoming album: "I'm asking questions to everything that made us the way we are now; in our past, in politics, religion, and in weird ways of thought we have created that make no sense – like racism, not being a feminist or burning women for being witches. All of these strange things that we have convinced ourselves are the right thing to do, which is just so odd." She later stated in July 2021 that album was finished, and her intentions to release the album before the end of 2021.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: "The Gods We Can Touch" has been characterised to be an electropop record, along with folk-pop, ethereal, art pop, electro-folk, and synth-pop. The sound of the album incorporates an eclectic and multifaceted style, set with vast soundscapes, electronic textures, Western elements, intimate orchestrations, multiple layers, and textures. Musical influences of the record draws from a wide range of genres, such as jazz, chamber pop, global music, Latin music, and arena rock. Aurora classified the album as its own genre due to its "chaotic" and "genre blending" sound.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: Marcy Donelson of AllMusic stated that ""The Gods We Can Touch" mixes natural, live-sounding vocals and acoustic instrumental performances with ethereal processed harmonies, drum machines, synthesizers, and various programming." The tracks "Exist for Love" and Artemis" were the only songs recorded on first takes, which "commit[ted] to a more spontaneous sound." Aurora's sopranolike vocal performance throughout the album was described by many critics as "ethereal", with interludes to songs that showcase her voice and vocal tone shifts. Georgia Griffiths from "The Music" wrote that Aurora is "channelling Lana Del Rey, [and] the next it's Santigold" in her vocal performances on the record.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: A concept album like Aurora's previous releases, "The Gods We Can Touch" deviates from the concepts found on her tribal-inspired EP "Infections of a Different Kind (Step 1)" (2018) and album "A Different Kind of Human (Step 2)" (2019), in which she explored themes of empowerment, politics and ecological crisis. Described by her as "chapter three of my life", she revealed to be going to a more experimental direction with the album, and stated that it would not discuss themes like "doom, gloom, COVID and horror", instead of focusing on "more playful and fun" songs, whilst also referencing "a lot of things that bother [her] with society and our history". The lyrical themes are heavily inspired predominantly by Greek mythology, though Aurora acknowledged that some of them have references to Abrahamic and ancient Roman religions. Furthermore, the styles of lyrical writing have been described as dark and disturbing, with a maximal and introspective style. The lyrics throughout the songs of the record also talk about self-empowerment, abuse, heartbreak, morality and desire.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: "The Gods We Can Touch" opens with "The Forbidden Fruits of Eden", an interlude that takes its title from the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden that appeared in the biblical book of Genesis. Composed of delicate harmonies, it "set[s] an explicitly religious tone" for the rest of the album. The electronica and chamber pop ballad "Everything Matters" features French singer-songwriter Pomme with a spoken word outro in French language. Inspired by the myth of Prometheus and the creation of humanity from clay, "Giving in to the Love", questions obsession with body image, while . It incorporates electropop and power pop genres and contains tom tom strikes, a drum machine and echoey synths. The baroque pop track "You Keep Me Crawling" deals with abuse of power in relationships where Aurora conveys "intensity and power in her vocals, while also showing vulnerability and softer moments."


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: Aurora called "Exist for Love" her first love song. It is a dreamy, retro-styled ballad accompanied by acoustic guitar and backing harmonies that moves into a soaring, strings-swept melody as she declares her love to her lover. The following track, "The Innocent", is an upbeat dance-pop and house song with a Latin rhythm that is accompanied by syncopated chordal piano, brass and pizzicato strings. Its production was described to be "harking back to the 1920s Jazz Age conventions, yet being undercut with a more current EDM feel." "Exhale Inhale", a stark contrast to the previous song, contains a folk-inspired sound. The track discusses the fear of several environmental issues "that awaits us" like wildfires and pollution. "A Temporary High" has an 1980s-influenced synth-pop sound that breaks into a thumping electro beat.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: In "A Dangerous Thing", Aurora reflects on an abusive relationship, referencing the goddess of seduction Peitho, and showcases tone shifts from light harmonies to deeper verses. The dark sonority of the song is backed by an acoustic guitar, light chimes and minimal drumming. "Blood in the Wine" opens with a war cry reminiscent of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" against gentle acoustic guitar and thunderous percussion as it builds into a "collosus roar". An electropop track, which was compared to the music of Fleetwood Mac, "This Could Be a Dream" is a subdued ballad driven by "a flowing melody over a slow beat", piano, orchestral strings and trumpets that talks about "finding strength when you have nothing left to give." "The Gods We Can Touch" closes with the folk and orchestral pop cut "A Little Place Called the Moon". One of her favourite songs from the album, Aurora felt that it was the "perfect ending" for the album.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: After clearing her Instagram feed in May 2020, Aurora began hinting at "the beginning of a new era". She initially expected to release the album in that year but she revealed in a September 2020 interview her decision to postpone it due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The next year, the album was delayed to early 2022, following the commercial success of her 2015 single "Runaway". On 14 October 2021, she revealed the album's name and track listing.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: In July 2020 Aurora organized the Exist for Love Sessions, an online music festival that promoted various emerging artists. She later appeared at the "Late Night with Seth Meyers" in November 2021, her first performance at that show since 2018. In promotion of the album's release in the United Kingdom, Aurora performed at two sold-out shows in London. She was also interviewed by Norwegian TV host Anne Lindmo and performed "A Temporary High" in her talk show "Lindmo", which was broadcast by NRK.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: Aurora decided to release "Exist for Love" as the album's first single on 14 May 2020 because she felt "the world needs more love than ever". "Cure for Me" was released as "The Gods We Can Touch"s next single on 7 July 2021.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: On 14 October, she released "Giving in to the Love" as the album's next single, and officially announced "The Gods We Can Touch", and its release date of 21 January 2022. On 2 December, she released "Heathens" was released as the album's fourth single. "A Dangerous Thing" and "Everything Matters", featuring French singer Pomme, were released as a double single on 7 January 2022.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: "A Temporary High" served as the seventh single, released on 21 January 2022, alongside the album's release. A music video was released on 27 January 2022. "The Woman I Am", initially a vinyl-exclusive track, it was officially released on 4 April 2022 as the record's eighth single.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: On 3 December 2021, Aurora announced a virtual concert film titled "A Touch of the Divine", released exclusively to Moment House on 25 January 2022, a week later after the album was released. It was directed by Alexandra Green and produced by Bullion Productions and Mercury Studios. A teaser was posted on 18 January 2022, while an official trailer was released two days later. Described as a "worldwide digital experience", the film included six songs from the album that were accompanied by choreography and interludes spoken by Aurora herself.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: The album received further promotion from her fourth headlining concert tour, which was announced on 9 July 2021. The tour will span across Europe and North America, starting on 13 February 2022 in Milan, Italy, and set to conclude on 12–13 September in Barcelona, Spain. The second leg of the tour visited North America in May and June 2022.


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: "The Gods We Can Touch" was met with critical acclaim upon release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received a mean score of 81 based on 9 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: "The Line of Best Fit" writer Tom Williams praised the album as an "ethereal masterpiece" and stated that Aurora's sound is "like heaven on Earth." Steven Loftin of "Dork" called Aurora on the album "exciting as she is intriguing" and makes the "world feels like a better place." "Clash"s Finlay Holden called the record "high-reaching" and noted that the themes of "angry, celebratory, wallowing and cathartic energies exhibit themselves in a maximalist way." Ben Hogwood from "musicOMH" states that the record consisted of "futuristic production and intriguing, sometimes daring melodies" despite being rooted in a "deep and very distant past."


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: Chris Hamilton-Peach of "DIY" writes that "Aurora's celestial spark remains her calling card" on the album. "Gigwise" writer Tom Taylor sees Aurora as she "experiments with genre in her joyful new album" while also being reliant on "high-energy, electro-pop anthems." Andrew Trendell of "NME" notes that the record "seizes the opportunity to take the world on and fight with all her power" and is loaded with "idiosyncratic quirks and enchanting notions." Hayden Godfrey from "Under the Radar" felt that the record showcases Aurora's "glorious highs and careful lows" towards the production. Ewan Gleadow from "Cult Following" says that Aurora "relies entirely on the fascinatingly lucid vocal range she holds." According to Marcy Donelson from AllMusic, the record only expands on Aurora's "already mystical bearing."


title: The Gods We Can Touch

text: Upon its release, "The Gods We Can Touch" became the third most-streamed album on Spotify that week with over 60 million streams on the platform. The album debuted atop the Norwegian VG-lista chart, marking Aurora's second number one on the chart. In the United States, the record peaked at numbers six and 56 on "Billboard"s Top Heatseekers and Top Current Albums charts, respectively.


title: A Free Ride

text: A Free Ride, also known as A Grass Sandwich, is a stag film of the silent era, considered the earliest extant American hardcore pornographic movie. It depicts a motorist who picks up two women from the roadside and later engages in several sex acts with them. Although most scholars consider "A Free Ride" a 1915 film, some sources claim that it was produced later. The film's director used a pseudonym and the cast remained anonymous. The filming location is not known, although it may have been produced in New Jersey. Two contradictory theories have emerged regarding the identities of the cast: some sources suggest they were people with low social status, but others assert the opposite. The Kinsey Institute has a print of the film in its collection. "A Free Ride" was screened at the inauguration of the Museum of Sex. In 2004, Lisa Oppenheim, a New York-based artist, remade the film.


title: A Free Ride

text: "A Free Ride"s opening intertitle denotes the film's setting as "in the wide open spaces, where men are men and girls will be girls, the hills are full of romance and adventure". The film shows two women walking home together alongside a rural road. A wealthy male motorist in a right-hand-drive 1912 Haynes 50-60 Model Y Touring Car arrives and offers them a lift. After some hesitation, the women accept his promise to behave properly, and sit beside him in the front seat. However, the man immediately kisses and fondles them, before they get underway.


title: A Free Ride

text: Some time later, the man stops the car and steps out of sight into the trees to urinate, but the women follow and voyeuristically watch him, returning to the car as he finishes to conceal that they have done so. After his return, the women go the same spot themselves to urinate. He secretly follows, watches them, and becomes sexually aroused, also returning to the car before he is discovered. The women return to the car, and accept the man's offer of liquor.


title: A Free Ride

text: The man asks one of the women to accompany him into the woods, and they masturbate each other while standing. The other woman becomes curious and follows them into the woods. Upon seeing them, she becomes sexually aroused and stimulates herself. Meanwhile, the man and the first woman have sex in the missionary position. Soon after, the second woman joins them and the man has sex with her doggy style. Later, they have a threesome, and one of the women subsequently performs fellatio on him. After finishing the sexual acts, they return to the car and drive away.


title: A Free Ride

text: British author Dave Thompson, in his book "Black and White and Blue: Adult Cinema from the Victorian Age to the VCR", notes that D. W. Griffith is credited by one source as director on "A Free Ride". But this claim is rejected by film historian Kevin Brownlow and author Thompson himself. The identities of the cast are not disclosed in the credits (the title card says "starring the Jazz Girls"). Thompson asserts that the cast do not resemble identifiable contemporary silent film stars. He claims the crew strove to make the cast unidentifiable, noting that the actor wears a large fake mustache and a hat. When the actor's mustache became detached before the end of the film, he hid his face until the mustache was reattached. Thompson notes that some historical accounts, which he describes as "casual histories", have suggested that the cast of early pornographic films were drawn from among people with low social status such as the homeless, drug addicts, the mentally ill, prostitutes, and petty criminals. Thompson argues that there is almost no documentary evidence for this claim, and suggests that the actors likely had higher social status.


title: A Free Ride

text: "A Free Ride" was shot outdoors. According to cultural historian Joseph W. Slade, there is a legend that it was shot in New Jersey. Most scholars, including Al Di Lauro, Gerald Rabkin and Jonathon Ross, believe that the film was produced in 1915 and is the earliest surviving American hardcore pornographic film. "Los Angeles Times" columnist Jay Jones notes "A Free Ride" is believed to be the first pornographic film made for commercial purposes. The 1915 production date is disputed by some sources. According to the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, the film was made between 1917 and 1919. Film scholar Linda Williams also writes that the assertion that "A Free Ride" is the earliest surviving American stag film is "doubtful". Kevin Brownlow writes in his book "Behind the Mask of Innocence" that, "judging by the fashions, the film was actually made around 1923". Thompson says that the evidence presented to support the later production date is shoddy, but notes that some other experts agree with Brownlow's assertion. Evidence cited in support of a 1923 production date includes the similarity of one of the women's hairstyle to that of Mary Pickford, an actress who dominated American film industry during the 1920s. Proponents of the later date claim that the woman wore a Pickford-style wig. However, Thompson indicates that the curly Pickford-style hair became popular in the 1910s, citing a 1914 interview in "Photoplay" magazine in which Pickford said that she felt exhausted by incoming letters that inquired about her hair. Thompson further disputes the claim that the woman in the film was actually wearing a wig.


title: A Free Ride

text: "A Free Ride" was reportedly first shown to its target audience in 1915. At that time, it was not possible to screen stag films in public theaters due to the Victorian moral views of contemporary society. Like other pornographic films of that era, "A Free Ride" was released and circulated underground to avoid censorship. It was likely shown in brothels, gentlemen's clubs, illegal gatherings of men in public places, stag parties, and other all-male venues: the film was kept hidden from society at large and the government.


title: A Free Ride

text: According to Williams, "A Free Ride" is a typological representative of a genre of early pornographic movies that included voyeurism. The film also shows sexual intercourse, fellatio, troilism, and urolagnia. Like the Argentinian film "El Satario" (c. 1907–15) and the German film "Am Abend" (c. 1910), "A Free Ride" begins with simple narrative frames, then shows signs of more conventional cinema for a short period, and finally shows hardcore scenes in a fragmented manner. Author Laurence O'Toole has described early stag films such as "A Free Ride" as "a muddle of jerky camerawork and slipshod editing". However, like other stag films from the 1910s, this film is of superior quality to the non-commercial pornography which preceded it.


title: A Free Ride

text: Journalist Luke Ford writes that sex is given emphasis over story in "A Free Ride". The film uses humor in its opening credits through false cast and crew names, such as "A. Wise Guy" as director, "Will B. Hard" as photographer, and "Will She" as the title writer. Williams describes this as "crude humor" and asserts it was common in American stag films produced from this time. Professor Frank A. Hoffman of University at Buffalo writes that the film's production standard indicates that there had been previous experimentation with stag films. O'Toole writes that despite the elementary nature of movies like "A Free Ride", stag films became "rigidified into a restricted visual experience" in a short period of time.


title: A Free Ride

text: Hoffman notes that "A Free Ride" contains many fundamental constituents which are the characteristics of an archetypal pornographic film. He identifies these basic constituents as a carefully planned but not complicated state of affairs to provide introductory motivation, visual stimuli to sexually excite the women, a theme that is generally rare in reality, a straightforward and very quick seduction, and the sex acts as the film's central theme.


title: A Free Ride

text: "A Free Ride" was a well-known stag film of the 1910s and, according to Williams, is regarded as a classic pornographic film. It is one of the three earliest pornographic films, along with "El Satario" and "Am Abend", in the collection of the Kinsey Institute. The 1970 documentary film "A History of the Blue Movie" includes scenes from this film. The Museum of Sex in New York City showed "A Free Ride" at its 2002 inaugural exhibition. Lisa Oppenheim, a New York-based film director, remade the film in 2004 using no actors; instead the events of the film were represented by "the landscape and trees".


title: Lone Star (1996 film)

text: Lone Star is a 1996 American neo-Western mystery film written, edited, and directed by John Sayles and set in a small town in South Texas. The ensemble cast features Chris Cooper, Kris Kristofferson, Matthew McConaughey and Elizabeth Peña and deals with a sheriff's investigation into the murder of one of his predecessors. Filmed on location along the Rio Grande in southern and southwestern Texas, the film received critical acclaim, with critics regarding it as a high point of 1990s independent cinema as well as one of Sayles' best films. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, and also appeared on the ballot for the AFI's 10 Top 10 in the western category. The film was a box office success, grossing $13 million against its $3–5 million budget.


title: Lone Star (1996 film)

text: Sam Deeds is the sheriff of Rio County in Frontera, Texas. A native of Frontera, Sam returned two years ago and was elected sheriff. Sam's late father had been the legendary Sheriff Buddy Deeds, who is beloved by the town, remembered as a unique individual with a great sense of fairness and justice. As a teenager Sam had problems with his father and the pair routinely argued and fought.


title: Lone Star (1996 film)

text: Sam is particularly disapproving of efforts by local business leader Mercedes Cruz and Buddy's former chief deputy, Mayor Hollis Pogue, to enlarge and rename the local courthouse in Buddy's honor; he considers it an unneeded waste of taxpayers' money. As a teenager, Sam had been in love with Mercedes's daughter Pilar, but the courtship was strongly opposed by Buddy and Mercedes. After a chance meeting, Sam and the widowed Pilar, now a local teacher, slowly resume their relationship.


title: Lone Star (1996 film)

text: Colonel Delmore Payne has recently arrived in town as the commander of the local U.S. Army base. Delmore is the son of Otis "Big O" Payne, a local nightclub owner and leading figure in the African-American community. The two are estranged because of Otis's serial womanizing and abandonment of Delmore's mother when Delmore was a child. Two off-duty sergeants from the base discover a human skeleton on an old shooting range on the base along with a Masonic ring, a Rio County sheriff's badge, and later, an expended pistol bullet, very unusual on a rifle range. Sam brings in Texas Ranger Ben Wetzel to help with the case. Wetzel tells Sam that forensics identify the skeleton as that of Charlie Wade, the infamously corrupt and cruel sheriff who preceded Buddy. Wade mysteriously disappeared in 1957, taking $10,000 in county funds, after which Buddy became sheriff.


title: Lone Star (1996 film)

text: Sam investigates the events leading up to Wade's murder. He learns that Wade terrorized the local African-American and Mexican communities, including extorting money from local business owners on a monthly basis and numerous murders where he asks his innocent victims to show him any weapon they might have, to then justify shooting them for "resisting arrest". Wade used this method to murder, in front of Deputy Hollis, Mercedes' husband, Eladio, having discovered he was running an illegal smuggling operation in Rio County without bribing Wade.


title: Lone Star (1996 film)

text: Sam also uncovers secrets about his father's nearly 30-year term as sheriff that reveal Buddy's own corruption. He visits Wesley Birdsong, a Native American and a roadside tourist stand owner, who reveals that Buddy was a wild young adult after his service in the Korean War but settled down after becoming a deputy sheriff and marrying Sam's mother; but he reveals that Buddy did have a mistress, whose name Wesley claims to have forgotten. Sam travels to San Antonio, where he visits his marginally mentally ill ex-wife Bunny and searches through his father's things, where he discovers love letters from Buddy's mistress. Otis tells Sam that Buddy's focus was on the county political machine while Wade's focus was on money. The janitor at the sheriff's office reveals to Sam that he worked on Buddy's home while incarcerated in the local jail. A local reporter uncovers that Buddy forcibly evicted residents of a small community to make a lake that made Frontera a popular tourist destination with Buddy and Hollis receiving lakefront property.


title: Lone Star (1996 film)

text: Sam confronts Hollis and Otis about Wade's murder. Wade discovered Otis was running an illegal gambling operation at the nightclub, after he had previously warned Otis against running numbers in the club. A furious Wade violently attacked Otis, ordered him to hand over the monthly extortion money, and then was about to use his "resisting arrest" setup to kill Otis. Buddy arrived just as Hollis shot Wade to prevent Otis's murder. The three buried the body and took the $10,000 from the county and gave it to Mercedes—who was destitute after Eladio's recent death—to buy her restaurant. Hollis reveals that Buddy and Mercedes did not take up until sometime later. Sam decides to drop the issue, saying it will remain an unsolved mystery. Hollis voices concern that, when the skeleton is revealed to be Wade, people will assume Buddy killed him to take his job, to which Sam states that Buddy's legend can handle it.


title: Lone Star (1996 film)

text: Pilar meets Sam at an old drive-in theater where Sam shows her an old photo of Buddy and Mercedes and tells her Eladio died 18 months, rather than "a couple months", before she was born, revealing Buddy is Pilar's father. Both are hurt over the deception but decide that, since she cannot have any more children, they will continue their romantic relationship, despite the knowledge that they are half-siblings.


title: Lone Star (1996 film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 52 reviews, with a rating average of 8.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Smart and absorbing, "Lone Star" represents a career high point for writer-director John Sayles -- and '90s independent cinema in general." On Metacritic, it has a score of 78% based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Two years after release, Jack Mathews of the "Los Angeles Times" declared it "critically acclaimed and darn near commercial". In retrospect from 2004, William Arnold of the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" said that the film was "widely regarded as Sayles' masterpiece", declaring that it had "captured the zeitgeist of the '90s as successfully as "Chinatown" did the '70s".


title: Lone Star (1996 film)

text: Writing at the time of release, Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" said, "This long, spare, contemplatively paced film, scored with a wide range of musical styles and given a sun-baked clarity by Stuart Dryburgh's cinematography, is loaded with brief, meaningful encounters... And it features a great deal of fine, thoughtful acting, which can always be counted on in a film by Mr. Sayles". "All the film's characters are flesh and blood", Maslin added, pointing particularly to the portrayals by Kristofferson, Canada, James, Morton and Colon. Film critics Dennis West and Joan M. West of "Cineaste" praised the psychological aspects of the film, writing, ""Lone Star" strikingly depicts the personal psychological boundaries that confront many citizens of Frontera as a result of living in such close proximity to the border". Ann Hornaday for the "Austin American-Statesman" declared it "a work of awesome sweep and acute perception", judging it "the most accomplished film of [Sayles'] 17-year career". "The Washington Post" writer Hal Hinson characterized it as "a carefully crafted, unapologetically literary accomplishment."


title: Grasse

text: Grasse (; Provençal or ; traditional ) is the only subprefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region on the French Riviera. In 2017, the commune had a population of 50,396.


title: Grasse

text: Considered the world's capital of perfume, Grasse obtained two flowers in the "Concours des villes et villages fleuris" and was made "Ville d'Art et d'Histoire" (City of Art and History).


title: Grasse

text: There is an annual "Fête du Jasmin" or "La Jasminade", at the beginning of August. The first festival was on August 3–4, 1946. Decorated floats drive through the town, with young women in skimpy costumes on board, throwing flowers into the crowd. Garlands of jasmine decorate the town center, and the fire department fills a fire truck with jasmine-infused water to spray on the crowds. There are also fireworks, free parties, folk music groups and street performers. There is also an annual international exhibition of roses ("Expo Rose") held in May each year.


title: Grasse

text: Grasse has had a prospering perfume industry since the end of the 18th century. Grasse is the centre of the French perfume industry and is known as the world's perfume capital ("la capitale mondiale des parfums"). Many "noses" (or, in French, "Les nez" (plural)/"Le nez" (singular)) are trained or have spent time in Grasse to distinguish over 2,000 kinds of scent. Grasse produces over two-thirds of France's natural aromas (for perfume and for food flavourings). This industry turns over more than 600 million euros a year. Grasse's particular microclimate encouraged the flower farming industry. It is warm and sufficiently inland to be sheltered from the sea air. There is an abundance of water, thanks to its location in the hills and the 1860 construction of the Siagne canal for irrigation purposes. The town is above sea level and from the coast (Côte d'Azur). Jasmine, a key ingredient of many perfumes, was brought to southern France by the Moors in the 16th century. Twenty-seven tonnes of jasmine are now harvested in Grasse annually. There are numerous old 'parfumeries' in Grasse, such as Galimard, Molinard and Fragonard, each with tours and a museum.


title: Grasse

text: The trade in leather and tanning work developed during the twelfth century around the small canal that runs through the city. This activity produced a strong unpleasant odor. At the time of the Renaissance perfume manufacturers began production of gloves, handbags and belt (clothing), to meet the new fashion from Italy with the entourage of Queen Catherine de Medici.


title: Grasse

text: The countryside around the city began to grow fields of flowers, offering new scents from the city. In 1614, the king recognized the new corporation of "glovers perfumers".


title: Grasse

text: In the middle of the eighteenth century, the perfumery was experiencing a very important development. Leading companies dating from this period includes the oldest French perfumerie, and third oldest parfumerie in Europe, Galimard established in 1747. Introduction of new production methods turned perfume making into a real industry that could adapt to new market demands.


title: Grasse

text: In the nineteenth century, the raw materials began to be imported from abroad. During the twentieth century the creation of synthetic products brought the democratization & affordability of perfumes and their spin-offs; (shampoos and deodorants, cream (pharmaceutical) and detergents, food flavoring for cookies, ice cream and dairy products, beverages, convenience foods, confectionery, preserves and syrups).


title: Grasse

text: In 1905, six hundred tons of flowers were harvested while in the 1940s, five thousand tons were produced annually. However, in early 2000, production was less than 30 tons for all flowers combined.


title: Grasse

text: In the Middle Ages, Grasse specialized in leather tanning. Once tanned, the hides were often exported to Genoa or Pisa, cities that shared a commercial alliance with Grasse. Several centuries of this intense activity witnessed many technological advances within tanning industries. The hides of Grasse acquired a reputation for high quality. But the leather smelled badly, something that did not please the glove wearing nobility. This is when Jean de Galimard, a tanner in Grasse, came up with the idea of scented leather gloves. He offered a pair of scented gloves to Catherine de Medici, who was seduced by the gift. Thereafter, the product spread through the Royal Court and high society, and this made a worldwide reputation for Grasse. The seventeenth century became the heyday of "Glovers Perfumers'; however, high taxes on leather and competition from Nice brought a decline for the leather industry in Grasse, and production of leather fragrance ceased. The rare scents from the Grasse (lavender, myrtle, jasmine, rose, orange blossom and wild mimosa) did win the title for the Grasse as the perfume capital of the world. Harvesting jasmine was a labor-intensive business only a few decades ago. Flowers had to be hand picked at dawn, when their scent is the most developed and immediately to be treated by cold enfleurage.


title: Grasse

text: A network of sixty companies employs 3,500 people in the city and surrounding area. Additionally about 10,000 residents of Grasse are indirectly employed by the perfume industry. Almost half of the business tax for the city comes from the perfume sector and that is ahead of tourism and services. The main activity of perfumery in Grasse is in the production of natural raw materials (essential oils, concretes, absolutes, resinoids and molecular distillation) and the production of concentrate, also called the juice. A concentrate is the main product that when diluted in at least 80% alcohol provides a perfume. Also food flavorings, which developed since the 1970s, account for over half of production output today.


title: Grasse

text: This represents almost half of the production of French perfumes and aromas and around 7-8% of total global activity. However, during the 1960s and 1970s large international groups gradually bought up local family factories (Chiris, Givaudan-Roure and Lautier, for example). Soon after their production has often been relocated overseas. Just 30 years ago most companies were focused on the production of raw materials. However an overwhelming majority of the modern fragrances contain synthetic chemicals in part or in whole. Grasse perfume companies have therefore adapted by turning to aromatic synthesis and especially to food flavorings and successfully ended a long stagnation. The Grasse perfume industry cannot compete against large chemical multinationals, but it benefits greatly from the advantage of its knowledge of raw materials, facilities, contractors, etc. In addition, major brands such as Dior and Chanel have their own plantations of roses and jasmine in the vicinity of Grasse.


title: Grasse

text: Three perfumeries, Fragonard, Molinard and Galimard opened their doors to the public and offer free tours that explain the processes of producing a perfume. It is possible to create one's own perfume, eau de perfume or eau de toilette and participate in all stages of manufacture from picking flowers to bottling.


title: Grasse

text: The town is home to Grasse Cathedral, the seat of the Roman Catholic former Diocese of Grasse which was led by the Bishops of Grasse.


title: Grasse

text: The town is home to the Lycée Amiral-de-Grasse and sunce 2019 one of two seats of the higher education engineering college ECAM-EPMI.


title: Grasse

text: The town is the setting in the final chapters of the novel "Perfume" by Patrick Süskind. It was featured in the film based on the novel (2006).


title: Grasse

text: Three perfume factories offer daily tours and demonstrations, which draw in many of the region's visitors. In addition to the perfumeries, Grasse's other main attraction is the Cathedral, dedicated to Notre Dame du Puy and founded in the 11th century. In the interior, are three works by Rubens and one by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, the French painter native of the town.


title: Electronic signature

text: An electronic signature, or e-signature, is data that is logically associated with other data and which is used by the signatory to sign the associated data. This type of signature has the same legal standing as a handwritten signature as long as it adheres to the requirements of the specific regulation under which it was created (e.g., eIDAS in the European Union, NIST-DSS in the USA or ZertES in Switzerland).


title: Electronic signature

text: Electronic signatures are a legal concept distinct from digital signatures, a cryptographic mechanism often used to implement electronic signatures. While an electronic signature can be as simple as a name entered in an electronic document, digital signatures are increasingly used in e-commerce and in regulatory filings to implement electronic signatures in a cryptographically protected way. Standardization agencies like NIST or ETSI provide standards for their implementation (e.g., NIST-DSS, XAdES or PAdES). The concept itself is not new, with common law jurisdictions having recognized telegraph signatures as far back as the mid-19th century and faxed signatures since the 1980s.


title: Electronic signature

text: An electronic signature is intended to provide a secure and accurate identification method for the signatory during a transaction.


title: Electronic signature

text: Definitions of electronic signatures vary depending on the applicable jurisdiction. A common denominator in most countries is the level of an advanced electronic signature requiring that:


title: Electronic signature

text: Electronic signatures may be created with increasing levels of security, with each having its own set of requirements and means of creation on various levels that prove the validity of the signature. To provide an even stronger probative value than the above described advanced electronic signature, some countries like member states of the European Union or Switzerland introduced the qualified electronic signature. It is difficult to challenge the authorship of a statement signed with a qualified electronic signature - the statement is non-repudiable. Technically, a qualified electronic signature is implemented through an advanced electronic signature that utilizes a digital certificate, which has been encrypted through a security signature-creating device and which has been authenticated by a qualified trust service provider.


title: Electronic signature

text: Since well before the American Civil War began in 1861, morse code was used to send messages electrically via the telegraph. Some of these messages were agreements to terms that were intended as enforceable contracts. An early acceptance of the enforceability of telegraphic messages as electronic signatures came from a New Hampshire Supreme Court case, Howley v. Whipple, in 1869.


title: Electronic signature

text: In the 1980s, many companies and even some individuals began using fax machines for high-priority or time-sensitive delivery of documents. Although the original signature on the original document was on paper, the image of the signature and its transmission was electronic.


title: Electronic signature

text: Courts in various jurisdictions have decided that enforceable legality of electronic signatures can include agreements made by email, entering a personal identification number (PIN) into a bank ATM, signing a credit or debit slip with a digital pen pad device (an application of graphics tablet technology) at a point of sale, installing software with a clickwrap software license agreement on the package, and signing electronic documents online.


title: Electronic signature

text: The first agreement signed electronically by two sovereign nations was a Joint Communiqué recognizing the growing importance of the promotion of electronic commerce, signed by the United States and Ireland in 1998.


title: Electronic signature

text: In 1996 the United Nations published the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce. Article 7 of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce was highly influential in the development of electronic signature laws around the world, including in the US. In 2001, UNCITRAL concluded work on a dedicated text, the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures, which has been adopted in some 30 jurisdictions. The latest UNCITRAL text dealing with electronic signatures is article 9, paragraph 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts, 2005, which establishes a mechanism for functional equivalence between electronic and handwritten signatures at the international level as well as for the cross-border recognition.


title: Electronic signature

text: Canadian law (PIPEDA) attempts to clarify the situation by first defining a generic electronic signature as "a signature that consists of one or more letters, characters, numbers or other symbols in digital form incorporated in, attached to or associated with an electronic document," then defining a secure electronic signature as an electronic signature with specific properties. PIPEDA's secure electronic signature regulations refine the definition as being a digital signature applied and verified in a specific manner.


title: Electronic signature

text: In the European Union, EU Regulation No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the European internal market (eIDAS) sets the legal frame for electronic signatures. It repeals Directive 1999/93/EC. The current and applicable version of eIDAS was published by the European Parliament and the European Council on July 23, 2014. Following Article 25 (1) of the eIDAS regulation, an advanced electronic signature shall “not be denied legal effect and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings". However it will reach a higher probative value when enhanced to the level of a qualified electronic signature. By requiring the use of a qualified electronic signature creation device and being based on a certificate that has been issued by a qualified trust service provider, the upgraded advanced signature then carries according to Article 25 (2) of the eIDAS Regulation the same legal value as a handwritten signature. However, this is only regulated in the European Union and similarly through ZertES in Switzerland. A qualified electronic signature is not defined in the United States.


title: Electronic signature

text: The U.S. Code defines an electronic signature for the purpose of US law as "an electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record." It may be an electronic transmission of the document which contains the signature, as in the case of facsimile transmissions, or it may be encoded message, such as telegraphy using Morse code.


title: Electronic signature

text: In the United States, the definition of what qualifies as an electronic signature is wide and is set out in the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act ("UETA") released by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) in 1999. It was influenced by ABA committee white papers and the uniform law promulgated by NCCUSL. Under UETA, the term means "an electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record." This definition and many other core concepts of UETA are echoed in the U.S. ESign Act of 2000. 48 US states, the District of Columbia, and the US Virgin Islands have enacted UETA. Only New York and Illinois have not enacted UETA, but each of those states has adopted its own electronic signatures statute.As of June 11, 2020, Washington State Office of CIO adopted UETA


title: Electronic signature

text: In Australia, an electronic signature is recognised as "not necessarily the writing in of a name, but maybe any mark which identifies it as the act of the party.” Under the Electronic Transactions Acts in each Federal, State and Territory jurisdiction, an electronic signature may be considered enforceable if (a) there was a method used to identify the person and to indicate that person’s intention in respect of the information communicated and the method was either: (i) as reliable as appropriate for the purpose for which the electronic communication was generated or communicated, in light of all the circumstances, including the relevant agreement; or (ii) proven in fact to have fulfilled the functions above by itself or together with further evidence and the person to whom the signature is required to be given consents to that method.


title: Electronic signature

text: Various laws have been passed internationally to facilitate commerce by using electronic records and signatures in interstate and foreign commerce. The intent is to ensure the validity and legal effect of contracts entered electronically. For instance,


title: Electronic signature

text: In 2016, Aberdeen Strategy and Research reported that 73% of "best-in-class" and 34% of all other respondents surveyed made use of electronic signature processes in supply chain and procurement, delivering benefits in the speed and efficiency of key procurement activities. The percentages of their survey respondents using electronic signatures in accounts payable and accounts receivable processes were a little lower, 53% of "best-in-class" respondents in each case.


title: Electronic signature

text: Digital signatures are cryptographic implementations of electronic signatures used as a proof of authenticity, data integrity and non-repudiation of communications conducted over the Internet. When implemented in compliance to digital signature standards, digital signing should offer end-to-end privacy with the signing process being user-friendly and secure. Digital signatures are generated and verified through standardized frameworks such as the Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) by NIST or in compliance to the XAdES, PAdES or CAdES standards, specified by the ETSI.