title: Pieces of Eight

text: Mike DeGagne of AllMusic has retrospectively praised the album, saying that the songs on the album "rekindle some of Styx's early progressive rock sound, only cleaner." Contemporary "Rolling Stone" reviewer Lester Bangs was more critical of the album, however, saying that "What's really interesting is not that such narcissistic slop should get recorded, but what must be going on in the minds of the people who support it in such amazing numbers. Gall, nerve and ego have never been far from great rock & roll. Yet there's a thin but crucial line between those qualities and what it takes to fill arenas today: sheer self-aggrandizement on the most puerile level. If these are the champions, gimme the cripples."


title: Pieces of Eight

text: The album peaked at #6 on the Billboard album chart, and like its predecessor would go triple platinum.


title: Gutka

text: Gutka, ghutka, guṭkha or betel quid is a chewing tobacco preparation made of crushed areca nut (also called betel nut), tobacco, catechu, paraffin wax, slaked lime (Calcium hydroxide) and sweet or savory flavourings, in India, Pakistan, other Asian countries, and North America.


title: Gutka

text: It contains carcinogens, is considered responsible for oral cancer and other severe negative health effects and hence is subjected in India to the same restrictions and warnings as cigarettes. Highly addictive and a known carcinogen, gutkha is the subject of much controversy in India. Many states have sought to curb its immense popularity by taxing sales of gutkha heavily or by banning it. Gutka is manufactured in the sub-continent and exported to a few other countries, often marketed under the guise of a "safer" product than cigarettes and tobacco. Reported to have both stimulant and relaxation effects, it is sold throughout South Asia and some Pacific regions in small, individual-sized foil packets/sachets and tins that cost between 2 and 10 rupees each. It is widely consumed in India, Karachi city of Pakistan and the Madhesh region of Nepal. Gutka is consumed by placing a pinch of it between the gum and cheek and gently sucking and chewing, similar to chewing tobacco.


title: Gutka

text: Gutka is a commercially produced form of smokeless tobacco. Manufacturers add sweet or savory flavors, making it more appealing to women and young people in some locations. The combinations of gutka ingredients vary according to local preferences. Spices may include mustard, turmeric, anise seeds, cardamom, saffron and cloves.


title: Gutka

text: In addition to areca nut, nicotine, slaked lime, paraffin and catechu, it can be laced with thousands of chemicals. It is a powdery, granular, light brownish to white substance. Within moments of chewing mixing with saliva, the gutkha begins to dissolve and turn deep red in colour. It may impart upon its user a "buzz" somewhat more intense than that of tobacco chewing, snuffing and smoking.


title: Gutka

text: Creative advertising by tobacco companies and lack of accessible information for the public leads to many gutka users being unaware of the dangers it can bring. Often users believe that gutka can act as a digestion aid, kill germs, and generally give a sense of well being. In fact 34.4% of smokers have switched to smokeless tobacco use as way to quit.


title: Gutka

text: In addition to cancer of the head, mouth, neck, throat, oesophagus, other aerodigestive tract cancers, and dental disease, areca nut, the main ingredient in gutka, is known to cause severe oral mucosal disorders. Oral submucous fibrosis, one such disorder, is a malignant condition that is severely debilitating and has no cure. Metabolic syndrome, hypertension, diabetes and obesity have also been linked to its use. Use by pregnant women increases the risk of low birth rates in newborns. As of 2015 it was the fourth most common addictive product worldwide. Areca nut "quid chewing has claimed to produce a sense of well being, euphoria, warm sensations of the body, sweating, salivation, palpitation and heightened alertness, tolerance to hunger, and increased capacity and stamina to work."


title: Gutka

text: When a person chews gutka, the mixture directly enters the system through the oral cavity, which absorbs about 28 carcinogenic chemicals including nicotine.


title: Gutka

text: "Smokeless tobacco use is highly addictive. The nicotine in smokeless tobacco is more easily absorbed than by smoking cigarettes enhancing its addictiveness."


title: Gutka

text: Gutka turns saliva bright red, and when it is chewed long and often enough it will stain a user's teeth bright red too. Saliva is generally spat onto a wall or at the ground, causing a red stain that is quite resistant to the elements. Some building owners have taken to combating this by painting murals of gods on their walls, with the idea that gutkha chewers would not spit on a god.


title: Gutka

text: Use of gutka and other forms of tobacco are culturally ingrained and use can begin at a young age. Smokeless tobacco use is most common in India where oral cancer accounts for 30 to 40% of cancer cases. Its use has been reported in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Cambodia, China, Indonesia and New Guinea. Immigrants to the United Kingdom, parts of Africa, Australia, North America have brought their habits with them. Gutka is readily available in these locations, especially in neighborhood Asian markets in highly populated areas. Immigrants to the United States where spitting in public is not as socially acceptable, learn to be discreet. Those in the lower socioeconomic populations are especially at risk. It is here that access to education and treatment is limited. Easy access and extremely low cost lead to early addiction and the prevalence of gutka use. Precancerous lesions have been observed in young children and symptoms of cancer often appear by high school or college age. Smoking is not allowed in many places, and when done by children, is disapproved of. In contrast gutka use, being all but invisible to others, is the method of choice. A New York Times article reported in 2002 that sales of gutka and the tobaccoless version, paan masala, reached $1 billion a year.


title: Gutka

text: Over 25% of India's population use tobacco products including cigarettes and multiple forms of smokeless tobacco. India has the largest number of smokeless tobacco users in the world. The poorest populations are greatly affected due to the detrimental effects of its use and the subsequent costs of medical care. Many Indian states have sought to curb the use and spread of gutka by taxing sales heavily or by banning it.


title: Gutka

text: They have banned the sale, manufacture, distribution and storage of gutka and all its variants. As of May 2013, gutka is banned in 24 states and 3 union territories. The federal Food Safety and Regulation (Prohibition) Act 2011 allows harmful products such as gutka to be banned for a year. This can be renewed annually, resulting in a permanent ban. The ban is enforced by the state public health ministry, the state Food and Drug Administration, and the local police. Enforcement of the law is generally lax and many shops still sell gutka, although it may not be displayed. Enforcemnent is stricter in some regions like Mumbai and Delhi, but illegal sale of gutka still occurs.


title: Gutka

text: In 2019, the Delhi government extended the ban for one more year on Gutka, Pan Masala, Flavoured/Scented Tobacco, Kharra and similar products containing tobacco. In September 2012, State of Delhi banned Gutka and Pan Masala containing tobacco and/or nicotine. After the notification, Gutka manufacturers separated the components like tobacco from Gutka and Pan Masala. Since the term ‘Gutka and Pan Masala Containing Tobacco’ was used in the notification. The components like tobacco were manufactured and sold in separate pouches after the ban. The notification was revised in March 2015 to make it more strict and banned all smokeless tobacco (SLT) products including twin-pack. Offenders can be fined or receive prison sentences. The law has provisions of imposing fines up to 25,000 Indian rupees on the sale of products that are injurious to health.


title: Gutka

text: Research firm Edelweiss estimates the gutka ban will cause the industry 15-20 billion rupees in losses.


title: Gutka

text: Like alcohol and tobacco products, there is a ban on advertisement of gutka. Often tobacco companies advertise gutka as pan masala in order to skirt the ban on advertising tobacco products. Surrogate advertisements often use pan masala ads to promote gutka products with similar name and packaging.


title: Gutka

text: According to the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations, 2011 of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, misleading advertisement of such products invites a fine of 1,000,000 rupees.


title: Gutka

text: According to StraitsResearch, The India pan masala market is expected to reach USD 10,365 million by 2026 at the CAGR of 10.4% during the forecast period 2019–2026. The India pan masala market is driven by significant switching of consumers from tobacco products to pan masala, aggressive advertising and convenient packaging, and Maharashtra State’s revocation of the ban over pan masala products.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: The critical period hypothesis or sensitive period hypothesis claims that there is an ideal time window of brain development to acquire language in a linguistically rich environment, after which further language acquisition becomes much more difficult and effortful. It is the subject of a long-standing debate in linguistics and language acquisition over the extent to which the ability to acquire language is biologically linked to age. The critical period hypothesis was first proposed by Montreal neurologist Wilder Penfield and co-author Lamar Roberts in their 1959 book "Speech and Brain Mechanisms", and was popularized by Eric Lenneberg in 1967 with "Biological Foundations of Language."


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: The critical period hypothesis states that the first few years of life is the crucial time in which an individual can acquire a first language if presented with adequate stimuli, and that first-language acquisition relies on neuroplasticity. If language input does not occur until after this time, the individual will never achieve a full command of language. There is much debate over the timing of the critical period with respect to SLA (second language acquisition), with estimates ranging between 2 and 13 years of age.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: The critical period hypothesis is derived from the concept of a critical period in the biological sciences, which refers to a set period in which an organism must acquire a skill or ability, or said organism will not be able to acquire it later in life. Strictly speaking, the experimentally verified critical period relates to a time span during which "damage" to the development of the visual system can occur, for example if animals are deprived of the necessary binocular input for developing stereopsis.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Preliminary research into the Critical period hypothesis investigated brain lateralization as a possible neurological cause; however, this theoretical cause was largely discredited since lateralization does not necessarily increase with age, and no definitive link between language learning ability and lateralization was ever determined. A more general hypothesis holds that the critical period for language acquisition is linked to the interaction of the prolonged development of the human brain after birth and rearing in a socio-linguistic environment. Based on studies of the critical period for development of the visual system, this hypothesis holds that language-specific neural networks are constructed by the functional validation of synapses that are specifically activated by exposure to a linguistic environment early in life. Humans are uniquely capable of language due to the genetically determined size and complexity of the brain and the long period of postnatal development, during which the environment can select neuronal circuits that facilitate language. Recently, it has been suggested that if a critical period does exist, it may be due at least partially to the delayed development of the prefrontal cortex in human children. Researchers have suggested that delayed development of the prefrontal cortex and an associated delay in the development of cognitive control may facilitate convention learning, allowing young children to learn language far more easily than cognitively mature adults and older children. This pattern of prefrontal development is unique to humans among similar mammalian (and primate) species, and may explain why humans—and not chimpanzees—are so adept at learning language.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: The discussion of language critical period is complicated by the subjectivity of determining native-like competence in language, which includes things like pronunciation, prosody, syllable stress, timing and articulatory setting. Some aspects of language, such as phoneme tuning, grammar processing, articulation control, and vocabulary acquisition have weak critical periods and can be significantly improved by training at any age. Other aspects of language, such as prefrontal synthesis, have strong critical periods and cannot be acquired after the end of the critical period.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: The theory has often been extended to a critical period for second-language acquisition (SLA), although this is much less widely accepted. David Singleton states that in learning a second language, "younger = better in the long run", but points out that there are many exceptions, noting that five percent of adult bilinguals master a second language even though they begin learning it when they are well into adulthood—long after any critical period has presumably come to a close. Jane H. Hill posited that much research into SLA has focused on monolingual communities, whereas multilingual communities are more of a global norm, and this impacts the standard of competence that the SLA speaker is judged by.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: While the window for learning a second language never completely closes, certain linguistic aspects appear to be more affected by the age of the learner than others. For example, adult second-language learners nearly always retain an immediately identifiable foreign accent, including some who display perfect grammar. A possible explanation for why this foreign accent remains is that pronunciation, or phonology, is susceptible to the critical period. The pronunciation of speech sounds relies on neuromuscular function. Adults learning a new language are unlikely to attain a convincing native accent since they are past the prime age of learning new neuromuscular functions, and therefore pronunciations. Writers have suggested a younger critical age for learning phonology than for morphemes and syntax. reports that there is no critical period for learning vocabulary in a second language because vocabulary is learned consciously using declarative memory. The attrition of procedural memory with age results in the increased use of declarative memory to learn new languages, which is an entirely different process from L1 (first language) learning. The plasticity of procedural memory is argued to decline after the age of 5. The attrition of procedural memory plasticity inhibits the ability of an L2 user to speak their second language automatically. It can still take conscious effort even if they are exposed to the second language as early as age 3. This effort is observed by measuring brain activity. L2-users that are exposed to their second language at an early age and are everyday users show lower levels of brain activity when using their L1 than when using their L2. This suggests that additional resources are recruited when speaking their L2 and it is therefore a more strenuous process.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: The critical period hypothesis in SLA follows a "use it then lose it" approach, which dictates that as a person ages, excess neural circuitry used during L1 learning is essentially broken down. If these neural structures remained intact they would cost unnecessary metabolic energy to maintain. The structures necessary for L1 use are kept. On the other hand, a second "use it or lose it" approach dictates that if an L2 user begins to learn at an early age and continues on through their life, then their language-learning circuitry should remain active. This approach is also called the "exercise hypothesis".


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: There is much debate over the timing of the critical period with respect to SLA, with estimates ranging between 2 and 13 years of age. However, some studies have shown that "even very young L2 beginners diverge at the level of fine linguistic detail from native speakers."


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Some writers have argued that the critical period hypothesis does not apply to SLA, and that second-language proficiency is determined by the time and effort put into the learning process, and not the learner's age. observed that factors other than age may be even more significant in successful second-language learning, such as personal motivation, anxiety, input and output skills, and the learning environment. A combination of these factors often leads to individual variation in second-language acquisition experiences.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: On reviewing the published material, Bialystok and Hakuta (1994) conclude that second-language learning is not necessarily subject to biological critical periods, but "on average, there is a continuous decline in ability [to learn] with age."


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: How children acquire native language (L1) and the relevance of this to foreign language (L2) learning has long been debated. Although evidence for L2 learning ability declining with age is controversial, a common notion is that children learn L2s easily, whilst older learners rarely achieve fluency. This assumption stems from ‘critical period’ (CP) ideas. A CP was popularised by Eric Lenneberg in 1967 for L1 acquisition, but considerable interest now surrounds age effects on second-language acquisition (SLA). SLA theories explain learning processes and suggest causal factors for a possible CP for second language acquisition. These SLA-CP theories mainly attempt to explain apparent differences in language aptitudes of children and adults by distinct learning routes, and clarify these differences by discussing psychological mechanisms. Research explores these ideas and hypotheses, but results are varied: some demonstrate pre-pubescent children acquire language easily, and some that older learners have the advantage, whilst others focus on existence of a CP for SLA. Recent studies (e.g. Mayberry and Lock, 2003) have recognised certain aspects of SLA may be affected by age, whilst others remain intact. The objective of this study is to investigate whether capacity for vocabulary acquisition decreases with age.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Other work has challenged the biological approach; Krashen (1975) re-analysed clinical data used as evidence and concluded cerebral specialisation occurs much earlier than Lenneberg calculated. Therefore, if a CP exists, it does not coincide with lateralisation. Despite concerns with Lenneberg's original evidence and the dissociation of lateralisation from the language CP idea, however, the concept of a CP remains a viable hypothesis, which later work has better explained and substantiated.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: A review of SLA theories and their explanations for age-related differences is necessary before considering empirical studies. The most reductionist theories are those of Penfield and Roberts (1959) and Lenneberg (1967), which stem from L1 and brain damage studies. Children who suffer impairment before puberty typically recover and (re-)develop normal language, whereas adults rarely recover fully, and often do not regain verbal abilities beyond the point reached five months after impairment. Both theories agree that children have a neurological advantage in learning languages, and that puberty correlates with a turning point in ability. They assert that language acquisition occurs primarily, possibly exclusively, during childhood as the brain loses plasticity after a certain age. It then becomes rigid and fixed, and loses the ability for adaptation and reorganisation, rendering language (re-)learning difficult. Penfield and Roberts (1959) claim children under nine can learn up to three languages: early exposure to different languages activates a reflex in the brain allowing them to switch between languages without confusion or translation into L1 (Penfield, 1964). Lenneberg (1967) asserts that if no language is learned by puberty, it cannot be learned in a normal, functional sense. He also supports Penfield and Roberts’ (1959) proposal of neurological mechanisms responsible for maturational change in language learning abilities. This, Lenneberg maintains, coincides with brain lateralisation and left-hemispherical specialisation for language around age thirteen: infants’ motor and linguistic skills develop simultaneously, but by age thirteen the cerebral hemispheres’ functions separate and become set, making language acquisition extremely difficult (Lenneberg, 1967).


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Cases of deaf and feral children provide evidence for a biologically determined CP for L1. Feral children are those not exposed to language in infancy/childhood due to being brought up in the wild, in isolation and/or confinement. A classic example is 'Genie', a victim of child abuse who was deprived of social interaction from birth until discovered aged thirteen. Her father had judged her retarded at birth and had chosen to isolate her. She was kept strapped to a potty chair and forced to wear diapers. She was completely without language. Her case presented an ideal opportunity to test the theory that a nurturing environment could somehow make up for the total lack of language past the age of 12. After seven years of rehabilitation Genie still lacked linguistic competence, although the degree to which she acquired language is disputed. Another case is 'Isabelle', who was incarcerated with her deaf-mute mother until the age of six and a half (pre-pubescent). She also had no language skills, but, unlike Genie, quickly acquired normal language abilities through systematic specialist training. Detractors of the critical period hypothesis point out that in these examples and others like them (see feral children), the child is hardly growing up in a nurturing environment, and that the lack of language acquisition in later life may be due to the results of a generally abusive environment rather than being specifically due to a lack of exposure to language. Such studies are problematic; isolation can result in general retardation and emotional disturbances, which may confound conclusions drawn about language abilities.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Studies of deaf children learning American Sign Language (ASL) have fewer methodological weaknesses. Newport and Supalla studied ASL acquisition in deaf children differing in age of exposure; few were exposed to ASL from birth, most of them first learned it at school. Results showed a linear decline in performance with increasing age of exposure; those exposed to ASL from birth performed best, and 'late learners' worst, on all production and comprehension tests. Their study thus provides direct evidence for language learning ability decreasing with age, but it does not add to Lenneberg's CP hypothesis as even the oldest children, the 'late learners', were exposed to ASL by age four, and had therefore not reached puberty, the proposed end of the CP. In addition, the declines were shown to be linear, with no sudden 'drop off' of ability at a certain age, as would be predicted by a strong CP hypothesis. That the children performed significantly worse may suggest that the CP ends earlier than originally postulated. However, this decline in performance may also be attributed in part to limitations of second language acquisition for hearing parents learning ASL.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Contrary to biological views, behavioural approaches assert that languages are learned as any other behaviour, through conditioning. Skinner (1957) details how operant conditioning forms connections with the environment through interaction and, alongside O. Hobart Mowrer (1960), applies the ideas to language acquisition. Mowrer hypothesises that languages are acquired through rewarded imitation of ‘language models’; the model must have an emotional link to the learner (e.g. parent, spouse), as imitation then brings pleasant feelings which function as positive reinforcement. Because new connections between behaviour and the environment are formed and reformed throughout life, it is possible to gain new skills, including language(s), at any age.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: To explain observed language learning differences between children and adults, children are postulated to create countless new connections daily, and may handle the language learning process more effectively than do adults. This assumption, however, remains untested and is not a reliable explanation for children's aptitude for L2 learning. Problematic of the behaviourist approach is its assumption that all learning, verbal and non-verbal, occurs through the same processes. A more general problem is that, as Pinker (1995) notes, almost every sentence anybody voices is an original combination of words, never previously uttered, therefore a language cannot consist only of word combinations learned through repetition and conditioning; the brain must contain innate means of creating endless amounts of grammatical sentences from a limited vocabulary. This is precisely what Chomsky (1965) (reprinted as ) argues with his proposition of a universal grammar (UG).


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: asserts that environmental factors must be relatively unimportant for language emergence, as so many different factors surround children acquiring L1. Instead, Chomsky claims language learners possess innate principles building a 'language acquisition device' (LAD) in the brain. These principles denote restricted possibilities for variation within the language, and enable learners to construct a grammar out of 'raw input' collected from the environment. Input alone cannot explain language acquisition because it is degenerated by characteristic features such as stutters, and lacks corrections from which learners discover incorrect variations.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Singleton and Newport (2004) demonstrate the function of UG in their study of 'Simon'. Simon learned ASL as his L1 from parents who had learned it as an L2 after puberty and provided him with imperfect models. Results showed Simon learned normal and logical rules and was able to construct an organised linguistic system, despite being exposed to inconsistent input. Chomsky developed UG to explain L1 acquisition data, but maintains it also applies to L2 learners who achieve near-native fluency not attributable solely to input and interaction .


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Although it does not describe an optimal age for SLA, the theory implies that younger children can learn languages more easily than older learners, as adults must reactivate principles developed during L1 learning and forge an SLA path: children can learn several languages simultaneously as long as the principles are still active and they are exposed to sufficient language samples (Pinker, 1995). The parents of Singleton and Newport's (2004) patient also had linguistic abilities in line with these age-related predictions; they learned ASL after puberty and never reached complete fluency.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: There are, however, problems with the extrapolation of the UG theory to SLA: L2 learners go through several phases of types of utterance that are not similar to their L1 or the L2 they hear. Other factors include the cognitive maturity of most L2 learners, that they have different motivation for learning the language, and already speak one language fluently. Other studies also highlight these problems: Stanislas Dehaene has investigated how cerebral circuits used to handling one language adapt for the efficient storage of two or more. He reports observations of cerebral activation when reading and translating two languages. They found the most activated brain areas during the tasks were not those generally associated with language, but rather those related to mapping orthography to phonology. They conclude that the left temporal lobe is the physical base of L1, but the L2 is 'stored' elsewhere, thus explaining cases of bilingual aphasia where one language remains intact. They maintain that only languages learned simultaneously from birth are represented, and cause activity, in the left hemisphere: any L2 learned later is stored separately (possibly in the right hemisphere), and rarely activates the left temporal lobe.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: This suggests that L2 may be qualitatively different from L1 due to its dissociation from the 'normal' language brain regions, thus the extrapolation of L1 studies and theories to SLA is placed in question. A further disadvantage of UG is that supporting empirical data are taken from a limited sample of syntactic phenomena: a general theory of language acquisition should cover a larger range of phenomena. Despite these problems, several other theorists have based their own models of language learning on it. These ideas are supported by empirical evidence, which consequently supports Chomsky's ideas. Due to this support and its descriptive and explanatory strength, many theorists regard UG as the best explanation of language, and particularly grammar, acquisition.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: A key question about the relationship of UG and SLA is: is the language acquisition device posited by Chomsky and his followers still accessible to learners of a second language? The critical period hypothesis suggests that it becomes inaccessible at a certain age, and learners increasingly depended on explicit teaching. In other words, although all of language may be governed by UG, older learners might have great difficulty in gaining access to the target language's underlying rules from positive input alone.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Piaget (1926) is one psychologist reluctant to ascribe specific innate linguistic abilities to children: he considers the brain a homogeneous computational system, with language acquisition being one part of general learning. He agrees this development may be innate, but claims there is no specific language acquisition module in the brain. Instead, he suggests external influences and social interaction trigger language acquisition: information collected from these sources constructs symbolic and functional schemata (thought or behaviour patterns). According to Piaget, cognitive development and language acquisition are lifelong active processes that constantly update and re-organise schemata. He proposes children develop L1 as they build a sense of identity in reference to the environment, and describes phases of general cognitive development, with processes and patterns changing systematically with age. Piaget assumes language acquisition is part of this complex cognitive development, and that these developmental phases are the basis for an optimal period for language acquisition in childhood. Interactionist approaches derived from Piaget's ideas supports his theory. Some studies (e.g. Newport and Supalla) show that, rather than abrupt changes in SLA ability after puberty, language ability declines with age, coinciding with declines in other cognitive abilities, thus supporting Piaget.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Although Krashen (1975) also criticises this theory, he does not deny the importance of age for second-language acquisition. Krashen (1975) proposed theories for the close of the CP for L2 at puberty, based on Piaget's cognitive stage of formal operations beginning at puberty, as the ‘ability of the formal operational thinker to construct abstract hypotheses to explain phenomena’ inhibits the individual's natural ability for language learning.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: The term "language acquisition" became commonly used after Stephen Krashen contrasted it with formal and non-constructive "learning." Today, most scholars use "language learning" and "language acquisition" interchangeably, unless they are directly addressing Krashen's work. However, "second-language acquisition" or "SLA" has become established as the preferred term for this academic discipline.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Though SLA is often viewed as part of applied linguistics, it is typically concerned with the language system and learning processes themselves, whereas applied linguistics may focus more on the experiences of the learner, particularly in the classroom. Additionally, SLA has mostly examined "naturalistic" acquisition, where learners acquire a language with little formal training or teaching.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Virtually all research findings on SLA to date build on data from literate learners. find significantly different results when replicating standard SLA studies with low literate L2 learners. Specifically, learners with lower alphabetic literacy levels are significantly less likely to notice corrective feedback on form or to perform elicited imitation tasks accurately. These findings are consistent with research in cognitive psychology showing significant differences in phonological awareness between literate and illiterate adults. An important direction for SLA research must therefore involve the exploration of the impact of alphabetic literacy on cognitive processing in second-language acquisition.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Empirical research has attempted to account for variables detailed by SLA theories and provide an insight into L2 learning processes, which can be applied in educational environments. Recent SLA investigations have followed two main directions: one focuses on pairings of L1 and L2 that render L2 acquisition particularly difficult, and the other investigates certain aspects of language that may be maturationally constrained. looked at bilingual dominance to evaluate two explanations of L2 performance differences between bilinguals and monolingual-L2 speakers, i.e. a maturationally defined CP or interlingual interference.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: investigated whether the age at which participants learned English affected dominance in Italian-English bilinguals, and found the early bilinguals were English (L2) dominant and the late bilinguals Italian (L1) dominant. Further analysis showed that dominant Italian bilinguals had detectable foreign accents when speaking English, but early bilinguals (English dominant) had no accents in either language. This suggests that, though interlingual interference effects are not inevitable, their emergence, and bilingual dominance, may be related to a CP.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: These difficulties are attributed to a phase around age eight months where bilingual infants are insensitive to vowel contrasts, despite the language they hear most. This affects how words are later represented in their lexicons, highlighting this as a decisive period in language acquisition and showing that initial language exposure shapes linguistic processing for life. also indicate the significance of phonology for L2 learning; they believe learning an L2 once the L1 phonology is already internalised can reduce individuals’ abilities to distinguish new sounds that appear in the L2.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Most studies into age effects on specific aspects of SLA have focused on grammar, with the common conclusion that it is highly constrained by age, more so than semantic functioning. compared attainment of French learners in early and late immersion programs. She reports that after 1000 exposure hours, late learners had better control of French verb systems and syntax. However, comparing early immersion students (average age 6.917 years) with age-matched native speakers identified common problem areas, including third person plurals and polite ‘vous’ forms. This suggests grammar (in L1 or L2) is generally acquired later, possibly because it requires abstract cognition and reasoning.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: B. Harley also measured eventual attainment and found the two age groups made similar mistakes in syntax and lexical selection, often confusing French with the L1. The general conclusion from these investigations is that different aged learners acquire the various aspects of language with varying difficulty. Some variation in grammatical performance is attributed to maturation, however, all participants began immersion programs before puberty and so were too young for a strong critical period hypothesis to be directly tested.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: This corresponds to Noam Chomsky’s UG theory, which states that while language acquisition principles are still active, it is easy to learn a language, and the principles developed through L1 acquisition are vital for learning an L2.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: One study that specifically mentions semantic functions acquisition is that of . Their results showed that Chinese-English bilinguals who had been exposed to English after puberty, learned vocabulary to a higher competence level than syntactic aspects of language. They do, however, report that the judgment accuracies in detecting semantic anomalies were altered in subjects who were exposed to English after sixteen years of age, but were affected to a lesser degree than were grammatical aspects of language. It has been speculated by and that semantic aspects of language are founded on associative learning mechanisms, which allow lifelong learning, whereas syntactical aspects are based on computational mechanisms, which can only be constructed during certain age periods. Consequently, it is reasoned, semantic functions are easier to access during comprehension of an L2 and therefore dominate the process: if these are ambiguous, understanding of syntactic information is not facilitated. These suppositions would help explain the results of Scherag et al.'s (2004) study.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: It is commonly believed that children are better suited to learning a second language than are adults. However, general second-language research has failed to support the critical period hypothesis in its strong form (i.e., the claim that full language acquisition is impossible beyond a certain age).


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: According to Linda M. Espinosa, especially in the United States the number of children growing up with a home language that is not English but Spanish is constantly increasing. Therefore, these children have to learn the English language before kindergarten as a second language. It is better for young children to maintain both their home language and their second language. Cultivating their home language, children create their own cultural identity and become aware of their roots. This fact leads to the question whether having the ability to speak two languages helps or harms young children. Research shows that the acquisition of a second language in early childhood confers several advantages, especially a greater awareness of linguistic structures. Furthermore, it is advantageous for young children to grow up bilingually because they do not need to be taught systematically but learn languages intuitively. How fast a child can learn a language depends on several personal factors, such as interest and motivation, and their learning environment. Communication should be facilitated rather than forcing a child to learn a language with strict rules. Education in early childhood can lead to an effective educational achievement for children from various cultural environments.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Another aspect worth considering is that bilingual children are often doing code switching, which does not mean that the child is not able to separate the languages. The reason for code switching is the child's lack of vocabulary in a certain situation. The acquisition of a second language in early childhood broadens children's minds and enriches them more than it harms them. Thus they are not only able to speak two languages in spite of being very young but they also acquire knowledge about the different cultures and environments. It is possible for one language to dominate. This depends on how much time is spent on learning each language.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: In order to provide evidence for the evolutionary functionality of the critical period in language acquisition, generated a computer simulation of plausible conditions of evolving generations, based on three central assumptions:


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: According to Hurford's evolutionary model, language acquisition is an adaptation that has survival value for humans, and that knowing a language correlates positively with an individual's reproductive advantage. This finding is in line with views of other researchers such as Chomsky and . For example, Steven Pinker and Paul Bloom argue that because a language is a complex design that serves a specific function that cannot be replaced by any other existing capacity, the trait of language acquisition can be attributed to natural selection.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: However, while arguing that language itself is adaptive and "did not 'just happen'", Hurford suggests that the critical period is not an adaptation, but rather a constraint on language that emerged due to a lack of selection pressures that reinforce acquiring more than one language. In other words, Hurford explains the existence of a critical period with genetic drift, the idea that when there are no selection pressures on multiple alleles acting on the same trait, one of the alleles will gradually diminish through evolution. Because the simulation reveals no evolutionary advantage of acquiring more than one language, Hurford suggests that the critical period evolved simply as a result of a lack of selection pressure.


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: supported Hurford's model, yet pointed out that it was limited in the sense that it did not take into account the costs of learning a language. Therefore, they created their own algorithmic model, with the following assumptions:


title: Critical period hypothesis

text: Their model consists of a population with constant size, where language ability is a predictor of reproductive fitness. The learning mechanism in their model is based on linguistic theories of – the language acquisition device (LAD) and the notion of universal grammar. The results of their model show that the critical period for language acquisition is an "evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS)" (Komarova & Nowak, 2001, p. 1190). They suggest that this ESS is due to two competing selection pressures. First, if the period for learning is short, language does not develop as well, and thus decreases the evolutionary fitness of the individual. Alternatively, if the period for learning language is long, it becomes too costly to the extent that it reduces reproductive opportunity for the individual, and therefore limits reproductive fitness. Therefore, the critical period is an adaptive mechanism that keeps these pressures at equilibrium, and aims at optimal reproductive success for the individual.


title: Catalan Atlas

text: The Catalan Atlas (, ) is a medieval world map, or mappamundi, created in 1375 that has been described as the most important map of the Middle Ages in the Catalan language, and as "the zenith of medieval map-work".


title: Catalan Atlas

text: It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school, possibly by Cresques Abraham, a Jewish book illuminator who was described by a contemporary as a master of "mappae mundi" as well as of compasses. It was in the royal library of France by 1380, during the reign of King Charles V, and is still preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The Catalan Atlas originally consisted of six vellum leaves (each circa ) folded vertically, painted in various colours including gold and silver. They were later mounted on the front and back of five wooden panels, with the ends enclosed in a leather binding by Simon Vostre c.1515, restored most recently in 1991. Wear has split each leaf into two.


title: Catalan Atlas

text: The first two leaves contain texts in Catalan covering cosmography, astronomy, and astrology. These texts are accompanied by illustrations. The texts and illustration emphasise the Earth's spherical shape and the state of the known world. They also provide information to sailors on tides and how to tell time at night.


title: Catalan Atlas

text: The four remaining leaves make up the actual map, with Jerusalem located close to the centre; two depict the Orient; the remaining two show Europe, along with North and West Africa. The map is around in size. It shows illustrations of many cities—Christian cities with a cross, other cities with a dome—and with each city's political allegiance indicated by a flag. Wavy blue vertical lines are used to symbolise oceans. Place names of important ports are transcribed in red, while others are indicated in black. The illustrations and most of the text are oriented towards the edges of the map, suggesting it was intended to be used by laying it flat and walking around it.


title: Catalan Atlas

text: The oriental portion of the Catalan Atlas illustrates numerous religious references as well as a synthesis of medieval "mappae mundi" and the travel literature of the time, especially Marco Polo's "Book of Marvels" and Mandeville's "Travels and Voyage of Sir John Mandeville". Many Indian and Chinese cities can be identified. The explanatory texts report customs described by Polo and catalogue local economic resources, real or supposed.


title: Catalan Atlas

text: The Western portion is similar to contemporary portolan charts, but contains the first compass rose known to have been used on such a chart.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: Trinity School (also known as Trinity) is a highly selective independent, preparatory, co-educational day school for grades K–12 located in the Upper West Side neighborhood in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, United States, and a member of both the New York Interschool and the Ivy Preparatory School League. It is regarded as one of the most elite private high schools in the United States, sending over 40% of graduating students to the Ivy League and other top schools.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: Founded in 1709 in the old Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall Street, the school is the fifth oldest in the United States and the oldest continually operational school in New York City.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: It has a highly competitive admissions process. In 2011, "The New York Times" reported that the acceptance rate for Trinity's kindergarten was 2.4% and the high school's acceptance rate was comparable.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: Trinity School traces its founding to 1709, when founder William Huddleston opened the school to teach poor children in the parish of Trinity Church. Huddleston obtained books and funding for the school from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in London. The school’s first classes met in Trinity Church at the head of Wall Street; the first schoolhouse was built on church grounds in 1749. The building burned down two months later and had to be rebuilt. Columbia University, then King's College, was founded in that building's first floor. The first Trinity students, boys and girls, in addition to religious instruction, also learned to write plainly and legibly and were taught enough arithmetic to prepare them for employment. These eighteenth-century Trinity students were almost invariably apprenticed to trades such as blacksmith, bookbinder, carpenter, cordwainer, mason, mariner, shoe binder, and tailor.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: In 1789, Trinity's 56 boys and 30 girls were under the instruction of John Wood, clerk of St. Paul's Chapel at 29 John Street. Its tuition stood at seven dollars per quarter, in addition to a one guinea entrance fee. In 1838, Trinity closed admission to girls. Girls would not be readmitted until 1971. In 1889, Trinity School moved to 627 Madison Avenue (at 59th Street), and moved again a year later to 108 West 45th Street. In 1898, the trustees established the St. Agatha's School for Girls at 257 West 93rd Street as a sister school for Trinity. St. Agatha's eventually closed.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: During its first two hundred years, Trinity moved many times as the population of both Manhattan and the School grew. The establishment, in the nineteenth-century, of a public school system in New York meant that the role of the charity school had come to an end. English and classical learning became the rule as the school increased in size to as many as 250 students and as Trinity refashioned itself as a college preparatory school for boys. The curriculum was designed to meet the admissions standards of the leading colleges and universities of the time.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: In 1895, Trinity moved to its current location at 91st Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Trinity currently occupies seven connected buildings: 151 and 149 West 91st Street house the admissions, advancement, and business offices; 139 West 91st houses the Lower School; 121 West 91st Street houses the Lower School language labs, Middle School Science Labs, and the Morse Theater; 115 West 91st houses the Middle School and two gymnasia; and 101 West 91st houses the Upper School, the two swimming pools, and the John McEnroe '77 Tennis Courts (opened in 2012), and in 2017 the school opened a 65,000 square foot addition, adding new science labs, classrooms, and a new performing arts center.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: Shortly before the completion of the new upper school building in 1968, Trinity severed its Episcopal ties with Trinity Church, and is now non-sectarian, thus receiving no endowment from the Church. The school does, however, retain an Episcopal priest who is paid by Trinity Church. The priest delivers weekly chapel services at the school, as well as the annual baccalaureate service held at Trinity Church each May.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: Forbes Magazine named Trinity the country's best private school in 2010. In 2004, "The Wall Street Journal" ranked Trinity as third best at getting its students accepted to some of the country's most exclusive colleges.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: Under the leadership of John Allman, Trinity has tried to address some of the class and elitism issues that plague the school given the shift from its origins, and continues to build on their decade-long attempts to address diversity.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: The Lower and Middle School courseloads are highly structured, and ninth and tenth graders are offered limited flexibility in their courses. Juniors and seniors, however, are much freer to flexibly select electives and other such courses. English is the only subject mandated through four years in the Upper School. Math is mandated for three, and the lab sciences for two. There is a requirement for religion and Physical Education. Trinity is also notable for having a full Classics department, which is widely recognized as one of the strongest in the nation. Nearly 40% of the student body takes either Latin or Greek, while more than 60% take two languages.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: Trinity is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League and the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS)


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: The school competes in the New York State Association of Independent Schools Athletic Association (NYSAISAA). Championships in this league are used as qualifiers for overall state championships.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: Trinity School has musical groups ranging from instrumental music – jazz groups, orchestras, and chamber ensembles – to vocal music – choruses, both accompanied and a cappella. Musical performances figure in all three divisions with concerts, assemblies, and chapel performances during the school day and in the evening.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: The school also has dynamic dramatic art showings with performances ranging from plays to musicals, both as classes and as extra-curricular events.


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: A yearly Shakespeare play is student-directed by The Nicholas J.P. Kau '08 Shakespeare Appreciation Society


title: Trinity School (New York City)

text: Previous plays have included Julius Caesar (2017), Much Ado About Nothing (2018), Romeo & Juliet (2019), and A Midsummer Night's Dream (2020).


title: Run-flat tire

text: A run-flat tire/tyre is a pneumatic vehicle tire that is designed to resist the effects of deflation when punctured, and to allow the vehicle to continue to be driven at reduced speeds - under – and for limited distances – usually , depending on the type of tire.


title: Run-flat tire

text: The origins of the commercial "self-supporting" run-flat tire started in 1935 with a tire that had a fabric inner tire. The tire was advertised as a protection against blowouts, a common and dangerous occurrence in the 1930s.


title: Run-flat tire

text: In 1934, Michelin introduced a tire that was based on technology developed for local commuter trains and trolleys. It had a safety rim inside the tire which if punctured would run on a special foam lining. The tire was sold for military use and for specialized vehicles like bank armoured cars. It was advertised as "semi-bulletproof". While the tire performed as advertised it was far too expensive to be a feasible option for most private automobile users.


title: Run-flat tire

text: In 1958, Chrysler teamed with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company to offer Captive Air run-flat tires using an interlining to carry the weight.


title: Run-flat tire

text: In 1972 Dunlop launched the Total Mobility Tyre (later Denovo) "fail-safe" wheel and tire system that became optional equipment on the Rover P6 3500 in 1973, and by 1983 evolved into the TD/Denloc which became standard equipment across the whole Austin Metro range.


title: Run-flat tire

text: Most recently, Bridgestone and Pirelli run-flat tires are supplied on some new model BMW cars. The automaker promoted these as a safety feature and as an alternative to carrying a spare tire.


title: Run-flat tire

text: Pressure Zero Tire (PZT) was pioneered by American Engineering Group (AEG) for US Special Forces. AEG prototype dissipates heat and has the tire flexibility and strength to support the heavy military pick-up weight while providing a relatively smooth ride. The durability characteristics of this design were studied further on four different tire sizes for ATV Polaris, Toyota Hilux, and Toyota Land Cruiser & GMV 1.1. special operations vehicles.


title: Run-flat tire

text: Self-supporting run-flat tires are now common on light trucks and passenger cars and typically allows the vehicle to be driven for at around . However, if the tires are subject to this kind of misuse, wheels may become damaged in the process, and repair may be impossible or unsafe, especially if the tire is punctured in the sidewall or at the edge of the tread. These tires carry a 20% to 40% weight penalty over similar standard tires and the thicker sidewall also means higher rolling resistance, which reduces the vehicle's fuel economy. However, the weight penalty of the individual tire is usually more than compensated by the fact that the vehicle need no longer carry a spare, as well as the equipment needed to swap in the spare. The thicker sidewall however results in more road imperfections filtering through the tire to the rim and hence to the car, which results in a harsher ride.


title: Run-flat tire

text: These tires contain an extra lining within the tire that self-seals in the event of a small hole due to a nail or screw. In this way, the loss of air is prevented from the outset such that the tire is either permanently self-repairing or at least loses air very slowly.


title: Run-flat tire

text: There are also a number of retrofitted tire sealants which act in a similar way to self-sealing tires. These compounds are normally injected through the tire valve. The rotating force then distributes the compound onto the inner surface of the tire to act as a self-sealing lining within the tire.


title: Run-flat tire

text: In this system, there is an additional support ring or insert attached to the wheel that can support the weight of the vehicle in the event of a loss of pressure. The run-flat insert has an unsurpassed ability to carry heavy vehicle loads for long distances at high speeds. It is therefore the normal run-flat selection for military vehicles, high-level executive protection vehicles, and "armored" vehicles used by government, aid groups, or private contractors in conflict zones.


title: Run-flat tire

text: The basic benefit of using run-flat tires is continued mobility in case of a loss of air pressure, due either to a 'normal' puncture or to a hostile deliberate act including a bullet strike while the vehicle is traveling at high speed. Performance criteria are therefore in terms of distance and speed at which the vehicle can escape without becoming immobile and the steering control over the vehicle during this process.


title: Run-flat tire

text: The usual standard of performance, especially for military or security vehicles, are the Finabel standards.


title: Run-flat tire

text: Run-flat tires accounted for less than 1% of replacement tire sales in the U.S. in 2005. In 2006, it was expected that such tires would gain popularity with armored vehicle manufacturers, but growth figures were slow with one major model, the Michelin PAX System, no longer being developed by the manufacturer (though replacements will be produced for the foreseeable future). A Michelin study released in 2008 found that 3% of drivers worldwide want run-flat tires. U.S. market share is well below 1%. American Honda Motor Co. announced that the 2009 Honda Odyssey Touring and Acura RL were its last models available with run-flat tires and with Honda no longer using run-flats. This leaves only a handful of volume manufacturers offering them as standard fittings and only on some models. An exception is BMW, who are the largest fitter of run-flats as original equipment.


title: Run-flat tire

text: Former US President Barack Obama's presidential limo, "the Beast", had Goodyear Kevlar lined run-flat tires.


title: Run-flat tire

text: The cost can be more than double other tires of comparable size. Also, run-flat tires cannot be run flat if the flat is due to sidewall damage, a common cause of flats. Also, under the best circumstances, the speed and range that the run-flat tires can be run flat is very limited. Run-flat tires cannot be driven over 50 miles per hour and usually offer only up to 50 miles of extended mobility. These limitations lower the value of the extra expense for many buyers. In certain applications, depending on the vehicle, specific tire design, and driving surface, a run-flat tire can provide from 25 miles to 200 miles driving while flat with limited speed.


title: Run-flat tire

text: For Goodyear Tire, one effect on market share is the policy to prohibit the repair of tires punctured by nails or other road hazards; while Goodyear tires can be repaired, the manufacturer's warranty and liability is voided.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: "Black and Blue" is the fifth episode of the sixth season of "Better Call Saul", the spin-off television series of "Breaking Bad". Melissa Bernstein directed the episode written by Alison Tatlock. The episode aired on May 9, 2022, on AMC and AMC+. In several countries outside the United States and Canada, the episode premiered on Netflix the following day.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: In the episode, Howard Hamlin catches on to Jimmy McGill's constant attempts at sabotage and challenges him to a boxing match. Also, Jimmy reemploys his former receptionist Francesca Liddy to work at his new law offices. Meanwhile, Lalo Salamanca travels to Germany to speak with Werner Ziegler's widow Margarethe.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: "Black and Blue" was met with generally positive reviews from critics. Bernstein's direction, Tony Dalton's performance as Lalo, and the opening scene received praise. Several reviewers noted the series's patience and attention to detail to set up important plot points that would appear later in the season. An estimated 1.22 million viewers saw the episode during its first broadcast on AMC.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: A technician creates a Lucite block that encases a wooden slide rule. He engraves it ""In Liebe ...Deine Jungs"" (German for "With Love ...Your Boys"), applies a manufacturer's label with the name Voelker, and places the finished sculpture in a velvet-lined box.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: Kim Wexler continues to keep from Jimmy McGill the news that Lalo Salamanca might be alive. Jimmy continues to attract a large criminal law clientele and persuades Francesca Liddy to begin work as his administrative assistant. Kim meets with Viola Goto, her former paralegal, to apologize for abruptly leaving Schweikart & Cokely. Viola tells Kim how much she admires Kim's "pro bono" work. In reality, the meeting is a ploy Kim uses to obtain the name of the retired judge who will mediate the Sandpiper case.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: Howard Hamlin, Clifford Main, and Erin Brill persuade the Sandpiper clients not to settle. Afterward, Cliff confronts Howard over his supposed use of drugs and prostitutes. Howard realizes Jimmy is sabotaging him. He tricks Jimmy into meeting him at a boxing gym and challenges him to fight. Jimmy initially declines to enter the ring but changes his mind. Howard defeats him, then says he hopes this ends Jimmy's harassment. After he leaves the gym, Howard tells his private investigator to begin surveilling Jimmy. Jimmy later questions his judgment for accepting Howard's challenge but Kim reassures him their scheme to ruin Howard is proceeding as planned.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: Gus Fring's firm belief that Lalo is alive causes him sleeplessness and distractions at work. Mike Ehrmantraut and Gus visit the construction site of the planned meth lab, which Gus carefully inspects before hiding a handgun in the track of an excavator.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: In Germany under an alias, Lalo approaches Werner Ziegler's widow Margarethe at a bar. Margarethe believes that Werner died saving his crew from a cave-in and mentions that he referred to his crew as his "boys". Lalo and Margarethe go back to her house and part ways. The next morning, he breaks in after she leaves for work. He finds the "Your Boys" sculpture and makes note of the maker's label. Margarethe unexpectedly returns as Lalo escapes unseen.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: "Black and Blue" is the second episode of "Better Call Saul" directed by executive producer Melissa Bernstein after the fifth season's "JMM", which was also written by Alison Tatlock. The episode marks the first appearance of Tina Parker as Francesca Liddy in the sixth season. The production team created the opening scene showing the manufacture of the acrylic gift for Werner by examining a video tutorial of the real process and then developing shots that simulated it. The song that plays over the sequence is Johannes Brahms's "In Stiller Nacht", performed by Pink Martini and The von Trapps.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: Odenkirk and Fabian performed about 80 percent of the boxing sequence themselves. Production staff initially worked out the details with stunt coordinator Al Goto and fight coordinator Luis Moncada (who plays Marco Salamanca) knowing the limitations the actors would have. Odenkirk and Fabian were then trained on the appropriate moves for two to three weeks; Bernstein had been concerned that Odenkirk's training from his action film "Nobody" would impact his performance, but Odenkirk was able to hold back. The crew looked at a number of boxing rings, one of which was owned by Johnny Tapia, a former world champion boxer from Albuquerque, but those did not suit their needs. As a result, the sequence was shot on a boxing ring constructed under the supervision of production designer Denise Pizzini and set decorator Ashley Michelle Marsh. The boxing ring was placed in a studio instead of a gym because the crew wanted to give themselves the space to create overhead shots. The boxing sequence and the opening scene were shot simultaneously on nearby sets with different cameramen. The episode features the return of Lalo Salamanca, having arrived in Germany through unknown circumstances. The writers, wanting his arrival there to be believable, discussed showing him taking a boat or using a fake passport to get to Germany but they decided against it, instead choosing to not show the character for several episodes to leave his mode of transportation open for interpretation.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: The strip mall location of Jimmy's office had, since the end of "Breaking Bad", been leased by a few sports bars and a saloon, but by the time "Better Call Saul" had been ready to shoot there, the property had become vacant. The floor and the walls were covered up by the art department to hide everything underneath them. Scenes set outside of the location were shot ahead of time during the production of the fourth episode. The inclusion of the toilet in the vacant office was Vince Gilligan's idea, based on a thirty-year-old story where he and his friend were checking out an apartment in Richmond, Virginia. Inside, they noticed a toilet in the middle of the living room that had been used, which they thought was hilarious because the landlord refused to acknowledge its presence until they brought it up. The scene in Gus's garage where Mike exits from the trunk of a vehicle was a continuous shot executed by fastening a camera to the garage door. The shot was engineered by Bernstein and her husband, a camera operator. The scenes at Margarethe's home were filmed at an Albuquerque house with exteriors and interiors the production crew felt looked reasonably European, while Werner's office was created on set. A wide time-lapse shot in the episode, where Margarethe leaves her home to board a tram-train, took months to create. Everything in the shot, except for Margarethe's house and the people, were visual effects added in during post-production by Rodeo FX. The set of the unfinished laboratory's construction site was, according to Bernstein, an "extremely complicated set to put together". The scenes that take place on that set were filmed weeks after the rest of "Black and Blue" because the crew could not find enough stage space to put it together in time.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of six reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.3/10. "Rolling Stone"s Alan Sepinwall drew parallels between Howard and Gus, both men "being threatened by familiar opponents about whom they can do precious little at the moment". He gave positive notes to the show's creative team for waiting until "Black and Blue" to reintroduce Lalo. He noted the "prequel problem" of watching Lalo at work when viewers know of his absence in "Breaking Bad", though he mentioned how "Lalo appears to be in control right now". Sepinwall also praised Melissa Bernstein for her direction, writing that she "makes her presence felt". Steve Greene, in his review for "IndieWire", said Kim's meeting with Viola was her "doing what every character in 'Black and Blue' is being forced to do: confront their own worst tendencies head-on". He compared Lalo and Margarethe's scenes to "Before Sunrise", calling it the "biggest "Better Call Saul" curveball this week", and applauded Tony Dalton's performance as Lalo, writing, "Dalton doesn't have to drop the charm offensive for the audience to be reminded of his ruthlessness with each part of the truth he leaves out." Greene gave the episode an A– rating and said, "This show has been painting a painful endgame for a while. Watching all its players realize just how much it will cost them (and everyone else) continues to be one of the more gut-wrenching parts of it all."


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: "The A.V. Club"s Kimberly Potts delivered some criticism to the amount of exposition, comparing it to past episodes such as "Alpine Shepherd Boy", "Bali Ha'i", "Sabrosito", "Talk", and "Dedicado a Max", but said she nevertheless enjoyed the episode for allowing viewers to acknowledge where the characters are and where they might be by the end of the season. Scott Tobias, writing for "Vulture", said "Black and Blue" was "one of those episodes that's nearly all craft, a careful setting of the table for the payoffs to come". He complimented the cold open for having "a statement of purpose, a respect for the fine-hued details of the creative process and a conviction that viewers will have the patience to appreciate their rendering". Michael Hogan of "Vanity Fair" made note of the high levels of lore packed into the episode. He also described the boxing scene as "one of those semi-brilliant, semi-absurd set pieces that you can imagine a writer's room deciding to go ahead with because, hey, it's the last season and why the hell not?"


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: An estimated 1.22 million viewers watched "Black and Blue" during its first broadcast on AMC on May 9, 2022.


title: Black and Blue (Better Call Saul)

text: At the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, Thomas Golubić received a nomination for Outstanding Music Supervision for his work on "Black on Blue".


title: Epigraphy

text: Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the writing and the writers. Specifically excluded from epigraphy are the historical significance of an epigraph as a document and the artistic value of a literary composition. A person using the methods of epigraphy is called an "epigrapher" or "epigraphist". For example, the Behistun inscription is an official document of the Achaemenid Empire engraved on native rock at a location in Iran. Epigraphists are responsible for reconstructing, translating, and dating the trilingual inscription and finding any relevant circumstances. It is the work of historians, however, to determine and interpret the events recorded by the inscription as document. Often, epigraphy and history are competences practised by the same person. Epigraphy is a primary tool of archaeology when dealing with literate cultures. The US Library of Congress classifies epigraphy as one of the auxiliary sciences of history. Epigraphy also helps identify a forgery: epigraphic evidence formed part of the discussion concerning the James Ossuary.


title: Epigraphy

text: An epigraph (not to be confused with epigram) is any sort of text, from a single grapheme (such as marks on a pot that abbreviate the name of the merchant who shipped commodities in the pot) to a lengthy document (such as a treatise, a work of literature, or a hagiographic inscription). Epigraphy overlaps other competences such as numismatics or palaeography. When compared to books, most inscriptions are short. The media and the forms of the graphemes are diverse: engravings in stone or metal, scratches on rock, impressions in wax, embossing on cast metal, cameo or intaglio on precious stones, painting on ceramic or in fresco. Typically the material is durable, but the durability might be an accident of circumstance, such as the baking of a clay tablet in a conflagration.


title: Epigraphy

text: The character of the writing, the subject of epigraphy, is a matter quite separate from the nature of the text, which is studied in itself. Texts inscribed in stone are usually for public view and so they are essentially different from the written texts of each culture. Not all inscribed texts are public, however: in Mycenaean Greece the deciphered texts of "Linear B" were revealed to be largely used for economic and administrative record keeping. Informal inscribed texts are "graffiti" in its original sense.


title: Epigraphy

text: The study of ideographic inscriptions, that is inscriptions representing an idea or concept, may also be called ideography. The German equivalent "Sinnbildforschung" was a scientific discipline in the Third Reich, but was later dismissed as being highly ideological. Epigraphic research overlaps with the study of petroglyphs, which deals with specimens of pictographic, ideographic and logographic writing. The study of ancient handwriting, usually in ink, is a separate field, palaeography. Epigraphy also differs from iconography, as it confines itself to meaningful symbols containing messages, rather than dealing with images.


title: Epigraphy

text: The science of epigraphy has been developing steadily since the 16th century. Principles of epigraphy vary culture by culture, and the infant science in European hands concentrated on Latin inscriptions at first. Individual contributions have been made by epigraphers such as Georg Fabricius (1516–1571); Stefano Antonio Morcelli (1737–1822); Luigi Gaetano Marini (1742–1815); August Wilhelm Zumpt (1815–1877); Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903); Emil Hübner (1834–1901); Franz Cumont (1868–1947); Louis Robert (1904–1985).


title: Epigraphy

text: The , begun by Mommsen and other scholars, has been published in Berlin since 1863, with wartime interruptions. It is the largest and most extensive collection of Latin inscriptions. New fascicles are still produced as the recovery of inscriptions continues. The is arranged geographically: all inscriptions from Rome are contained in volume 6. This volume has the greatest number of inscriptions; volume 6, part 8, fascicle 3 was just recently published (2000). Specialists depend on such on-going series of volumes in which newly discovered inscriptions are published, often in Latin, not unlike the biologists' "Zoological Record" – the raw material of history.


title: Epigraphy

text: Greek epigraphy has unfolded in the hands of a different team, with different corpora. There are two. The first is of which four volumes came out, again at Berlin, 1825–1877. This marked a first attempt at a comprehensive publication of Greek inscriptions copied from all over the Greek-speaking world. Only advanced students still consult it, for better editions of the texts have superseded it. The second, modern corpus is arranged geographically under categories: decrees, catalogues, honorary titles, funeral inscriptions, various, all presented in Latin, to preserve the international neutrality of the field of classics.


title: Epigraphy

text: Other such series include the (Etruscan inscriptions), (Crusaders' inscriptions), (Celtic inscriptions), (Iranian inscriptions), "Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia" and "Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period" (Sumerian and Akkadian inscriptions) and so forth.


title: Epigraphy

text: Egyptian hieroglyphs were solved using the Rosetta Stone, which was a multilingual stele in Classical Greek, Demotic Egyptian and Classical Egyptian hieroglyphs. The work was done by the French scholar, Jean-François Champollion, and the British scientist Thomas Young.


title: Epigraphy

text: The interpretation of Maya hieroglyphs was lost as a result of the Spanish Conquest of Central America. However, recent work by Maya epigraphers and linguists has yielded a considerable amount of information on this complex writing system.


title: Epigraphy

text: Inscriptions were commonly incised on stone, marble, metal, terracotta, or wood (though this last material has hardly ever survived, except in Egypt). In Egypt and Mesopotamia hard stones were frequently used for the purpose, and the inscriptions are therefore well preserved and easy to read. In Greece the favourite material, especially in Athens, was white marble, which takes an admirably clear lettering, but is liable to weathering of the surface if exposed, and to wear if rebuilt into pavements or similar structures. Many other kinds of stone, both hard and soft, were often used, especially crystalline limestones, which do not easily take a smooth surface, and which, therefore, are often difficult to decipher, owing to accidental marks or roughness of the material.


title: Epigraphy

text: The metal most commonly used for inscriptions was bronze: flat tablets of this were often made for affixing to the walls of temples and other buildings. Occasionally such tablets were made of silver or gold; and inscriptions were often incised on vessels made of any of these metals. Inscriptions on metal were nearly always incised, not cast. An important class of inscriptions are the legends on coins; these were struck from the die. (cf. numismatics.) Clay was very extensively used for inscriptions in Mesopotamia and in Crete. In this case the symbols were incised or impressed on specially prepared tablets when the clay was soft, and it was subsequently hardened by fire. In Greece, many inscriptions on vases were painted before firing, in that case often having reference to the scenes represented, or incised after firing; potsherds ("ostraka") were often used as a cheap writing material. Inscriptions were also often impressed from a mould upon wet clay before firing, in the case of tiles, amphora handles, etc., and in these cases often supply valuable information as to the buildings to which they belong or the place from which they took their origin.


title: Epigraphy

text: The "tools" used for making inscriptions varied with the material; most of them were some kind of chisel, usually with a square blade; early inscriptions were sometimes made on hard rock by successive blows with a punch or pointed hammer. Sometimes a circular punch was used for O or a letter of which "O" formed a part.


title: Epigraphy

text: Early inscriptions, which are often amateur work, are frequently very irregular in their cutting. But in almost all examples of later work, the inscriptions are evidently cut by professionals, and there are definite styles and methods belonging to various places and periods. In Egypt, for instance, the hieroglyphs are carefully and delicately cut in early times, and in later periods become more careless and conventional. In Greece, the best work was done in the 5th and 4th centuries BC in Athens; the letters were all exact and regular in shape, with no adventitious ornaments, and were, especially in the 5th century, usually exactly aligned with the letters above and below, as well as those on each side. At that time all the strokes were made of equal thickness, but in the 4th century BC and later there came in the custom of holding the chisel obliquely to the surface, thus producing a wedge-shaped stroke. A similar custom in Mesopotamia gave rise to the so-called "cuneiform" system. On metal inscriptions in Greece this same effect appears earlier than stone or marble. In the 3rd century and later it becomes common to introduce "apices" or ornamental ends to the strokes, a custom which prevails to the present day in our ordinary capital letters. The custom of making different strokes and different parts of curves of varying thickness became common in Roman inscriptions, which developed a monumental style of their own, varying from period to period. Inscriptions can often be approximately dated by the style of the cutting as well as by the shapes of the letters; skill in doing this can only be acquired by a careful and minute study of originals and facsimiles. (cf. dating methodologies in archaeology.)


title: Epigraphy

text: Inscriptions vary greatly in size according to the position where they were intended to be read, their purpose, and the skill of the cutter. Some inscriptions are of great length, the longest, a statement of accounts of the temple at Delos, under Athenian administration, being nearly half as long as a book of Thucydides; and many other inscriptions approach this in length.


title: Epigraphy

text: Most of the forms of writing known to us originated in some system of picture-writing (cf. also pictography, which developed into a hieroglyphic system. Such systems appear to have originated independently in different parts of the world – in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete, among the Hittites and in China and America. The evidence for all of these is mainly to be found in inscriptions. The development from Ideographs (or direct representation of an object or idea) to symbols of phonetic value, and so to syllabaries or alphabets, took place in many different systems to various degrees. But the first people to invent a completely alphabetic system of writing were the Phoenicians, from whom the Greeks borrowed (some scholars believe, but with no proving) it with certain modifications and improvements. From the Greeks was derived the Latin, and from the two all the alphabets of European peoples. It is still a matter of dispute whether the Phoenician was derived from the Egyptian.


title: Epigraphy

text: The hieroglyphic symbols naturally tended to be conventionalised and simplified for convenience of cutting, in accordance with the materials and tools employed. In many cases they developed from a pictorial to a linear form. It is possible that some of these linear forms may not be derived from hieroglyphs, but from purely conventional geometrical forms, such as widely used at all periods and places as owners' or masons' marks. The tendency of linear forms to become wedge-shaped is most conspicuous in cuneiform, but as has been noticed, the same tendency occurs in Greek inscriptions incised on bronze.


title: Epigraphy

text: In the north of Europe the Ogham inscriptions are alphabetic, and are apparently an independent invention on arbitrary lines, like the Morse code; but Runes, which were extensively used in the same region, are derived from the Greek or the Latin alphabets.


title: Epigraphy

text: In most alphabetic systems there are also found in inscriptions certain symbols which are not strictly alphabetic or phonetic in character. The commonest of these are the various systems of numerals that are used in different times and places. It is impossible here to give any full description of these different systems; but a brief account may be given of the principles underlying them. Most of them are based upon a decimal system, doubtless owing to the habit of counting on the fingers. In some cases the symbols are simple and obvious, as in the Cretan script, where circles (or "rhombi"), dots and lines are used for hundreds, tens and units, each being repeated as often as necessary; and a similar system for the lower denominations is used at Epidaurus in the 4th century BC. In Athens the usual system was to indicate each denomination by its initial, M for (10,000), X for (1,000), H for (100), Δ for (10), π for (5) and I for units. The other Greek system followed that derived from the Phoenicians, using the letters of the alphabet in their conventional order from one to nine, 10 to 90 and 100 to 900; in this arrangement obsolete letters were retained in their original places so as to give the requisite number of 27 symbols. The Roman system of numerals – M, D, C, L, X, V, I (for 1,000, 500, 100, 50, 10, 5 and 1) is generally supposed to have arisen from the adaptation of those symbols in the Greek alphabet which the Romans did not want; an alternative theory is that it is simplified from a series of ideographs representing the spread hand, the fingers and so on.


title: Epigraphy

text: Apart from numerals, the use of initials in the place of complete words was not common in early times. It became, however, very frequent in Roman inscriptions, which sometimes are made up almost entirely of such abbreviations and can only be understood by those familiar with the formulae. A list of the commonest of these will be found under list of classical abbreviations. Compendia or monograms also occur in later Greek and Roman times, and become very common and very difficult to interpret in early Christian and Byzantine inscriptions.


title: Epigraphy

text: Some kind of punctuation is often found in inscriptions of all kinds. In Greek inscriptions a vertical line or a dot, or dots, sometimes indicates the separation between sentences or words, but words are seldom separated by spaces as in modern printing, so that the text is continuous and no division of words exists. This is particularly the case with Greek inscriptions of the best period. In Roman inscriptions it was usual to separate the words by dots. In certain inscriptions a cross () was used to indicate the beginning of an inscription, especially when its direction was erratic. Christian inscriptions sometimes begin with a cross, which doubtless had a symbolic meaning; and a leaf or other device was often placed at the end.


title: Epigraphy

text: The direction of the writing varies greatly in different places and times. The letters or symbols may be arranged vertically below one another, and read from top to bottom, or horizontally, either from right to left or from left to right; they may also be arranged in a kind of pattern – in which case their order may be indeterminate, or in a wandering or curved line, or left to right and right to left alternately ("boustrophedon", or as an ox in ploughing). Most Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, read from right to left; and the earliest Greek inscriptions follow the same direction. But the direction from left to right became regular in Greece after the 6th century BC, and consequently is adopted by the Romans and in all European systems. The individual letters or symbols usually face in the same direction as the writing, as a whole.


title: Epigraphy

text: The position or place of inscriptions depends greatly upon their purpose or intention. When they have a direct relation to the sculptures, reliefs or paintings with which they are associated, they often form a kind of pattern to fill the background or vacant spaces between the figures; but sometimes, especially in Mesopotamian statues or reliefs, they are cut right across the figures without any regard to the artistic effect. In late Greek or Roman work it is usual to cut any inscription relative to a statue or relief upon the basis on which this is mounted; but short inscriptions such as dedications or artists' signatures are often placed in some inconspicuous position upon the work itself. In the case of painted vases, the inscriptions relative to the subject represented are usually painted; but dedications and other inscriptions are often incised after the vase has been fired.


title: Epigraphy

text: In Egypt, inscriptions were often inscribed or painted upon inner walls of tombs, whether they referred to religious belief or ritual, or to the honours and possessions of the deceased; they were intended for his benefit and convenience rather than for the information of others, so as to perpetuate his familiar surroundings, not to make him live in the memory of his successors. The information which we derive from such inscriptions is invaluable to us; but such was not the intention with which they were made. On the other hand, inscriptions which were intended to be seen by the public and to perpetuate a record of events, or to supply useful information, were usually placed in places of common resort, above all in temples and sacred precincts. Sometimes they were cut on convenient rock faces, sometimes upon the walls of temples or other buildings. Most frequently the slabs of marble ("stelae"), stone metal or other material upon which the inscriptions were incised were set up in convenient positions to be read, in any places of public resort. This was the method of publication of all laws, decrees and official notices, of treaties and contracts, of honours to officials or private citizens, of religious dedications and prescriptions of ritual. Inscribed tombstones were set up over graves, which were usually placed along the chief roads leading out of a town, the most familiar example being the sacred way from Athens to Eleusis. Inscriptions commemorative of victories or other great events were only in exceptional cases erected upon the spot; more often such memorials were set up in some great religious centre such as Delphi or Olympia. But boundary stones were necessarily placed on the line which they defined.


title: Epigraphy

text: The study of inscriptions supplies an important contribution to the history of many lands and peoples. In some cases, as in Egypt and Mesopotamia, it forms almost the only source of information in the absence of literary records; in others, as in Greece and Rome, it offers a most valuable supplement and comment to what is otherwise recorded.


title: Epigraphy

text: Both Egyptian and Mesopotamian inscriptions go back to an extremely early date; it is at present uncertain which is the earlier, but both show, before 3500 BC and possibly much earlier, a complete, organised system of writing which implies many centuries of development behind it. The Egyptian hieroglyphic system, as used in inscriptions, continued without any essential change of character until Roman times, though various systems of hieratic modification were used at different times. On the famous Rosetta Stone, in the British Museum, which first gave the clue to the interpretation of Egyptian writing, hieroglyphic, hieratic and Greek versions of the same decree are given side by side. Its date is 195 BC. The Mesopotamian linear symbols developed mainly for technical reasons, into a wedge-shaped or cuneiform system, which was adopted in modified forms and applied to different languages through some thousands of years, Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Persian, until it was superseded, after the conquests of Alexander, by Greek. An independent hieroglyphic system, which also developed into various linear scripts, existed in Crete during the Middle and Late Minoan periods, from about 3000, probably, to the fall of Knossos, about 1500 BC. The Hittite hieroglyphs correspond to the period of the Hittite empire in northern Syria and Asia Minor from about 2000 to 800 BC; from it, according to one theory, arose the Cypriot syllabary, which continued in use until the 4th century BC or later.


title: Epigraphy

text: The earliest Phoenician inscriptions known date from about the 10th century BC, and the alphabet remained in use down to the 3rd century BC. Some believe this was modified and adopted by the Greeks at an uncertain date; the earliest Greek inscriptions are generally dated in the 7th century BC.


title: Epigraphy

text: In early times each Greek State had its own alphabet; but in the year 403 BC (the archonship of Eucleides) the Ionian alphabet, which is the one used now for Greek capital letters, was officially adopted by Athens, and soon became universal in Greece. From the various Greek alphabets the different local Italian alphabets, including the Etruscan, were derived with various modifications. The Roman alphabet was among these, being based on the alphabet of Caere, a Chalcidian colony. There are a few very early Roman inscriptions; but they do not become common until the 3rd century BC; from that time the letters took much the same forms as they preserve to the present day.


title: Epigraphy

text: The custom of putting inscriptions in Greek and in Latin on buildings and other monuments continued through medieval times, and is still customary, classical forms being frequently imitated. The latest dated inscription in the "Greek Corpus" records the building of a bridge in Sicily in AD 1121. The series of Byzantine inscriptions continues practically without interruption to the present day; and Latin retains its use as a universal language in religious, public and private inscriptions.


title: Epigraphy

text: It is often possible to date an inscription approximately by the style of the lettering, or even by the alphabet used. Thus at Athens the Ionic alphabet was adopted in place of the early Attic alphabet in the archonship of Eucleides, 403 BC, according to a decree proposed by Archinus. But the change was already in process in private inscriptions, and even in official documents Ionic forms are sometimes found earlier. Inscriptions are dated in various ways, mostly by giving the name of a king, magistrate or priest. In the case of kings, they only give an approximate date, unless the year of his reign is given also. But in the case of most independent cities, the date is given by the name of an annual magistrate, and thus the year is precisely indicated. At Athens, the name used was that of the Eponymous Archon, and as an almost complete list of these has been drawn up from inscriptions and other sources, this means of dating is quite satisfactory. The custom of dating by Olympiads, which is familiar to us from later Greek and Roman writers, was rarely used in early Greece, except in connection with athletic victories. Many inscriptions are dated from various local eras, often based upon historical events, such as the foundation of a town or festival, the organisation of a province, or even a visit of an emperor. The number of these eras in later times, especially in Asia Minor, becomes very bewildering. In Attic decrees, and some others, it was also usual to give the day of the month.


title: Epigraphy

text: In Greek inscription of the Roman period the year of the emperor is defined by the number of his consulate, or other indications or titles, as in the corresponding Latin inscriptions. In later times, the dating is commonly by "Indiction"; but as this only gives the number of the year within the 15-year period, but leaves that period undefined, such dating is very inconvenient except for merely temporary use. In the Eastern Empire the date from the creation of the world (5509 BC) is sometimes given; but the date of the Christian era is hardly ever used.


title: Epigraphy

text: Inscriptions may be roughly divided into two main classes: those in which the inscription was subservient to the use or purpose of the object on which it was inscribed, or at any rate had a direct relation to that object – for example, the name of the owner or the record of dedication to a god – and those in which the inscription existed independently for its own sake, or for the sake of the information which it recorded, and the object on which it was inscribed was either made for the purpose, as a slab of marble or plate of bronze, or was made use of, as in the case of a convenient wall or the surface of a rock, or even a potsherd. The walls of buildings are often covered with such inscriptions, especially if they are in a conspicuous or convenient position, and so offer an obvious means of publicity.


title: Epigraphy

text: For us, accustomed as we are to a vast mass of books, newspapers and other printed or digital documents, it is difficult to realise the extensive use and great convenience assigned to inscriptions in ancient times. Not only were public announcements of all sorts, such as we should make known by advertisements or posters, thus placed before the public, but all kinds of records and enactments – codes of law and political decrees; regulations for all matters, civil and religious; accounts and contracts, public and private; treaties between states; records of public and private benefactions and dedications, and all matters of administration; honours to the living and to the memory of the dead. Many of these were intended to preserve for all time the records which they contained; but others must have been of only temporary interest. It seems, therefore, the more remarkable that they should have been incised on permanent material such as bronze, marble or stone – and incised in the first instance, with a care and perfection of technique which have led to their survival to the present day, so as to preserve for us invaluable evidence as to the life and institutions of the people who made them. Temporary and permanent value are therefore often combined in the same inscription. For instance, any Athenian citizen, visiting the Acropolis or the Agora, could satisfy themselves at first hand as to treaties or decrees of the people, public accounts or state income and expenditure. And at the same time these documents preserved for all time much history, both social and political.