text: The table below lists "political barometers" published by various polling organisations, which monitor the evolution of public opinion on the President of France, Prime Minister of France, as well as notable political personalities. IFOP-Fiducial publishes two polls each month: one on the popularity of the executive and the second on various political personalities, including Emmanuel Macron and the Prime Minister. Only the first is listed in the table below.


title: Opinion polling on the Emmanuel Macron presidency

text: Though the composition of panels of respondents of every pollster are determined by the quota method as defined by the Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE), differences in methodology between each political barometer result in significant different results between pollsters. These differences range from the sample size, method of collecting respondents (with Kantar Sofres using face-to-face interviews, IFOP using phone interviews and BVA recruiting its panel by phone) and significant differences in question wording. According to Frédéric Dabi, director of the IFOP, the difference between the two political barometers produced by his institute – one conducted for "Le Journal du Dimanche", the other for "Paris Match" and Sud Radio – is that the latter asks about the "action" of the executive, and is therefore a more "short-termist" political question, and as a result is significantly more volatile than the other survey.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: In mathematics, Monte Carlo integration is a technique for numerical integration using random numbers. It is a particular Monte Carlo method that numerically computes a definite integral. While other algorithms usually evaluate the integrand at a regular grid, Monte Carlo randomly chooses points at which the integrand is evaluated. This method is particularly useful for higher-dimensional integrals.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: There are different methods to perform a Monte Carlo integration, such as uniform sampling, stratified sampling, importance sampling, sequential Monte Carlo (also known as a particle filter), and mean-field particle methods.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: In numerical integration, methods such as the trapezoidal rule use a deterministic approach. Monte Carlo integration, on the other hand, employs a non-deterministic approach: each realization provides a different outcome. In Monte Carlo, the final outcome is an approximation of the correct value with respective error bars, and the correct value is likely to be within those error bars.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: The problem Monte Carlo integration addresses is the computation of a multidimensional definite integral


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: Given the estimation of "I" from "Q", the error bars of "Q" can be estimated by the sample variance using the unbiased estimate of the variance.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: is bounded, this variance decreases asymptotically to zero as 1/"N". The estimation of the error of "Q" is thus


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: This result does not depend on the number of dimensions of the integral, which is the promised advantage of Monte Carlo integration against most deterministic methods that depend exponentially on the dimension.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: It is important to notice that, unlike in deterministic methods, the estimate of the error is not a strict error bound; random sampling may not uncover all the important features of the integrand that can result in an underestimate of the error.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: While the naive Monte Carlo works for simple examples, an improvement over deterministic algorithms can only be accomplished with algorithms that use problem-specific sampling distributions.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: With an appropriate sample distribution it is possible to exploit the fact that almost all higher-dimensional integrands are very localized and only small subspace notably contributes to the integral.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: A large part of the Monte Carlo literature is dedicated in developing strategies to improve the error estimates. In particular, stratified sampling—dividing the region in sub-domains—and importance sampling—sampling from non-uniform distributions—are two examples of such techniques.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: Thus, a crude way of calculating the value of π with Monte Carlo integration is to pick "N" random numbers on Ω and compute


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: In the figure on the right, the relative error formula_15 is measured as a function of "N", confirming the formula_10.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: Recursive stratified sampling is a generalization of one-dimensional adaptive quadratures to multi-dimensional integrals. On each recursion step the integral and the error are estimated using a plain Monte Carlo algorithm. If the error estimate is larger than the required accuracy the integration volume is divided into sub-volumes and the procedure is recursively applied to sub-volumes.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: The ordinary 'dividing by two' strategy does not work for multi-dimensions as the number of sub-volumes grows far too quickly to keep track. Instead one estimates along which dimension a subdivision should bring the most dividends and only subdivides the volume along this dimension.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: The stratified sampling algorithm concentrates the sampling points in the regions where the variance of the function is largest thus reducing the grand variance and making the sampling more effective, as shown on the illustration.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: The MISER algorithm is based on recursive stratified sampling. This technique aims to reduce the overall integration error by concentrating integration points in the regions of highest variance.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: The idea of stratified sampling begins with the observation that for two disjoint regions "a" and "b" with Monte Carlo estimates of the integral formula_19 and formula_20 and variances formula_21 and formula_22, the variance Var("f") of the combined estimate


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: Hence the smallest error estimate is obtained by allocating sample points in proportion to the standard deviation of the function in each sub-region.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: The MISER algorithm proceeds by bisecting the integration region along one coordinate axis to give two sub-regions at each step. The direction is chosen by examining all "d" possible bisections and selecting the one which will minimize the combined variance of the two sub-regions. The variance in the sub-regions is estimated by sampling with a fraction of the total number of points available to the current step. The same procedure is then repeated recursively for each of the two half-spaces from the best bisection. The remaining sample points are allocated to the sub-regions using the formula for "N" and "N". This recursive allocation of integration points continues down to a user-specified depth where each sub-region is integrated using a plain Monte Carlo estimate. These individual values and their error estimates are then combined upwards to give an overall result and an estimate of its error.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: Importance sampling provides a very important tool to perform Monte-Carlo integration. The main result of importance sampling to this method is that the uniform sampling of formula_26 is a particular case of a more generic choice, on which the samples are drawn from any distribution formula_27. The idea is that formula_27 can be chosen to decrease the variance of the measurement "Q".


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: Consider the following example where one would like to numerically integrate a gaussian function, centered at 0, with σ = 1, from −1000 to 1000. Naturally, if the samples are drawn uniformly on the interval [−1000, 1000], only a very small part of them would be significant to the integral. This can be improved by choosing a different distribution from where the samples are chosen, for instance by sampling according to a gaussian distribution centered at 0, with σ = 1. Of course the "right" choice strongly depends on the integrand.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: Intuitively, this says that if we pick a particular sample twice as much as other samples, we weight it half as much as the other samples. This estimator is naturally valid for uniform sampling, the case where formula_27 is constant.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: The Metropolis–Hastings algorithm is one of the most used algorithms to generate formula_26 from formula_27, thus providing an efficient way of computing integrals.


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: The VEGAS algorithm approximates the exact distribution by making a number of passes over the integration region which creates the histogram of the function "f". Each histogram is used to define a sampling distribution for the next pass. Asymptotically this procedure converges to the desired distribution. In order to avoid the number of histogram bins growing like "K", the probability distribution is approximated by a separable function:


title: Monte Carlo integration

text: so that the number of bins required is only "Kd". This is equivalent to locating the peaks of the function from the projections of the integrand onto the coordinate axes. The efficiency of VEGAS depends on the validity of this assumption. It is most efficient when the peaks of the integrand are well-localized. If an integrand can be rewritten in a form which is approximately separable this will increase the efficiency of integration with VEGAS. VEGAS incorporates a number of additional features, and combines both stratified sampling and importance sampling.


title: Agdistis

text: Agdistis () is a deity of Greek, Roman, and Anatolian mythology who possesses both male and female sexual organs. They were closely associated with the Phrygian goddess Cybele.


title: Agdistis

text: Their androgyny was seen as a symbol of wild and uncontrollable nature. This trait was considered threatening by the gods and ultimately led to their destruction.


title: Agdistis

text: There are at least two origin stories for Agdistis. According to Pausanias, Zeus unknowingly fathered Agdistis, a superhuman being who was both man and woman, with Gaia. In other versions, there was a rock called Agdo, which Gaia slept upon. Zeus impregnated Gaia there, and she later gave birth to Agdistis.


title: Agdistis

text: The gods were afraid of the androgynous Agdistis. Depending on the telling, one god, Dionysus or Liber, put a sleeping draught in Agdistis' drinking well. After Agdistis had fallen asleep, Dionysus tied their foot to their penis with a rope. When Agdistis awoke and stood up, they ripped their penis off, castrating themself. The blood from this incident fell to the earth, and an almond tree grew from where it landed.


title: Agdistis

text: Nana, daughter of a river-god Sangarius, was gathering fruit from this tree and stored some in her bosom, where they disappeared and made her pregnant with Attis. After giving birth to Attis, Nana abandoned him, and human foster parents took the infant in.


title: Agdistis

text: As an adult, Attis was of such extraordinary beauty that the now conventionally female Agdistis fell in love with him, despite being his blood father. However, his foster parents intended him to become the husband of the daughter of the king of Pessinus, and he accordingly went to the Pessinian royal court.


title: Agdistis

text: When the marriage song commenced, Agdistis appeared in their full glory, and all the wedding guests were instantly driven mad, causing both Attis and the king of Pessinus to castrate themselves and the bride to cut off her breasts. Agdistis then repented her deed and obtained from Zeus the promise that the body of Attis would not decompose.


title: Agdistis

text: This is the most popular account of an otherwise mysterious affair, and the interpretation of this myth is often debated, especially how it relates to ancient gender changes and sexuality. Some tellers add geographic details: Pausanias mentions a hill in Phrygia named "Agdistis", at the foot of which Attis was reportedly buried.


title: Agdistis

text: Although primarily an Anatolian deity, the cult of Agdistis covered a wide geographical area from Egypt to Crimea.


title: Agdistis

text: Their cult was found in the mid-Aegean islands and the mainland Greek city of Piraeus as early as the 3rd-4th century BC. From there, it spread to Attica and Rhamnous, where a sanctuary to Agdistis was built. It reached Egypt by 250 BC. Inscriptions honoring them have been found on Crete at Paros and in the mainland and coastal Anatolia. Evidence of the cult has been found in Sardis, where inscriptions found as early as the 4th century BC indicate that priests of Zeus were not permitted to take part in the mysteries of Agdistis, and inscriptions honoring the deity at Mithymna. In the 1st century BC, their shrine in Philadelphia, Anatolia, required a strict code of behavior. At that location – and others – they are found with sister deities ("").


title: Agdistis

text: Additionally, Agdistis' cult was found in far-off Panticapeum, on the eastern shore of Crimea, and in Lesbos, after 80 BC.


title: Agdistis

text: There is epigraphic evidence that in some places Agdistis was considered a healing deity of a wholly benevolent nature.


title: Agdistis

text: In an attempt to understand the contradictory representations and syncretism of the Anatolian mother goddesses, scholars have hypothesized that Agdistis is part of a continuum of androgynous Anatolian deities, including an ancient Phrygian deity probably named "Andistis" and one called "Adamma", stretching back to the ancient kingdom of Kizzuwatna in the 2nd millennium BC.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: Marvel Zombies is a comic book metaseries published by Marvel Comics. The series features zombie versions of Marvel Universe superheroes and supervillains who have been portrayed as both protagonists and antagonists through the different limited series within the metaseries.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The series of titles begins with two "Ultimate Fantastic Four" story arcs, "Crossover" (2005) and "Frightful" (2006), by Mark Millar and Greg Land. The story arcs were followed by a "Marvel Zombies" limited series by Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips, who also created the prequel "" and sequel "Marvel Zombies 2".


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: A crossover with "Army of Darkness", "Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness", was written by John Layman with art by Fabiano Neves, Fernando Blanco and Sean Phillips.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: With "Marvel Zombies 3", Kirkman and Phillips were replaced by Fred Van Lente and Kev Walker. The team continued on to "Marvel Zombies 4", a four-issue mini-series starting in April 2009. Van Lente then stayed on to write the first and last issues of "Marvel Zombies Return", a series of five one-shots looking at different aspects of the outbreak. With "Marvel Zombies 5" he teamed up with Kano, with the story picking up from the end of Marvel Zombies 4.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: A new series was launched in 2011, "Marvel Zombies Supreme" takes the zombie infection to Earth-712, the universe of Squadron Supreme. It has a new creative team of Frank Marraffino and penciller Fernando Blanco. This was followed by "Marvel Zombies Destroy!" set in a dimension where Nazi zombies won the war. It was initially written by Frank Marraffino, with art by Mirco Pierfederici, but Marraffino's health issue meant he had to hand over the writing reins to Peter David with issue #3.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The ultimate origin of the infection is unknown. Although a paradoxical loop is responsible for its existence in the universes seen in Marvel Zombies and Marvel Zombies Return, several universes are shown to have their own isolated outbreaks that have not reached the catastrophic levels seen in other series. As seen in Marvel Zombies 5, some of these universes have unique variations different from the established virus. Any connection between the common version seen in the first four series and "Marvel Zombies Return" and the isolated, alternate versions seen in "Marvel Zombies 5" is unknown. In Marvel Zombies Supreme, the zombified Squadron Supreme is created when scientists graft the original team's DNA to human corpses and zaps them with space radiation. These zombies appear to be infected with a disease identical to the one seen in "Marvel Zombies", its three sequels, and "Marvel Zombies Return", though what this suggests about the origin of the virus seen in those series (if anything) is unknown.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: Regardless, the most frequent version is the virus seen in the first several "Marvel Zombies" series. The contagion passes via a bite from an infected being. The infected appears to be dead, or at least decaying, but retains their intelligence, personality, and special abilities, sans healing factors; of note, the virus was initially contained in North America, but was able to be spread over the world when Quicksilver was infected. With his abilities retained, he raced the world and spread the infection to foreign heroes such as Captain Britain, Red Guardian, Silver Samurai and Ka-Zar. The disease causes a powerful hunger in the host, a hunger which can only be sated by ingesting the flesh of the living; the flesh of other infected tastes foul to them and causes them to be ill. The hunger affects the infected's self-control; the more hungry they are, the less rational and intelligent they become. Once sated, the zombies' personalities re-emerge, and the more humane and moral individuals (such as Spider-Man) often feel great guilt at this point, though others (such as Hank Pym or Reed Richards) seem to embrace the infection, and seek to spread the infection to other universes.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The disease seems to be almost 100% infectious, with even Wolverine, the Hulk and Deadpool, individuals normally highly resistant or immune to most diseases, being affected. However, as noted by Spider-Man, those with any kind of accelerated healing appear to be able to fend off the zombification longer after being bit than others, though it does eventually overcome them. The disease is also shown to convert the high gods of Asgard and Olympus, as well as bearers of the Phoenix Force, as members of several of Earth's ancient pantheons, such as Thor, Hercules and Amora, along with Jean Grey, are shown among the packs of zombies in various series. Perhaps the only immunity goes to voodoo-crafted zombies, such as Simon Garth, and non-organic mechanical beings, such as Jocasta, Ultron and Machine Man who apparently cannot be affected by the zombie virus, certain mystical changes in physiology (such as in the case of Jack Russell, from his human to werewolf form), while unable to purge the infection, are able to keep it and its effects at bay for some time, and Uatu and the Watchers, due to their having exchanged corporeal bodies for forms of pure energy long ago, are incapable of being consumed by the infected, and are immune to the virus. The Aquarian, empowered by the energies of the Cosmic Cube, is able to, through intense hibernative meditation within an energy cocoon, eventually purge the infection from his system, and the Man-Thing, allegedly due to his intimate connection with Gaea, evidently cannot be permanently harmed by the zombie virus. The only other individual who has avoided infection is Iron Fist who appears to be able to purge the infection via his healing abilities, despite being bitten twice.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: While the skills of Doctor Druid and apparently Doctor Strange (the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth's dimension and who was sought by the former for help after contracting the virus), and even the dark magic of the "Necronomicon" itself cannot seem to directly cure the virus, at least some forms of highly potent extradimensional magic, such as that employed by the Faltine Dormammu through the mystic Jennifer Kale, is even able to at least temporarily take control of the plague and its consciousness. Kale's Atlantean magery, combined with the "voodoo" spells of the Black Talon, is able to draw and contain the virus-mind within a single suitable host, such as Simon Garth. The zombified Hank Pym, when the Marvel Zombies are confronted by Death and Thanos (secretly Skrulls in disguise), expresses the view that the power of the Cosmic Cube could undo everything that has thus far occurred. In "Marvel Zombies 5", Morbius of the core Marvel Universe finally manages to produce a cure by combining samples of different versions from several realities, having earlier produced a vaccine that could possibly infect its users as well, as shown in the case of the Werewolf. Reed Richards of the Ultimate Marvel Universe was able to easily overpower and cripple the zombified Fantastic Four of Earth-2149 using magic he learned from Doctor Doom's Atlantean spellbooks. Furthermore, Mephisto has proven capable of easily destroying the zombies using his demonic hellfire.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The disease is incredibly difficult to stop once spreading, due to the high survival rate of all zombies. Zombies seem to only need their brain stem to survive and can continue living without any use of their organs, limbs, and body functions. The infection even allows severed heads without lungs or vocal cords to continue speech just to further its infection capability. This was witnessed by Wasp and Hawkeye in the original "Marvel Zombies", they were both simply severed heads that somehow still could function, and another example would be Colonel America, who survived for over 40 years as a brain on the ground until being put inside the body of Black Panther's dead son.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The contagion has an addiction element to it; if a victim can be isolated from a food supply, within a couple of weeks the cravings disappear and the subject is able to perform a functional role within society, albeit with necrotized flesh and near-immortality. Any additional ingestion of flesh will restore the hunger, though it can again be overcome. Another interesting note about the addiction is that, even while lacking a digestive system or even most of their lower body, the infected still have hunger pangs and wish to continue feeding.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: In the story arc "Crossover" (issues #21–23), Reed Richards receives contact from an older version of himself from an alternate dimension. After crossing over, Reed discovers he's been tricked and that it is an alternate Earth where all the superheroes turned into zombies looking to use the Ultimate Marvel Universe as a food source. The zombified Fantastic Four of this reality, after failing to capture him, cross over to Earth-1610 through a dimensional portal but are captured. With help from Magneto, Reed escapes the zombie universe and prevents more zombies from entering the Ultimate universe.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: In "Frightful" (issues #30–32), the zombified Fantastic Four of Earth-2149 attempt to break free from their confinement. Johnny Storm is infected with a demon from the N-Zone, and Reed Richards performs a mind-swap with Doctor Doom. After the zombies break free, Reed, in Dr. Doom's body, becomes the demon's new host and defeats the zombies. Dr. Doom undoes the mind-swap and goes through the portal, destroying it and trapping himself in the zombie universe.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: After zombie superheroes eat the human race to extinction, Galactus prepares to eat the Earth. Colonel America, Giant Man, Wolverine, the Hulk, Iron Man, Luke Cage and Spider-Man defeat and devour the Silver Surfer, and then attack Galactus. Infused with the Power Cosmic, Giant Man, Wolverine, the Hulk, Iron Man, Luke Cage, and Spider-Man travel the universe as the "Zombie Galacti" to search for more sources of food.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: In this crossover, Ash Williams from "Evil Dead" arrives accidentally in the world of "Marvel Zombies". Continuing Ash's own storyline from "Army of Darkness" ("The Death of Ash" (vol. 1) #12–13), this series also serves as a prequel and an origin story of the Marvel Zombies.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: In this continuation from "Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness", the zombie infection spreads throughout the world, while uninfected superheroes inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier try to concoct a plan to save the human race; unfortunately, many of them were overwhelmed and infected, while the survivors flee back to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: After devouring all life in the universe over the course of 40 years, the Zombie Heroes return to Earth to find a way to access other dimensions for food. On Earth, they face off against New Wakanda, a colony of humans who survived the zombie onslaught. Near the end of the book, the zombie Hulk kills many zombies and he, too, is killed. The last remaining zombies are teleported to a new world at the end.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: After zombies invade the Marvel Universe, Machine Man and Jocasta go to the "Marvel Zombies" universe to retrieve a blood sample from an uninfected human. Unbeknownst to them, a zombie Morbius plans to use the blood to infect the Marvel Universe.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The Midnight Sons, under the command of A.R.M.O.R., hunt zombies who have escaped to different universes. Meanwhile, Dormammu commands the Hood to capture the virus for his own ends of zombie life.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The storyline follows from "Marvel Zombies 2" when Zombie Spider-Man, Giant-Man and Wolverine (the Earth-2149 version of Wolverine is killed in the 3rd issue) were teleported to a different universe similar to Earth-616 called Earth-91126/Earth-Z, and deals with the ramifications of their arrival on a new Earth and the characters' resurgent hunger, which once again drives them to obtain cross-universal teleporters.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: Each issue stars its title characters, though not necessarily the zombified versions of Earth-2149, as seen in the case of Iron Man and Hulk, whose respective issues feature uninfected versions battling zombies. The series sees different takes on key events in the classic 616 drastically altered by the zombies including the formation of the Sinister Six, "Demon in a Bottle", the "Kitty Pryde and Wolverine" miniseries and "World War Hulk" before a final issue which sees two groups of Zombie Avengers from the two realities battling, one group led by Spider-Man which wants to stop their hunger and destroy the zombie plague, and a second led by the Sentry who wants to unleash the plague on all realities.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The series culminates in the Watcher of the new universe (who had seemingly been eaten by Giant Man in the first issue, but a Watcher cannot be killed or infected in that manner) sending the infected Sentry of his reality (who had been infected by a zombified Bruce Banner in their battle during "World War Hulk") back in time to the moment when the Sentry first appeared and spread the infection on Earth-2149, essentially 'containing' the zombie virus in those two universes in an elaborate time loop, Uatu recognizing that since the virus's "hunger" will never be sated, let it then devour itself.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: This one-shot is a crossover between the Zombies and the Marvel Apes. It resolves some of the remaining questions over the origin of the zombie plague and is set between "Dead Days" and "Crossover". The story starts in the Zombieverse shortly after "Dead Days". Zombie Giant-Man and Wasp discover the Ape-verse (as seen in the previous "Apes" specials) and take a trip there to devour its populace. In the story, it is discovered that the Prime Eight scared them back to their dimension.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The Ape-vengers are now leading a pre-emptive strike into the Zombieverse to get the zombies before they get the Apes. There are heavy casualties on both sides. Zombie Reed Richards is beheaded, but still mobile. He teams up with the Gibbon, Gorilla Girl, Ape-X, Speedball, Spider-Monkey, and the rest of the characters to alter history so that the Ape and Zombie universes never meet.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The team is successful. History is changed so that the Apes never found Speedball back in the "Speedball Special", so the zombies never discover either universe. However, Gorilla Girl had to sacrifice herself to change history, so she ceases to exist.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: It is also implied that a dimensional portal Reed Richards had earlier been testing had something to do with bringing the Zombie Sentry to his Earth, though this is not made clear how this fits in with the rest of the Marvel Zombies series.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: In this direct sequel to "Marvel Zombies 4", forecasters for A.R.M.O.R. discover that several alternate realities afflicted with a variation of zombification will temporarily merge during a cross-temporal "planetstorm". Morbius charges fellow A.R.M.O.R. agents, Machine Man and Howard the Duck with retrieving different samples of zombies from each reality so that he can find a cure for his infected friend, Jack Russell. Different classes of zombies are identified, informally named after the directors of movies in which their type appeared (e.g. "Romeros" and "Boyles"). "Amazing Spider-Man" #622 acts as a prequel to this series.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: Responding to a mysterious emergency call, Jill Harper and her super-crisis special-ops unit descend deep into the bowels of a top-secret underground research facility. They discover that the demented experiments of an unhinged geneticist have placed them at ground zero of a brand-new virulent zombie strain—one that has infected powerful superheroes. The Squadron Supreme, once heroic defenders of justice and utopian ideals, have been reduced to corpulent cannibalistic murderers with a voracious appetite for human flesh. Harper and her team fight against overwhelming odds to stop this ravenous zombie menace where it began—before it spreads out to devour Earth.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: A.R.M.O.R. is called upon to rescue an alternate reality where the Nazis won WWII with zombies, and seek to use magic rituals to teleport themselves to every universe. Howard the Duck brings in Nazi-fighter extraordinaire Dum Dum Dugan and a squadron of fighters known as Ducky's Dozen.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: Marvel, as part of its "Secret Wars" multiverse crossover where pieces of the main Marvel universe, Ultimate universe, and several other alternate universes are melded into a Battleworld, offers two "Marvel Zombies" stories. The first one, simply called "Marvel Zombies", falling under the "Battleworld" banner, is about Elsa Bloodstone who is stationed on the Shield, burdened with the Sisyphean task of keeping the zombie hordes from rampaging through Battleworld. When she is not enraptured in battle, she meditates on her deceased father Ulysses Bloodstone and his tough lessons that made her what she is today. But it seems that one more final lesson is yet to be learned.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The second story is titled "Marvel Zombies vs. Age of Ultron". A story full of black humor, through the eyes of someone with limited technological knowledge, who must find the limits of his skills and humanity to defeat an army in which Ultron's robots who want to destroy life to create a perfect world, and teamed up with the Marvel Zombies who are the antithesis of life and perfection.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: "Marvel Zombies" received a franchise reboot in October 2018 with the freshly titled "Marvel Zombie". The story takes place years after an incurable zombie virus ravaged the world, when a small colony of survivors is protected by the Marvel Universe's few remaining heroes, including Spider-Man, Daredevil and the Falcon. But when their last chance at salvation arrives, will they be willing to sacrifice their own humanity in the process?


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: Originally titled "Marvel Zombies: Respawn", the series gets another reboot in October 2019, when Galactus’ corpse appears at the edge of Earth’s solar system, the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four investigate. Too late, they discover that Galactus’ body is now the vessel of an interstellar terror, which one-by-one transforms Earth’s Mightiest Heroes into the universe’s most terrifying predators. As our heroes try to escape the superpowered, cannibalistic aberrations that were once their friends and family, will any survive? And even if they do, can they hope to protect Earth from the infestation that has already claimed half of the known universe?


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: After the initial attack, the series jumps to a point a few years later, where Peter Parker, Karla Sofen, Forge, Franklin and Valeria Richards are travelling with a reprogrammed Sentinel, as possibly the last superhuman survivors. As they desperately fight for survival, they meet other living survivors, including Blade, and eventually retreat to Atlantis following a few additional clues. Once there, they find Logan, still alive but basically crippled after his healing factor has been pushed to the limit, after which they are confronted by Magik, who takes them to Limbo and reveals that the current 'plague' was caused when the Brood managed to infest Galactus, upgrading them to a new level of power.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: Set before the events of "The Army of Darkness" crossover, the two-part story "The Death of Ash" ends with Ash being killed, and finding himself in the Marvel Zombies Universe, where he is confronted by the undead superheroes.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The "From the Ashes" story arc begins with Ash having returned to his home dimension through unknown means, and proclaiming "Step one, no zombie superheroes. Off to a good start". The subsequent storyline "The Long Road Home" has a few of the heroes, such as Colonel America and Thor, appear silhouetted in a one-panel flashback as the narration states that Ash had gone on to "kick the ass of all types of undead marvels across the realities".


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: In "Black Panther" (vol. 4) #27 – 30, the Fantastic Four (Black Panther, Storm, the Human Torch and the Thing) are teleported by King Solomon's Frogs to the ""Marvel Zombies" universe" where they encounter the Marvel Zombies in their "Zombie Galacti" form on a Skrull planet. This is the first crossover of the "Zombie"- and Marvel's main universe. During their time in this world, T'Challa talks with his other self to learn what had happened on Earth, and the FF also encounter the alternate Lyja- the Torch's Skrull wife in his universe- who is part of a new attempt by the Skrulls to give members of their species the power of the Fantastic Four, this time divided across four Skrulls rather than recreating the Super-Skrull. Once the FF have returned to their world, T'Challa states that he has used the experience from talking with his other self to draw up plans to prevent such an infection ever happening on their world.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: A sequel to "Marvel Zombies 4", Deadpool teams up with his zombified head after discovering it in the Savage Land. Dodging HYDRA operatives, dinosaurs, cavemen and zombie cavemen, he attempts to return the head to the "Marvel Zombies" universe.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: A sequel to "Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth", Deadpool goes into different universes to find other Deadpools: Headpool, the zombie head of Deadpool; Kidpool, a kid version of Deadpool; Lady Deadpool, a lady version of Deadpool; and Dogpool, who is Deadpool as a dog...to form the Deadpool Corps.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: After "Deadpool Corps: Prelude", the Deadpool Corps travel around the universe, fighting off the Champion, "Borg"-like entities, and looking for the "broken blade", all while trying to defeat the evil awareness and saving the universe.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: Though not directly related to "Marvel Zombies", "Marvel Apes" was first suggested as a successor to "Marvel Zombies" by a fan during a convention Q&A session with Joe Quesada. All of the following one-shots are resolved with the aforementioned "Marvel Zombies: Evil Evolution".


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: At the end of the first issue, a glimpse of an unidentified zombie (probably Giant Man and Wasp) is seen, commenting that he would like to have a bite out of the protagonists, who warp to a different universe.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The issue ends with Red Ghost and the ape Speedball in the Ape Universe, running away from the recently appearing zombie versions of Giant Man, the Wasp, Iron Man, Wolverine, and others.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The issue ends with Ape X, the Gibbon, Jane Potter, Gorilla Girl, and the Red Ghost's apes in the Marvel Zombies universe, as zombie versions of Wolverine and Colonel America draw closer.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: Iron Mandrill and other heroes receive a vision of the Marvel Zombies. When the seven most powerful Apes gather and reluctantly have to work together with Dr. Doom and a futuristic Nick Furry 2099, they realize that the zombies have already arrived and one of the apes will be infected. The heroes are able to protect their universe from the infection, but unbeknownst to them, Iron Mandrill has been infected and is secretly consuming his dates and hiding behind his armor.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: Spider-Ham accidentally travels through the multiverse ending up in the "Marvel Zombies" universe where he becomes a zombie, often referred to as "Undead Ham". Undead Ham's last words are "Roink! Get out of my way, robot! I'm Hungry".


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: A zombiefied Wolverine, similar to the Marvel "Zombie Universe" version, appears in an "Exiles" comic book series alongside other Wolverines from different dimensions, but this zombie version of Wolverine is ultimately killed.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: Not directly tied into the "Marvel Zombies" series, this miniseries is an adaption of the classic story and focuses on Ebenezer Scrooge encountering the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come in a world overrun by the undead, due to the character's selfishness and greed.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: A one-shot telling the story of living in a zombie-devastated world, through the eyes of a survivor (eventually revealed to be a grown-up Katherine Pryde) and her son (also the child of Colossus), on Halloween. It is not clear whether this is meant to be Earth-2149 or another possible reality. Zombified versions of the New Warriors appear, along with Squirrel Girl.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: "Marvel Zombies: The Book of Angels, Demons, & Various Monstrosities" depicts the various "Marvel Zombies" characters, as part of the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" series.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The original manga is adapted into English, with a story less based on the "Marvel Zombies" continuity, and more on the cinematic universe. The Avengers have assembled to save the Earth from destruction. But they have never had to face a threat as gruesome and undead as this one. Now, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes must fight to contain an outbreak of horrifying zombies, and stop them from spreading across the Earth. But not all of the Avengers will escape uninfected.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: The Avengers face a threat even bigger and more menacing than they could have imagined as the stakes are raised in the race to cure the zombie outbreak. Caught in the midst of a city overrun by zombies, they come face-to-face with Jasper Scott, a mysterious scientist who claims to have a cure for the virus. But who is he really, and does he actually possess the antivirus? Marvel’s English-language adaptation of the original manga series concludes in "Vol. 2".


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: Most "Marvel Zombies" issues and trade paperbacks feature covers by Arthur Suydam recreating classic Marvel Comics covers with the characters replaced by zombie versions. The covers of "Marvel Zombies 3" by Greg Land feature recreations of posters of classic zombie films featuring zombified Marvel Comics characters. Starting with "Marvel Zombies 4" the covers were usually original designs, with some variants continuing the zombified spoof trend.


title: Marvel Zombies (series)

text: There is a range of supporting merchandise based on the characters. Diamond Select have produced Minimates based on the series, action figures and a number of mini busts.


title: Peter Porte

text: Peter Porte (born March 31, 1984) is an American actor, known for the soap opera "The Young and the Restless", the films "It's Not Porn..." and "Sutures", and the sitcom "Baby Daddy" playing Brad Walker, who is married to Bonnie Wheeler. He also played Josh on the hit Netflix comedy series "Uncoupled" opposite Neil Patrick Harris.


title: Peter Porte

text: Porte grew up in Greenwood Lake, New York and always wanted to be an actor. Porte first got into acting in the third grade when he appeared in a Christopher Columbus pageant. According to Porte, he only got the role because his mother, who is from Poland, made his costume out of "traditional Polish garb." Porte continued acting throughout high school and ultimately decided to become a professional actor. Porte graduated from George F. Baker High School in 2002. He earned a BFA in Acting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Porte then went onto study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.


title: Peter Porte

text: Though he always considered himself an actor, Porte started his career as a model. He's done shows in Milan and Paris.


title: Peter Porte

text: Toured with the Broadway National Touring Company of "Mamma Mia!", after which he made the move to Los Angeles. On stage, performing five seasons with the critically acclaimed For the Record company. Videos on the website Funny or Die.


title: Peter Porte

text: Lead and supporting roles in film and hit network television shows including: "Cold Case", "CSI: Miami," "Medium," "The New Normal" and "Parks and Recreation." In 2011, he joined the cast of "The Young and the Restless" as a series regular, playing the role of Ricky Williams. Following his run on the series, he had recurring roles in "Devious Maids" for the Lifetime Network and in "Baby Daddy" for FreeForm. He has also had roles in episodes of the NBC comedy "Telenovela," CBS "Mom" and "NCIS: LA," and Fox "New Girl."


title: Peter Porte

text: Porte starred in the indie thriller "The Good Nanny" and the made-for-television movie "A Cinderella Christmas" for ION Television, while recurring on the comedy web series "Living with Models," and starring in the world premiere of Eve Ensler's play "O.P.C." at the American Repertory Theatre.


title: Peter Porte

text: Porte starred as a surfer in the 2017 Hallmark movie, "Love at the Shore". He also starred in the 2018 film, "Love, Once and Always" and 2019 film "Rome in Love" for Hallmark.


title: Peter Porte

text: In 2020, he starred as one of the gay leads in the landmark production "Dashing in December", one of the first LGBTQ+ centered Christmas romance movies produced for mainstream television.


title: Pentiment (video game)

text: Pentiment is an adventure video game by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios. The game was released on November 15, 2022, for Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S platforms.


title: Pentiment (video game)

text: "Pentiment" is a narrative adventure role-playing video game set in Bavaria in the 16th century. The player, as the journeyman artist Andreas Maler, investigates the murder of a prominent person for which his friend has been accused. The story spans 25 years. The player is meant to accuse an individual based on either who they think did it or who most deserves punishment. Concurrent with the main murder plot are other crimes and conspiracies.


title: Pentiment (video game)

text: The game's art style is a mix of late medieval manuscripts, early print, and woodcuts at the transition from late medieval to early modern art. The music for the game was composed and performed by Alkemie Early Music Ensemble. As game director Josh Sawyer says, "[Alkemie is] a music group, they compose and record as an ensemble...the music they've contributed to the game is either strictly historical or historically inspired." Lingua Ignota also composed the song "Ein Traum" for the game.


title: Pentiment (video game)

text: The plot of Pentiment takes place in distinct acts, each act focusing on a different incident connecting the town's enduring mystery. In Act I, 1518, Andreas Maler is serving an apprenticeship as an illuminator at Kiersau Abbey, outside the small Upper Bavarian town of Tassing. One day in April, Baron Lorenz Rothvogel, a friend of the Prince-Bishop of Freising and longtime benefactor of Kiersau, pays a visit to check on the progress of a manuscript he commissioned. He openly expresses dissatisfaction with the style of the manuscript's illuminator, the elderly Brother Piero, and insists that Andreas complete the remaining illustrations. The next day, Rothvogel is found murdered in the abbey's chapter house. Concerned that the baron's murder could damage the abbey's reputation and lead to its dissolution, Abbot Gernot assumes Piero, who was the first to discover the body, committed the crime and has him detained until Jacob Estler, archdeacon to the prince-bishop, can conduct an inquiry. Andreas believes Piero is innocent, however, and begins an investigation of his own. With limited time before the archdeacon arrives, Andreas must gather as much information as possible about the murder. His investigations lead him to suspect several people of the crime based off of circumstantial evidence and motives. Deepening the mystery is the presence of notes, written in an extremely ornate hand, sent to all those who would want the Baron dead that seem to push them into committing the murder. Depending on what evidence the player presents, one of the suspects is executed in the town square, affecting the townspeople's attitude in later acts.


title: Pentiment (video game)

text: In Act II, Andreas has completed his masterpiece and has become a famous illuminator, and returns to pay his respects to the late Brother Piero, whom he saw as a friend and mentor, bringing his apprentice Caspar whom he treats as a surrogate son. He struggles with depression, having pursued his passion but finding the results lacking, as he is forced to paint vain commissions for nobles rather than focus on life's truths, as Piero advised, in addition to the death of his young son August from plague, which has strained his marriage. In town, a conflict is brewing between the abbey and the townspeople. The abbey, having lost many of its financiers and patrons after the death of the Baron, is heavily taxing the peasants in town to the brink of starvation. Otto, a charismatic firebrand, is rallying the town against Gernot, the abbot, who is inflexible in treatment of the peasants. Andreas steps in as a mediator, but after Otto is murdered in a staged accident, the father of the poorest household, Peter, becomes the new leader and demands violence against the abbey and its monks. Andreas has a limited amount of time to solve the case, as the lord's men are arriving within two days. Again, all of those with motivations against Otto have received cryptic letters in an ornate script encouraging the murder. As in Act I, there are several characters with possible motives to kill Otto, and all have equally valid yet inconclusive sets of evidence against them; it is up to the player, ultimately, to decide whom to convict, with the townspeople responding accordingly in the final act. Whoever is chosen is killed by the mob, and in the chaos, the library of the abbey is set on fire. Andreas rushes inside to save the books, and is assumed to be killed as the abbey burns down. The lord's soldiers, seeing the burning abbey, believe that the townspeople are revolting and subsequently kill many of the town's inhabitants.


title: Pentiment (video game)

text: In Act III, Magdalene, the daughter of the town printer and a friend of Andreas, becomes the playable character. It has been 18 years since the revolt and burning of the abbey and much has changed, although the scars on both the town and its people have not yet healed. Her father is attacked in the night and left bedridden with a near-fatal head wound; Magdalene, a talented artist, takes over the painting of a mural in the newly constructed Rathaus. She plans to make the mural about the history of the town, in three distinct parts of pagan, early Christian, and contemporary history. She interacts with many characters from previous parts in order to hear their recollections of Andreas's actions and of the events in general. During this, she is consistently threatened with the ornate letters, as well as stalked by a hooded figure as she investigates the history of the town. Depending on what the player discovers about Tassing's history, they may choose to paint one of several scenes on each part of the mural, including the player's conclusions in Act II.


title: Pentiment (video game)

text: At the climax of the game, we discover that the hooded figure is Andreas, who did not die in the events of Act II due to his apprentice Caspar's sacrifice. Living with the guilt of not only Caspar's death, but the deaths which he decided in Acts I and II, deaths founded on incomplete and inconclusive evidence, he has become a broken man, retreating from society and surviving in secret for the past two decades. Andreas and Magdalene work together to solve the murders; they eventually find that the local priest, Thomas, is the culprit. Exploring the ancient Roman ruins underneath the town, he discovered that the two Christian saints, Saint Moritz and Satia, are actually reinterpretations of the pagan gods Mars and Diana. Appalled that the faith of the town was based upon heresy, he killed those who were close to finding the secret of the town. Baron Rothvogel was killed because he intended to donate a rare copy of a history book, which might have revealed this, to the abbot. Otto was killed after he found the head of Saint Moritz, really the head of a broken Mars statue, intending to reveal it as a divine artifact to motivate the villagers because he was unable to read the name "Mars Pater" written on its brow. Finally, he attacked Magdalene's father because his mural work was to be a history of the town, and vocally advocated for the mural to be cancelled. The ornate letters which were sent to those that might have cause against the victims were written by an anchorite under Thomas' manipulation, in fits in which Thomas pretended to be God, giving her "divine" messages to write down. His panoptic letters to the possible suspects are due to his breaking of the seal of confession, purposefully using the townspeople's confessions to frame them.


title: Pentiment (video game)

text: Magdalene and Andreas chase Thomas underground into the ruins, where they find an abandoned Mithraeum that was built when Rome ruled the town. Thomas decides to knock out a pillar and brings the temple down upon himself so he can destroy all evidence of Moritz and Satia's origins. Magdalene and Andreas escape to the surface and must decide how to paint the fourth part of the mural: whether to preserve Thomas' lies for the greater good, or to reveal the town's pagan origins. The appearance of the final mural that Magdalene paints depends on the choices the player makes in this part, and includes a family tree of the villagers painted by Andreas Müller, Paul Müller's son who eventually becomes an artist after following in the footsteps of the original Andreas, his namesake.


title: Pentiment (video game)

text: Game developer Josh Sawyer first pitched "Pentiment" to Feargus Urquhart when they worked at Black Isle Studios. Sawyer was inspired by the historical fiction of "Darklands", a 1992 role-playing video game by MicroProse that combined the Middle Ages with supernatural themes. Urquhart thought it would have little appeal outside of history afficionados. Sawyer pitched Urquhart again, years later, when they both worked at Obsidian Entertainment, following the release of the 2018 "". He reframed the game as a narrative adventure with mystery components and gameplay similar to "Night in the Woods" or "Oxenfree". The small development team was commensurate with the game's niche attraction. Sawyer credited art director Hannah Kennedy's art style and interest in the concept as being vital to the project's early support. The team looked at illuminated medieval manuscripts in the Getty Museum and Huntington Library in California for inspiration, as well as consulting with manuscript experts such as Christopher de Hamel. They initially worked as a team of two, later the team was expanded to 13 people.


title: Pentiment (video game)

text: Microsoft's acquisition of Obsidian in 2018 brought the game accessibility and localization support, such as a mode with typefaces easier to read, features like text to speech, and robust translations for non-English speakers in a text-heavy game.


title: Pentiment (video game)

text: "IGN" praised the time pressure mechanic, saying it made the game more tense and added replayability "you're never given enough time to pursue them all [leads]. This added some welcome tension and forced me to make a lot of interesting decisions". "Destructoid" liked how there was no "golden route" and you had benefits and downsides with each choice made. "GamesRadar+" loved the setting, feeling it captured the anxiety of the time, "the dawning of a new age is palpable, and the struggle to come to terms with it rumbles furiously throughout, whether from monks still painstakingly scribing tomes... or young firebrands who've learned to read and question authority". While criticizing the unclear choice mechanic, "PC Gamer" enjoyed the village and the role that they play in the story, "over 25 years of chats, shared meals... That makes it all the harder when you want to condemn a family man for a crime he might not actually have committed".


title: Pentiment (video game)

text: "The Guardian" liked the writing of the game, "The dialogue drips with fascinating historical detail, supported by an extensive glossary of terms". "PCGamesN" disliked the pacing, saying it was "told at something between walking pace and the movement of tectonic plates". "Polygon" praised the art style, feeling the drawings "immediately bring a sense of style to what otherwise might be a dry history".


title: Fever to Tell

text: Fever to Tell is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released on April 29, 2003, by Interscope Records. It was produced by David Andrew Sitek and mixed by Alan Moulder. Four singles were issued, the first being "Date with the Night" followed by "Pin", "Maps" and "Y Control".


title: Fever to Tell

text: "Fever to Tell" was both a critical and commercial success; it has sold one million copies worldwide.


title: Fever to Tell

text: By 2002, Yeah Yeah Yeahs had achieved a respected reputation for their live performances and critical acclaim for their debut EP, leading to several overtures from major record labels. The band wanted to finance their debut album themselves and chose to record at the low-budget Headgear Studio in Brooklyn. "It was really important for us to do it on our turf, on our terms", lead singer Karen O later told "Spin". "We were all living together, and all the money we used to fund it came out of our pocket."


title: Fever to Tell

text: "Fever to Tell" was produced by Yeah Yeah Yeahs with David Andrew Sitek, a multi-instrumentalist and producer from the band TV on the Radio. Karen O and Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner first met Sitek while working together at a Brooklyn clothing store, and he went on to drive and manage them for their first concert tour. In 2002, the band asked Sitek to produce their debut album. She recalled the decision in an interview with Lizzy Goodman for her 2017 book "Meet Me in the Bathroom". "I remember him giving me a few burned CDs of stuff that he had worked on", Karen O said. "I guess he was just a buddy, and we felt immediately like we were family with him. And we didn’t know anyone else. That was probably one of the biggest reasons we worked with him, because we didn’t know anyone else. Then, of course, he ended up being really fucking masterful."


title: Fever to Tell

text: Once the recording was finished, the album was mixed in London by Zinner and sound engineer Alan Moulder.


title: Fever to Tell

text: According to "Paste", "Fever to Tell" was representative of the early-2000s' garage rock revival, while Dan Epstein from "Rolling Stone" called the record an "NYC art-punk landmark". Its music was also described as "ecstatic dance punk", by Alex Denney of "The Guardian". Journalist Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" said that the band "are closer to Siouxsie and the Banshees (but with a grin) and Led Zeppelin (but with estrogen) than to the blues". The slow closing track "Modern Romance" was compared to a Velvet Underground drone. Music historian Nick Kent compared Karen O's singing style to Lydia Lunch and PJ Harvey. Kent also described the record as musically "Siouxsie Sioux jamming with Led Zeppelin". Journalist Alexis Petridis remarked that "Y Control" was based on a riff from art-rockers Big Black, then transformed into spacey new-wave pop.


title: Fever to Tell

text: "Fever to Tell" was released on May 3, 2003, by Interscope Records. It debuted at number 67 on the "Billboard" 200 in the week of May 17. To promote the album, "Date with the Night" and "Pin" were released as the first two singles. Interscope wanted to release "Maps" earlier but the band's resistance delayed it until February 2004, when the album had sold only 124,000 copies. The single became a hit on MTV and rock radio, charting at number nine on "Billboard"s Hot Modern Rock Tracks, and its success helped triple sales of the album.


title: Fever to Tell

text: In March 2009, the album reached sales of more than one million copies worldwide. As of March 2013, "Fever to Tell" had sold 640,000 copies in United States.


title: Fever to Tell

text: "Fever to Tell" was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 85, based on 27 reviews. In a four star review, Andrew Perry of "Rolling Stone" wrote: "There are half a dozen songs under three minutes on "Fever to Tell", and they sound absolutely complete". Andrew Perry from "The Daily Telegraph" called it an "exhilarating dose of lo-fi garage-rock". In "The Village Voice", Robert Christgau observed "a striking sound" that is "both big and punk, never a natural combo", and highlighted by Zinner's "dangerous riffs". He had reservations about the subject matter, however; while noting "two human-scale songs toward the end", Christgau said "to care about this band you have to find Karen O's fuck-me persona provocative if not seductive, and since I've never been one for the sex-is-combat thing, I find it silly or obnoxious depending on who's taking it seriously."


title: Fever to Tell

text: "Fever to Tell" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album and was certified gold in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The video for "Maps" received nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and the MTV2 Award at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards. "The New York Times" chose "Fever to Tell" as the best album of 2003.


title: Fever to Tell

text: In June 2005, the album was ranked number 89 on "Spin" magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005. Featuring in the 2010 book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die", "Fever to Tell" was hailed as "the coolest and cleverest record of 2003". In 2009, the album was named by "NME", "Pitchfork", and "Rolling Stone" the fifth, 24th, and 28th best album of the 2000s decade, respectively. In 2019, the album was ranked 38th on "The Guardian"'s 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century list. In 2020, it was ranked number 377 on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums of All-Time.


title: Soapbox

text: A soapbox is a raised platform on which one stands to make an impromptu speech, often about a political subject. The term originates from the days when speakers would elevate themselves by standing on a wooden crate originally used for shipment of soap, or other dry goods, from a manufacturer to a retail store.


title: Soapbox

text: The term is also used metaphorically to describe a person engaging in often flamboyant, impromptu, or unofficial public speaking, as in the phrase, "Get off your soapbox." Hyde Park in London is known for its Sunday soapbox orators, who have assembled at its Speakers' Corner since 1872 to discuss religion, politics, and other topics. Blogs can be used as soapboxes within the context of the World Wide Web, and are often used for promotional purposes.


title: Soapbox

text: Throughout the 19th Century and into the 20th, prior to the invention of corrugated fiberboard, manufacturers used wooden crates for the shipment of wholesale merchandise to retail establishments. Discarded containers of every size, well-constructed and sturdy, were readily available in most towns. These "soapboxes" made free and easily portable temporary platforms for street corner speakers attempting to be seen and heard at improvised "outdoor meetings", to which passersby would gather to hear often provocative speeches on religious or political themes.


title: Soapbox

text: The decades immediately preceding World War I have been called the "Golden Age of Soapbox Oratory". Working people had little money to spend and public speakers pushing their social or political agendas provided a form of mass entertainment. Radical political parties, intent on bringing what they perceived as an emancipatory message to the working class, were particularly intent upon making use of "street meetings", with their speeches and leaflets, to advance their specific message.


title: Soapbox

text: Street-corner oratory could also present its share of problems. Chief among these was the policy of local law enforcement authorities, who sometimes saw in radical political discourse a form of incitement to crime and violence and a threat to public order. Additionally, large street corner crowds listening to "soapboxers" would often obstruct public walkways or spill into public streets, creating inconveniences to pedestrians or vehicular traffic alike. Consequently, local authorities would often attempt to restrict public oratory through licensing or prescriptive banning.


title: Soapbox

text: This conflict between dedicated political or religious partisans and civil authorities intent upon the maintenance of public order made soapboxing a matter of frequent public contention. Throughout its history, soapboxing has been tied to the right to speak. From the period 1907 to approximately 1916, the Industrial Workers of the World conducted dozens of free speech fights in the United States, particularly in the West and the Northwest, in order to protect or reclaim their right to soapbox. Many prominent socialists and other radicals began their political careers in these or similar free speech fights, including Seattle newspaper publisher Hermon Titus, Socialist Party of Washington leaders Alfred Wagenknecht and L.E. Katterfeld, IWW activist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and prominent syndicalist William Z. Foster.


title: Soapbox

text: Additional problems could be presented to street corner orators from rival political groups or hecklers. A skilled and effective "soapboxer" had to be clever, having the ability to express political opinions with clarity, to have ready answers for common objections, to be able to deflect hostility with humor or satire, and to be able to face difficulty or danger with fortitude. Soapboxing proved to be what one historian has called "a hard, but nevertheless necessary, process in the development of revolutionary leaders".


title: Soapbox

text: During the 1960s, a Free Speech Movement was initiated on the Berkeley, California Campus over fund-raising at an intersection and other political freedoms, and the fight eventually spread to other college campuses across the United States. As advertising professionals transitioned their craft to politics, they were reputed to be "selling candidates like soap", an expression with roots in 19th-century sales tactics to differentiate soap products.


title: Soapbox

text: In the 1992 UK general election, the Conservative Party was widely expected to be defeated by Neil Kinnock's Labour Party. Conservative leader John Major took his campaign into the streets, delivering many addresses from an upturned soapbox. This approach stood in contrast to the Labour Party's seemingly slicker campaign and it chimed with the electorate, along with hard-hitting negative campaign advertising focusing on the issue of Labour's approach to taxation. Major won in excess of 14 million votes, the highest popular vote for a political party in a British general election.


title: Soapbox

text: Marvel Comics writer Stan Lee included blurbs titled "Stan's Soapbox" in some of his comic books to share his opinions on various topics with readers.


title: Louise Tracy

text: Louise Ten Broeck Tracy (née Treadwell; July 31, 1896 – November 13, 1983) was the founder of the John Tracy Clinic, a private, non-profit education center for the deaf that began in 1942. She was married to the Academy Award-winning actor Spencer Tracy.


title: Louise Tracy

text: Tracy was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Alliene Wetmore and Bright (Smith) Treadwell. Alliene Treadwell was a prominent attorney and part owner of the "New Castle Daily News" in New Castle. Tracy's parents divorced when she was a teenager.


title: Louise Tracy

text: Tracy sought a career in vaudeville in 1914, but after less than a year in New York City she returned to New Castle and taught dancing. After graduating from Lake Erie College in 1917, she worked for a newspaper and taught school while she pursued a career as a stage actor, primarily in stock companies. In early March 1923, Louise joined the Leonard Wood Players in White Plains, New York, which engaged her as the leading lady. There, she met actor Spencer Tracy, who had also joined the company. On September 12, 1923, Louise and Spencer were married in Cincinnati, Ohio.


title: Louise Tracy

text: On June 26, 1924, Louise and Spencer's first child, John, was born. Nine months later, Louise discovered that John was hearing impaired. Early in 1926 Louise met a deaf woman at a contract bridge party who could lip read very well, encouraging Louise that John might have a normal life in spite of his deafness. She took John to a hearing specialist, who confirmed a diagnosis of nerve deafness. The doctor told Louise that even though there was no medical treatment, John could still learn how to talk, lip read, and do anything a hearing person could do.


title: Louise Tracy

text: With new hope, Louise began working with John, using material from different schools. In 1927, John spoke the word "Mama" for the first time. In June 1927, John was enrolled in the Wright Oral School for the deaf in New York City. At three years of age, he was the youngest child they had ever accepted.


title: Louise Tracy

text: In the summer of 1930, Spencer Tracy went to Hollywood, California, to make his first film. John and Louise also traveled to Hollywood while Spencer was filming. On the train back to New York, John was struck with infantile paralysis.


title: Louise Tracy

text: In July 1932, the Tracys' daughter Susie was born, and by March 1935, the family moved to a ranch in Encino, California, where they lived for 19 years. During the 1930s, Louise and Spencer both began playing polo and became accomplished players.


title: Louise Tracy

text: Spencer and Louise separated in 1933, though they reconciled in 1935. There was never again an official separation between Tracy and his wife, but the marriage continued to be troubled. Tracy increasingly lived in hotels and by the 1940s, the two were effectively living separate lives. Throughout their marriage, Spencer frequently engaged in extramarital affairs, including those with actresses Loretta Young, Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Ingrid Bergman, and Gene Tierney.


title: Louise Tracy

text: In 1942, Spencer co-starred with actress Katharine Hepburn in the film "Woman of the Year". The pair famously began a long-term romantic relationship that lasted until Spencer's death in 1967. During this time, Spencer and Louise became estranged, but they never divorced. When he died, he left his entire estate, worth around , to her, their two children, and his brother.


title: Louise Tracy

text: In July 1942, Louise Tracy spoke for the first time on her experience as the mother of a deaf child at the University of Southern California at a banquet for the National Workshop of Social Workers and teachers and Parents of the Hard of Hearing. Louise spoke frequently and with increasing skill to numerous clubs and groups. It was during this time, that she and a group of mothers of deaf children decided to start a school in Los Angeles for young deaf children and their parents. The John Tracy Clinic, named after her son, was the result.


title: Louise Tracy

text: During the first years of the John Tracy Clinic, and particularly the first few months, Louise established many of the aspects of the Clinic's philosophy. She stressed the importance of parents being involved in the education of their children at a very young age and set up a program for them. Louise firmly believed that the Clinic should offer both information and support at no charge to make them more accessible to children and families in need; as such, many of the clinic's services were free, including hearing screenings and services for families to better help care for their deaf children. The John Tracy Clinic was also the first preschool in the nation to offer free emotional support and information for families; aside from those services, it also offered families affected by deafness a sense of community.


title: Louise Tracy

text: Louise's husband Spencer supported her work with the Clinic and was its sole financial support in the beginning. In April 1951, Spencer turned the world premiere of his new film, "Father's Little Dividend", at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, into a building fund-raiser for the Clinic's new site. Spencer's support was always strong, and over the years he personally donated more than a half a million dollars to the Clinic. His admiration for his wife was another constant. At the dedication of the new Clinic building in 1952, he said to the visiting dignitaries, staff and press:


title: Louise Tracy

text: "You honor me because I am a movie actor, a star in Hollywood terms. Well, there's nothing I've ever done that can match what Louise has done for deaf children and their parents."


title: Louise Tracy

text: Louise Tracy was honored with many awards during the 1950s. These included the Hearing Advancement Award from the Lions Club Hearing Foundation in 1951, the Testimonial of Merit/Woman of the Year award from the La Sertoma International organization in 1953, and the Sixth Annual Award of the Save the Children Foundation in 1955.


title: Louise Tracy

text: Louise was also lauded in academic circles. In quick succession, she was granted honorary degrees from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, her alma mater Lake Erie College, and MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois. In 1966, Gallaudet College, the liberal arts college for the deaf in Washington, DC, honored Louise with a Doctor of Letters degree. In 1974, she was granted a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. In 1976, Louise was honored with a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Ripon College, Spencer's alma mater, in Ripon, Wisconsin.


title: Louise Tracy

text: Louise Tracy's influence in governmental circles continued in the 1960s. In 1963, Louise was appointed to the Neurological and Sensory Disease Advisory Committee of the federal Department of Housing, Education, and Welfare (HEW). In 1965, she became a member of the National Advisory Board of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in Henrietta, New York. Also in 1965, she was appointed to a four-year term as a member of the National Advisory Council on Vocational Rehabilitation. In 1969, Louise became a member of the President's Task Force on the Physically Handicapped.


title: Louise Tracy

text: The John Tracy Clinic continued to expand in the 1970s. In October 1974, Louise resigned as Clinic director due to ill health. However, the honors continued to roll in for Louise, whose "mothers' group" had become the largest single service provider to parents of deaf children around the world. In 1974, she was presented with the 1974 Award of Honor Otolaryngology and in 1975 the Father Flanagan Award for Service to Youth from the Boys Town organization. In 1977, Louise was given the Humanitarian Award by the National Auxiliary of American Veterans AMVETS.


title: Louise Tracy

text: Louise Tracy died in Santa Monica, California, on November 13, 1983, at the age of 87. Her son John died on June 15, 2007.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: Moms for Liberty is an American conservative 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that advocates for parental rights in schools. The organization has campaigned against COVID-19 restrictions in schools, including mask and vaccine mandates, and against school curriculums that mention LGBT rights, race, critical race theory, and discrimination, and multiple chapters have also campaigned to ban from school libraries books that address gender and sexuality issues. Moms for Liberty has been likened to the Tea Party movement and the Moral Majority organization.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: Moms for Liberty has been criticized for harassment from its members, deepening divisions among parents, making it more challenging for school officials to educate students, and having close ties to the Republican Party rather than being a genuine grassroots effort.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: Moms for Liberty was co-founded on January 1, 2021, in Florida by former school board members Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice, and by then-current school board member Bridget Ziegler. Ziegler has since left the organization. Republican activist and campaign consultant Marie Rogerson is the third-leading member of Moms for Liberty. Descovich receives a stipend as Moms for Liberty's executive director.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: Descovich conceived of the organization in the fall of 2020, after losing a seat she had held on the Brevard County school board in Florida in a primary by nearly 10 percentage points to former district employee Jennifer Jenkins, who campaigned against Descovich's opposition to mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic and teacher raises. Voter turnout was higher among Republicans than Democrats county-wide.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: As of their first national gathering in Tampa, Florida on July 14—17, 2022, Moms for Liberty claimed to have 195 chapters in 37 states and nearly 100,000 members.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: Moms for Liberty has been described as conservative. The leaders of Moms for Liberty say that their organization is non-partisan, but is grounded in conservative values. Conservative media have welcomed the organization. In the first few months after its incorporation on January 1, 2021, co-founder Tina Descovich appeared on "The Rush Limbaugh Show" and anti-vaxxer Naomi Wolf namechecked Moms for Liberty on the Fox News show "Tucker Carlson Tonight". "Breitbart News", Newsmax, and "The Daily Caller" also publicized Moms for Liberty during its first year.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: All three founders are registered Republicans, and the organization has ties to the Republican Party. Moms for Liberty has praised Florida Republicans such as Governor Ron DeSantis, referring to him on social media as "the Parents' Governor". Ron DeSantis, along with other prominent Florida Republicans, spoke at Moms for Liberty's first national gathering in Tampa, Florida in July 2022. Bridget Ziegler, a co-founder and former co-director of Moms for Liberty, is the wife of Christian Ziegler, vice chairman of the Florida Republican Party. Crediting Moms for Liberty with bringing new voters to the Republican Party, Christian Ziegler told "The Washington Post" in October 2021 that he had "been trying for a dozen years to get 20- and 30-year-old females involved with the Republican Party, and it was a heavy lift to get that demographic. But now Moms for Liberty has done it for me."


title: Moms for Liberty

text: The organization began by campaigning against COVID-19 related health safety restrictions in schools, challenging mask mandates and associated local policies. Members of Moms for Liberty broadened their agenda to encompass other school-related items, focusing on the way issues such as racism and religion are addressed in reading materials provided to students.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: Critics have accused Moms for Liberty of deepening divisions among parents and making it more challenging for school officials to educate students. Left-leaning "Media Matters for America" has accused the organization of using "parental rights" as a cover for strategically harassing public schools. Jenkins, who replaced Descovich on the Brevard County school board, said that she was harassed by members of Moms for Liberty. According to Jenkins, a member of the group filed a false child abuse report with the county department of Child and Family Services against her.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: In April 2021, the Facebook group "Mandate Masks in Brevard County schools" (now "Families for Safe Schools") was founded in an effort to combat the Brevard County Moms for Liberty chapter.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: In June 2021, the chair of the Williamson County Moms for Liberty chapter told Tennessee's Department of Education in a letter that the district's curriculum was in violation of a recently-enacted state law banning the teaching of ideas related to critical race theory. Specific complaints were made about texts featuring Martin Luther King Jr., Ruby Bridges, Civil Rights Movement protests, and school segregation. In November 2021, the Tennessee Department of Education rejected the complaint on procedural grounds.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: In November 2021, the Brevard County Moms for Liberty chapter filed a lawsuit against the Brevard County School Board over its public participation policy, saying that the board has used the policy to limit speech and access of opposing viewpoints during meetings.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: Moms for Liberty was criticized for offering a bounty to members of the public who "caught" teachers introducing texts or lessons in violation of New Hampshire's new law restricting discussions of race in school classrooms. On November 10, 2021, the New Hampshire Department of Education announced a website questionnaire to make it easier for the public to help enforce the law. A couple of days later, the New Hampshire Moms for Liberty chapter offered a monetary reward for doing so, tweeting: "We’ve got $500 for the person that first successfully catches a public school teacher breaking this law". Republican Governor of New Hampshire Chris Sununu's spokesman said "The Governor condemns the tweet referencing 'bounties' and any sort of financial incentive is wholly inappropriate and has no place".


title: Moms for Liberty

text: In July 2022, the Moms for Liberty Twitter account was suspended for criticizing a California gender-affirming healthcare bill.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: In August 2022, a Moms for Liberty activist advocated for separating LGBT students into "specialized" classes "like for example children with autism, Down Syndrome".


title: Moms for Liberty

text: Descovich and Justice say that there is no evidence that Moms for Liberty members have threatened school boards, and said that they denounce inappropriate behavior by members of the organization.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: Moms for Liberty has partnered with several conservative organizations to introduce conservative books into public school libraries.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: According to "The Daily Beast", a spreadsheet accompanying the Williamson County letter of complaint contained several other stated concerns about the county's curriculum. An article about police brutality against civil rights demonstrators in the 1960s was criticised for its "negative view of Firemen and police." A fictional account of the American Civil War used with fifth-graders was deemed unsuitable because of its depictions of "out of marriage families between white men and black women". A book about Galileo Galilei, an astronomer persecuted by the Catholic Church for theorizing the Earth revolves around the Sun, should, according to the spreadsheet, not be read without some counterbalancing praise of the church: "Where is the HERO of the church?", asks the spreadsheet notation, "to contrast with their mistakes? ... Both good and bad should be represented". A picture book about seahorses was condemned for depicting "mating seahorses with pictures of positions and discussion of the male carrying the eggs." The Williamson County Moms for Liberty chapter told "The Daily Beast" in an e-mail: "Some books should be removed entirely. Some books are objectionable only because of how they are presented via the accompanying teacher's manual. And yes, some books would be better suited to a higher grade level due to their age inappropriate content."


title: Moms for Liberty

text: In 2021, the Indian River County, Florida chapter requested the local school board remove from school libraries 51 books the group "deem(ed) to be pornographic or sexually explicit." A critically acclaimed young adult book about growing up gay, "All Boys Aren't Blue", was pulled from the Vero Beach High School library after the group objected to it as being in violation of a Florida statute against providing access to pornography to children. The Hernando chapter objected to "Looking for Alaska", "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian", and two books by National Book Award winner Alex Gino.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: In December 2021, the Wake County, North Carolina chapter filed a criminal complaint against the Wake County Public School System over the books "Lawn Boy", "", and "George".


title: Moms for Liberty

text: According to WFTS-TV, as of December 2021, "several schools" had removed books from shelves due to the efforts of various Moms for Liberty chapters.


title: Moms for Liberty

text: In June 2022, Cabot, Arkansas Police opened an investigation after a recording surfaced featuring one of the group's leaders, Melissa Bosch, fantasizing about shooting school librarians, saying "they would all be plowed down with a freaking gun".


title: Moms for Liberty

text: Co-founder Tina Descovich has stated that Moms for Liberty is funded by individual $50 memberships and the sale of Moms for Liberty T-shirts. Descovich has also stated that the organization has an annual budget of $300,000. Democrats have questioned how Moms for Liberty is being funded, pointing out that its expansion comes as Florida governor Ron DeSantis begins his reelection campaign. According to an analysis by "Media Matters for America", Moms for Liberty benefits financially from right-wing funding and ties to traditional Republican political figures. The organization is well-connected to Republican politicians and groups and financially supported by more than membership fees and T-shirt sales. Marie Rogerson was paid to do campaign work for Florida Republican Representative Randy Fine. Moms for Liberty has received financial support from Conservatives for Good Government, a conservative Florida political action committee. The group also hosts fundraisers with conservative celebrities such as former Fox News host Megyn Kelly and hosted a fundraiser in June 2021 that was sponsored by Florida Republicans running for office. In June 2022, heiress Julie Fancelli donated $50,000 to Moms for Liberty.


title: Ahiru no Sora

text: Sora Kurumatani made a promise to his mother, "I will dominate my first high school tournament". But as he joins the basketball club after entering Kuzuryū High School, he finds out that it's become a stomping ground for delinquents. A place where everything but basketball is done, but with Sora's genuine zeal for basketball, things begin to stir.


title: Ahiru no Sora

text: "Ahiru no Sora", written and illustrated by Takeshi Hinata, began in Kodansha's "Weekly Shōnen Magazine" on December 10, 2003. In January 2019, Hinata announced that the manga has entered its final arc. Kodansha has compiled its chapters into individual "tankōbon". The first volume was published on May 15, 2004. As of June 17, 2019, fifty-one volumes have been released.


title: Ahiru no Sora

text: An anime television series adaptation was announced on February 28, 2018. The series is directed by Shingo Tamaki, with Keizō Kusakawa serving as chief director, and written by Gō Zappa, with animation by Diomedéa. Character designs are provided by Yoshino Honda, and Hiroaki Tsutsumi is composing the music. The series aired from October 2, 2019 to September 30, 2020 on TV Tokyo, AT-X, and BS TV Tokyo. It ran for four cours. The opening theme song is "Happy Go Ducky!" by The Pillows, while the ending theme song is "Tsubasa" by saji. The second opening theme song is "Never Mind" by Flumpool, while the ending theme song is "Over" by Yuma Uchida.


title: Ahiru no Sora

text: Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series worldwide excluding Asia. The Dubcast premiered on November 13, 2019. Muse Communication has licensed the series in Asia-Pacific and streamed it on Muse Asia YouTube channel and Netflix.


title: Ahiru no Sora

text: Volume 23 was the 35th best-selling manga volume in the period of 17 November 2008 to 17 May 2009, with 347,574 copies. Volume 22 was placed 46th in the same period with 316,221 copies. Volume 26 was the 42nd best-selling manga volume in the period of 23 November 2009 to 23 May 2010 with 343,662 copies. Volume 27 was placed 49th in the same period with 300,331 copies. Volume 30 was the 47th best-selling manga volume in the period of 22 November 2010 to 22 May 2011 with 340,851 copies. It was the 23rd best-selling manga series in Japan in 2011, with 1,739,105 copies. As of February 28, 2018, the manga had 24 million copies in print.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: The Dewoitine D.520 was a French fighter aircraft that entered service in early 1940, shortly after the beginning of the Second World War.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: The D.520 was designed in response to a 1936 requirement from the French Air Force for a fast, modern fighter with a good climbing speed and an armament centred on a 20 mm cannon. At the time the most powerful V-12 liquid-cooled engine available in France was the Hispano-Suiza 12Y, which was less powerful, but lighter than contemporary engines such as the Rolls-Royce Merlin and Daimler-Benz DB 601. Other fighters were designed to meet the specifications but none of them entered service, or entered service in small numbers, too late to play a significant role during the Battle of France.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: Unlike the Morane-Saulnier M.S.406, which was at that time the most numerous fighter in the French Air Force, the Dewoitine D.520 came close to being a match for the latest German types, such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109. It was slower than the Bf 109E but superior in manoeuvrability. Because of production delays, only a small number were available for combat against the "Luftwaffe". The D.520 proved to be relatively capable as a dogfighter against the Luftwaffe's inventory, but lacked sufficient numbers to make a difference.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: Following the armistice of 1940, the D.520 continued to be used, being operated by both the Free French Air Force and the Vichy French Air Force. The type was also returned to production during 1942, although it was manufactured at a lower rate than it had been during 1940. Additional examples were operated by the Luftwaffe, Regia Aeronautica, and the Bulgarian Air Force. The D.520 saw combat service in North Africa, Bulgaria, and the Eastern Front, as well as use in France and Germany for training and defence purposes. During the type's later life, it was used as a trainer aircraft. On 3 September 1953, the last D.520s were finally withdrawn from service.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: On 13 July 1934, the French Air Force launched a new technical programme, under which the development of improved fighter aircraft to improve upon the Dewoitine D.510, which was yet to enter service at that point but was already considered to be obsolete in the face of rapid advances being made in several European nations. While French aircraft company Dewoitine initially responded with an improved design based on the D.510, designated as the D.513, this quickly proved to be inferior to the in-development Morane-Saulnier M.S.405, a domestic competitor.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: In response to a specification for a new fighter promulgated by the French Air Ministry on 15 June 1936, Émile Dewoitine, owner and founder of Dewoitine, formed a new private design office and ordered the firm's chief engineer, Robert Castello, to immediately study the development of a new fighter. The envisioned aircraft would be as affordable as possible, be powered by the new Hispano-Suiza 12Y21 liquid-cooled engine, and be capable of attaining . However, the corresponding design was promptly rejected by the Air Ministry. The design had been rejected by the French Air Ministry, which, after being impressed by the British Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire, had decided to respond by uprating the specifications to include a maximum speed requirement of .


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: Accordingly, work on what would become the D.520 commenced in September 1936; according to aviation author Raymond Danel, the D.520 designation was a deliberate reference to the required speed of the aircraft. During January 1937, this revised design proposal was submitted to the Service Technique Aeronautique (STA); while the STAe found the design to be likely to conform with the specified requirements, no order for prototypes to be built was immediately forthcoming. By this point, official attention was oriented towards the MS.405, which had already been selected for the re-equipment effort.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: On 12 January 1937, the A.23 technical programme was launched by the Air Ministry. The specifications called for a maximum speed of at , the ability to climb to in less than fifteen minutes, with takeoff and landing runs not exceeding . The armament was to be two machine guns and one Hispano-Suiza HS.9 cannon, or two HS.9 cannons.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: Other aircraft designed to the same specification included the Morane-Saulnier M.S.450, the Loire-Nieuport 60 (later C.A.O 200), and the Caudron-Renault C.770, none of which either left the drawing board or entered service. Two other concurrent French designs, the Bloch MB.152.01 and Bloch MB.155.C1 series and the Arsenal VG-33 entered service in small numbers with the French Air Force during the Battle of France, but too late to play a significant role.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: In addition to the lack of a prototype order, Dewoitine was absorbed into the larger Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Midi (SNCAM) state-owned manufacturing consortium. As a result of this organisational restricting, along with continued alterations within the French Air Force's established manufacturing programmes, work on the design of the D.520 was suspended throughout much of 1937, and it was not until January 1938 that a small number of draughtsmen started work on the first detailed drawings for the prototype.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: However, Émile Dewoitine, now the deputy managing director of SNCAM, was keen to proceed with the project and decided to proceed to the detail design drawing phase with the aim of producing a pair of prototypes and a single structural test frame, confident that official interest would be found for the type. On 3 April 1938, this private initiative was rewarded with the issuing of Air Ministry contract No. 513/8, which regularised the programme; by this point, the first prototype had almost been completed.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: On 2 October 1938, the first prototype aircraft, D.520-01, powered by a Hispano-Suiza 12Y-21 engine that temporarily drove a fixed-pitch, two-bladed wooden propeller, performed its maiden flight. Completion of the prototype had been delayed somewhat by the need to incorporate modifications requested by the STAe following their examination of a wooden mock-up of the type. During early flight tests, the first prototype managed to reach only , and suffered from dangerously high engine temperatures.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: A large portion of responsibility for the encountered temperature issue was judged to have been a product of greater than expected drag resulting from the underwing radiators, which exhausted across the upper wing surface and were relatively inefficient; this arrangement was replaced with a single radiator unit housed under the fuselage in a streamlined fairing. Other aerodynamic improvements were made around this time, such as the minor enlargement of the fin and rudder, for greater lateral stability.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: After sustaining minor damage in a landing accident on 27 November 1938, caused by the failure to deploy the undercarriage, further modifications were made to the prototype. These included changing the engine to a newer -29 model and incorporating exhaust ejectors which provided added thrust, along with a three-blade variable-pitch propeller. These changes were enough to allow the aircraft to reach its design speed, achieving . The maximum diving speed was , as reached on 6 February 1939.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: During 1939, the first prototype was followed be two further examples: the D.520-02 and the 03, these were first flown on 9 January 1939 and 5 May 1939, respectively. The major differences between the first prototype and the second and third were the adoption of a new sliding canopy, the fitting of a re-designed and larger tail unit, and longer Oleo-manufactured undercarriage legs; they also omitted the Handley Page slats fitted to the outer wings on 01.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: These prototypes were also armed with a single Hispano-Suiza HS.9 cannon with the barrel was in a sleeve between the cylinder banks and fired through the propeller spinner. and a pair of MAC 1934 machine guns, each initially with 300 rounds per gun, housed in small pods under the wing. The third prototype also introduced a small tailwheel instead of the original skid. The second prototype was later fitted with a Hispano-Suiza 12Y-31 engine and achieved a maximum speed of and reached in 12 minutes 53 seconds.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: In response to Belgian interest in the D.520, who were at one stage preparing to negotiate for a licence to produce the type, several evaluation flights of the third prototype were flown by Belgian test pilot Captain Arendt. During late September 1939, CEMA took charge of the third prototype to conduct armament trials. Overall, flight tests had proceeded successfully, and resulted in the issuing of a contract in March 1939 for 200 production machines to be powered by the newer -31 engine (later replaced by the -45). A contract for an additional 600 aircraft was issued in June, albeit reduced to 510 in July 1939.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: In April 1939, the rate of production of fighter aircraft throughout France was far beneath official expectations. With the outbreak of war, a new contract brought the total of D.520s on order to 1,280, with the production rate to be 200 aircraft per month from May 1940. During January 1940, the "Aéronautique Navale" placed its own order for 120 aircraft. Another French Air Force order in April 1940 brought the total to 2,250 and increased production quotas to 350 a month. In addition to domestic orders, Poland was interested in acquiring around 160 D.520s in order.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: On 2 November 1939, the first-production D.520 conducted its first flight. On this and the other aircraft, the rear fuselage was extended by , the engine cowling panels were redesigned, the curved, one-piece windscreen was replaced by one containing an optically flat panel and armour plate was fitted behind the pilot's seat. Most production examples were powered by the Hispano-Suiza 12Y-45 with the new Szydlowski-Planiol supercharger, although later production versions used the Hispano-Suiza 12Y-49. The production standard armament was a HS.404 cannon firing through the propeller hub and four belt-fed MAC 1934 M39 machine guns in the wings.


title: Dewoitine D.520

text: As the first batch of D.520s rolled off the production line, they failed acceptance tests due to insufficient top speed and troublesome cooling. Redesigned compressor intakes, a modified cooling circuit and propulsive exhaust pipes proved to be effective remedies of these shortcomings, but as early examples had to be retrofitted with these improvements, the type was not declared combat ready until April 1940, at which point the D.520's operational standards had been defined. In order to speed up the redesign process, a total of four production aircraft were handed back to SNCAM to serve as special test machines.