title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: It lies on the territory of today's Netherlands and Germany. This "limes" was a river border ("limes ripa") on the Rhine, defended by a chain of camps, that ran from the North Sea (Katwijk-Brittenburg camp) to Vinxtbach (opposite Rheinbrohl fort on the Upper Germanic Limes), forming the border between the Roman provinces of "Germania Inferior" and "Germania Superior". By contrast with the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, it was not marked by a solid palisade or wall. Neither can any defensive ditch or rampart be identified. The guards were stationed in nearby "castra" and watchtowers usually built immediately on the Rhine. The "limes" was served by a well-developed military road. Each camp had its own river port or landing stage and a storage area, because the Rhine not only formed the border but was also the most important transport and trade route in the region. In the first section, between the camps of "Rigomagus" (Remagen) and "Bonna" (Bonn), there were only a few camps. In the second, middle, section between "Bonna" and "Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum" (Nijmegen), there were considerably more. Here there were also larger legion camps; with one exception, all were cavalry barracks. The landscape of the third section between "Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum" and "Mare Germanicum" (the North Sea) was characterised by numerous small streams and boggy marshland. Consequently, in this area there was only one cavalry camp. Border security here consisted mainly of tightly packed, relatively small cohort forts.


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: The occupying troops, "Exercitus Germaniae Inferioris", consisted mostly of auxilia cohorts. From the 2nd century, the strategic reserve comprised three legions stationed in "Bonna/"Bonn, "Novaesium/"Neuss, "Vetera/"Xanten and "Noviomagus/"Nijmegen. The control and surveillance of the waters of the North Sea, the Rhine estuary and the Lower Rhine was the responsibility of the "Classis Germanica" whose headquarters was in "Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium"/Cologne. Legions, auxilia and fleet units were commanded by the respective provincial governor. From the 3rd century the "ripenses" (river guards), "comitatenses", and "liburnaria" were under the command of the "Dux Belgicae secundae".


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: It lay on the territory of the present German states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. To the north, it bordered those parts of the Roman province of "Rhaetia" that lay north of the Danube and guarded the eastern border of that part of "Germania Superior" that lay east of the Rhine. In Upper Germania the border defences initially consisted only of a post road. From about 162/63 AD, the Romans constructed a defensive barrier with watchtowers and signal towers, palisades, ditches and earthworks. On one short section of the Rhaetian Limes, a solid stone wall was erected. In its final stages, the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes was about 550 kilometres long and ran from Rheinbrohl, in the county of Neuwied in northern Rhineland-Palatinate, as far as Hienheim on the Danube. Between the villages of Osterburken and Welzheim, the "limes" ran for 81 kilometres almost in a straight line southwards. In the scholarly literature, this unusual section is considered as evidence that this type of boundary wall had never been used for defensive purposes.


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: The land of "Agri Decumates" that was guarded by this "limes" had to be vacated by the Romans in 260-285 AD. They moved their bases back to the banks of the Rhine and Danube, which were much easier to defend militarily. The exact route of the "limes" along the border between Upper Germania and Raetia has not been fully explored. In the late 4th and early 5th centuries, the Rhaetian Limes was reorganized and divided into three sections. The northern border of "Rhaetia" formed the "pars superior" (upper part), the western border was the "pars media" (central part) with the fortified town of Cambodunum and bases from "Vemania" (Isny im Allgäu) to "Cassilacum" (Memmingen); the "pars inferior" (lower part) was the section between "Castra Regina" (Regensburg) and "Batavis" (Passau).


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: The defending troops, "Exercitus Germaniae superioris" and "Exercitus Raeticus", consisted mostly of auxilia cohorts. From the 2nd century, the strategic reserve was formed from three legions stationed in "Mogontiacum/"Mainz, "Argentorate/"Strasbourg and "Castra Regina"/Regensburg. The monitoring of the Upper Rhine was the responsibility of the "Classis Germanica"; that of the Rhaetic Danube came under the "Classis Pannonia", whose headquarters was in "Aquincum"/Budapest. Legions and auxilia cohorts were under the command of the governor. From the 3rd century the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian border troops ("comitatenses, repenses", and "liburnaria"), were commanded by three generals:


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: It lies on the territory of present-day Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. As early as the period 15 BC to about 70 AD, the border between Rome and Germania ran mostly along the line of the late antique Danube-Iller-Rhine Limes (DIRL) before the Romans advanced further north into the "Agri decumates". Because of troop withdrawals and massive barbarian invasions, the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes were abandoned in the late 3rd century and the Roman forces pulled the border back to the banks of the three rivers. Especially around the year 300, the Emperor Diocletian had new fortifications built directly on the river banks or on major roads in the hinterland here. Around 370 AD, the line of fortifications was considerably strengthened under the Emperor Valentinian I to counter the Alemanni, who were steadily advancing southwards. By contrast with the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, the DIRL primarily fulfilled defensive purposes; its camps had much stronger and higher walls than their High Imperial predecessors. Furthermore, they had in most cases been built to conform to the local topography. This meant that they could not be built in the classical 'pack of cards' shape. Between them a dense chain of watchtowers and signal towers was constructed to provide an additional security measure ("burgi").


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: "Comitatenses", "ripenses", and "liburnaria" in this section of the limes were under the command of four generals:


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: This section of the "limes" existed from the 1st to the 5th century AD and guarded part of the Roman province of "Noricum".


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: It is on the soil of the present-day Austrian states of Upper and Lower Austria. It ran along the Danube from Passau/"Boiodurum" to Zeiselmauer/"Cannabiaca". This is also a "ripa" (river border), which was guarded by a loose chain of cohort forts. The main road on the Norican Limes was the "via iuxta amnem Danuvium". The initially simple wood and earth structures were systematically converted under Emperor Hadrian into stone encampments. During the 4th century, they were brought once more up to date and massively reinforced. Between the camps, in strategic places or good points of observation, were watchtowers or signal towers and, in the Late Antiquity, "burgi". In the middle section, between the camps of "Favianis" and "Melk", watchtowers were built only sporadically. Here the narrow valley of the Wachau, with its densely forested escarpments, made access to the riverbank more difficult, providing some defensive function. Every camp had its own river port or landing stage and a storage area because the Danube was not only border zone, but also the most important transport and trade route in the region. Over time civilian settlements or "vici" were established immediately next to the camps. In the immediate hinterland of the "limes", walled towns or "municipia" were founded - for example, "Aelium Cetium" or "Ovilava" (Wels). They were the administrative or commercial centres of the region. In late antiquity, the Norican area was divided into two parts ("pars inferior" and "pars superior"). It is probable that a second, defensive line was created to the rear ("Castrum Locus Felicis").


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: The occupying troops, "Exercitus Noricus", consisted mostly of auxilia cohorts and a legion stationed in "Lauriacum/"Enns acted as the strategic reserve. The surveillance and security of the Danube and its tributaries were the responsibility of the "Classis Pannonia". Units of the legions, naval and auxiliary forces were commanded by the respective governors. In late antiquity - according to "Notitia Dignitatum" - four newly established flotillas undertook this task. From the 3rd century, the Norian "comitatenses", "ripenses" and "liburnari" were under the command of two generals:


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: This stretch of "limes" was in use from the 1st to the 5th centuries AD and helped to guard the provinces of:


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: The Pannonian Limes is situated on the territory of present-day Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. Although this section of the frontier was relatively well protected by the Danube river border or "Ripa", the Roman military presence here was always exceptionally strong (three military camps in Pannonia, but only one in Lower Pannonia) because especially after the abandonment of "Roman Dacia" in the late 3rd century, the pressure of migrant peoples from the east on this section of the "limes" intensified. The tributaries emptying into the Danube offered cheap transport routes, but also made good approach routes for invaders and raiders. The military camps were therefore built by the most important fords or confluences and road termini. The legion- and auxilia camps were mainly located in the immediate vicinity of the riverbank. The initial wood and earth structures, were systematically converted under Emperor Hadrian into stone barracks and, in the 4th century, redesigned and massively strengthened in order to match new strategic requirements. The gaps between the camps were closed by a chain of watchtowers or signal towers. In late Roman times huge inland camps were built and towns in the hinterland were fortified to create a second line of defence. In addition, at vulnerable points, units of the Danube fleet were stationed. In the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius the first mention is made in Pannonia of stone watchtowers ("burgi", panelled towers and fortlets ("praesidia"). In late antiquity, the Pannonian military district was divided into two parts ("pars inferior" and "pars superior"). Advance defences were provided by bridgehead camps (e.g. "Castra Contra Aquincum" or "Celemantia") and military stations on main transport routes in the "Barbaricum" (e.g. near Musov).


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: At the greatest extent of the Roman Empire, the southern border lay along the deserts of Arabia in the Middle East (see Romans in Arabia) and the Sahara in North Africa, which represented a natural barrier against expansion. The Empire controlled the Mediterranean shores and the mountain ranges further inland. The Romans attempted twice to occupy the Siwa Oasis and finally used Siwa as a place of banishment. However Romans controlled the Nile many miles into Africa up to the modern border between Egypt and Sudan.


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: In Africa Romans controlled the area north of the Sahara, from the Atlantic Ocean to Egypt, with many sections of limes (Limes Tripolitanus, Limes Numidiae, etc.).


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: The "Fossatum Africae" ("African ditch") of at least 750 km controlled the southern borders of the Empire and had many similarities of construction to Hadrian's Wall.


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: There are similar, but shorter, "fossatae" in other parts of North Africa. Between the Matmata and Tabaga ranges in modern Tunisia there is a "fossatum" which was duplicated during World War II. There also appears to be a 20-km. "fossatum" at Bou Regreg in Morocco although this would not have been within the scope of the proclamation of the "Codex Theodosianus" because at that time the province was not in Africa, administratively speaking.


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: In the south of Mauritania Tingitana the frontier in the third century lay just north of Casablanca near Sala and stretched to Volubilis.


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: Septimius Severus expanded the "Limes Tripolitanus" dramatically, even briefly holding a military presence in the Garamantian capital Garama in 203 AD. Much of the initial campaigning success was achieved by Quintus Anicius Faustus, the legate of Legio III Augusta.


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: Following his African conquests, the Roman Empire may have reached its greatest extent during the reign of Septimius Severus, under whom the empire encompassed an area of 2 million square miles ( million square kilometers).


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: Fossatum Africae ("African ditch") is a linear defensive structure ("limes") that extended over 750 km or more in northern Africa constructed during the Roman Empire to defend and control the southern borders of the Empire in the Roman province of Africa. It is considered to have many similarities of construction to Hadrian's Wall at the northern border of the Empire in Britain.


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: Generally the Fossatum consists of a ditch and earth embankments on either side using the material from the ditch. Sometimes the embankments are supplemented by dry stone walls on one or both sides; rarely, there are stone walls without a ditch. The width of the Fossatum is generally 3–6 m but in exceptional cases may be as much as 20 m. Wherever possible, it or its highest wall is constructed on the counterscarp.


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: Excavations near Gemellae showed the depth there to be 2–3 m, with a width of 1 m at the bottom widening to 2–3 m at the top.


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: The Fossatum is accompanied by many small watchtowers and numerous forts, often built within sight of one another.


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: The Limes Arabicus was the frontier of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea, facing the desert. It runs from the Gulf of Aqaba to northern Syria, for about 1,500 kilometers (930 mi) at its greatest extent


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: The "Limes Saxoniae" in Holstein was established in 810 AD, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Charlemagne considered his empire (later called the Carolingian Empire) as the true successor to the Roman Empire and called himself "Emperor of the Romans". Official edicts were issued in Latin, which affected the naming of the Empire's frontier as well.


title: Limes (Roman Empire)

text: • The Antonine Romans Novellas by Andrew Boyce is set in AD144, with The Antonine Wall location, Caledonia, modern day Scotland.


title: Direct debit

text: A direct debit or direct withdrawal is a financial transaction in which one organisation withdraws funds from a payer's bank account.|https://www.directdebit.co.uk/direct-debit-explained/what-is-direct-debit/ Formally, the organisation that calls for the funds ("the payee") instructs their bank to collect (i.e., debit) an amount directly from another's ("the payer's") bank account designated by the payer and pay those funds into a bank account designated by the payee. Before the payer's banker will allow the transaction to take place, the payer must have advised the bank that they have authorized the payee to directly draw the funds. It is also called pre-authorized debit (PAD) or pre-authorized payment (PAP). After the authorities are set up, the direct debit transactions are usually processed electronically.


title: Direct debit

text: Direct debits are typically used for recurring payments, such as credit card and utility bills, where the payment amounts vary from one payment to another. However, when the authorization is in place, the circumstances in which the funds are drawn as well as the dates and amounts are a matter of agreement between the payee and payer, with which the bankers are not concerned.


title: Direct debit

text: In countries where setting up authorization is easy enough, direct debits can also be used for irregular payments, such as for mail order transactions or at a point of sale. The payer can cancel the authorization for a direct debit at any time, and the banker can decline to carry out a debit if the transaction would breach the terms of the bank account out of which payment is to be made, for example if it were to cause the account to overdraw. (Banking law does not authorize a bank to alter the payment amount.)


title: Direct debit

text: A direct debit instruction differs from a direct deposit and standing order instruction, which are initiated by the payer. A standing order involves fixed payment amounts paid periodically, while a direct debit can be of any amount and can be casual or periodic. They also should not be confused with a continuous payment authority, where the payee collects money whenever it feels it is owed.


title: Direct debit

text: Direct debits are available in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Direct debits are made under each country's rules, and are usually restricted to domestic transactions in those countries. An exception in this respect is the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) which allows for Euro-denominated cross-border (and domestic) direct debits since November 2010. In the United States, direct debits are processed through the Automated Clearing House network.


title: Direct debit

text: Alastair Hanton, a British banker and maths graduate, found that traditional banking methods of paying in cheques were incredibly costly. His answer was to gain permission from customers to take payment directly from their bank account. After six years of campaigning, the high-street banks finally agreed in 1964. By the end of the decade, the savings made using this method meant that direct debit had come into general use in the UK.


title: Direct debit

text: A direct debit instruction must in all cases be supported by some sort of authorization for the payee to collect funds from the payer's account. There are generally two methods to set up the authorization:


title: Direct debit

text: One method involves only the payer and the payee, with the payer authorizing the payee to collect amounts due on his or her account. However, the payer can instruct his or her bank to return any direct debit note without giving a reason. In that event, the payee has to pay all fees for the transaction and may eventually lose his or her ability to initiate direct debits if this occurs too often. However, it still requires all the account holders (not merely the payer) to watch statements and request returns if necessary, unless they have instructed their bank to block all direct debits.


title: Direct debit

text: The other method requires the payer to instruct his or her bank to honour direct debit notes from the payee. The payee is then notified that he or she is now authorised to initiate direct debit transfers from the payer. While this is more secure in theory, it can also mean for the payer that it is harder to return debit notes in the case of an error or dispute.


title: Direct debit

text: In all countries, fees for direct debits are much lower than for credit cards. Credit cards charge a percentage of the transaction (2.5% to 3%) and sometimes a per-transaction fee (about $0.25). In contrast, direct debit fees are $0.15 to $0.20 per transaction on the U.S.’s Automated Clearing House (ACH) network, and £0.20 to £0.40 per transaction on the U.K.’s New Payment System Operator (NPSO) network. Fees vary between providers. Some offer flat rates while others have additional charges and monthly or yearly fees.


title: Direct debit

text: In Europe, the SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) and SEPA Credit Transfer payment schemes are available in each SEPA country for payments within the Eurozone.


title: Direct debit

text: SEPA Direct Debit initially worked alongside national direct debit schemes until 1 August 2014. From that date, only SEPA Direct Debit was permitted for collecting euro-denominated payments in the EU. In October 2016, SDD and IBAN became the mandatory methods for euro transfers in all of the EU and EEA, but not mandatory for transfers in other currencies.


title: Direct debit

text: Direct Debit is a payment method for recurring payments in the UK. It is the third most popular payment method in the UK, after cash and debit card, according to Payments UK. Bacs Payment Schemes Limited is the organisation with responsibility for the Direct Debit scheme.


title: Direct debit

text: Direct Debit was invented by Alastair Hanton while he was working at Unilever as a way of collecting payments more efficiently. It commenced operation, as a paper-based system, in 1964.


title: Direct debit

text: Direct Debit accounts for the payment of 73% of household bills and almost nine out of ten British adults have at least one Direct Debit commitment. In fact, in 2015 nearly 3.9 billion Direct Debits were processed, representing a year-on-year increase of 239 million which surpasses the previous record for annual growth of 161 million, set in 2004. 4.07 billion Direct Debits were processed in 2016, an increase of 4.9% from 2015. Payments UK predicts the figure is expected to rise to 4.4 billion by 2026.


title: Direct debit

text: To set up payments by Direct Debit, the payer must complete a Direct Debit Instruction to the merchant. This instruction contains bank-approved wording that makes it clear the payer is setting up an ongoing authority for the merchant to debit their account. The interface for completing the Direct Debit Instruction is controlled by the merchant, who then sends the data from the form to the customer's bank, via Bacs.


title: Direct debit

text: The UK Direct Debit scheme rules allow for Direct Debit Instructions to be completed in several ways:


title: Direct debit

text: All UK payments collected by Direct Debit are covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee, which is provided by the UK's banks and building societies.


title: Direct debit

text: Under the guarantee a payer is entitled to a full and immediate refund in the event of an error in the payment of a Direct Debit from their account. Where an error has occurred, refunds are paid immediately by the payer's bank, who will then attempt to recover the money from the merchant's bank, who in turn will attempt to recover the money charged back from the merchant.


title: Direct debit

text: Under the Direct Debit scheme rules, merchants have very few grounds to challenge a charge-back generated under the Direct Debit Guarantee. Instead, they can pursue any payments which they believe have been incorrectly refunded to the payer directly through the small claims court.


title: Direct debit

text: Before a company or organisation can collect payment by Direct Debit they need to be approved by a bank, or use a commercial bureau to collect direct debit payments on their behalf. This approval process ensures the company will be able to operate within the direct debit scheme rules and maintain the integrity of the scheme.


title: Direct debit

text: If a large number of customers complain about direct debits set up by a particular service user then the service user may lose its ability to set up direct debits.


title: Direct debit

text: Any direct debit instruction that has not been used to collect funds for over 13 months is automatically cancelled by the customer's bank (this is known as a "dormancy period"). This can cause problems when the mandate is used infrequently, for instance, taking a payment to settle the bill for a seldom-used credit card. If the credit card company has not collected a payment using the Direct Debit mandate for over 13 months the mandate may have been cancelled as dormant without the customer's knowledge, and the direct debit claim will fail.


title: Direct debit

text: The problem of direct debit fraud is extensive according to research by Liverpool Victoria Insurance which reveals that over 97,000 Britons have fallen victim to criminals setting up fraudulent direct debits from their accounts. An average of £540 goes missing before the customer notices. Direct debit payment fraud in 2010 accounted for around 10.6% of all identity fraud cases. The extent of direct debit scamming is set to grow to 41,000 cases a year by 2013, equating to a 57% rise.


title: Direct debit

text: However, the problem is exacerbated by some of the banks themselves for failing to implement any controls which prevent companies or fraudsters taking money from business and consumer accounts. The problem of cancelled and obsolete direct debits being wrongfully revived or re-implemented is estimated to cost UK consumers £385 million in 2010. For those customers who find out, it takes them on average four months to notice. Although no specific figures were collected it appears a substantial number of people lose considerable amounts of money annually because the obsolete direct debit is neither noticed nor recovered.


title: Direct debit

text: On 7 January 2008, Jeremy Clarkson found himself the subject of direct debit fraud after publishing his bank account and sort code details in his column in "The Sun" to make the point that public concern over the 2007 UK child benefit data scandal was unnecessary. He wrote, "All you'll be able to do with them is put money into my account. Not take it out. Honestly, I've never known such a palaver about nothing". Someone then used these details to set up a £500 direct debit to the charity Diabetes UK. In his next "Sunday Times" column, Clarkson wrote, "I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake."


title: Direct debit

text: Businesses and organisations collecting payments through Direct Debit are instructed by Bacs to take mandatory training. Whether businesses are collecting independently or through a bureau, their relevant staff need to understand the fundamentals of the payment method. Courses are available through Bacs or through accredited external training. There are only four recognised companies in the UK providing Bacs accredited training: Accountis (D+H), Bottomline Technologies, Clear Direct Debit and allpay.


title: Direct debit

text: In Canada, direct debit payments are often referred to as Pre-Authorized Debits (PADs). PADs work over a computerized network through Payment Canada’s federally-secured Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS). This network connects all of Canada’s financial institutions.


title: Direct debit

text: In Germany, banks generally have been providing direct debit ("elektronisches Lastschriftverfahren (ELV)", "Lastschrift", "Bankeinzug") using both methods since the advent of so-called "Giro" accounts in the 1950s.


title: Direct debit

text: The "Einzugsermächtigung" ("direct debit authorisation") just requires the customer to authorize the payee to make the collection. This can happen in written form, orally, by e-mail or through a web interface set up by the payee. Although organisations are generally required not to instruct their banks to make unauthorised collections, this is usually not verified by the banks involved. Customers can instruct their bank to return the debit note within at least six weeks.


title: Direct debit

text: This method is very popular within Germany as it allows quick and easy payments, and it is suited even for one-time payments. A customer might just give the authorisation at the same time she or he orders goods or services from an organisation. Compared to payments by credit cards, which allow similar usage, bank fees for successful collections are much lower. Often retailers such as supermarkets will process Girocards as direct debit (ELV) transactions after performing a real-time risk analysis when the card is swiped. This is possible because the bank account number and routing code of the giro account form part of every Girocard's card number (PAN), similar to early 1990s 19 digit Switch card numbers. The customer agrees to the direct debit by signing the back of the receipt, which normally contains a long contractual text that also allows the retailer to contact the customer's bank and get their address in the case the debit is returned ("Rücklastschrift"). Direct debits are practically free for the retailer, allowing them to save the Girocard interchange fees (approx. 0.3%) that would be associated with PIN based transactions, but incur a higher risk as the payment can be returned for any reason for up to 45 days. Therefore, they are used usually for returning customers that have already had successful Girocard (PIN-verified) transactions at the same store or are purchasing low-risk or small-ticket items.


title: Direct debit

text: To prevent abuse, account holders must watch their bank statements and ask their bank to return unauthorised (or wrong) debit notes. As fraudulent direct debit instructions are easily traced, abuse is rare. However, there can be issues when the amount billed and collected is incorrect or unexpectedly large. There have also been cases of fraudulent direct debit where the defrauders tried to collect very small individual sums from large numbers of accounts, in the hope that most account holders would be slow to raise an issue about such small sums, giving the defrauders enough time to withdraw the collected money and disappear.


title: Direct debit

text: The "Abbuchungsauftrag" ("posting off") requires the customer to instruct his or her bank to honour debit notes from the organisation. Direct debits made with this method are verified by the customer's bank and therefore can not be returned. As it is less convenient, it is rarely used, usually only in business-to-business relationships.


title: Direct debit

text: In the Netherlands, as in Germany, an account holder can authorize a company to collect direct debit payments, without notifying the bank. This process is very common, with as many as 45% of all banking transactions conducted via direct debit.


title: Direct debit

text: A transaction can be ongoing, or one time only. For both types collecting organizations must enter into a direct debit ("automatische incasso") contract with their bank. For each transaction the name and account number of the account holder must be provided. The collecting organisation can then collect from any account, provided there is enough money in the account and no block is set against direct debit from the collecting organisation.


title: Direct debit

text: Transactions can be contested, depending on the type of transaction, time since the transaction and the basis of dispute. Authorized transactions of the ongoing type can be recalled directly via the bank of the account holder within the 56 days (8 weeks) since the transaction, with the exception of transactions relating to games of chance and perishables. Authorized one-time only transactions can be recalled via the bank within 5 days. Unauthorized transactions can be contested via the bank within a limited time period after the transaction.


title: Direct debit

text: Another security measure is a "selective block" whereby the customer can instruct the bank to disallow direct debits to a specified account number. Blanket blocks are also available.


title: Direct debit

text: In Poland, direct debit is operated by KIR (Krajowa Izba Rozliczeniowa) and participating banks as one of the functionalities of the Elixir clearing system. The payer has to authorize the payee by filling, signing and submitting a standardized paper form in two copies. One copy, after filling in payee details and a customer identification number, is sent by the payee to the payer's bank, which verifies the signature. From now on, the payee may debit the payer's account. Since 24 Oct 2012 it is also possible to submit such authorization through the payer's bank, often also online.


title: Direct debit

text: In case of cancelling a transaction, funds are immediately returned to the payer's account. Interest is also adjusted as if the transaction never happened.


title: Direct debit

text: Collecting fees through direct debit is supported mostly by companies such as telecom, insurance and utility companies and banks themselves but it is not widely used by consumers because of the bureaucracy involved in setting direct debits up.


title: Direct debit

text: The direct debit system in Ireland was previously operated by the Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO) until its integration with the Irish Banking Federation (IBF) in 2014, forming the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BFPI).


title: Direct debit

text: Direct debit instructions can be given in writing, by telephone or online. There are protections for the holder of the account being debited in the event of a dispute. The Irish payment system was replaced by the SEPA Direct Debit Core Scheme (SDD) following the conversion of all legacy credit transfer and direct debit systems to the Eurozone-wide SEPA system on 1 February 2014.


title: Direct debit

text: Direct debit is preferred payment method for recurring household payments in Denmark. The service, launched back in the early seventies, is called "Betalingsservice" and is used by about 96% of the Danish households.


title: Direct debit

text: Direct debit is a very common payment option in Japan. When signing up for a service, such as telephone, a customer is usually asked to enter their bank details on the service submission form, to set up for automatic payments, and the company they are signing up to will take care of the rest. Sometimes, but not always, the customer is offered the possibility to enter credit card details instead of bank account details, to have the money directly debited from credit card instead of bank account.


title: Direct debit

text: In Malaysia, the direct debit system is available via the product known as FPX – Financial Process Exchange. FPX supports online direct debit as well as batch direct debit.


title: Direct debit

text: Supported by Bank Negara Malaysia and the local financial institutions, FPX is operated by FPX Payment Gateway Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary company of Malaysian Electronic Payment System (1997) Sdn Bhd (MEPS).


title: Direct debit

text: In Australia, direct debit is performed through the direct entry system also known as BECS (Bulk Electronic Clearing System) or CS2, managed by the Australian Payments Network Limited. An account holder can authorise a company to collect direct debit payments, without notifying the bank, but direct debit is not available on all financial accounts.


title: Direct debit

text: A common example of direct debit is authorising a credit card company to debit a bank account for the monthly balance.


title: Direct debit

text: Many smaller companies do not have direct debit facilities themselves, and a third-party payment service must be used to interface between the biller and the customer's bank. For this a small charge (typically $1–2 per transaction, incorporated into the bill amount) is made by the payment service.


title: Direct debit

text: Direct credit and debit instructions are only available to institutional customers. Direct credit instructions are used for payrolls and other large scale regular payments. Direct debit instructions are used by insurance companies, utilities and other large organisations which receive regular payments. Although governed by APCA rules, the actual exchanges of instructions occur through bilateral exchanges. There is no central "clearinghouse" for bulk direct entry payment instructions.


title: Direct debit

text: In the United States, direct debit usually means an Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer from a bank account to a biller, initiated by the biller.


title: Direct debit

text: In South Africa direct debits, also known as debit orders, are performed through the ACB (Automated Clearing Bureau). An account holder can authorise a company to collect direct debit payments. The client signs a debit mandate form giving the requesting company permission to debit their account with a fixed or variable monthly value. This value can be recurring or once-off. This is an effective, safe and more cost effective alternative to receiving money in cash, by cheque or EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer).


title: Direct debit

text: There are three types of commonly used debit orders in South Africa: EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer), NAEDO (Non-authenticated Early Debit Order) and AEDO (Authenticated Early Debit Order).


title: Direct debit

text: A new payment stream introduced by the South African Reserve Bank in 2017, called AC or Authenticated Collections replaced the previous NAEDO payment stream with the purpose to reduce customer disputes and abuse of the debit order system. The AC payment stream is known to consumers as DebiCheck.


title: Direct debit

text: In Sweden, direct debit is available, called "Autogiro". The amount is withdrawn from the payer's account on the payee's request without specification. The approval is done once without time limit for each payer/payee combination, but can be withdrawn at any time. The request is normally sent through a form from the payer to the payee, but in the internet bank it is also possible to request it. "Autogiro" should not be confused with the electronic billing system "E-faktura" although some banks let the payer instruct the bank to automatically pay received electronic bills on their due date without the customer having to log in to the internet bank and authorize the payment.


title: Direct debit

text: The setup of a direct debit is by signed authority to the bank. Depending on the proposition of the bank, the direct debit is claimed and may or may not require authorisation. Some banks allow a limit to be put in place for automatic approval.


title: Direct debit

text: In Turkey, direct debits are widely used, for utility and credit card payments, as well as commercial transactions. However, whereas in other countries the payee instructs his/her bank to make a collection, in Turkey the payer needs to authorise his/her bank directly. The usage differs from standing orders, as payment amounts are not fixed and payments need not be periodical (i.e. payments can be of any amount and can be casual or periodic).


title: Direct debit

text: Authorized Direct Debit (DDA) is a system in Brazil created by Febraban (Brazilian Federation of Banks) and associated Brazilian banks that replaces the issuance of printed payment slips with the electronic collection of obligations. It was implemented on October 10, 2009.


title: House of Châteaudun

text: The House of Châteaudun descended from Gauzfred I (or Geoffrey I) whom Count Theobald I of Blois made viscount of Châteaudun in 956. Recent research makes him a direct-line agnatic descendant of the Frankish family Rorgonides.


title: House of Châteaudun

text: The House of Châteaudun split in distinct branches. Descended from Fulcuich, probably the second son of Gauzfred I, were:


title: House of Châteaudun

text: It is not clear whether Hugh, Archbishop of Tours, and Adalaud of Château-Chinon are sons or grandsons of Geoffrey I of Châteaudun. Some sources say that Geoffrey had a son called Hugh, who was himself viscount of Châteaudun, and both the Archbishop of Tours and the Lord of Château-Chinon would in turn be his sons. The number of people called "Hugh" who were viscounts of Châteaudun is thus unclear, and the numbering of each viscount with this name could be wrong by 1. <br>


title: House of Châteaudun

text: The parentage of Fulcois is also disputed. Some sources put him as the son of Geoffrey I of Châteaudun. Others claim he was his grandson-in-law through marriage to a granddaughter of Geoffrey called Melisende.


title: Sella turcica

text: The sella turcica (Latin for 'Turkish saddle') is a saddle-shaped depression in the body of the sphenoid bone of the human skull and of the skulls of other hominids including chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. It serves as a cephalometric landmark. The pituitary gland or hypophysis is located within the most inferior aspect of the sella turcica, the hypophyseal fossa.


title: Sella turcica

text: The sella turcica is located in the sphenoid bone behind the chiasmatic groove and the tuberculum sellae. It belongs to the middle cranial fossa.


title: Sella turcica

text: The sella turcica's most inferior portion is known as the hypophyseal fossa (the "seat of the saddle"), and contains the pituitary gland (hypophysis). In front of the hypophyseal fossa is the tuberculum sellae.


title: Sella turcica

text: Completing the formation of the saddle posteriorly is the dorsum sellae, which is continuous with the clivus, inferoposteriorly. The dorsum sellae is terminated laterally by the posterior clinoid processes.


title: Sella turcica

text: It is widely believed that the development of the diaphragma sellae is a factor which determines the morphology of the sella turcica and its contents.


title: Sella turcica

text: Since the sella turcica forms a bony caudal border for the pituitary gland, a pituitary tumor usually extends upward in the rostral direction into the suprasellar region. This can result in compression of the optic chiasm, which lies on top of the pituitary, enveloping the pituitary stalk. Compression of the optic chiasm can lead to bitemporal hemianopsia, and, when there is no relevant trauma, this clinical finding is pathognomonic for a pituitary tumor.


title: Sella turcica

text: Some pituitary adenomas can extend inferiorly, growing downward and invading the sphenoid bone and cavernous sinus. Large adenomas can cause remodeling of the underlying sphenoid bone altering the shape of the sella turcica.


title: Sella turcica

text: Sella turcica is also usually used as a reference point with nasion to establish the base of the skull in cephalometric analysis. This is commonly done prior to orthodontic treatment.


title: Capsella bursa-pastoris

text: Capsella bursa-pastoris, known as shepherd's purse because of its triangular flat fruits, which are purse-like, is a small annual and ruderal flowering plant in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). It is native to eastern Europe and Asia minor, but is naturalized and considered a common weed in many parts of the world, especially in colder climates, including British Isles, where it is regarded as an archaeophyte, North America and China, but also in the Mediterranean and North Africa. "C. bursa-pastoris" is the second-most prolific wild plant in the world, and is common on cultivated ground and waysides and meadows.


title: Capsella bursa-pastoris

text: Scientists have referred to this species as a 'protocarnivore', since it has been found that its seeds attract and kill nematodes as a means to locally enrich the soil.


title: Capsella bursa-pastoris

text: "Capsella bursa-pastoris" plants grow from a rosette of lobed leaves at the base. From the base emerges a stem about tall, which bears a few pointed leaves which partly grasp the stem. The flowers, which appear in any month of the year in the British Isles, are white and small, in diameter, with four petals and six stamens. They are borne in loose racemes, and produce flattened, two-chambered seed pods known as silicles, which are triangular to heart-shaped, each containing several seeds.


title: Capsella bursa-pastoris

text: Like a number of other plants in several plant families, its seeds contain a substance known as mucilage, a condition known as myxospermy. Recently, this has been demonstrated experimentally to perform the function of trapping nematodes, as a form of 'protocarnivory'.


title: Capsella bursa-pastoris

text: "Capsella bursa-pastoris" is closely related to the model organism such as "Arabidopsis thaliana" and is also used as a model organism, due to the variety of genes expressed throughout its life cycle that can be compared to genes that are well studied in "A. thaliana". Unlike most flowering plants, it flowers almost all year round. Like other annual ruderals exploiting disturbed ground, "C. bursa-pastoris" reproduces entirely from seed, has a long soil seed bank, and short generation time, and is capable of producing several generations each year.


title: Capsella bursa-pastoris

text: It was formally described by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in his seminal publication "Species Plantarum" in 1753, and then published by Friedrich Kasimir Medikus in "Pflanzen-Gattungen" (Pfl.-Gatt.) on page 85 in 1792.


title: Capsella bursa-pastoris

text: William Coles wrote in his book, "Adam in Eden" (1657), "It is called Shepherd's purse or Scrip (wallet) from the likeness of the seed hath with that kind of leathearne bag, wherein Shepherds carry their Victualls [food and drink] into the field."


title: Capsella bursa-pastoris

text: In England and Scotland, it was once commonly called 'mother's heart', from which was derived a child's game/trick of picking the seed pod, which then would burst and the child would be accused of 'breaking his mother's heart'.


title: Capsella bursa-pastoris

text: "Capsella bursa-pastoris" gathered from the wild or cultivated has many uses, including for food, to supplement animal feed, for cosmetics, and in traditional medicine—reportedly to stop bleeding. The plant can be eaten raw; the leaves are best when gathered young. Native Americans ground it into a meal and made a beverage from it.


title: Capsella bursa-pastoris

text: It is cultivated as a commercial food crop in Asia. In China, where it is known as "jìcài" (; ) it is commonly used in food in Shanghai and the surrounding Jiangnan region. The savory leaf is stir-fried with rice cakes and other ingredients or as part of the filling in wontons. It is one of the ingredients of the symbolic dish consumed in the Japanese spring-time festival, "Nanakusa-no-sekku". In Korea, it is known as "naengi" () and used as a root vegetable in the characteristic Korean dish, namul (fresh greens and wild vegetables).


title: Object Pascal

text: Object Pascal is an extension to the programming language Pascal that provides object-oriented programming (OOP) features such as classes and methods.


title: Object Pascal

text: The language was originally developed by Apple Computer as "Clascal" for the Lisa Workshop development system. As Lisa gave way to Macintosh, Apple collaborated with Niklaus Wirth, the author of Pascal, to develop an officially standardized version of Clascal. This was renamed Object Pascal. Through the mid-1980s, Object Pascal was the main programming language for early versions of the MacApp application framework. The language lost its place as the main development language on the Mac in 1991 with the release of the C++-based MacApp 3.0. Official support ended in 1996.


title: Object Pascal

text: Symantec also developed a compiler for Object Pascal for their Think Pascal product, which could compile programs much faster than Apple's own Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW). Symantec then developed the Think Class Library (TCL), based on MacApp concepts, which could be called from both Object Pascal and THINK C. The Think suite largely displaced MPW as the main development platform on the Mac in the late 1980s.


title: Object Pascal

text: Symantec ported Object Pascal to the PC, and developed a similar object framework on that platform. In contrast to TCL, which eventually migrated to C++, the PC libraries remained mainly based on Pascal.


title: Object Pascal

text: Borland added support for object-oriented programming to Turbo Pascal 5.5, which would eventually become the basis for the Object Pascal dialect used in Delphi. Delphi remained mainstream for business applications on the PC into the early 2000s, and was partly displaced in the 2000s with the introduction of the .NET Framework.


title: Object Pascal

text: Pascal became a major language in the programming world in the 1970s, with high-quality implementations on most minicomputer platforms and microcomputers. Among the later was the UCSD Pascal system, which compiled to an intermediate "p-System" code format that could then run on multiple platforms. Apple licensed UCSD and used it as the basis for their Apple Pascal system for the Apple II and Apple III.


title: Object Pascal

text: Pascal became one of the major languages in the company in this period. With the start of the Apple Lisa project, Pascal was selected as the main programming language of the platform, although this time as a "compiler" in contrast to the p-System "interpreter".


title: Object Pascal

text: Object Pascal is an extension of the Pascal language that was developed at Apple Computer by a team led by Larry Tesler in consultation with Niklaus Wirth, the inventor of Pascal. It is descended from an earlier object-oriented version of Pascal named Clascal, which was available on the Lisa computer.


title: Object Pascal

text: Object Pascal was needed to support MacApp, an expandable Macintosh application framework that would now be termed a class library. Object Pascal extensions, and MacApp, were developed by Barry Haynes, Ken Doyle, and Larry Rosenstein, and were tested by Dan Allen. Larry Tesler oversaw the project, which began very early in 1985 and became a product in 1986.


title: Object Pascal

text: An Object Pascal extension was also implemented in the Think Pascal integrated development environment (IDE). The IDE includes the compiler and an editor with syntax highlighting and checking, a powerful debugger, and a class library. Many developers preferred Think Pascal over Apple's implementation of Object Pascal because Think Pascal offered a much faster compile–link–debug cycle, and tight integration of its tools. The last official release of Think Pascal was 4.01, in 1992. Symantec later released an unofficial version 4.5d4 at no charge.


title: Object Pascal

text: Apple dropped support for Object Pascal when they moved from Motorola 68000 series chips to IBM's PowerPC architecture in 1994. MacApp 3.0, had already been rewritten in C++ and ported to this platform.


title: Object Pascal

text: Metrowerks offered with CodeWarrior an Object Pascal compiler for Macintosh that targeted both 68k and PowerPC, both in their IDE and as MPW tools. Macintosh developers using Object Pascal had a path to port to the PowerPC, even architecture after both Apple and Symantec dropped support. MacApp 2.0, written in Object Pascal, was ported to the PowerPC using CodeWarrior.


title: Object Pascal

text: In 1986, Borland introduced similar extensions, also named Object Pascal, to the Turbo Pascal product for the Macintosh, and in 1989 for Turbo Pascal 5.5 for DOS. When Borland refocused from DOS to Windows in 1994, they created a successor to Turbo Pascal, named Delphi, and introduced a new set of extensions to create what is now known as the Delphi language.


title: Object Pascal

text: The development of Delphi started in 1993 and Delphi 1.0 was officially released in the United States on 14 February 1995. While code using the Turbo Pascal object model could still be compiled, Delphi featured a new syntax using the keyword codice_1 in preference to codice_2, the Create constructor and a virtual Destroy destructor (and negating having to call the codice_3 and codice_4 procedures), properties, method pointers, and some other things. These were inspired by the ISO working draft for object-oriented extensions, but many of the differences from Turbo Pascal's dialect (such as the draft's requirement that all methods be virtual) were ignored.


title: Object Pascal

text: The Delphi language has continued to evolve over the years to support constructs such as dynamic arrays, generics and anonymous methods. The old object syntax introduced by Apple ("Old-Style Object Types") is still supported.


title: Object Pascal

text: Pascal Script (formerly "InnerFuse") and DWScript (Delphi Web Script) are open-source Object Pascal interpreters and scripting engines written in Delphi. They support subsets of Object Pascal. DWScript can also compile Object Pascal code into JavaScript code (Smart Pascal), and supports just-in-time compilation (JIT). Modern Pascal provides 3 different interpreters: a command-line interface (CLI), Apache Module (Celerity), and CodeRunner (node.js like solution able to handle different scripts per port), besides the ability to compile and protect a script's source code.


title: Object Pascal

text: Still supported in Delphi and Free Pascal. FPC also packages its own substitutes for the libraries/units. Delphi doesn't. The Free Pascal 1.0 series and the FPC textmode IDE are the largest open codebases in this dialect. Free Pascal 2.0 was rewritten in a more Delphi-like dialect, and the textmode IDE and related frameworks (Free Vision) are the only parts in the TP version of Object Pascal.


title: Object Pascal

text: The method implementation can also be made in a distinct location as in other Object Pascal dialects.


title: Object Pascal

text: Many features have been introduced continuously to Object Pascal with extensions to Delphi and extensions to FreePascal. In reaction to criticism, Free Pascal has adopted generics with the same syntax as Delphi, provided Delphi compatibility mode is selected, and both Delphi (partial) and Free Pascal (more extensive) support operator overloading. Delphi has also introduced many other features since version 7, including generics. Whereas FreePascal tries to be compatible to Delphi in Delphi compatibility mode, it also usually introduced many new features to the language that are not always available in Delphi.


title: Manager (association football)

text: In association football, the manager is the person who runs a football club or a national team. They have wide-ranging responsibilities, including selecting the team, choosing the tactics, recruiting and transferring players, negotiating player contracts, and speaking to the media.


title: Manager (association football)

text: The role exists almost exclusively in the British Isles; in other regions its responsibilities are split between a head coach and a director of football. In the 21st century some British clubs adopted a similar split, but often continue to use the title of 'manager' for their head coach.


title: Manager (association football)

text: The manager's responsibilities in a professional football club usually include (but are not limited to) the following:


title: Manager (association football)

text: Some of the above responsibilities may be shared with a director of football or sporting director, and are at times delegated to an assistant manager or club coach.


title: Manager (association football)

text: The title of manager is almost exclusively used in British football. In most other European countries in which professional football is played, the person responsible for the direction of a team is awarded the position of coach or "trainer". For instance, despite the general equivalence in responsibilities, Gareth Southgate is referred to as the manager of England, and Hansi Flick is described as the head coach of Germany. Germany also has a team manager role that is subordinate to the head coach and is currently held by Oliver Bierhoff.


title: Manager (association football)

text: The responsibilities of a European football manager or head coach tend to be divided up in North American professional sports, where the teams usually have a separate general manager and head coach (known as a field manager in baseball), although occasionally a person may fill both these roles. While the first team coach in football is usually an assistant to the manager who actually holds the real power, the North American-style general manager and head coach have clearly distinct areas of responsibilities. For example, a typical European football manager has the final say on in-game decisions (including player line-ups), and off-the-field and roster management decisions (including contract negotiations). In North American sports, those duties would be handled separately by the head coach and general manager, respectively.


title: Luisa Mattioli

text: Luisa Mattioli (23 March 1936 – October 2021) was an Italian actress. She was active in cinema and television during the 1950s and 1960s, and was notably the third wife of Roger Moore.


title: Luisa Mattioli

text: Mattioli met Roger Moore in 1961 while filming "Romulus and the Sabines". However, Moore was married to Dorothy Squires at the time, and the couple was not able to get married until 11 April 1969. The couple had three children: Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian. The two separated in 1993 and divorced in 2000.


title: Pope Paul II

text: Pope Paul II (; ; 23 February 1417 – 26 July 1471), born Pietro Barbo, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States


title: Pope Paul II

text: from 30 August 1464 to his death in July 1471. When his maternal uncle Eugene IV became pope, Barbo switched from training to be a merchant to religious studies. His rise in the Church was relatively rapid. Elected pope in 1464, Paul amassed a great collection of art and antiquities.


title: Pope Paul II

text: Pietro Barbo was born in Venice, the son of Niccolo and Polixena Condulmer Barbo. His mother was the sister of Pope Eugenius IV (1431–1447). Through his father he was a member of the noble Barbo family. His adoption of the spiritual career, after having been trained as a merchant, was prompted by his uncle's election as pope. His consequent promotion was rapid. He became Archdeacon of Bologna, and Bishop of Cervia and of Vicenza, and in 1440 became a cardinal-deacon. Barbo gained popularity through his generosity. He boasted that if elected pope he would buy each cardinal a villa to escape the summer heat.


title: Pope Paul II

text: After having been lay abbot of Santa Maria in Sylvis since 1441, in 1445 he succeeded Giuliano Cesarini as archpriest of the Vatican Basilica. Barbo was very influential under Eugene IV, Nicholas V, and Calixtus III, but less so under Pius II. Barbo had a marked propensity to enjoy dressing up in sumptuous ecclesiastical finery.


title: Pope Paul II

text: Barbo was elected to succeed Pope Pius II by the accessus in the first ballot of the papal conclave of 30 August 1464 with a majority of fourteen of the nineteen cardinals present. He owed his election in part to the dissatisfaction of some of the cardinals with the policy of his predecessor.


title: Pope Paul II

text: Upon taking office, Paul II was to convene an ecumenical council within three years. But these terms of subscription were modified by Paul II at his own discretion, and this action lost him the confidence of the College of Cardinals. The justification for setting aside the capitulations, seen to be under way by the Duke of Milan's ambassador as early as 21 September, lay in connecting any abridgement of the Pope's absolute monarchy in the Papal States with a consequent abridgement of his sole authority in spiritual matters. Almost from his coronation, Paul withdrew and became inaccessible: audiences were only granted at night and even good friends waited a fortnight to see him. His suspiciousness was widely attested.


title: Pope Paul II

text: Paul wore rouge in public. The story of Cardinal Ammanati that he meant to take the name Formosus II (meaning "handsome"), after Pope Formosus, but was persuaded not to, is more often repeated than the story that he was dissuaded from "Marcus", being Venetian and the Cardinal of San Marco, because it was also the war-cry of Venice. He had a papal tiara made for his own use studded with "diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, topaz, large pearls, and every kind of precious gem". He built the Palazzo San Marco (now the Palazzo Venezia) and lived there even as pope, amassing a great collection of art and antiquities.


title: Pope Paul II

text: A sore point was his abuse of the practice of creating cardinals "in pectore", without publishing their names. Eager to raise new cardinals to increase the number who were devoted to his interests, but restricted by the terms of the capitulation, which gave the college a voice in the creation of new members, in the winter of 1464–65 Paul created two secret cardinals both of whom died before their names could be published. In his fourth year as Pope, he created eight new cardinals on 18 September 1467. Five were candidates pressed by kings, placating respectively James II of Cyprus, Edward IV of England, Louis XI of France, Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and Ferdinand I of Naples; one was the able administrator of the Franciscans; and the last two elevated his old tutor and a first cardinal-nephew. Two further cardinal-nephews were added on 21 November 1468. In a sign of his increasing secretiveness and paranoia, he added two more cardinals secretly at the same consistory, and four more at the beginning of 1471, expecting to reveal them only in his testament.


title: Pope Paul II

text: Tensions came to the fore when in attempting to eliminate redundant offices, Paul II proceeded to annul the College of Abbreviators, whose function it was to formulate papal documents; a storm of indignation arose, inasmuch as rhetoricians and poets with humanist training, had long been accustomed to benefiting from employment in such positions. Paul proceeded as well against the Roman Academy. Bartolomeo Platina was a member of both and found his papal employment abruptly curtailed. He wrote a pamphlet insolently demanding the pope recall his restrictions, and was imprisoned in the winter of 1464, but released four months later.


title: Pope Paul II

text: In February 1468, when Rome was rife with political intrigue fomented by the Roman barons and the neighboring princes, Paul II arrested Platina and other members of the Academy on charges of irreligion, immorality, and an alleged conspiracy to assassinate the Pope. The prisoners were interrogated under torture and eventually released.


title: Pope Paul II

text: After his release on 7 July 1469, Platina expected to be again in the employ of Paul II, who, however, declined his services. Platina threatened vengeance and executed his threat, when at the suggestion of Pope Sixtus IV he later wrote his "Vitæ Pontificum Platinæ historici liber de vita Christi ac omnium pontificum qui hactenus ducenti fuere et XX" (1479). Not unaccountably, Platina set forth an unfavorable delineation of the character of Paul II.


title: Pope Paul II

text: Among other things, Platina reported that Pius II suggested Barbo should have been called "Maria Pietissima", as "when he could not obtain what he aimed at by praying, entreating, and requesting, he would join tears to his petitions to make them the sooner believed." Some historians have suggested the nickname may also have been a possible allusion to a perceived lack of masculinity, reflecting possible homosexuality. Platina also paints his enemy as cruel, and an archenemy of science. For centuries it influenced historical opinions until critical research proved otherwise.


title: Pope Paul II

text: Though Platina's writing after the conflict would tarnish the legacy of Paul II, the conflict would prove to have a greater effect on the intellectual environment of Rome. Peter Partner explains, "Probably its most important result was to convince men of letters that cultural conformity would be enforced in Rome." More tangibly, after the crackdown of Paul II, the Roman Academy took on a more religious flavour, turning in part to theology as a means of legitimizing its pursuits.


title: Pope Paul II

text: Pope Paul rejected George of Poděbrady (King George of Bohemia) because he upheld the conventions of the Council of Basel in favour of the Utraquists. In August 1465, Paul II summoned George before the Roman tribunal. When the King failed to come, Paul allied himself with the insurgents in Bohemia and released the King's subjects from their oath of allegiance. In December 1466, he pronounced the ban of excommunication and sentence of deposition against George. George's apologist, Gregory of Heimberg, subsequently accused Paul of immorality, a move that resulted in Gregory's own excommunication.


title: Pope Paul II

text: Just when the King's goodwill disposed the Pope in favor of reconciliation, Paul died suddenly of a heart attack on 26 July 1471. Reports of the death varied. Some claimed he had collapsed from severe indigestion after eating melon in excess. Some (mainly the pontiff's critics) said that he had died whilst being sodomized by a page boy. Nevertheless, his death resulted in the creation of a power vacuum in Central Europe – especially after Poděbrady himself died in March of that same year.


title: Pope Paul II

text: Although Paul II was a committed opponent of humanist learning, he oversaw and approved the introduction of printing into the Papal States, first at Subiaco in 1464 by Arnold Pannartz and Konrad Sweynheim, and at Rome itself in 1467. The result was that books and other documents became far more numerous and less expensive to procure than the previous handwritten manuscripts. Printing put the materials needed for an advanced education into the hands of more people than ever before, including an increasing number of laypeople. The output of printing presses at this period was, as a matter of course, subject to governmental scrutiny; during Paul II's reign, books produced in the Papal States were largely limited to Latin classical literature and ecclesiastical texts.


title: Pope Paul II

text: The chronicler Stefano Infessura's republican and anti-papal temper makes his diary a far from neutral though well-informed witness. But it is certain that although Paul II opposed the humanists, he yet provided for popular amusements: in 1466 he permitted the horse-race that was a feature of Carnival to be run along the main street, the Via Lata, which now became known from this annual event as the Via del Corso. So that nobody felt left out of the event, the Pope instituted races for boys, adult men, old people and Jews, with appropriate prizes for each group. He tried to reduce or stop blood feuds and vendettas in Italy, and to make sure that Jews were treated fairly. Paul II displayed an extravagant love of personal splendor that gratified his sense of self-importance. After his death Sixtus IV and a selected group of cardinals inspected the treasure laid up against expenditures against the Turks: they found 54 silver shells filled with pearls, to a value of 300,000 ducats, jewels and gold intended for refashioning, worth another 300,000 ducats, and a magnificent diamond worth 7,000 ducats, which was sent to Cardinal d'Estouteville to cover monies he had advanced to the pontiff. The coin was not immediately found. He had also amassed a collection of 800 gemstones.


title: Pope Paul II

text: William Francis Barry considers that his character was "misunderstood by the Italian courts which never dreamt that a Pope could be an honourable man".


title: Pope Paul II

text: In statecraft, Paul II lacked eminence and achieved nothing of consequence for Italy. In his own domain, however, he terminated the regime of the counts of Anguillara in 1465.


title: Klondike bar

text: A Klondike bar is a Good Humor-Breyers ice cream novelty consisting of a square of ice cream coated with a thin layer of chocolate.


title: Klondike bar

text: The Klondike bar was created by the Isaly Dairy Company of Mansfield, Ohio in the early 1920s and named after the Klondike River of Yukon, Canada. Rights to the name were eventually sold to Good Humor-Breyers, a division of Unilever.


title: Klondike bar

text: The first recorded advertisement for the Klondike was on February 5, 1922, in the "Youngstown Vindicator". The bars are generally wrapped with a silver-colored wrapper depicting a polar bear mascot for the brand. Unlike a traditional frozen ice pop, or traditional ice cream bar, the Klondike bar does not have a stick due to its size, a point often touted in advertising.


title: Klondike bar

text: In 1976, Henry Clarke, owner of the Clabir company, purchased the rights to the Klondike bar, which had been manufactured and sold by the Isaly's restaurant chain since the 1930s. Clarke introduced Klondike bars to consumers throughout the United States during the 1980s. Under Clarke, sales of the Klondike bar increased from $800,000 annually at the time of the 1976 acquisition by Clabir to more than $60 million.


title: Klondike bar

text: In 1986, the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals prohibited Kraft Foods from using a wrapper resembling the distinctive Klondike bar wrapper (its "trade dress") for Kraft's "Polar B'ar" brand ice cream bars. The following year, the US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the lower court ruling. In 1988, Kraft settled a trademark dispute with Ambrit Inc., as the former Isaly Company, Inc. was then known, for $8.5 million.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: Tyranny is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Paradox Interactive. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux on November 10, 2016.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: While not a sequel, "Tyranny" builds upon the gameplay and engine used in Obsidian's previous title "Pillars of Eternity", allowing the developers to spend more time on crafting a game where player choices have a more meaningful effect on the game's story. The game starts after the evil overlord Kyros has already conquered the world, and where the player-character, a Fatebinder, is one of the higher-ranked members in Kyros' power structure. As a Fatebinder, the player must travel the world to help restore order after Kyros' victory, and make decisions on how to handle the various factions of survivors, which can affect what companions, spells, and abilities the player may select from.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: "Tyranny" takes place on Terratus, a high fantasy world where technology is transitioning from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The Overlord Kyros, a god-like being of immeasurable power, is close to completing their over-400-year-long campaign to conquer Terratus and impose order, having already overtaken much of the land through force or intimidation. As part of Kyros' public persona, Kyros has remained unseen, leaving their subjects unsure if Kyros is male or female, a team, a title handed down in a dynasty, or a multi-headed beast. Beneath Kyros are the Archons, men and women imbued with strange and unique magical powers, made seemingly immortal by Kyros. Archons rule over regions, districts, armies, or individual groups on Kyros' behalf. Archons in "Tyranny" include executioner Bleden Mark, Archon of Shadows; the plague-spreading Pox, Archon of Ruin; the mighty Cairn, Archon of Stone; and Tunon the Adjudicator, Archon of Justice and creator of the Fatebinders. Fatebinders are high ranked agents in Kyros' forces, tasked to travel the world to restore order, reduce conflict, and maintain Kyros' rule, serving as judge, jury, and executioner.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: "Tyranny" takes place in the 431st year of Kyros' self-devised calendar in the region of the Tiers, the final major area to be conquered. There is a rebellion brewing due to infighting between Kyros' two main forces in the Tiers: the elite and disciplined Disfavored led by Graven Ashe, Archon of War; and the chaotic and barbarian Scarlet Chorus led by the Voices of Nerat, Archon of Secrets. The player takes the role of a Fatebinder, tasked by Kyros to quell the rebellion or be destroyed along with everyone else in Vendrien's Well.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: During the Fatebinder's quest, they can recruit a number of companions including: the mage Sirin, Archon of Song; the uncompromising Barik of the Stone Shields; the fierce warrior Verse; the sage Lantry; the water mage Eb; and the humanoid, feral beastwoman Kills-in-Shadow.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: The world of Tyranny also features a number of colossal ruins from a previous, unknown civilization. These include the Oldwalls, magically attuned spans of walls that run for hundreds of miles, and the Spires, monolithic towers that reach higher into the sky than most mountains. For reasons unknown, Kyros forbids entry to the Oldwalls on pain of death, but makes no explicit mention of the Spires.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: The game begins several years after the conquest of the Tiers, the last major region that resisted Kyros' rule. A new rebellion has risen in the Tiers kingdom of Apex, in the region of Vendrien's Well, and Kyros has grown angry with her armies' failure to quell it. The Fatebinder is dispatched to Vendrien's Well to resolve the bickering generals' disputes and end the siege of the rebel fortress, or every living thing in that region will be destroyed by one of Kyros' Edicts, a form of magical superweapon and one of the few ways Kyros directly enforces order throughout the realm. Working together with Graven Ashe, Archon of War and leader of the Disfavored, and the Voices of Nerat, Archon of Secrets and leader of the Scarlet Chorus, the Fatebinder fights their way through the rebel forces to reach their fortress of Ascension Hall. When the time comes to assault the fortress, however, the feud between the two Archons climaxes – after the Fatebinder chooses one of the two armies to lead the assault, the other declares war on the opposing army in outrage. Despite this sudden conflict, the Fatebinder penetrates Ascension Hall and ends the siege with the help of their chosen army. Alternatively the Fatebinder could have secretly allied themselves with the rebels and betrayed both Archons. However, after fulfilling the terms of the Edict and ending the siege, the diffused magic alters the Fatebinder in unforeseen ways.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: The Fatebinder finds themselves absorbing the power of Kyros' Edict and transported to the summit of the Mountain Spire, the monolithic ancient tower at the centre of Ascension Hall and one of many Spires that dot the Tiers and Northern Empire. The Fatebinder is the first person in recorded history to do so, causing much debate in Imperial and Tiersman circles. Meanwhile the feud between Ashe and Nerat boils over into a fullscale civil war, the 'War of Archons', with the Disfavored and Scarlet Chorus battling for control of the Tiers. Tunon summons the Fatebinder to his court in the Bastard City to account for their actions and tasks them with investigating both Archons for treason, as this civil war has jeopardized the pacification of the region. Allying themselves with one of the armies in the war, or neither and following their own path or fighting for the rebels, the Fatebinder sets out to discover the nature of their newfound power and their connection with the Spires, claiming new Spires and growing in power along the way.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: In the process of aiding in the war effort for either side, or acting to help the people of the Tiers or advance their own power, the Fatebinder finds themselves ending the three remaining Edicts of Kyros in the Tiers and absorbing their power. By killing the newborn Regent of Stalwart, or exploiting an ancient legal loophole renouncing her claims to the throne, the Fatebinder ends the Edict of Storms that had ravaged the Blade Grave. By destroying or claiming for themselves the Silent Archive of the Sages from the Burning Library, the Fatebinder ends the Edict of Fire. By killing the petrified Archon of Stone, Cairn, either by releasing his power in a pulse that made the land unlivable or by a safer method, the Fatebinder ends the Edict of Stone in the Stone Sea. Once these have been completed, enemy forces attack the Fatebinder's original Spire at Vendrien's Well. In order to defeat the enemy, the Fatebinder channels their new power into the resonator atop the Spire, casting their own Edict without Kyros – implying that Kyros' own power may have originated from the Spires.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: The Fatebinder's Edict breaks the enemy army, but new threats emerge. The fact that anyone other than the Overlord could cast an Edict spreads fear and awe across the world and the Fatebinder is now officially recognized by Kyros as an Archon – some ever whisper the possibility of a new Overlord. Kyros decrees that only one Archon in the Tiers may rule the territory and orders them to fight to the death or swear loyalty. Additionally, Tunon summons the Fatebinder to court once more, Bleden Mark, Archon of Shadows, makes plans to assassinate the Fatebinder, and Kyros silently dispatches additional armies under Pox, Archon of Ruin, to wipe out the remaining combatants.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: The Fatebinder can kill Ashe, Nerat and Bleden Mark individually or travel at once to Tunon's court to face justice. At the court the Fatebinder must first present their evidence for the guilt of one or both of the Archons – a guilty verdict results in their execution by Bleden Mark, if he still lives. The second court case is the Fatebinders, pleading the case for their treasonous actions in the Tiers. If the player successfully argues their case Tunon will declare the Fatebinder a greater servant of law and order than Kyros and pledge his fealty. Bleden Mark, if he still lives and has not been turned to the Fatebinder's cause, then attempts to kill the Fatebinder in Kyros' name. If the Fatebinder fails to convince Tunon, both he and Mark (if still alive) must be fought and killed.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: With all opposition in the Tiers defeated or in their service, it is uncovered that Kyros is sending another army to retake the Tiers from whatever Archon is left. The Fatebinder must either surrender or retaliate by casting an Edict on Kyros's capital. The edict devastates the Imperial Throne; thousands begin to doubt the Empire's power and flock to the Fatebinder's banner as a new Overlord. Pox's armies are given the order to retreat – a first for Kyros – and reinforce order as rebellions arise at home. If the Fatebinder surrenders and pledges loyalty, Kyros accepts the surrender and pulls the armies back, allowing the Fatebinder to rule over the Tiers as an Archon for the time being. The Fatebinder ponders on the future of the Tiers and the Empire as the game ends.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: "Tyranny" is a computer role-playing game (RPG) using isometric user interface similar to Obsidian's "Pillars of Eternity". Players take the role of the Fatebinder. The game opens in a board game-like Conquest mode that ties in with the character creation process. During Conquest mode, the player makes decisions on how the world was conquered by Kyros and the Fatebinder's role in that. These decisions affect the state of the game's world and how various non-playable characters (NPC) react to the Fatebinder, particularly the various factions with which the Fatebinder can become allies or foes. The Fatebinder character is class-less, instead allowing the player to define the character's strength and weaknesses through a skill-based system that is based on how frequent they use certain skills. The Fatebinder may gain NPC companions over the course of the game. The Fatebinder has abilities in combat that can be influenced by which factions the character is aligned with, as well as combination attacks with companion NPCs. The player is able to craft magic spells for the Fatebinder; each spell starts with a core attribute representing its elemental power such as fire or ice, and its appearance in use such as a directed bolt or a wide-range cone. From there, the player can add accents that affect the strength, range, and other factors of the spell. Each added accent costs lore (points earned in the game), thus limiting how powerful the crafted spell can be.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: Decisions made by the player both at character creation and later in the game affect the game's world, making some conversation tree choices critical. For example, a certain decision may cause a magical fissure to open through the center of one of the towns, killing some NPCs and forcing the other NPCs to relocate to a neighboring town, altering the NPCs' attitude towards the Fatebinder and what quests may be available. Due to the importance of these decisions, the player earns experience points for conversations as they would for participating in battles.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: "Tyranny" contains a number of options to adjust the difficulty of the game, in response to players' concerns from "Pillars of Eternity".


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: The key concepts of "Tyranny" started with ideas in Obsidian Entertainment for a role-playing game called "Fury" that they attempted to pitch in 2006, according to Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart. "Fury" would have featured a land ravaged by a "magical apocalypse". Obsidian refined this idea for a new game "Defiance" that they started pitching in 2009, which now featured a land where evil had already won. Several ideas from "Defiance" were used to craft a new concept for "Stormlands", a game the studio successfully pitched to Microsoft as a potential launch title for the Xbox One in 2012. Urquhart noted that "Stormlands" bore more resemblance to "Fury" than "Defiance" at this point. However, due to uncertainty in the video game market at that time, the game was canceled, and Obsidian was forced to release 30 of its employees and put the studio at serious financial instability; however, the studio held onto the rights for "Stormlands". Obsidian was able to recover financially through the Kickstarter-backed role-playing game, "Pillars of Eternity", which allowed them to return to the concepts from "Fury", "Defiance" and "Stormlands" and build out a new title, "Tyranny". Urquhart stated that, with "Tyranny", they refined the "Defiance" idea more to make sure that the player was clearly aware that evil has won and having their character being part of that conquest. Game director Brian Heins said they wanted to avoid the "moustache-twiddling" type of villainy in the game's concept, instead to allow the player to find a way for a villainous character to still become the hero of their own story. The developers also desired to make decisions made by the player have important ramifications, such as if the player opted to play as a "good" character acting against Kyros that they would find they would quickly make a lot of enemies by those decisions.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: "Tyranny" uses a modified version of the Unity engine used as the basis of "Pillars of Eternity". Heins said that since most of the technical issues of graphics and rendering were also solved with "Pillars", they were free to flesh out "a different type of [role-playing game]". "Tyranny" uses a skill-based growth system rather than a class-based one as with "Pillars". Heins said that they wanted to allow players to find ways to play a character they wanted instead of forced into a defined class. They also wanted to make sure that players could work to revamp characters mid-way through the game without penalty, avoiding the situation where a player may have built out a character that is difficult to use to progress into the late-game.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: Veteran designer Chris Avellone, who left Obsidian in June 2015, had worked on the early development of "Tyranny", according to Heins; Heins noted that "Some of the concepts of this [intellectual property] were constructed by Chris, some of the characters have the same names he gave them and the same ideas." Much of the game involves making human non-player-characters suffer under the Fatebinder's orders; according to director Brian Heins, the team was prepared to handle the type of depictions of these acts, as many had worked on "", which had similar levels of crude and vulgar humor.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: "Tyranny" was announced at the 2016 Game Developers Conference in March 2016, and was exhibited in a playable demonstration form at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 that June; the E3 demo included the same battle though presented from three different scenarios based on the choices the player would have made earlier in the game, as to demonstrate how these choices affected combat and gameplay.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: "Tyranny" has been released on Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux systems on November 10, 2016. In addition to the standard game, there are two special editions: the Archon edition includes the game's soundtrack and other digital art assets, while the Overlord edition further includes a digital artbook and collector's guide.


title: Tyranny (video game)

text: "Tyranny" received positive reviews upon its release; it is currently listed on Metacritic with a score of 80/100 based on 67 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Praise was given to the game's deep exploration of evil, as well as its world building and mysteries. Criticisms were leveled at its combat AI, and the abrupt end to the story.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) and Enhanced EDID (E-EDID) are metadata formats for display devices to describe their capabilities to a video source (e.g. graphics card or set-top box). The data format is defined by a standard published by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA).


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: The EDID data structure includes manufacturer name and serial number, product type, phosphor or filter type (as chromaticity data), timings supported by the display, display size, luminance data and (for digital displays only) pixel mapping data.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: DisplayID is a VESA standard targeted to replace EDID and E-EDID extensions with a uniform format suited for both PC monitor and consumer electronics devices.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: EDID structure (base block) versions range from v1.0 to v1.4; all these define upwards-compatible 128-byte structures. Version 2.0 defined a new 256-byte structure but it has been deprecated and replaced by E-EDID which supports multiple extension blocks. HDMI versions 1.0–1.3c use E-EDID v1.3.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Before Display Data Channel (DDC) and EDID were defined, there was no standard way for a graphics card to know what kind of display device it was connected to. Some VGA connectors in personal computers provided a basic form of identification by connecting one, two or three pins to ground, but this coding was not standardized.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: This problem is solved by EDID and DDC, as it enables the display to send information to the graphics card it is connected to. The transmission of EDID information usually uses the Display Data Channel protocol, specifically DDC2B, which is based on I²C-bus (DDC1 used a different serial format which never gained popularity). The data is transmitted via the cable connecting the display and the graphics card; VGA, DVI and HDMI are supported.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: The EDID is often stored in the monitor in the firmware chip called serial EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) and is accessible via the I²C-bus at address . The EDID PROM can often be read by the host PC even if the display itself is turned off.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Many software packages can read and display the EDID information, such as read-edid for Linux and DOS, PowerStrip for Microsoft Windows and the X.Org Server for Linux and BSD unix. Mac OS X natively reads EDID information and programs such as SwitchResX or DisplayConfigX can display the information as well as use it to define custom resolutions.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: E-EDID was introduced at the same time as E-DDC, which supports multiple extensions blocks and deprecated EDID version 2.0 structure (it can be incorporated in E-EDID as an optional extension block). Data fields for preferred timing, range limits, and monitor name are required in E-EDID. E-EDID also supports dual GTF timings and aspect ratio change.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Some graphics card drivers have historically coped poorly with the EDID, using only its standard timing descriptors rather than its Detailed Timing Descriptors (DTDs). Even in cases where the DTDs were read, the drivers are/were still often limited by the standard timing descriptor limitation that the horizontal/vertical resolutions must be evenly divisible by 8. This means that many graphics cards cannot express the native resolutions of the most common wide screen flat panel displays and liquid crystal display televisions. The number of vertical pixels is calculated from the horizontal resolution and the selected aspect ratio. To be fully expressible, the size of wide screen display must thus be a multiple of 16×9 pixels. For 1366×768 pixel Wide XGA panels the nearest resolution expressible in the EDID standard timing descriptor syntax is 1360×765 pixels, typically leading to 3 pixel thin black bars. Specifying 1368 pixels as the screen width would yield an unnatural screen height of 769.5 pixels.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Many Wide XGA panels do not advertise their native resolution in the standard timing descriptors, instead offering only a resolution of 1280×768. Some panels advertise a resolution only slightly smaller than the native, such as 1360×765. For these panels to be able to show a pixel perfect image, the EDID data must be ignored by the display driver or the driver must correctly interpret the DTD and be able to resolve resolutions whose size is not divisible by 8. Special programs are available to override the standard timing descriptors from EDID data. Even this is not always possible, as some vendors' graphics drivers (notably those of Intel) require specific registry hacks to implement custom resolutions, which can make it very difficult to use the screen's native resolution.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: The CEA EDID Timing Extension was first introduced in EIA/CEA-861, and has since been updated several times, most notably with the 861-B revision (which was version 3 of the extension, adding Short Video Descriptors and advanced audio capability/configuration information), 861-D (published in July 2006 and containing updates to the audio segments), 861-E in 2008, and 861-F which was published on June 4, 2013. According to Brian Markwalter, senior vice president, research and standards, CEA, 861-F "includes a number of noteworthy enhancements, including support for several new Ultra HD and widescreen video formats and additional colorimetry schemes.”


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Version CTA-861-G, originally published in November 2016, was made available for free in November 2017, along with updated versions -E and -F, after some necessary changes due to a trademark complaint. All CTA standards are free to everyone since May 2018.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: The most recent version is CTA-861-H, published in January 2021, available for free after registration. An amendment, CTA-861.6, was published in February 2022, and includes a new formula to calculate Video Timing Formats, OVT.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Version 1 of the extension block (as defined in CEA−861) allowed the specification of video timings only through the use of 18-byte Detailed Timing Descriptors (DTD) (as detailed in EDID 1.3 data format above). In all cases, the "preferred" timing should be the first DTD listed in a CEA EDID Timing Extension.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Version 2 (as defined in 861-A) added the capability to designate a number of DTDs as "native" and also included some "basic discovery" functionality for whether the display device contains support for "basic audio", YCbCr pixel formats, and underscan.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Version 3 (from the 861-B spec) allows two different ways to specify the timings of available digital TV formats: As in Version 1 & 2 by the use of 18-byte DTDs, or by the use of the Short Video Descriptor (SVD) (see below). HDMI 1.0–1.3c uses this version.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Version 3 also includes four new optional types of data blocks: Video Data Blocks containing the aforementioned Short Video Descriptor (SVD), Audio Data Blocks containing Short Audio Descriptors (SAD), Speaker Allocation Data Blocks containing information about the speaker configuration of the display device, and Vendor Specific Data Blocks which can contain information specific to a given vendor's use. Subsequent versions of CTA-861 defined additional data blocks.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: The Data Block Collection contains one or more data blocks detailing video, audio, and speaker placement information about the display. The blocks can be placed in any order, and the initial byte of each block defines both its type and its length:


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: If the Tag code is 7, an Extended Tag Code is present in the first payload byte of the data block, and the second payload byte represents the first payload byte of the extended data block.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Once one data block has ended, the next byte is assumed to be the beginning of the next data block. This is the case until the byte (designated in byte 2, above) where the DTDs are known to begin.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Audio Data Blocks contain one or more 3-byte Short Audio Descriptors (SADs). Each SAD details audio format, channel number, and bitrate/resolution capabilities of the display as follows:


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Notes: Parentheses indicate instances where pixels are repeated to meet the minimum speed requirements of the interface. For example, in the 720x240p case, the pixels on each line are double-clocked. In the (2880)x480i case, the number of pixels on each line, and thus the number of times that they are repeated, is variable, and is sent to the DTV monitor by the source device.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Increased Hactive expressions include “2x” and “4x” indicate two and four times the reference resolution, respectively.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: Video modes with vertical refresh frequency being a multiple of 6Hz (i.e. 24, 30, 60, 120, and 240Hz) are considered to be the same timing as equivalent NTSC modes where vertical refresh is adjusted by a factor of 1000/1001. As VESA DMT specifies 0.5% pixel clock tolerance, which 5 times more than the required change, pixel clocks can be adjusted to maintain NTSC compatibility; typically, 240p, 480p, and 480i modes are adjusted, while 576p, 576i and HDTV formats are not.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: A Vendor Specific Data Block (if any) contains as its first three bytes the vendor's IEEE 24-bit registration number, least significant byte first. The remainder of the Vendor Specific Data Block is the "data payload", which can be anything the vendor considers worthy of inclusion in this EDID extension block. For example, IEEE registration number means this is a "HDMI Licensing, LLC" specific data block (contains HDMI 1.4 info), means this is a "HDMI Forum" specific data block (contains HDMI 2.0 info), means this is "DOLBY LABORATORIES, INC." (contains Dolby Vision info) and is "HDR10+ Technologies, LLC" (contains HDR10+ info as part of HDMI 2.1 Amendment A1 standard). It starts with a two byte source physical address, least significant byte first. The source physical address provides the CEC physical address for upstream CEC devices. HDMI 1.3a specifies some requirements for the data payload.


title: Extended Display Identification Data

text: If a Speaker Allocation Data Block is present, it will consist of three bytes. The second and third are reserved (all ), but the first contains information about which speakers are present in the display device:


title: Speech disorder

text: Speech disorders or speech impairments are a type of communication disorder in which normal speech is disrupted. This can mean stuttering, lisps, etc. Someone who is unable to speak due to a speech disorder is considered mute. Speech skills are vital to social relationships and learning, and delays or disorders that relate to developing these skills can impact individuals function. For many children and adolescents, this can present as issues with academics. Speech disorders affect roughly 11.5% of the US population, and 5% of the primary school population. Speech is a complex process that requires precise timing, nerve and muscle control, and as a result is susceptible to impairments. A person who has a stroke, an accident or birth defect may have speech and language problems.


title: Speech disorder

text: Classifying speech into normal and disordered is more problematic than it first seems. By strict classification, only 5% to 10% of the population has a completely normal manner of speaking (with respect to all parameters) and healthy voice; all others have one disorder or another.


title: Speech disorder

text: There are three different levels of classification when determining the magnitude and type of a speech disorder and the proper treatment or therapy:


title: Speech disorder

text: In some cases the cause is unknown. However, there are various known causes of speech impairments, such as hearing loss, neurological disorders, brain injury, an increase in mental strain, constant bullying, intellectual disability, substance use disorder, physical impairments such as cleft lip and palate, and vocal abuse or misuse. After strokes, there is known to be a higher incidence of apraxia of speech, which is a disorder affecting neurological pathways involved with speech. Poor motor function is also suggested to be highly associated with speech disorders, especially in children. Hereditary causes have also been suggested, as many times children of individuals with speech disorders will develop them as well. 20-40% individuals with a family history of a specific language impairment are likely to be diagnosed, whereas only 4% of the population overall is likely to be diagnosed. There are also language disorders that are known to be genetic, such as hereditary ataxia, which can cause slow and unclear speech.


title: Speech disorder

text: Many of these types of disorders can be treated by speech therapy, but others require medical attention by a doctor in phoniatrics. Other treatments include correction of organic conditions and psychotherapy.