title: Jimmy Cauty

text: In 2004, Cauty installed a gift shop, "Blackoff", at the Aquarium Gallery, based on the UK government's "Preparing for Emergencies" leaflet. The installation included "terror aware" items, such as "terror tea towels", "attack hankies" and "bunker-buster jigsaw puzzles" (the latter missing one piece). He commented, "The gift shop becomes the place we can explore our branding ideas, Cash for trash – it represents the futility and the glory of it all."


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: In June 2011 he held a public exhibition at L-13 entitled "A Riot in a Jam Jar" consisting of a series of scale dioramas depicting violent confrontations between British rioters and police, each contained within an inverted glass jar. In 2012, Cauty premiered his short film, Believe the Magic, starring Debbie Harry, Nick Lehan and Branko Tomović, at Tate Modern as part of the annual Merge festival.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: The ideas of A Riot in a Jam Jar evolved into the Aftermath Dislocation Principle, shown at the Hoxton Arches in October 2013. The 448-square-foot installation at 1:87 scale (representing approximately one square mile) details the desolate and charred aftermath of what appears to have been a devastating riot. The sculpture, constructed by modifying components of traditional model railway kits, took approximately 8 months to complete includes nearly 3,000 police figures and a soundtrack pitched to match the 1:87 scale. The piece "makes a political statement about societal freedom and state control". The Aftermath Dislocation principle then toured the Netherlands, being shown at Piet Hein Eek Gallery, Eindhoven (November 2013), Cultuurwerf, Vlissingen (April 2014), and Mediamatic, Amsterdam (July–August 2014).


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: In 2015, the work was exhibited at Banksy's Dismaland and then in London. Following this it was re-engineered to fit inside a 40-foot shipping container and now tours historic riot sites around the world.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: In 2014, Cauty released a series of limited edition Smiley Riot Shields. Each are all ex-police riot gear painted over with a yellow smiley face. He originally designed the shields in 2012 as a symbol of "non-violent direct action" and as a practical self-protective measure for his step-daughter during the Occupy St Paul's eviction.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Cauty was married to Cressida ( Bowyer), with whom he has twins, Daisy and Harry, and a younger son, Alfie. He later married artist and musician Alannah Currie (formerly of Thompson Twins) in 2011.


title: Eileen Chang

text: Eileen Chang (；September 30, 1920 – September 8, 1995), also known as Chang Ai-ling or Zhang Ailing, or by her pen name Liang Jing (梁京), was a Chinese-born American essayist, novelist, and screenwriter. She is a well-known feminist in Chinese history, known for portraying life in the 1940s Shanghai and Hong Kong.


title: Eileen Chang

text: Chang was born with an aristocratic lineage and educated bilingually in Shanghai. She gained literary prominence in Japanese-occupied Shanghai between 1943 and 1945. However, after the Communist takeover of China, she fled the country. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she was rediscovered by scholars such as C. T. Hsia and Shui Jing. Together with the re-examination of literary histories in the post-Mao era during the late 1970s and early 1980s, she rose again to literary prominence in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and the Chinese diaspora communities. In the early 1990s, Zhang Ailing became popular to the people in China mainland again.


title: Eileen Chang

text: Chang was a realist and modernist writer. Her most important contribution was her construction of a unique wartime narrative, one that deviated from the grand accounts of national salvation and revolution. She sought to recount the seemingly irrelevant details and experiences of daily life of ordinary men and women in periods of social change and violence. Chang was also known for her view of modern history, displaying colours, lines, and moods in her writing and juxtaposition of historical reality with the domain of domesticity.


title: Eileen Chang

text: Chang was born Zhang Ying () in Shanghai, China on September 30, 1920. She was the first child of Zhang Zhiyi ( 1896–1953) and Huang Suqiong ( 1893–1957). Chang's maternal great-grandfather, Huang Yisheng ( 1818–1894), was a prominent naval commander. Chang's paternal grandfather, Zhang Peilun (1848–1903) married Li Ju'ou ( 1866–1916) and was son-in-law to Li Hongzhang, an influential Qing court official. She also spent her childhood with paternal aunt Zhang Maoyuan ( 1898–1991).


title: Eileen Chang

text: In 1922, when Chang was two years old, the family relocated to Tianjin. When she was three, her father introduced her to Tang poetry. Beginning in 1924, her father often brought back prostitutes or concubines and became heavily addicted to opium, which led to fights between her parents. During this time, Chang's mother decided to travel with her aunt to study in France. In 1927, after Chang's father promised to end his drug usage and extramarital affairs, Chang and her mother came back and settled in Shanghai. However, Chang's parents eventually divorced in 1930. After that, Chang and her younger brother Zhang Zijing () (1921–1997) were raised by their father.


title: Eileen Chang

text: At the age of 18, Chang contracted dysentery. Instead of seeking medical treatment, her father beat her and forced her to stay in her bedroom for six months. Chang eventually ran away to live with her mother and they stayed with her mother for nearly two years, until she went to university.


title: Eileen Chang

text: Chang started school at age 4. Chang had obtained excellent English skills besides her native Chinese. In 1937, she graduated from an all-female Christian boarding high school, St. Mary's Hall, Shanghai, even though her family was not religious.


title: Eileen Chang

text: At an early age, under her mother's influence, Chang began painting, playing piano, and learning English.


title: Eileen Chang

text: In 1939, Chang was accepted to the University of London on a full scholarship, but was unable to attend due to World War II. Instead, she studied English Literature at the University of Hong Kong, where she met her lifelong friend, Fatima Mohideen ( died 1995). When Chang was one semester short of earning her degree in December 1941, Hong Kong fell to the Empire of Japan. Chang's famous works were completed during the Japanese occupation.


title: Eileen Chang

text: In 1943, Chang met her first husband Hu Lancheng when she was 23 and he was 37. They married the following year in a private ceremony. Fatima Mohideen was the sole attendee. In the few months that he courted Chang, Hu was still married to his third wife. Although Hu was labelled a traitor for collaborating with the Japanese during World War II, Chang continued to remain loyal to Hu. Shortly thereafter, Hu chose to move to Wuhan to work for a newspaper. While staying at a local hospital, he seduced a 17-year-old nurse, Zhou Xunde (), who soon moved in with him. When Japan was defeated in 1945, Hu used another identity and hid in the nearby city of Wenzhou, where he married Fan Xiumei (). Chang and Hu divorced in 1947.


title: Eileen Chang

text: While in MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire, Chang met and became involved with the American screenwriter Ferdinand Reyher, a Philadelphia native nearly 30 years her senior. During the time they were briefly apart in New York (Chang in New York City, Reyher in Saratoga), Chang wrote to Reyher that she was pregnant with his child. Reyher wrote back to propose. Although Chang did not receive the letter, she telephoned the following morning to inform Reyher she was arriving in Saratoga. Reyher had a chance to propose to her in person, but insisted that he did not want the child. Chang had an abortion shortly afterward. On August 14, 1956, the couple married in New York City. After the wedding, the couple moved back to New Hampshire. After suffering a series of strokes, Reyher eventually became paralyzed, before his death on October 8, 1967.


title: Eileen Chang

text: On September 8, 1995, Chang was found dead in her apartment on Rochester Avenue in Westwood, Los Angeles, by her landlord. According to her friends, Chang had died of natural causes several days before her building manager discovered her body, after becoming alarmed that she had not answered her telephone. Her death certificate states that she died from cardiovascular disease. According to Chang's will, she was cremated without any memorial service, and her ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.


title: Eileen Chang

text: At the age of 10, Chang's mother renamed her as Aìlíng, a transliteration of Eileen, in preparation for her entrance into an English school. While in high school, Chang read "Dream of the Red Chamber", one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, which influenced her work throughout her career. Chang displayed great literary talent and her writings were published in the school magazine. The following year, she wrote her debut short novel at the age of 12.


title: Eileen Chang

text: Chang's writing is heavily influenced by the environment in which she lives. Shanghai and Hong Kong in the 1940s were the background of many of her earlier novels. She was known for her “aesthetic ambivalence” where the narrative style and language were reminiscent of the traditional “linked-chapter” novel while the setting was more in line with modern urban melodramas. Chang also sought to probe and examine the psychology her characters.


title: Eileen Chang

text: In 1943, Chang was introduced to the prominent editor Zhou Shoujuan, and gave him a few pieces of her writing. With Zhou's support, Chang soon became the most popular new writer in Shanghai. Within the next two years, she wrote some of her most acclaimed works, including "Love in a Fallen City" ("Qing Cheng Zhi Lian", ) and "The Golden Cangue (1943)." In her English translation of "The Golden Cangue", Chang simplified English expressions and sentence structures to make it easier for readers to understand.


title: Eileen Chang

text: Several short stories and novellas were collected in "Romances" ("Chuan Qi", ) (1944). It instantly became a bestseller in Shanghai, boosting Chang's reputation and fame among readers and also the Chinese literary circle.


title: Eileen Chang

text: A collection of her essays appeared as "Written on Water" ("Líu Yán" ) in 1945. Her literary maturity was said to be far beyond her age. As described by Nicole Huang in the introduction to "Written on Water," "The essay form became a means for Eileen Chang constantly to redefine the boundaries between life and work, the domestic and the historic, and meticulously to weave a rich private life together with the concerns of a public intellectual." In 20th century China, Chang experimented with new literary language. In her essay entitled "writing of one's own," Chang retrospectively remarks on her use of a new fictional language in her novella "Lianhuantao" "Chained Links."


title: Eileen Chang

text: In 1945, Chang's reputation waned due to postwar cultural and political turmoil. The situation worsened after the Communist takeover in 1949. Eventually, Chang left mainland China for Hong Kong in 1952, realizing her writing career in Shanghai was over. In Hong Kong, she worked as a translator for the United States Information Service (USIS) for three years. During this time, she wrote two anti-communist works,"The Rice-Sprout Song" ("Yang Ge", ) and "Naked Earth" ("Chidi zhi lian," 赤地之戀), both of which she later translated into Chinese and published in Taiwan. "The Rice-Sprout Song" was Chang's first novel written entirely in English. She also translated a variety of English books into Chinese, most notably "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving. Chang's translation of "The Old Man and the Sea" was seen as Cold War propaganda for the USIS and is argued to have directly influenced her writing and translating of "The Rice-Sprout Song".


title: Eileen Chang

text: Chang sought literary inspiration not only from Western European novels but also from local novels. She rejected the notion that there was a war or revolution in her works, and she did not acknowledge a connection to Tolstoy and his "War and Peace".


title: Eileen Chang

text: In 1955, Chang moved to America and sought a job as an English writer, but was unsuccessful. Her work was rejected by publishers many times. Chang's move from Hong Kong to the U.S. in the 1950s marked an important turning point in Chang's literary career as she had gone from being a famous author to an ordinary writer.


title: Eileen Chang

text: In 1960s, Chang was constantly searching for new job opportunities, particularly ones that involved translating and writing screenplays. Chang once tried to adapt a screenplay for Hollywood with Chinese elements, but was unsuccessful since the agent thought the role has too much content and psychological changes. Chang became a U.S. citizen in 1960 and headed to Taiwan for more opportunities, returning to the U.S. in 1962.


title: Eileen Chang

text: Betrayal is an overarching theme that permeates Chang's later works, notably her English essay "A Return to the Frontier" (1963) and one of her last novels "Little Reunions" (2009). Compared to her previous works, there are many more tragedies and betrayals in her writings later on in her life.


title: Eileen Chang

text: As soon as Chang arrived in America, she began to write three novels based on her life: "The Fall of the Pagoda", "The Book of Change", and "Little Reunions". In 1963, Chang finished her English semi-biographical novels, "The Fall of the Pagoda" and "The Book of Change". Both were believed to be her attempts to offer an alternative writing style to mainstream America; she did not succeed. The full-length novels were not published until 2010, 15 years after her death. These three novels revived Chang's fame and bought renewed attention on her works. In 1966, Chang had a writing residency at Miami University in Oxford. In 1967, Chang held a short-term job at Radcliffe College.


title: Eileen Chang

text: In 1969, upon the invitation of Shih-Hsiang Chen ( "Chén Shìxiāng"), a professor of Oriental Languages at the University of California, Berkeley, Chang became a senior researcher at the Center for Chinese Studies of Berkeley. She researched the special terms used by the Chinese Communists as well as on "Dream of the Red Chamber". In 1971, Professor Chen died, and Chang subsequently left her position at Berkeley. In 1972, Chang relocated to Los Angeles. In 1975, she completed the English translation of "Shanghai Flowers", a celebrated Qing novel written in Wu Chinese by Han Bangqing. Among her papers retrieved from the University of Southern California, the manuscript for the translated English version was found after her death and published.


title: Eileen Chang

text: Chang's later writing style was heavily influenced by her tragic life experiences, notably her description of mutual betrayals between mother and daughter. When she adapted her memories into numerous autobiographies, her late writing style gradually matured. Chang was good at describing the details of the families in her novels, which allowed for her readers to understand the emotions of the characters and their situations.


title: Eileen Chang

text: In 1978, "Crown Magazine" published "Lust, Caution", “Xiang Jian Huan”(相見歡) and “Fu Hua Lang Rui”(浮花浪蕊), all written by Eileen Chang.


title: Eileen Chang

text: Eileen Chang has been listed as one of China's four women geniuses, together with Lü Bicheng, Xiao Hong and Shi Pingmei.


title: Eileen Chang

text: During the 1970s, Chang's legacy had such a significant impact on many creative writers in Taiwan that several generations of “Chang School writers” (張派作家) emerged. Notable Taiwanese authors include Chu T’ien-wen, Chu T’ien-hsin, , Yuan Chiung-chiung.


title: Eileen Chang

text: With collective efforts to unearth the literary histories of the pre-revolutionary days in the post-Mao era, a renewed Eileen Chang “fever” swept through the streets of Mainland China. The name Eileen Chang became synonymous with the glories of a bygone era. As with Taiwan in the 1970s, a group of young women authors who were clearly inspired by Chang rose to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s. Other notable Mainland China authors influenced by Chang include Wang Anyi, Su Tong, and Ye Zhaoyan.


title: Eileen Chang

text: Dominic Cheung, a poet and professor of East Asian languages at the University of Southern California, said that had it not been for the Chinese Civil War, Chang would have been a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.


title: Eileen Chang

text: While the film based on Chang's novel "Lust, Caution" received mixed reviews in the US and the pan-Chinese territories of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China, it nevertheless has become one of the most prominent and debated films in recent decades, winning both the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival and Golden Horse Award for best film of the year in Taipei in 2007. The film was directed by critically acclaimed director Ang Lee and featured two of China's most well-known actors, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Tang Wei.


title: Eileen Chang

text: One of Chang's most famous works, "Love in a Fallen City", has been adapted into stage performances by the in 1987, 2002, and 2005. In 2006, the theatre even took the Cantonese performance to New York, Shanghai, and Toronto, thus bringing international attention to this story.


title: Eileen Chang

text: In 1997, some of Chang's manuscripts were donated to the East Asian Library at the University of Southern California (USC) after being exhibited at the university. Most of the content of the manuscripts were Chang's works created in America, including the translation of "The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai".


title: Eileen Chang

text: A 20-episode TV series, "The Legend of Eileen Chang", written by Wang Hui-ling and starring Rene Liu, was aired in Taiwan in 2004.


title: Eileen Chang

text: Featured in the collection "The Reincarnated Giant: An Anthology of Twenty-First-Century Chinese Science Fiction", ed. Mingwei Song and Theodore Huters (Columbia University Press, 2018), a chapter titled “Science Fiction” from the novel "Daughter" by Taiwanese writer Luo Yijun ( 駱以軍 ) contains quotations and themes from Chang's writings and life.


title: Eileen Chang

text: On the occasion of the centennial celebration of Chang's birth in 2020, an online exhibition titled "Eileen Chang at the University of Hong Kong: An Online Presentation of Images and Documents from the Archives" was launched on the website of the University Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong. Curated by Nicole Huang , Florian Knothe and Kenneth Shing-Kwan Chan , the online exhibition pieces together a narrative that highlights the beginning of an extraordinary literary career.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Fourth-generation warfare (4GW) is conflict characterized by a blurring of the lines between war and politics, combatants and civilians.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: The term was first used in 1980 by a team of United States analysts, including paleoconservative William S. Lind, to describe warfare's return to a decentralized form. In terms of generational modern warfare, the fourth generation signifies the nation states' loss of their near-monopoly on combat forces, returning to modes of conflict common in pre-modern times.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: The simplest definition includes any war in which one of the major participants is not a state but rather a violent non-state actor. Classical examples of this type of conflict, such as the slave uprising under Spartacus, predate the modern concept of warfare.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: The concept was first described by the authors William S. Lind, Colonel Keith Nightengale (US Army), Captain John F. Schmitt (USMC), Colonel Joseph W. Sutton (US Army), and Lieutenant Colonel Gary I. Wilson (USMCR) in a 1989 "Marine Corps Gazette" article titled "The Changing Face of War: Into the Fourth Generation". In 2006, the concept was expanded upon by USMC Colonel Thomas X. Hammes (Ret.) in his book, "The Sling and The Stone".


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: The use of fourth-generation warfare can be traced to the Cold War period, as superpowers and major powers attempted to retain their grip on colonies and captured territories. Unable to withstand direct combat against bombers, tanks, and machine guns, non-state entities used tactics of education/propaganda, movement-building, secrecy, terror, and/or confusion to overcome the technological gap.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Fourth-generation warfare has often involved an insurgent group or other violent non-state actor trying to implement their own government or reestablish an old government over the current ruling power. However, a non-state entity tends to be more successful when it does not attempt, at least in the short term, to impose its own rule, but tries simply to disorganize and delegitimize the state in which the warfare takes place. The aim is to force the state adversary to expend manpower and money in an attempt to establish order, ideally in such a highhanded way that it merely increases disorder, until the state surrenders or withdraws.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Fourth-generation warfare is often seen in conflicts involving failed states and civil wars, particularly in conflicts involving non-state actors, intractable ethnic or religious issues, or gross conventional military disparities. Many of these conflicts occur in the geographic area described by author Thomas P.M. Barnett as the Non-Integrating Gap, fought by countries from the globalised Functioning Core.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Fourth-generation warfare has much in common with traditional low-intensity conflict in its classical forms of insurgency and guerrilla war. As in those small wars, the conflict is initiated by the "weaker" party through actions which can be termed "offensive". The difference lies in the manner in which 4GW opponents adapt those traditional concepts to present day conditions. These conditions are shaped by technology, globalization, religious fundamentalism, and a shift in moral and ethical norms which brings legitimacy to certain issues previously considered restrictions on the conduct of war. This amalgamation and metamorphosis produces novel ways of war for both the entity on the offensive and that on the defensive.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Fourth-generation warfare is normally characterized by a violent non-state actor (VNSA) fighting a state. This fighting can be physically done, such as by modern examples Hezbollah or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In this realm, the VNSA uses all three levels of fourth generation warfare. These are the physical (actual combat; it is considered the least important), mental (the will to fight, belief in victory, etc.,) and moral (the most important, this includes cultural norms, etc.) levels.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: A 4GW enemy has the following characteristics: lack of hierarchical authority, lack of formal structure, patience and flexibility, ability to keep a low profile when needed, and small size. A 4GW adversary might use the tactics of an insurgent, terrorist, or guerrilla in order to wage war against a nation's infrastructure. Fourth generation warfare takes place on all fronts: economical, political, the media, military, and civilian. Conventional military forces often have to adapt tactics to fight a 4GW enemy.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Resistance can also be below the physical level of violence. This is via non-violent means, such as Mahatma Gandhi's opposition to the British Empire or the marches led by Martin Luther King Jr. Both desired their factions to deescalate the conflict while the state escalates against them, the objective being to target the opponent on the moral and mental levels rather than the physical level. The state is then seen as oppressive and loses support.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Another characteristic of fourth-generation warfare is that unlike in third generation warfare, the VNSA's forces are decentralized. With fourth generation warfare, there may even be no single organization and that smaller groups organize into impromptu alliances to target a bigger threat (that being the state armed forces or another faction). As a result, these alliances are weak and if the state's military leadership is smart enough they can split their enemy and cause them to fight amongst themselves.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Yet, another factor is that political centers of gravity have changed. These centers of gravity may revolve around nationalism, religion, or family or clan honor.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Disaggregated forces, such as guerrillas, terrorists, and rioters, which lack a center of gravity, deny to their enemies a focal point at which to deliver a conflict ending blow. As a result, strategy becomes more problematic while combating a VNSA.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: It has been theorized that a state vs. state conflict in fourth-generation warfare would involve the use of computer hackers and international law to obtain the weaker side's objectives, the logic being that the civilians of the stronger state would lose the will to fight as a result of seeing their state engage in alleged atrocities and having their own bank accounts harmed.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Three principal attributes of the new-age terrorism were held to be their hybrid structure (as opposed to the traditional microscopic command and control pattern), importance given to systemic disruption vis-a-vis target destruction, and sophisticated use of technological advancements (including social media and mobile communications technology). A terrorist network could be designed to be either acephalous (headless like Al-Qaeda after Bin Laden) or polycephalous (hydra-headed like Kashmiri separatists). Social media networks supporting the terrorists are characterized by positive feedback loops, tight coupling and non-linear response propagation (viz. a small perturbation causing a large disproportionate response).


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: "Fourth-generation warfare" theory has been criticized on the grounds that it is "nothing more than repackaging of the traditional clash between the non-state insurgent and the soldiers of a nation-state."


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Strategic Studies Institute writer and United States Army War College professor Antulio J. Echevarria II, in his article "Fourth-Generation War and Other Myths", argues what is being called "fourth generation warfare" are simply insurgencies. He also claims that 4GW was "reinvented" by Lind to create the appearance of having predicted the future. Echevarria writes: "The generational model is an ineffective way to depict changes in warfare. Simple displacement rarely takes place, significant developments typically occur in parallel." The critique was rebutted by John Sayen, a military historian and retired Lt. Col. in the Marine Corps Reserve.


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Lieutenant General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., USMC, characterizes "fourth-generation warfare" theory as "elegant irrelevance" and states that "its methods are unclear, its facts contentious and open to widely varying interpretations, and its relevance questionable."


title: Fourth-generation warfare

text: Rod Thornton argues that Thomas Hammes and William S. Lind are "providing an analytical lens through which to view the type of opposition that exists now 'out there' and to highlight the shortcomings of the current US military in dealing with that opposition." Instead of fourth generation warfare being an explanation for a new way of warfare, it allows the blending of different generations of warfare with the exception that fourth generation also encompasses new technology. Fourth generation warfare theorists such as Lind and Hammes wish to make the point that it "is not just that the military's structure and equipment are ill-suited to the 4GW problem, but so is its psyche".


title: Education in Italy

text: Education in Italy is compulsory from 6 to 16 years of age, and is divided into five stages: kindergarten ("scuola dell'infanzia"), primary school ("scuola primaria" or "scuola elementare"), lower secondary school ("scuola secondaria di primo grado" or "scuola media inferiore"), upper secondary school ("scuola secondaria di secondo grado" or "scuola media superiore") and university ("università"). Education is free in Italy and free education is available to children of all nationalities who are residents in Italy. Italy has both a private and public education system.


title: Education in Italy

text: In 2018, the Italian secondary education was evaluated as below the OECD average. Italy scored below the OECD average in reading and science, and near OECD average in mathematics. Mean performance in Italy declined in reading and science, and remained stable in mathematics. Trento and Bolzano scored at an above the national average in reading. Compared to school children in other OECD countries, children in Italy missed out on a greater amount of learning due to absences and indiscipline in classrooms. A wide gap exists between northern schools, which perform near average, and schools in the South, that had much poorer results.


title: Education in Italy

text: Tertiary education in Italy is divided between public universities, private universities and the prestigious and selective superior graduate schools, such as the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. 33 Italian universities were ranked among the world's top 500 in 2019, the third-largest number in Europe after the United Kingdom and Germany. Bologna University, founded in 1088, is the oldest university in continuous operation, as well as one of the leading academic institutions in Italy and Europe. The Bocconi University, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, LUISS, Polytechnic University of Turin, Polytechnic University of Milan, Sapienza University of Rome, and University of Milan are also ranked among the best in the world.


title: Education in Italy

text: In Italy a state school system or Education System has existed since 1859, when the Legge Casati (Casati Act) mandated educational responsibilities for the forthcoming Italian state (Italian unification took place in 1861).


title: Education in Italy

text: The Casati Act made primary education compulsory, and had the goal of increasing literacy. This law gave control of primary education to the single towns, of secondary education to the provinces, and the universities were managed by the State.


title: Education in Italy

text: Even with the Casati Act and compulsory education, in rural (and southern) areas children often were not sent to school (the rate of children enrolled in primary education would reach 90% only after 70 years) and the illiteracy rate (which was nearly 80% in 1861) took more than 50 years to halve.


title: Education in Italy

text: The next important law concerning the Italian education system was the "Legge Gentile". This act was issued in 1923, thus when Benito Mussolini and his National Fascist Party were in power. In fact, Giovanni Gentile was appointed the task of creating an education system deemed fit for the fascist system. The compulsory age of education was raised to 14 years, and was somewhat based on a ladder system: after the first five years of primary education, one could choose the 'Scuola media', which would give further access to the "liceo" and other secondary education, or the 'avviamento al lavoro' (work training), which was intended to give a quick entry into the low strates of the workforce.


title: Education in Italy

text: The reform enhanced the role of the "Liceo Classico", created by the Casati Act in 1859 (and intended during the Fascist era as the peak of secondary education, with the goal of forming the future upper classes), and created the Technical, Commercial and Industrial institutes and the "Liceo Scientifico".


title: Education in Italy

text: The "Liceo Classico" was the only secondary school that gave access to all types of higher education until 1968.


title: Education in Italy

text: The influence of Gentile's Idealism was great, and he considered the Catholic religion to be the "foundation and crowning" of education.


title: Education in Italy

text: In 1962 the 'avviamento al lavoro' was abolished, and all children up to 14 years had to follow a single program, encompassing primary education ("scuola elementare") and middle school ("scuola media").


title: Education in Italy

text: From 1962 to the present day, the main structure of Italian primary (and secondary) education remained largely unchanged, even if some modifications were made: a narrowing of the gap between males and females (through the merging of the two distinct programmes for "technical education", and the optional introduction of mixed-gender gym classes), a change in the structure of secondary school ("legge Berlinguer") and the creation of new "licei", 'istituti tecnici' and 'istituti professionali', offering students a broader range of options.


title: Education in Italy

text: In 1999, in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Bologna Process, the Italian university system switched from the old system ("vecchio ordinamento", which led to the traditional 5-year "Laurea" degree), to the new system ("nuovo ordinamento"). The "nuovo ordinamento" split the former "Laurea" into two tracks: the "Laurea triennale" (a three-year degree akin to the Bachelor's Degree), followed by the 2-year "Laurea specialistica" (Master's Degree), the latter renamed "Laurea Magistrale" in 2007. A credit system was established to quantify the amount of work needed by each course and exam (25 work hours = 1 credit), as well as enhance the possibility to change course of studies and facilitate the transfer of credits for further studies or go on exchange (e.g. Erasmus Programme) in another country. However, it is now established that there is just a five-year degree "Laurea Magistrale a Ciclo Unico" for programmes such as Law and a six-year degree for Medicine.


title: Education in Italy

text: In 2019, Education minister Lorenzo Fioramonti announced that in 2020 Italy would become the first country in the world to make the study of climate change and sustainable development mandatory for students.


title: Education in Italy

text: Primary school ("scuola primaria", also known as "scuola elementare"), is commonly preceded by three years of non-compulsory nursery school (or kindergarten, "asilo"). Primary school lasts five years. Until middle school, the educational curriculum is the same for all pupils: although one can attend a private or state-funded school, the subjects studied are the same (with the exception of special schools for the blind or the hearing-impaired): the students are given a basic education in Italian, English, mathematics, natural sciences, history, geography, social studies, and physical education. Some schools also have Spanish or French, musical arts and visual arts.


title: Education in Italy

text: Until 2004, pupils had to pass an exam to access middle school ("scuola secondaria di primo grado"), comprising the composition of a short essay in Italian, a written math test, and an oral test on the other subjects. The exam has been discontinued and pupils can now enter middle school directly.


title: Education in Italy

text: Usually students start primary school at the age of 6, but students who are born between January and March and are still 5 years old can access primary school early; this is called "primina" and the students doing it are called "anticipatari". For example, a student born in February 2002 can attend primary school with students born in 2001.


title: Education in Italy

text: Secondary education in Italy lasts 8 years and is divided into two stages: middle school ("scuola secondaria di primo grado", also known as "scuola media") and high school ("scuola secondaria di secondo grado", also known as "scuola superiore". Middle school lasts three years (roughly from age 11 to 14), and high school lasts five years (roughly from age 14 to 19). Every tier involves an exam at the end of the final year, required to earn a degree and have access to further education.


title: Education in Italy

text: Both in middle school and high school, students stay in the classroom for most of the time (barring such classes as physical education, which most often takes place in the gym), so it's the teachers who have to move from one classroom to another during the day.


title: Education in Italy

text: In the lower middle school pupils start school at 8:00 am and finish at 1:00 pm (they may start later; they have a five-hour daily schedule, excluding variations), while in high school they attend school 5 to 8 hours a day depending on the day of the week and on the rules of the school.


title: Education in Italy

text: Usually, there are no breaks between each class, but most schools have a recess that lasts 15 to 30 minutes halfway through. If students have to stay in school even after lunch, there's a longer break to let them eat and rest.


title: Education in Italy

text: There are three types of high school, subsequently divided into further specialization. There are subjects taught in each of these, such as Italian, English, mathematics, history, but most subjects are peculiar to a particular type of course (i.e. ancient Greek in the Liceo Classico, business economics in the Istituto tecnico economico or scenography in the Liceo Artistico):


title: Education in Italy

text: Any type of high school which lasts 5 years grants access to the final exam, called "esame di maturità" or "esame di stato", that takes place every year between June and July and grants access to university. This exam consists of an oral examination and written tests. Some of them, like the Italian one, are the same for each school, while others are different according to the type of school. For example, in the "Liceo classico" students have to translate a Latin or ancient Greek text; in the "Liceo scientifico" students have to solve mathematics or physics problems; and so on. An Italian student is usually 19 when they enter university.


title: Education in Italy

text: Italy has a large and international network of public or state-affiliated universities and schools offering degrees in higher education. State-run universities of Italy constitute the main percentage of tertiary education in Italy and are managed under the supervision of Italian's Ministry of Education.


title: Education in Italy

text: Italian universities are among the oldest universities in the world; the University of Bologna (founded in 1088) notably, is the oldest one ever; also, University of Padua, founded in 1222, and University of Naples Federico II are the oldest universities in Europe. Most universities in Italy are state-supported. 33 Italian universities were ranked among the world's top 500 in 2019, the third-largest number in Europe after the United Kingdom and Germany.


title: Education in Italy

text: There are also a number of Superior Graduate Schools ("Grandes écoles") or "Scuola Superiore Universitaria", offer officially recognized titles, including the "Diploma di Perfezionamento" equivalent to a Doctorate, "Dottorato di Ricerca" i.e. Research Doctorate or "Doctor Philosophiae" i.e. PhD. Some of them also organize courses Master's degree. There are three Superior Graduate Schools with "university status", three institutes with the status of Doctoral Colleges, which function at graduate and post-graduate level. Nine further schools are direct offshoots of the universities (i.e. do not have their own 'university status'). The first one is the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (founded in 1810 by Napoleon as a branch of École Normale Supérieure), taking the model of organization from the famous École Normale Supérieure. These institutions are commonly referred to as "Schools of Excellence" (i.e. "Scuole di Eccellenza").


title: Education in Italy

text: Italy hosts a broad variety of universities, colleges and academies. Founded in 1088, the University of Bologna is likely the oldest in the world. In 2009, the University of Bologna is, according to The Times, the only Italian college in the top 200 World Universities. Milan's Bocconi University has been ranked among the top 20 best business schools in the world by The Wall Street Journal international rankings, especially thanks to its M.B.A. program, which in 2007 placed it no. 17 in the world in terms of graduate recruitment preference by major multinational companies. Bocconi was also ranked by Forbes as the best worldwide in the specific category Value for Money. In May 2008, Bocconi overtook several traditionally top global business schools in the Financial Times Executive education ranking, reaching no. 5 in Europe and no. 15 in the world.


title: Education in Italy

text: Other top universities and polytechnics are the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, the LUISS in Rome, the Polytechnic University of Turin, the Politecnico di Milano (which in 2011 was ranked as the 48th best technical university in the world by QS World University Rankings), the University of Rome La Sapienza (which in 2005 was Europe's 33rd best university, and ranks among Europe's 50 and the world's 150 best colleges and in 2013, the Center for World University Rankings ranked the Sapienza University of Rome 62nd in the world and the top in Italy in its "World University Rankings".) and the University of Milan (whose research and teaching activities have developed over the years and have received important international recognition). This University is the only Italian member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), a prestigious group of twenty research-intensive European Universities. It has also been awarded ranking positions such as 1st in Italy and 7th in Europe (The Leiden Ranking – Universiteit Leiden).


title: Education in Italy

text: In 2018, the Italian secondary education was evaluated as below the OECD average. Italy scored below the OECD average in reading and science, and near OECD average in mathematics. Mean performance in Italy declined in reading and science, and remained stable in mathematics. Trento and Bolzano scored at an above the national average in reading. Compared to school children in other OECD countries, children in Italy missed out on a greater amount of learning due to absences and indiscipline in classrooms. A wide gap exists between northern schools, which perform near average, and schools in the South, that had much poorer results.


title: Jocelin Donahue

text: Jocelin Donahue (born November 8, 1981) is an American actress. She played the lead role in Ti West's critically acclaimed horror film "The House of the Devil", winning Best Actress at the 2009 LA Screamfest, and young version of Barbara Hershey's character in "". In 2015 Donahue starred in the crime thriller "The Frontier", and appeared in the 2019 film "Doctor Sleep".


title: Jocelin Donahue

text: Donahue was born and raised in Bristol, Connecticut, and graduated from Bristol Central High School in 1999. After high school, she attended New York University, where she earned a degree in sociology.


title: Jocelin Donahue

text: After a supporting role in the Western horror film "The Burrowers" (2008), Donahue was cast as the lead in "The House of the Devil" in 2009. She went on to play leading roles in "The Last Godfather" by Korean filmmaker Shim Hyung-rae, and in the independent film "Live at the Foxes Den". In 2012 she appeared in "The End of Love", and worked with director Terrence Malick on "Knight of Cups". In 2016 she appeared in a segment of the anthology horror film "Holidays" (2016).


title: Jocelin Donahue

text: As an actress in commercials, she has appeared in numerous national campaigns, including ads for Levi's, Zune, Vitamin Water, Apple, Subway, and Mercedes-Benz.


William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, (8 May 1720 – 2 October 1764), styled Lord Cavendish before 1729, and Marquess of Hartington between 1729 and 1755, was a British Whig statesman and nobleman who was briefly nominal 5th Prime Minister of Great Britain. He was the first son of William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire and his wife, Catherine Hoskins. He is also a great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of King Charles III through the king's maternal great-grandmother.


title: William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire

text: The eldest of four sons of William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, he was baptised on 1 June 1720 at St Martin's-in-the-Fields in London. He was possibly educated privately at home before going on a grand tour in France and Italy, accompanied by his tutor, in 1739-40.


text: He was elected MP for Derbyshire in 1741 and 1747. Devonshire was a supporter of Sir Robert Walpole and, after Walpole's fall from power, of the Pelhams. Henry Pelham wrote to Devonshire's father that he was "our mainstay among the young ones, of themselves liable to wander".


text: Horace Walpole described him as "a favourite by descent of the Old Whigs" and as "errant [a] bigot to the Pelham faction as ever Jacques Clément was to the Jesuits".


text: Pelham appointed him Master of the Horse, a post he held until 1755 and which necessitated his leaving the House of Commons for the House of Lords by writ of acceleration as Baron Cavendish and joining the Privy Council. Devonshire supported the Duke of Newcastle after Henry Pelham's death in 1754 and was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 2 April 1755 until 3 January 1757 in Newcastle's administration. In April 1755 Devonshire was one of the Lords Justices of the realm upon the King's absence in Hanover.


text: The Seven Years' War was going badly for Britain under the leadership of the Duke of Newcastle and when he resigned in October 1756, George II eventually asked Devonshire to form an administration. Devonshire accepted on the condition that his tenure would last only until the end of the parliamentary session. Devonshire believed his duty to the King required an administration capable of prosecuting the war successfully.


text: Devonshire was given the Garter and appointed First Lord of the Treasury (most historians consider him Prime Minister during this service) in November 1756, and he served as First Lord until May 1757 in an administration effectively run by William Pitt. Devonshire's administration secured increased money for the war, troops were sent to America and a Militia Act was passed.


text: The administration was eventually brought down for a variety of reasons including the opposition of George II and the alleged mishandling of the trial and execution of Admiral John Byng. It was replaced by the Pitt–Newcastle ministry headed by the Duke of Newcastle and including Pitt, Henry Fox and the Duke of Bedford. This government steered Britain through most of the Seven Years' War leading the country to ultimate victory.


text: Devonshire was Lord Chamberlain in Newcastle's government (with a seat in the inner Cabinet) and his relations with him were close. George II died in October 1760 and was succeeded by his grandson George III, who was suspicious of Devonshire and Newcastle. When Newcastle resigned in May 1762 Devonshire said that he would rarely attend Lord Bute's councils.


text: When, in October, George III requested that he attend a Cabinet meeting on peace terms, Devonshire declined, claiming he had inadequate knowledge of the subject.


text: On 28 October, travelling from Kew to London, the King overtook Devonshire and Newcastle's coach in the belief that the two dukes were plotting and that Devonshire was coming to tender his resignation. He was in fact passing through London to Chatsworth and had come to give his leave to the King. When Devonshire arrived, George III refused to see him, as he later wrote: "I ordered the page to tell him I would not see him, on which he bid him ask me with whom he should leave his wand...I said he would receive my orders...On the Duke of Devonshire's going away he said to the page, "God bless you, it will be very long before you see me here again" At a meeting of the Privy Council four days later the King personally struck out Devonshire's name from the list of Privy Councillors. In the opinion of one of his biographers, John Brooke, "Few things in King George III's long life show him in so poor a light".


text: Devonshire resigned his Lord Lieutenancy of Derbyshire in solidarity with Newcastle and Rockingham when they were dismissed from their Lord Lieutenancies.


text: For a long time he had a weak constitution and he gradually grew more ill during these years. He ultimately died in the Austrian Netherlands where he had gone to take the waters at Spa. His death was a large political loss to his allies, the Whig magnates such as the Duke of Newcastle. Dying at the age of 44 years and 147 days, he remains the shortest lived British Prime Minister. Devonshire was buried at Derby Cathedral.


text: He married Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Boyle, 6th Baroness Clifford (1731–1754), the daughter and heiress of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington of the first creation, a famous architect and art collector. The wedding was held at Carlton House, the then residence of the Dowager Lady Burlington, situated between St James' Park and Pall Mall, by special licence on the 28 March, 1748. Through Charlotte, the Devonshires inherited Chiswick House and Burlington House in London; Bolton Abbey and Londesborough Hall in Yorkshire; and Lismore Castle in County Waterford, Ireland. The Duke employed Capability Brown to landscape the garden and park at Chatsworth House, his main residence. He hired James Paine to design the new stable block.


text: Horace Walpole described Devonshire as possessing "an impatience to do everything, and a fear to do anything, he was always in a hurry to do nothing". Paul Langford said Devonshire was "eminently sensible and highly respected", and that his death "left a marked gap in the ranks" of the opposition and "effectively destroyed a generation in the 'Old Whig' leadership". Gerald Howat summed up Devonshire's life:


text: Devonshire had been a moderate among men of great political passion. If scarcely a spectator in the play of events, he had never bestrode the stage. His death, coming just after those of Hardwicke and Legge, deprived the Whigs of three material men. Given health, he might have returned to office in the Crown's restless pursuit of ministers up to 1770. He had been a man with a concern for king and country. He died the acknowledged leader of the Whigs.


text: Devonshire was a man of solid if not outstanding abilities. He was endowed with the qualities—devotion to friends and duty, patriotism, and unswerving integrity—which made him the ideal sounding board and factotum among the prominent politicians of his day. Unlike Pitt or Fox he lacked a brilliant mind, and his diary provides evidence of devotion to king, country, and duty rather than quickness of intellect. A political broker rather than a leader, he exploited his personal popularity and family prestige to mediate between the factious and egotistical individuals who dominated Dublin and Westminster politics in the 1750s and early 1760s.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: Phenmetrazine (INN, USAN, BAN) (brand name Preludin, and many others) is a stimulant drug first synthesized in 1952 and originally used as an appetite suppressant, but withdrawn from the market in the 1980s due to widespread abuse. It was initially replaced by its analogue phendimetrazine (under the brand name Prelu-2) which functions as a prodrug to phenmetrazine, but now it is rarely prescribed, due to concerns of abuse and addiction. Chemically, phenmetrazine is a substituted amphetamine containing a morpholine ring.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: Phenmetrazine was first patented in Germany in 1952 by Boehringer-Ingelheim, with some pharmacological data published in 1954. It was the result of a search by Thomä and Wick for an anorectic drug without the side-effects of amphetamine. Phenmetrazine was introduced into clinical use in 1954 in Europe.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: In clinical use, phenmetrazine produces less nervousness, hyperexcitability, euphoria and insomnia than drugs of the amphetamine family. It tends not to increase heart rate as much as other stimulants. Due to the relative lack of side effects, one study found it well tolerated in children. In a study of the effectiveness on weight loss between phenmetrazine and dextroamphetamine, phenmetrazine was found to be slightly more effective.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: Phenmetrazine acts as a releasing agent of norepinephrine and dopamine with EC values of 50.4 ± 5.4 nM and 131 ± 11 nM, respectively. It has negligible efficacy as a releaser of serotonin, with an EC value of only 7,765 ± 610 nM.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: After an oral dose, about 70% of the drug is excreted from the body within 24 hours. About 19% of that is excreted as the unmetabolised drug and the rest as various metabolites.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: In trials performed on rats, it has been found that after subcutaneous administration of phenmetrazine, both optical isomers are equally effective in reducing food intake, but in oral administration the levo isomer is more effective. In terms of central stimulation however, the dextro isomer is about 4 times as effective in both methods of administration.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: The salt which has been used for immediate-release formulations is phenmetrazine hydrochloride (Preludin). Sustained-release formulations were available as resin-bound, rather than soluble, salts. Both of these dosage forms share a similar bioavailability as well as time to peak onset, however, sustained-release formulations offer improved pharmacokinetics with a steady release of active ingredient which results in a lower peak concentration in blood plasma.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: Phenmetrazine can be synthesized in three steps from 2-bromopropiophenone and ethanolamine. The intermediate alcohol 3-methyl-2-phenylmorpholin-2-ol (1) is converted to a fumarate salt (2) with fumaric acid, then reduced with sodium borohydride to give phenmetrazine free base (3). The free base can be converted to the fumarate salt (4) by reaction with fumaric acid.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: Its structure incorporates the backbone of amphetamine, the prototypical CNS stimulant which, like phenmetrazine, is a releasing agent of dopamine and norepinephrine. The molecule also loosely resembles ethcathinone, the active metabolite of popular anorectic amfepramone (diethylpropion). Unlike phenmetrazine, ethcathinone (and therefore amfepramone as well) are mostly selective as noradrenaline releasing agents.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: Phenmetrazine has been used recreationally in many countries, including Sweden. When stimulant use first became prevalent in Sweden in the 1950s, phenmetrazine was preferred to amphetamine and methamphetamine by users. In the autobiographical novel "Rush" by Kim Wozencraft, intravenous phenmetrazine is described as the most euphoric and pro-sexual of the stimulants the author used.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: Phenmetrazine was classified as a narcotic in Sweden in 1959, and was taken completely off the market in 1965. At first the illegal demand was satisfied by smuggling from Germany, and later Spain and Italy. At first, Preludin tablets were smuggled, but soon the smugglers started bringing in raw phenmetrazine powder. Eventually amphetamine became the dominant stimulant of abuse because of its greater availability.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: Phenmetrazine was taken by the Beatles early in their career. Paul McCartney was one known user. McCartney's introduction to drugs started in Hamburg, Germany. The Beatles had to play for hours, and they were often given the drug (referred to as "Prellies") by the maid who cleaned their housing arrangements, German customers, or by Astrid Kirchherr (whose mother bought them). McCartney would usually take one, but John Lennon would often take four or five. Hunter Davies asserted, in his 1968 biography of the band, that their use of such stimulants then was in response to their need to stay awake and keep working, rather than a simple desire for kicks.


title: Phenmetrazine

text: Preludin was also used recreationally in the US throughout the 1960s and 1970s. It could be crushed up in water, heated and injected. The street name for the drug in Washington, DC was "Bam". Phenmetrazine continues to be used and abused around the world, in countries including South Korea.


title: Enrico Casarosa

text: Enrico Casarosa (born November 20, 1971) is an Italian-American storyboard artist, film director, and writer who works at Pixar. In 2012, he was nominated for an Academy Award for the animated short film "La Luna". In 2022, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for "Luca" (2021).


title: Enrico Casarosa

text: Casarosa was born in Genoa, Italy, and moved to New York City in his twenties, to study animation at the School of Visual Arts and Illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology.


title: Enrico Casarosa

text: He then worked as a background designer and storyboard artist on various Disney Channel TV series, including "" and "PB&J Otter". Before joining Pixar, Casarosa worked as a storyboard artist at Blue Sky Studios on "Ice Age".


title: Enrico Casarosa

text: In 2002, Casarosa joined Pixar, where he worked as a story artist on "Cars", "Ratatouille", "Up" and "Cars 2". In late 2004, Casarosa started a drawing marathon community called "SketchCrawl" and has been organizing the event ever since. In 2011, his short film "La Luna" premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France, and was released theatrically with Pixar's "Brave" in 2012.


title: Enrico Casarosa

text: He then worked as head of story on "The Good Dinosaur" when Bob Peterson was directing the project beginning in 2011, and as a story artist on "Coco".


title: Enrico Casarosa

text: Casarosa most recently directed the Pixar Animation Studios film "Luca", released on Disney+ on June 18, 2021, in the United States. The film received generally positive reviews from critics for its nostalgic feel and acting and the film won an Hollywood Critics Association award for Best Picture.


title: Enrico Casarosa

text: In 2008, Enrico Casarosa (along with Ronnie del Carmen, Daisuke Tsutsumi and Yukino Pang) initiated the Totoro Forest Project, a fundraising exhibition/auction to support the non-profit Totoro Forest Foundation. This initiative also produced a corresponding art book reprinting the various pieces contributed and included the likes of James Jean, Charles Vess, Iain McCaig and William Joyce among others.


title: Integrated Head Protection System

text: The Integrated Head Protection System (IHPS) is the United States Army's newest combat helmet, intended to eventually replace the Advanced Combat Helmet and Enhanced Combat Helmet.


title: Integrated Head Protection System

text: It was developed by the US Army Soldier Protection System (SPS) program, and is produced by Avon Protection Ceradyne, a subsidiary of Avon Protection.


title: Integrated Head Protection System

text: The helmet was first issued in 2019 to troops deploying to combat zones like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.


title: Integrated Head Protection System

text: The IHPS helmet began development as a replacement for the Advanced Combat Helmets and Enhanced Combat Helmets in 2013 under the U.S. Army's Soldier Protection System program, which is intended to improve soldier protection and performance while reducing weight of a soldiers Personal Protective Equipment. Low Rate Initial Production delivery began 2nd quarter of the 2018 fiscal year. The helmet was first issued to troops deploying to combat zones through the Rapid Fielding Initiative (RFI) program.


title: Integrated Head Protection System

text: In October 2019 the new helmet was reported to have saved a soldier’s life in Afghanistan, protecting his head from a brick thrown at his vehicle.


title: Integrated Head Protection System

text: The IHPS was deployed with U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division soldiers during the 2019–20 attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.


title: Integrated Head Protection System

text: The IHPS, combined with Military Combat Eye Protection (MCEP), completes the head protection portion of the Soldier Protection System. The IHPS is claimed to be 5% lighter than previous helmets, while offering improved blunt force impact, passive hearing and ballistic protection. An optional 2 lb/.9 kg applique armor plate is available for further improved ballistic protection.


title: Integrated Head Protection System

text: The IHPS uses a boltless chinstrap retention system, unlike previous helmets that needed pre drilled holes for bolts that fastened the chinstrap to the helmet, which created ballistic weakpoints. The IHPS has an optional mandible with eye shield for maxillofacial protection, and side rails for attaching equipment like flashlights, cameras and helmet mounted headsets. Both the legacy PVS-14 and PSQ-20 night vision devices can be mounted, as well as the new ENVG-B. In late 2021, Avon Protection Ceradyne announced the completed development of a proprietary rail-mounted adapter for 3M-produced Peltor ComTac headsets, likely in response to the common complaint among troops that the helmet previously lacked the communications integration capabilities that are quickly becoming the norm with the rising popularity of high-cut style helmets.


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: Upstairs at Eric's is the debut studio album by English synth-pop duo Yazoo (known in North America as Yaz). It was released on 20 August 1982 by Mute Records. It was produced by the band and E.C. Radcliffe, with assistance from Mute label boss Daniel Miller on some of the tracks. Named after producer Radcliffe's Blackwing Studios where the album was recorded, "Upstairs at Eric's" was preceded by two UK top-three singles, the ballad "Only You" and the more uptempo "Don't Go". The album reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and has been certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), denoting shipments in excess of 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: Against the group's wishes, "Situation", originally the B-side of "Only You" in the UK and Europe, was released as the band's debut single in the United States and Canada, where a remixed version of the song by DJ François Kevorkian was reached number one on "Billboard" Club Play Singles chart. "Situation" peaked at number 73 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, while it reached the top 40 in Canada, peaking at number 31. The North American version of the album subsequently replaced the remixed version of "Situation" for the UK album track "Tuesday". "Upstairs at Eric's" reached number 92 on the "Billboard" 200 in the US and number 49 on "RPM" albums chart in Canada.


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: Following the success of their debut single "Only You", Clarke and Moyet rapidly recorded the album to maintain their . As Clarke's only previous experience of a recording studio had been Blackwing Studios in south-east London, where he had made Depeche Mode's debut album "Speak & Spell", his immediate thought was to record Yazoo's album there as well: he said later, "I didn't know of any other studios, so I just assumed that Blackwing was the only studio I could record at". However, when the duo arrived at Blackwing they found that not only was Daniel Miller unavailable to produce the album, contrary to Clarke's expectations, but the main studios had already been booked out during the daytime by Fad Gadget, another Mute label act. Instead Clarke and Moyet had to record the album in the early mornings with studio owner Eric (E.C.) Radcliffe overseeing most of the recording process, turning up around 5 or 6 a.m. and working through until 11 a.m. each day in whichever of the two studio spaces were available at the time.


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: On the 30th anniversary of "Upstairs at Eric's" in 2012 Clarke told "The Quietus" that there had been no grand plan for the album's creation: "We just came together and it was a bit of a mish-mash really. There was no concept or theme running through the album; we were just messing about in the studio. Part of the charm of that album is a naivety. There really wasn't a profound concept that was running through the recording. I didn't really know what I was doing in the studio and Alison hadn't much experience of being in a recording studio, so everything was new. We'd make one sound and we'd think it was great and just stop there and wouldn't make any more sounds. It wasn't like we were continually honing or over-producing songs because everything at the time sounded fresh. That's why a lot of the tracks only have eight or nine elements to them."


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: Clarke's compositions "I Before E Except After C" and "In My Room" explore the use of cut-up vocals, including his own spoken word voice. "I Before E Except After C" features both Moyet and the mother of producer Eric Radcliffe separately reading out the instruction manual for one of the pieces of studio equipment, with Moyet struggling to keep herself from laughing.


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: Moyet later described how her song "Goodbye 70's" had been inspired by her disillusionment with how the late-1970s punk scene had turned out, saying, "'Goodbye 70's' is about punk and not caring how you were dressed, and then I discovered that so many of my friends that I'd thought it all really meant something to just saw it as another trend... That's what 'Goodbye 70's' was all about, about how sour the whole thing became."


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: The album cover depicts two mannequins in a sparsely furnished loft, facing each other over a table, with the lower part of the dummies' bodies seated on chairs while the upper portions are perched on the edges of the table. It was shot by photographer Joe Lyons at his first photo studio in north London, and he described how he had set up the shot:


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: The original UK CD release of "Upstairs at Eric's" in 1986 featured a close-up of part of the original album cover. Another photograph from the same session was used as the cover for the Yazoo box set "In Your Room" in 2008.


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: From contemporary reviews, "Melody Maker" hailed "Upstairs at Eric's" as "an album of rich, dark passion, forever burying the hoary old moan that electronics and synthesizers will never be any good because they don't have a button on the front that says 'emotion'".


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: Lynn Hanna of "NME" was more critical, feeling that ""Upstairs at Eric's" is an LP of trial and some error, and it shows all the signs of a collaboration that's still in a promising infancy. The writing is divided almost equally between the two, and at their best each acts as an excellent foil to the other... A little too often, though, this LP speaks of two disparate pasts rather than one new Yazoo facing the future." Ken Tucker of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" gave the album a one star out of five rating, referred to Yaz as "stiff-voiced monotony fans" and saying that the group were "even more pretentious than most, working the Lord's Prayer into [their] tedious synthesizer rhythms."


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: From retrospective reviews, David Jeffries of AllMusic compared the album with Clarke's other debut with Depeche Mode the previous year, stating "While "Speak and Spell" is, by far, the more consistent record, "Upstairs at Eric's" is wholly more satisfying, beating the Depeche record on substance and ambition, and is light years ahead in emotion... The clumsier experimental tracks make most people head for the hits collection, but to do so would be to miss the album's great twist... Like its curious cover, "Upstairs at Eric's" presents a fractured, well-lit, and paranoid urban landscape."


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: "Upstairs at Eric's" was placed at number 6 on the "NME" critics' list of albums of the year for 1982, while "Only You" was listed as the number 7 single and "Don't Go" as the number 14 single that same year. The album was also named as one of "Sounds" magazine's top twenty albums of 1982.


title: Upstairs at Eric's

text: In 1989 "Record Mirror" placed "Upstairs at Eric's" at number 35 on their list of the best albums of the 1980s.


title: German Communist Party

text: The German Communist Party (, ) is a communist party in Germany. The DKP supports left positions and was an observer member of the European Left. At the end of February 2016 it left the European party.


title: German Communist Party

text: The DKP considered itself a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which had been banned by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1956 for its aggressively militant opposition to the West German constitution. The new party was formed in 1969 by former KPD functionaries in close cooperation with East Germany's ruling party, the Socialist Unity Party (SED), from which the DKP received both political directives and – through covert transfers – most of its funds.


title: German Communist Party

text: The foundation was preceded by talks between former KPD functionaries and Gustav Heinemann, the West German minister of justice, who explained to them that while a refounding of a banned party was not legally possible, Communists were free to form an entirely new party. Even though the close links to the banned KPD made the new party liable to be declared illegal, no such declaration was requested by the German government as West German authorities were liberalizing the attitude towards the communist bloc and East Germany in particular.


title: German Communist Party

text: The DKP remained on the political fringe, never winning more than 0.3% of the total votes in federal elections. It had relatively greater local support in the 1970s: it achieved up to 2.2% of the vote in Hamburg, 3.1% in Bremen and 2.7% in the Saarland. Following German reunification, the DKP entered a steady decline.


title: German Communist Party

text: The DKP received national public attention in early 2008 when Christel Wegner, elected to the state parliament of Lower Saxony on the list of the Left Party as the first DKP member of a state parliament, allegedly endorsed the Berlin Wall, the Stasi and other aspects of the East German state in an interview. This caused embarrassment to the national Left Party leadership. Despite denying that she made the controversial statements (at least in the form that was reported) she was expelled from the Left Party faction a few days later.


title: Group C

text: Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with "Group A" for touring cars and "Group B" for GTs.


title: Group C

text: It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touring prototypes like Porsche 935) and Group 6 two-seat racing cars (open-top sportscar prototypes like Porsche 936). Group C was used in the FIA's World Endurance Championship (1982–1985), World Sports-Prototype Championship (1986–1990), World Sportscar Championship (1991–1992) and in the European Endurance Championship (1983 only). It was also used for other sports car racing series around the globe (All Japan Sports Prototype Championship, Supercup, Interserie). The final year for the class came in 1993.


title: Group C

text: The roots of the Group C category lie in both FIA Group 6 and particularly in the GTP category introduced by the ACO at Le Mans in the mid-1970s. GTP was a class for roofed prototypes with certain dimensional restrictions, but instead of the more usual limits on engine capacity, it placed limits on fuel consumption. The FIA applied the same concept in its Group C rules. It limited cars to a minimum weight of 800 kg and a maximum fuel capacity of 100 litres. With competitors restricted to five refueling stops within a 1000 kilometer distance, the cars were effectively allowed 600 litres per 1000 kilometers. The FIA hoped this would prevent manufacturers from concentrating solely on engine development; in the late 1970s, a few manufacturers (especially Porsche and Lancia) had dominated sports car racing by simply increasing turbocharger boost pressure, especially in qualifying trim — the 3.2 L Porsche 935 was capable of more than 800 hp. Engines had to be from a recognized manufacturer which had cars homologated in the FIA's Group A Touring Car or Group B GT Car categories.


title: Group C

text: While the consumption requirement meant that cars needed to conserve fuel early in the race, manufacturer support for the new regulations grew steadily with each make adding to the diversity of the series. With the new rules, it was theoretically possible for large naturally aspirated engines to compete with small forced induction engines. In addition, all races were to be contested over at least 1000 km — usually lasting more than six hours — so it was possible to emphasize the "endurance" aspect of the competition as well.


title: Group C

text: Ford (with the C100) and Porsche (with the 956) were the first constructors to join the series. The traditional turbocharged boxer engine in the 956 was already tested in the 1981 version of the Group 6 936. Eventually, several other makes joined the series, including Lancia, Jaguar, Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota, Mazda and Aston Martin. Many of these also took part in the IMSA championship, as its GTP class had similar regulations.


title: Group C

text: With costs increasing, the FIA introduced a new Group C Junior class for 1983. This was intended for privateer teams and small manufacturers and it limited cars to a minimum weight of 700 kg and a maximum fuel capacity of 55 liters. With competitors limited to five refueling stops within a 1000 kilometer distance, the cars were effectively allowed 330 liters per 1000 kilometers. As in Group C, engines had to be from a recognized manufacturer which had cars homologated in Group A or Group B. Although it was originally expected that C Junior cars would use two-litre normally aspirated engines, in practice most cars used either the 3.5l BMW M1 engine or the new 3.3l Cosworth DFL, but, like in the main class, a variety of solutions was employed by each individual manufacturer. Alba with a small, lightweight turbo, Tiga, Spice and Ecurie Ecosse with Austin-Rover and later Cosworth-powered cars were among the most competitive in this class. The low cost of these cars even led to the notion of their use in national championships, such as the short-lived British BRDC C2 Championship. Group C Junior was formally renamed Group C2 for 1984.


title: Group C

text: By 1989, the Group C series popularity was nearly as great as Formula One. When C1 cars were found to be breaking over the 400 kilometres per hour mark at Le Mans' Mulsanne Straight — the WM-Peugeot recorded the highest during the 1988 event — the FIA revolutionized the class by attempting to turn it into a formula series to replace the C2 category (after they proved to be unreliable at endurance races). The new formula restricted the performance of cars built to the original rules (such as the Porsche 962 used by many privateers) and benefited teams using F1-sourced 3.5 L engines — these latter teams being effectively the large manufacturers alone, as the new formula cars were more expensive than the C1 cars. What followed was the quick downfall of Group C, as the new engines were unaffordable for privateer teams like Spice and ADA. A lack of entries meant the 1993 Championship was canceled before the start of the first race. However, the ACO still allowed the Group C cars to compete (albeit with restrictions) at 24 Hours of Le Mans. Nevertheless, the race still witnessed protests against the new state of affairs, as spectators placed cloth banners in fences expressing their feelings.


title: Group C

text: The 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans was the last one in which Group C cars were permitted. A new category formed especially by race organizers also saw modified Group C cars without roofs. In fact, a former C1 car disguised as a road-legal GT car which was entered in the GT1 category, the Dauer 962 Le Mans, and won the race after transmission problems by a leading Toyota 94C-V. The 962 was subsequently banned; the Toyota was later given a special dispensation to race in the Suzuka 1000km, and a few C1 racers were allowed to compete in the newly formed Japanese GT Championship — this would be its final year of competition. Many of the modified open top Group C cars continued to compete until they wrecked, broke, or retired out of competitiveness; notable among these was the Porsche WSC-95 which won the and Le Mans races, using the monocoque of the Jaguar XJR-14 and Porsche 962 mechanicals (engine, transmission, etc.).


title: Group C

text: The FIA's Group C formula was designed primarily for the World Endurance Championship which included the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, several smaller series also adapted the Group C regulations. The Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft allowed Group C cars to compete alongside various other types of cars from the 1982 season until 1985, when the series was reformed as the Supercup. Under the new Supercup series, only Group C cars would be allowed to compete. This series lasted until 1989.


title: Group C

text: In Great Britain, the Thundersports championship combined a variety of cars with the C Junior (later C2) class of cars. This too was later replaced with a C2 only series known as the BRDC C2 Championship, and lasted until 1990. The European Interserie championship also allowed Group C cars to compete, although they did not use the same class structure.


title: Group C

text: In Japan, the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship was created in 1983, while the Fuji Long Distance Series also began allowing Group C cars for the first time. It was not until 1989 however that the series concentrated solely on the Group C formula. Both championships lasted until 1992, when they were cancelled along with the World Sportscar Championship.


title: Farm team

text: In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher level at a given point, usually in an association with a major-level parent team. This system can be implemented in many ways, both formally and informally. It is not to be confused with a practice squad, which fulfills a similar developmental purpose but the players on the practice squad are members of the parent team.


title: Farm team

text: The term is also used as a metaphor for any organization or activity that serves as a training ground for higher-level endeavors. For instance, business schools are occasionally referred to as "farm clubs" in the world of business.


title: Farm team

text: In the United States and Canada, Minor League Baseball teams operate under strict franchise contracts with their major league counterparts. Although the vast majority of such teams are privately owned and are therefore able to switch affiliation, those players under contract with the affiliated Major League Baseball team are under their exclusive control, and would move to the MLB club's new affiliate. Not all players on a minor league team are under contract with the MLB club; however, the parent club has the exclusive right to "purchase" the contract of a non-contract player at its affiliate.


title: Farm team

text: Minor league teams are usually based in smaller cities (although both the New York Yankees and the cross-town rival New York Mets each have a low-level minor-league affiliate actually based elsewhere within New York City), and players who are contracted to them, as opposed to major league players sent down to this level for rehabilitation or other professional-development assignments, are typically paid significantly less than their Major League counterparts.


title: Farm team

text: Most major league players start off their careers by working their way up the minor league system, from the lowest (rookie) to the highest (AAA) classification, with the rare exceptions usually being those players signed from Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Since the elimination of the Bonus Rule, only a very small number of amateur players have gone directly into the MLB, including John Olerud, Jim Abbott, and Dave Winfield. The process of a player working his way up through the minor leagues is formally referred by most MLB teams as "player development". However, minor league affiliates are often informally referred to as "farm teams" and a major league player's misfortune of being sent back to the minors is sometimes described as being "farmed out".


title: Farm team

text: The farm system as it is recognized today was invented by Branch Rickey, who – as field manager, general manager, and club president – helped to build the St. Louis Cardinals dynasty during the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. When Rickey joined the team in 1916, players were commonly purchased by major league teams from independent, high-level minor league clubs.


title: Farm team

text: Rickey, a keen judge of talent, became frustrated when the players he had identified for purchase at the A and AA levels were offered for bid and sold by those independent clubs to wealthier rivals such as the Chicago Cubs and the New York Giants. With the support of Cardinal owner Sam Breadon, Rickey devised a plan whereby St. Louis would purchase and control its own minor league teams from Class D to Class AA (the highest level at the time), thus allowing them to promote or demote players as they developed, and "grow" their own talent.


title: Farm team

text: The talent pipeline began at tryout camps that St. Louis scouts conducted throughout the U.S. "From quantity comes quality," Rickey once observed, and, during the 1930s, with as many as 40 owned or affiliated farm teams, the Cardinals controlled the destinies of hundreds of players each year. (The reserve clause then bound players to their teams in perpetuity.)


title: Farm team

text: The Cardinals won nine National League pennants and six World Series championships between 1926 and 1946, proving the effectiveness of the farm system concept. Indeed, the second club to fully embrace such a system, the New York Yankees, used it to sustain their dynasty from the mid-1930s through the middle of the 1960s. When Rickey moved to the Brooklyn Dodgers as president and general manager in 1943, he built a hugely successful farm system there as well after the end of World War II. The teams that ignored the farm system in the 1930s and early 1940s (such as the Philadelphia A's and Phillies and the Washington Senators) found themselves falling on hard times.


title: Farm team

text: The existence of the minor league system is due in part to MLB's ability to include a reserve clause in its contracts with minor league players, which gives the major league team exclusive rights to a player even after the contract has expired. In a landmark 1922 Supreme Court decision, "Federal Baseball Club v. National League", baseball was granted a special immunity from antitrust laws. Despite the advent of free agency in 1976, which led many to predict the demise of the farm system, it still remains a strong component of a winning baseball strategy.


title: Farm team

text: The teams of the National Hockey League also have their own farm teams in the American Hockey League (AHL). For example, the Cleveland Monsters are the farm team for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Additionally, NHL teams have affiliates in the ECHL, although the terms of the most recent CBA (expired in 2012) prohibited ECHL players from being recalled to the NHL or being sent down to that league without being assigned to the AHL first; thus, ECHL teams are "de facto" affiliated to their respective NHL-partner's farm team in the AHL. Although some NHL franchises own their AHL and/or ECHL affiliates, many AHL and ECHL franchises are independently owned, with ties to NHL franchises made through affiliation contracts.


title: Farm team

text: Unlike baseball, not all the players on the rosters of the minor league teams are owned by an NHL team. The AHL system recognizes two types of contracts: the two-way contract (generally the most common among NHL prospects), in which players can be sent back and forth between the NHL and AHL at will, and the standard contract, which binds the player to the AHL. The NHL teams have negotiating rights to AHL players on their farm clubs' rosters and can upgrade a player to a two-way contract if they so desire. Players can also be sent down to the AHL via the waivers system; if a player is not claimed by any team when placed on waivers, he is by default assigned to his previous team's AHL club.


title: Farm team

text: In many clubs, there will be internal feeder teams. These may be age-restricted teams, such as an 'Under-18s' team, or an 'A team'. For example, in international association football, national teams also operate youth sides—see England national under-21 football team, for example.


title: Farm team

text: In the United States, some Major League Soccer teams previously had reserve teams in the MLS Reserve League. Later, all teams were nominally required to field a reserve team or an affiliate in a professional league operated by the United Soccer League—either the USL Championship, which occupies the second tier of the United States soccer league system, or USL League One, one of two leagues that then shared third-tier status. This requirement was never strictly enforced. In 2022, MLS will relaunch its reserve league as MLS Next Pro, which occupies the third level alongside USL League One and the National Independent Soccer Association. The first Next Pro season will feature 21 teams, all but one of which are MLS reserve sides, with most having been withdrawn from the USL system in advance of the establishment of the new league. All remaining MLS reserve sides will be withdrawn from the USL system after the 2022 season to join Next Pro.


title: Farm team

text: In many sports, these feeder teams will compete in their own leagues, though in some cases they compete with other 'full teams' at a lower level.


title: Farm team

text: In some countries, such as New Zealand, major teams are organised as regional franchises, and local club sides within these regions become automatic feeder clubs for these regional teams.


title: Farm team

text: It is also becoming more common for football clubs to arrange formal deals with other clubs with which they originally had no connection. The feeder/parent club connection could have many functions, and be very beneficial both for the feeder and the parent club. For bigger clubs, it is common to arrange agreements with the minor clubs in the area. The smaller teams can provide the bigger team (the parent club) with young talents, and the mother club have an opportunity to send their young players away on loan to these teams ("to farm out").


title: Farm team

text: In addition to local connection, it is increasingly commonplace for teams to have feeder clubs in other regions of the country or in other nations, in order to gain further knowledge. Prominent European clubs are often making intercontinental deals with other clubs for the same reason. AFC Ajax have for instance a connection with the South African team Ajax Cape Town, Manchester United have a connection with the Australian team Wollongong Wolves and the Belgian team Royal Antwerp, and Lithuanian side FBK Kaunas have loaned many of their younger players out to their Scottish parent team Heart of Midlothian in the hope of securing them a deal at a bigger club in the future. Having a feeder club in wealthy countries, where football is gaining a gradually better reputation, has also proved to be very beneficial. Countries such as the United States, Canada, Japan, China and South Korea are good examples. Alternatively, some clubs within the European Union have used feeder teams to sign non-EU players and then naturalize them in an EU country, to overcome visa regulations, for example English team Liverpool F.C. has an agreement with Belgian side KRC Genk.


title: Farm team

text: The National Football League is the only one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America that does not currently have a farm system. Nearly all of its players are drafted from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which operates on a scholarship system which prohibits the payment of cash, but with the new NIL system up and running, students are now allowed to profit off of their own Name, Image & Likeness. The scholarship system provides student-athletes with free college education, room and board for up to five years. The relation between college football and the NFL is a result of the development of the game of American football, which (unlike other sports, which were primarily independent club activities) was cultivated at colleges and universities. As a result, players entering the professional football system are generally several years older and more physically mature than first-time professional athletes in other sports, thus reducing the need for a farm system.


title: Farm team

text: In the 1930s, the Chicago Bears and New York Giants owned teams in the American Association, which became the first true minor league in professional football. In the 1960s, several NFL teams had agreements with the Atlantic Coast Football League to use their teams as farm teams, though they were not owned by the NFL owners. The most recent official minor league, NFL Europe, was different from most other farm teams in that all prospects were pooled and dispersed among the six European teams, instead of having teams assigned to each other.


title: Farm team

text: The XFL (2020) established a hybrid between a practice squad and a farm team, what it dubbed "Team 9:" operated with the same autonomy as the other eight teams, with its own roster and coaching staff, Team 9 will not play any on-the-record games and will serve as a pool of potential players for the other eight teams to call up in the event of injury. A similar system was used by NFL Europe.


title: Farm team

text: Many players in the Canadian Football League and Arena Football League (among other indoor American football leagues) later advance to the NFL, but no farming contracts exist among any teams, in part because the National Football League Players Association opposes the idea of an affiliated farm system on the grounds that its players would be at risk of unnecessary injury. During the mid-2000s, several NFL owners at least partially owned arena football teams, such as Jerry Jones (Dallas), Arthur Blank (Atlanta), Bud Adams (Tennessee), Tom Benson (New Orleans), and Pat Bowlen (Denver), but very rarely did they ever promote or demote any players between the AFL and NFL, due in part to significant differences in the playing schedules and the style of play between outdoor and indoor football. All of the NFL owners backed out of the league when it went bankrupt, was sold off and reorganized.


title: Farm team

text: In Canada, intercollegiate sport has never attained a similar level of following compared to the United States, mainly due to ice hockey being the most popular sport in the country. In hockey, the National Hockey League has historically overlooked intercollegiate sport in favour of other player development models. Nevertheless, the Canadian Football League has established itself as a niche league despite collecting only a fraction of the revenues commanded by the NFL. To recruit talented players, the league to a large extent relies on maintaining rules that are similar enough to American football so as to allow talented NCAA-trained players a reasonable prospect of adapting and being successful in the CFL, while retaining significant enough differences so as to ensure that the league is largely not in competition with the NFL for exactly the same type of players. In addition, to maintain the league's distinct Canadian identity, the league enforces a strict quota of Canadian players that must be on the rosters of all CFL teams.


title: Farm team

text: Traditionally, the NBA did not have a formal farm league, though unofficially, the Continental Basketball Association served as an NBA feeder league on and off through its existence. It mainly relies on the elite NCAA to produce NBA players, and thus the latter was often known as the "feeders". Since 2001, the NBA directly owns an entire farm league: the NBA G League (formerly the NBA D-League). The NBA G League started with eight teams in the fall of 2001. In March 2005, NBA commissioner David Stern announced a plan to expand the league to fifteen teams and develop it into a true minor league farm system, with each team affiliated with one or more NBA teams. Although the system has been run for a few years, most of the rookies in NBA are still drafted out from NCAA. At the conclusion of the 2008–09 NBA season, 20 percent of NBA players had spent time in the NBA D-League. By the end of the 2016–17 season, 44% of players in the 2017 NBA playoffs had some experience in the D-League. The league signed a branding agreement with Gatorade in 2017 to become the NBA G League.


title: Farm team

text: Some sports allow the operation of independent feeder teams. In professional cycling, for example, feeder teams such as Vendée U and Trek Livestrong, act as feeders for Bouygues Télécom and Team RadioShack respectively, and compete at levels below the UCI ProTour. Most pro-cycling teams use this format.


title: Farm team

text: Such agreements may be less formal; in English football, for example, the operation of an external feeder team is prohibited. However, casual relationships may exist between teams to allow a sharing of larger clubs' resources with smaller clubs, in return for the smaller teams taking young players on loan. This allows both clubs to maintain separate identities, and to exit from the arrangement if necessary. Such an agreement exists between Preston North End and Holker Old Boys, for example . Alternatively, clubs may use teams playing abroad, particularly if they want to follow the progress of players who they cannot sign due to work permit regulations. Please see List of feeder teams in football for a comprehensive list.


title: Farm team

text: In North American baseball, several independent leagues exist outside of the control of Minor League Baseball or Major League Baseball and without any formal developmental agreements, but may still exist as informal places for talent to develop.


title: Farm team

text: Professional wrestling utilizes a farm system that allows inexperienced wrestlers to develop their skills and gain in ring experience in smaller, often regional promotions before they are called up to compete in front of a global/national audience. These are generally called "farm leagues" or "developmental territories".


title: Farm team

text: Some of the more notable ones for WWE include World Wrestling Alliance (1998); Power Pro Wrestling (1998–2000); International Wrestling Association (1999–2001); Memphis Championship Wrestling (2000–2001); Deep South Wrestling (2005–2007); Heartland Wrestling Association (2001–2003), which was also a developmental territory for World Championship Wrestling; Ohio Valley Wrestling (2000–2008 for WWE; 2011–2013 and 2019–present for Impact Wrestling); and Florida Championship Wrestling (2007–2012).


title: Farm team

text: In 2012, WWE would relaunch and repurpose "NXT", the name of a weekly series that used Florida Championship Wrestling talent, for a new, in-house, developmental brand. By 2019, NXT would be recognized by WWE as the promotion's "third" main brand; with its eponymous weekly series moving to USA Network that year; and the NXT UK and former 205 Live brands reorganized under the NXT umbrella. The brand was later relaunched under the "NXT 2.0" banner in Fall 2021, as part of a larger revamp that saw it return to its "developmental" roots.


title: Farm team

text: Formula One teams often use the most promising drivers from divisions such as the current Formula Two championship, the former GP2 and Formula Two championships, with the majority of the current Formula Two's champions graduating to F1. Ten drivers on the grid for 2011 had previously raced in GP2. Scuderia AlphaTauri also serves as a sort of farm team for Red Bull Racing. Both are owned by Austrian beverage company Red Bull, with AlphaTauri helping to develop cars and drivers for Red Bull Racing. Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel drove for Toro Rosso—AlphaTauri's predecessor team—from 2007 to 2008 and made the move to Red Bull in 2009, replacing the retiring David Coulthard.


title: Farm team

text: Every Red Bull driver since the 2014 season has moved there from Toro Rosso with the exception of Sergio Pérez.


title: Farm team

text: NASCAR, the principal body for stock car racing in North America, has an extensive system of developmental series, with the ultimate goal for drivers being a ride in the top-level NASCAR Cup Series. Most Cup Series teams are involved in at least one of NASCAR's two other national series, either running vehicles in the junior series or affiliating with teams that run exclusively in those series:


title: Farm team

text: Below the two national series are multiple regional series. Cup Series teams generally do not participate at these levels, but extensively scout them for future talent.


title: Farm team

text: The entry level of NASCAR-sanctioned racing is the Whelen All-American Series, a championship for drivers who compete in weekly races at small tracks, often dirt tracks, throughout the U.S. and Canada. Regional champions and an overall series champion are crowned.