title: G5 howitzer

text: The Canadian GC-45 was selected as the baseline howitzer from which to commence indigenous development. Armscor procured barrels, 30,000 rounds and design specifications for the GC-45 from Gerald Bull. One of the GC-45 test pieces was mounted on a US 155mm M59 carriage – and a further six GC-45s had changes made to internal ballistics, barrel construction and carriage and cradle fixtures, to become the prototype models eventually leading to the G5. These GC-45s had been developed by SRC International of Belgium, a joint venture between Gerald Bull's Space Research Corporation of Canada and PRB of Belgium. Further changes included the addition of a small APU to allow the gun to dig itself in and move short distances at up to , as well as the addition of an advanced muzzle brake. The G5 became operational in 1983.


title: G5 howitzer

text: Using the normal Extended Range, Full Bore (ERFB) ammunition the normal range is , which can be extended to about using base bleed shells, or using rocket assisted V-LAP rounds. In 2002 Denel produced the G5-2000 version, with much greater range and accuracy than the earlier 45-calibre version.


title: G5 howitzer

text: The G5 gun has been placed on an OMC 6×6 chassis to produce the fully self-propelled G6 howitzer, and won major export sales in this form from the United Arab Emirates and Oman. In response to a request from India it has also been tested on the back of a TATRA 8×8 wheeled truck, a combination known as the T5-2000. It has also been fitted into a turret, named the T6, that can be placed on any suitable vehicle; it has been fitted on the T-72 tank.


title: G5 howitzer

text: The G5 howitzer saw action in Angola and Namibia in the South African Border War between 1986 and 1989, where it was in service with the South African Defence Force. The G5 was used operationally for the first time during Operation Alpha Centauri in 1986. The G5 also saw action in the Iran–Iraq War between 1980 and 1988, where it was used by both Iraq and Iran.


title: Carles Pérez

text: Carles Pérez Sayol (born 16 February 1998) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a right winger for La Liga club Celta, on loan from Roma.


title: Carles Pérez

text: Born in Granollers, Barcelona, Catalonia, Pérez joined FC Barcelona's youth setup in 2012, from RCD Espanyol. On 3 October 2015, while still a youth, he made his senior debut with the reserves by coming on as a second-half substitute for Maxi Rolón in a 0–0 Segunda División B away draw against Levante UD B.


title: Carles Pérez

text: In July 2017, Pérez was promoted to the B-side, now in Segunda División. He made his professional debut on 19 August 2017, replacing Vitinho in a 2–1 away win against Real Valladolid.


title: Carles Pérez

text: Pérez scored his first professional goals on 21 January 2018, netting a hat-trick in a 3–1 away defeat of CD Tenerife. On 12 June, after suffering relegation with the reserve side, he renewed his contract for two further years.


title: Carles Pérez

text: Pérez made his first team – and La Liga – debut on 19 May 2019, replacing Malcom in a 2–2 away draw against SD Eibar. He scored his first goal for the "Blaugrana" on 25 August, scoring his team's third in a 5–2 home routing of Real Betis. He scored his first UEFA Champions League goal as the opener in a 2–1 away victory against Inter Milan.


title: Carles Pérez

text: On 30 January 2020, Pérez left Barcelona for Italian side Roma, in a loan move with the obligation to purchase his rights permanently for a fee of €11 million in the summer. He scored his first UEFA Europa League goal in a 1–0 home victory against Gent in the Round of 32. He scored his first Serie A goal in a 6–1 away win against SPAL.


title: Carles Pérez

text: On 8 August 2022, Pérez returned to his home country after agreeing to a loan move to RC Celta de Vigo.


title: Chirp

text: A chirp is a signal in which the frequency increases ("up-chirp") or decreases ("down-chirp") with time. In some sources, the term "chirp" is used interchangeably with sweep signal. It is commonly applied to sonar, radar, and laser systems, and to other applications, such as in spread-spectrum communications (see chirp spread spectrum). This signal type is biologically inspired and occurs as a phenomenon due to dispersion (a non-linear dependence between frequency and the propagation speed of the wave components). It is usually compensated for by using a matched filter, which can be part of the propagation channel. Depending on the specific performance measure, however, there are better techniques both for radar and communication. Since it was used in radar and space, it has been adopted also for communication standards. For automotive radar applications, it is usually called linear frequency modulated waveform (LFMW).


title: Chirp

text: In spread-spectrum usage, surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are often used to generate and demodulate the chirped signals. In optics, ultrashort laser pulses also exhibit chirp, which, in optical transmission systems, interacts with the dispersion properties of the materials, increasing or decreasing total pulse dispersion as the signal propagates. The name is a reference to the chirping sound made by birds; see bird vocalization.


title: Chirp

text: The basic definitions here translate as the common physics quantities location (phase), speed (angular velocity), acceleration (chirpyness).


title: Chirp

text: then the instantaneous angular frequency, "ω", is defined as the phase rate as given by the first derivative of phase,


title: Chirp

text: Finally, the instantaneous angular chirpyness, "γ", is defined to be the second derivative of instantaneous phase or the first derivative of instantaneous angular frequency,


title: Chirp

text: In a linear-frequency chirp or simply linear chirp, the instantaneous frequency formula_4 varies exactly linearly with time:


title: Chirp

text: where formula_6 is the starting frequency (at time formula_7) and formula_8 is the chirp rate, assumed constant:


title: Chirp

text: Here, formula_10 is the final frequency and formula_11 is the time it takes to sweep from formula_12 to formula_10.


title: Chirp

text: The corresponding time-domain function for the phase of any oscillating signal is the integral of the frequency function, as one expects the phase to grow like formula_14, i.e., that the derivative of the phase is the angular frequency formula_15.


title: Chirp

text: where formula_17 is the initial phase (at time formula_7). Thus this is also called a quadratic-phase signal.


title: Chirp

text: The corresponding time-domain function for a sinusoidal linear chirp is the sine of the phase in radians:


title: Chirp

text: In a geometric chirp, also called an exponential chirp, the frequency of the signal varies with a geometric relationship over time. In other words, if two points in the waveform are chosen, formula_20 and formula_21, and the time interval between them formula_22 is kept constant, the frequency ratio formula_23 will also be constant.


title: Chirp

text: where formula_6 is the starting frequency (at formula_7), and formula_27 is the rate of exponential change in frequency.


title: Chirp

text: Unlike the linear chirp, which has a constant chirpyness, an exponential chirp has an exponentially increasing frequency rate.


title: Chirp

text: The corresponding time-domain function for the phase of an exponential chirp is the integral of the frequency:


title: Chirp

text: The corresponding time-domain function for a sinusoidal exponential chirp is the sine of the phase in radians:


title: Chirp

text: As was the case for the Linear Chirp, the instantaneous frequency of the Exponential Chirp consists of the fundamental frequency formula_24 accompanied by additional harmonics.


title: Chirp

text: Hyperbolic chirps are used in radar applications, as they show maximum matched filter response after being distorted by the Doppler effect.


title: Chirp

text: The corresponding time-domain function for the phase of an hyperbolic chirp is the integral of the frequency:


title: Chirp

text: The corresponding time-domain function for a sinusoidal hyperbolic chirp is the sine of the phase in radians:


title: Chirp

text: A chirp signal can be generated with analog circuitry via a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), and a linearly or exponentially ramping control voltage. It can also be generated digitally by a digital signal processor (DSP) and digital to analog converter (DAC), using a direct digital synthesizer (DDS) and by varying the step in the numerically controlled oscillator. It can also be generated by a YIG oscillator.


title: Chirp

text: A chirp signal shares the same spectral content with an impulse signal. However, unlike in the impulse signal, spectral components of the chirp signal have different phases, i.e., their power spectra are alike but the phase spectra are distinct. Dispersion of a signal propagation medium may result in unintentional conversion of impulse signals into chirps. On the other hand, many practical applications, such as chirped pulse amplifiers or echolocation systems, use chirp signals instead of impulses because of their inherently lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR).


title: Chirp

text: Chirp modulation, or linear frequency modulation for digital communication, was patented by Sidney Darlington in 1954 with significant later work performed by Winkler in 1962. This type of modulation employs sinusoidal waveforms whose instantaneous frequency increases or decreases linearly over time. These waveforms are commonly referred to as linear chirps or simply chirps.


title: Chirp

text: Hence the rate at which their frequency changes is called the "chirp rate". In binary chirp modulation, binary data is transmitted by mapping the bits into chirps of opposite chirp rates. For instance, over one bit period "1" is assigned a chirp with positive rate "a" and "0" a chirp with negative rate "−a". Chirps have been heavily used in radar applications and as a result advanced sources for transmission and matched filters for reception of linear chirps are available.


title: Chirp

text: having the three parameters "a" (scale), "b" (translation), and "c" (chirpiness). The projective chirp is ideally suited to image processing, and forms the basis for the projective chirplet transform.


title: Chirp

text: A change in frequency of Morse code from the desired frequency, due to poor stability in the RF oscillator, is known as chirp, and in the R-S-T system is given an appended letter 'C'.


title: Tanya Callau

text: In the 1990s, Callau came to United States from Bolivia to pursue modeling. Callau is best known for her 2004 role as Tanya, a Spanish Wedding Guest, in "".


title: Tanya Callau

text: Starting in 2014, Callau starred with her husband, Alan Thicke, in "Unusually Thicke", a Canadian reality show/sitcom hybrid. In 2014, Callau was the associate producer of 14 "Unusually Thicke" episodes.


title: Tanya Callau

text: In 1999, at age 23, Callau met Alan Thicke in Miami, where he was a celebrity host and she was a model. On May 7, 2005, Callau married Alan Thicke in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Callau was his third wife. She is the step-mother of Brennan Thicke, Carter Thicke and Robin Thicke.


title: So Much Fun

text: So Much Fun is the debut studio album by American rapper Young Thug. It was released on August 16, 2019, by YSL Records, 300 Entertainment and Atlantic Records. The album features guest appearances from Future, Machine Gun Kelly, Gunna, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Duke, 21 Savage, Doe Boy, Lil Keed, Quavo, Juice Wrld, Nav, J. Cole, and Travis Scott. The album was supported by the singles "The London" and "Hot".


title: So Much Fun

text: "So Much Fun" received generally positive reviews and debuted atop the US "Billboard" 200, becoming Young Thug's first US number-one album.


title: So Much Fun

text: American musician J. Cole was originally rumored, without any official confirmation from Cole nor Thug, to serve as the executive producer on the album, but his contributions did not make it to the final album. Among others, Thug worked with Roddy Ricch, 21 Savage, and Gunna in recording sessions for the album.


title: So Much Fun

text: "So Much Fun" was originally titled "GOLDMOUFDOG" (stylized as "GØŁDMØÜFDÖG") before Young Thug revealed the new title in an interview with podcast host Adam22 for his No Jumper channel. Thug also announced the album's title had been changed on social media. On August 10, 2019, Thug announced the album would be released on August 16. The deluxe edition of the album was released on December 20, 2019, featuring five new tracks: "Diamonds", "Hop Off a Jet", "Die Today", "Millions", and the remix of "Hot".


title: So Much Fun

text: The album's lead single, "The London" featuring J. Cole and Travis Scott, was released on May 23, 2019. The song was produced by T-Minus. It peaked at number 12 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. The second single, "Hot" featuring Gunna, was released in a remix additionally featuring Travis Scott on October 31, 2019. It peaked at number 11 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: So Much Fun

text: "So Much Fun" was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 79, based on 10 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 7.3 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.


title: So Much Fun

text: Alphonse Pierre of "Pitchfork" gave a positive review, stating "Despite all the collaborations on "So Much Fun", the album is about Young Thug. He might not mystify as he did in the early stages of his career, when he was stumbling into new flows and deliveries at an inhuman pace, but now he's able to wield the madness with ease, satisfying in many modes". Scott Glaysher of "HipHopDX" wrote that "Thugger has performed vocally like this before on "Jeffrey", lyrically like this on "Slime Season" and emotionally like this on "Beautiful Thugger Girls" but not consistently have they all converged together like this, forging the ultimate Young Thug Voltron. Plus, this top-notch performance has been spread across such perfectly paced beats. Quite literally, the production on this album is just a blast". Jacob Carey of "Exclaim!" said, "Although it may not be the best project that Young Thug has released, certain tracks off "So Much Fun" are guaranteed to become classic party anthems played at max volume for years". Kyann-Sian Williams of "NME" stated, ""So Much Fun" is a free-spirited record that comes with heavy doses of ridiculousness, but it's lovably silly, and is a welcome dose of light relief". Lucy Shanker of "Consequence" claimed, ""So Much Fun" succeeds in its quest to highlight the success of Young Thug; almost all of the 19 tracks could stand alone as a strong demonstration of what Thug does best, but they also work together to create a cohesive project". Magazine publication "Spin" said, "Some classic records have been made in this mold; plenty of dull ones, too. "So Much Fun" is somewhere in the middle, with a handful of legitimately great songs, only a couple you may end up skipping, and none that sound like someone forgot to send them to the mastering engineer".


title: So Much Fun

text: "Rolling Stone"s critic Danny Schwartz said, ""So Much Fun" doesn't mark a step forward for his aesthetic, but rather an attempt to refine it". In a mixed review, "RapReviews"s Steve "Flash" Juon stated: "You can't examine Young Thug's music too closely or think about it too carefully if you want to enjoy it, because the casual misogyny of throwing around "Pussy" as an insult reminds you he's not exactly progressive. If you're looking for bass to shake the concrete and singing so modulated as to nearly be R&B, tracks like "Jumped Out the Window" and "Boy Back" featuring NAV will definitely fit the bill." In his Substack-published "Consumer Guide" column, Robert Christgau said that, "In alphabetical order, it's alienated, all-embracing, catchy, complacent, crass, dirty, dissolute, facile, fucked up, funny, hedonistic, insular, licentious, light-hearted, materialistic, mumbly, rich, scared, sexist, 'trap', unpretentious, woozy, and wrong. Almost a decade in, I do enjoy and even respect the fella. But I don't admire him. Not enough there there".


title: So Much Fun

text: "So Much Fun" debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200 with 131,000 album-equivalent units (including 5,000 pure album sales). It is Young Thug's first US number-one album, and fifth to place in the top 10 (or sixth, if the 2018 compilation "Slime Language" is counted). On June 29, 2020, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over one million units in the United States.


title: Blue Box (manga)

text: The series focuses on Taiki Inomata, a student at Eimei Junior and Senior High who is a member of the boys' badminton team. Every morning, he trains alongside his upperclasswoman and fellow crush Chinatsu Kano, who is on the girls' basketball team. However, Chinatsu moves in with Taiki's family when her parents leave Japan to work abroad. With Chinatsu now living with him, Taiki aims to slowly develop his relationship with her as they both strive to make it to the national championship with their respective teams.


title: Blue Box (manga)

text: "Blue Box" is written and illustrated by Kōji Miura. The manga began its serialization in Shueisha's "shōnen" manga magazine "Weekly Shōnen Jump" in the 19th issue published on April 12, 2021. Shueisha has collected its chapters into individual "tankōbon" volumes. The first volume was released on August 4, 2021. As of December 2, 2022, eight volumes have been released.


title: Blue Box (manga)

text: "Blue Box" has been licensed for simultaneous publication in North America as it is released in Japan, with its chapters being digitally launched by Viz Media on its "Shonen Jump" website. Shueisha also simulpublishes the series in English for free on the "Manga Plus" app and website. In February 2022, Viz Media announced that they had licensed the series in print format; the first volume was released on November 1 of the same year.


title: Blue Box (manga)

text: In August 2021, the first volume of the manga had over 170,000 copies in circulation in less than a week after its release.


title: Blue Box (manga)

text: In June 2021, "Blue Box" was nominated for the seventh Next Manga Award in the Best Print Manga category; it placed 8th out of 50 nominees, but won the Global Prize. The series ranked 4th on the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2022.


title: Blue Box (manga)

text: Anthony Gramuglia of Comic Book Resources (CBR) stated, ""Blue Box" is a sentimental story about human connection. It's beautifully drawn, at times resembling a "shōjo" manga more than a typical "shōnen". If "Blue Box" continues, it will likely become an earnest, sincere entry in "Shōnen Jump"s romantic catalog." Timothy Donohoo of CBR compared "Blue Box" to Kenta Shinohara's "Witch Watch" and Shigure Tokita's "Don't Blush, Sekime-san!" due to both series having concepts and romantic aspects similar to "Blue Box"s.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Manasseh Damukana Sogavare (born 17 January 1955) is the sixth and current Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, serving since 24 April 2019. He previously held the office in 2000–2001, 2006—2007 and 2014–2017; in all he has served over nine years as prime minister. Before becoming prime minister, Sogavare served in the National Parliament representing East Choiseul since 1997.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Sogavare, who is a Seventh-day Adventist, was born in Popondetta, Northern Province, Papua New Guinea on 17 January 1955 to missionary parents from Choiseul Island, Solomon Islands. He has four older brothers: Moses, Samson, John and Jacob. Later in life, Manasseh and his older brother Jacob moved to the Solomon Islands.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Sogavare was Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance from February 1994 to October 1996. Prior to his election to Parliament, he served as the Commissioner of Inland Revenue, Director of the Central Bank of the Solomon Islands, and Chairman of the Solomon Islands National Provident Fund. He was first elected to the National Parliament from the East Choiseul constituency in the 6 August 1997 election.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Under Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu, Sogavare became Minister for Finance and Treasury in 1997 but was dismissed from that post by Ulufa'alu in mid-July 1998. Sogavare said that he was shocked at the dismissal, as he could see no reason for it and no reason was given, and he demanded an explanation. A few days later, Ulufa'alu said that the decision was motivated by the need for the government to keep the numbers to stay in power. In early August 1998, Sogavare withdrew his support for Ulufa'alu and his government, accusing Ulufa'alu of authoritarian and hypocritical leadership and of emphasizing stability only to protect himself.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Sogavare was chosen as deputy leader of the opposition in late September 1998, with Solomon Mamaloni as leader. Following Mamaloni's death in January 2000, Sogavare was elected as leader of the opposition later that month. He received the votes of all ten members of the opposition who were present.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Sogavare was elected as Prime Minister by parliament on 30 June 2000, with 23 votes in favor and 21 against, after Ulufa'alu was captured by rebels and forced to resign. He served as Prime Minister until 17 December 2001.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: His party won only three seats in the 2001 general election, but Sogavare was re-elected to his seat in Parliament.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: In Parliament, Sogavare was a member of the Bills and Legislation Committee in 2002 and again from 2005 to April 2006.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Following the 2006 general election, Sogavare led the Solomon Islands Social Credit Party into a coalition to oust Prime Minister Allan Kemakeza's chosen successor Snyder Rini, but there was much disagreement about who should be its candidate for Prime Minister. On 18 April 2006, he received 11 of 50 votes to become Prime Minister, placing him third. He then switched his support to Rini, allowing Rini to become Prime Minister while Sogavare became part of the coalition and was named Minister for Commerce, Industries and Employment.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Following Rini's resignation on 26 April 2006, Sogavare decided to attempt again to become Prime Minister. This time the opponents of Kemakeza and Rini united behind him, and in parliamentary vote on 4 May 2006, he received 28 votes, defeating the government candidate Fred Fono, who received 22 votes. Sogavare was immediately sworn in. His main tasks included organizing the recovery from rioting that took place during Rini's time as Prime Minister.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: On 11 October 2006, Sogavare survived a no-confidence vote in parliament; the motion, introduced by Fono, was supported by 17 members of parliament, while 28 voted against it. The no-confidence vote was prompted by deteriorating relations with Australia. Sogavare had expelled the Australian High Commissioner Patrick Cole in September and defended the Solomons' suspended attorney general, Julian Moti, who Australia wanted extradited to face child sex charges there. Moti presently faces charges in the Solomons for illegally entering the country. On 13 October, Sogavare threatened to expel Australia from an assistance mission in the Solomons, and a week later Australian peacekeepers from the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands raided Sogavare's office (when he was not present) looking for evidence related to the Moti case.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: On 13 December 2007, Sogavare was defeated in a parliamentary vote of no confidence; the motion against him received 25 votes, with 22 in opposition. He remained in office in a caretaker capacity until the election of a new Prime Minister on 20 December, when opposition candidate Derek Sikua was elected, defeating Patteson Oti who had been Foreign Minister under Sogavare. On the same date, Sogavare became Leader of the Opposition.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: In 2010, Sogavare and eight other MPs established the Ownership, Unity and Responsibility Party, which won three seats in the 2010 general election.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Following the 19 November, 2014 general election, Sogavere became Prime Minister for the third time. On 22 September 2017 Sogavare spoke at the United Nations General Assembly. He condemned North Korea for their testing of ballistic missiles. He also condemned Indonesia for violence in West Papua. On 7 November 2017, seventeen members of his Democratic Coalition for Change voted against him in another motion of no-confidence. The lawmaker who submitted the motion of no confidence, Derek Sikua, claimed that Sogavere had lost touch with reality and become fixated on conspiracy theories, while Sogavere attributed the defections to a proposed anti-graft bill, saying that some MPs were afraid it would lead to them being imprisoned. Sogavere remained as Acting Prime Minister until Rick Houenipwela was elected on 15 November 2017.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: On 24 April 2019, he was once again elected Prime Minister with more than half the vote. There is controversy surrounding this election since a court issued an injunction just before the vote was to begin. After Sogavare was re-elected there was rioting in Honiara forcing shops and offices to close. Additionally, rioters did damage to the Pacific Casino Hotel which was used by Sogavare as his campaign headquarters.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: On 16 September 2019, Sogavare's government recognised the People's Republic of China, switching recognition from the Republic of China after 36 years. In a statement Sogavare announced the decision as representing an advance of Solomon Islands national interests, an outcome of a bi-partisan taskforce to investigate and confirm the facts surrounding the 'One China Principle', and reporting by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade. Responding to questions about caucus unity on the decision, Sogavare presented it as "a collective agreement agreed to by all the Democratic Coalition Government for Advancement (DCGA) coalition MPs elected into the 11th parliament, conducted in a very open and transparent manner as far as government caucus is concerned". The decision caused significant political and public debate in Solomon Islands. In the wake of the decision and in light of their abstaining from the parliamentary vote, several members of parliament were removed by Sogavare. Planning Minister and former Prime Minister Rick Hou claimed Sogavare lied about the process, claiming the decision was pre-determined. Hou was sacked by Sogavare on the week of 27 September, Sogavare claiming Hou had tried to bribe MPs. Deputy Prime Minister John Maneniaru and Education Minister Dean Kuku were terminated, with Police Minister Lanelle Tanagada opting to resign.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Malaita Province, however, continued to be supported by Taiwan and the United States, the latter sending US$25 million of aid to the island in 2020. The premier of Malaita Province, Daniel Suidani, also held an independence referendum in 2020 which the national government has dismissed as illegitimate.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Riots broke out in November 2021 during which anti-government protesters, most of them from Malaita Province, burnt down buildings adjoining the Solomon Islands Parliament Building, while also looting Honiara's Chinatown. Sogavare himself resisted calls to resign, warning that the rioters would "face consequences" while also accusing them of being "politically motivated".


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Australia responded to the unrest by deploying Australian Federal Police and Australian Defence Force personnel following a request from the Sogavare government under the Australia-Solomon Islands Bilateral Security Treaty. Papua New Guinea and Fiji also sent peacekeepers.


title: Manasseh Sogavare

text: Sogavare dedicated the Sogavare Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church in memory of his father Sagavare Loko.


title: Feature extraction

text: In machine learning, pattern recognition, and image processing, feature extraction starts from an initial set of measured data and builds derived values (features) intended to be informative and non-redundant, facilitating the subsequent learning and generalization steps, and in some cases leading to better human interpretations. Feature extraction is related to dimensionality reduction.


title: Feature extraction

text: When the input data to an algorithm is too large to be processed and it is suspected to be redundant (e.g. the same measurement in both feet and meters, or the repetitiveness of images presented as pixels), then it can be transformed into a reduced set of features (also named a feature vector). Determining a subset of the initial features is called feature selection. The selected features are expected to contain the relevant information from the input data, so that the desired task can be performed by using this reduced representation instead of the complete initial data.


title: Feature extraction

text: Feature extraction involves reducing the number of resources required to describe a large set of data. When performing analysis of complex data one of the major problems stems from the number of variables involved. Analysis with a large number of variables generally requires a large amount of memory and computation power, also it may cause a classification algorithm to overfit to training samples and generalize poorly to new samples. Feature extraction is a general term for methods of constructing combinations of the variables to get around these problems while still describing the data with sufficient accuracy. Many machine learning practitioners believe that properly optimized feature extraction is the key to effective model construction.


title: Feature extraction

text: Results can be improved using constructed sets of application-dependent features, typically built by an expert. One such process is called feature engineering. Alternatively, general dimensionality reduction techniques are used such as:


title: Feature extraction

text: One very important area of application is image processing, in which algorithms are used to detect and isolate various desired portions or shapes (features) of a digitized image or video stream. It is particularly important in the area of optical character recognition.


title: Feature extraction

text: Many data analysis software packages provide for feature extraction and dimension reduction. Common numerical programming environments such as MATLAB, SciLab, NumPy, scikit-learn and the R language provide some of the simpler feature extraction techniques (e.g. principal component analysis) via built-in commands. More specific algorithms are often available as publicly available scripts or third-party add-ons. There are also software packages targeting specific software machine learning applications that specialize in feature extraction.


title: Feature extraction

text: Rustum, Rabee, Adebayo Adeloye, and Aurore Simala. "Kohonen self-organising map (KSOM) extracted features for enhancing MLP-ANN prediction models of BOD5." In International Symposium: Quantification and Reduction of Predictive Uncertainty for Sustainable Water Resources Management-24th General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), pp. 181-187. 2007.


title: Hvaldimir

text: Hvaldimir is a male beluga whale that fishermen near Hammerfest in northern Norway noticed in April 2019 wearing a camera harness. After being freed from the harness, the whale remained in the area and appeared used to humans. Speculation that he had been trained by Russia as a spy whale led to his being dubbed Hvaldimir, a pun on the Norwegian (whale) and Vladimir Putin.


title: Hvaldimir

text: The whale appeared beginning on 26 April 2019 north of Hammerfest, off the island of Ingøya and near the village of Tufjord on the island of Rolvsøya, wearing a tight-fitting camera harness labelled "Equipment St. Petersburg", and rubbing against boats in apparent attempts to free himself. Animal rescue staff and fishers worked to free him from the harness. A fisher named Joar Hesten finally put on a survival suit and jumped over the side of the boat to loosen the harness buckles. The whale continued to return to the boats for several days, asking for food and playing fetch, and has shown himself to be very tame, coming when called and liking to be scratched around the blowhole. He later followed a boat to Hammerfest harbour.


title: Hvaldimir

text: The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries and the police urged the public not to feed the whale and to leave him alone to avoid stressing him. There was concern he might become aggressive or might become too dependent on humans, like Keiko the orca. A proposal was made to place the whale in a sanctuary in Iceland which already houses two belugas from China, but since he seemed to be making efforts to find his own food, the Directorate of Fisheries decided in mid-May not to relocate him. The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research recommended returning him to a facility in Russia if he did not become self-sustaining. However, it became apparent a few days later that the whale was malnourished, and with Hammerfest Municipality taking responsibility, the Directorate of Fisheries agreed that he should be fed, and Norwegian Orca Survey began doing so, although there was hope that the feeding could eventually end. People donated funds to feed him. He was later reported to have been seriously ill, and to have been hooked by an angler and injured. Norwegian Orca Survey were training the whale with hand gestures to lie alongside a boat so that he could be medically treated if necessary.


title: Hvaldimir

text: After attracting crowds of observers, the whale left Hammerfest harbour in July and apparently had learnt to find food; he was observed several times in August near Seiland, an island located between Hammerfest and Alta. He then appeared in early September in the harbour at Alta, where he showed signs of injury from propellers and people were observed throwing things at him and pushing things into his mouth, and later reappeared in Loppa. Regina Crosby, an American film-maker, is working on a documentary about Hvaldimir and in November was seeking to raise $10,000 to relocate him to Svalbard.


title: Hvaldimir

text: As of May 2021, Hvaldimir was reportedly still living off the Norwegian coast, eating from fish farms and interacting with tourists.


title: Hvaldimir

text: On 4 May 2019, after a day in Hammerfest, two friends went to the docks to look for the whale; 25-year-old Ina Mansika's iPhone fell out of her pocket into the water and the whale brought it back to her. A video posted on Instagram shows her then scratching him under the chin.


title: Hvaldimir

text: In June 2019, he pulled a diver's knife from its scabbard, and played with an underwater drone that was being tested. On 9 September, he was filmed taking a kayaker’s GoPro camera, then retrieving it from the harbour floor to return it to its owner, while earlier that month he was observed playing with a wild herring gull, teasing it into dropping fish it had caught.


title: Hvaldimir

text: In November 2019, a video appeared online of a beluga playing fetch with a rugby ball off the Norwegian coast; this may have been Hvaldimir.


title: Hvaldimir

text: Upon removing the harness, the buckle clip read "St. Petersburg". This harness and camera led to suspicion that the whale had been trained for use in Russian espionage. Both the United States and Russia are known to have military cetacean training programs, with Russian programs incorporating beluga whales. (See also: Military marine mammal.) A Russian marine scientist told a Norwegian colleague that the harness was not of a type used by Russian scientists. A Russian military spokesman, Colonel Viktor Baranets, said in response: "If we were using this animal for spying do you think we would attach a mobile phone number with the message 'please call this number'?", but did not deny that the whale might have escaped from the Russian Navy; the Russian naval base at Murmansk is not far away. The Norwegian Police Security Service is investigating. A Russian naval analyst, Mikhail Barabanov, said he thought the whale was part of a zoological tracking project. In late May 2019 satellite photos surfaced reportedly showing pens at the Russian base at Olenya Guba that could accommodate belugas and other cetaceans.


title: Hvaldimir

text: Because of the Russian espionage theory, the newspaper "Verdens Gang" dubbed the whale Hvaldimir, a play on the first name of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and the Norwegian "hval", whale; on 3 May the national broadcaster NRK announced that this was the winner of their public vote to name the whale, with "Joar", for the fisher, polling second and "Agent James Beluga" third.


title: Hvaldimir

text: Morten Vikeby, a former Norwegian consul in Murmansk, has suggested that Hvaldimir is a therapy animal from a programme for disabled children at the Arctic Circle Padi Dive Centre and Lodge, near the Russian–Norwegian border; specifically, he may be Semyon, who was placed with the centre while still young after being attacked by sea lions and was featured in an article Vikeby wrote about the institution in 2008 for the magazine "Fiskeribladet". The harness would be for the purpose of towing a boat with children inside. That institution no longer uses therapy belugas, and Vikeby suggests making use of Hvaldimir to advertise Hammerfest.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is a role-playing video game developed by Atlus and Lancarse for the Nintendo DS. The game is the sixth entry in the "Shin Megami Tensei" series, which forms the core of the "Megami Tensei" franchise. It was released in Japan in 2009, and in North America in 2010. An enhanced port for the Nintendo 3DS, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux, was released in Japan in 2017, and was released internationally in 2018 by Atlus in North America and Deep Silver in Europe.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: The story follows a special task force sent by the United Nations to investigate the Schwarzwelt, a spatial distortion that appears in Antarctica and threatens to engulf the world. Players take control of an unnamed protagonist, navigating the environments of the Schwarzwelt in first-person. Combat involves the player and recruited demons fighting against various enemies, with the protagonist having the option of talking with and recruiting enemies. Depending on choices taken in the story, multiple endings are unlocked. "Strange Journey Redux" adds an additional character and story route.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: The game originated from the team's wish to develop a large-scale role-playing game for the DS. Many of the main staff had worked on previous "Megami Tensei" titles in some capacity, including producer and designer Kazuma Kaneko, director Eiji Ishida, writer Shogo Isogai, and composer Shoji Meguro. The setting in Antarctica was chosen to appeal to an overseas audience. Alongside the new setting, the game featured multiple science fiction elements new to the series, taking inspiration from films such as "Damnation Alley" and "The Thing". For the music, Meguro used grander musical styles than his previous works, incorporating choir music using a special synthesizer. Reception of the game was generally positive for its story and gameplay, but many disliked its first-person navigation.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: "Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey" is a role-playing game in which players control the player-named protagonist. The environments within the Schwarzwelt are seen and navigated from a first-person perspective: the 3D environment is displayed on the top screen of the Nintendo DS, while a 2D map is displayed on the bottom screen. Explored environments are automatically mapped out, with highlights being placed for unopened containers and doorways. These environments contain traps including pits, shifting floors, and floor tiles which damage the protagonist if stepped on. Alongside the main story quests, human non-playable characters and demons within the Schwarzwelt unlock side quests which yielded rewards upon completion. During the game, the protagonist's Demonica suit can be upgraded to open new pathways, enabling entry into new areas for story progression, as well as new parts of previously explored areas.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: During exploration, the player enters battle through both story-based boss battles and random encounters with standard enemies. Combat is turn-based, with enemies facing against a four-member party made up of the protagonist and three chosen demons. Combat is governed by a derivative of the Press Turn system used in "": in "Strange Journey", the relevant system is called the Demon Co-op System. If the player group strikes their opponent's weak point, any allied demon of the attacker's alignment will follow up with an unblockable attack which deals high damage.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: As well as fighting demons, the protagonist can negotiate with them in a variety of ways: demons can be bribed, scared away, or recruited depending on responses given during conversation. After they are recruited, different demons can be fused together to create new demons. The new demon inherits skills from its parents, and some demons can only be obtained through fusion. The game includes 300 recruitable demons, all of which take inspiration from various world mythologies including Welsh, Egyptian, Norse, and Christian. Two main alignments govern the way demons must be approached: one that represents light, neutral and dark alignments; and one representing law, neutral and chaos alignments. The choices made in the story also effect how demons respond to player commands, and whether they will remain loyal. As with earlier titles, a Moon Phase divided into eight segments dictates how demons will behave. When the Moon is full, demons will refuse to talk. Fused demons can be shared between players using thirty-two character passwords generated when a new demon is fused. These passwords can be traded between different players.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: The setting and events of "Strange Journey" are unrelated to any other entry in the "Shin Megami Tensei" series. The game is set in the early 21st century on the continent of Antarctica. During the game's opening, a massive atomic collapse occurs at the South Pole, causing the creation of the , a black void which swallows anything it touches and threatens to engulf the Earth. The space within the Schwarzwelt is occupied by spaces representing the many vices of humanity, acting as a critique of them. The main bases are special amphibious vehicles: Red Sprite No. 1, the protagonist's vehicle, Blue Jet No. 2, Elves No. 3, and Gigantic No. 4.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: The central cast are part of a special task force created by the United Nations to investigate and neutralize the Schwarzwelt. Players take control of a nameless member of the task force (Japanese in the original and American in the localization). Alongside the main protagonist, there are three main crew members on the Red Sprite: , the crew's leader; , an experienced American soldier who seeks rewards for his work; and , a knowledgeable Russian scientist. Other characters include , the Red Sprite's AI computer; the angel , who represents the forces of God; , a primordial mother goddess who controls the demons of the Schwarzwelt; and , an avatar of Lucifer who watches the protagonist's actions.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: As the expansion of the Schwarzwelt is threatening to destroy Earth, the United Nations send in multiple teams, led by Gore, to investigate and eradicate the phenomenon. During their attempt to enter the Schwarzwelt, all ships but the Red Sprite are destroyed. During their missions, the crew is helped by Arthur, who gradually accumulates knowledge of the Schwarzwelt and develops a personality. During an early mission within the Schwarzwelt, Gore is killed. As the protagonist and members of the Red Sprite's crew explore the regions of the Schwarzwelt, they slowly uncover the truth behind its existence. In ancient times, humans were controlled by the forces of God. His rule over them was broken when the Mother Goddess Mem Aleph destroyed him, breaking his hold on Earth. Residing within the Schwarzwelt, Mem Aleph saw humans abusing Earth's environment and consequently corrupting her dimension. Determined to remove those humans responsible for the corruption and return the world to its ancient state, Mem Aleph unleashed the Schwarzwelt. The remaining forces of God, mainly represented by Mastema, intend to use the Schwarzwelt to spread their influence across the world, removing free will to create a united utopia. Key items are the Cosmic Eggs, objects created by Mem Aleph that can reshape the world when combined with the core of the Schwarzwelt.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: Zelenin and Jimenez respectively side with Law and Chaos, while a resurrected Gore becomes Neutral. Depending on the choices made during the game, the protagonist has the choice of allying with either Law, Chaos or following a Neutral route and continuing with the original mission. If he sides with Law, the protagonist and Zelenin defeat both Jimenez and Mem Aleph before using the Cosmic Eggs to create a World of Law, with Zelenin worshiped as a channel to God for humanity, which is forced to surrender its free will. If he sides with Chaos, he and Jimenez help Mem Aleph and defeat Zelenin, using the Eggs to fulfill the Schwarzwelt's original purpose and create a world where humans and demons live together in a primal world where only the strong survive. In both the Law and Chaos routes, Arthur chooses to destroy his new personality to save the protagonist after the Red Sprite is damaged by Gore. If the protagonist rejects Law and Chaos, Gore transmits the necessary information for the destruction of the Schwarzwelt to him before truly passing on. After defeating Zelenin, Jimenez, and Mem Aleph, the protagonist and surviving crew escape in the Red Sprite while Arthur sacrifices himself to ensure the destruction of the Schwarzwelt, although there is a chance of it reappearing if humanity continues its abuse of the Earth.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: The "Redux" version of the game introduces new storyline content focusing on a mysterious woman named Alex. In the early stages of the investigation, Alex suddenly ambushes and mortally wounds the protagonist. He is saved by a friendly demon named Demeter, who tasks him with traversing a location called the Womb of Grief and collecting objects called Fruit. As the protagonist explores the Womb of Grief, it is revealed that Alex has traveled back in time to assassinate him, Jimenez, and Zelenin in order to prevent an apocalyptic future from coming to pass.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: After the protagonist defeats Mem Aleph in the Law and Neutral routes or collects the Cosmic Eggs in the Chaos Route, Alex approaches him and explains that his actions will not save humanity. In the Law route, humans affected by Zelenin's song will go to war with those not affected by it and result in a massacre for both factions; in the Chaos route, the rule of strength leads humanity to annihilate itself with only Alex surviving; in the Neutral route, humanity grows complacent and is annihilated by the second coming of the Schwarzwelt. If the protagonist refuses to aid Alex, he defeats her in combat and the game ends as normal. If he chooses to help her, she fades from existence with the timeline changed. Demeter appears and reveals that the Fruit are pieces of a fifth Cosmic Egg, and that she is a servant of the Three Wise Men before stealing the Fruit. Louisa Ferre transports the protagonist to the Empyrean Ascent, where the protagonist confronts the Three Wise Men. They fuse into their true form, Root Shekinah, and attack; but the protagonist kills them.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: In the extended Law ending, Zelenin uses her song to remove humanity's desire for conflict, leading to an age of peace and harmony for all humans. In the extended Chaos ending, Jimenez uses the Cosmic Eggs to create a world where all humans and demons have infinite possibilities and freedom to choose their own path on equal grounds. In the extended Neutral ending, the protagonist and a surviving Arthur remain in the Schwarzwelt's realm to destroy every incarnation of it to ensure the world's eternal safety.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: "Strange Journey" was co-developed by Atlus and Lancarse, the developers of the "Etrian Odyssey" series. "Strange Journey" ran on a modified version of the engine used in the original "Etrian Odyssey". The Atlus staff were made up of many veterans of the "Megami Tensei" series: Kazuma Kaneko was producer, and character and demon designer; Eiji Ishida made his debut as a director after being chief designer for "Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne"; and the scenario's main writer was Shogo Isogai, who had worked on "Shin Megami Tensei II", "Shin Megami Tensei If...", and "Nocturne". "Strange Journey" originated during talks among Atlus staff about creating a large-scale role-playing game using a small development team. Kaneko suggested a "Shin Megami Tensei" game for the Nintendo DS.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: There were two main reasons for developing the game for this platform: Kaneko felt that the portable design fit in well with "Shin Megami Tensei" gameplay philosophies, fellow role-playing game "Etrian Odyssey" had been a commercial success, it had the biggest install base among their target audience, and its nature as a portable game meant people could concentrate more on the game when knowing that they could end their play session with ease. The game's title was originally going to be "Shin Megami Tensei IV", but due to the game's setting, it was decided to give it its own subtitle. The original inspiration behind the game's subtitle was the event horizon as associated with black holes. An early subtitle was ""Strange Horizon"", but this had been used in a previous unspecified video game setting. After Kaneko watched "", he and Eishida agreed on the title "Strange Journey". Despite lacking a numeral, it is still a mainline entry in the "Shin Megami Tensei" series.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: When designing the game, the team aimed to appeal to hardcore gamers, with their main focus being on balancing gameplay and maintaining a challenging difficulty level. The gameplay was kept firmly within the traditions of the "Megami Tensei" series, while evolving and sometimes changing them. For example, the fusion system was re-designed to keep the game fast-paced, and former restrictions on skill inheritance were loosened to encourage experimentation. In contrast, the ability to fine-tune the main character's stats was removed. The battle system design and programming were both handled by Lancarse. The battle system was designed to provide ease of player, while aspects of demon alignment directly tied to the game's moral alignment system. The Demonica suit, which was tied into many of the game's systems, was designed around the concept of a spacesuit that included crucial software with which new demons could become visible and new areas could be explored. The multiplayer feature was originally conceived as players having contests between their demons, but this was decided against as it did not fit the game's atmosphere. Instead, the concept of demon exchanges was designed. Passwords were chosen over Wi-fi functions as it would make password exchanges through internet forums easier.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: From the outset, the game was designed with an overseas release in mind. Among the early ideas created for the title was for it to be set in New York City, inspired by John Carpenter's 1981 film "Escape from New York". This was vetoed as it would not offer much variety in its cast. To enable an international cast, it was decided to set the game in Antarctica. This choice of setting was also made to depict the danger posed by the Schwarzwelt on a worldwide scale. This setting differed greatly from previous "Shin Megami Tensei" games, which had taken place in Tokyo. It was also chosen as the North Pole had no widespread landmass, making it an impractical setting. When developing the character drama, the team took inspiration from another film by Carpenter, 1982's "The Thing". The moral alignment system, a staple in earlier "Shin Megami Tensei" entries, was reintroduced for "Strange Journey" to help players experience the game's themes.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: The central cast acted as both a microcosm of humanity and representation of the game's alignments. Due to the setting, the characters had to be members of a Special Forces group, as opposed to previous protagonists who had been average people. The game includes a larger presence of science fiction elements than in previous "Shin Megami Tensei" games. Various elements within the game were inspired by science fiction movies: the Red Sprite was inspired by the main vehicle from the 1977 film "Damnation Alley", and some equipment was inspired by James Cameron's 1986 film "Aliens". The characters' firearms were all modeled after real-life guns. When creating the Demonica suits, Kaneko decided against creating a pleasing design, instead focusing on a utilitarian appearance. Elaborating on how the science fiction elements complemented rather than clashed with the mystical elements of "Shin Megami Tensei", Kaneko stated that he felt that the series had always had elements of those two genres merging, commenting that some people saw a web URL as something like a magical incantation and referencing a quote from Arthur C. Clark about technology becoming so advanced that it looked like magic.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: The music was composed and arranged by Shoji Meguro, whose previous work for the series included "" and "Nocturne". In contrast to his previous work on the "Persona" series, Meguro did not use contemporary musical elements. Instead, he created a more mature experience to reflect the game's story and setting. Ishida did not request a specific musical style, but instead asked Meguro to create the game score as if the game were a motion picture.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: To achieve the desired effect, he used militaristic orchestration, Gregorian choir, and minimalistic ambiance. The choir sounds were created using Eastwest Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs, a synthesizer which could realistically simulate a choir. An exception was the "Sorrow" theme, for which he primarily used a piano melody. For the game's "chaos" theme, he used musical elements similar to those in "Nocturne". So as to get as much music as possible on the game cartridge, Meguro used CRI Middleware's Kyuseishu Sound Streamer compression algorithm.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: "Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Original Soundtrack" released on November 18, 2009 as a single CD release under the catalog number "COCX-35945". It was published by Nippon Columbia. A bonus soundtrack containing music from the game was included with launch copies of the game in North America. After the game's release, it was discovered that the bonus disc had a manufacturing defect that made it unplayable. Once the issue was raised, Atlus and its manufacturing partner moved to enable players to receive free replacements. Reviews of the original soundtrack release have been positive, with reviewers noting its change in style compared to previous "Megami Tensei" games.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: "Strange Journey" released on October 8, 2009 in Japan, and March 23, 2010 in North America. The first information on a new title in the series appeared in the form of a teaser site created on July 16, 2009 for the Japanese Atlus website, depicting Earth with a large hole in the bottom. Using the page's source code and locating an unused graphic, it was deciphered the game's title was "Strange Journey" and confirmed it to be a "Megami Tensei" title. A week later, Atlus officially announced the game for the DS, clearing up a rumor among fans that the title was an entry in the "Persona" series.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: The game's North American release, along with a release window, was announced in November 2009. For its release, the ESRB rated the game "M for Mature". This made the game the tenth Nintendo DS game to earn the rating. Alongside the bonus CD, Atlus revealed a mini-poster exclusive to GameStop customers who purchased the game through street stores and online. After release, Atlus gave away exclusive demon passwords to fans to unlock otherwise inaccessible demons during gameplay.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: The English localization was handled by Atlus USA, led by Nich Maragos and Yu Namba. During translation, the team had a mixed experience translating the katakana names. While names such as "Williams" were easy, names such as "Skogsra", a demon based on a Scandinavian forest spirit, proved a challenge and required specific research on the name's origins. Some of the localization choices were made due to the team's knowledge of Ishida's enthusiasm for western culture. They also needed to create varied speaking styles for the various demons, from middle English to a more modern vernacular, which proved a time-consuming process.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: An enhanced port for the Nintendo 3DS, titled "Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux", was released in Japan in October 2017 and has been released in North America and Europe on May 15 and 18, 2018, respectively. It features voice acting, new demons, new illustrations, new routes and endings and a new character.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: "Strange Journey" sold 97,000 units in its first week in Japan, coming in third on the Japanese sales charts behind "Pokémon HeartGold" and "SoulSilver" and "Wii Fit Plus". Ultimately, the game sold lower than expected: Atlus expected the game to sell 170,000 copies, but actual sales by November had only reached 152,000 copies.


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: The game has had a positive reception, earning scores of 80/100 from the review aggregator Metacritic. "Famitsu" gave the game a score of 36 points out of 40, noted by IGN as being the highest score given by the magazine to a "Shin Megami Tensei" game up to that time. In their review, "Famitsu" praised the game's consistent balancing present throughout the game as well as commenting that while the player is having fun exploring, there is always a constant tension around. They also praised the demon combination system by saying that it was "the greatest asset the game has -- they give you better results the more you use them" as they allowed the battles to remain fresh and new. "Famitsu" also noted that "The tutorial is helpful, and the mission goals are clear enough that you're never really lost."


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: Charles Onyett of IGN called the game's plot "interesting" and "well-developed", concluding that there is a "surprising amount of personality in the game". Andrew Fitch, in his review on 1UP.com, commented that the game's story is the "same kooky MegaTen narrative fans have come to expect", but that fans will miss the voice acting of the "Persona" games. Lark Anderson of GameSpot agreed, calling the plot "excessively preachy". Phil Kollar of "Game Informer" said that the game "numerous troubling means of highlighting the tension between technology and nature". Heidi Kemps, writing for "GamePro", called it "a refreshingly thoughtful experience compared to most Japanese RPG plots, but it's not for the easily offended". Eurogamer's Matt Edwards said the story "isn't particularly original but is nonetheless absorbing".


title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

text: Speaking of the gameplay, Fitch called it a combination of "classically engrossing "MegaTen" and "Etrian Odyssey"", noting that the "same sense of exploration's still there, but there's also a meatier plot pulling you along". Kemps called the dungeon exploration "exciting", but found the lack of help with demon fusion detracted from the experience. Edwards was generally positive about the battle system, which he called "an easy-to-understand, turn-based set-up". Anderson found the gameplay dated, particularly citing the dungeon design and negotiation system, citing the former as being too repetitive to be interesting. Onyett called the combat "standard", but praised the demon fusion and negotiation mechanics. Kollar said that the Demon Co-op attack system made the game more approachable than previous "Shin Megami Tensei" series, but found that exploration could become tedious.


title: Lesa Lesa

text: Lesa Lesa... (), also referred to as Laysa Laysa, is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language film directed by Priyadarshan and produced by Vikram Singh, who previously produced "12B". The film stars Shaam and Trisha, while Vivek, Radharavi and Sreenivasan play supporting roles. Madhavan appears in a guest appearance. Cinematography is handled by Tirru, while the film's score and soundtrack were composed by Harris Jayaraj. The film is a remake of the 1998 Malayalam film "Summer in Bethlehem", which was co-written by Ranjith and Venu Nagavally.


title: Lesa Lesa

text: Chandru's (Vivek) grandfather plans to visit him but Chandru has spent all his money. As a result, he decides to pose as the co-owner of his friend Rakesh's (Shaam) riches till his grandfather stays with them. when Balamani "Bala" (Trisha), is the most favored and most fun of family comes to the family. Rakesh, eventually falls in love with Bala. Bala becomes sober — she says that she likes him, but says that she's already married to a college lecturer, Deva Narayanan (Madhavan).


title: Lesa Lesa

text: Despite the box office failure of their previous venture "12B", Vikram Singh hired Shaam and composer Harris Jayaraj again for his next venture directed by veteran Priyadarshan. The story of the film was partially adapted from the 1998 Malayalam film "Summer in Bethlehem", which was co-written by Ranjith, Sreenivasan and Venu Nagavally and Priyadarshan developed a new screenplay. The project initially developed under the title "Kanmani Nee Vara Kaathirunthen", before the makers changed it to "Lesa Lesa" after hearing the song composed by Jayaraj for the film.


title: Lesa Lesa

text: "Lesa Lesa" became the first film Trisha had signed, and recalled that she had been trying to avoid films until she finished college but veteran director Priyadarshan's calls were "criminal to refuse". She revealed she had no idea about the script of "Lesa Lesa" when she agreed to do the film and only later did Shaam and her have a one-hour narration of the script. During the making of the film, Trisha was dubbed as the "most happening debutante in Tamil film industry", and signed on to three other projects before the release of "Lesa Lesa" - "Ennaku 20 Unnaku 18", "Mounam Pesiyadhe" and "Thiruda", which she later opted out from. The story of the film also required a guest appearance and Priyadarshan chose Madhavan for the role, despite initially considering Arjun. The team also hired Radharavi and Sathyapriya along with four comedians - Vivek, Sreenivasan, Cochin Haneefa and Innocent to play pivotal roles in the film. Art director Sabu Cyril constructed a house in Ooty for the film. Venket Ram took the film's principal photographs, while Siddharth Chandrasekhar of Mittra Media made his debut as a publicity designer with the project.


title: Lesa Lesa

text: In order to concentrate on the project, Vikram Singh briefly shelved his other venture, Sivakumar's "Acham Thavir" starring Madhavan and Jyothika. The team had a forty-day schedule at Ooty, beginning at 6 and winding up at 6. The film was initially set to release in the Diwali season of 2002 but was delayed. The film was to release on Pongal of 2003, but was delayed again. The delay meant that "Lesa Lesa" did not become Trisha's first film release, with pundits describing the film as "jinxed".


title: Lesa Lesa

text: Malathi Rangarajan of "The Hindu" gave the film a positive review mentioning that "Shaam once again shows that he is a natural performer" and that the "surprise packet is the entry of Madhavan and as a fiery, forthright and straightforward professor, he makes a mark". The critic added that "every frame of ""Lesa Lesa"" spells aesthetics, thanks to award winning efforts by art director Sabu Cyril and cinematographer Tirru", concluding that " if one can forget the avoidable protractions in the second half, Vikram Singh's ""Lesa Lesa"" is a visual treat". "Sify" praised the performances of the cast, the music, the cinematography, and the art. Malini Mannath of "Chennai Online" opined that "A clean family entertainer from producer Vikram Singh, the film bogged down by some problems took a long time to hit the theaters. But fortunately, it does not look dated, and seems worth the wait".


title: Lesa Lesa

text: Initial collections were not so impressive, so distributors in Coimbatore and Madurai allegedly re-printed posters of the film which marketed Madhavan, who appeared in the film in a guest appearance, as the lead star of the film over Shaam to bank in on his star image. In 2004, Priyadarshan was asked by the Malayalam Film Association to compensate producer Siyad Kokker for making "Lesa Lesa" in Tamil based on Kokker's "Summer In Bethlehem". The film was criticised for its long Antakshari sequence.


title: Lesa Lesa

text: The movie's songs are set to the tunes of Harris Jayaraj and lyrics by Vaali. For the first time in Tamil cinema, the team released a single, the title song, priced at nine rupees. Vikram Singh chose to release the audio of the film at a cheap rate, to avoid piracy.


title: Lesa Lesa

text: The song "Mudhal Mudhalai" inspired the name of a 2007 film. Trisha later worked with Priyadarshan in 2010, when the director chose to giver her a debut in Hindi films through his venture, "Khatta Meetha". In 2020, "The Times of India" stated that "Actor Vivek's comedy in this film is highly enjoyable and very popular even today".


title: Lemon meringue pie

text: Lemon meringue pie is a dessert pie consisting of a shortened pastry base filled with lemon curd and topped with meringue.


title: Lemon meringue pie

text: Fruit desserts covered with baked meringue were found beginning in the 18th century in France. Menon's "pommes meringuées" are a sort of thick apple sauce or apple butter covered with baked meringue in his 1739 cookbook. A custard flavored with "citron" (probably a mistranslation of 'lemon') and covered with baked meringue, "crême meringuée", was published by 1769 in English, apparently a translation of an earlier edition of Menon (1755?). Similar recipes cooked in a crust appear in 19th century America: apple pie covered with meringue, called 'apple a la turque' (1832) and 'apples meringuées' (1846). A generic 'meringue pie' based on any pie was documented in 1860. The name 'Lemon Meringue Pie' appears in 1869, but lemon custard pies with meringue topping were often simply called lemon cream pie. In literature one of the first references to this dessert can be found in the book 'Memoir and Letters of Jenny C. White Del Bal' by Rhoda E. White, published in 1868.


title: Lemon meringue pie

text: A stiff lemon-flavored custard is prepared with egg yolks, lemon zest and juice, sugar, and sometimes starch and baked in a pie crust. Uncooked meringue, usually shaped into peaks, is spread over the top, sometimes with a sprinkle of sugar, and briefly baked.


Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) was a statement adopted by the Cabinet of Rhodesia on 11 November 1965, announcing that Southern Rhodesia or simply Rhodesia, a British territory in southern Africa that had governed itself since 1923, now regarded itself as an independent sovereign state. The culmination of a protracted dispute between the British and Rhodesian governments regarding the terms under which the latter could become fully independent, it was the first unilateral break from the United Kingdom by one of its colonies since the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. The UK, the Commonwealth and the United Nations all deemed Rhodesia's UDI illegal, and economic sanctions, the first in the UN's history, were imposed on the breakaway colony. Amid near-complete international isolation, Rhodesia continued as an unrecognised state with the assistance of South Africa and (until 1974) Portugal.


title: Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence

text: The Rhodesian government, which mostly comprised members of the country's white minority of about 5%, was indignant when, amid the UK colonial government's "Wind of Change" policies of decolonisation, less developed African colonies to the north without comparable experience of self-rule quickly advanced to independence during the early 1960s while Rhodesia was refused sovereignty under the newly ascendant principle of "no independence before majority rule" ("NIBMAR"). Most white Rhodesians felt that they were due independence following four decades of self-government, and that the British government was betraying them by withholding it.


text: A stalemate developed between the British and Rhodesian prime ministers, Harold Wilson and Ian Smith respectively, between 1964 and 1965. The dispute largely surrounded the British condition that the terms for independence had to be acceptable "to the people of the country as a whole"; Smith contended that this was met, while the UK and African Nationalist Rhodesian leaders held that it was not. After Wilson proposed in late October 1965 that the UK might safeguard future black representation in the Rhodesian parliament by withdrawing some of the colonial government's devolved powers, then presented terms for an investigatory Royal Commission that the Rhodesians found unacceptable, Smith and his Cabinet declared independence. Calling this treasonous, the British colonial governor, Sir Humphrey Gibbs, formally dismissed Smith and his government, but they ignored him and appointed an "Officer Administering the Government" to take his place.


text: While no country recognised the UDI, the Rhodesian High Court deemed the post-UDI government legal and "de jure" in 1968. The Smith administration initially professed continued loyalty to Queen Elizabeth II, but abandoned this in 1970 when it declared a republic in an unsuccessful attempt to win foreign recognition. The Rhodesian Bush War, a guerrilla conflict between the government and two rival communist-backed black Rhodesian groups, began in earnest two years later, and after several attempts to end the war Smith concluded the Internal Settlement with non-militant nationalists in 1978. Under these terms the country was reconstituted under black rule as Zimbabwe Rhodesia in June 1979, but this new order was rejected by the guerrillas and the international community. The Bush War continued until Zimbabwe Rhodesia revoked its UDI as part of the Lancaster House Agreement in December 1979. Following a brief period of direct British rule, the country was granted internationally recognised independence under the name Zimbabwe in 1980.


text: The southern African territory of Rhodesia, officially Southern Rhodesia, was a unique case in the British Empire and Commonwealth: although a colony in name, it was internally self-governing and constitutionally not unlike a dominion. This situation dated back to 1923, when it was granted responsible government within the Empire as a self-governing colony, following three decades of administration and development by the British South Africa Company. Britain had intended Southern Rhodesia's integration into the Union of South Africa as a new province, but this having been rejected by registered voters in the 1922 government referendum, the territory was moulded into a prospective dominion instead. It was empowered to run its own affairs in almost all respects, including defence.


text: Whitehall's powers over Southern Rhodesia under the 1923 constitution were, on paper, considerable; the British Crown was theoretically able to cancel any passed bill within a year, or alter the constitution however it wished. These reserved powers were intended to protect the indigenous black Africans from discriminatory legislation and to safeguard British commercial interests in the colony, but as Claire Palley comments in her constitutional history of the country, it would have been extremely difficult for Whitehall to enforce such actions, and attempting to do so would have probably caused a crisis. In the event, they were never exercised. A generally co-operative relationship developed between Whitehall and the colonial government and civil service in Salisbury, and dispute was rare.


text: The 1923 constitution was drawn up in non-racial terms, and the electoral system it devised was similarly open, at least in theory. Voting qualifications regarding personal income, education and property, similar to those of the Cape Qualified Franchise, were applied equally to all, but since most blacks did not meet the set standards, both the electoral roll and the colonial parliament were overwhelmingly from the white minority of about 5%. The result was that black interests were sparsely represented if at all, something that most of the colony's whites showed little interest in changing; they claimed that most blacks were uninterested in Western-style political process and that they would not govern properly if they took over. Bills such as the Land Apportionment Act of 1930, which earmarked about half of the country for white ownership and residence while dividing the rest into black purchase, tribal trust and national areas, were variously biased towards the white minority. White settlers and their offspring provided most of the colony's administrative, industrial, scientific and farming skills, and built a relatively balanced, partially industrialised market economy, boasting strong agricultural and manufacturing sectors, iron and steel industries and modern mining enterprises. Everyday life was marked by discrimination ranging from job reservation for whites to petty segregation of trains, post office queues and the like. Whites owned most of the best farmland, and had far superior education, wages and homes, but the schooling, healthcare, infrastructure and salaries available to black Rhodesians were nevertheless very good by African standards.


text: In the wider Imperial context, Southern Rhodesia occupied a category unto itself because of the "special quasi-independent status" it held. The Dominions Office, formed in 1925 to handle British relations with the dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa and the Irish Free State (the Statute of Westminster 1931 delineated the rights of the dominions more clearly in that year), also dealt with Southern Rhodesia, and Imperial Conferences included the Southern Rhodesian Prime Minister alongside those of the dominions from 1932. This unique arrangement continued following the advent of Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conferences in 1944. Southern Rhodesians of all races fought for Britain in the Second World War, and the colonial government gradually received more autonomy regarding external affairs. During the immediate post-war years, Southern Rhodesian politicians generally thought that they were as good as independent as they were, and that full autonomy in the form of dominionship would make little difference to them. Post-war immigration to Southern Rhodesia, mainly from Britain, Ireland and South Africa, caused the white community to swell from 68,954 in 1941 to 221,504 in 1961. The black population grew from 1,400,000 to 3,550,000 over the same period. Rhodesian authorities actively promoted immigration and reproduction of whites to boost their numbers while encouraging family planning for blacks to curtail their numbers. They hoped that by altering the demographic content of the territory enough they could have a stronger position from which to petition the British government for more autonomy.


text: Believing full dominion status to be effectively symbolic and "there for the asking", Prime Minister Godfrey Huggins (in office from 1933 to 1953) twice ignored British overtures hinting at dominionship, and instead pursued an initially semi-independent Federation with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, two colonies directly administered from London. He hoped that this might set in motion the creation of one united dominion in south-central Africa, emulating the Federation of Australia half a century before. The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, defined in its constitution as indissoluble, began in 1953, mandated by the results of a mostly white referendum, with Southern Rhodesia, the most developed of the three territories, at its head, Huggins as Federal Prime Minister and Salisbury as Federal capital.


text: Coming at the start of the decolonisation period, the Federation of self-governing Southern Rhodesia with two directly ruled British protectorates was later described by the British historian Robert Blake as "an aberration of history—a curious deviation from the inevitable course of events". The project faced black opposition from the start, and ultimately failed because of the shifting international attitudes and rising black Rhodesian ambitions of the late 1950s and early 1960s, often collectively called the Wind of Change. Britain, France and Belgium vastly accelerated their withdrawal from Africa during this period, believing colonial rule to be no longer sustainable geopolitically or ethically. The idea of "no independence before majority rule", commonly abbreviated to "NIBMAR", gained considerable ground in British political circles. When Huggins (who had been recently ennobled as Lord Malvern) asked Britain to make the Federation a dominion in 1956, he was rebuffed. The opposition Dominion Party responded by repeatedly calling for a Federal unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) over the next few years. Following Lord Malvern's retirement in late 1956, his successor Sir Roy Welensky pondered such a move on at least three occasions.


text: Attempting to advance the case for Southern Rhodesian independence, particularly in the event of Federal dissolution, the Southern Rhodesian Prime Minister Sir Edgar Whitehead brokered the 1961 constitution with Britain, which he thought would remove all British powers of reservation over Southern Rhodesian bills and acts, and put the country on the brink of full sovereignty. Despite its containing no independence guarantees, Whitehead, Welensky and other proponents of this constitution presented it to the Southern Rhodesian electorate as the "independence constitution" under which Southern Rhodesia would become a dominion on a par with Australia, Canada and New Zealand if the Federation dissolved. White dissenters included Ian Smith, MP for Gwanda and Chief Whip for the governing United Federal Party (UFP) in the Federal Assembly, who took exception to the constitution's omission of an explicit promise of Southern Rhodesian independence in the event of Federal dissolution, and ultimately resigned his post in protest. A referendum of the mostly white electorate approved the new constitution by a majority of 65% on 26 July 1961. The final version of the constitution included a few extra provisions inserted by the British, one of which—Section 111—reserved full powers to the Crown to amend, add to or revoke certain sections of the Southern Rhodesian constitution by Order in Council at the request of the British government. This effectively negated the relinquishment of British powers described elsewhere in the document, but the Southern Rhodesians did not initially notice it.


text: The black Rhodesian movement in Southern Rhodesia, founded and organised by urban black elites during the late 1950s, was repeatedly banned by the colonial government because of the political violence, industrial sabotage and intimidation of potential black voters that characterised its campaign. The principal nationalist group, led by the Bulawayo trade unionist Joshua Nkomo, renamed itself with each post-ban reorganisation, and by the start of 1962 was called the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU). Attempting to win black political support, Whitehead proposed a number of reforms to racially discriminatory legislation, including the Land Apportionment Act, and promised to implement these if his UFP won the next Southern Rhodesian election. But intimidation by ZAPU of prospective black voters impeded the UFP's efforts to win their support, and much of the white community saw Whitehead as too radical, and soft on what they saw as black extremism. In the December 1962 Southern Rhodesian election, the UFP was defeated by the Rhodesian Front (RF), a newly formed alliance of conservative voices headed by Winston Field and Ian Smith, in what was widely considered a shock result. Field became Prime Minister, with Smith as his deputy.


text: Meanwhile, secessionist black Rhodesian parties won electoral victories in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and Harold Macmillan's Conservative administration in Britain moved towards breaking up the Federation, resolving that it had become untenable. In February 1962, the British Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, Duncan Sandys, secretly informed the Nyasaland nationalist leader Hastings Banda that secession would be allowed. A few days later, he horrified Welensky by telling him that "we British have lost the will to govern". "But we haven't", retorted Julian Greenfield, Welensky's Law Minister. Macmillan's Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State, R A Butler, who headed British oversight of the Federation, officially announced Nyasaland's right to secede in December 1962. Four months later, he informed the three territories that he was going to convene a conference to decide the Federation's future.


text: As Southern Rhodesia had been the UK's legislative partner in forming the Federation in 1953, it would be impossible (or at least very difficult) for Britain to dissolve the union without Southern Rhodesia's co-operation. Field could therefore potentially hamstring the British by refusing to attend the conference until they pledged to grant his country full independence. According to Field, Smith and other RF politicians, Butler made several such guarantees orally to ensure their co-operation at the conference, but repeatedly refused to give anything on paper. The Southern Rhodesians claimed that Butler justified his refusal to give a written promise by saying that binding Whitehall to a document rather than his word would be against the Commonwealth's "spirit of trust"—an argument that Field eventually accepted. "Let's remember the trust you emphasised", Smith warned, according to Field's account wagging his finger at Butler; "if you break that you will live to regret it." Southern Rhodesia attended the conference, which was held at Victoria Falls over a week starting from 28 June 1963, and among other things it was agreed to formally liquidate the Federation at the end of the year. In the House of Commons afterwards, Butler flatly denied suggestions that he had "oiled the wheels" of Federal dissolution with secret promises to the Southern Rhodesians.


text: Field's government was startled by Britain's announcement in October 1963 that Nyasaland would become fully independent on 6 July 1964. While no date was set for Northern Rhodesian statehood, it was generally surmised that it was going to follow shortly thereafter. Smith was promptly sent to London, where he held a round of inconclusive Southern Rhodesian independence talks with the new British Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home. Around the same time, the presence and significance of Section 111 of the 1961 constitution emerged in Southern Rhodesia, prompting speculation in political circles that a future British government might, if it were so inclined, go against previous conventions by legislating for Salisbury without its consent, withdrawing devolved powers or otherwise altering the Southern Rhodesian constitution. Fearing what the Labour Party might do if it won the next British general election (which was projected for late 1964), the Southern Rhodesians stepped up their efforts, hoping to win independence before Britain went to the polls, and preferably not after Nyasaland. The Federation dissolved as scheduled at the end of 1963.


text: The British government's refusal to grant independence to Southern Rhodesia under the 1961 constitution was largely the result of the geopolitical and moral shifts associated with the Wind of Change, coupled with the UK's wish to avoid opprobrium and loss of prestige in the United Nations (UN) and the Commonwealth. The issue gained international attention in Africa and worldwide as a flashpoint for questions of decolonisation and racism. By the early 1960s, general consensus in the post-colonial UN—particularly the General Assembly, where the communist bloc and the Afro-Asian lobby were collectively very strong—roundly denounced all forms of colonialism, and supported communist-backed black nationalist insurgencies across southern Africa, regarding them as racial liberation movements. Amid the Cold War, Britain opposed the spread of Soviet and Chinese influence into Africa, but knew it would become an international pariah if it publicly expressed reservations or backed down on NIBMAR in the Southern Rhodesia question. Once the topic of Southern Rhodesia came to the fore in the UN and other bodies, particularly the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), even maintaining the "status quo" became regarded as unacceptable internationally, causing the UK government a great deal of embarrassment.


text: In the Commonwealth context, too, Britain knew that simply granting independence to Southern Rhodesia was out of the question as many of the Afro-Asian countries were also Commonwealth members. Statehood for Salisbury without majority rule would split the Commonwealth and perhaps cause it to break up, a disastrous prospect for British foreign policy. The Commonwealth repeatedly called on Britain to intervene directly should Southern Rhodesian defiance continue, while liberals in Britain worried that if left unchecked Salisbury might drift towards South African-style apartheid. Anxious to avoid having to choose between Southern Rhodesia and the Commonwealth, Whitehall attempted to negotiate a middle way between the two, but ultimately put international considerations first, regarding them as more important.


text: At party level, the Labour Party, in opposition until October 1964, was overtly against Southern Rhodesian independence under the 1961 constitution and supportive of the black Rhodesian movement on ideological and moral grounds. The Liberal Party, holding a handful of parliament seats, took a similar stance. The Conservative Party, while also following a policy of decolonisation, was more sympathetic to the Southern Rhodesian government's position, and included members who openly supported it.


text: The Southern Rhodesian government found it bizarre that Britain was making independent states out of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, less developed territories with little experience of self-rule, while withholding sovereign statehood from Southern Rhodesia, the Federation's senior partner, which had already been self-governing for four decades and which was one of the most prosperous and developed countries in Africa. The principle of majority rule, the basis for this apparent inconsistency, was considered irrelevant by the Southern Rhodesians. They had presumed that in the event of Federal dissolution they would be first in line for independence without major adjustments to the 1961 constitution, an impression confirmed to them by prior intergovernmental correspondence, particularly the oral promises they claimed to have received from Butler. When it did not prove forthcoming they felt cheated. Salisbury contended that its predominantly white legislature was more deserving of independence than the untried black Rhodesian leaders as it had proven its competence over decades of self-rule.


text: The RF claimed that the bloody civil wars, military coups and other disasters that plagued the new majority-ruled African states to the north, many of which had become corrupt, autocratic or communist one-party states very soon after independence, showed that black Rhodesian leaders were not ready to govern. Influenced strongly by the white refugees who had fled south from the Congo, it presented chaotic doomsday scenarios of what black Rhodesian rule in Southern Rhodesia might mean, particularly for the white community. Proponents of the RF stand downplayed black Rhodesian grievances regarding land ownership and segregation, and argued that despite the racial imbalance in domestic politics—whites made up 5% of the population, but over 90% of registered voters—the electoral system was not racist as the franchise was based on financial and educational qualifications rather than ethnicity. They emphasised the colony's proud war record on Britain's behalf, and expressed a wish in the Cold War context to form an anti-communist, pro-Western front in Africa alongside South Africa and Portugal.


text: These factors combined with what RF politicians and supporters saw as British decadence, chicanery and betrayal to create the case they put forward that UDI, while dubious legally and likely to provoke international uproar, might nevertheless be in their eyes justifiable and necessary for the good of the country and region if an accommodation could not be found with Whitehall.


text: Field's failure to secure independence concurrently with the end of the Federation caused his Cabinet's support for him to waver during late 1963 and early 1964. The RF caucus in January 1964 revealed widespread dissatisfaction with him on the grounds that the British seemed to be outwitting him. The Prime Minister was put under immense pressure to win the colony's independence. Field travelled to England later that month to press Douglas-Home and Sandys for independence, and raised the possibility of UDI on a few occasions, but returned empty-handed on 2 February.


text: The RF united behind Field after Sandys wrote him a terse letter warning him of the likely Commonwealth reaction to a declaration of independence, but the Prime Minister then lost his party's confidence by failing to pursue a possible route to at least "de facto" independence devised by Desmond Lardner-Burke, a lawyer and RF MP for Gwelo. During March 1964, the Legislative Assembly in Salisbury considered and passed Lardner-Burke's motion that the Governor, Sir Humphrey Gibbs, should submit a petition to the Queen requesting alteration of Section 111 of the 1961 constitution so that the Royal Assent described therein would be exercised at the request of the Southern Rhodesian government rather than that of its British counterpart. This would both remove the possibility of British legislative interference and pave the way for an attempted assumption of independence by Order in Council.


text: The RF's intention was partly to test whether or not the British would attempt to block this bill after Gibbs had granted Royal Assent to it, but this issue never came to a head because Sandys persuaded Field not to forward it to Gibbs for ratification on the grounds that it had not been unanimously passed. Lord Salisbury, one of Southern Rhodesia's main supporters in Britain, despaired at Field's lack of action, telling Welensky that as he saw it "the simple time to have declared independence, whether right or wrong, would have been when the Federation came to an end". The RF hierarchy interpreted this latest backtrack by Field as evidence that he would not seriously challenge the British on the independence issue, and forced his resignation on 13 April 1964. Smith accepted the Cabinet's nomination to take his place.


text: Smith, a farmer from the Midlands town of Selukwe who had been seriously wounded while serving in the British Royal Air Force during the Second World War, was Southern Rhodesia's first native-born Prime Minister. Regarded in British political circles as a "raw colonial"—when he took over, Smith's personal experience of the UK comprised four brief visits—he promised a harder line than Field in independence talks. The RF's replacement of Field drew criticism from the British Labour Party, whose leader Harold Wilson called it "brutal", while Nkomo described the new Smith Cabinet as "a suicide squad ... not interested in the welfare of all the people but only in their own". Smith said he was pursuing a middle course between black Rhodesian rule and apartheid so that there would still be "a place for the white man" in Southern Rhodesia; this would benefit the blacks too, he claimed. He held that the government should be based "on merit, not on colour or nationalism", and insisted that there would be "no African nationalist government here in my lifetime".


text: Salisbury's blunt refusal to be part of the Wind of Change caused the Southern Rhodesian military's traditional British and American suppliers to impose an informal embargo, and prompted Whitehall and Washington to stop sending Southern Rhodesia financial aid around the same time. In June 1964, Douglas-Home informed Smith that Southern Rhodesia would not be represented at the year's Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference, despite Salisbury's record of attendance going back to 1932, because of a change in policy to only include representatives from fully independent states. This decision, taken by Britain to preempt the possibility of open confrontation with Asian and black African leaders at the conference, deeply insulted Smith. Lord Malvern equated Britain's removal of Southern Rhodesia's conference seat with "kicking us out of the Commonwealth", while Welensky expressed horror at what he described as "this cavalier treatment of a country which has, since its creation, staunchly supported, in every possible way, Britain and the Commonwealth".


text: At 10 Downing Street in early September 1964, impasse developed between Douglas-Home and Smith over the best way to measure black public opinion in Southern Rhodesia. A key plank of Britain's Southern Rhodesia policy was that the terms for independence had to be "acceptable to the people of the country as a whole"—agreeing to this, Smith suggested that white and urban black opinion could be gauged through a general referendum of registered voters, and that rural black views could be obtained at a national "indaba" (tribal conference) of chiefs and headmen. Douglas-Home told Smith that although this proposal satisfied him personally, he could not accept it as he did not believe the Commonwealth, the United Nations or the Labour Party would also do so. He stressed that such a move towards accommodation with Smith might hurt the Conservatives' chances in the British general election the next month, and suggested that it might be in Smith's best interests to wait until after the election to continue negotiations. Smith accepted this argument. Douglas-Home assured Smith that a Conservative government would settle with him and grant independence within a year.


text: Attempting to form a viable white opposition to the Rhodesian Front, the UFP resurrected itself around Welensky, renamed itself the Rhodesia Party, and entered the Arundel and Avondale by-elections that had been called for 1 October 1964. Perturbed by the prospect of having to face the political heavyweight Welensky in parliament at the head of the opposition, the RF poured huge resources into winning both of these former UFP safe seats, and fielded Clifford Dupont, Smith's deputy, against Welensky in Arundel. The RF won both seats comfortably, and the Rhodesia Party soon faded away. Spurred on by this success, Smith organised the "indaba" for 22 October, and called a general independence referendum for 5 November 1964. Meanwhile, Wilson wrote a number of letters to black Southern Rhodesians, assuring them that "the Labour Party is totally opposed to granting independence to Southern Rhodesia so long as the government of that country remains under the control of the white minority".


text: Labour defeated the Conservatives by four seats in the British general election on 15 October 1964, and formed a government the next day. Both Labour and the Conservatives told Smith that a positive result at the "indaba" would not be recognised by Britain as representative of the people, and the Conservatives turned down Salisbury's invitation to send observers. Smith pressed on, telling parliament that he would ask the tribal chiefs and headmen "to consult their people in the traditional manner", then hold the "indaba" as planned. On 22 October 196 chiefs and 426 headmen from across the country gathered at Domboshawa, just north-east of Salisbury, and began their deliberations. Smith hoped that Britain, having taken part in such "indabas" in the past, might send a delegation at the last minute, but none arrived, much to his annoyance, particularly as the British government's Commonwealth Secretary Arthur Bottomley was only across the Zambezi in Lusaka at the time.