title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Duke has also captured 119 ACC Championships, 44 of which have come since 1999–2000 (through 2008–09). Duke's teams hold the longest streak of consecutive ACC Championships in women's tennis (14), women's golf (13), men's basketball (5), women's basketball (5) and volleyball (4, tied). The men's basketball (18), women's golf (16), and women's tennis (16) lead individual programs, while men's tennis (12), volleyball (9), football (7), men's cross country (7), men's lacrosse (7), men's golf (6), men's soccer (5), women's basketball (5), baseball (3), women's cross country (2) and women's lacrosse (1) have also captured titles.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: In the past five years, Duke has finished in the top 20 every year in the NACDA Director's Cup, an overall measure of an institution's athletic success. Most recently, Duke has finished 10th (2010), 17th (2009), 19th (2008), 11th (2007), eighth (2006), and fifth (2005). Duke has the smallest undergraduate enrollment of any institution that has been in the top 35 the past two years. Furthermore, Duke is the only school besides Stanford that has finished in the top 20 in the past three years that has fewer than 10,000 undergraduates.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Duke teams that have been ranked in the top ten nationally in the 2000s include men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's lacrosse, women's field hockey, and men's and women's golf. Eight of these teams were ranked either first or second in the country during 2004–05. According to a 2006 evaluation conducted by the NCAA, Duke's student-athletes have the highest graduation rate of any institution in the nation at 91%. Excluding students who leave or transfer in good academic standing, the graduation rate of student-athletes is 97%. There have been allegations that, like most other schools examined such as North Carolina, Duke's graduation rate may be inflated or be a result of athletes gravitating to easier courses and majors, though many have taken issue with such claims.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Nate Freiman ('09), who became a first baseman for the Oakland Athletics, holds Duke's career home run record (43), the Duke career slugging percentage record (.616), and the school's second-highest all-time batting average (.356).


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Duke University's men's basketball team is the fourth-winningest college basketball program of all-time, particularly since 1980 under head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who is nicknamed "Coach K". They have won the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship five times, all under Krzyzewski, which is second behind the University of North Carolina for any ACC team, and have been in 16 Final Fours. Seventy-one players have been drafted in the NBA Draft. Additionally, Duke has had an Academic All-American on the team 14 years. Duke has 21 Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championships (1960, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1978, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2017, 2019), the most of any team in the ACC (the University of North Carolina has 17). Duke also has been the top seed in the ACC tournament 19 times (1954, 1958, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1986, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2010). Duke is third, behind only UCLA and Kansas, in total weeks ranked as the number one team in the nation by the AP with 110 weeks. The Blue Devils have the third-longest streak in the AP Top 25 in history with 200 consecutive appearances from 1996 to 2007. This streak only trails UCLA's 221 consecutive polls from 1966–1980 as the longest of all-time and Kansas' 200 consecutive polls from 2009–present. The streak ended with the AP poll released on February 12, 2007.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: During the 1990s and 2000s, the Duke women's basketball program has become a national powerhouse. Led by coach Gail Goestenkors from 1992–2007, Duke made ten NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances, seven Elite Eight appearances, four Final Four appearances, and two appearances in the NCAA Championship game during her tenure.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: In the 2000–01 season, the Blue Devils posted a 30–4 record, won the ACC Tournament and ACC regular season championships, and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The 2001–02 season produced similar success. She led the Blue Devils to a 31–4 record and an NCAA Final Four appearance. Duke became the first ACC school to produce an undefeated 19–0 record in the ACC by winning the regular season and Tournament titles.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Goestenkors led the Blue Devils to an ACC-record 35–2 ledger in the 2002–03 season and their second straight NCAA Final Four appearance. For the second consecutive year, Duke posted a 19–0 record against ACC opponents.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: In 2003–04, with Player of the year Alana Beard leading the way, the Blue Devils advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight, and won a fourth-straight Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title and a fifth-straight ACC Tournament championship. Duke also broke the University of Connecticut's 76-game home winning streak with a 68–67 buzzer-beater victory in Hartford, Connecticut.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: The 2006–07 season ended with a 32–2 record and notched the school's first ever undefeated regular season (30–0). This also set an NCAA-record seventh straight 30-win season. Goestenkors is often known as the "winningest coach not to have won a championship", having finished runner-up two times in fifteen years.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: On April 18, 2007, Joanne P. McCallie, or Coach P, was introduced as the new coach of Duke's women's basketball team after Goestenkors left for the University of Texas.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Stephen Kovacs (1972–2022) became an Assistant Fencing Coach at Duke University in August 2010, and held the position through 2013. While at Duke he mentored three-time NCAA women's saber champion Becca Ward. Half a dozen years later Kovacs was accused of sexually assaulting two fencing students elsewhere, and he died in prison in 2022.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Former Duke three-time NCAA All-American fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad won a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games, in the women's team sabre competition.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Duke is a Division I field hockey program. The field hockey program was established in 1971. Duke field hockey participates in the Atlantic Coast Conference.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Williams Field at Jack Katz Stadium is home to the Duke Field Hockey team. The facility is located on the University's East campus at 705 Broad St., in Durham. The facility was completed in 1996, and then was renovated on 2011.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: The most famous Duke football season came in 1938, when Wallace Wade was head coach and the "Iron Dukes" were born. Wade shocked the college football world by leaving Alabama for Duke in 1930, later rationalizing the move by saying that Duke shared his belief that a school should provide its athletes with a strong academic background. Wade's success at Alabama (three national championships) translated well to Duke's program, most notably in 1938, when his "Iron Dukes" went unscored upon the entire regular season. Duke reached their first Rose Bowl appearance, where they lost 7–3 when USC scored a touchdown in the final minute of the game on a pass from a second-string quarterback to a third string tight end. Wade's Blue Devils lost another Rose Bowl to Oregon State in 1942, this one held at Duke's home stadium in Durham, North Carolina due to Pearl Harbor. Wade's achievements placed him in the Hall of Fame.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: The football program also had a string of successful years in the late 1980s when the team was coached by Steve Spurrier. Spurrier led the Blue Devils to three consecutive winning seasons from 1987–1989, culminating with the Blue Devils sharing the ACC title in 1989 and playing in the All-American Bowl, where the Blue Devils lost to Texas Tech. The 1989 ACC title was the last title won by a school in the state of North Carolina until Wake Forest won their second ACC crown in 2006.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: The team also rose to prominence in 1994, the first season under coach Fred Goldsmith. The team raced out to an 8–1 record, and was briefly ranked as high as #13 in the country before losing the last two games of the season 24–23 to North Carolina State and 41–40 to arch-rival North Carolina. The 1994 team played in the program's first New Years Day Bowl game since 1962, falling to Wisconsin 34–21 in the Hall of Fame Bowl, now known as the Outback Bowl.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: The Blue Devils are coached by David Cutcliffe, who had been head coach at Ole Miss and offensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee. They have won seven ACC Football Championships, which is the fourth most in the ACC trailing only Clemson, FSU, and Maryland. Ten ACC Football Players of the Year have come from Duke, the most in the ACC. Additionally, three 3 Pro Football Hall of Famers have come through Duke's program, second only to the Miami Hurricanes who have had 4 Hall of Famers, for the most in the ACC.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Duke is consistently ranked at or near the top of the list of Division I-A schools which graduate nearly all of their football players. Duke has topped the list 12 years, earning it the most Academic Achievement Awards of any university. Notre Dame has been honored six times, while Boston College and Northwestern have won the award four times each.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Duke golfers who have had successful professional careers include Art Wall, Jr. (14 PGA Tour wins including the 1959 Masters Tournament), Mike Souchak (15 PGA Tour wins), Skip Alexander (three PGA Tour wins), Joe Ogilvie (one PGA Tour win, four Web.com Tour wins), and Kevin Streelman (two PGA Tour wins).


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: The Duke men's golf team has been coached by Jamie Green since January 9, 2009. Bob Heintz is the assistant coach since Feb. 10, 2017. There are 9 players on their roster. Duke was ranked 7th in the U.S. by "Golfweek" in 2015.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: While the men's basketball team gets the most press, the women's golf team has been the most successful team on campus since 2000. In the 2000–2005 seasons, Duke's head-to-head record was 796–45–3, a winning percentage of .945. The team won national championships in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2014, and 2019 as well as 13 consecutive ACC championships from 1995–2008. A number of successful professional golfers have gone through Duke's program. Jenny Chuasiriporn and Brittany Lang finished as runners-up in the U.S. Women's Open while still undergraduates in 1998 and 2005, respectively.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Laetitia Beck, who won the Israeli championship at the age of 12 and was named ACC Rookie of the Year in 2011, played for the team. In 2014, Beck became the first Israeli to qualify for a major professional golf tour.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: The men's lacrosse program has risen in prominence to challenge the traditional lacrosse powers such as Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Princeton, and Syracuse, as well as more recent contenders like North Carolina and Virginia. The team won the national title in 2010 after defeating Notre Dame 6–5 in overtime and won their second national title in 2013 after defeating Syracuse 16–10. The Blue Devils then repeated in 2014, defeating Notre Dame 11-9 to win their second straight national championship and third in five years. They also reached the championship game in 2005 and 2007.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: The men's lacrosse team gained national attention in the 2006 lacrosse incident, where members of the team were falsely accused of raping an exotic dancer at a team party. The investigation led to the cancellation of the 2006 season and the resignation of coach Mike Pressler. Contradictions in the accuser's many changing stories, unimpeachable alibi evidence provided by the players, and misconduct of then-Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong led to all charges being dropped and the attorney general declaring the players innocent. Nifong was later removed and disbarred due to his misconduct in the case, and the team members who lost their season were granted another year of eligibility.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Megan Cooke is the head coach for Duke's rowing teams. Her husband Simon Carcagno is also part of the coaching staff.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: The women's soccer team was founded in 1988. The team has advanced to the NCAA Tournament 23 times, and finished as runners up three times. The team has won the ACC regular season title three times.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Comedian Cody Kolodziejzyk (Commonly known as Cody Ko) competed on the team from the 2008-2009 season to the 2011-2012 season. In the 2008-2009 season, he set the school record in the 3-meter dive, scoring 374.40.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: In 1929 the Blue Devil Wrestling team was founded. The team competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and is coached by Oklahoma State University 1988 graduate Glen Lanham. Ed Newman, who went on to a 12-year NFL career in football, won All Conference honors twice as a heavyweight wrestle, and twice won the ACC heavyweight championship. The team competes on campus in the Card Gymnasium. In 2009, heavyweight Konrad Dudziak became Duke's first All-American placing 2nd in 2009 and 4th in 2010. Conner Hartmann became the program's first three-time All-American, finishing 5th in 2014, 6th in 2015, and 7th in 2016.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: The following Duke athletes have been honored as an ACC Athlete of the Year. The men's award, the Anthony J. McKelvin Award, began when the ACC was formed in 1954. The women's award, the Mary Garber Award, began in 1990.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: There have been numerous All-Americans in Duke University history. As of March 2006, 307 athletes have been honored 470 times as All-Americans. In men's sports, this status has been achieved 297 times by 204 athletes. In women's sports, it has occurred 172 times by 103 athletes. The breakdown for men's sports is as follows (times, number of different athletes): baseball (13, 8); basketball (55, 31); cross country (3, 2); fencing (9, 5); football (60, 53); golf (12, 9); lacrosse (57, 37); soccer (42, 28); swimming and diving (3, 3); tennis (26, 15); track and field (17, 13); wrestling (3, 2). The breakdown for women's sports is as follows (times, number of different athletes): basketball (14, 8); cross country (8, 6); fencing (4, 2); field hockey (19, 12); golf (31, 16); lacrosse (23, 11); rowing (5, 3); soccer (10, 8); swimming and diving (1, 1); tennis (36, 22); track and field (15, 9); volleyball (7, 5).


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: In 2008, five Duke graduates qualified for the Olympic marathon trials, more than any other university.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: As World War I ended, Duke's Board of Trustees, then called the "Trinity College Board of Trustees", lifted their quarter century ban of football on campus leading to an interest in naming the athletic teams. The team was then known as the Trinity Eleven, the Blue and White, or the Methodists (as opposed to the Baptists of nearby rival Wake Forest University). Because of the ambiguity, the student newspaper, the "Trinity Chronicle" (now called "The Chronicle") launched a campaign to create a new mascot. Nominations for a new team name included Catamounts, Grizzlies, Badgers, Dreadnaughts, and Captains. The Trinity Chronicle editor narrowed the many nominations down to those that utilized the school colors of dark blue and white. The narrowed list consisted of Blue Titans, Blue Eagles, polar bears, Blue Devils, Royal Blazes, and Blue Warriors. None of the nominations proved to be a clear favorite, but the name Blue Devils elicited criticism that could potentially engender opposition on campus. These fears were partly alleviated when it was revealed that the name was military and patriotic rather than anti-religious; the name actually refers to the "Chasseurs Alpins", also known as ""les diables bleus"" ("The Blue Devils"), a French military unit which had impressed many Duke students and alumni returning home from the Western Front. The nickname of the "Chasseurs Alpins" was derived from the blue jacket and blue-grey breeches worn as part of their World War I-era uniform. Even with this explanation, however, that year's football season passed with no official selection.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: During the 1922–1923 academic year, campus student leaders and the editors of the two other student publications, "The Archive" and "The Chanticleer", decided that the newspaper staff should decide the name on their own because the nomination process had proved inconclusive. Editor-in-chief William H. Lander and managing editor Mike Bradshaw began referring to the athletic teams as the Blue Devils. Though the name was not officially used that year, no opposition to the name arose. "The Chronicle"'s staff continued to use the name and eventually "Blue Devils" became the official mascot and nickname of the Duke athletics program.


title: Duke Blue Devils

text: Duke has two official fight songs, "Fight! Blue Devils, Fight!" and "Blue and White", in addition to their alma mater, "Dear Old Duke". "Fight! Blue Devils, Fight!" was composed by J.F. Hewitt with lyrics by Douglas Ballin. In 2010, Michael Pinto of "Bleacher Report" ranked it as the 32nd best college football fight song. The lyrics and music for "Blue and White" were written by G.E. Leftwich, Jr.


title: Emptiness

text: Emptiness as a human condition is a sense of generalized boredom, social alienation and apathy. Feelings of emptiness often accompany dysthymia, depression, loneliness, anhedonia,


title: Emptiness

text: despair, or other mental/emotional disorders, including schizoid personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizotypal personality disorder and borderline personality disorder. A sense of emptiness is also part of a natural process of grief, as resulting death of a loved one, or other significant changes. The particular meanings of "emptiness" vary with the particular context and the religious or cultural tradition in which it is used.


title: Emptiness

text: While Christianity and Western sociologists and psychologists view a state of emptiness as a negative, unwanted condition, in some Eastern philosophies such as Buddhist philosophy and Taoism, emptiness (Śūnyatā) represents seeing through the illusion of independent self-nature.


title: Emptiness

text: In the West, feeling "empty" is often viewed as a negative condition. Psychologist Clive Hazell, for example, attributes feelings of emptiness to problematic family backgrounds with abusive relationships and mistreatment. He claims that some people who are facing a sense of emptiness try to resolve their painful feelings by becoming addicted to a drug or obsessive activity (be it compulsive sex, gambling or work) or engaging in "frenzied action" or violence. In sociology, a sense of emptiness is associated with social alienation of the individual. This sense of alienation may be suppressed while working, due to the routine nature of work tasks, but during leisure hours or during the weekend, people may feel a sense of "existential vacuum" and emptiness.


title: Emptiness

text: In political philosophy, emptiness is associated with nihilism. Literary critic Georg Lukács (born in 1885) argued against the "spiritual emptiness and moral inadequacy of capitalism", and argued in favour of communism as an "entirely new type of civilization, one that promised a fresh start and an opportunity to lead a meaningful and purposeful life."


title: Emptiness

text: The concept of "emptiness" was important to a "certain type of existentialist philosophy and some forms of the Death of God movement". Existentialism, the "philosophic movement that gives voice to the sense of alienation and despair", comes from "man's recognition of his fundamental aloneness in an indifferent universe". People whose response to the sense of emptiness and aloneness is to give excuses live in bad faith; "people who face the emptiness and accept responsibility aim to live 'authentic' lives". Existentialists argue that "man lives in alienation from God, from nature, from other men, from his own true self." Crowded into cities, working in mindless jobs, and entertained by light mass media, we "live on the surface of life", so that even "people who seemingly have 'everything' feel empty, uneasy, discontented."


title: Emptiness

text: In cultures where a sense of emptiness is seen as a negative psychological condition, it is often associated with depression. As such, many of the same treatments are proposed: psychotherapy, group therapy, or other types of counselling. As well, people who feel empty may be advised to keep busy and maintain a regular schedule of work and social activities. Other solutions which have been proposed to reduce a sense of emptiness are getting a pet or trying Animal-Assisted Therapy; getting involved in spirituality such as meditation or religious rituals and service; volunteering to fill time and bring social contact; doing social interactions, such as community activities, clubs, or outings; or finding a hobby or recreational activity to regain their interest in life.


title: Emptiness

text: In Austrian philosopher/educator Rudolf Steiner's (1861–1925) thinking, spiritual emptiness was a major problem in the educated European middle class. In his 1919 lectures he argued that European culture became "empty of spirit" and "ignorant of the needs, the conditions, that are essential for the life of the spirit". People experienced a "spiritual emptiness" and their thinking became marked by a "lazy passivity" due to the "absence of will from the life of thought". In modern Europe, Steiner claimed that people would "allow their thoughts to take possession of them", and these thoughts were increasingly filled with abstraction and "pure, natural scientific thinking". The educated middle classes began to think in a way that was "devoid of spirit", with their minds becoming "dimmer and darker", and increasing empty of spirit.


title: Emptiness

text: Louis Dupré, a professor of philosophy at Yale University, argues that the "spiritual emptiness of our time is a symptom of its religious poverty". He claims that "many people never experience any emptiness: they are too busy to feel much absence of any kind"; they only realize their spiritual emptiness if "painful personal experiences -- the death of a loved one, the collapse of a marriage, the alienation of a child, the failure of a business" shock them into reassessing their sense of meaning.


title: Emptiness

text: Spiritual emptiness has been associated with juvenile violence. In John C. Thomas' 1999 book "How Juvenile Violence Begins: Spiritual Emptiness", he argues that youth in impoverished indigenous communities who feel empty may turn to fighting and aggressive crime to fill their sense of meaninglessness. In Cornell University professor James Garbarino's 1999 book "Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them", he argues that "neglect, shame, spiritual emptiness, alienation, anger and access to guns are a few of the elements common to violent boys". A professor of human development, Garbarino claims that violent boys have an "alienation from positive role models" and "a spiritual emptiness that spawns despair". These youth are seduced by the violent fantasy of the US gun culture, which provides negative role models of tough, aggressive men who use power to get what they want. He claims that boys can be helped by giving them "a sense of purpose" and "spiritual anchors" that can "anchor boys in empathy and socially engaged moral thinking".


title: Emptiness

text: Spiritual emptiness is often connected with addiction, especially by Christian-influenced addiction organizations and counsellors. Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, argued that one of the impacts of alcoholism was causing a spiritual emptiness in heavy drinkers. In Abraham J. Twerski's 1997 book "Addictive Thinking: Understanding Self-Deception", he argues that when people feel spiritually empty, they often turn to addictive behaviors to fill the inner void. In contrast to having an empty stomach, which is a clear feeling, having spiritual emptiness is hard to identify, so it fills humans with a "vague unrest". While people may try to resolve this emptiness by obsessively having sex, overeating, or taking drugs or alcohol, these addictions only give temporary satisfaction. When a person facing a crisis due to feeling spiritually empty is able to stop one addiction, such as compulsive sex, they often just trade it in for another addictive behaviour, such as gambling or overeating.


title: Emptiness

text: A number of novelists and filmmakers have depicted emptiness. The concept of "emptiness" was important to a "good deal of 19th–20th century Western imaginative literature". Novelist Franz Kafka depicted a meaningless bizarre world in "The Trial" and the existentialist French authors sketched a world cut off from purpose or reason in Jean-Paul Sartre's "La Nausée" and Albert Camus' "L'étranger". Existentialism influenced 20th century poet T.S. Eliot, whose poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" describes an "anti-hero or alienated soul, running away from or confronting the emptiness of his or her existence". Professor Gordon Bigelow argues that the existentialist theme of "spiritual barrenness is commonplace in literature of the 20th century", which in addition to Eliot includes Ernest Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck and Anderson.


title: Emptiness

text: Film adaptations of a number of existentialist novels capture the bleak sense of emptiness espoused by Sartre and Camus. This theme of emptiness has also been used in modern screenplays. Mark Romanek's 1985 film "Static" tells the surreal story of a struggling inventor and crucifix factory worker named Ernie who feels spiritually empty because he is saddened by his parents' death in an accident. Screenwriter Michael Tolkin's 1994 film "The New Age" examines "cultural hipness and spiritual emptiness", creating a "dark, ambitious, unsettling" film that depicts a fashionable LA couple who "are miserable in the midst of their sterile plenty", and whose souls are stunted by their lives of empty sex, consumption, and distractions. The 1999 film "American Beauty" examines the spiritual emptiness of life in the US suburbs. In Wes Anderson's 2007 film "The Darjeeling Limited", three brothers who "suffer from spiritual emptiness" and then "self-medicate themselves through sex, social withdrawal, and drugs." The 2008 film "The Informers" is a Hollywood drama film written by Bret Easton Ellis and Nicholas Jarecki and directed by Gregor Jordan. The film is based on Ellis' 1994 collection of short stories of the same name. The film, which is set amidst the decadence of the early 1980s, depicts an assortment of socially alienated, mainly well-off characters who numb their sense of emptiness with casual sex, alcohol, and drugs.


title: Emptiness

text: Contemporary architecture critic Herbert Muschamp argues that "horror vacui" (which is Latin for "fear of emptiness") is a key principle of design. He claims that it has become an obsessive quality that is the "driving force in contemporary American taste". Muschamp states that "along with the commercial interests that exploit this interest, it is the major factor now shaping attitudes toward public spaces, urban spaces, and even suburban sprawl."


title: Emptiness

text: Films that depict nothingness, shadows and vagueness, either in a visual sense or a moral sense are appreciated in genres such as film noir. As well, travellers and artists are often intrigued by and attracted to vast empty spaces, such as open deserts, barren wastelands or salt flats, and the open sea.


title: Emptiness

text: In visual arts emptiness and absence were recognized as phenomena that characterize not only particular works of art (e.g. Yves Klein) but also as a more general tendency within the history of modern art and aesthetics. Following Davor Džalto's argument on the modern concept of art, the gradual elimination of particular elements that traditionally characterized visual arts, which results in emptiness, is the most important phenomenon within the history and theory of art over the past two hundred years.


title: Emptiness

text: The Buddhist term "emptiness" (Skt. "śūnyatā") refers specifically to the idea that everything is dependently originated, including the causes and conditions themselves, and even the principle of causality itself. It is not nihilism, nor is it meditating on nothingness. Instead, it refers to the absence (emptiness) of inherent existence. Buddhapalita says:


title: Emptiness

text: In an interview, the Dalai Lama stated that tantric meditation can be used for "heightening your own realization of emptiness or mind of enlightenment". In Buddhist philosophy, attaining a realization of emptiness of inherent existence is key to the permanent cessation of suffering, i.e. liberation.


title: Emptiness

text: The Dalai Lama argues that tantric yoga trainees need to realize the emptiness of inherent existence before they can go on to the "highest yoga tantra initiation"; realizing the emptiness of inherent existence of the mind is the "fundamental innate mind of clear light, which is the subtlest level of the mind", where all "energy and mental processes are withdrawn or dissolved", so that all that appears to the mind is "pure emptiness". As well, emptiness is "linked to the creative Void, meaning that it is a state of complete receptivity and perfect enlightenment", the merging of the "ego with its own essence", which Buddhists call the "clear light".


title: Emptiness

text: In Ven. Thubten Chodron's 2005 interview with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the lama noted that "ordinary beings who haven't realized emptiness don't see things as similar to illusions", and one does not "realize that things are merely labeled by mind and exist by mere name". He argues that "when we meditate on emptiness, we drop an atom bomb on this [sense of a] truly existent I" and to realize that "what appears true...isn't true". By this, the lama is claiming that what is thought to be real—our thoughts and feelings about people and things—"exists by being merely labeled". He argues that meditators who attain knowledge of a state of emptiness are able to realize that their thoughts are merely illusions from labelling by the mind.


title: Emptiness

text: In Taoism, attaining a state of emptiness is viewed as a state of stillness and placidity which is the "mirror of the universe" and the "pure mind". The Tao Te Ching claims that emptiness is related to the "Tao, the Great Principle, the Creator and Sustainer of everything in the universe". It is argued that it is the "state of mind of the Taoist disciple who follows the Tao", who has successfully emptied the mind "of all wishes and ideas not fitted with the Tao's Movement". For a person who attains a state of emptiness, the "still mind of the sage is the mirror of heaven and earth, the glass of all things", a state of "vacancy, stillness, placidity, tastelessness, quietude, silence, and non-action" which is the "perfection of the Tao and its characteristics, the "mirror of the universe" and the "pure mind".


title: John Howland

text: John Howland (February 23, 1673) accompanied the English Separatists and other passengers when they left England on the to settle in Plymouth Colony. He was an indentured servant and in later years an executive assistant and personal secretary to Governor John Carver.


title: John Howland

text: In 1620 he signed the Mayflower Compact and helped found the colony. During his service to Governor Carver in 1621, Howland assisted in the making of a treaty with the Sachem Massasoit of the Wampanoag. In 1626, he was a freeman and one of eight settlers who agreed to assume the colony's debt to its investors in exchange for a monopoly on the fur trade. He was elected deputy to the Plymouth General Court in 1641 and held the position until 1655, and again in 1658.


title: John Howland

text: John Howland was born in Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, England around 1592. He was the son of Margaret and Henry Howland, and the brother of Henry and Arthur Howland, who emigrated later from England to Marshfield, Massachusetts. Although Henry and Arthur Howland were Quakers, John himself held to the original faith of the Separatist Pilgrims.


title: John Howland

text: William Bradford, who was the governor of Plymouth Colony for many years, wrote in "Of Plymouth Plantation" that Howland was a man-servant of John Carver. Carver was the deacon of the Separatists church while the group resided in Leiden, Netherlands. At the time the Leiden congregation left the Netherlands on the "Speedwell", Carver was in England securing investments, gathering other potential passengers, and chartering the "Mayflower" for the journey to North America. Howland may have accompanied Carver's household from Leiden when the "Speedwell" left Delfshaven for Southampton, England, in July 1620. Ansel Ames, in "Mayflower and Her Log", said that Howland was probably kin of Carver's and that he was more likely a steward or a secretary than a servant. The Separatists planned to travel to the New World on the "Speedwell" and the "Mayflower". The "Speedwell" proved to be unseaworthy, and thus most of the passengers crowded onto the "Mayflower".


title: John Howland

text: The "Mayflower" departed Plymouth, England, on September 6/16, 1620. The small, 100-foot ship had 102 passengers and a crew of about 30-40 in extremely cramped conditions. By the second month out, the ship was being buffeted by strong westerly gales, causing the ship's timbers to be badly shaken with caulking failing to keep out sea water, and with passengers, even in their berths, getting wet. This, combined with a lack of proper rations and unsanitary conditions for several months, contributed to sicknesses. On the way, there were two deaths, a crew member and a passenger. After arriving at their destination, in the space of several months, almost half the passengers perished in the cold, harsh, unfamiliar New England winter. During the voyage there was a turbulent storm during which Howland fell overboard. He managed to grab a topsail halyard that was trailing in the water and was hauled back aboard safely.


title: John Howland

text: On November 9/19, 1620, after about three months at sea, including a month of delays in England, the crew and passengers spotted land, which was the Cape Cod Hook, now called Provincetown Harbor. After they struggled for several days to get south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, where they anchored on November 11/21. On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower Compact was signed. Howland was the thirteenth of the 41 "principal" men to sign.


title: John Howland

text: The first winter in North America proved deadly for the Pilgrims as almost half their number perished. The Carver family, with whom Howland lived, survived the winter of 1620-21. However, the following spring, on an unusually hot day in April, Carver, according to William Bradford, came out of his cornfield feeling ill. He passed into a coma and "never spake more". His wife, Kathrine, died soon after her husband. The Carvers' only children had died while they lived in Leiden, and it is possible that Howland inherited their estate. In 1621, after Carver's death, Howland became a freeman. In 1624, he was considered the head of what was once the Carver household when he was granted an acre for each member of the household including himself, Elizabeth Tilley, Desire Minter, and a boy named William Latham.


title: John Howland

text: In the several years after becoming a freeman, he served at various times as selectman, assistant and deputy governor, surveyor of highways, and as member of the fur committee. In 1626, he was asked to participate in assuming the colony's debt to its investors to enable the colony to pursue its own goals without the pressure to remit profits back to England. The "undertakers" paid the investors £1,800 to relinquish their claims on the land, and £2,400 for other debt. In return the group acquired a monopoly on the colony's fur trade for six years.


title: John Howland

text: Howland accompanied Edward Winslow in the exploration of Kennebec River (in current day Maine), looking for possible fur trading sites and natural resources that the colony could exploit. He also led a team of men that built and operated a fur trading post there. While Howland was in charge of the colony's northerly trading post, an incident occurred there that Bradford described as "one of the saddest things that befell them." A group of traders from Piscataqua (present day Portsmouth, New Hampshire) led by a man named John Hocking, encroached on the trading ground granted to Plymouth by a patent, by sailing their bark up the river beyond their post. Howland warned Hocking to depart, but Hocking, brandishing a pistol and using foul language, refused. Howland ordered his men to approach the bark in a canoe and cut its cables setting it adrift. The Plymouth men managed to cut one cable when Hocking put his pistol to the head of Moses Talbot, one of Howland's men, and shot and killed him. Another of the Howland group shot Hocking to death in response.


title: John Howland

text: In Plymouth, the Howlands lived on the north side of Leyden Street. They lived for a short time in Duxbury and then moved to Kingston where they had a farm on a piece of land referred to as Rocky Nook. The farm burned down in 1675 during King Philip's War. By that time, John had died and Elizabeth moved in with her son, Jabez.


title: John Howland

text: Before moving to Rhode Island, Jabez Howland owned a home in Plymouth at 33 Sandwich Street. The house was built by Jacob Mitchell in about 1667 and was sold to Jabez Howland. John and Elizabeth had wintered in the house, and Elizabeth lived there from 1675, when the Rocky Nook farm was burned down, until Jabez sold it in 1680. It is the only house standing in Plymouth in which "Mayflower" passengers lived.


title: John Howland

text: Until Bradford's "Of Plymouth Plantation" was discovered in 1856, it was presumed that Howland's wife, formerly Elizabeth Tilley, was the adopted daughter of the Carvers. (Her parents, uncle and aunt who came to the New World died of sickness during the first winter.) This error was even recorded on a gravestone that was erected for Howland on Burial Hill, in 1836. However, the Bradford journal revealed that she was, in fact, the daughter of John Tilley and his wife, Joan (Hurst). Elizabeth Tilley Howland was born in Henlow, Bedfordshire, England where she was baptized in August, 1607. She and her parents were passengers on the "Mayflower". John Tilley and his wife Joan both died the first winter as did his brother Edward Tilley and wife Ann. This left Elizabeth an orphan and so she was taken in by the Carver family. The Carvers died about a year later, and part of their estate was inherited by Howland, and Elizabeth became his ward. In 1623/24, she married Howland.


title: John Howland

text: John Howland died February 23, 1672/3 at the age of 80, having outlived most of the other male "Mayflower" passengers except George Soule (who died in 1679), John Alden (died 1687), and John Cooke (died 1695, and was the son of Mayflower passenger Francis Cooke). Richard More, one of the 'Mayflower Bastards' died after 19 March 1693/4, but before 20 April 1696, and was buried in Salem, Massachusetts. Howland is presumed to be buried on Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts.


title: John Howland

text: Elizabeth Tilley outlived her husband by 15 years. She died December 21 or 22, 1687, in the home of her daughter, Lydia Brown, in Swansea, Massachusetts, and is buried in a section of that town which is now in East Providence, Rhode Island.


title: John Howland

text: John and Elizabeth Howland founded one of the three largest "Mayflower" families and their descendants have been "associated largely with both the 'Boston Brahmins' and Harvard's 'intellectual aristocracy' of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries." American actors Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957), Anthony Perkins (1932-1992), and Alec Baldwin (b. 1958) are counted among Howland’s descendants.


title: Silambam

text: Silambam is an Indian martial art originating in South India in the Indian subcontinent. This style is mentioned in Tamil Sangam literature. The World Silambam Association is the official international body of Silambam.


title: Silambam

text: References in the "Silappadikkaram" and other works of the Sangam literature show that Silambam has been practiced since at least the 4th century BC. It derives from the Tamil word silam, meaning hill. The term silambambu referred to a particular type of bamboo from the Kurinjimala (kurinji hills) in present-day Kerala. Thus silambam was named after its primary weapon, the bamboo staff. It may have earlier used for self-defense and to ward off animals in the Kurinji hills and later evolved into the present-day martial art. Bamboo staffs – as well as swords, pearls and armor – were in great demand from foreign traders.


title: Silambam

text: The ancient city of Madurai formed as the point of focus of Silambam's spreading. The Silambam staff was acquired by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans and was spread back to the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. The Tamil Kingdom which encompassed Southern India and Sri Lanka spread it throughout the Southeast Asia.


title: Silambam

text: The Kings Puli Thevar and Dheeran Chinnamalai had armies of Silambam soldiers named "Thadii Pattalam." Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Chinna Maruthu and Periya Maruthu (1760–1799) relied mainly on their Silambam prowess in warfare against the British East India Company. Indian martial arts and other related martial arts practices suffered a decline after the British banned Silambam and promoted modern military training, which favored firearms over traditional weaponry.


title: Silambam

text: The first stages of Silambam practice are meant to provide a foundation for fighting, and also preparatory body conditioning. This includes improving flexibility, agility, and hand-eye coordination, kinesthetic awareness, balance, strength, speed, muscular and cardiovascular stamina.


title: Silambam

text: Silambam's main focus is on the bamboo staff. The length of the staff depends on the height of the practitioner. Ideally, it should just touch the forehead about three fingers from the head, typically measuring around 1.68 meters (five and a half feet). Different lengths may be used depending on the situation. For instance, the "sedikuchi" or 3-foot stick can be easily concealed. Separate practice is needed for staffs of different lengths. Listed below are some of the weapons used in Silambam.


title: Silambam

text: Kuttu Varisai is the unarmed combat component of Silambam and also a stand-alone martial art. It contains animal forms.


title: Silambam

text: Silambam made its first historical appearance in the eyes of the world through the auspices of the committee of the United Nations Assembly, which recommended Silambam Asia for United Nations status. The inauguration was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States on 21 January 2019. However, the China-Taipei government representatives raised questions concerning border conflicts in ancient records pertaining to Silambam. A request was lodged for the organization of Silambam Asia to resolve with ratification of the raised problems by member states. On 30 January 2019, substantive work was completed and concluded for Silambam Asia with Special Status in the United Nations.


title: Silambam

text: In many M.G.Ramachandran (MGR) films from the 1950s and 1960s, MGR had incorporated silambam fighting scenes to popularize these ancient martial arts in the 20th century. MGR himself was a practitioner of silambam fighting, learning this martial art from Master Madurai Maadakulam Ravi. Some of these movies include "Thaikkupin Tharam", "Periya Idathu Penn", "Mugaraasi" and "Thanipiravi".


title: Kenny Bräck

text: Kenny Bräck (born 21 March 1966) is a Swedish former race car driver. Until his retirement from racing, he competed in the CART, Indy Racing League and the IROC series. He won the 1998 Indy Racing League championship and the 1999 Indianapolis 500, becoming the first Swedish driver to win the race.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: He survived one of the racing sport's biggest crashes at Texas Motor Speedway in 2003, where he recorded the highest horizontal g-force ever survived by a human being at . Eighteen months later he made a comeback at the Indy 500 and set the fastest qualifying time of the field. He retired from IndyCar racing after the race.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: In 2009, he made a comeback to rally, competing in Rally X at X-Games 15 and winning Gold. Bräck still drives occasionally and won The Dukerie's Stage Rally in Nottingham, England with co-driver Emil Axelsson in June 2011. The duo also won the Swedish classic The Midnight Sun Rally in July 2011. In September Bräck took pole position and won the RAC Tourist Trophy race at the Goodwood Revival in a Shelby Daytona Coupé 1964 together with 9-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen. In September 2013 Bräck won The Whitsun Trophy race at the Goodwood Revival in a Ford GT40 together with Red Bull Racing's Adrian Newey.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: Born in Arvika, Sweden, he grew up in the small village of Glava, where his father taught him to drive cars on the lake-ice in the winters. A neighbor introduced Bräck to racing when he was 13 years of age, working in his business one summer, buying him a go-kart. Apart from the beginning of Bräck's career, he has managed his career himself, from finding sponsors, negotiating contracts to winning races.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: He raced in Britain and Sweden in Formula Ford and Formula 3 (he was Swedish junior Formula Ford Champion in 1986), in Europe in Formula Opel Lotus and the Renault Clio Cup (Scandinavian Champion 1992) and in the US in the Barber Saab Pro Series (Champion in 1993).


title: Kenny Bräck

text: In 1994 he competed in the International Formula 3000. In 1995 he finished third in the International F3000 championship for Madgwick Racing. In 1996 he was Arrows Formula One test driver but decided to leave the team after mid season concentrating on his European F3000 campaign. Despite winning the last race on the road, after a controversial Clerk of the Course decision he eventually was disqualified from the event and had to settle for the runner-up position in the championship, driving for the British team Super Nova. Had he not been disqualified, Bräck would have been champion.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: Bräck debuted in the IRL in 1997, making his first start for Galles Racing at Phoenix, replacing Jeff Ward, and finishing 11th after an accident. Over seven starts, he had two top-5 finishes at Charlotte and New Hampshire.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: Leading up to his Indianapolis 500 debut in 1997, he showed initial promise early in May. He posted the fastest time on the second day of Rookie Orientation, posting a lap speed of 205.597 mph. He ended up qualifying 15th for the race, in a unique year in which 35 cars formed the starting grid. Unfortunately, on Race Day, in the final pace lap before the green flag, Bräck was caught up in an accident with Stéphan Grégoire and Affonso Giaffone and finished 33rd after being unable to continue.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: In 1998, he moved to drive for American racing legend A. J. Foyt. The new team paid dividends, as he won three consecutive races on his way to the IRL championship in 1998. In his 1999 title defense, he finished runner-up to Greg Ray, including a win at the 1999 Indianapolis 500. After the 1999 season, he left Foyt's team to compete in the CART FedEx Championship Series.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: In 2000 he switched to the CART series, joining Team Rahal and being awarded the Rookie of the Year. He finished 2nd in the driver's championship in 2001, winning a season-high 4 victories and 6 pole positions. However, he did not have much success on road circuits which is what ultimately cost him that year's title to Gil de Ferran.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: In 2001 Bräck also had a minor role in the Hollywood motion picture "Driven", which starred Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: In 2002, Bräck raced for Chip Ganassi Racing, and he ended the season by winning the CART season finale Mexico City G.P., which turned out to be his only win in major North American open-wheel racing on a road or street circuit.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: In 2001 he competed in the International Race of Champions series in the season called IROC XXV. The series is a stock car invitational in the United States. He finished third in the championship, the highest points position for a non-stock car driver.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: Bräck moved back to the IRL in 2003 with previous CART team owner, Bobby Rahal and his Rahal Letterman Racing team. Bräck scored 2nd place at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in Japan. In the final race at Texas Motor Speedway, he suffered a serious crash that almost cost him his life. His car locked wheels with Tomas Scheckter's, flew into the catch fencing, and broke apart leaving the cockpit still intact. Bräck's crash saw the highest recorded g-forces since the introduction of crash violence recording systems, peaking at 214 "g" (while death may occur at >50 "g"). This was the highest recorded g-force ever survived. He suffered multiple fractures, breaking his sternum, femur, shattering a vertebra in his spine and crushing his ankles. He spent eighteen months recovering from his injuries. Though Bräck would return for one additional race, the Texas wreck essentially ended his racing career in IRL.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: Bräck made his comeback at the 2005 Indianapolis 500, replacing an injured Buddy Rice (who, coincidentally, had replaced Bräck in 2004). He set the fastest qualification time in the field with an average speed of , but started 23rd due to not qualifying on the first day. He retired from the race with a mechanical problem, finishing in 26th place.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: As of 2011, Bräck lives in England and has retired from open wheel racing. Since 2015 Bräck has helped McLaren Automotive working with dynamic car development for their road cars. In May 2018 he took the role as chief test driver. In May 2017 Kenny set the lap record for road legal cars at the Nürburgring Nordschleife with a lap time of 6'43.22, in a McLaren P1 LM, a project he helped develop with Team Lanzante. He continued to occasionally drive in rallying.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: For a time he managed future Formula One and IndyCar driver Marcus Ericsson, who became the second Swede after Bräck to win the Indianapolis 500 in 2022.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: Bräck also spends his time currently as the lead member and songwriter of his rock band "Bräck", together with lead singer Franc Aledia. At the 2007 Indianapolis 500 the band Bräck cooperated with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in celebrating American racing legend A. J. Foyt as part of his 50th anniversary at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In May 2007 the band released its first album "Greatest hits, volume 1" featuring the song "Legend of the Speedway". A rock video, featuring Foyt's Indianapolis winning cars including the car Bräck won the race with in 1999 while driving for Foyt was also recorded. The video was directed by Allen Farst of Niche Productions, Dayton, Ohio.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: Bräck is also on the board of directors of , Scandinavia's biggest distributor of car spare parts, listed on the Swedish stock exchange.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: In July 2013, "Autosport" named Bräck one of the top 50 greatest drivers to have never raced in Formula One.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: Bräck was employed by Lanzante Motorsport to drive one of the most prestigious cars, a 1964 Shelby Daytona Coupé, in the RAC Tourist Trophy race at the Goodwood Revival in September 2011. Only six original cars exist. Sharing the driving duties with 9-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, Bräck qualified the car on pole position. The duo also won the race.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: In September 2013 Bräck, in partnership with Red Bull F1 Racing's Adrian Newey won the Goodwood revival 50 year anniversary The Whitsun Trophy, where Bräck performed a rain qualifying that went viral on social media. The duo went on to win the race. Also in September Bräck co-drove Christian Glaesel's Ford GT40 in the Spa 6-Hours race, together with the owner and Olivier Ellerbrock. Bräck qualified the car on pole. Eventually the car finished in 5th place.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: In 2009, four years after retiring from IndyCar racing Bräck made a surprise return to the wheel after receiving a special invitation to compete in the annual ESPN X Games 15 in Los Angeles. Bräck drove a Ford Fiesta prepared by Swedish team Olsbergs MSE. Bräck was the fastest qualifier and went on to win the competition outright in a head-to-head final against previous Rally Gold Medal winner and nine time overall X-Games Gold Medal winner Travis Pastrana. Bräck became the first specially invited driver to win the Rally Gold Medal. The late WRC star Colin McRae previously held the top spot with a second-place finish.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: In 2011 Bräck won his second stage rally in his career, Dukerie's Rally outside Nottingham, England, in a Ford Escort Mk II BDG with Swedish co-driver Emil Axelsson.


title: Kenny Bräck

text: In July 2011 the duo won the Swedish classic The Midnight Sun Rally in the same car, in front of the previous year's winner Kenneth Bäcklund and rally world champion Björn Waldegård.


title: Macross Frontier

text: "Macross Frontier" is the story of a human space colony fleet trying to find a habitable planet near the center of the Milky Way. The story focuses on three young adults (a famed pop singer, a private military pilot, and a rising pop singer) and the events that occur around them as the fleet faces a crisis of alien origin.


title: Macross Frontier

text: The series features the 25th New Macross-class Colonial Fleet, dubbed the "Macross Frontier", en route to the galactic center. This heavily populated interstellar fleet (consisting of numerous civilian vessels and their military escorts) contains a makeup of both human occupants and their Zentradi allies. As such, many of the "Macross Frontier"'s companion vessels appear to merge more metallic Human designs with organic Zentradi aesthetics. "Macross Frontier" plot explores a combination of action/political intrigue/space drama more than previous "Macross" series have done in the past.


title: Macross Frontier

text: As the series begins, during a mission to an unexplored asteroid belt a reconnaissance New U.N. Spacy (N.U.N.S.) VF-171 is destroyed by extremely powerful and fast insectoid biomechanical alien mecha known as the "Vajra" which immediately begin their attack on the rest of the fleet. Unable to stop the new enemy threat, the N.U.N.S. Colonial Defense Forces authorizes the deployment of a private military provider organization called S.M.S. (Strategic Military Services) which utilizes the new VF-25 "Messiah" variable fighter to combat the alien menace.


title: Macross Frontier

text: The series was animated by Satelight and was broadcast in Japan on MBS from April 4, 2008 to September 26, 2008. A pre-broadcast airing titled "Macross Frontier: Close Encounter - Deculture Edition" or , showcasing a preview version of the first episode was aired on December 23, 2007. The series premiered on satellite television in Japan on Animax on April 7, 2008.


title: Macross Frontier

text: Four separate manga adaptations were run in "Shōnen Ace", "Comp Ace" and "Bessatsu Friend", starting in December 2007, February 2008, July 2008, and September 2010, respectively.


title: Macross Frontier

text: "Radio Macross" is a radio program, based on "Macross Frontier", which was first broadcast on Bunka Hōsō and MBS Radio on January 3, 2008. It has featured Megumi Nakajima and Kenta Miyake, voice actors for the characters Ranka Lee and Bobby Margot, as hosts.


title: Macross Frontier

text: "Macross Fufonfia" is a series of Flash-based 90-second promotional shorts developed by Satelight and sponsored by Mainichi Broadcasting System where characters from "Macross Frontier" are portrayed as office ladies and employees at the "Frontier Software Company". While not exactly standard anime, more a sort of paper cut-out animation, these ONA shorts are a fun spoof of the original series intended to promote the show. The series was aired in 2007 and featured 20 episodes.


title: Macross Frontier

text: A theatrical version of the "Macross Frontier" anime television series was announced in Japan during the broadcast of the 25th and final episode "Your Sound" ("Anata no Oto") on September 25, 2008. According to interviews with Shōji Kawamori the movie was to be an adaptation of the story from the television series. Japanese anime magazine "Animedia" had originally announced that the film was to be released during the summer of 2009. Other reports later placed the premiere in the fall of 2009. That report was confirmed by an "itasha" (vehicle decorated with character art) mini-van outside the "Macross: The Super Dimension Space Launching Ceremony" event that took place on February 22, 2009 in Japan. However, at that point, the creator Shoji Kawamori and the cast members Yuuichi Nakamura (Alto Saotome), Aya Endo (Sheryl Nome), and Megumi Nakajima (Ranka Lee) noted on the actual event, that the new date and the title were still subjected to changes.


title: Macross Frontier

text: The theatrical film adaptation of "Macross Frontier" opened in Japan on November 21, 2009, under the name . The Kadokawa Cineplex and Shochiku Multiplex theaters' websites revealed the title and date, and the second issue of Kadokawa Shoten's "Macross Ace" magazine eventually published the details on June 26, 2009. The teaser trailer for the film premiered in Japanese theaters on June 27, 2009 (the same day ticket pre-sales began in Japan). The first movie retells the events of the anime from episodes 1 to 13, with significant alterations to the story and timeline of the television series.


title: Macross Frontier

text: A Blu-ray Disc release of the movie, titled "Macross Frontier The Movie: The False Songstress Hybrid Pack", was released on October 7, 2010. The Blu-ray release contains the Blu-ray jacket, the hybrid disc, a 48-page artwork booklet, a theatrical release archive, and a card featuring frames from the movie. The pack also included a code that allowed the owner to be entered into a contest to attend the Macross F Christmas Live event that year. A PS3 game titled "Macross Trial Frontier" is included in the Hybrid Pack, playable on the PlayStation 3. A standard DVD was also released in the same day. Later Namco Bandai (now Bandai Namco Holdings) released the "Macross Frontier the Movie 30th d Shudisuta b Box" on May 15, 2014.


title: Macross Frontier

text: The official website of the Macross Frontier anime series has confirmed that there will be two theatrical "Macross Frontier" films. While "The False Songstress" primarily reedited footage from the show's initial 13 episodes, the second film, titled , diverges significantly from the events of the television series, featuring entirely new animation and new music. In the Macross Frontier Girasama Festival, the movie's release date is confirmed to be on February 26, 2011. "The Wings of Farewell" provides an original story and an alternate conclusion to "Frontier", following directly off of "The False Songstress".


title: Macross Frontier

text: Blu-ray and DVD editions of the movie were released by Bandai Namco Games on October 20, 2011. The Blu-ray version is still a Hybrid Pack, the same as the first movie released in Blu-ray. A PS3 game titled "Macross Last Frontier" is included in the Hybrid Pack, and it can be played when the disc is in the PlayStation 3. Later, Namco Bandai (now Bandai Namco Holdings) released the "Macross Frontier the Movie 30th d Shudisuta b Box" on May 15, 2014.


title: Macross Frontier

text: In November 2008, a live concert of "Macross Frontier"'s music was performed by May'n, Megumi Nakajima, and Yoko Kanno. A video recording of the concert was released in November 2009, and is available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.


title: Macross Frontier

text: Coinciding with both the 25th anniversary of Macross and the Blu-ray releases of volume one of both "Macross Zero" and "Macross Frontier", the official website of "Macross Frontier" posted two newly animated short films featuring Air Show style demonstrations for both series. People who purchased the first pressings of either "Macross Zero" or "Macross Frontier" received a unique code to enter into the website and therefore be able to watch the short film of the respective anime.


title: Macross Frontier

text: Due to a current legal dispute over the distribution rights of the "Macross" franchise, involving Studio Nue and Big West against Harmony Gold, much of the "Macross" merchandise post 1999, including "Macross Frontier", has not received an international release.


title: Macross Frontier

text: However, on March 1, 2021, Big West, Studio Nue and Harmony Gold reached an agreement on the international distribution of most "Macross" sequels and films.


title: Macross Frontier

text: The two "Macross Frontier" films each received a one-night theatrical release with English subtitles in the United States via Big West and Fathom Events, with "The False Songstress" shown on June 16, 2022, and "The Wings of Farewell" shown on June 30, 2022.


title: Macross Frontier

text: As a tribute to the popularity of the series, Japanese champion cosplay kickboxer Yuichiro Nagashima ("Jienotsu") crossplayed as the character Ranka Lee during one of his tournaments and also in a promotional event for the show.


title: Macross Frontier

text: The first DVD volume of the series released in Japan by Bandai Visual maintained the #3 spot in the sales chart for two consecutive weeks. It was revealed that about 45,000 Blu-ray Discs and 55,000 DVDs were shipped by Bandai Visual for the first volume. This marked the highest Blu-ray Disc pressing among all Bandai Visual releases. "Macross Frontier" was also reported to be the first anime television series to ship simultaneously on both disc formats in Japan.


title: Macross Frontier

text: The original soundtrack of the series, "Macross Frontier O.S.T.1 Nyan FRO", made it to #3 in Oricon's's weekly album chart. The album sold over 72,000 copies, becoming the first anime album in eleven years to rank in Japan's top 3. The only anime album to rival these sales was "The End of Evangelion" soundtrack, released on September 26, 1997.


title: Macross Frontier

text: The first opening single, "Triangular" by Maaya Sakamoto, debuted at #3 in Oricon's weekly singles chart and maintained the spot for three weeks before falling to #6. The second single, "Diamond Crevasse" by May'n, also debuted at #3. The third single, Megumi Nakajima's "Seikan Hikō", reached #5 with 34,501 copies. The fourth single, including the second opening "Lion" and the second ending theme "Northern Cross", sold about 56,000 copies in its first week, reaching #3 as well. These four singles sold a total of over 500,000 copies, marking the start of a "new anime song boom" in Japan.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The International Freedom Battalion (; ; ), commonly abbreviated as IFB or EÖT, is a revolutionary socialist armed group consisting of leftist foreign fighters fighting for the People's Defense Units in the Syrian Civil War in support of the Rojava Revolution and against the Turkish Armed Forces, the Syrian National Army, and Islamic State. The formation of the IFB was announced in June 2015 in Ras al-Ayn. Inspiration for the group came from the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War. The political ideologies of the fighters include anarchism, Marxism–Leninism, Hoxhaism, Maoism, and anarcho-communism.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The International Freedom Battalion was formed by left-wing armed groups (as well as individuals not part of any other groups), most of whom had been fighting with the YPG before the creation of the IFB. These groups include:


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The United Freedom Forces (, or BÖG), inspired by the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War, were founded in December 2014 in the town of Kobanî as an organization of foreign leftist fighters of both revolutionary socialist and anarchist convictions. While the MLKP didn't join, these groups would eventually unite in the International Freedom Battalion. BÖG also has a female branch named "Women's Freedom Forces" ("Kadın Özgürlük Gücü" in Turkish). BÖG is considered to be the largest group within the International Freedom Battalion. BOG contains several factions, "see Member groups"


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The Marxist–Leninist Communist Party (, abbreviated as MLKP) is an underground Hoxhaist communist party from Turkey. MLKP fighters had reportedly been sent to Syria to fight with the People's Defense Units since 2012. MLKP fighters also joined the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) December 2014 Sinjar offensive in Northern Iraq in defence of the Yezidi minority in Sinjar. In March 2015 a 19-year-old German woman, Ivana Hoffmann, was killed whilst fighting the Islamic State (IS) during the Eastern al-Hasakah offensive, making her the third foreign fighter, as well as the first female foreign fighter, to die while fighting alongside the YPG. MLKP's female organisation, Komünist Kadın Örgütü, has also been involved in fighting. MLKP was heavily involved in forming the International Freedom Battalion.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey (, abbreviated as TİKKO) is the armed wing of the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist (, abbreviated as TKP/ML), a Maoist insurgent organisation in Turkey. On 25 March 2016, the TKP/ML TİKKO headquarters in Serêkaniyê were targeted by a motorcycle bomb, causing slight injuries to two members and damage to the headquarters. Two suspects were detained by the Asayiş.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist (, abbreviated as TKEP/L) is an illegal Marxist-Leninist party in Turkey.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: Communist Reconstruction (, abbreviated as RC) is a Marxist-Leninist group from Spain. The group carries a variant of the Flag of the Second Spanish Republic. RC has strong ties to the MLKP and members fight as part of MLKP formations, even fighting in Sinjar. Two members of the group were arrested by police after their return to Spain and were accused of participating in an armed conflict outside of Spain without authorization from the state, as well as putting national interests at risk and joining groups fighting against ISIL that are considered terrorist organizations by international organizations. In January 2016, eight Spanish citizens and one Turkish citizen were arrested in Spain. The Spanish Interior Ministry said in a statement that "The detained, in collaboration with other individuals residing in various European countries, were providing the necessary infrastructure for displaced people to travel abroad and to finally integrate in the ranks of the Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) or one of the armed wings of the organization" and that the majority of the arrested belong to the group 'Communist Reconstruction'.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The Revolutionary Union for Internationalist Solidarity (, abbreviated as ΕΣΔΑ) is an armed fighter group from Greece. They have fought in Syria since 2015.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: Their appearance has alarmed Greek security and intelligence officials alleging that ""warriors will be trained in guerilla warfare and then will be able to apply what they have learned in their homeland"."


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The Bob Crow Brigade (abbreviated as BCB) is a group of fighters from the United Kingdom and Ireland named after Bob Crow, an English trade union leader and self-described "communist/socialist", who had died of a heart attack in March 2014. The group expressed solidarity with striking rail workers in the United Kingdom. Steve Hedley, senior assistant general secretary of the RMT, said: "Bob would have been honoured that young people from Britain would fight the forces of evil in his name. A great admirer of the international brigades that fought in Spain, Crow would of course have drawn the parallels with the new international brigades fighting clerical fascism and defending Yazhidi, Muslim and Christian workers from slavery and persecution."


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: After Turkey and its allied rebel groups invaded parts of northern Syria and clashed with the Syrian Democratic Forces, Turkish officials stated that they will treat British and other foreign volunteers fighting alongside the YPG as terrorists. On 2 September, the Bob Crow Brigade relocated from the Raqqa front to Manbij and stated "When we came to defend the revolution we meant from all enemies, big or small". On 7 September 2016, the Bob Crow Brigade sent a message of solidarity to the women of Ireland fighting to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland on the 33rd anniversary of its approval by referendum, as well as striking Irish bus workers the following day.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The Henri Krasucki Brigade () is a group of fighters from France. Inspired by their English-speaking counterparts of the Bob Crow Brigade, they named themselves after the French trade-unionist Henri Krasucki. The group expressed solidarity with the CGT union and the Air France workers on trial for the "shirt-ripping case" over an incident on 5 October 2015, which arose from a dispute over the aviation giant's plans to cut 2,900 jobs.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The International Revolutionary People's Guerrilla Forces (abbreviated as IRPGF) was a militant, armed, self-organized, and horizontal collective of foreign anarchist fighters from around the world. The formation of the IRPGF was announced on 31 March 2017 in a video and text release to several revolutionary websites and media organizations. According to the declaration of the group, their goals are to defend the social revolution in Rojava and spread anarchism.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: They are a member organization and part of the management team of the International Freedom Battalion since April 2017, this was announced by the IFB on 17 May on their Facebook page. Their public formation and solidarity campaigns have garnered interest and support from around the world as well as backlash. On 24 July, the group established an LGBT unit, the TQILA. On September 24, 2018, the group announced its dissolution in a final communique.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army (abbreviated as TQILA) was a unit of the IFB announced on 24 July 2017, by members of the IRPGF from Raqqa City and disbanded on 24 September 2018.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The group launched a statement explaining the purposes of its formation in which the response to persecution of LGBT persons by ISIL is highlighted as one of the main motivations of the group.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: They were part of the International Revolutionary People's Guerrilla Forces and International Freedom Battalion.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The Michael Israel Brigade formed in early 2018 at the time of the Battle of Afrin as an international volunteer unit. It adopted its name in homage to an American fighter of the International Freedom Battalion, Michael Israel, also known as Robin Agiri, killed by a Turkish bombardment northeast of al-Bab on November 29, 2016, during Operation Euphrates Shield. In its first press release, published on February 13, 2018, the brigade presented itself as a "group of communists, socialists, anarchists and anti-fascists, from all four corners of the world, [...] united in Rojava by the principles of solidarity, internationalism and anti-fascism". The group is made up of far-left foreign volunteers, mainly Turks and Westerners.


title: International Freedom Battalion

text: The brigade announced that it was going to the front in Afrin on February 19, 2018. However, the Syrian Democratic Forces were severely affected by the artillery and air strikes of the Turkish Army. The Michael Israel Brigade announced its withdrawal from Afrin on March 22, 2018, it recognized the death of at least one of its fighters - a Turkish volunteer named Şevger Ara Makhno, killed on March 8 by an airstrike in the village of Berbêné - as well as several wounded. Some fighters were then sent to eastern Syria to take part in the offensive.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: The straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene (781,000–30,000 years before present). Recovered individuals have reached up to in height, and an estimated in weight. The straight-tusked elephant probably lived in small herds, flourishing in interglacial periods, when its range would extend as far north as Great Britain. Isolated tusks are often found while partial or whole skeletons are rare, and there is evidence of predation by early humans. It is the ancestral species of most dwarf elephants that inhabited islands in the Mediterranean.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: "Palaeoloxodon antiquus" was quite large, with individuals reaching in height. Like other members of "Palaeoloxodon", "P. antiquus" possesses a well developed parieto-occipital crest at the top of the cranium that anchored the splenius as well as possibly the rhomboid muscles to support the large head, the largest proportionally and in absolute size among proboscideans. Two morphs of "P. antiquus" were previously suggested to exist in Europe on the basis of parieto-occipital crest variation, one more similar to "P. namadicus", but these were shown to be the result of ontogenetic variation and taphonomic distortion. "P. antiquus" can be distinguished from the Indian "P. namadicus" based on its less stout cranium and more robust limb bones. One approximately 40-year-old male specimen of "P. antiquus" measured about tall and weighed about , while another from Montreuil weighed about and was about tall. and had long, slightly upward-curving tusks. "P. antiquus"'s legs were slightly longer than those of modern elephants. This elephant is thought, based on the shape of the hyoid bone, to have had an 80-cm-long tongue that could be projected a short distance from the mouth to grasp leaves and grasses. With this tongue and a flexible trunk, straight-tusked elephants could graze or browse on Pleistocene foliage about above ground.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: The species was first named in 1847 by Hugh Falconer and Proby Cautley for remains found in East Sussex as "Elephas antiquus". The genus "Palaeoloxodon" was first named in 1924 by Hikoshichiro Matsumoto as a subgenus of "Loxodonta", and "E. antiquus" subsequently assigned to the genus. Some experts regarded the larger Asian species "Palaeoloxodon namadicus" as a variant or subspecies, but they are now considered distinct. Historically, the genus "Palaeoloxodon" has at times been regarded as a subgenus of "Elephas", but a 2007 study of hyoid characteristics amongst living and fossil elephants has largely led to an abandonment of this hypothesis. In 2016, a Mitochondrial DNA sequence analysis of "P. antiquus" suggested that its closest extant relative was the African forest elephant ("L. cyclotis"). The paper argues that "P. antiquus" is closer to "L. cyclotis" than "L. cyclotis" is to the African bush elephant, "L. africana", thus invalidating the genus "Loxodonta" as currently recognized. A subsequent study published by Palkopoulou "et al." (2018) based on the nuclear genome indicated a more complicated relationship between straight-tusked elephants and other species of elephants; according to this study, the biggest genetic contribution to straight-tusked elephants comes a lineage of elephants that was basal to the common ancestor of forest and bush elephants, which subsequently hybridized with members of the lineage related to extant African forest elephants and with the lineage related to woolly mammoths.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: "P. antiquus" is believed to derive from the African "P. recki. P. antiquus" first appears during the early Middle Pleistocene, around 0.8–0.6 Ma, appearing around 780 kya in Italy; its earliest known appearance in northern Europe is in Suffolk around 600 kya. Its arrival coincided with the replacement of "Mammuthus meridionalis" by "Mammuthus trogontherii". There appears to be no overlap between "M. meridionalis" and "P. antiquus", which suggests that the latter might have outcompeted the former. During "P. antiquus"'s hundreds of thousands of years of existence, its morphology remained relatively static, unlike European mammoth populations.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: Straight-tusked elephants probably lived in small herds of about 5 to 15 individuals. Like its recent relatives, the straight-tusked elephant would have been heavily dependent on fresh water, which greatly influenced its migration. Dental microwear studies suggest that the diet of "P. antiquus" was highly variable according to the local conditions, ranging from almost completely grazing to nearly totally browsing, though microwear only reflects the diet in the last few days or weeks before death, so this may be reflecting seasonal dietary variation. Mesowear suggests a browsing predominant mixed feeding diet, with clear niche separation from the more grazing dominated diet of the sympatric "Mammuthus trogontherii."


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: They preferred warm conditions and flourished in the interglacial periods during the current Ice Age, expanding their range from Southern Europe as far North as Great Britain during the warmer interglacials, while permanently residing in Mediterranean Europe during glacial periods. The straight-tusked elephant became extinct in Britain near the beginning of the Weichselian glaciation, about 115,000 years ago. "P. antiquus" likely survived until around 28,000 years ago in the southern Iberian Peninsula, based on footprints.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: Finds of isolated tusks are relatively common in Great Britain. For example, a tusk of this elephant was found during the construction of the Swan Valley Community School in Swanscombe, Kent. However, finds of whole or partial skeletons of this elephant are very rare.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: Skeleton finds in Britain are known from only a few sites. Two sites were found in the Lower Thames basin, one at Upnor, Kent and one at Aveley, Essex. Paleontological and archaeological excavations in advance of High Speed 1 revealed the 400,000-year-old skeleton of a straight-tusked elephant in the Ebbsfleet Valley, near Swanscombe. It was lying at the edge of what would once have been a small lake. Flint tools lay scattered around, suggesting the elephant had been cut up by a group of the early humans around at the time, likely "Homo heidelbergensis".


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: On the European mainland, many remains of the straight-tusked elephant have been found. In addition to skeletons, some sites contained additional archaeological material, as in the Ebbsfleet site. In Greece, three partial skeletons have been recovered from the province of West Macedonia, and a "Palaeoloxodon antiquus" butchering site has been excavated near Megalopolis, in the Peloponnese.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: Straight-tusked elephant remains have been found with flint tools at a number of other sites, such as Torralba and Aridos in Spain, Notarchirico in Italy, and Gröbern and Ehringsdorf in Germany.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: A Palaeolithic scratched figure of an elephant head in the Vermelhosa area, Portugal, near the Côa Valley Park, is reported to be the depiction of an "Palaeoloxodon antiquus". The Iberian peninsula may have served as the last European refuge of the straight-tusked elephant. According to João Luís Cardoso, the species survived until 30,000 years BP in Portugal.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: Both early human beings and the straight-tusked elephant reached the European continent in the late Early Pleistocene. Sites where early humans and the straight-tusked elephant appear together have been frequently documented. One of the earliest finds is in an approximately 600,000-year-old site near Heidelberg, the location of the early human jawbone dubbed Mauer 1. Fossils were also found washed up in a course of the Neckar river. Isernia la Pineta in Italy is likely to be the same age or slightly younger. Remains of lower jaws are well documented in these three locations, alongside stone artefacts and numerous bones of rhinos, wild cattle, hippos and horses. Since the remains of the trunks do not show human markings, extinction by natural causes can not be ruled out.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: The clearest proof to date that this animal was among the prey of early humans was provided in 1948 in Lehringen, Germany, near the Aller river. A skeleton of a straight-tusked elephant was found with a yew spear between the ribs, and lithic artifacts around the head. The find dates to the Eemian interglacial period. A similar find of a carcass exploited by humans from the same time period was found in 1987 in the Gröbern strip mine in Saxony-Anhalt. There were over 20 flint artifacts found, but there was no evidence of a hunting weapon. A second elephant skeleton found in Gröbern the same year proved to be free of any markings of human use.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: Remains have also been recovered from another Eemian site, the former lake basin Neumark-Nord 1 on the northeast edge of the Geisel valley. Over 1,350 bone finds from straight-tusked elephants have been found from the basin since 1985, including some skeletons that were almost completely preserved. These remains belonged to about 70 individuals. They were found along with other animals such as rhinoceros ("Stephanorhinus" spp.), aurochs, horse, red deer and fallow deer. A large amount of old or sick elephants died there. None of the animals showed any traces of deliberate killing by early humans; however, flint artifacts also occurred, including one containing an oak bark extract that was apparently used for tanning.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: Various archaeologists in Germany have dealt with the question of elephant hunting in the Paleolithic. Thorsten Uthmeier from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg thinks regular elephant hunts are unlikely. With the assumed clan size of five to ten people and a shelf life of 30 days for meat, only animals with a weight of up to one ton, such as cattle, deer or horses, would be considered as game. Elephants would provide up to ten times more meat than the group could consume over the period. However, elephants are still hunted with spears by pygmies in the central African rainforest. Michael Baales from the Ruhr University considers the role of elephants to be important at some European sites, even if, despite the presence of cut marks, it cannot be clearly decided whether the animals were hunted or dead animals were eviscerated. After examining elephant remains, Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser from Johannes Gutenberg University. Mainz came to the conclusion that Stone Age material can prove the presence of humans in the vicinity of the sites. Nicholas J. Conard from the Eberhard Karls, University of Tübingen considers the role of elephants in the Paleolithic economy to be elusive.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: In 2021 it was found that 400,000 years ago at Castel di Guido, Italy, a large number of bone tools, made from elephant bone were created. The tools are more sophisticated than tools found at other sites dating from the same period. They appear to have been made using production line assembly. Paola Villa, a University of Colorado Boulder archaeologist, suspects the tools were made by early Neanderthals. Techniques used to make the tools don't appear to have been used at other sites for another 100,000 years.


title: Straight-tusked elephant

text: Elephants that presumably evolved from the straight-tusked elephant are described from many Mediterranean islands, where they evolved into dwarfed elephants. The responsible factors for the dwarfing of island mammals are thought to be the reduction in food availability, predation and competition.


title: 1969 Libyan coup d'état

text: The 1969 Libyan coup d'état, also known as the al-Fateh Revolution or the 1 September Revolution, was carried out by the Free Unionist Officers Movement, a group of military officers led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, which led to the overthrow of King Idris I.


title: 1969 Libyan coup d'état

text: The discovery of significant oil reserves in 1959 and the subsequent income from petroleum sales enabled the Kingdom of Libya to transition from one of the world's poorest nations to a wealthy state. Although oil drastically improved the Libyan government's finances, resentment began to build over the increased concentration of the nation's wealth in the hands of King Idris. This discontent mounted with the rise of Nasserism and Arab nationalism/socialism throughout the Arab world.


title: 1969 Libyan coup d'état

text: On 1 September 1969, a group of about 70 young army officers known as the Free Unionist Officers Movement and enlisted men mostly assigned to the Signal Corps gained control of the government and abolished the Libyan monarchy. The coup was launched at Benghazi; and, within two hours, it was completed. Army units quickly rallied in support of the coup and, within a few days, military control was established in Tripoli and elsewhere throughout the country. Popular reception of the coup, especially by younger people in the urban areas, was enthusiastic. Fears of resistance in Cyrenaica and Fezzan proved unfounded. No deaths or violent incidents related to the coup were reported.


title: 1969 Libyan coup d'état

text: The Free Officers Movement, which claimed credit for carrying out the coup, was headed by a twelve-member directorate that designated itself the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). This body constituted the Libyan government after the coup. In its initial proclamation on 1 September, the RCC declared the country to be a free and sovereign state called the Libyan Arab Republic, which would proceed "in the path of freedom, unity, and social justice, guaranteeing the right of equality to its citizens, and opening before them the doors of honourable work." The rule of the Turks and Italians and the "reactionary" government which were overthrown were characterised as belonging to "dark ages", from which the Libyan people were called to move forward as "free brothers" to a new age of prosperity, equality, and honour.


title: 1969 Libyan coup d'état

text: The RCC advised diplomatic representatives in Libya that the revolutionary changes had not been directed from outside the country, that existing treaties and agreements would remain in effect, and that foreign lives and property would be protected. Diplomatic recognition of the new government came quickly from countries throughout the world. United States recognition was officially extended on 6 September.


title: 1969 Libyan coup d'état

text: In view of the lack of internal resistance, it appeared that the chief danger to the new government lay in the possibility of a reaction inspired by the absent King Idris or his designated heir, Hasan ar Rida, who had been taken into custody at the time of the coup along with other senior civil and military officials of the royal government. Within days of the coup, however, Hasan publicly renounced all rights to the throne, stated his support for the new government, and called on the people to accept it without violence.


title: 1969 Libyan coup d'état

text: Idris, in an exchange of messages with the RCC through Egypt's President Nasser, dissociated himself from reported attempts to secure British intervention and disclaimed any intention of coming back to Libya. In return, he was assured by the RCC of the safety of his family still in the country. At his own request and with Nasser's approval, Idris took up residence once again in Egypt, where he had spent his first exile and where he remained until his death in 1983.


title: 1969 Libyan coup d'état

text: On 7 September 1969, the RCC announced that it had appointed a cabinet to conduct the government of the new republic. An American-educated technician, Mahmud Sulayman al-Maghribi, who had been imprisoned since 1967 for his political activities, was designated prime minister. He presided over the eight-member Council of Ministers, of whom six, like Maghrabi, were civilians and two – Adam Said Hawwaz and Musa Ahmad – were military officers. Neither of the officers was a member of the RCC.


title: 1969 Libyan coup d'état

text: The Council of Ministers was instructed to "implement the state's general policy as drawn up by the RCC". The next day the RCC promoted Captain Gaddafi to colonel and appointed him commander-in-chief of the Libyan Armed Forces. Although RCC spokesmen declined until January 1970 to reveal any other names of RCC members, it was apparent from that date onward that the head of the RCC and new "de facto" head of state was Gaddafi.


title: 1969 Libyan coup d'état

text: Analysts were quick to point out the striking similarities between the Libyan military coup of 1969 and that in Egypt under Nasser in 1952, and it became clear that the Egyptian experience and the charismatic figure of Nasser had formed the model for the Free Officers Movement. As the RCC in the last months of 1969 moved to institute domestic reforms, it proclaimed neutrality in the confrontation between the superpowers and opposition to all forms of colonialism and imperialism.


title: 1969 Libyan coup d'état

text: It also made clear Libya's dedication to Arab unity and to the support of the Palestinian cause against Israel. The RCC reaffirmed the country's identity as part of the "Arab nation" and its state religion as Islam. Parliamentary institutions from the kingdom were dissolved with legislative functions being assumed by the RCC, and the prohibition against political parties was continued, in effect from 1952.


title: 1969 Libyan coup d'état

text: The new government categorically rejected communism – in large part because it was atheist – and officially espoused an Arab interpretation of socialism that integrated Islamic principles with social, economic, and political reform.


title: City of Heroes

text: City of Heroes (CoH) was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game which was developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCSOFT. The game was launched in North America on April 28, 2004, and in Europe by NCsoft Europe on February 4, 2005, with English, German and French servers. In the game, players created super-powered player characters that could team up with others to complete missions and fight criminals belonging to various gangs and organizations in the fictional Paragon City.


title: City of Heroes

text: Twenty-three free major updates for "City of Heroes" were released before its shutdown. The final live update, "Where Shadows Lie", was released on May 31, 2012. On August 31, 2012, NCsoft terminated its Paragon Studios development team, ending all production on "City of Heroes" with the last day of services on November 30, 2012.


title: City of Heroes

text: In April 2019, source code capable of running a "City of Heroes" server was distributed widely. This made it possible to create "City of Heroes" servers outside the direct purview of NCSoft and revived interest in the game, which by then had been out of development for more than six years. As of October 2022, NCSoft has not moved to have servers based on this source code shut down.


title: City of Heroes

text: On October 31, 2005, the game's first sequel, "City of Villains" ("CoV"), was launched, allowing players to play as supervillains. The stand-alone expansion pack did not require "City of Heroes" to run, but if the user had both games, content was added to the "City of Heroes" side of game play. On July 16, 2008, NCsoft merged the two games' content together. Thus, a player who only owned "City of Heroes" could now play "City of Villains", and vice versa. Prior to this, a purchase was required to access either game's content, but they were linked by one account and subscription fee.


title: City of Heroes

text: On November 6, 2007, NCsoft announced their purchase of the "City of Heroes"/"City of Villains" intellectual property and transitioned the staff from Cryptic Studios to a new location in Mountain View, California, to continue development of the game. The new studio on April 14, 2009, became Paragon Studios, which shared credit with Cryptic Studios for the development work. This then led to "City of Heroes" becoming available for download on Steam, along with other NCsoft titles, on April 22, 2009.


title: City of Heroes

text: On October 30, 2008, NCsoft announced a partnership with Transgaming Technologies in order to bring both "City of Heroes" and "City of Villains" and all 13 expansions to Mac OS X.


title: City of Heroes

text: The "City of Heroes: Going Rogue" expansion's release was announced on May 11, 2009. This part of the game centered on the alternate reality of Praetoria and featured a new alignment system allowing players characters to shift allegiances between Heroes and Villains, giving characters access to both Paragon City of "City of Heroes" and the Rogue Isles of "City of Villains". Paragon Studios described this as "[exploring] the shades of gray that lay between Heroes and Villains". "Going Rogue" was released on August 17, 2010, with pre-purchasers able to play on August 16.


title: City of Heroes

text: On June 20, 2011, Paragon Studios announced that they were going to switch to a hybrid subscription model called "City of Heroes: Freedom", adding in a free-to-play game model. Special models for former subscribers would be termed Premium Players, and current subscribers would become VIP players, who would gain access to all the content in the various upcoming game updates.


title: City of Heroes

text: On August 31, 2012, Paragon Studios announced that it was being closed, and "City of Heroes" would cease all billing immediately and begin the process of shutting down the service. The stated explanation for this move was a "realignment of company focus and publishing support". November 30, 2012, was listed as the official shutdown date of the game and the servers were turned off at midnight PST. Many players arrived en masse to express their continued protest, support, and fond farewells, including messages of gratitude from the developers and moderators thanking their fans for their support and passion for the game. A variety of efforts got underway, led by players of the game, to keep the game operating past the announced date of closure. Ultimately, their efforts were unsuccessful, and the game shut down as scheduled.


title: City of Heroes

text: Missing Worlds Media's president Nate Downes announced in September 2014 that he introduced an interest party who wanted to make a deal in reviving the game's intellectual property with NCSoft staff, which might enable the final version of the game to be released. No additional info was released as the involved parties were under an NDA. The effort did not succeed, due to reuse of Statesman and Ghost Widow in Master X Master.


title: City of Heroes

text: On April 15, 2019, news broke that a private server based on "City of Heroes" at the time of its shutdown had been running in secret for years. Three days later, source code relating to the server had been widely distributed, and a publicly accessible server based on the code was quickly spun up. While perceived threats, legal or otherwise, saw this server shut down by April 22, multiple public servers by various teams have since been set up based on the leaked code. As of the end of December 2019, NCSoft has not made a move to terminate the operation of any of the servers. They have, however, objected to the distribution of "City of Heroes" content binaries themselves.


title: City of Heroes

text: City of Heroes required the creation of a character in order to enter the virtual world and progress through the game. After creating a character and selecting a name (the game would check if the name was already taken on the server), players could either begin play in an isolated tutorial zone, or skip the tutorial and begin in an open low-level zone. A character's level increased by earning experience points from defeating foes, completing Missions, and exploring Zones, then returning to one of various named NPCs known as Trainers. Benefits for rising in level included more Health, more Powers to choose for the character, more slots to allocate Enhancements to Powers, and larger inventories for Inspirations (quick use items) and Salvage (crafting materials). If a player lost all of their Health they were temporarily considered defeated, at which point they could be revived through use of an item, by an ally's powers, or by instant teleportation to Hospitals on the map. After reaching character level 10, a player defeat would accrue Experience Debt which temporarily made gaining additional experience more difficult.