title: Haikou

text: The "International Tourism and Central Business District" is under construction on the west part of Guoxing Avenue. The road was once only home to government buildings. Starting around 2011, HNA and other groups began erecting office buildings. Also located at the western end of Guoxing is the HNA Building, the headquarters of Hainan Airlines.


title: Haikou

text: Near the southern end of Haikou, automotive manufacturer Haima Automobile has its global headquarters.


title: Haikou

text: The Haikou Free Trade Zone (Haikou FTZ) () is a state-level, 1.93 km area located between Nanhai Road and Yehai Road. It was approved on October 21, 1992, by the State Council.


title: Haikou

text: Haikou has an extensive urban bus service. Standard fare is 1 yuan, with no bus pass, ticket, or transfer system in place. Urban minibuses operated prior to 2009, but have since been phased-out. Taxi automobiles and electric motorbikes operate throughout the city. During 2009–2010, petrol-fueled motorbike taxis were banned and seized by police at numerous checkpoints within the city.


title: Haikou

text: Haikou has experienced a substantial increase in cars since the early 2000s. Traffic on main streets, once light, is now similar to other major cities, with rush hour problems that have prompted the city to expand several main roads and build a new elevated road from the west end of Guoxing Avenue to new developments west of Holiday Beach.


title: Haikou

text: Physical barriers were installed on many of the main two-way streets throughout the city in order to separate opposing lanes. These were installed for safety reasons to prevent pedestrians from crossing the streets at locations other than intersections.


title: Haikou

text: Roundabouts are not prevalent in Haikou, being used mainly on Hai Xiu road, and a few other locations.


title: Haikou

text: Traffic cameras are used at many main intersections in the city, with tickets being issued by post for traffic light infractions.


title: Haikou

text: The Haikou Public Bicycle System has about 20,000 bicycles. A pre-paid swipe card system is used to gain access to them. Starting on January 24, 2017, privately run app-based "dockless" shared bikes came into service. By April, there were about 40,000 of these types of bikes available. Ofo, Mobike, and "Quick to" all cost 2 RMB per hour. Ofo and "Quick to" bikes have tires with tubes, meaning many are left around the city with flat tires. The Haikou Public Bicycle System has installed a number of new, more modern bikes with tires that cannot be punctured. Part of Mobike's fleet also uses these types of tires.


title: Haikou

text: Haikou is served by Haikou Meilan International Airport (IATA: HAK, ICAO: ZJHK[1]), which is located from the city.


title: Haikou

text: In January 2011, Haikou was selected to be the first test site for an experiment allowing private helicopter flight in China.


title: Haikou

text: A railway links Haikou to the mainland. A ferry service transports the railway cars, along with other motor vehicles across the strait.


title: Haikou

text: The Hainan East Ring Railway links Haikou and Sanya. There are 15 stations in between, either in operation or still under construction. Trains are designed to travel at . Travel time from Haikou to Sanya is approximately 1 hour and 22 minutes. The main station in Haikou is Haikou East railway station located near the southern end of Long Quan Road. In 2018, the Haikou South Station, the main bus station, relocated and is now directly to the south east of the Haikou East Railway Station.


title: Haikou

text: In 2015, the Hainan western ring high-speed railway started operation. This second high-speed railway runs along the west coast of Hainan connecting with the Hainan Eastern Ring Railway.


title: Haikou

text: Starting July 1, 2019, the Haikou Suburban Trains began operation. Up to 7 CRH6F-A (CRH6F with only 4 carriages) trains with specially-designed liveries will operate between Haikou station and Meilan station. The longest distance it will travel one-way is around 38 kilometers with 4 stations in between.


title: Haikou

text: Three main highways connect Haikou to other parts of Hainan, running east, west, and south through the middle of the province. The Haiwen expressway connects the city with Wenchang to the southeast. The main bus station is Haikou Transportation Center, located beside Haikou East railway station.


title: Haikou

text: Haikou has four seaports for passenger and cargo service. Haikou New Port, formerly known as the Inner Harbour, is located on the southern side of the mouth of the Haidian River. Approximately west of Haikou New Port is Haikou Xiuying Port. This port is considerably larger, and is the main distribution centre for cargo entering Hainan. It is also a major port for immigration onto Hainan Island. Around west of downtown Haikou are South Port and Haikou Port New Seaport.


title: Haikou

text: Several large public buildings now occupy Guoxing Avenue, the new area for arts and culture. These include


title: Haikou

text: the Hainan Provincial Museum, the Hainan Provincial Library, and the Hainan Centre for the Performing Arts. These are all located near to one another on the south side of the road, west of Haikou College of Economics, Haikou campus.


title: Haikou

text: At the west side of Evergreen Park is the Haikou Great Hall of the People, a concert hall, and Hainan Exhibition & Convention Center, a large centre for trade shows and other commercial events. Haikou City Stadium, is the main venue for sports events, and is located at the southeast corner of Evergreen Park.


title: Haikou

text: The Wuyuan River Stadium opened in April 2018. It is located west of downtown Haikou, near the newly built Haikou West Coast. With a capacity of over 40,000, it is the largest stadium in the province.


title: Haikou

text: Older cultural sites include the now-restored buildings of the Bo'ai Road area, the tomb of Hai Rui, Xiuying Fort in the Guomao area, the Temple of the Five Lords, the cemetery for the martyrs of Hainan's Battle of the Liberation, and the former temple Haikou Yazhou Gu Cheng.


title: Haikou

text: Bars and KTV are patronized until after midnight. There are several popular bar streets within the city. Up until 2015, roadside BBQ sites were common throughout the city. A large-scale campaign to clean up the city has since prohibited them.


title: Haikou

text: Also known as the "Coconut city", Haikou is an important tourist destination for China. The city received 4.11 million tourists in 2002, up 7.99 percent from 2001. In 2019, the number of tourists in Haikou has exceeded 83.11 million. The city earned approximately three billion yuan (361 million US dollars) from the tourism industry during that period, up 11 percent from the previous year.


title: Haikou

text: Haikou is also developing its Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions industry. The local government set up the Haikou Convention and Exhibition Bureau in June 2012 and pledged RMB35 million (US$5.6 million) to support the development of the MICE industry. More international hotel chains are also arriving. By 2013, international brands included Shangri-La, Westin (opening September 2013), and Sheraton.


title: Haikou

text: In 2016, the China Merchants holdings group unveiled its plans to develop Shenzhen, Haikou and Sanya as the three destination ports that its South China Sea passenger cruises would serve. Subsequently, a large passenger cruise terminal was inaugurated in Shenzhen in October 2016.


title: The Band Camino

text: The Band Camino (stylized as The Band CAMINO) is an American rock band. Established in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2015, the group is now based in Nashville.


title: The Band Camino

text: Andrew Isbell, Jeffery Jordan, Graham Rowell, and Spencer Stewart established the Band Camino in 2015 while the four were students at the University of Memphis. Isbell played drums, Rowell served as bassist, and Jordan and Stewart shared guitar and vocal duties. The band began by releasing their first EP in 2016 titled "My Thoughts On You". Their second EP, "Heaven", was released in 2017; Isbell left the band around this time and was replaced by Garrison Burgess.


title: The Band Camino

text: By May 2019, the Band Camino had signed to Elektra Records; their first release for the label, an EP titled "tryhard", was available on August 23. Ahead of the EP's release, four of its songs were released: "Daphne Blue", "See Through", "Honest" and "What I Want". To promote the release, the group embarked on a headlining tour of North America from September through October, plus two dates in the United Kingdom. On April 9, 2020, bassist Graham Rowell was removed from the group after accusations of sexual misconduct between him and fans surfaced online. The group released their first song from their upcoming self titled album, "Roses", on December 11, 2020. This was followed by "1 Last Cigarette" on February 26, 2021, "Sorry Mom" on April 30, and "Know It All" on June 25. Their self titled debut album was released on September 10, 2021. In December, it was announced that the Band Camino would play at the Hangout Fest in May 2022. A radio edit version of "I Think I Like You" was released on April 26, 2022, and received heavy rotation on SiriusXM.


title: The Band Camino

text: Timothy Monger at Allmusic describes the Band Camino's musical approach as a blend of indie rock and electropop.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: The Supreme Executive Power () was the provisional government of Mexico that governed between the fall of the First Mexican Empire in April 1823 and the election of the first Mexican president, Guadalupe Victoria, in October 1824. After Emperor Iturbide abdicated, the sovereignty of the nation passed over to Congress, which appointed a triumvirate, made up of Guadalupe Victoria, Pedro Celestino Negrete, and Nicolas Bravo, to serve as the executive, while a new constitution was being written.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: During this period the government oversaw the transition of the nation from monarchy to a republic, abolishing all titles of nobility, changing the national symbols, and removing from power the remnants of the imperial government. Iturbide himself and his family were exiled to Europe, and when he attempted to return in July 1824, he was captured and executed.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: A major challenge proved to be the multiple military revolts that flared up in the provinces, and in one case in the capital itself. The causes varied, ranging from agitation in favor of establishing a federation, anti-Spanish sentiment, and even efforts aiming at restoring the empire.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: Elections for a new congress were held in October 1824, and the new legislature proceeded in the task of writing a new constitution, debates over the matter mainly being concerned with whether the new republic should take the form of a federation, or a centralized republic. The former faction triumphed, and the result was the 1824 Constitution of Mexico, and the Supreme Executive Power was replaced by the First Mexican Republic.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: Independent Mexico was originally a monarchy: "constitutional and moderate" according to the Treaty of Córdoba. The new country adopted the name of the Mexican Empire.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: The Plan of Iguala had provided for a Bourbon monarch to be placed on the Mexican throne, but when the offer was refused, a barracks revolt in the capital declared Agustín de Iturbide as emperor; congress, in search of stability and surrounded by Iturbide's military partisans, acquiesced. Iturbide was officially proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on May 18, 1822. However, the


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: "Constitutional Empire" soon found itself being torn by conflicts between the emperor and Congress. Deputies were imprisoned simply for expressing their disagreements with Iturbide and finally, Iturbide decided to abolish the Congress, establishing instead a "National Junta" subservient to him.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: The lack of a congress, the arbitrary nature of the emperor and the absence of solutions to the serious problems that the country was facing increased conspiracies to change the imperial system. Antonio López de Santa Anna proclaimed the Plan of Casa Mata, and was later joined by Vicente Guerrero and Nicolás Bravo. Iturbide then was forced to reestablish the Congress and in a vain attempt to save the order and keep the situation favorable to his supporters, he abdicated the crown of the empire on March 19, 1823.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: On March 31, 1823, Congress officially abolished the executive as it had functioned under the empire since May 19, 1822.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: In its place, was established a body known as the "Supreme Executive Power", and chose to fill the office with a triumvirate made up of Nicolás Bravo, Guadalupe Victoria, and Pedro Celestino Negrete.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: As the first two were not present in the capital at the time, José Mariano Michelena and José Miguel Domínguez were chosen to serve as substitutes in that capacity while the members of the triumvirate were unavailable. was named as the sole minister, holding all portfolios.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: On April 7, Congress concentrated on dealing with the abdication of Iturbide. The abdication was not officially recognized, as Iturbide's election was declared to have been forced upon congress by threat of violence, and hence the throne was not legally his in the first place. The debates in congress over this matter became very heated. When a deputy attempted to declare that his vote for the emperor, representing the wishes of his district, had been free and uncompelled, the chamber rose in hostile uproar. Iturbide's coronation, titles of nobility, and hereditary succession were declared null and void. Nonetheless, he was granted an annual pension of 25,000 pesos on the condition that he would leave the country. The Plan of Iguala and the Treaty of Córdoba which had established the empire, were declared null and void.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: On May 11, escorted by Nicolas Bravo, and supervised in his departure by Guadalupe Victoria at La Antigua, Iturbide and his family left the country on the British merchant frigate "Rawlins", with Livorno as his destination. Upon Bravo's return to the capital, the Executive named new ministers: Lucas Alamán to Interior and Exterior Relations, Francisco de Arrillaga to the Treasury, Pablo de La Llave to Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs, and to War and Marine.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: Political prisoners were liberated, Iturbide's council of state was abolished, and a new Supreme Court was established.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: On July 19, 1823, Congress honored 11 deceased heroes who had fought for Mexican independence: Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama, Mariano Abasolo, José María Morelos, Mariano Matamoros, , Leonardo Bravo, Galeana, Jiménez, Mina, Pedro Moreno, and Rosales. Their names were ordered to be inscribed in gold over the congressional chamber, and monuments were ordered to be raised in their places of death. The remains which could be found were exhumed in order to hold a state funeral for them. In the aftermath of the ceremonies, a mob plotted to visit the tomb of Hernán Cortés in order to desecrate his bones, and the government had to send for the remains to be hidden and protected.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: The political opposition to Iturbide at this time also led to a change in the commemoration of Mexican Independence. The War of Mexican Independence went through multiple phases, not at all under the same leadership or with the same aims, and in 1821, it was Iturbide who had finally gained independence from Spain, leading to a commemoration of the matter on the anniversary of his army's entrance into Mexico City on September 27. However, with the fall of Iturbide, the commemoration of independence was moved to September 16, commemorating the Cry of Dolores that had begun the struggle for independence.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: The insolvency of the government was one of the most pressing issues at hand. The state was nearly bankrupt and the provisional government chose to accept the debt inherited from the Spanish Vicerealty.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: On April 11, 1823, the government decreed an end to the printing of paper money. On June 27, 1823, a poll tax was established. Anticipating the unpopularity of the measure,


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: two days later the executive published a public appeal, explaining that the government was facing a grave financial crisis, and that the poll tax was established as a matter of necessity. The government sough to


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: reform the treasury, reducing the bureaucracy involved in the collection of taxes, and setting up a system of auditors.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: Loans were needed, and the government sent agents to England, which already had a reputation for sponsoring Latin American nations during the wars of independence. It was also assumed that granting loans


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: to Mexico would give England a vested interest in the political success and independence of the Mexican nation. On May 1, 1823, Congress approved the borrowing of £3,200,000 from Goldschmidt & Co.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: Three English commissioners by the name of Harvey, Ward and O'Gorman arrived in January 1824 in order to produce a report from the British government on the state of affairs in Mexico. The latter would stay as the first British consul to Mexico City.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: Central America, known at this time as the Captaincy General of Guatemala had at first chosen to unite itself to the empire, and yet many were discontented with matters such as the difficulties in transport and communication with the capital, and the tariff and excise taxes that the Mexican authorities imposed upon the provinces. Brigadier Vicente Filísola was sent to Central America by Iturbide to garrison the region, and yet after the fall of the empire Filísola convened a Central American Congress on June 24, which on July 1 declared independence, founding the Federal Republic of Central America with only the province of Chiapas choosing to remain united to Mexico.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: The nascent Mexican Republic was also disturbed by several political uprisings against the national government. In April, news reached the capital that the governor of Texas had declared a rebellion in favor of restoring the empire. On May 12, the provincial deputation in Guadalajara passed a resolution nullify laws passed by the capital until a new congress was convened to establish a federation. In San Luis Potosí Santa Ana, who had already led the movement to overthrow the empire, rose up and declared himself protector of the federal system. Santa Ana was captured and sent to the capital to answer for his conduct, however he was pardoned after his efforts were vindicated with the triumph of the federal system and subsequently sent to command the military in Yucatán. Congress, in order to accommodate the provinces, expanded the powers of the Provisional Deputations, giving them the power to appoint almost all government offices within their territories, and expressed support for the establishment of a federal system.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: To pacify Guadalajara, 2,000 men were sent under the command of Negrete and Bravo. Meanwhile, the third member of the executive, Victoria, was in Veracruz to prevent the influence of Santa Ana, in the wake of his rebellion in San Luis Potosí from creating another disturbance. This left the executive in the charge of the two substitutes, and so to fill in the missing member of the triumverate, on July 2, 1823, congress raised up Vicente Guerrero as a third substitute executive. The expedition to Guadalajara was successful in detaching the province of Colima from the renegade authorities in Guadalajara.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: A revolt in Querétaro resulted in the execution of the ringleaders. Puebla tried to establish a legislature without the approval of Congress under the pretext that it needed to pass a protective tariff against foreign textiles to protect its own factories. The executive sent Guerrero to deal with the matter in Puebla and he also succeeded in putting down a rebellion in Cautla that was clamoring for the expulsion of the Spaniards.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: A more serious revolt occurred in January 1824 in the capital itself, being led by general . When the government learned of the matter Congress immediately refused to hear any of the rebel's demands lest they lay down their arms, and ordered all loyal troops to come to the defense of the legitimate government. The revolt subsequently melted away.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: In Guadalajara, the situation became so serious that on June 11, 1824, the executive had to send a second military expedition to pacify another revolt, this time containing substantial Iturbidist sentiment. The cause for Iturbide's restoration however, effectively ended in July 1824 when the ex-emperor himself, returned from his exile, and landed in Tampico, upon which he was subsequently tried by local authorities and executed in accordance with a bill of attainder that had been passed by congress on September 27, 1823.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: On the May 21, 1823, elections were announced for a new congress whose term was scheduled to begin on October 31. Rules for the new election were published on June 17.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: Congressional seats were allocated on a basis of one representative per 50,000 inhabitants, elected by manhood suffrage available to any man over the age of 18, and using the three-tiered system established by the Constitution of 1812, by which voters in each parish chose electors, who then met at the district level and chose electors for the province level, whom in turn finally voted for representatives to be sent to Congress.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: The new congress elected in late October was mainly federalist in composition. It first met on November 7, 1823, and soon divided itself into two main factions: the federalists, whose most prominent voice was Miguel Ramos Arizpe, and the centralists, whose most prominent voice was Servando Teresa de Mier. Through the minister of justice, the executive announced to the congress on November 14, that they must now set to work on answering the popular call to establish the government most suited for the nation. A constitutional committee headed by Arizpe, was commissioned with writing a constitutional draft, and on November 22, 1823, delivered the (), with the fifth article declaring that Mexico adopts the republican, federal, popular, representative form of government, and debate on the matter began on December 3.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: Deputy Mier, argued that the act was proposing a constitution copied from the United States and unsuited to the political situation in Mexico. He reasoned that the American states were separate sovereign provinces that had federated to become stronger together, while the provinces in Mexico had never been independent political entities, and that federating them would split the nation apart, resulting in the exact opposite outcome that the Americans had sought through federation. Notwithstanding the opposition, the "Acta Constitutativa" was adopted on January 31, 1824, as a provisional constitution.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: Work on a full constitution began on April 1, 1824. A significant problem once a federation was agreed upon, was to now divide the nation into provinces that would not leave any province too powerful or too weak, a problem that was made worse by a lack of reliable statistical data. The president was to serve for four years, and the candidate who came in second was to assume the office of vice-president, a device that was copied from the United States.


title: Provisional Government of Mexico

text: Congress called for presidential elections in August 1824. Each state legislature would appoint two candidates, and the two who received the most votes from state legislatures would be elected as president and vice president. The results were announced on October 1, and by majority of 17 states, Guadalupe Victoria was elected president of the Republic. Nicolas Bravo and Vicente Guerrero had tied for second place, and Congress chose in favor of Bravo, making him vice-president.


title: Paititi

text: Paititi is a legendary Inca lost city or utopian rich land. It allegedly lies east of the Andes, hidden somewhere within the remote rainforests of southeast Peru, northern Bolivia or northwest Brazil. The Paititi legend in Peru revolves around the story of the culture-hero Inkarri, who, after he had founded Q'ero and Cusco, retreated toward the jungles of Pantiacolla to live out the rest of his days in his refuge city of Paititi. Other versions of the legend see Paititi as an Inca refuge in the border area between Bolivia and Brazil.


title: Paititi

text: In 2001, the Italian archaeologist Mario Polia discovered the report of the missionary Andres Lopez in the archives of the Jesuits in Rome. In the document, which dates from about 1600, Lopez describes a large city rich in gold, silver, and jewels, located in the middle of the tropical jungle called Paititi by the natives. Lopez informed the Pope about his discovery. Lopez's report and its discovery were widely publicized, though its content is third-hand and far from reliable, Lopez himself having never reached Paititi but only having heard about it from the natives. It focuses on the story of a miracle performed at the court of the king of Paititi by a crucifix taken there by a group of baptized Indians. Many other historical sources of the Colonial period (16th to 18th centuries) refer to Paititi, to its possible locations and to expeditions searching for it. Some of the most informative of these documents include those of (1570), Gregorio Bolívar (1621), Juan Recio de León (1623–27), Juan de Ojeda (1676), Diego de Eguiluz (1696).


title: Paititi

text: In 2001, two researchers from the University of Helsinki, Dr. (archaeologist) and Dr. Martti Pärssinen (historian), put forward a hypothesis relating the Paititi legend to the Inca expeditions into the Amazonian jungle and to the possible Inca military presence in the region of the Beni and the Madre de Dios rivers. In order to test this hypothesis, a joint Finnish-Bolivian archaeological expedition in 2001–2003 investigated the fortified site Las Piedras near the town of Riberalta in Eastern Bolivia. Some fragments of imperial Inca ceramics were found during the excavations, but the presumed Inca origin of the site remains questionable.


title: Paititi

text: Historian and anthropologist Vera Tyuleneva has contributed to the idea of the non-Peruvian origin of the name "Paititi" and its original locale; she has made expeditions to northern Bolivia and provided extensive and detailed written reports on her findings.


title: Paititi

text: On 29 December 2007, members of a local community near Kimbiri, Peru, found large stone structures resembling high walls, covering an area of 40,000 square meters; they named it the Manco Pata fortress. Researchers from the Peruvian government's Cusco-based National Institute of Culture (INC), however, disputed suggestions by the local mayor that it could be part of the lost city of Paititi. Their report identified the stone structures as naturally formed sandstone. In 2008, the municipality of Kimbiri decided to promote it as a tourist destination.


title: Paititi

text: Recent historical work by the explorer Andrew Nicol examined primary historical texts and concluded that a jungle city or remote Inca outpost, such as the city described by the Paititi legend, could theoretically exist within the Peruvian Amazon Basin. Nicol references the existence of the sites of Vilcabamba, Peru and Mameria as the chief sources of evidence supporting this theory. Parts of this region discussed in Nicols' research are referred to as Antisuyu, one of the four regions into which the Inca empire was divided.


title: Paititi

text: In 2016, French researcher Vincent Pélissier published an online article and subsequent video on YouTube claiming to have found the lost city of Paititi. Pélissier claims to have made the discovery in July 2015. The article presents a first-hand account of Pélissier's research and details the evidence that he uses to make his case. His article expounds upon prior research, including that of Thierry Jamin. One of Pélissier's significant pieces of evidence is an interpretation of petroglyphs at Pusharo as a map to Paititi. These petroglyphs are located on the south shore of the Palatoa River. However, the petroglyphs have not been confirmed to be of Inca origin. In his article, Pélissier makes extensive use of Google Earth screenshots that include coordinates and a hand-created overlay that highlights rivers, mountain ranges, and supposed Inca roads. Pélissier asserts throughout the article that he believes he has found the lost city of Paititi. He also includes details of experiences that he claims to have had (i.e. being hacked, burgled, etc.) as a result of his research.


title: Programming tool

text: A programming tool or software development tool is a computer program that software developers use to create, debug, maintain, or otherwise support other programs and applications. The term usually refers to relatively simple programs, that can be combined to accomplish a task, much as one might use multiple hands to fix a physical object. The most basic tools are a source code editor and a compiler or interpreter, which are used ubiquitously and continuously. Other tools are used more or less depending on the language, development methodology, and individual engineer, often used for a discrete task, like a debugger or profiler. Tools may be discrete programs, executed separately – often from the command line – or may be parts of a single large program, called an integrated development environment (IDE). In many cases, particularly for simpler use, simple ad hoc techniques are used instead of a tool, such as print debugging instead of using a debugger, manual timing (of overall program or section of code) instead of a profiler, or tracking bugs in a text file or spreadsheet instead of a bug tracking system.


title: Programming tool

text: The distinction between tools and applications is murky. For example, developers use simple databases (such as a file containing a list of important values) all the time as tools. However a full-blown database is usually thought of as an application or software in its own right. For many years, computer-assisted software engineering (CASE) tools were sought after. Successful tools have proven elusive. In one sense, CASE tools emphasized design and architecture support, such as for UML. But the most successful of these tools are IDEs.


title: Programming tool

text: Modern computers are very complex and in order to productively program them, various abstractions are needed. For example, rather than writing down a program's binary representation a programmer will write a program in a programming language like C, Java or Python. Programming tools like assemblers, compilers and linkers translate a program from a human write-able and readable source language into the bits and bytes that can be executed by a computer. Interpreters interpret the program on the fly to produce the desired behavior.


title: Programming tool

text: These programs perform many well defined and repetitive tasks that would nonetheless be time-consuming and error-prone when performed by a human, like laying out parts of a program in memory and fixing up the references between parts of a program as a linker does. Optimizing compilers on the other hand can perform complex transformations on the source code in order to improve the execution speed or other characteristics of a program. This allows a programmer to focus more on higher level, conceptual aspects of a program without worrying about the details of the machine it is running on.


title: Programming tool

text: Because of the high complexity of software, it is not possible to understand most programs at a single glance even for the most experienced software developer. The abstractions provided by high-level programming languages also make it harder to understand the connection between the source code written by a programmer and the actual program's behaviour. In order to find bugs in programs and to prevent creating new bugs when extending a program, a software developer uses some programming tools to visualize all kinds of information about programs.


title: Programming tool

text: For example, a debugger allows a programmer to extract information about a running program in terms of the source language used to program it. The debugger can compute the value of a variable in the source program from the state of the concrete machine by using information stored by the compiler. Memory debuggers can directly point out questionable or outright wrong memory accesses of running programs which may otherwise remain undetected and are a common source of program failures.


title: Programming tool

text: Integrated development environments combine the features of many tools into one package. They for example make it easier to do specific tasks, such as searching for content only in files in a particular project. IDEs may for example be used for development of enterprise-level applications.


title: Programming tool

text: Different aspects of IDEs for specific programming languages can be found in this comparison of integrated development environments.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: Super Bowl television ratings have traditionally been high. One of the most watched annual sporting events in the world, the NFL's championship game is broadcast in over 130 countries in more than 30 languages. However, viewership is predominantly North American; the Super Bowl is the most watched television broadcast in the United States every year.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: The Super Bowl is noted for its enduring ratings. While viewership for prime time series and other sports such as baseball has declined over time, viewership of the Super Bowl has remained stable. In fact, the Super Bowl is the American sports broadcast with the most consistent ratings, and draws substantially higher ratings than other sports events, including the NBA Finals and World Series.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: Ratings for the Super Bowl first peaked from 1977 to 1987, when no less than 44.4% of American households with television sets would watch. From the late 2000s to mid-2010s, ratings peaked again—viewership grew for all but one broadcast from 2006 to 2015. This was attributed to the NFL's broadened appeal to female and Hispanic audiences, as well as the league's ability to prop up "high-profile" players in the media; female viewership grew every year from 2003 to 2008. However, the 2019 game became the least-watched in more than a decade and the household rating for the Super Bowl declined for the fourth consecutive year.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: The 1982 game remains the highest-rated Super Bowl broadcast; it earned a 49.1 household rating. Viewership peaked in 2015; Super Bowl XLIX was watched by over 114.4 million people.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: The first championship game was dubbed the "Super Nielsen Bowl" by the media. "Variety" predicted that the ratings for the game would be the most important of the year. At the time, CBS held the broadcasting rights to NFL games and NBC held the rights to AFL games. With one team from each league competing against each other, the two networks agreed to pay $1million each to simulcast Super Bowl I. As NFL games on CBS rated double those of AFL games on NBC during the regular season, CBS was able to charge advertisers tens of thousands of dollars more than NBC for 60-second commercials during the broadcast. For years, CBS had held the reputation of being "the pro football network," and was expected to live up to it. Preliminary ratings for the game—which was controversially blacked out in Greater Los Angeles—were released a day later and showed that the CBS feed was more popular than the NBC. Three weeks later, this was confirmed when the national Nielsen ratings were released, crowning CBS the winner of the first "network Nielsen Bowl."


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: Unlike Super Bowl I, the 1968 game was broadcast by only one network, CBS. The preliminary Arbitron ratings as reported by the network gave the game a 43.0 rating, a 76 share, and a total viewership of over 70million. However, the final Nielsen numbers later revealed the game was watched by 51.3million total viewers and received a 36.8 rating and a 68 share—less than Super Bowl I. In New York City, the game received a 36.3 rating and a 61 share. 1969's Super Bowl III received an initial rating of 39.9 and a share of 79 with over 60million total viewers. In New York City, the game registered a preliminary rating of 40.5 on NBC, more than eight times the combined rating of CBS and ABC broadcasts at the same time. Final numbers gave Super Bowl III a national rating of 36.0, lower than the previous year, though the total viewership was up from 51.3million to 54.5million.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: In contrast with previous years, Super Bowl IV's ratings were largely underestimated. Overnight Nielsen ratings gave the 1970 game a 38.8 rating and a 70 share, with 57million total viewers; final numbers gave the game a 39.4 rating, 69 share, and 59.2million total viewers. The 1971 game was watched by 39.8% of American households, making the NBC broadcast the highest-rated sports event on a single network, beating the final game of the 1963 World Series This record would be broken again the following year when the 1972 CBS broadcast of Super Bowl VI was watched by 44.2% of households. In 1973, Super Bowl VII was the first game to be exempt from a local television blackout following the amendment of an NFL policy requiring them at the time. Although 3million more households were able to watch the game, the number of households that actually watched it increased by only 220,000 compared to the previous year, and the rating declined from a 44.2 to a 42.7. Likewise in 1974, the rating declined again to a 41.6, and total viewership for the game was 4.5million less than the year before.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: The 1975 Super Bowl was televised for five hours on NBC. As a result, the number of viewers who watched at least six minutes of the broadcast (total viewers) increased from 63.2million to 71.3million—a new record for the game. The rating and average viewership also increased compared to the previous year. With the Steelers winning the game, the broadcast in Pittsburgh attracted a preliminary rating of 63 and a share of 88 in the city, meaning 88% of the households in the city with television sets in use were watching it. In Los Angeles, the game received a 78% share of the audience, compared to the combined shares of the broadcasts on CBS and ABC at the same time of 4%. Super Bowl X also saw an increase in ratings; total viewership for the 1976 game increased by 2million compared to the previous year and the national audience share was 78%, which remains the highest-ever number for the game on a single network.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: In 1977, Super Bowl XI was watched by 81.9million total viewers, beating the Game 7 viewership of the 1975 World Series and becoming the most-watched sports broadcast in American history. The rating of 44.4 and average viewership of 62.1million also set new records for the game—all of which would be broken the following year when Super Bowl XII was the first to be broadcast in prime time in the Eastern Time Zone. As a result, total viewership grew by over 20million and the 1978 game became the most-watched single-network broadcast in U.S. history; 102million viewers watched at least five minutes. The audience share decreased to an all-time low, but the rating increased to a 47.2 from a 44.4 and average viewership increased by over 16million compared the previous year, setting new highs for the game. In 1979, the Super Bowl XIII broadcast recorded a drop in both average and total viewership, and the rating decreased by 0.1 to a 47.1, though all were the second-best numbers ever for the game and the share grew by 7 percentage points to a 74.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: In the first half of the decade, total U.S. TV viewership generally increased every year, peaking in 2015 during Super Bowl XLIX on NBC in terms of average viewership (at 115 million people). While the trend for average Super Bowl ratings decreased in the second half of the decade, Super Bowl LI on Fox in 2017, the first Super Bowl ever decided in overtime, currently holds the record for the largest total viewership in Super Bowl (and U.S. television) history at 172 million people. The halftime shows from 2010 to 2017 alone outperformed the actual game in terms of average U.S. TV viewership.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: Super Bowl LIV on Fox in 2020 opened up this decade amidst the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic at the time and saw significant ratings improvement from the 2 previous Super Bowl editions, but suffered lower ratings the year after, with an average of 91.63 million alone on CBS - the lowest since 2006. In 2022, with the resumption of full venue attendances at NFL games, Super Bowl LVI on NBC saw an average of 99.18 million viewers and total of 101.09 million, with streaming contributing an extra 11 million for a total of 112.3 million people. This is currently the second biggest average viewership in Super Bowl (and U.S. television) history. The Spanish audience nearly tripled from the year prior.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: Due to a growing Hispanic football fanbase, Spanish-language broadcasts of the Super Bowl by American channels began in 2014.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: The Super Bowl has been broadcast in Canada since its inception on both English and French television networks. In English, the first 12 Super Bowl games were broadcast on CBC television stations and affiliates. The game rotated between CTV (1979, 1981, 1983) and CBC (1980, 1982) before airing on Global and its affiliates in 1984 and 1985. The game briefly returned to CTV in 1986 and then aired on Global from 1987 until 2007. Following a new deal with the NFL, CTV regained the rights to air the Super Bowl in Canada and it has aired on the network since 2008. The game has also been simulcast on CTV 2 (2017–19) and sports cable channel TSN (2016–present). In Quebec, the first 20 games aired on French television stations owned by the SRC (the Canadian Broadcasting Company is known in French as the Société Radio-Canada). From 1987 to 1991, the Super Bowl aired on TQS, with the exception of the 1989 game which was only available on NBC via cable. In 1992, 1993, and 1994, the game was broadcast on sports channel RDS before moving to TVA in 1995. In 1996, the game returned to RDS and has aired on the channel since.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: Viewership for early games was estimated through various surveys conducted by Numeris and/or Nielsen Canada. However, reliable figures are only available since the 1990s when Nielsen began tracking viewership in the province of Ontario in 1991; electronic measurement of the game was not conducted by Numeris nationally until the mid-2000s. Following the introduction of the Portable People Meter (PPM) in Canada in time for the 2010 game, viewership increased significantly compared to the previous decade. In 2014 and 2015, total Canadian viewership equaled or exceeded that of American total viewership, per capita. A controversial decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that banned Canadian networks from simsubbing the Super Bowl in 2017, 2018, and 2019 caused a decline in viewership; the rule was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada prior to the 2020 game.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: Similar to the United States, ad prices have also increased over the years on English networks in Canada. In 1977 and 1978, the cost of a 30-second ad was $2,500 and $3,200 Canadian, respectively. By 1992, the price had increased to $25,000. In 1994 and 1995, the price was $29,000 and $40,000, respectively. By 1998, the price had increased to $45,000. In 2000, the price was $85,000 per 30 seconds—more than a 50% increase over the $55,000 it cost in 1999. The ad price was approximately $100,000 in 2003. In 2005, the cost of a 30-second ad was $110,000; it was lowered to $100,000 for the next two games due to a decline in viewership.<ref name="CANADS2007/8"></ref> Following the acquisition of Super Bowl broadcasts rights by CTV, the price returned to $110,000 in 2008. It then increased to approximately $117,000 for the 2009 game, before declining slightly for the 2010 game. In 2011, CTV charged about $100,000. By 2012, ads cost close to $130,000 per 30 seconds. Ads cost between $170,000 and $200,000 for the 2015 game, and between $150,000 and $200,000 for the 2020 game.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: According to in-house research conducted by the network, the 1977 game was watched by approximately 3.5 million Canadians on the CBC's English and French television stations. In 1978, Nielsen conducted the first independent ratings survey and found that the 1978 game was watched by 4,495,000 million Canadians, including 550,000 on French television stations. In 1979, a Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (BBM) survey found that 4,605,000 million Canadians watched that year's Super Bowl; a separate Nielsen survey measured 4.1 million viewers on English television stations only. In 1980, Nielsen found that Super Bowl XV was watched by approximately 3.1 million viewers—a decline of over one million compared to the previous year—though it was the most watched broadcast of the week. The 1981 game was watched by 3.5 million on English television stations according to BBM; a later survey by the organization measured an audience of 4,482,000 viewers across both languages. In 1982, Nielsen found that Super Bowl XVI was watched by 3.2 million Canadians. In 1985, the game was watched by 1,649,000 viewers on Global. According to the company's 1986 survey of the game, 4,065,000 Canadians watched Super Bowl XX, including 427,000 in Montreal alone.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: In 1996, Super Bowl XXX was watched by 1.7 million viewers in Ontario according to Nielsen. The next year, viewership declined to 1,528,000 but returned to 1.7 million for the 1998 game, which drew approximately 3 million viewers nationwide. In 1999, Super Bowl XXXIII was watched by 3,399,000 viewers—the largest electronically measured audience in the game's Canadian broadcast history. This record would be broken the following year when the 2000 game was watched by 4 million, according to preliminary figures. However, the 2001 game was watched by just over 3 million, including 1,548,000 in Ontario—both of which represented multi-year viewership lows. The next year, viewership increased to an average of 3.6 million for the 2002 game, and increased again to 4.2 million for the 2003 game. However, viewership would decline for the next two years; the 2004 game was watched by 3.56 million, and 3.13 million watched the game in 2005.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: In 2006, however, viewership increased. Super Bowl XL drew a record English-language audience of 4,281,000 and a French-language audience of 702,000. The 2007 game drew an audience of 3,397,000 English viewers—down over 800,000 compared to the previous year—but the number of French viewers who watched the game increased by over 100,000 to 816,000. The French audience increased again the next year to a preliminary 905,000—a record for broadcaster RDS—and the English audience increased to 4,234,000 and peaked at 5.83 million. In 2009, viewership declined; the English broadcast was watched by 3,602,000, while the French broadcast was watched by 691,000.


title: Super Bowl television ratings

text: In Mexico, Super Bowl LIV averaged 3.7 million viewers in Mexico and a 7.3 rating, with 2.94 for TV Azteca, 2.66 for Televisa, 0.87 for Fox Sports, and 0.83 for ESPN. The event had a total reach of 12 million viewers.


title: Brian Goldner

text: Brian David Goldner (April 21, 1963 – October 11, 2021) was an American business chief executive and film producer. He was the chief executive officer of the American toy and media company Hasbro from 2008 until his death.


title: Brian Goldner

text: Goldner was born on April 21, 1963, in Huntington, New York, the son of Marjorie (Meyer), an investment adviser, and Norman Goldner, who worked at a power management company, Eaton. He attended Huntington High School and Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he majored in politics. There he practiced public speaking and was also a radio disc jockey.


title: Brian Goldner

text: Goldner began his career as a marketing assistant at a healthcare firm in Long Island in 1985. In 1997, Goldner was set to head the entertainment accountant division of advertisement holding company JWT, but he was lured away by Bandai.


title: Brian Goldner

text: Goldner was working at Hasbro's Tiger Electronics unit in 2000, after the company had lost 5,000 jobs. By 2003, the company recovered on the stock market, and in 2008 Goldner became Hasbro's chief operating officer and in 2015 he was appointed chairman of the board.


title: Brian Goldner

text: He served as executive producer on the successful 2007 "Transformers" film adaptation, which was credited with broadening Hasbro into a character-based multimedia company. He continued this role on the 2009 films "" and "". Goldner was responsible for making Hasbro a licensee of Disney's Marvel Universe characters.


title: Brian Goldner

text: Goldner compared the move of these characters to cinema during his tenure to the way they had expanded from mere adverts to television series in the 1980s. In 2012, Goldner's pay package was estimated to be around $9.68 million. In 2008, the year of his promotion, Goldner was named CEO of the year by MarketWatch.


title: Brian Goldner

text: Goldner married Barbara, a social worker. The couple had a daughter, Brooke, and a son, Brandon, who died in 2015. In 2017, a park playground in Providence, Rhode Island, was renamed "Brandon's Beach".


title: Brian Goldner

text: In August 2020, Goldner disclosed that he had prostate cancer and had been receiving treatment for this condition since 2014.


title: Brian Goldner

text: He took an immediate leave of absence as CEO of Hasbro for medical reasons on October 10, 2021, and died a day later, at his home in Barrington, Rhode Island, at age 58.


title: Domo (NHK)

text: Domo-kun first appeared in short stop-motion sketches on December 22, 1998 to mark the 10th anniversary of NHK's satellite broadcasting.


title: Domo (NHK)

text: The name "Domo" was acquired during the second episode of his show, in which a TV announcer said , which is a greeting that can be translated as "Well, hello there!", but which can also be interpreted as "Hello, Domo", and thus is a convenient pun ("dajare"). The kun suffix on "Domo-kun", the name used to describe the character in the Japanese versions, is a Japanese honorific often used with young males.


title: Domo (NHK)

text: Tsuneo Gōda directs Domo episodes using stop motion animation. Gōda says that, by using this process, one can "create a work filled with feeling".


title: Domo (NHK)

text: Domo, the main character, is a brown, furry monster with a large, sawtoothed mouth that is locked wide open. His favorite food is nikujaga, a Japanese meat and potato stew. According to a Tokyopop press release of the Domo comic book, Domo "communicates sotto voce with a verve that only his friends can understand." Clint Bickham, the writer of the Domo comic book, said that to him Domo's expression is "a sort of cheery wonderment. Like when a kid wakes to a room full of presents on Christmas day." While Domo's face has variants, to Bickham most of his expressions have "an underlying sense of fascination." Domo is known to pass gas repeatedly when nervous or upset. He also sweats when nervous.


title: Domo (NHK)

text: Domo lives in a cave with Mr. Usaji, known in Japanese-language versions as , a portmanteau of the words , (rabbit), and (old man, grandpa). Mr. Usaji is a wise old rabbit who has lived in a cave for decades, loves to watch television and drink astringent green tea. Mr. Usaji is not into any "new" materials, and does not own a telephone. In terms of fashion, Mr. Usaji focuses on materials instead of shapes. Mr. Usaji's favorite food is carrots, and his least favorite food is "something that is meaningless."


title: Domo (NHK)

text: Also in the cave live two bats, a mother named Maya ( in the Japanese version) and her child Mario ( in the Japanese version). Maya suffers from alcoholism; her favorite foods are seasonal while her least favorite food is alcohol. Mario's favorite food is Japanese-style tomato spaghetti, while his least favorite food is shiitake mushrooms.


title: Domo (NHK)

text: The other main character in the shorts is a weasel girl named Tashanna ( in the Japanese version). Tashanna, 17 years old, is a weasel who aspires to be a fashion stylist or model in Tokyo and is always using technology (televisions, mobile phones, and cameras). In English Tashanna has a (bear in mind weasels in Japan are not associated with underhandedness) and ends her sentences with "y"s. In the Japanese version, she ends her sentences with "chi" (ち). She has not had a boyfriend in ten years and she is seeking a platonic boyfriend. She has a passion for bidding in auctions, but she gives up by the end. Tashanna's favorite food is apricot and mint tarts, and her least favorite food is sea urchin. The Japanese name originates from the word of digital broadcasting.


title: Domo (NHK)

text: Bear Boy (), also known as , is a Moon Bear and one of Domo's friends from the neighborhood; the timid cub enjoys playing baseball.


title: Domo (NHK)

text: The Fox Trio consists of Esther (), , and Fox Boy (). Esther, the youngest member, enjoys producing crocodile tears, plotting schemes, and causing havoc. Brother Fox, the eldest member, dutifully cares for his youngest siblings and feels upset when referred to as . Fox Boy, having a quiet demeanor, converses with Domo and Bear Boy and prefers to read.


title: Scutum

text: The scutum (; plural "scuta") was a type of shield used among Italic peoples in antiquity, most notably by the army of ancient Rome starting about the fourth century BC.


title: Scutum

text: The Romans adopted it when they switched from the military formation of the hoplite phalanx of the Greeks to the formation with maniples (). In the former, the soldiers carried a round shield, which the Romans called a "clipeus". In the latter, they used the "scutum", which was larger. Originally it was oblong and convex, but by the first century BC it had developed into the rectangular, semi-cylindrical shield that is popularly associated with the "scutum" in modern times. This was not the only kind the Romans used; Roman shields were of varying types depending on the role of the soldier who carried it. Oval, circular and rectangular shapes were used throughout Roman history.


title: Scutum

text: The first depictions of the scutum are by the Este culture in the 8th century bc, and subsequently spread to the Italians, Illyrians, and Celts.


title: Scutum

text: In the early days of ancient Rome (from the late regal period to the first part of the early republican period) Roman soldiers wore "clipeus", which were like the (), smaller (than the scutum) round shields used in the Greek "hoplite" phalanx. The "hoplites" were heavy infantrymen who originally wore bronze shields and helmets. The phalanx was a compact, rectangular mass military formation. The soldiers lined up in very tight ranks in a formation that was eight lines deep. The phalanx advanced in unison, which encouraged cohesion among the troops. It formed a shield wall and a mass of spears pointing towards the enemy. Its compactness provided a thrusting force that had a great impact on the enemy and made frontal assaults against it very difficult. However, it worked only if the soldiers kept the formation tight and had the discipline needed to keep its compactness in the thick of the battle. It was a rigid form of fighting and its maneuverability was limited. The small shields provided less protection. However, their smaller size afforded more mobility. Their round shape enabled the soldiers to interlock them to hold the line together.


title: Scutum

text: Sometime in the early fourth century BC, the Romans changed their military tactics from the "hoplite" phalanx to the "manipular" formation, which was much more flexible. This involved a change in military equipment. The "scutum" replaced the "clipeus". Some ancient writers thought that the Romans had adopted the "maniples" and the "scutum" when they fought against the Samnites in the first or second Samnite War (343–341 BC, 327–304 BC). However, Livy did not mention the "scutum" being a Samnite shield and wrote that the oblong shield and the "manipular" formation were introduced in the early fourth century BC, before the conflicts between the Romans and the Samnites. Plutarch mentioned the use of the long shield in a battle that took place in 366 BC. Couissin notes archaeological evidence shows that the "scutum" was in general use among Italic peoples long before the Samnite Wars and argues that it was not obtained from the Samnites. In some parts of Italy the "scutum" had been used since pre-historical times.


title: Scutum

text: Roman rectangular scutums of later eras were smaller than Republican oval scutums and often varied in length - approximately 37"-42" tall (approximately 3 to 3.5 imperial feet, covering about from shoulder to top of knee), and 24-33" wide (approximately 2 to 2.7 imperial feet).


title: Scutum

text: The oval "scutum" is depicted on the Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus in Rome, the Aemilius Paullus monument at Delphi, and there is an actual example found at Kasr el-Harit in Egypt. Gradually the "scutum" evolved into the rectangular (or sub-rectangular) type of the early Roman Empire.


title: Scutum

text: By the end of the 3rd century the rectangular "scutum" seems to have disappeared. Fourth century archaeological finds (especially from the fortress of Dura-Europos) indicate the subsequent use of oval or round shields which were not semi-cylindrical but were either dished (bowl-shaped) or flat. Roman artwork from the end of the 3rd century until the end of Antiquity show soldiers wielding oval or round shields.


title: Scutum

text: The word ""scutum"" survived the Roman Empire and entered the military vocabulary of the Byzantine Empire. Even in the 11th century, the Byzantines called their armoured soldiers "skutatoi" (Grk. σκυτατοί), and several modern Romance languages use derivatives of the word.


title: Scutum

text: large rectangle curved shield made from three sheets of wood glued together and covered with canvas and leather, usually with a spindle shaped boss along the vertical length of the shield. The best surviving example, from Dura-Europos in Syria, was high, across, and deep (due to its semicylindrical nature), with a thickness of 5-6mm., It was likely well made and extremely sturdy.


title: Scutum

text: The "scutum" was light enough to be held in one hand and its large height and width covered the entire wielder, making him very unlikely to be hit by missile fire and in hand-to-hand combat. The metal boss, or "umbo", in the centre of the "scutum" also made it an auxiliary punching weapon. Its composite construction meant that early versions of the "scutum" could fail from a heavy cutting or piercing blow, which was experienced in the Roman campaigns against Carthage and Dacia where the "falcata" and "falx" could easily penetrate and rip through it. The effects of these weapons prompted design changes that made the "scutum" more resilient such as thicker planks and metal edges.


title: Scutum

text: The "aspis", which it replaced, provided less protective coverage than the "scutum" but was much more durable.


title: Scutum

text: According to Polybius, the "scutum" gave Roman soldiers an edge over their Carthaginian enemies during the Punic Wars:


title: Scutum

text: "Their arms also give the men both protection and confidence, which they owed to the size of the shield."


title: Scutum

text: The Roman writer Suetonius recorded anecdotes of the heroic centurion Cassius Scaeva and legionary Gaius Acilius who fought under Caesar in the Battle of Dyrrachium and the battle of Massilia, respectively:


title: Scutum

text: The Roman writer Cassius Dio in his "Roman History" described Roman against Roman in the Battle of Philippi: "For a long time there was pushing of shield against shield and thrusting with the sword, as they were at first cautiously looking for a chance to wound others without being wounded themselves."


title: Scutum

text: The shape of the "scutum" allowed packed formations of legionaries to overlap their shields to provide an effective barrier against projectiles. The most novel (and specialised, for it afforded negligible protection against other attacks) use was the "testudo" (Latin for "tortoise"), which added legionaries holding shields from above to protect against descending projectiles (such as arrows, spears, or objects thrown by defenders on walls).


title: Scutum

text: Dio gives an account of a "testudo" put to good use by Marc Antony's men while on campaign in Armenia:


title: Scutum

text: However, the "testudo" was not invincible, as Dio also gives an account of a Roman shield array being defeated by Parthian knights and horse archers at the Battle of Carrhae:


title: Scutum

text: Dio also notes the use of the "scutum" as a tool of psychological warfare during the capture of Syracuse:


title: Scutum

text: In 27 BC, the emperor Augustus was awarded a golden shield by the senate for his part in ending the civil war and restoring the republic, according to the "Res Gestae Divi Augusti". The shield, the "Res Gestae" says, was hung outside the Curia Julia, serving as a symbol of the "princeps" "valour, clemency, justice and piety".


title: Scutum

text: The name Scutum has been adopted as one of the 88 modern constellations, and by UK luxury clothing maker Aquascutum, which became famous in the 19th century for its waterproof menswear. Hence the name, which in Latin means "water shield".


title: Scutum

text: In zoology, the term "scute" or "scutum" is used for a flat and hardened part of the anatomy of an animal, such as the shell of a turtle.


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: Steven Elliot Koonin (born December 12, 1951) is an American theoretical physicist and former director of the Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University. He is also a professor in the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering. From 2004 to 2009, Koonin was employed by BP as the oil and gas company’s Chief Scientist. From 2009 to 2011, he was Under Secretary for Science, Department of Energy, in the Obama administration.


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Koonin graduated from high school at the age of 16, received his Bachelor of Science from the California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the supervision of Arthur Kerman in the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics. In 1975, Koonin joined the faculty of the California Institute of Technology as an assistant professor of theoretical physics becoming one of their youngest ever faculty, and served as the institute's provost from 1995 to 2004.


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: In 2004, Koonin joined BP as their chief scientist, where he was responsible for guiding the company's long-range technology strategy, particularly in alternative and renewable energy sources. He was tapped for the position of Under Secretary for Science at the United States Department of Energy by Steven Chu, Obama's Secretary of Energy, and served from May 19, 2009, to November 18, 2011. Koonin left in November 2011 for a position at the Institute for Defense Analyses. In 2012, he was appointed the founding director of NYU's Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP).


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: He has served on numerous advisory bodies for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy and its various national laboratories, such as the JASON defense advisory group, which he has chaired. Koonin's research interests have included theoretical nuclear, many-body, and computational physics, nuclear astrophysics, and global environmental science.


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: Koonin became publicly involved in the policy debate about climate change starting with a "Wall Street Journal" opinion piece in 2017, in which he floated the idea of a red team/blue team exercise for climate science. In 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the leadership of Scott Pruitt proposed a public debate on climate change to refute the 2017 Climate Science Special Report. According to a draft press release edited by Koonin and William Happer, Princeton physics professor and director of the CO2 Coalition, they planned "red team"/blue team exercises to challenge the scientific consensus on climate. The draft was never released, and the plans were not carried out.


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: In 2019, the Trump Administration proposed to create a "Presidential Committee on Climate Security" at the National Security Council that would conduct an "adversarial" review of the scientific consensus on climate change. Koonin was actively involved in recruiting others to be part of this review. The committee was scrapped in favor of an initiative not "subject to the same level of public disclosure as a formal advisory committee".


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: In 2021, Koonin published the book "Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters".


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: In an article in "Slate", physicist Raymond Pierrehumbert criticized Koonin's 2014 commentary in "The Wall Street Journal", "Climate Science Is Not Settled," as "a litany of discredited arguments" with "nuggets of truth ... buried beneath a rubble of false or misleading claims from the standard climate skeptics' canon."


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: Critics of Koonin's book "Unsettled" accused him of cherry picking data, muddying the waters surrounding the science of climate change, and having no experience in climate science.


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: In a review in "Scientific American", economist Gary Yohe wrote that Koonin "falsely suggest[s] that we don't understand the risks well enough to take action":


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: Physicist Mark Boslough, a former student of Koonin, posted a critical review at Yale Climate Connections. He stated that "Koonin makes use of an old strawman concocted by opponents of climate science in the 1990s to create an illusion of arrogant scientists, biased media, and lying politicians – making them easier to attack."


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: Nonprofit organization "Inside Climate News" reported that climate scientists call Koonin's conclusions "fatally out of date ... and based on the 2013 physical science report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)."


title: Steven E. Koonin

text: Mark P. Mills, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, and faculty fellow at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, lauded the book in "The Wall Street Journal" as "rebut[ing] much of the dominant political narrative". Twelve scientists analyzed Mills's arguments and said that he merely repeated Koonin's incorrect and misleading claims.


Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (, ) is the main airport in the Zanzibar Archipelago located on Unguja Island, Zanzibar, Tanzania. It is approximately south of Zanzibar City, the capital of Zanzibar, and has flights to East Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. It was previously known as "Kisauni Airport" and "Zanzibar International Airport". It was renamed in 2010 in honour of Abeid Amani Karume, the island's first president.


title: Abeid Amani Karume International Airport

text: Terminal 1 is an inactive terminal that was used during British protection in the islets. This is a small building found on the northern side of terminal 2 and currently used as the airport office.


text: Terminal 2 is active for all landing aircraft. A new shelter on the entrance of the airport has been put in place.


text: Construction of the third terminal started in January 2011 by the Chinese Beijing Construction Engineering Group. A new apron of will replace the existing . The project is estimated to cost about US$70.4 million. On completion, it will have the capacity to serve up to 1.5 million passengers per year. The new terminal was expected to be operational in 2014, but construction work delayed due to financial and technical reasons. The new terminal was inaugurated in September 2020 and started operation in early 2021. Terminal 3 serves international flights while terminal 2 serves both domestic and some international flights.


title: Balthus

text: Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (February 29, 1908 – February 18, 2001), known as Balthus, was a Polish-French modern artist. He is known for his erotically charged images of pubescent girls, but also for the refined, dreamlike quality of his imagery.


title: Balthus

text: Throughout his career, Balthus rejected the usual conventions of the art world. He insisted that his paintings should be seen and not read about, and he resisted any attempts made to build a biographical profile.


title: Balthus

text: Balthus was born in Paris, in 1908, to Prussian expatriate parents. His given name was Balthasar Klossowski – his sobriquet "Balthus" was based on his childhood nickname, alternately spelled Baltus, Baltusz, Balthusz or Balthus.


title: Balthus

text: His father, Erich Klossowski, was an art historian who wrote a noted monograph on Honoré Daumier. Erich grew up in the town of Ragnit in East Prussia, now part of Russia but then in the German Empire. According to Balthus he belonged to the former Polish petty nobility (the "drobna szlachta") and his family bore the Rola coat of arms. This largely undocumented family background would later be appropriated by Balthus when he decided to use the surname "Klossowski de Rola". (Had he lived in Poland, the arrangement of the name would have been Rola-Kłossowski or Kłossowski h. Rola). Balthus had the Rola arms embroidered onto many of his kimono, in the style of a Japanese .


title: Balthus

text: Balthus's mother Elisabeth Dorothée Spiro Klossowska (known as Baladine Klossowska) was descended from Russian Jews who had emigrated to East Prussia. In the catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 1984 Balthus exhibition, she was described as the daughter of a cantor from Korelitz in Novogrudok district in the Russian Empire. However, Balthus told his biographer Nicholas Fox Weber that this was erroneous, and that his mother came "apparently from a Protestant family in the south of France". But according to Weber, this was a confabulation on Balthus's part. In fact, Balthus would often embroider upon his story of his mother's ancestry, saying that she was also related to the Romanovs and the Narischkins, powerful aristocratic families of Russia. In another confabulatory twist, Weber reports that Baladine's lover, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, had said that the Spiros were descended from one of the richest families of Sephardic Jews, that is that they were of Spanish, not Eastern European origin. Weber doubted this story too, since Balthus's son Fumio, born in the late 1960s, had Tay–Sachs disease, a genetic disorder commonly associated with Eastern European Jews.


title: Balthus

text: The Klossowski children grew up in an art-world environment, with frequent visits to their household by famous artists and writers, including Rilke, André Gide (who mentored Pierre), and Jean Cocteau (who would depict the family in scenes of his 1929 novel "Les Enfants Terribles"). The artists Maurice Denis and Pierre Bonnard were also visitors. The children had a Scottish nanny, and Balthus would later say that his first language was English, although his parents spoke German to one another.


title: Balthus

text: Overall, Balthus had an idyllic memory of these early childhood years, which were disrupted when, shortly after the First World War began in 1914, the family were forced to leave Paris in order to avoid deportation due to their German citizenship. They settled first in Switzerland, later in Berlin.


title: Balthus

text: In 1917 his parents separated, and his mother moved with the two boys to Geneva. They lived in a modest flat at 11, rue Pré-Jérôme, a comfortable neighborhood. About a year later his mother became the lover of Rilke. Rilke was very impressed with the young "Baltusz"'s artistic talent, and helped him to publish his first work in 1921, at the age of 13. This was a book titled "Mitsou" which included forty drawings by Balthus and a preface by Rilke. The comic-book-style pictures depicted the story of a young boy who loses his beloved cat. The themes of the story foreshadowed Balthus's lifelong fascination with cats, along with a feeling of loss or disappearance.


title: Balthus

text: At Christmas of 1921, Baladine, financially destitute, moved to Berlin with her children in order to live with her brother.


title: Balthus

text: In 1926 Balthus visited Florence, where he copied many frescos by the Renaissance master Piero della Francesca. This inspired an early ambitious work of his: the tempera wall paintings of the Protestant church of the Swiss village of Beatenberg which he executed in 1927.


title: Balthus

text: From 1930 to 1931 Balthus served in the French army in Morocco. He was drafted into the Moroccan infantry in Kenitra and Fes, worked as a secretary, and sketched his painting "La Caserne" (1933).


title: Balthus

text: In 1933 he moved to Paris, taking a studio in the Rue de Furstemberg. Later he would move to another studio at the nearby Cour de Rohan. Balthus showed no interest in modernist styles such as Cubism. His paintings were realistic but introverted, in the manner of the second generation of Surrealist painters such as Salvador Dalí, who often used realistic techniques to depict psychological motifs or dream images. Balthus often depicted pubescent girls in erotic and voyeuristic poses. One of the most notorious works from his first exhibition in Paris was "The Guitar Lesson" (1934), which caused controversy due to its sadistic and sexually explicit imagery. It depicts a young girl arched on her back over the lap of her female teacher, whose hands are positioned on the girl as if to play her like a guitar: one hand near her exposed vulva, and the other hand grasping her hair. Other works from the same exhibition included "The Street" (1933), "Cathy Dressing" (1933) and "Alice" (1933).


title: Balthus

text: Early on his work was admired by writers and fellow painters, especially by André Breton and Pablo Picasso. His circle of friends in Paris included the novelists Pierre Jean Jouve, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Joseph Breitbach, Pierre Leyris, Henri Michaux, Michel Leiris and René Char, the photographer Man Ray, the playwright and actor Antonin Artaud, and the painters André Derain, Joan Miró and Alberto Giacometti (one of the most faithful of his friends). In 1948, another friend, Albert Camus, asked him to design the sets and costumes for his play "L'État de Siège" ("The State of Siege", directed by Jean-Louis Barrault). Balthus also designed the sets and costumes for Artaud's adaptation for Percy Bysshe Shelley's "The Cenci" (1935), Ugo Betti's "Delitto all'isola delle capre" (Crime on Goat-Island, 1953) and Barrault's adaptation of "Julius Caesar" (1959–1960).


title: Balthus

text: In 1937 he married Antoinette de Watteville, who was from an influential aristocratic family from Bern. He had met her as early as 1924, and she was the model for the aforementioned "Cathy Dressing" and for a series of portraits. Balthus had two children from this marriage, Stanislas (born 1942) and Thaddeus Klossowski (born 1944), who recently published books on their father, including the letters by their parents. Stanislas, known as "Stash", became a figure in swinging London and Paris in the 1960s.


title: Balthus

text: In 1940, with the invasion of France by German forces, Balthus fled with his wife Antoinette to Savoy to a farm in Champrovent near Aix-les-Bains, where he began work on two major paintings: "Landscape near Champrovent" (1942–1945) and "The Living Room" (1942). In 1942, he escaped from Nazi France to Switzerland, first to Bern and in 1945 to Geneva, where he became a friend of the publisher Albert Skira as well as the writer and member of the French Resistance, André Malraux. Balthus returned to France in 1946 and a year later traveled with André Masson to Southern France, meeting figures such as Picasso and Jacques Lacan, who eventually became a collector of his work. With Adolphe Mouron Cassandre in 1950, Balthus designed stage decor for a production of Mozart's opera Così fan tutte in Aix-en-Provence. Three years later he moved into the Chateau de Chassy in the Morvan, living with his step-niece Frédérique Tison and finishing his large-scale masterpieces "La Chambre" ("The Room" 1952, possibly influenced by Pierre Klossowski's novels) and "Le Passage du Commerce Saint-André" (1954).


title: Balthus

text: As international fame grew with exhibitions in the gallery of Pierre Matisse (1938) and the Museum of Modern Art (1956) in New York City, he cultivated the image of himself as an enigma.


title: Balthus

text: In 1964, he moved to Rome where he presided over the Villa de Medici as director (appointed by the French Minister of Culture André Malraux) of the French Academy in Rome. He became a friend of the filmmaker Federico Fellini and the painter Renato Guttuso.


title: Balthus

text: In 1977, he moved to Rossinière, Switzerland. That he had a second, Japanese wife Setsuko Ideta whom he married in 1967 and was thirty-five years his junior, simply added to the air of mystery around him (he met her in Japan, during a diplomatic mission also initiated by Malraux). A son, Fumio, was born in 1968 but died two years later.


title: Balthus

text: The photographers and friends Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck (Cartier-Bresson's wife) both portrayed the painter and his wife and their daughter Harumi (born 1973) in his Grand Chalet in Rossinière in 1999.


title: Balthus

text: Balthus was one of the few living artists to be represented in the Louvre, when his painting "The Children" (1937) was acquired from the private collection of Pablo Picasso.


title: Balthus

text: He co-authored a book of dialogues with the neurobiologist Semir Zeki, entitled "La Quête de l'essentiel."


title: Balthus

text: He died in Rossinière, Switzerland. Prime ministers and rock stars alike attended his funeral. Bono, lead singer of U2, sang for the hundreds of mourners at the funeral, including the President of France, the Prince Sadruddhin Aga Khan, supermodel Elle Macpherson, and Cartier-Bresson.


title: Balthus

text: Balthus's style is primarily classical. His work shows numerous influences, including the writings of Emily Brontë, the writings and photography of Lewis Carroll, and the paintings of Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Simone Martini, Poussin, Jean-Étienne Liotard, Joseph Reinhardt, Géricault, Ingres, Goya, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Courbet, Edgar Degas, Félix Vallotton and Paul Cézanne. Although his technique and compositions were inspired by pre-Renaissance painters, there also are eerie intimations of contemporary surrealists like de Chirico. Painting the figure at a time when figurative art was largely ignored, he is widely recognised as an important 20th-century artist.


title: Balthus

text: Many of his paintings show young girls in an erotic context. Balthus insisted that his work was not erotic but that it recognized the discomforting facts of children's sexuality. In 2013, Balthus's paintings of adolescent girls were described by Roberta Smith in "The New York Times" as both "alluring and disturbing".


title: Balthus

text: His work has influenced several contemporary artists, notably Duane Michals and Émile Chambon. He has also influenced the filmmaker Jacques Rivette of the French New Wave, whose film "Hurlevent" (1985) was inspired by Balthus's drawings made at the beginning of the 1930s: "Seeing as he's a bit of an eccentric and all that, I am very fond of Balthus (...) I was struck by the fact that Balthus enormously simplified the costumes and stripped away the imagery trappings (...)".


title: Balthus

text: His widow, Setsuko Klossowska de Rola, heads the Fonds Balthus, the archives of the painter, which is accessible to the scholars as a long term deposit in the Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne.


title: Balthus

text: A reproduction of Balthus's "Girl at a Window" (a painting from 1957) prominently appears in François Truffaut's film "Domicile Conjugal" ("Bed and Board", 1970). The two principal characters, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and his wife Christine (Claude Jade), are arguing. Christine takes down from the wall a small drawing of about 25×25 cm and gives it to her husband: Christine: "Here, take the small Balthus." Antoine: "Ah, the small Balthus. I offered it to you, it's yours, keep it."


title: Balthus

text: During December 2017, a public petition was circulated requesting that Balthus's painting "Thérèse Dreaming" be removed from display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York due to its alleged explicit content and suggestive portrayal. Philip Kennicott, writing for "The Washington Post" on 5 December 2017, in an article titled "This painting might be sexually disturbing. But that's no reason to take it out of a museum", summarized the museum's long-standing position against censorship. The painting had previously been on display at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany in 2007 without incident.


title: Balthus

text: Balthus held his first exhibition at Galerie Pierre, Paris, in 1934. Following the ensuing scandal, he exhibited at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, from 1938 to 1977, although he never visited the United States. Balthus's first major museum exhibition was at the Museum of Modern Art in 1956. Other museum exhibitions of note include Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris (1966); Tate Gallery, London (1968); La Biennale di Venezia (1980); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1980); Musée cantonal des beaux-arts de Lausanne (1993); Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1984, traveled to Metropolitan Museum, Kyoto); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1984); and Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2001). "Balthus: Cats and Girls: Paintings and Provocations" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (September 25, 2013 – January 12, 2014) was the first U.S. museum survey of the artist's work in 30 years. A major retrospective overseen by the artist's wife, Ideta Setsuko, was held in 2014 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. An exhibition of Polaroid photographs taken by Balthus at the Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany, was canceled over accusations of pedophilia. The German newspaper "Die Zeit" called the images, which depict a model named Anna from ages eight to 16, “documents of pedophile greed.”


title: Balthus

text: Since then, despite attempts, no planned exhibition of Balthus’s work was censored or cancelled for such allegations.


title: Nail gun

text: A nail gun, nailgun or nailer is a form of hammer used to drive nails into wood or other materials. It is usually driven by compressed air (pneumatic), electromagnetism, highly flammable gases such as butane or propane, or, for powder-actuated tools, a small explosive charge. Nail guns have in many ways replaced hammers as tools of choice among builders.


title: Nail gun

text: The nail gun was designed by Morris Pynoos, a civil engineer by training, for his work on Howard Hughes' Hughes H-4 Hercules (known as the Spruce Goose). The wooden fuselage was nailed together and glued, and then the nails were removed.


title: Nail gun

text: The first nail gun used air pressure and was introduced to the market in 1950 to speed the construction of housing floor sheathing and sub-floors. With the original nail gun, the operator used it while standing and could nail 40-60 nails a minute. It had a capacity of 400-600 nails.


title: Nail gun

text: Nail guns use fasteners mounted in long clips (similar to a stick of staples) or collated in a paper or plastic carrier, depending on the design of the nailgun. Some full head nail guns, especially those used for pallet making and roofing, use long plastic or wire collated coils. Some strip nailers use a clipped head so the nails can be closer together, which allows less frequent reloading. Clip head nails are sometimes banned by state or local building codes. Full Round Head nails and ring shank nails provide greater resistance to pull out. Nailers may also be of the 'coil' type where the fasteners come in wire or plastic collation, to be used with nail guns with a drum magazine; the advantage is many more fasteners per load, but at the expense of extra weight. Industrial nailers designed for use against steel or concrete may have a self-loading action for the explosive caps, but most need nails to be loaded by hand. Nail guns vary in the length and gauge (thickness) of nails they can drive.


title: Nail gun

text: The smallest size of fasteners are normally 23 gauge ( in diameter), commonly called "pin nailers" and generally have only a minimal head. They are used for attaching everything from beadings, mouldings and so forth to furniture all the way up to medium-sized baseboard, crown molding and casing. Lengths are normally in the range , although some industrial tool manufacturers supply up to . The 23 gauge micro pin is rapidly gaining ground as users find that it leaves a much smaller hole than brad nails, thereby eliminating the time normally taken to fill holes and presenting a far better looking finished product.


title: Nail gun

text: The next size up is the 18 gauge (1.02 mm diameter) fixing, often referred to as a "brad". These fastenings are also used to fix mouldings but can be used in the same way as the smaller 22 to 24 gauge fastenings. Their greater strength leads to their use in trim carpentry on hardwoods where some hole filling is acceptable. Most 18 gauge brads have heads, but some manufacturers offer headless fastenings. Lengths range from .


title: Nail gun

text: The next sizes are 16 and 15 gauge (1.63 and 1.83 mm diameter). These are generally referred to as "finish nails". They come in lengths between and are used in the general fixing of much softwood and MDF trim work (such as baseboard/skirtings, architraves, etc.) where the holes will be filled and the work painted afterwards.


title: Nail gun

text: The largest sizes of conventional collated fastenings are the clipped head and full head nails which are used in framing, fencing and other forms of structural and exterior work. These nails generally have a shank diameter of although some manufacturers offer smaller diameter nails as well. General lengths are in the range . Shank styles include plain, ring annular, twisted, etc. and a variety of materials and finishes are offered including plain steel, galvanized steel, sherardised steel, stainless steel, etc. depending on the pull-out resistance, corrosion resistance, etc. required for the given application. These sizes of fastenings are available in stick collated form (often 20° to 21° for full head, 28° to 34° for clipped head) or coil form (for use in pallet/roofing nailers) depending on the application. Full-head nails have greater pull-out resistance than clipped head nails and are mandated by code in many hurricane zones for structural framing.


title: Nail gun

text: Another type of fastening commonly found in construction is the strap fastening which is roughly analogous to the large head clout nail. These are used in conjunction with a strap shot nailer (or positive placement nailer "UK") to fix metalwork such as joist hangers, corner plates, strengthening straps, etc. to timber structures. They differ from conventional nailers in that the point of the fastening is not sheathed so it can be exactly positioned before firing the nail gun.


title: Nail gun

text: Other specialist nailers are also available which can drive spikes up to long, fix wood to steel, etc.


title: Nail gun

text: A palm nailer is a small, lightweight tool, typically pneumatic, which fits into the palm of one hand. It is convenient for working in tight spaces and can drive both short and long nails. Repeated hammer blows (of around 40 hits per second) rather than a single strike drive the fastener.


title: Nail gun

text: In the United States, about 42,000 people every year go to emergency rooms with injuries from nail guns, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Forty percent of those injuries occur to consumers. Nail gun injuries tripled between 1991 and 2005. Foot and hand injuries are among the most common. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that treating nail gun wounds costs at least $338 million per year nationally in emergency medical care, rehabilitation, and workers' compensation. Often personnel selling the tools know little about the dangers associated with their use or safety features that can prevent injuries.


title: Nail gun

text: Injuries to the fingers, hands, and feet are among the three most common, but there are also injuries that involve other body areas such as arms and legs as well as internal organs. Some of these injuries are serious and some have resulted in death.


title: Nail gun

text: All kinds of nail guns can be dangerous, so safety precautions similar to those for a firearm are usually recommended for their use. For safety, nail guns are designed to be used with the muzzle contacting the target. Unless specifically modified for the purpose, they are not effective as a projectile weapon.


title: Nail gun

text: The most common firing mechanism is the dual-action contact-trip trigger, which requires that the manual trigger and nose contact element both be depressed for a nail to be discharged. The sequential-trip trigger, which is safer, requires the nose contact to be depressed before the manual trigger, rather than simultaneously with the trigger. Approximately 65% to 69% of injuries from contact-trip tools could be prevented through the use of a sequential-trip trigger, according to the CDC.


title: Nail gun

text: There is recoil associated with the discharge of a nail from a nail gun. Contact triggers allow the gun to fire unintended nails if the nose hits the wood surface or a previously placed nail following recoil. Nailers with touch tip (contact) triggers are susceptible to this double firing. According to a 2002 engineering report from the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), the recoil and firing of the second nail occurs well before the trigger can be released. Acute injury rates are twice as high among users of tools with contact triggers.


title: Nail gun

text: In September 2011 The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) issued a nail gun safety guide that details practical steps to prevent injuries including use of tools with sequential triggers, training prior to use, and use of appropriate protective equipment such as eye protection. In June 2013, NIOSH released an instructional comic providing information on nail gun hazards and ways to use the device properly.


title: Nail gun

text: Research aimed at reducing nail gun accidents among frame carpenters, among the heaviest users of nail guns, is ongoing.


title: Nail gun

text: The most popular type of nail gun, which uses compressed air to drive its fasteners. Thus, it is dependent on both a compressor and a power source to operate the compressor (either direct electrical current or an on-site generator), and encumbered in use by a cumbersome high-pressure air hose (which may be extremely stiff in cold weather, and retain an annoying "memory" of having been coiled at any time).


title: Nail gun

text: A pneumatic nail gun is also limited by the size and rebound rate of its compressor in the number of fasteners it can drive consecutively.


title: Nail gun

text: Historically pneumatic air guns required daily oiling (at a minimum), though "oil-free" versions are also produced.


title: Nail gun

text: Either type can, with the right cartridge loads, be very powerful, driving a nail or other fastener into hard concrete, stone, rolled steelwork, etc., with ease.


title: Nail gun

text: Powered by a gas (e.g. propane) and air explosion in a small cylinder; the piston pushes the nail directly and there are no rotating parts.


title: Nail gun

text: In one type of electric nailgun, a rotating electric motor gradually compresses a powerful spring and suddenly releases it.


title: Nail gun

text: The solenoid tends to attract the piston or projectile towards the middle of the solenoid. If a series of solenoids is used (which makes the nailgun into a type of coilgun), to get more power, each solenoid must be switched off when the piston has reached the middle of the solenoid. In multi-solenoid coilguns a short burst of power from a big capacitor (one attached to each solenoid) comes at the right time to propel the piston or projectile. For more information see Coilguns for ferromagnetic projectiles.


title: Nail gun

text: A pin nailer is a type of nail gun that drives simple pin-like fasteners as substitutes for finish nails.


title: Nail gun

text: Pin nailers are often used on molding for furniture, cabinets, and interior millwork. They can also work as temporary fasteners for pieces with irregular shapes that are impossible to hold down with a clamp securely.


title: Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

text: Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back is a 1997 platform video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is a sequel to "Crash Bandicoot" (1996), and is part of the "Crash Bandicoot" series.


title: Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

text: Taking place on a fictional group of islands near Australia, "Crash Bandicoot 2" follows the adventures of the anthropomorphic bandicoot named Crash. Crash is abducted by series villain Doctor Neo Cortex, who tricks him into thinking he wants to save the world. Crash is thrust into several parts of N. Sanity Island in order to gather crystals that will allow Cortex to contain the power of an upcoming planetary alignment and keep the planet from being destroyed. Crash's sister Coco and Cortex's former assistant Doctor Nitrus Brio try to warn him about Cortex, with the latter urging Crash to gather gems instead of crystals.


title: Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

text: "Cortex Strikes Back" received positive reviews from critics and is widely considered to be superior to its predecessor. Much of the praise went to the game's graphics, controls and music, while criticisms focused on the trial-and-error gameplay, lack of level variety, easy boss levels and lack of innovation as a platform game. The game went on to become one of the best-selling PlayStation video games of all time and replaced its predecessor as the highest-selling Western title in Japan at the time, selling more than 800,000 copies in the country by April 1998. A remastered version was included in the "Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy" collection, released on the PlayStation 4 in June 2017, and ported to other platforms in June 2018.


title: Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

text: "Cortex Strikes Back" is a platform game in which the player character is the titular Crash Bandicoot. The goal of the game is to gather 25 crystals for Crash's nemesis Doctor Neo Cortex. The crystals are scattered between 25 different levels, accessible via "Warp Rooms", which are hub areas of the game. A level is cleared by collecting its respective crystal and reaching the end of its path, which returns Crash to the Warp Room. Each Warp Room contains five levels. When all five levels are cleared, the player must defeat a boss character before gaining access to the next Warp Room. The player is given a certain amount of lives, which are lost when Crash is attacked by an enemy, or falls into water or a pit. If the player runs out of lives, the game is over. However, it can be continued by selecting "Yes" at the "Continue?" screen.


title: Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

text: Crash has the ability to jump into the air and land on an enemy character, spin in a tornado-like fashion to knock enemies off-screen, slide across the ground, and perform a body slam to break certain objects. Crash can jump higher than he normally can if he jumps immediately following a slide. All of these techniques can be used as offensive measures against most enemies, who serve to deter Crash's progress. Enemies with deadly topsides cannot be jumped on, while enemies that attack from the front or have side spikes must be jumped on or undergo a body slam. Enemies with sharp necklines (such as frill-necked lizards or long-legged robots with heated circumferences) can only be defeated if Crash slides into them.