title: Honey (Mariah Carey song)

text: "Honey" is an up-tempo song, that blends hip hop and R&B genres. The song is set in the signature common time, and is written in the key of E major. It features a basic chord progression of A-F-1. Carey's vocal range in the song spans from the note of C to the high note of B; with the piano and guitar pieces ranging from G to G. The song's remix featured rap leads from The Lox and Mase, with some vocals rapped by Combs himself. The track was very different from anything Carey had ever recorded, and was described as "street Hip-Hop music, with a booming bass." The song's melody was driven by Q-Tip's drum programming and Stevie J's keyboard notes. Combs's production gave the song a "light and airy" effect, further distancing it from Carey's contemporary sound. "Honey" is built around a bassline sample from Treacherous Three's "The Body Rock" and a piano motif reprised from "Hey DJ" by The World's Famous Supreme Team. The track united hip-hop and R&B with traces of pop music and was described as a "[song with a] catchy chorus, combining hip-hop and R&B into something that simply wasn't going to be denied by anyone, and offering a powerful start to a record." According to author Chris Nickson, "Honey" revealed a more confident and independent side to Carey that had never been presented in her previous work. The song truly embodied a more mature and confident woman, with sultrier lyrics and a thumping hip-hop beat to accompany it.


title: Honey (Mariah Carey song)

text: "Honey" garnered acclaimed response from contemporary music critics. David Browne from "Entertainment Weekly" described the importance the song held for Carey's musical transition. He wrote "You're prepared for a song on which Carey finally breaks free of her adult-contemporary chains and gets down." He felt "Honey" sounded as "anyone striking out on his or her own — caught between old and new habits and taking cautious baby steps into the future." Browne also commented that Carey showed a commendable vocal restraint in the song, "showing some admirable restraint, she nestles herself into the downy-soft beats of "Honey." Author Chris Nickson felt the single's importance was "well beyond its chart placing" and that the single was one of the most important songs in Carey's career, enabling her to transition into R&B and hip-hop. Nickson commented that before, Carey was seen as a pop singer with R&B tendencies, but "Honey" changed that idea, giving the singer "hip-hop credibility", and forced naysayers to "take another look." Rich Juzwiak from "Slant" complimented the song, calling it "awakening, both sensually and musically." Juzwiak concluded the review writing ""Honey" exemplifies the abrupt gear shifting that appreciating Mariah the artist requires. Its new pop brilliance doesn't always come easy, where detecting it depends on the audience's newfound ability to apply Carey's pop life to her pop music." "Honey" was nominated for two Grammy Awards at the 1998 ceremony, for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. Additionally, the song won the BMI Pop Award for "Songwriter."


title: Honey (Mariah Carey song)

text: "Honey" was Carey's third single to debut atop the "Billboard" Hot 100. Additionally, the song became her 12th chart-topper, breaking the fifth place record she had shared with Madonna and Whitney Houston. It replaced "Mo Money Mo Problems" by The Notorious B.I.G. featuring Puff Daddy and Mase, and it was replaced by Boyz II Men's "4 Seasons of Loneliness". At this point, Carey was tied with The Supremes for fourth most US number ones, behind Michael Jackson with thirteen, and Elvis Presley and The Beatles with 17 and 20, respectively. "Honey" was certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipments of over two million units. The song stalled at number two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (behind "You Make Me Wanna..." by Usher), spending 22 weeks in the chart. "Honey" finished number 32 on the "Billboard" end of year chart for 1997. In Canada, the song debuted on the "RPM" Singles Chart at forty-eight on the "RPM" issue dated August 18, 1997, and reached the top of the chart on September 22, 1997. It was present on the chart for a total of 20 weeks, and ranked 18 on the "RPM" Year-end chart for 1997.


title: Honey (Mariah Carey song)

text: The song debuted on the UK Singles Chart on September 6, 1997, at its peak of number three, becoming Carey’s 13th top ten single, and spent a total of eight weeks in the chart. "Honey" is Carey's 15th best-selling single in the United Kingdom as of 2010, with estimated sales of over 200,000. In Australia, "Honey" peaked at number eight on the charts, spending a total of 19 weeks in the chart. It was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), denoting shipments of over 35,000 units. In New Zealand, the song peaked at number three, and stayed in the chart for 14 weeks. The song's success in most other worldwide markets was moderate, with it not reaching the same peaks as Carey's previous singles. While "Honey" peaked at number 12 in Finland, it fell dropped out of the chart the next week, spending a total of only one week in the chart. In Sweden, the song performed well, peaking at number eight and staying within the chart for ten weeks. In Austria and France, "Honey" peaked at number 39, spending one and four weeks on the charts, respectively. The song peaked at number 29 and 30 in Belgium Flanders and Wallonia.


title: Honey (Mariah Carey song)

text: Aside from the attention surrounding the song, the music video garnered much speculation. For the first time in her career, Carey was featured provocatively dressed, giving viewers a "taste of the freer Mariah." The video's concept was created by Carey with Paul Hunter filling in as the director. Serving a James Bond theme, Carey was cast as "the very sexy agent M", a woman who escapes a large mansion in which she has been held captive. Carey said of the video that "I don't really think the video is overtly sexual, but for me... I mean people used to think I was the nineties version of Mary Poppins!"


title: Honey (Mariah Carey song)

text: The video premiered on MTV and BET in August 1997 and was shot in Puerto Rico on June 27, 1997 with a $2 million budget, making it one of the most expensive music videos of all time. The video begins with Carey, playing as "Agent M," being held hostage in a large mansion. The captors are played by Eddie Griffin, Frank Sivero, and Johnny Brennan of The Jerky Boys, who continue to taunt Carey over her capture and eventual death. "Agent M" speaks in Spanish to the captors, saying she can not understand them. After a series of dialogue, Carey escapes her Griffin's character and dives into a swimming pool from the mansion's roof. After an ensemble change, Carey dons a swimsuit and escapes the island via a watercraft. The video's antagonists continue their pursuit of Carey throughout a large body of water, until she arrives aboard a large ship. It is unclear if both scenes are happening separately or side by side. Throughout most of the video, Carey is seen posing on a large sailboat, while wearing a white bikini. After boarding the ship, Carey begins dancing and is soon joined by a group of male sailors. After a sequence of dance light dance routines, Carey is seen on an island with her lover, male model David Fumero, and her real life dog, Jack. They frolic together on the island, while Carey happily enjoys her romance.


title: Honey (Mariah Carey song)

text: During the time of the video's release, Carey and Mottola were in the midst of their divorce and this led to many speculation on the video's message. Tabloids and critics were linking the video's theme to Carey's marriage, writing how Mottola would lock Carey in their mansion. While Carey denied the allegations, many found it to be very obvious. Carey's writing partner of six years, Afanasieff, felt the video was undeniably about Mottola. While speculation about the video grew, Carey continued to deny any intention of portraying her marriage in the video. In an interview, Carey said that "Tommy loves the video, he says it's my best video yet."


title: Honey (Mariah Carey song)

text: The song's Bad Boy remix featured a different music video as well. It features the same concept, however not emphasizing on the kidnapping and escape. The video begins with Carey diving into the pool, and driving a watercraft. As she reaches a point far into the body of water, she is offered a rope lift from a helicopter. After she accepts and ascends the line, Carey boards the aircraft alongside its pilots, Puffy and the members of Bad Boy Entertainment. Other scenes sequence Carey dancing with Puffy in a golden indoor tunnel. As the video concludes, more staff from the helicopter join Carey in the golden entryway, as they dance and enjoy themselves.


title: Honey (Mariah Carey song)

text: "Honey" was performed on various live television appearances as well as most of Carey's tours. Carey first performed a mash-up of the song and the Bad Boy remix live on the British music chart program "Top of the Pops" in 1997. The performance incorporated themes from both videos, in which Carey was dressed in the same white bikini from the music video. Additionally, the stage was set up to resemble the deck of a ship. Dancers similar to the video joined Carey on stage as she performed the song. Carey performed "Honey" at the 1998 World Music Awards. The performance garnered her a standing ovation, and featured many male dancers, all donning sailor costumes. After the second verse, a large projection of the Bad Boy remix video played while pre-recorded rap verses from Puffy played. A live performance of the song was taped via satellite and aired live in Japan, featuring similar costumes and themes as the others. Carey performed the song throughout her Butterfly World Tour (1998), which served as the accompanying tour for "Butterfly." During her live routine of the song, various male dancers donned in similar sailor outfits joined Carey on stage. Serving as an intro to the song, Carey re-enacts the hostage from the video, and formulates her escape. The song's performance in Honolulu, Hawaii was used as the official act of the song on Carey's 1998 concert DVD, "Around the World", which featured live tapings from Japan, Taiwan, Australia and the US.


title: Honey (Mariah Carey song)

text: For her Rainbow World Tour (2000), the beginning of the original video served as the acts intro. As the music began playing, Carey emerged wearing a mini sailor suit and a matching headpiece. During the set, many male dancers joined Carey on stage, and re-enacted a similar performance than that of her previous tour. "Honey" was performed during Carey's following tour, the (2003–2004). The performances of the song throughout the tour were altered from those in 1997–98. The act began with the video intro like before, however the dancers featured no longer bore any resemblance to the video. Male and female dancers joined, performing traditional and exotic dance routines. Carey donned a blue one piece mini skirt, and joins with some light dance moves. Carey continued performing the song throughout her 2006 tour, The Adventures of Mimi. The performance did not include any video intro, but did introduce a four-piece of male dancers dressed in sailor outfits. Carey wore a pair of black leggings, accompanied by a sparkling mini-bra. During the performance in Madison Square Garden, Carey was joined with Sean "Diddy" Combs (previously known as Puffy) on stage after the second verse. During her Angels Advocate Tour (2010) performance of the song, Carey donned a sparkling mini-Herve Leger gown, with a faux-fur snug jacket. During the song, male and female dancers joined her on stage, and performed up-tempo dance routines. She performed the song regularly during The Elusive Chanteuse Show (2014), singing the So So Def Mix. She also included the song in her 2015 Las Vegas residency, Mariah Carey Number 1's, where she would enter the stage in a black leotard, riding a yellow jet ski, in homage to the video. Carey started performing "Honey" for the first time since July 2017 on her second concert residency, The Butterfly Returns (2018).


title: Patagonian Desert

text: The Patagonian Desert, also known as the Patagonian Steppe, is the largest desert in Argentina and is the 8th largest desert in the world by area, occupying 673,000 square kilometers (260,000 mi). It is located primarily in Argentina and is bounded by the Andes, to its west, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east, in the region of Patagonia, southern Argentina. To the north the desert grades into the Cuyo Region and the Monte. The central parts of the steppe are dominated by shrubby and herbaceous plant species albeit to the west, where precipitation is higher, bushes are replaced by grasses. Topographically the deserts consist of alternating tablelands and massifs dissected by river valleys and canyons. The more western parts of the steppe host lakes of glacial origin and grades into barren mountains or cold temperate forests along valleys.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: Inhabited by hunter-gatherers since Pre-Hispanic times, the desert faced migration in the 19th century of Argentines, Welsh, and other European peoples, transforming it from a conflictive borderland zone to an integral part of Argentina, with cattle, sheep and horse husbandry being the primary land uses.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: The Patagonian Desert has existed since the Middle Miocene (14–12 million years ago) and came into existence as the Andes rose to the west.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: The Patagonian Desert is the largest desert south of the 40° parallel and is a large cold winter desert, where the temperature rarely exceeds 12 °C and averages just 3 °C. The region experiences about seven months of winter and five months of summer. Frost is not uncommon in the desert but, due to the very dry condition year round, snow is rare. The Andes, to the desert's west, are the primary reason for the Patagonian desert status as they inhibit the westerly flow of moisture from the southern Pacific from reaching inland. This creates a rain shadow that accounts for the formation of the desert and is why, despite approximately half of the desert being only about 200 miles from the ocean, such a large desert is found in the region. The cold Falkland Current off the Atlantic coast of South America also contributes to the area's aridity.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: Different climates can be distinguished: the coast north of the 45th parallel is much milder because of the warm currents from Brazil, and the entire northern half of the region is significantly warmer in the summer, when sunny weather predominates. Daily temperatures in the summer reach 31 °C in the Rio Colorado region, a general 26 °C to 29 °C in the northern coast, and 24 °C to 28 °C in the northern plain, with nights around 12 °C to 15 °C in the coast and between 7 °C and 10 °C in the steppe.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: In the south, summer temperatures decrease from 22 °C to only 16 °C along the coast, and from 24 °C to 17 °C along the steppes, while nights go from 8 °C to 11 °C on the coast, and from 6 °C to 10 °C in the steppe.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: During the winter, the proximity to the coast and the altitude are the main factors: while northern coastal areas have mild winters, from 2 °C at night to about 11 °C during the day, southern Santa Cruz ranges from -2 °C to 5 °C, and Tierra del Fuego, from -3 °C to 3 °C, for a mean of 0 °C.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: Inland, the northern areas range from 0 °C to 10 °C in low areas, and from -5 °C to 5 °C on the plateaus (again, mean around 0 °C), while in the south, low areas range from -3 °C to 4 °C, and higher areas are clearly below 0 °C. The coldest spots usually register temperatures between -20 °C and -25 °C during cold waves, and the official record is -33.9 °C in Chubut province. However, some towns claim to have had records of around -35 °C.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: Summer frost is common everywhere except for the northern coast, and even sleet and light snow can fall during the warm season. Winds are constant and very strong, from the west in most cases.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: Before the Andes were formed, the region was likely covered by temperate forests. However, after the formation of the Andes, ash from nearby volcanoes covered the forests and mineral-saturated waters seeped into the logs, thus fossilizing the trees and creating one of the world's best preserved petrified forests in the desert's center. The Patagonian is mainly composed of gravel plains and plateaus with sandstone canyons and clay shapes dotting the landscape, sculpted by the desert wind. The region encompassing the desert, however, has many diverse features. Ephemeral rivers, lakes, and drainage deposits from the Andes' spring melt form annually, hosting a variety of waterfowl and aquatic grasses. A variety of glacial, fluvial, and volcanic deposits are also found in the region and have significantly affected the desert's climate over time, especially contributing to the gravel sediments covering parts of the Patagonian.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: The desert is quite windy as well, a result of the rain shadow effect and descending cool mountain air. This wind helps make the Patagonian one of the largest sources of dust over the South Atlantic Ocean.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: On the west the Patagonian grasslands portion of the Patagonian Desert are bounded by nothofagus forests of the Magellanic subpolar forests.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: Volcanic rocks covers more than 120,000 km of the Patagonian Desert, mainly in the Somún Cura Massif (i.e. North Patagonian Massif) and the Deseado Massif. Some other volcanic areas include the Pali-Aike Volcanic Field near the Strait of Magellan. The volcanic rocks are the result of back-arc volcanism distributed mainly in two episodes: one in the Eocene and Miocene and the other from Late Miocene to Pleistocene.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: Despite the harsh desert environment, a number of animals venture into and live in the Patagonian. Some only live on the more habitable and geographically-varied outskirts of the desert, where food is more abundant and the environment less hostile, but all are found within the region encompassing the Patagonian. The burrowing owl, lesser rhea, guanaco, tuco-tuco, mara, pygmy armadillo, Patagonian weasel, puma, Patagonian gray fox, desert iguana, western ribbon snake, and various species of eagle and hawk are a few of the variety of animals living in the region.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: The flora of the region is quite common for its climate and includes several species of desert shrubs like "Acantholippia" and "Benthamiella" and tuft grasses like "Stipa" and "Poa". Aquatic grasses and larger flora exist on the outskirts of the desert and around the ephemeral lakes that form from the Andes' runoff.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: The desert has hosted various indigenous peoples in its past, as evidenced by cave paintings in the area. The earliest inhabitants of the desert known by name are those of the Tehuelche complex. Tehuelches lived as hunter-gatherers and did not practise agriculture in lush valleys found in the desert. In the 18th and 19th centuries the northern part of the desert came under Mapuche influence during a process of Araucanization. Mapuches came to practise horse husbandry in the northern part of the Patagonian steppe. Mapuche tribes came to control trade across the desert and traded with the cities of southern Chile as well as Buenos Aires and the Cuyo Region.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: From the mid-19th century onwards several Argentine and European settlements, some of them sporadic, appeared at the edges of the desert. The most important was established at Chubut River's outflow by Welsh immigrants in 1860. Perito Moreno explored the desert in the 1870s. In the 1870s the Argentine army undertook the Conquest of the Desert campaign, massively defeating Mapuche warlords. The Conquest of the Desert was followed by a sharp decline in the indigenous population of the desert; some were chased into Chile and peripheral areas in the Andes. It is estimated that the Conquest of the Desert caused the death of about 1,000 Native Americans. Additionally 10,000 Native Americans were taken prisoner of whom 3,000 ended up in Buenos Aires separated by sexes to avoid their procreation. The boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina bought most of the desert under definitive Argentine sovereignty; previously Chile had claimed varying now Argentine areas under claims of inherited colonial titles.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: In the few decades before and after 1900 the less dry parts of the Patagonian steppe experienced a sheep farming boom, transforming the region into one of the world's greatest exporters of ovine products.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: The area is sparsely populated today and those that do live here survive mainly by the raising of livestock such as sheep and goats. Resource mining, especially of oil, gas, and coal in parts of the region, is another way humans interact with and influence the desert environment.


title: Patagonian Desert

text: A 2017 assessment found that 70,970 km, or 12%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Protected areas include:


title: Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan

text: Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan () (December 25, 1952 – September 7, 2003) was a Pakistani musician, who played the harmonium in Qawwali music. He was also a member of a well-known family of Qawwali musicians, the Qawwal Bacchon gharana (Delhi gharana), he was the younger brother of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the son of Fateh Ali Khan, the nephew of Mubarak Ali Khan, and the father of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.


title: Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan

text: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was the leader of the family Qawwali party from 1971 until his death in 1997. Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan was one of only two people who remained members of the party throughout this period. Farrukh played the lead harmonium, and provided accompanying vocals. His talent to play in all scales and his ability to switch a tune at a moment's notice are arguably the best in his profession. While accompanying Nusrat to England, he became widely known as "Harmonium Raja Sahib" (King of the Harmonium).


title: Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan

text: His talents and accomplishments often went unrecognized due to playing in the shadow of Nusrat. In an interview to the Pakistan Television in 1989, Nusrat revealed that very often the tunes of the qawwalis sung by the party were composed by Farrukh. He is credited as such in some of the albums by the group, such as "Shahenshah".


title: Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan

text: He remained a member of the party when his son, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, took over the leadership of the party after Nusrat's death in 1997. Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan died on September 7, 2003.


title: Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan

text: Both Farrukh and Rahat often accompanied Nusrat and were a part of his team. They carried forward Nusrat's legacy after his death in 1997. Farrukh and Rahat made their Bollywood debut together for the 2003 film Paap, which released a few months after Farrukh's death.


title: Mattachine Society

text: The Mattachine Society (), founded in 1950, was an early national gay rights organization in the United States, perhaps preceded only by Chicago's Society for Human Rights. Communist and labor activist Harry Hay formed the group with a collection of male friends in Los Angeles to protect and improve the rights of gay men. Branches formed in other cities, and by 1961 the Society had splintered into regional groups.


title: Mattachine Society

text: At the beginning of gay rights protest, news on Cuban prison work camps for homosexuals inspired Mattachine Society to organize protests at the United Nations and the White House in 1965.


title: Mattachine Society

text: The Mattachine Society was named by Harry Hay at the suggestion of James Gruber, inspired by a French medieval and renaissance masque group he had studied while preparing a course on the history of popular music for a workers' education project. In a 1976 interview with Jonathan Ned Katz, Hay was asked the origin of the name Mattachine. He mentioned the medieval-Renaissance French "Sociétés Joyeuses":


title: Mattachine Society

text: This French group was named in turn after Mattaccino (or the Anglicized Mattachino), a character in Italian theater. Mattaccino was a kind of court jester, who would speak the truth to the king when nobody else would. The "mattachin" (from Arabic "mutawajjihin"—"mask-wearers") were originally Moorish (Hispano-Arab) sword-dancers who wore elaborate, colorful costumes and masks.


title: Mattachine Society

text: The Mattachine Society used so-called harlequin diamonds as their emblem. The design consisted of four diamonds arranged in a pattern to form a larger diamond.


title: Mattachine Society

text: Harry Hay conceived the idea of a gay activist group in 1948. After signing a petition for Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace, Hay spoke with other gay men at a party about forming a gay support organization for him called "Bachelors for Wallace". Encouraged by the response he received, Hay wrote the organizing principles that night, a document he referred to as "The Call". However, the men who had been interested at the party were less than enthusiastic the following morning. Over the next two years, Hay refined his idea, finally conceiving of an "international... fraternal order" to serve as "a service and welfare organization devoted to the protection and improvement of Society's Androgynous Minority". He planned to call this organization "Bachelors Anonymous" and envisioned it serving a similar function and purpose as Alcoholics Anonymous. Hay met Rudi Gernreich in July 1950. The two became partners, and Hay showed Gernreich The Call. Gernreich, declaring the document "the most dangerous thing [he had] ever read", became an enthusiastic financial supporter of the venture, although he did not lend his name to it (going instead by the initial "R"). Finally on November 11, 1950, Hay, along with Gernreich and friends Dale Jennings and partners Bob Hull and Chuck Rowland, held the first meeting of the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles, under the name Society of Fools. James Gruber and Konrad Stevens joined the Society in April 1951 and they are generally considered to be original members. Also that month the group changed its name to "Mattachine Society", a name suggested by Gruber and chosen by Hay, after Medieval French secret societies of masked men who, through their anonymity, were empowered to criticize ruling monarchs with impunity.


title: Mattachine Society

text: As Hay became more involved in his Mattachine work, he correspondingly became more concerned that his orientation would negatively affect the Communist Party, which like most other organizations at the time was anti-homosexual and did not allow gay people to be members. Hay himself approached party leaders and recommended his own expulsion. The party decided to expel him as a "security risk", but declared him a "Lifelong Friend of the People" in recognition of his previous work for the party.


title: Mattachine Society

text: Mattachine was originally organized in similar structure to the Communist Party, with cells, oaths of secrecy and five different levels of membership, each of which required greater levels of involvement and commitment. As the organization grew, the levels were expected to subdivide into new cells, creating both the potential for horizontal and vertical growth. The founding members constituted the so-called "Fifth Order" and from the outset remained anonymous. The primary goals of the society were to


title: Mattachine Society

text: Mattachine's membership grew slowly at first but received a major boost in February 1952 when founder Jennings was arrested in a Los Angeles park and charged with lewd behavior. Often, men in Jennings' situation would simply plead guilty to the charge and hope to quietly rebuild their lives. Jennings and the rest of the Fifth Order saw the charges as a means to address the issue of police entrapment of homosexual men. The group began publicizing the case (under the name "Citizens Committee to Outlaw Entrapment") and the publicity it generated brought in financial support and volunteers. Jennings admitted during his trial to being a homosexual but insisted he was not guilty of the specific charge. The jury deadlocked and Mattachine declared victory.


title: Mattachine Society

text: Most of the Mattachine founders were communists. As the Red Scare progressed, the association with communism concerned some members as well as supporters and Hay, a dedicated member of the CPUSA for 15 years, stepped down as the Society's leader. Others were similarly ousted, and the leadership structure became influenced less by communism, replaced by a moderate ideology similar to that espoused by the liberal reformist civil rights organizations that existed for African Americans. Although Hay claimed "never to have even heard" of the earlier gay liberation struggle in Germany—by the people around Adolf Brand, Magnus Hirschfeld and the Austrian-Hungarian Leontine Sagan—he is known to have talked about it with German émigrés in America, including the Austrian-born Rudi Gernreich.


title: Mattachine Society

text: The Mattachine Society existed as a single national organization headquartered first in Los Angeles and then, beginning around 1956, in San Francisco. Outside of Los Angeles and San Francisco, chapters were established in New York; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; and other locales. Due to internal disagreements, the national organization disbanded in 1961. The San Francisco national chapter retained the name "Mattachine Society", while the New York chapter became "Mattachine Society of New York, Inc" and was commonly known by its acronym MSNY. Other independent groups using the name Mattachine were formed in Washington, D.C. (Mattachine Society of Washington, 1961), in Chicago (Mattachine Midwest, 1965), and in Buffalo (Mattachine Society of the Niagara Frontier, 1970). In 1963 Congressman John Dowdy introduced a bill which resulted in congressional hearings to revoke the license for solicitation of funds of the Mattachine Society of Washington; the license was not revoked.


title: Mattachine Society

text: A largely amicable split within the national Society in 1952 resulted in a new organization called ONE, Inc. ONE admitted women and, together with Mattachine, provided help to the Daughters of Bilitis in the launching of that group's magazine, "The Ladder", in 1956. The Daughters of Bilitis were an independent lesbian organization who occasionally worked with the predominantly male Mattachine Society.


title: Mattachine Society

text: The Janus Society grew out of lesbian and gay activists meeting regularly, beginning in 1961, in hopes of forming a Mattachine Society chapter. The group was not officially recognized as such a chapter, however, and so instead named itself the Janus Society of Delaware Valley. In 1964 they renamed themselves the Janus Society of America due to their increasing national visibility.


title: Mattachine Society

text: In January 1962 East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) was established, with its formative membership including the Mattachine Society chapters in New York and Washington D.C., the Janus Society, and the Daughters of Bilitis chapter in New York. ECHO was meant to facilitate cooperation between homophile organizations and outside administrations. In 1964, ECHO received a $500 settlement from the Manger Hamilton hotel upon the hotel's last minute cancellation of ECHO's conference in their location. This out of court settlement was portrayed by the organization as an affirmation to the homophile community that they were not to mess with and that any matters that violated their rights would be handled in accordance with the law.


title: Mattachine Society

text: On the eve of January 1, 1965, several homophile organizations in San Francisco, California - including Mattachine, the Daughters of Bilitis, the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, and the Society for Individual Rights - held a fund-raising ball for their mutual benefit at California Hall on Polk Street. San Francisco police had agreed not to interfere; however, on the evening of the ball, the police surrounded the building and focused numerous Klieg lights on its entrance. As each of the 600 plus persons entering the ball approached the entrance, the police took their photographs. Police vans were parked in plain view near the entrance to the ball. Evander Smith, a (gay) lawyer for the groups organizing the ball, and gay lawyer Herb Donaldson tried to stop the police from conducting the fourth "inspection" of the evening; both were arrested, along with two heterosexual lawyers - Elliott Leighton and Nancy May - who were supporting the rights of the participants to gather at the ball. But twenty-five of the most prominent lawyers in San Francisco joined the defense team for the four lawyers, and the judge directed the jury to find the four not-guilty before the defense had even had a chance to begin their argumentation when the case came to court. This event has been called "San Francisco's Stonewall" by some historians; the participation of such prominent litigators in the defense of Smith, Donaldson and the other two lawyers marked a turning point in gay rights on the West Coast of the United States.


title: Mattachine Society

text: Following the Jennings trial, the group expanded rapidly, with founders estimating membership in California by May 1953 at over 2,000 with as many as 100 people joining a typical discussion group. Membership diversified, with more women and people from a broader political spectrum becoming involved. With that growth came concern about the radical left slant of the organization. In particular, Hal Call and others out of San Francisco along with Ken Burns from Los Angeles wanted Mattachine to amend its constitution to clarify its opposition to so-called "subversive elements" and to affirm that members were loyal to the United States and its laws (which declared homosexuality illegal). In an effort to preserve their vision of the organization, the Fifth Order members revealed their identities and resigned their leadership positions at Mattachine's May 1953 convention. With the founders gone, Call, Burns and other like-minded individuals stepped into the leadership void, and Mattachine officially adopted non-confrontation as an organizational policy. Some historians argue that these changes reduced the effectiveness of this newly organized Mattachine and led to a precipitous drop in membership and participation. Other historians contend that the Mattachine Society between 1953 and 1966 was enormously effective as it published a magazine, developed relationships with allies in the fight for homosexual equality, and influenced public opinion on the topic too.


title: Mattachine Society

text: During the 1960s, the various unaffiliated Mattachine Societies, especially the Mattachine Society in San Francisco and MSNY, were among the foremost gay rights groups in the United States, but beginning in the middle 1960s and, especially, following the Stonewall riots of 1969, they began increasingly to be seen as too traditional, and not willing enough to be confrontational. Like the divide that occurred within the Civil Rights Movement, the late 1960s and the 1970s brought a new generation of activists, many of whom felt that the gay rights movement needed to endorse a larger and more radical agenda to address other forms of oppression, the Vietnam War, and the sexual revolution. Several unaffiliated entities that went under the name Mattachine eventually lost support or fell prey to internal division.


title: Mattachine Society

text: In 1973 Hal Call opened the Cinemattachine, a venue showing both Mattachine newsreels and pornographic movies. The Cinemattachine was an extension of the Mattachine Society's Sex Education Film Series and branded as being presented by both The Mattachine Society and The Seven Committee. In 1976 a venue with the name "Cinemattachine Los Angeles at the ONE" opened. The same screenings as the San Francisco establishment were shown there. Mattachine co-founder Chuck Rowland indicated that he did not feel that Call associating this venue with The Mattachine Society was appropriate.


title: Mattachine Society

text: In the "Quantum Leap" comic book titled "Up Against a Stonewall" (1992), the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis are mentioned as two groups campaigning for LGBT rights prior to the Stonewall riots.


title: Mattachine Society

text: The 1995 film "Stonewall" included members of the Mattachine Society of New York among its characters. Mattachine members are seen leafleting, attending meetings and participating in the Annual Reminder picket in Philadelphia. However, the film sets the Reminder earlier in the summer than it really was, predating the June 28 Stonewall riots.


title: Mattachine Society

text: In 2009 the Mattachine Society and its founders became the subjects of the play "The Temperamentals" by Jon Marans. After workshop performances in 2009, the play opened Off-Broadway at New World Stages in early 2010. "The Temperamentals" received a Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble Cast. Michael Urie, who originated the role of Rudi Gernreich, received a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor.


title: Mattachine Society

text: A new Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. was formed in 2011 and is dedicated to original archival research of LGBT political history.


title: Mattachine Society

text: "The Playboy Club", a 2011 television series on NBC, includes a lesbian Playboy Bunny in a lavender marriage with a gay man. The two are members of the Chicago Mattachine chapter.


title: Mattachine Society

text: The Mattachine Steps, also known as the Cove Avenue stairway, is an outdoor staircase in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, dedicated to the Mattachine Society in 2012 in memory of its founder Harry Hay.


title: Mattachine Society

text: In 2015, a gay bar called Bar Mattachine opened in downtown Los Angeles. The podcast "Making Gay History" (season 1, episode 7) is about Mattachine co-founder Chuck Rowland, and another episode is about Mattachine co-founder Harry Hay (season 4, episode 3).


title: Mattachine Society

text: Julius’ bar in Manhattan has held a monthly party called "Mattachine" honoring the early gay rights pioneers.


title: Mansory

text: Mansory is a luxury car modification firm based in Brand, Germany. Besides luxury cars, they also work on supercars, luxury SUVs and custom bikes. The company was founded in 1989 by Iranian-British tuner Kourosh Mansory. His Munich-based workshop focused on modifications for British brands such as Rolls-Royce and Italian brands such as Ferrari. By mid-2001, the company had grown out of its Munich workshop and moved to headquarters in Fichtelgebirge. The company currently operates out of a workshop in Brand, Germany.


title: Mansory

text: Mansory works on vehicles from a number of manufacturers, including Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus Cars, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, and Tesla. In November 2007, Mansory acquired the Porsche-tuning arm of Rinspeed AG. Rinspeed maintains its Swiss base in Zumikon at Lake Zurich. Currently, Mansory employs 182 members of staff worldwide and has a global dealership network.


title: Mansory

text: Mansory's worldwide distribution network includes dealerships in Germany, United Kingdom, India, China, Canada, Poland, Russia, United States, Japan, Greece, Switzerland, Iceland, UAE and a few other countries.


title: Mansory

text: At the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, Mansory announced a commercial agreement with Garia. The company produced a series of special edition golf and leisure cars for wealthy clients. These cars were characterised by carbon fibre body panels on the front, side steps and tail and elements of teak decking.


title: Mansory

text: In 2012, Mansory signed an agreement with Lotus Group, then under the control of Dany Bahar who had ambitious expansion plans. Under the agreement, Mansory would provide its services to Lotus customers who would require bodywork, trim and special finishes for Lotus' the Elise, Exige and Evora range. The partnership developed following a series of one-off models produced by Mansory for Lotus including the Evora Concept Bespoke unveiled at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show.


title: Mansory

text: The partnership fell through shortly afterwards when Dany Bahar was removed as CEO of Lotus Group. In March 2019 Mansory released the GTE Final Edition at the Geneva Motor Show 2019, based on the Evora.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group established on 21 September 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, to campaign against what it believes are unjust wars.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The Coalition has campaigned against the wars that are part of the "War on Terror" of the United States and its allies. It has campaigned against the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. The Metropolitan Police said that the demonstration against the latter on 15 February 2003, organised by the Coalition along with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), was the largest public demonstration in British history.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The impetus to form the Stop the War Coalition came following the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States. The Coalition was launched at a public meeting of 2,000 people at Friends House on Euston Road in London, on 21 September which was chaired by Lindsey German, then active in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). "The Stop the War Coalition has been formed to encourage and mobilise the largest possible movement against the war", said the founding statement. "Its aim is simple-to draw together everyone who wants to stop this madness, and to present the anti-war arguments which are squeezed out of the media." Among the sponsors of the Coalition were the former Labour Party MP Tony Benn, and the Labour MPs George Galloway, Tam Dalyell and Jeremy Corbyn, in addition to Tariq Ali, Harold Pinter, Suresh Grover and Andrew Murray.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: German became Convenor of the Coalition and a meeting on 28 October settled the Coalition's official aims. This meeting also elected a steering committee which consisted of representatives of "Labour Left Briefing" and the Communist Party of Britain. Representatives of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) and the Alliance for Workers' Liberty failed to get elected, although both became members of the Coalition and participated in its activities. At this time, it was alleged that the SWP dominated the organisation, although German, Rees and Chris Nineham would leave the SWP in 2009. The Conservative MP Julian Lewis,in a letter to "The Daily Telegraph" in 2003, referring to Andrew Murray's involvement in the Communist Party of Britain, wrote that he "had thought" his "days of unearthing totalitarians at the heart of 'peace movements'" had ended when the Soviet Union collapsed, but Murray was now in a "key position, being quoted by the anti-war media as if he were a representative of democratic politics".


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: In this early period, Stop the War had a broad base. Ann Treneman wrote in "The Times" in January 2003 that the "two most obvious strands" of StWC support consisted of "the Establishment and the grassroots. This makes for some very strange bedfellows, who include retired generals, old peaceniks, former ambassadors, anti-globalisation protesters, Labour activists, trade unions, [and] the Muslim community". By the time of the February 2003 march in London, Greenpeace, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party (SNP) were among the 450 organisations which had affiliated to the coalition, and the coalition's website listed 321 peace groups.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: At their initial meeting the Coalition also adopted the slogan "Against the racist backlash", stating that a war against Afghanistan would be perceived as an attack on Islam and that Muslims, or those perceived as being Muslim, would face racist attacks in the United Kingdom if the government joined the war. The Coalition worked closely with the Muslim Association of Britain in organising its demonstrations.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Andrew Murray was its first chair from 2001, and its vice presidents have included Kamal Majid (who, according to "Independent" columnist Andy McSmith, helped found the Stalin Society) and George Galloway. Salma Yaqoob is a patron. Chris Nineham is a vice-chair.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The largest demonstration organised by the Coalition was the mass protest on 15 February 2003 in London against the imminent invasion of Iraq. It is claimed to have been the largest ever such event in the UK with estimates of attendance ranging between 750,000 and 2,000,000 people. The march was begun by police earlier than planned because of the number of people who had arrived at the two starting points. Speakers at the rally in Hyde Park included Tony Benn, Jesse Jackson, Charles Kennedy, Ken Livingstone, Mo Mowlam and Harold Pinter. StWC had forecast at the end of January that about 500,000 protesters would be on the march.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: As the military build-up continued, StWC urged its local groups and supporters to organise actions on the day the invasion of Iraq began. As this date was then unknown, it was dubbed "Day X", which eventually fall on 20 March 2003. Despite having very little time to put plans into action, events took place up and down the country: in London there was a large protest in Parliament Square; in Nottingham traffic outside an army recruitment centre was blocked for a while; and large numbers of school students walked out of lessons.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Following the beginning of the war and the events of Day X, the Coalition organised another national demonstration on the next Saturday, 22 March. While the turnout for this march did not match the demonstration of 15 February – Stop the War claimed up to 500,000, whilst fellow organisers CND claimed between 200,000 and 300,000 – it was noted that this was the largest anti-war demonstration held during wartime and had been organised with but a week's notice.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: According to journalist James Bloodworth, in early 2003 Stop the War released a statement signed by officers of the Coalition appearing to support the Iraqi insurgency, recognising "the legitimacy of the struggle of Iraqis, by whatever means they find necessary, to secure such ends", which led to the resignation of former ASLEF union leader Mick Rix from the StWC executive, saying: "If you think I am going to sit back and agree with beheadings, kidnappings, torture and brutality, and outright terrorization of ordinary Iraqis and others, then you can forget it." An Early Day Motion was proposed by Labour MPs including Harry Barnes condemning their position and asking the group to "reassure the public that they have not lost their moral bearings."


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The Coalition held a series of protests during November 2003 climaxing in a march on the 20th protesting against what it claimed is the aggressive foreign policy of U.S. President George W. Bush, and against the continued U.S. detention of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, which protesters have claimed is an illegal infringement of human rights and the Geneva conventions. A march past parliament was organised climaxing in a rally in Trafalgar Square. A papier-mâché statue of Bush was toppled in an action reminiscent of the much televised pulling down of a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad by American soldiers. Speakers included politician George Galloway, then SNP leader Alex Salmond and Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The coalition estimated that 300,000 people were present at the demonstration, while the police put those attending at 100,000 people.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: On 19 March 2005, StWC organised a large demonstration in Westminster with supporters marching from Hyde Park to Parliament Square via the US embassy. The supporters were calling for the invading troops to move out of Iraq, for the US to not attack Iran and Syria, for the British government to halt reductions in the civil liberties of British citizens including the right to protest and a free trial (which they allege would result from the recent Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 and Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005), and for a reduction in racism in the UK.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The date was chosen as the it was the international day of anti-war demonstrations, as called by the Assembly of the Social Movements at the 2004 European Social Forum. Estimates of the number of marchers vary from 45,000 by the police to over 100,000 by StWC to 200,000 by some observers. The protest was the first occasion on which a march had passed the US embassy in London since the protests over the Vietnam War.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: John Rees has written: "Socialists should unconditionally stand with the oppressed against the oppressor, even if the people who run the oppressed country are undemocratic and persecute minorities, like Saddam Hussein."


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Commentators such as "Observer" columnist Nick Cohen and "Independent" columinst John Rentoul accused Stop the War of being pro-Hussein. StWC was criticised by journalists such as Cohen for its refusal to condemn attacks on US and other foreign troops occupying Iraq, and refusal to condemn foreign insurgent fighters who have entered parts of the country. Cohen criticised the relationship of the StWC with organisations he considers reactionary such as the Muslim Association of Britain. He accused the coalition of ignoring the requests of secular trade unions and Kurds in Iraq. Cohen stated that there is a contradiction between the StWC's call for respect for human rights and its links with organisations that Cohen said call for the death penalty for homosexuality and apostasy.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings, StWC in association with CND and the Muslim Association of Britain held a vigil for the victims at the Peace Garden in Euston, London on 9 July 2005 and a further solidarity gathering at Russell Square, close to one of the Underground stations targeted, on 17 July 2005. At the latter StWC national convener Lindsey German condemned the bombings but added that "The only way to end the bombings is to withdraw from Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. When we have justice around the world we will have peace as well". The StWC also supported vigils across the country.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The StWC organised the British demonstration on 24 September 2005 using the slogans "Stop the Bombings", "Bring the Troops Home", "Defend Civil Liberties" and "Defend the Muslim Community". The protest coincided with protests in Washington, D.C. and occurred just before the Labour Party Conference began in Brighton.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: On 10 December 2005 the StWC held an International Peace Conference attended by around 1,500 people. Speakers from across the world included Cindy Sheehan, the American mother whose son died in Iraq; and Hassan Juma, president of the Iraqi Southern Oil Workers Union.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: At this conference a call was launched for an international demonstration on 18 March 2006. At the rally in London, Police estimating 15,000 marchers took part, but the groups organising the protest. which included CND and the Muslim Association of Britain as well as Stop the War, thought between 80,000 and 100,000 people had participated. According to Kate Hudson: "The government must listen to the voices of the people, which is calling on them to bring the troops home from Iraq".


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: On 23 September 2006, a demonstration was held outside the venue for the Labour Party Conference in Manchester. Estimates of attendance varied from "around 20,000" by the police, "up to 50,000" from the Coalition, to "more than 50,000" by the "Socialist Worker".


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The 2007 demo took place on 24 February 2007 in London, jointly organised with the CND. The themes of this march were No Trident and Troops Out of Iraq.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: On 15 March 2008 another international demonstration was held to mark the 5-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq; although numbers did not match the original demonstrations, around 40,000 people were on the march in London. In Parliament Square, banners were placed in sight of the House of Commons. About the rally in Trafalgar Square, Tony Benn noted in his diary that he "spoke for four minutes and ten seconds. Two minutes was the limit, but I got away with it: they liked the phrase 'Parliament belongs to the past; the streets belong to the future'. They really liked that."


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: In March 2009, at a StWC meeting John Rees said he was a "supporter" of Hezbollah and Hamas, saying that such “resistance” groups are “a legitimate part of [our] movement”, likening them to French and Italian partisans fighting the Nazis in World War II. "The Spectator" and "The Times" have alleged that Jeremy Corbyn also described Hezbollah and Hamas as "friends" at an StWC event that year, although he later said this was taken out of context.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: A march from the American embassy in Grosvenor Square to Trafalgar Square on 1 April 2009 brought together protesters from the Stop the War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, The British Muslim Initiative, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. On 2 April 200 people protested outside the ExCeL Centre in London where the G20 summit was being held.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Stop the War opposed UK involvement in the Libyan Civil War. The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) was initially a member of the Stop the War Coalition. However, it and other individuals were expelled from the project on 23 September 2011 after it explicitly supported Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in the Libyan Civil War against the NATO-backed rebels in Benghazi. The leadership of the Stop the War Coalition had claimed that the Benghazi rebellion, as part of the Arab Spring was a "popular rising" and Gaddafi the head of a "brutal dictatorship." The CPGB-ML claimed that the Stop the War Coalition was taking a pro-imperialist line, that the Benghazi rebels were CIA/MI6 backed and that this pro-imperialist line was influenced by the "various Trotskyite, revisionist and left-Labour luminaries in the leadership." John Rees stated on the overthrow of Gaddafi "nobody is going to shed a tear for the fall of this brutal dictator."


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Stop the War has also campaigned against British involvement in the Syrian Civil War, which began in March 2011, organising protests ahead of votes in the British Parliament in August 2013 and December 2015.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Samir Dathi wrote for the Stop the War website in June 2013: "Whilst many of us want nothing more than to see the ruthless dictator Assad go, we cannot support the further militarisation of the conflict, which will only perpetuate the horrific violence and refugee crisis in the region. If there is to be hope for the Syrian people, the first step is for all foreign interference to cease." On the morning of the House of Commons vote on 29 August 2013 against military intervention in Syria, the conservative commentator Peter Oborne wrote in an article for "The Daily Telegraph" newspaper that Stop the War "has consistently shown far more mature judgment on these great issues of war and peace than Downing Street, the White House or the CIA. More surprising still ... [it] has often proved better informed than these centres of Western power, coolly warning against the diet of propaganda masquerading as bona fide intelligence."


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The vote was "a vindication of the mass anti-war movement in this country over the last decade", wrote Andrew Murray in "The Guardian". "The possibility is now open for Britain playing a different role in the world, breaking with the policies and preoccupations of imperialism", but "that change is nothing like secured yet." The then chair of Stop the War, Jeremy Corbyn, thanked supporters for lobbying their MPs. "There still exists the danger of renewed conflict as the interests of the military, arms dealers, and others remains ever present and very powerful", he wrote.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Stop the War has been accused of having pro-Assad links. According to the journalist Andrew Gilligan in "The Daily Telegraph", many individuals associated with Stop the War openly favour the Assad government. StWC vice-president Kamal Majid said in a speech at a conference organised by the New Communist Party in 2012 that the Assad family has "a long history of resisting imperialism", and should be supported "because their defeat will pave the way for a pro-Western and pro-US regime".


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: In November 2013, it was announced that Mother Superior Agnes Mariam de la Croix had withdrawn from a forthcoming Anti-war conference organised by Stop the War for 30 November, after journalists Owen Jones and Jeremy Scahill had refused to share a platform with her because of accusations that she is a supporter of the Assad government. According to Amr Salahi, writing for the "Left Foot Forward" website, no Syrian was among the speakers at the event, but the former "Guardian" foreign correspondent Jonathan Steele said that he would have happily shared the platform with Mother Agnes.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: At the time of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, according to journalist James Bloodworth, "Stop the War courted controversy by appearing to back the Russian annexation".


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: From 2011, Jeremy Corbyn was the chair of the Stop the War Coalition. When he stood as a candidate for the Labour Party leadership, the organisation's national convenor, Lindsey German, advocated that he should be supported. A week after his election as Labour leader in September 2015, it became known that he was stepping down as Chair of Stop the War, but would continue to support the group.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Following the November 2015 Paris attacks, STWC published an article on their website titled "Paris reaps whirlwind of western support for extremist violence in Middle East". According to commentator Mehdi Hasan, the article blamed the rise of ISIL and the Paris attacks on “deliberate policies and actions undertaken by the United States and its allies”. The piece was criticised by Labour MPs, including Hilary Benn, then shadow foreign secretary, who said it was "wholly wrong". He said that the attacks were not the fault of the French, rather it was the "fault of the attackers." By this time, the article had already been removed from the Stop the War website. StWC issued an apology.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Murray told John Harris in an interview for "The Guardian": "It didn't represent the organisation's views on Paris, and I think it was ... well, the best one could say is, extremely insensitive." Jon Lansman, of the Corbynite Momentum pressure group, commented later about the material concerning the Paris attacks: "I think even Stop the War themselves have accepted they were stupid for publishing those articles. There were some very silly things published, and wrong things."


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: These statements were among the reasons given by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas for her resignation from StWC on 8 December. Her spokesperson said:


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: In early November 2015, Corbyn's shadow Foreign Secretary, Catherine West, said Labour would consult StWC before deciding whether to back airstrikes in Syria, prompting Labour MP Tom Harris to threaten resignation.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Following the Paris attacks and the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2249, the UK parliament voted on air strikes against ISIL in Syria. Stop the War lobbied MPs against supporting the proposal, along with members of Momentum. Both groups were accused of intimidation. The constituency office of local Labour MP Stella Creasy was protested by Waltham Forest StW and other groups, and Creasy and other MPs reported receiving heavy lobbying, leading to the popularity of the hashtag "I Stand with Stella". George Galloway dismissed the significance of the threats and Lindsey German defended the rights of protesters on the StW website: she wrote that she was "against bullying and intimidation. I condemn people who send abusive texts or messages" having received them herself.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The Labour Party gave its MPs a free vote in the debate, a decision condemned as "deplorable" by StWC. The parliamentary debate took place on 2 December, and was won by the government with the support of some Labour MPs. Hilary Benn gave the closing speech advocating air strikes, evoking the history of anti-fascism. In response, an article appeared on the StWC website. The article, soon taken down, read in part: "Benn does not even seem to realise that the jihadist movement that ultimately spawned Daesh [Isis] is far closer to the spirit of internationalism and solidarity that drove the International Brigades than Cameron's bombing campaign." A few days later, Andrew Murray commented that he thought the piece was "wholly absurd. It doesn't reflect Stop the War's view in the slightest. It was taken down as soon as I saw it was up there. I'd apologise to any Stop the War supporters who were upset by it." The editor of the website resigned.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Caroline Lucas cited her concerns that Syrians had not been allowed to speak at an StWC parliamentary meeting by its chair, Diane Abbott, as one of the reasons for her resignation. These concerns were shared by the human rights activist Peter Tatchell, who told "The Independent" that Stop the War's "opposition to US imperialism... sometimes mean[s] they will ignore the horrendous crimes of despotic anti-American regimes like Russia and Iran." In a letter to "The Guardian", Tatchell and other "previous strong supporters" accused StWC of having "lost its moral compass and authority". On Channel 4, Tatchell described the group's work opposing the war on Iraq as "extraordinary and brilliant", but said that they had "completely lost the plot on Syria."


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: On 10 December 2015 on the Coalition's website, John Rees wrote that Stop the War does not support the Assad regime. It "does believe that it is the people of Syria who are the only ones who should decide the fate of their country free of all great power and regional power interference".


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Corbyn's continued involvement in the group became a source of friction with other leading members of the Labour Party. The former Labour shadow cabinet minister for Education, Tristram Hunt, described the group as a "really disreputable organisation" on 6 December when Corbyn's intention to attend the group's fundraising Christmas dinner on 11 December was becoming an issue. Former shadow ministers Emma Reynolds and Caroline Flint also urged him to distance himself from the group. Reynolds referred to the "abhorrent views" of Stop the War's leadership and described the group's positions as being "anti-West rather than anti-war", while Flint said they "are not Labour's friends".


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Attendance at the Stop the War event on 11 December cost £50 a head and included entertainment by musician Dmitri van Zwanenberg and comedian Francesca Martinez. Corbyn attended to keep a promise to formally hand over his position as StWC's chair to Andrew Murray. In his speech at the event, at a Turkish restaurant in Southwark, south London, Corbyn said the "anti-war movement has been a vital force at the heart of our democracy" and "I think we've been right on what we've done". Kurds who supported British airstrikes on ISIL targets also protested outside the dinner.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Tariq Ali, in an article for "The Independent", thought the recent attacks on Stop the War were motivated by the "nasty and unpleasant war being waged in England, targeting Jeremy Corbyn" and wondered if the distancing of leading Green activists from Stop the War was because Corbyn "is attracting the electoral support of large numbers of hitherto Green supporters".


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: At the same time, "Jewish News" wrote that several controversial articles were deleted from the group’s website, including some advocating war against Israel. According to "Jewish News", "One appeared to sympathise with jihadists", while another , by Richard Falk, was titled "Time to go to war with Israel as the only path to peace in the Middle East".


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Stop The War prevented pro-revolution Syrians from joining its 12 December demonstration against anti-ISIL airstrikes.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: "International Business Times" reported that a senior Muslim insider at StWC said that British Muslims were abandoning the Coalition due to its Syria positions.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: In October 2016, during the Russian-backed Syrian government siege of Aleppo, protesters heckled Corbyn at a StWC conference, where he was due to give a speech, for his failure to call for regime change in Syria. Other speakers expected to speak at the event included Anas Altikriti, described by "The Times" as "a supporter of the terrorist group Hamas", but Altikriti did not turn up.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: A few days later, Boris Johnson called for protests against Russian involvement in the Syrian civil war, saying "Where is the Stop the War Coalition at the moment? Where are they?" StWC vice chair Chris Nineham said "we can make a difference to what Britain does, we can make a difference to what our allies do to a certain extent and we have done. "But, if we have a protest outside the Russian embassy, it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference as to what Putin does because we are in Britain and we are in the West [and] a protest outside the Russian embassy would actually contribute to increasing the hysteria and the jingoism that is being whipped up at the moment against Russia... anyone who has a responsibility for peace or the future of the planet quite frankly needs to mobilise against that, and that means opposing the west."" Nineham's comments and the StWC official statement on Syria were widely criticised on social media.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Human rights advocate Peter Tatchell described StWC as in 'moral meltdown' in a December 2016 "Independent" newspaper article entitled "The Stop the War Coalition is more interested in fighting the West than fighting for Syrians". According to Tatchell:


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The Stop the War Coalition (STWC) is in moral meltdown and in the throes of a rebellion by many of its longtime supporters – including me – over its one-sided Syria protests and its persistent failure to listen to appeals from democratic, anti-war and civil society activists inside Syria...The coalition won't even campaign for airdrops of food and medical supplies to besieged civilians... In a breathtaking display of double standards, they supported aid convoys to refugees in Calais but not to those in Aleppo. No wonder the movement is increasingly discredited.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Symptomatic of the rot at the heart of Stop the War Coalition is former chair Andrew Murray's article published in the "Morning Star" in October. A leading official in the anti-war movement, Murray blasted the West but didn't even mention Russia's mass killing of women and children in Syria.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: In a January 2017 interview entitled "Here's what Jeremy Corbyn could do, to win in 2020", Tatchell spoke positively of Corbyn, who he has known for more than three decades, but called on Corbyn to distance himself from StWC:


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: It's very difficult to justify how any Left Wing person can support StWC while it maintains its current double standards. I think he needs to recognise STW is a deeply flawed organisation with deeply flawed politics.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: One of Corbyn's speeches at a Stop The War event, dating from 2011, featured in a Conservative Party attack ad in June 2017, with an extract used to portray him as soft on terrorism.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Writing in the "Jewish Chronicle", Daniel Sugarman said that, in the two years before May 2017, the StWC website had removed a number of articles from its website. One piece, by Alison Weir, concerned unsubstantiated allegations about the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Another, by Richard Falk, was titled "Time to go to war with Israel as the only path to peace in the Middle East".


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: StWC opposed Western airstrikes in Syria in April 2018, launched in response to a chemical attack on Douma, a suburb of Damascus. It said that the “overwhelming majority of people in this country oppose this action just as they have opposed the series of wars of the last seventeen years”. This statement was fact-checked by "The Week", which found the UK public was actually evenly split.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: In 2020, it demonstrated in opposition to war with Iran in the wake of the US assassination of Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian general. It said the assassination was "an act of war by Donald Trump. The act was carried out in Baghdad, violating all agreements with the Iraqi government. Both Iran and Iraq will retaliate."In May 2021, it protested alongside the Palestine Solidarity Campaign against Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, and again in June 2021 to call for sanctions on Israel.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: "Stop the War opposes any war over Ukraine, and believes the crisis should be settled on a basis which recognises the right of the Ukrainian people to self-determination and addresses Russia’s security concerns."


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: The statement was signed by 11 Labour MPs including former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell and former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott. The statement was labelled "controversial" by media as it accused the United Kingdom of "sabre-rattling" over Ukraine. It was also heavily criticised by Labour Party leader Keir Starmer who wrote in an opinion article for "The Guardian":"[T]he likes of the Stop the War coalition are not benign voices for peace. At best they are naive, at worst they actively give succour to authoritarian leaders who directly threaten democracies. There is nothing progressive in showing solidarity with the aggressor when our allies need our solidarity and – crucially – our practical assistance now more than ever."


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Starmer later threatened to withdraw the party's whip from the 11 MPs unless they withdrew their signatures, which they did. McDonnell and Abbott later pulled out of attending a Stop the War rally in London amid pressure from Labour leadership.


title: Stop the War Coalition

text: Jeremy Corbyn defended the coalition's position in an opinion article for "Jacobin":Keir Starmer claims that the Stop the War Coalition is a Russian stooge. There is no evidence that they’ve done anything other than stand up for peace around the world. In my own case, there’s a record of doing so going back as long as your arm, both in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet Russia. That’s because human rights and solidarity are universal, irrespective of the convenience or inconvenience of the time. I get accused of being pro-Russian and pro-Putin—but actually my position is pro–human rights.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: Lindsey Michelle Horan (born May 26, 1994) is an American professional soccer player for Olympique Lyonnais Féminin on loan from Portland Thorns FC. She previously played for the Portland Thorns FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the highest division of women's professional soccer in the United States, and the United States women's national soccer team. In 2018, she was named NWSL MVP. Horan was a leading player for the Thorns during their 2017 championship season, scoring the winning goal in the championship game, and before that was a prolific scorer for Paris Saint-Germain FC, scoring 46 goals in 58 appearances.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: She was the leading scorer for the United States U-17 team at the 2010 CONCACAF U-17 Women's Championship.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: Horan was born May 26, 1994 and grew up in Golden, Colorado near Denver. Although she attended Golden High School, she did not play soccer for the school. Instead, she played club soccer with the Colorado Rush. She first started playing for the Colorado Edge during the U-11 tryouts. In March, when Horan was 15 years old and was one of the youngest players on the United States under-17 women's national team, she scored 12 goals in nine games (a team best) leading up to the North American/Central American/Caribbean U-17 tournament in Costa Rica. During her sophomore year at Golden, she was named to the Parade Magazine High School All-American team although she didn't play high school soccer.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: In 2012, Horan was named the top-ranked college prospect by ESPN. Although she had a scholarship to play for North Carolina, Horan bypassed her college career and signed with French club Paris Saint-Germain FC (PSG).


title: Lindsey Horan

text: Horan played for the Colorado Rush in the W-League during the 2012 season. She played three games for the team, scoring two goals and taking 19 shots.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: In July 2012, Horan signed a six-figure deal to play with the professional French club, Paris Saint-Germain FC (PSG). On January 4, 2016, Paris Saint-Germain announced Horan's contract had been terminated to allow her to return to the United States. She played her final game on December 5, 2015, a 5–0 win over FCF Juvisy. Horan scored the match's opening goal. Horan scored 46 goals in 58 appearances for PSG.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: Unlike her role at PSG, Horan for Portland plays in central midfield in a position similar to her national-team role.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: Horan scored the only goal in Portland's 1–0 win over the North Carolina Courage in the 2017 NWSL Championship and was named NWSL Championship MVP.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: Horan was named Player of the Month for July 2018, she scored three goals in July, helping the Thorns to a 3–0–0 record for the month. She was named to the 2018 NWSL Best XI, and on September 21, 2018 she was named 2018 NWSL Most Valuable Player.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: In 2020, she was a key player in helping Thorns win the Fall Series and the associated Community Shield, and in 2021, did the same for the Thorns' winning the NWSL Challenge Cup, the Women's International Champions Cup, and the NWSL Shield.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: Horan played for the United States women's national under-17 soccer team and was the leading scorer for the team at the 2010 CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship. She helped the United States women's national under-20 soccer team win the 2012 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship in March by scoring four goals, including a hat trick against Guatemala in the group stage. Horan was unable to play in the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup because of a knee injury that required surgery.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: In February 2013, at the age of eighteen, she was named to the senior team roster for the 2013 Algarve Cup. She earned her first cap for the senior team during a group stage match against China at the Algarve on March 8, 2013. Horan was called up to the senior roster near the end of 2015, and scored her first goal for the senior team during a 'Woman of the Match' performance against Trinidad & Tobago in December 2015. She is on the roster for the 2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Championship and started the opening group stage match against Costa Rica in central midfield.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: While Horan played successfully as a striker during her time at PSG, with 46 goals in 56 appearances, she played in central midfield after her return to the national team in 2016.


title: Lindsey Horan

text: Horan was called up for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, scoring her first World Cup goal in the opening game against Thailand on 11 June. On January 31, 2020, she scored her first career hat-trick against Panama in the 2020 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Championship in addition to assisting goals scored by Lynn Williams and Tobin Heath.<ref group=m name="goal014/015/016"></ref>


title: Lindsey Horan

text: On 24 July 2021, Horan played her 100th match for USWNT, and scored a goal in a 6–1 win over New Zealand in the 2020 Summer Olympics.


title: George Tobias

text: George Tobias (July 14, 1901 – February 27, 1980) was an American theater, film and television actor. He had character parts and supporting roles in several major films of Hollywood's Golden Age. He is also known for his role as Abner Kravitz on the TV sitcom "Bewitched" from 1964 to 1971.


title: George Tobias

text: Born in New York on July 14, 1901, Tobias was the younger of two sons born to Russian-Jewish immigrants Samuel and Esther—aka Nettie—Tobias, both of whom were active in the Yiddish theatre, as was his older brother Benjamin. Far removed fom the stereotypical stage parent, both Mr. and Mrs. Tobias did their utmost to discourage the acting bug in their youngest:


title: George Tobias

text: "[T]hey made up their minds very definitely that I was not going to spend my life nearly starving as they did. They wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer, but I knew from a very early age that I would follow the same career as my mother, father and brother[...] So whenever I got an acting job in between my other jobs, I had to keep it secret from my family."


title: George Tobias

text: Tobias began acting at age 15, at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. He appeared in Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy Ape" in 1922, and in Charles Méré's "La Flamme" and Channing Pollock's "The Fool" the following year, before making his Broadway debut in Maxwell Anderson's "What Price Glory?" in 1924.


title: George Tobias

text: In 1939, he signed with Warner Bros. and was cast in supporting roles, many times along with James Cagney, in such movies as Cagney's "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942), as well as with Gary Cooper in "Sergeant York" (1941) and Irving Berlin, Ronald Reagan, and George Murphy in "This Is the Army" (1943). In 1950, he was cast against type as a ruthless killer and felon in the film noir "Southside 1-1000".


title: George Tobias

text: During the 1959 television season Tobias was a regular on the "Hudson's Bay" series, playing Pierre Falcon.


title: George Tobias

text: Tobias portrayed Penrose in eight episodes of the ABC program "Adventures in Paradise" (1959–1961). From 1964 to 1971, he played Abner Kravitz, the long-suffering neighbor on the ABC sitcom "Bewitched". Tobias often appeared in an uncredited role as a courtroom spectator on the CBS program "Perry Mason", and he played Sidney Falconer in the episode titled "The Case of the Antic Angel" (1964).


title: George Tobias

text: Tobias never married and retired from acting in 1977 after reprising his role as Abner Kravitz in a guest appearance on the "Bewitched" sequel "Tabitha".


title: George Tobias

text: On February 27, 1980, Tobias died of Bladder cancer at the age of 78 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He is buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Glendale, Queens, New York City.


title: Kings of Leon discography

text: The discography of Kings of Leon, an American rock band, consists of eight studio albums, one live album, two compilation albums, two video album, five extended plays, 26 singles, one promotional single and 26 music videos. As of 2016 the band has sold over 21 million albums worldwide and 38 million singles. The band released their debut extended play "Holy Roller Novocaine" in February 2003, followed by the release of the extended play "What I Saw" in May. Their debut studio album, "Youth and Young Manhood", was released in July 2003, peaking at number 113 on the US "Billboard" 200 and number three on the UK Albums Chart. The album has since been certified two times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and three times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Three singles were released from the album, including the UK top 40 hit "Molly's Chambers". In November 2004, Kings of Leon released their second album, "Aha Shake Heartbreak". The album peaked at number 55 on the "Billboard" 200 and number three on the UK Albums Chart. It has been certified double platinum by the BPI and the ARIA. The album's first single, "The Bucket", peaked at number 16 in the UK; it also became the band's first single to chart in the United States, where it peaked at number 23 on the US "Billboard" Alternative Songs chart.


title: Kings of Leon discography

text: In March 2007, the band's third album "Because of the Times" was released, peaking at number 25 on the "Billboard" 200 and topping the Irish, New Zealand and UK albums charts. Two of the album's singles, "On Call" and "Fans", became top 20 hits in the UK. "Because of the Times" has since been certified two times platinum by the ARIA and by the BPI and three times platinum by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). The band saw their biggest commercial success with the release of their fourth studio album, "Only by the Night", in September 2008. The album spawned the hit singles "Sex on Fire" and "Use Somebody", which peaked at numbers 56 and 4 respectively on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and became top ten hits in multiple other countries. "Only by the Night" peaked at number four on the "Billboard" 200, while topping the charts in the charts of multiple countries, including Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK. It received multiple multi-platinum certifications; the album was certified double platinum by the RIAA, eleven times platinum by the ARIA and nine times platinum by the BPI. "Only by the Night" went on to become the twenty-first best selling album worldwide in 2008, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.


title: Kings of Leon discography

text: "Come Around Sundown", the band's fifth studio album, was released in October 2010. The album peaked at number two on the "Billboard" 200 and topped the charts in countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. The album has since been certified Gold by the RIAA and two times platinum by the ARIA. "Radioactive", the first single from "Come Around Sundown", peaked at number 37 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and topped the Alternative Songs chart.


title: Kristoffer Ajer

text: Kristoffer Vassbakk Ajer (born 17 April 1998) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays for Premier League club Brentford and the Norway national team. Ajer has previously played for Start in the Tippeligaen and Celtic in the Scottish Premiership, where he also had a loan spell with Kilmarnock. Ajer played as a midfielder when he was at Start but when he was at Celtic he switched to a defender, presumably due to his height.


title: Kristoffer Ajer

text: Kristoffer Vassbakk Ajer was born in Rælingen, Viken County in Norway on 17 April 1998. In his younger years he was doing athletics, handball and ice hockey before ending up playing football.


title: Kristoffer Ajer

text: As a youth player he originally started his footballing career at Rælingen FK before joining Lillestrøm SK when he was eleven years old. He was eventually picked up by IK Start in 2014, which marked the start of his professional footballing career as a result of his parents moving to the city of Kristiansand on the Southern coast of Norway.


title: Kristoffer Ajer

text: While playing professionally for IK Start, he attended "Kristiansand Katedralskole Gimle" (High School) where he was known as a very conscientious and diligent student receiving a total of 18 straight A's. He attributed this to his strong competitive instinct and self-discipline, as well as the support from his teachers and parents and the fact that he values having a good education outside of his footballing career. Ajer originally planned enrolling at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oslo while simultaneously playing football professionally, but he has since put those plans on hold. On the reasons why he excelled as a footballer, he attributed this to his early physical development, strength and maturity:


title: Kristoffer Ajer

text: He is also a mentor/ambassador for the Equinor campaign for future athletes, entrepreneurs and talents in Norway called "Morgendagens Helter" ("Heroes of Tomorrow").


title: Kristoffer Ajer

text: At 16 years of age, Ajer captained Start in a 1–1 draw against Lillestrøm on 7 April 2015, becoming the youngest ever footballer to captain a team in the Tippeligaen. While playing for IK Start he played both as a central midfielder, but was gradually placed as a central defender.


title: Kristoffer Ajer

text: In early January 2016, Ajer had a one-week trial with Scottish club Celtic. On 17 February 2016, he signed a four-year contract with Celtic and joined the club in June 2016 for a fee which could rise up to £650,000. He was loaned to Kilmarnock in January 2017 and returned to his parent club to become a mainstay in central defence. On 14 May 2018, Ajer penned a new four-year deal with Celtic. On 30 August, Ajer scored his first goal for Celtic in a 3–0 win against FK Sūduva.


title: Kristoffer Ajer

text: On 24 October 2019, Ajer made his 100th appearance in all competitions for Celtic's first team in a Europa League match against Lazio.


title: Kristoffer Ajer

text: On 21 July 2021, Ajer completed a move to Premier League club Brentford on a five-year deal for an undisclosed fee.


title: Kristoffer Ajer

text: On 13 March 2018, he was called up for the first time in the senior national team, ahead of the friendly matches against Australia and Albania, scheduled for the following 23 and 26 March respectively. He made his debut on 23 March, in a 4–1 victory over the Australia national team.


title: Memory Stick

text: The Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, originally launched by Sony in late 1998. In addition to the original Memory Stick, this family includes the Memory Stick PRO, a revision that allows greater maximum storage capacity and faster file transfer speeds; Memory Stick Duo, a small-form-factor version of the Memory Stick (including the PRO Duo); the even smaller Memory Stick Micro (M2), and the Memory Stick PRO-HG, a high speed variant of the PRO to be used in high-definition video and still cameras.


title: Memory Stick

text: As a proprietary format, Sony exclusively used Memory Stick on its products in the 2000s such as Cyber-shot digital cameras, Handycam digital camcorders, WEGA and Bravia TV sets, VAIO PCs, digital audio players, and the PlayStation Portable game console, with the format being licensed to a few other companies early in its lifetime. With the increasing popularity of Secure Digital around 2010, Sony started to include SD in their devices which was seen as a Sony loss in the memory-card business. Despite this, Sony continues to support Memory Stick on certain devices.


title: Memory Stick

text: The original Memory Stick, which was launched in October 1998, was available in capacities up to 128 MB.


title: Memory Stick

text: In October 1999, Sony licensed the technology to Fujitsu, Aiwa, Sanyo, Sharp, Pioneer and Kenwood, in a bid to avoid a repetition of the Betamax failure. Other companies were also licensees to the format. Some early examples of Memory Stick usage by third-party companies include Sharp's MP3 players, Alpine's in-dash players, and Epson's printers.


title: Memory Stick

text: Initially the format had a lukewarm reception, but it soon increased in popularity, especially after the licensing deal. In spring 2001, Memory Stick attained 25% market share (against CompactFlash's 40% and SmartMedia's 32%), up from 7% a year earlier. By May 2001, total shipment of Memory Stick units surpassed 10 million.


title: Memory Stick

text: However the SD card, jointly developed by Toshiba, Panasonic and SanDisk, became widely popular among companies and soon became the most popular flash format by November 2003 it held 42% market share in the United States, ahead of CompactFlash's 26% and Memory Stick with 16%. Eventually Sony itself became the only company to support the format. Sony was often criticized for the Memory Stick, as they were deemed to be expensive compared to other formats.


title: Memory Stick

text: , it appeared that Sony had begun to combine support for SD/SDHC and Memory Stick formats in their products. All digital cameras and camcorders announced by Sony at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show could use SD and SDHC cards as well as Memory Sticks. Furthermore, Sony announced the release of its own line of SD cards. Many claimed this development as the end of the format war between Memory Stick and SD card. However, Sony did not abandon the format at this time, and indicated that it would continue development of the format for the foreseeable future. A prime example was the development of WiFi transfers through a special Memory Stick PRO-Duo which was still in development .


title: Memory Stick

text: Sony's first significant migration away from Memory Stick did not come until 2019, when it introduced the α7R IV full-frame mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera without Memory Stick support, opting instead for dual SDXC slots.


title: Memory Stick

text: Typically, Memory Sticks are used as storage media for a portable device, in a form that can easily be removed for access by a personal computer. For example, Sony digital compact cameras use Memory Stick for storing image files. With a Memory Stick-capable memory card reader a user can copy the pictures taken with the Sony digital camera to a computer. Sony typically included Memory Stick reader hardware in its first-party consumer electronics, such as digital cameras, digital music players, PDAs, cellular phones, the VAIO line of laptop computers, TV sets under the WEGA and Bravia names, and Sony's handheld gaming device, the PlayStation Portable.


title: Memory Stick

text: A special Memory Stick can be inserted in the hindquarters of Sony's AIBO robot pet, to enable the use of Aiboware—software intended for use on AIBOs. The Sticks include a copy protection mechanism used by the robot, allowing users to write programs. These are referred to as "programmable" or "programming". Only 8 MB and 16 MB versions are available.


title: Memory Stick

text: An adapter was made for the original Memory Stick that allowed them to be used in a floppy disk drive. This adapter, which took CR2016 cells for power, was meant for those who did not have an existing Memory Stick drive.


title: Memory Stick

text: The original Memory Stick is approximately the size and thickness of a stick of chewing gum. It was available in capacities from 4 MB to 128 MB (1 MB = one million bytes). It was available both with and without MagicGate support. The MagicGate-capable memory sticks were white-colored, while the standard version was purple. The original Memory Stick is no longer manufactured.


title: Memory Stick

text: In response to the storage limitations of the original Memory Stick, Sony introduced the Memory Stick Select at CES 2003 on January 9. The Memory Stick Select contained two separate 128 MB partitions which the user could switch between using a physical switch on the card. This solution was fairly unpopular, but it did give users of older Memory Stick devices more capacity. Its physical size remained the same as the original Memory Stick.


title: Memory Stick

text: The Memory Stick PRO, introduced on January 9, 2003, as a joint effort between Sony and SanDisk, would be the longer-lasting solution to the space problem. Most devices that use the original Memory Sticks support both the original and PRO sticks since both formats have identical form factors. Some readers that were not compatible could be upgraded to Memory Stick PRO support via a firmware update. Memory Stick PROs have a marginally higher transfer speed and a maximum "theoretical" capacity of 32 GB, although GB-sized capacities of more than 2GB are only available in the PRO Duo form factor. "High Speed" Memory Stick PROs are available, and newer devices support this high-speed mode, allowing for faster file transfers. All Memory Stick PROs larger than 1 GB support this high-speed mode, and High Speed Memory Stick PROs are backwards-compatible with devices that don't support the high-speed mode. High-capacity Memory Sticks such as the 4 GB versions are expensive compared to other types of flash memory such as SD cards and CompactFlash. , 512 MB Memory Stick PRO can be bought.


title: Memory Stick

text: The Memory Stick Duo was developed in response to Sony's need for a smaller flash memory card for pocket-sized digital cameras, cell phones and the PlayStation Portable (the later of which supported the Memory Stick PRO Duo variant). It is slightly smaller than the competing Secure Digital (SD) format and roughly two thirds the length of the standard Memory Stick form factor, but costs more. Memory Stick Duos are available with the same features as the larger standard Memory Stick, available with and without high speed mode, and with and without MagicGate support. The Memory Stick PRO Duo has replaced the Memory Stick Duo due to its 128 MB size limitation, but has kept the same form factor as the Duo.


title: Memory Stick

text: A simple adapter allows Memory Stick Duo to be used in devices designed to accept the original Memory Stick form factor.


title: Memory Stick

text: The Memory Stick PRO Duo (MSPD) quickly replaced the Memory Stick Duo due to the Duo's size limitation of 128 MB and slow transfer speed. Memory Stick PRO Duos are available in all the same variants as the larger Memory Stick PRO, with and without High Speed mode, and with and without MagicGate support.


title: Memory Stick

text: Sony has released different versions of Memory Stick PRO Duo. A Memory Stick PRO Duo with MagicGate was released as a 512 MB stick. Additionally, a 16 GB version in March 2008 and another a 32 GB version on August 21, 2009. In 2009, Sony and SanDisk also announced the joint development of an expanded Memory Stick PRO format tentatively named "Memory Stick PRO Format for Extended High Capacity". Sony has since finalized the format and released its specification under the new name, "Memory Stick XC" (see below).


title: Memory Stick

text: On December 11, 2006, Sony, together with SanDisk, announced the Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo. While only serial and 4-bit parallel interfaces are supported in the Memory Stick PRO format, an 8-bit parallel interface was added to the Memory Stick PRO-HG format. Also, the maximum interface clock frequency was increased from 40 MHz to 60 MHz. With these enhancements, a theoretical transfer rate of 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s) is achieved, which is three times faster than the Memory Stick PRO format.


title: Memory Stick

text: In a joint venture with SanDisk, Sony released a new Memory Stick format on February 6, 2006. The Memory Stick Micro (M2) measures 15 × 12.5 × 1.2 mm (roughly one-quarter the size of the Duo) with 64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB capacities available. The format has a theoretical limit of 32 GB and maximum transfer speed of 160 Mbit/s. However, as with the "PRO Duo" format, it has been expanded through the "XC" series as "Memory Stick XC Micro" and "Memory Stick XC-HG Micro", both with the "theoretical" maximum capacity of 2 TB.


title: Memory Stick

text: The M2 comes with an adapter, much like the Duo Sticks, to ensure physical compatibility with Memory Stick PRO devices. However, not all devices with a PRO slot are compatible with the M2/Adapter combination, as the firmware of older devices don't support the higher capacity of some M2 cards. One example is certain Sony CLIÉ PDAs which don't support cards larger than 2 GB.


title: Memory Stick

text: Sony announced on June 1, 2009, that M2 support in Sony Ericsson phones would be dropped in favor of microSD.


title: Memory Stick

text: On January 7, 2009, SanDisk and Sony announced the Memory Stick XC format (tentatively named "Memory Stick Format Series for Extended High Capacity" at the time). The Memory Stick XC has a maximum "theoretical" 2 TB capacity, 64 times larger than that of the Memory Stick PRO Duo which is limited to 32 GB. XC series has the same form factors as PRO series, and supports MagicGate content protection technology as well as Access Control function as PRO series does. In line with the rest of the industry, the XC series uses the newer exFAT file system due to size and formatting limitations of FAT/FAT16/FAT32 filesystems used in the PRO series. A maximum transfer speed of 480 Mbit/s (60 Mbyte/s) is achieved through 8-bit parallel data transfer. No Memory Stick XC cards were released to the market, likely due to domination of SD cards; its equivalent here is named SDXC and eventually became more successful than any other exFAT-based memory card format.


title: Memory Stick

text: Sony announced the release of the Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX on May 17, 2011, which was considered the fastest card ever made by the manufacturer. It measures 20 × 31 × 1.6 mm, with 8 GB, 16 GB, or 32 GB versions available. Also, the format offers a maximum transfer speed of 50 MB/s.