History.

International broadcasting, in a limited extent, began during World War I, when German and British stations broadcast press communiqués using Morse code. With the severing of Germany's undersea cables, the wireless telegraph station in Nauen was the country's sole means of long-distance communication.  The US Navy Radio Service radio station in New Brunswick, Canada, transmitted the 'Fourteen Points' by wireless to Nauen in 1917. In turn, Nauen station broadcast the news of the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II on November 10, 1918.

Origins.

Guglielmo Marconi pioneered the use of short wave radio for long-distance transmissions in the early 1920s. Using a system of parabolic reflector antennae, Marconi's assistant, Charles Samuel Franklin, rigged up a large antenna at Poldhu Wireless Station, Cornwall, running on 25 kW of power. In June and July 1923, wireless transmissions were completed during nights on 97 meters from Poldhu to Marconi's yacht "Elettra" in the Cape Verde Islands. High speed shortwave telegraphy circuits were then installed from London to Australia, India, South Africa and Canada as the main element of the Imperial Wireless Chain from 1926.  The Dutch began conducting experiments in the shortwave frequencies in 1925 from Eindhoven. The radio station PCJJ began the first international broadcasting on March 11, 1927 with programmes in Dutch for colonies in the Dutch West Indies and Dutch East Indies and in German, Spanish and English for the rest of the world. The popular Happy Station show was inaugurated in 1928.  In 1927, Marconi also turned his attention toward long distance broadcasting on shortwave. His first such broadcasts took place to commemorate Armistice Day in the same year. He continued running a regular international broadcast that was picked up around the world, with programming from the 2LO station, then run by the BBC. The success of this operation caught the BBC's attention, and rented out a shortwave transmitting station in Chelmsford, with the callsign G5SW, to Marconi. The BBC Empire Service was finally inaugurated on December 19, 1932, with transmissions aimed towards Australia and New Zealand.

Expansion.

Other notable early international broadcasters included Vatican Radio (February 12, 1931), Radio Moscow, the official service of the Soviet Union (renamed the Voice of Russia, following the collapse of the Soviet Union). Clarence W. Jones started transmitting on Christmas Day, 1931 from Christian missionary radio station HCJB in Quito, Ecuador. Broadcasting in South Asia was launched in 1925 in Ceylon - Radio Ceylon, now the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation is the oldest in the region. Shortwave broadcasting from Nauen in Germany to the US, Central and South America, and the Far East began in 1926. A second station, Zeesen, was added in 1931. In January 1932, the German Reichspost assumed control of the Nauen station and added to its shortwave and longwave capacity. Once Adolf Hitler assumed power in 1933, shortwave, under the "Auslandsrundfunk" (Foreign Radio Section), was regarded as a vital element of Nazi propaganda.  German shortwave hours were increased from two hours a day to 18 per day, and eventually twelve languages were broadcast on a 24-hour basis, including English. A 100 kilowatt transmitter and antenna complex was built at Zeesen, near Berlin. Specialty target programming to the United States began in 1933, to South Africa, South America, and East Asia in 1934, and South Asia and Central America in 1938. German propaganda was organized under Joseph Goebbels, and played a key role in the German annexation of Austria and the Munich Crisis of 1938.  In 1936, the International Radio Union recognized Vatican Radio as a "special case" and authorized its broadcasting without any geographical limits. On December 25, 1937, a Telefunken 25-kW transmitter and two directional antennas were added. Vatican Radio broadcast over 10 frequencies.  During the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalist forces received a powerful Telefunken transmitter as a gift of Nazi Germany to aid their propaganda efforts, and until 1943 Radio Nacional de España collaborated with the Axis powers to retransmit in Spanish news from the official radio stations of Germany and Italy.

World War II.

During the Second World War, Russian, German, British, and Italian international broadcasting services expanded. In 1942, the United States initiated its international broadcasting service, the Voice of America. In the Pacific theater, General Douglas MacArthur used shortwave radio to keep in touch with the citizens of the Japanese-occupied Philippine Islands.  Several announcers who became well known in their countries included British Union of Fascists member William Joyce, who was one of the two "Lord Haw-Haw"s; Frenchmen Paul Ferdonnet and André Olbrecht, called "the traitors of [Radio] Stuttgart"; and Americans Frederick William Kaltenbach, "Lord Hee-Haw", and Mildred Gillars, one of the two announcers called "Axis Sally". Listeners to German programs often tuned in for curiosity's sake—at one time, German radio had half a million listeners in the U.S.--but most of them soon lost interest. Japan had "Tokyo Rose", who broadcast Japanese propaganda in English, along with American music to help ensure listeners.  During World War II, Vatican Radio's news broadcasts were banned in Germany. During the war, the radio service operated in four languages.  The British launched Radio SEAC from Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) during World War II. The station broadcast radio programs to the allied armed forces across the region from their headquarters in Ceylon.  Following the war and German partition, each Germany developed its own international broadcasting station: Deutsche Welle, using studios in Cologne, West Germany, and Radio Berlin International (RBI) in East Germany. RBI's broadcasts ceased shortly before the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990, and Deutsche Welle took over its transmitters and frequencies.

Cold War Era.

The Cold War led to increased international broadcasting (and jamming), as Communist and non-Communist states attempted to influence each other's domestic population. Some of the most prominent Western broadcasters were the Voice of America, the BBC World Service, and the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Soviet Union's most prominent service was Radio Moscow and China used Radio Peking (then Radio Beijing, now China Radio International). In addition to the U.S.-Soviet cold war, the Chinese-Russian border dispute led to an increase of the numbers of transmitters aimed at the two nations, and the development of new techniques such as playing tapes backwards for reel-to-reel recorders.  West Germany resumed regular shortwave broadcasts using Deutsche Welle on May 3, 1953. Its Julich transmitter site began operation in 1956, with eleven 100-kW Telefunken transmitters. The Wertachtal site was authorized in 1972 and began with four 500-kW transmitters. By 1989, there were 15 transmitters, four of which relayed the Voice of America. Meanwhile, in East Germany, the Nauen site began transmitting Radio DDR, later Radio Berlin International, on October 15, 1959. In addition to these states, international broadcast services grew in Europe and the Middle East. Under the presidency of Gamal Nasser, Egyptian transmitters covered the Arab world; Israel's service, Kol Yisrael, served both to present the Israeli point of view to the world and to serve the Jewish diaspora, particularly behind the Iron Curtain.  Radio RSA, as part of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, was established in 1966 to promote the image of South Africa internationally and reduce criticism of apartheid. It continued in 1992, when the post-apartheid government renamed it Channel Africa.  Ironically, the isolationist Albania under Enver Hoxha, virtually a hermit kingdom, became one of the most prolific international broadcasters during the latter decades of the Cold War, with Radio Tirana one of the top five broadcasters in terms of hours of programming produced.  Estimated total programme hours per week of some external broadcasters

Today.

At the end of the Cold War, many international broadcasters cut back on hours and foreign languages broadcast, or reemphasized other language services. For example, in 1984, Radio Canada International broadcast in English, French, German, Spanish, Czech/Slovak, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. In 2005, RCI broadcast in English, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and Spanish. There is a bigger trend towards TV (e.g. BBC World News, NHK World, CCTV-9) and news websites. Some services, such as Swiss Radio International, left shortwave altogether and exist in Internet form. In addition, new standards, such as Digital Radio Mondiale, are being introduced, as well as sending programs over the Web to be played back later, as "podcasts".  International broadcasting using the traditional audio-only method will not cease any time soon due to its cost efficiencies. However, international broadcasting via television is considered more strategically important at least since the early 2000s.  The BBC World Service was the first broadcaster to consider setting up a satellite television news and information channel as far back as 1976, but ceded being the first to CNN (that had primary access to Canada soon after launch). The defunct BBC World Service Antigua Relay Station was built in 1976, but its setup costs were not known to have been part of the BBCWS decision processes at the time.  In the early 1990s, many international (as well as domestic) 24-hour news and information channels launched as part of the post-Cold War prosperity bubble. There was another burst of global news channels launching in the late 2000s as part the developing world trying to catch up with the developed world in this area.

Reasons for international broadcasting.

Broadcasters in one country have several reasons to reach out to an audience in other countries. Commercial broadcasters may simply see a business opportunity to sell advertising or subscriptions to a broader audience. This is more efficient than broadcasting to a single country, because domestic entertainment programs and information gathered by domestic news staff can be cheaply repackaged for non-domestic audiences.  Governments typically have different motivations for funding international broadcasting. One clear reason is for ideological, or propaganda reasons. Many government-owned stations portray their nation in a positive, non-threatening way. This could be to encourage business investment in or tourism to the nation. Another reason is to combat a negative image produced by other nations or internal dissidents, or insurgents. Radio RSA, the broadcasting arm of the apartheid South African government, is an example of this. A third reason is to promote the ideology of the broadcaster. For example, a program on Radio Moscow from the 1960s to the 1980s was "What is Communism?"  A second reason is to advance a nation's foreign policy interests and agenda by disseminating its views on international affairs or on the events in particular parts of the world. During the Cold War the American Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty and Indian Radio AIR were founded to broadcast news from "behind the Iron Curtain" that was otherwise being censored and promote dissent and occasionally, to disseminate disinformation. Currently, the US operates similar services aimed at Cuba and the People's Republic of China.  The BBC World Service, the Voice of America, All India Radio and other western broadcasters have emphasized news broadcasts, particularly to countries that are experiencing repression or civil unrest and whose populations are unable to obtain news from non-government sources. In the case of emergencies, a nation may broadcast special programs overseas to inform listeners what is occurring. During Iraqi missile strikes on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, Kol Israel relayed its domestic service on its shortwave service.  Besides ideological reasons, many stations are run by religious broadcasters and are used to provide religious education, religious music, or worship service programs. For example, Vatican Radio, established in 1931, broadcasts such programs. Another station, such as HCJB or Trans World Radio will carry brokered programming from evangelists. In the case of the Broadcasting Services of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, both governmental and religious programming is provided.  Stations also broadcast to international audiences for cultural reasons. Often a station has an official mandate to keep expatriates in touch with the home country. Many broadcasters often relay their national domestic service on shortwave for that reason. Other reasons include teaching a foreign language, such as Radio Exterior de España's Spanish class, "Un idioma sin fronteras", or the Voice of America's broadcasts in Special English. In the case of major broadcasters such as the BBC World Service or Radio Australia, there is also an educational outreach.  An additional reason for international broadcasting is to maintain contact with a country's citizens travelling abroad or expatriates who have emigrated and share news from home as well as cultural programming. This role of external shortwave broadcasting has declined as advances in communications have allowed expatriates to read news from home and listen and watch to domestic broadcasts in their own language via the internet and satellite. A number of international services such as the original BBC Empire Service, Radio Netherlands, France's Poste Colonial (now Radio France International) and others were founded in part with the goal of helping draw overseas empires closer to the mother country and provide closer cultural and communication connections between the home country and its colonies, a role that became largely obsolete due to decolonization.

Means to reach an audience.

Because of this many broadcasters are discovering they can reach a wider audience through other methods (particularly the internet and satellite television) and are cutting back on (or even entirely dropping) shortwave.  An international broadcaster has several options for reaching a foreign audience:  An international broadcaster such as the BBC, Radio France International or Germany's Deutsche Welle, may use all the above methods. Several international broadcasters, such as Swiss Radio International, have abandoned shortwave broadcasting altogether, relying on Internet transmissions only. Others, such as the BBC World Service, have abandoned shortwave transmissions to North America, relying on local relays, the Internet, and satellite transmissions

Mediumwave and longwave broadcasts.

Most radio receivers in the world receive the mediumwave band (530 kHz to 1710 kHz), which at night is capable of reliable reception from 150 to 2,500 km distance from a transmitter. Mediumwave is used heavily all over the world for international broadcasting on a formal and informal basis.  In addition, many receivers used in Europe and Russia can receive the longwave broadcast band (150 to 280 kHz), which provides reliable long-distance communications over continental distances.

Shortwave broadcast.

Shortwave receivers are capable of receiving shortwave transmissions (2,000 to 30,000 kHz or 2 to 30 MHz). Depending on time of day, season of year, solar weather and Earth's geomagnetic field, a signal might reach around the world.  In previous decades shortwave (and sometimes high-powered mediumwave) transmission was regarded as the main (and often the "only") way in which broadcasters could reach an international audience. In recent years the proliferation of technologies such as satellite broadcasting, the Internet, and rebroadcasts of programming on AM and FM within target nations has meant that this is no longer necessarily the case.  Transmitter output power has increased since 1920. Higher transmitter powers do guarantee better reception in the target area. Higher transmitter power in most cases counteracts the lesser effects of jamming.  International stations generally use special directional antennas to aim the signal toward the intended audience and increase the effective power in that direction. Use of such antennas for international broadcasting began in the mid-1930s and became prominent by the 1950s. By using antennas which focus most of their energy in one direction, a modern station may achieve the equivalent, in that direction, of tens of millions of watts of radio power.

Digital Audio Broadcasting.

Some international broadcasters have become available via Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) in Europe in the 1990s, and in a similar limited way in the Americas via in-band FM (IBOC) DAB systems in the US in the 2000s. This is a popular method to reach listeners in cars that would otherwise not be accessible during that part of the day. However, in terms of the global international broadcasting audience the DAB listener base is very small—one can assume that it is less than 2% of the listener base globally.

Television.

International broadcasting via 24 hour TV news channels has its origins in North America in the early 1980s. CNN technically was the first 24-hour international news channel as it was made available in Canada soon after launch. The BBC World Service considered setting up a global TV news channel as far back as 1975, but abandoned the idea for internal reasons.  Notwithstanding a large number of international 24-hour television news and information broadcasters, the television percentage of viewers is still fairly small when compared to global radio listener numbers.  The rural populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (as well as East Asia) have radio listener bases that are far larger than the largest international TV broadcaster could hope for, yet they could be considered underserved since the end of the Cold War (when these regions had more radio broadcasts targeted at them).

Streaming video sites.

Many international television broadcasters (as well as domestic television broadcasters) have set up accounts on streaming video sites like YouTube to allow their news and information broadcasts to be globally distributed. The viewer numbers for these sites may seem huge. Cable, TVRO and terrestrial television broadcasters probably have 100 to 1,000 times larger audiences for their international broadcasting content.  International broadcasters known to maintain their own streaming video sites (not authoritative):

RSS feeds and email.

Many international broadcasters (television or radio) can reach "unreachable" audiences via email and RSS feeds. This is not at all unusual, as the first commonly agreed international broadcast was a Morse Code telegram transmitted from US President Wilson to the German Kaiser (mid-1918) via a high powered longwave transmitter on the US East Coast (this important event in international broadcasting history was described in depth in the IEEE "The History of International Broadcasting" first volume). As Morse Code is considered to be a data format, with email and RSS merely being refinements of the technology it can be said that international broadcasting has a deep relationship with modern-day datacasting.  The reach of RSS and email for international broadcasters is not really known that well, especially considering that emails get forwarded. The numbers for active RSS and email audiences are probably 5 to 20 times larger than for streaming video. It may take into the 2010s to get meaningful numbers with respect to the size of these audiences for assorted technical reasons related to the RSS and email technologies.  Email and RSS feeds can traverse telecommunications barriers that streaming video cannot, thus the larger expected audience numbers. The global economic downturn of 2008-2009 will probably increase the email and RSS audience sizes as fewer people will be able to afford high speed internet connections in North America, Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions.

Listeners.

An international broadcaster may have the technical means of reaching a foreign audience, but unless the foreign audience has a reason to listen, the effectiveness of the broadcaster is in question.  One of the most common foreign audiences consists of expatriates, who cannot listen to radio or watch television programs from home. Another common audience is radio hobbyists, who attempt to listen to as many countries as possible and obtain verification cards or letters ("QSLs"). These audiences send letters and in response few radio stations write them back. These kind of Listeners often take part in weekly and monthly quizzes and contests started by many radio stations. A third audience consists of journalists, government officials, and key businesspersons, who exert a disproportionate influence on a state's foreign or economic policy.  A fourth, but less publicized audience, consists of intelligence officers and agents who monitor broadcasts for both open-source intelligence clues to the broadcasting state's policies and for hidden messages to foreign agents operating in the receiving country. The BBC started its monitoring service in Caversham, Reading in 1936 (now BBC Monitoring). In the United States, the DNI Open Source Center (formerly the Central Intelligence Agency's Foreign Broadcast Information Service) provides the same service. Copies of OSC/FBIS reports can be found in many U.S. libraries that serve as government depositories. In addition, a number of hobbyists listen and report "spook" transmissions.  Without these four audiences, international broadcasters face difficulty in getting funding. In 2001, for example, the BBC World Service stopped transmitting shortwave broadcasts to North America, and other international broadcasters, such as YLE Radio Finland, stopped certain foreign-language programs.  However, international broadcasting has been successful when a country does not provide programming wanted by a wide segment of the population. In the 1960s, when there was no BBC service playing rock and roll, Radio Television Luxembourg (RTL) broadcast rock and roll, including bands such as the Beatles, into the United Kingdom. Similar programming came from an unlicensed, or "pirate" station, Radio Caroline, which broadcast from a ship in the international waters of the North Sea.

Restricting reception.

In many cases, governments do not want their citizens listening to international broadcasters. In Nazi Germany, a major propaganda campaign, backed by law and prison sentences, attempted to discourage Germans from listening to such stations. The practice was made illegal in 1939. In addition, the German government sold a cheap, 76-Reichsmark "People's Receiver", as well as an even cheaper 35-Reichsmark receiver, that could not pick up distant signals well.  The idea was copied by Stalin's Soviet Union, which had a nearly identical copy manufactured in the Tesla factory in Czechoslovakia. In North Korea, all receivers are sold with fixed frequencies, tuned to local stations.  The most common method of preventing reception is jamming, or broadcasting a signal on the same frequencies as the international broadcaster. Germany jammed the BBC European service during the Second World War. Russian and Eastern European jammers were aimed against Radio Free Europe, other Western broadcasters, and against Chinese broadcasters during the nadir of Sino-Soviet relations. In 2002, the Cuban government jammed the Voice of America's Radio Martí program and the Chinese government jammed Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, Radio Taiwan International as well broadcasts made by adherents of Falun Gong.  North Korea restricts most people to a single fixed frequency mediumwave receiver; those who met political requirements and whose work absolutely required familiarity with events abroad were allowed shortwave receivers. Another method of reaching people with government radio programming, but not foreign programming, is the use of radio broadcasting by direct broadcasting to loudspeakers. David Jackson, director of the Voice of America, noted "The North Korean government doesn't jam us, but they try to keep people from listening through intimidation or worse. But people figure out ways to listen despite the odds. They're very resourceful."  Yet another method of preventing reception involves moving a domestic station to the frequency used by the international broadcaster. During the Batista government of Cuba, and during the Castro years, Cuban medium-wave stations broadcast on the frequencies of popular South Florida stations. In October 2002, Iraq changed frequencies of two stations to block the Voice of America's Radio Sawa program.  Jamming can be defeated by using very efficient transmitting antennas, carefully choosing the transmitted frequency, changing transmitted frequency often, using single sideband, and properly aiming the receiving antenna.  For a list of international broadcasters, see List of international broadcasters.

International broadcasting is broadcasting that is deliberately aimed at a foreign, rather than a domestic, audience. It usually is broadcast by means of longwave, mediumwave, or (more usually) shortwave radio, but in recent years has also used direct satellite broadcasting and the internet as means of reaching audiences.

Unter Auslandsrundfunk versteht man die Sendungen einer staatlichen oder öffentlich-rechtlichen Hörfunk- oder Fernsehgesellschaft, die sich nicht an die Menschen im eigenen Land richten, sondern an Landsleute, die im Ausland leben, oder an die Bürger in anderen Ländern insgesamt.


History.

Formation as rock band and early years (2004–2005).

Panic! at the Disco was formed in 2004 in the suburban area of Summerlin, Las Vegas, by childhood friends Ryan Ross, who sang and played guitar, and Spencer Smith, who played drums. They both attended Bishop Gorman High School, and they began playing music together in ninth grade. They invited friend Brent Wilson from nearby Palo Verde High School to join on bass, and Wilson invited classmate Brendon Urie to try out on guitar. The quartet soon began rehearsing in Smith's grandmother's living room. Ross initially was the lead singer for the group, but after hearing Urie sing back-up during rehearsals, the group decided to make him the lead. Initially, Panic! at the Disco was a Blink-182 cover band.  The band, which aimed to sound different from the many death metal bands in Las Vegas, signed a recording contract without having performed a live show. Urie began working at Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Summerlin to afford rent for the band's new practice space. Urie has stated that he sang for tips during his time working, thus indicating he had some prestige as a singer. The four left their educations behind to concentrate on music; Ross had a falling out with his father when he dropped out of college, and when Urie dropped out of high school his parents kicked him out of the house.  Ross and Urie sent a demo to Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz via a LiveJournal account. Wentz, who was in Los Angeles at the time with the rest of Fall Out Boy working on the band's major-label debut, "From Under the Cork Tree", drove to Las Vegas to meet with the young, unsigned band. Upon hearing "two to three" songs during band practice, Wentz was impressed and immediately wanted the band to sign to his Fueled by Ramen imprint label Decaydance Records, which made the band the first on the new label. Around December 2004, the group signed to the label. As news broke that Wentz had signed Panic! (who had yet to perform a single live show), fans on the internet began to bash the group. "Almost right away we knew what was going to happen," Ross explained in a 2006 interview. "We had two songs online and people were already making assumptions on what kind of band we were and what we were going to sound like."  Meanwhile, Wentz began to hype the band wherever possible: from wearing "Pete! at the Disco" T-shirts onstage to mentioning the group in interviews. Wentz gave a quick shout-out to the band during a press junket on the day before the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards: "I've got a couple of bands coming out soon on Decaydance, one being this band called Panic! at the Disco," Wentz said. "Their record is going to be your next favorite record. It's called "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" – get it before your little brother does." At the time of the band's signing, all of the band members were still in high school (with the exception of Ross, who was forced to quit UNLV). Urie graduated in May 2005, and Wilson and Smith finished school online as the band left for College Park, Maryland, to record their debut record.

"A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" (2005–2007).

The band relocated to College Park, Maryland, to record its debut album from June to September 2005. Although they only had shells of songs when they arrived, the rest of the album shaped up fast through the marathon session. "We didn't have a day off in the five-and-a-half weeks we were there, 12 or 14 hours a day," Ross said in a 2005 interview. "We were making things up in our heads that weren't there, and on top of the stress of trying to finish the record, we were living in a one-bedroom apartment with four people on bunk beds," recalled Ross. "Everyone got on everybody's nerves. Someone would write a new part for a song and someone else would say they didn't like it just because you ate their cereal that morning."  The album is split into two halves: the first half is mostly electronic dance punk, while the second half features Vaudevillian piano, strings, and accordion. The band grew tired of writing only with drum machines and keyboards and, inspired by film scores (specifically the works of Danny Elfman and Jon Brion) decided to write a completely different half. "By the end of that, we were completely exhausted," said Ross of the studio sessions. After its completion, "we had two weeks to come home and learn how to be a band," Ross said. The group played its first live show during the summer of 2005 at local Las Vegas music venue The Alley on West Charleston. Afterwards, the band toured nationally on the Nintendo Fusion Tour with mentors Fall Out Boy, as well as Motion City Soundtrack, the Starting Line, and Boys Night Out for the rest of 2005.  The band's debut album, "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out", was released September 27, 2005. Sales began relatively slow. It debuted at No. 112 on the "Billboard" 200 album chart, No. 6 on the "Billboard" Independent Albums chart, and No. 1 on the "Billboard" Top Heatseekers chart, with nearly 10,000 albums sold in the first week of release. Within a span of four months, Panic! would see the video for its first single, "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", rocket up the "Billboard" Hot 100 as sales of "Fever" passed the 500,000 mark. At the end of March 2006, the band announced a headlining tour. By August, the group's debut record was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and the music video for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" won Video of the Year at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. "Some aspects of the fame are annoying, but at the end of the day it's something we're most grateful for. It's certainly opened the door to a whole new batch of opportunities," Ross said of the band's newfound fame and instant success. On May 17, 2006, Panic! at the Disco announced that original bassist Brent Wilson had left the band, "posting a statement that was both diplomatic and entirely inscrutable [...] yet [failing] to mention any reason why Wilson is leaving Panic," according to MTV News. He was replaced in the band by Jon Walker. In June, Wilson asserted to MTV News that he was kicked out of the band via a phone call. "It was done as a phone call and the only person who spoke was Spencer. Apparently, Brendon and Ryan were on the speakerphone too, but they didn't say a word. They never even said they were sorry," explained Wilson. Smith wrote a lengthy e-mail back to James Montgomery of MTV News, stating, in part, "We made the decision based on Brent's lack of responsibility and the fact that he wasn't progressing musically with the band," and revealed that Wilson did not write nor play any bass present on "Fever": Instead, Urie recorded these parts. Wilson demanded a cut in royalties, and threatened to take his former band to court.  In 2006, the band supported the Academy Is... on the band's worldwide tour "Ambitious Ones and Smoking Guns" from January to May. Beginning in June, the group headlined its first unnamed national tour, that would last until August. During the group's performance at the 2006 Reading Festival in August, the band was greeted by excessive bottling, one of which hit Urie in the face that knocked him unconscious. Despite this, the band continued with its set after Urie recovered. The band's second headlining tour, dubbed the Nothing Rhymes with Circus Tour, began in November. In roughly one year, Panic! at the Disco went from being the opening act on a five-band bill to the headliners on a massive arena tour.  The Nothing Rhymes with Circus Tour feature the band's first highly theatrical live shows, which featured every song with dance numbers, skits, and tricks performed by a six-member troupe, as the band donned intricate costumes, loosely re-enacting moments from the songs. Kelefa Sanneh of "The New York Times" noted the sudden success and circus-inspired tour of the young band in a concert review: "There’s something charming about watching a band trying to navigate sudden success, aided by a contortionist, a ribbon dancer and all the rest of it." MTV News favorably likened its theme and wardrobe to "Janet Jackson's audience-dividing, hypersexual The Velvet Rope Tour." The group, fresh off the major success of "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out", took a break after non-stop touring, and the group members began formulating ideas for their next album together during the winter of 2006.

"Pretty. Odd." and "...Live in Chicago" (2007–2009).

After a short period of development regarding the ideas of the album, on March 6, 2007 the band arrived at a cabin in the rural mountains of Mount Charleston, Nevada and began the writing process for the new album, "". After recording the new tracks and performing them live over the summer, the band returned to its native Las Vegas as well as the group's old rehearsal studio, where the band members wrote their debut record. Songs such as "Scarlet" and "It's True Love" have had lyrics found. One track from Cricket & Clover, Nearly Witches, was remastered and added to "Vices & Virtues" in 2011. The band grew uninterested in the songs previously written and by August scrapped the entire new album (which Ross later revealed was "three-quarters" done) and started over. "We wanted to approach these songs in the most basic form," Ross said. "We wrote them all on one acoustic guitar and with someone singing. I think that we kind of skipped that part of songwriting on the first record, and this time we're sort of paying attention to that. [...] We've written a bunch of songs since we've been home [Las Vegas]. I think it's the most fun and the happiest we've been since we started." With simplicity the new focus and the old album shelved, the group settled in and began recording what would become "Pretty. Odd." In October, the band entered the Studio at the Palms at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas to begin recording the album.  In January 2008, the band unveiled a new logo and dropped the exclamation point from the group's name, becoming Panic at the Disco. Released on March 21, 2008, "Pretty. Odd." was described by the band as "more organic and mellower" than "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out", as well as unintentionally and coincidentally similar to music of the Beatles, in both songwriting and scope. The record debuted at number two on the US "Billboard" 200 chart, with first-day sales of 54,000, and first-week sales of 139,000 copies in the United States. Those figures marked the band's biggest sales week to that date, beating a previous record held by "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" (which sold 45,000 during the winter of 2006). The record also debuted at "Current Alternative Albums" chart and No. 2 on the "Digital Albums" chart, the latter of which accounted for 26 percent of the disc's overall sales. The album charted high in various other countries and was eventually certified gold in the United Kingdom, however, "Pretty. Odd." received relatively disappointing sales in the face of its predecessor. "Pretty. Odd." was, however, critically acclaimed in contrast to "Fever": Barry Walters of "Spin" called Panic's debut album "embarrassing" while regarding the new record as "[daring] to be optimistically beautiful at a time when sadness and ugliness might have won them easier credibility." The band announced plans to headline the 2008 Honda Civic Tour in January 2008, which took up the majority of early touring for the album. Motion City Soundtrack, the Hush Sound and Phantom Planet opened for the tour, which performed across North America from April 10 to July 14, 2008. Throughout October and November 2008, the band toured with Dashboard Confessional and the Cab on the "Rock Band" Live Tour promoting the video game "Rock Band 2".  As expected and predicted by several music publications, the band adopted a very different style for the touring in support of "Pretty. Odd.", in contrast to the dark, circus-themed elements of the band's previous stage shows. Each show contained "woodsy set pieces, projections of flora and fauna, and mic stands wrapped in lights and flowers," and each band member dressed in a vest. While reflecting on the theatrical nature of "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" touring, Urie commented: "We did it and it was a lot of fun when we did it, but this time around I think we wanted to get back to a more intimate, personal setting, and scale it down a little bit." Ryan Ross explained that: "It's more about connecting with the audience and seeing what's gonna happen every night. It's not as scripted out and pre-planned. It makes it more exciting for us, and less monotonous every night." A live album, "...Live in Chicago", based on live recordings from Chicago during the Honda Civic Tour, was released December 2, 2008. An accompanying DVD contains photos from the tour, each music video from the album as well as behind-the-scenes footage of the videos and the tour, the short film "Panic! at the Disco In: American Valley", and the documentary feature based on the tour, "All in a Day's".  "Pretty. Odd." touring was also defined by a larger effort to remain environmentally conscious. On the tour, the band worked with two non-profit eco organizations: Reverb, which facilitates environmentally friendly touring; and Global Inheritance, which seeks to inspire more eco-activism. In a 2008 interview, Ross revealed that the band began traveling on a biodiesel bus, re-using plastics, and recycling more backstage. The band went as far as to print tour booklets on recycled paper, with soy ink, and organize an "eco-contest", in which profits from the tour went straight to environmental organizations.

Lineup change and "Vices & Virtues" (2009–2012).

In spring 2009, the band began recording material for its third studio album. However, on July 6, 2009, Ryan Ross and Jon Walker announced via the band's official website that the two were leaving the band. In an interview following the split, Ross explained that he first brought the idea to Smith in late June 2009 over lunch: "Spencer and I had lunch and caught up for a while, and then the big question came up, like, 'Well, what do you want to do?' and I said, 'Well, I think it might be best if we kind of do our own thing for a while,' and he said, 'I'm glad you said that, because I was going to say the same thing,'" Ross recalled. "And there was really no argument, which is really the best way that could've worked out." Ross said the split was largely due to creative differences between him and Urie. Urie wanted the band to explore a more polished pop sound, while Ross – and, by extension, Walker – was interested in making retro-inspired rock. Walker and Ross went on to form "The Young Veins," which only released one album "Take A Vacation". The news asserted that both tour plans with blink-182 in August 2009 and new album production "will continue as previously announced." The following day, "Alternative Press" broke the news that "New Perspective", the first song recorded without Ross and Walker, would debut the following month on radio and as a part of the soundtrack to the film "Jennifer's Body". On July 10, 2009, "Alternative Press" also reported that the band had regained the exclamation point, becoming, once again, Panic! at the Disco. "New Perspective" was released on July 28, 2009. Former guitarist of pop rock band the Cab, Ian Crawford and Dallon Weekes, frontman of indie rock band the Brobecks, filled in for Ross and Walker on tour during the blink-182 Summer Tour in August 2009.  The band re-entered the studio during early 2010 and spent much of the year recording the group's third studio album. During this time, touring bassist Dallon Weekes joined the band's official lineup along with Urie and Smith, making the band a three-piece. Although Weekes did not perform on the upcoming album, he was responsible for the conceptualization of the cover art of the album and was also featured on the album cover, masked and standing in the background behind Smith and Urie. On January 18, 2011, the band revealed that an album titled "Vices & Virtues" would officially be released on March 22, 2011. The album was produced by Butch Walker and John Feldmann. The record's first single, "The Ballad of Mona Lisa", was released digitally on February 1, 2011, with the music video being released February 8, 2011. "Vices & Virtues" was officially released March 22, 2011, to relatively positive critical reviews.  The band began touring in support of the album, christened the "Vices & Virtues" Tour, in earnest beginning in February 2011. The tour has sported the same electric, over-the-top theatricality the band was known for during the "Fever" era. "I really miss wearing costumes and makeup," Urie told "Spin". "I love throwing a big production. I've recently been reading about Tesla coils and I'm trying to figure out how I can get one that sits on the stage and shoots sparks without hurting anybody." The group was scheduled to play the Australian Soundwave Revolution festival in September/October but the festival was canceled. The band performed at the Counter-Revolution mini-festival, the festival that took its place.  On May 12, 2011, the band collaborated with indie pop band Fun. and the two groups embarked on an American tour, releasing a single together titled "C'mon." Panic! at the Disco contributed a new song "Mercenary" to for the video game "".

"Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!" (2012–2015).

After the "Vices & Virtues" tour cycle, Urie, Smith, and Weekes began writing and preparing for a fourth album. During the recording of the album, touring guitarist Ian Crawford, who joined the band in 2009 after the departure of Ryan Ross and Jon Walker, left the band citing his desire to make "real, genuine" music. On July 15, 2013, the album was announced as "Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!", with a scheduled release date of October 8, 2013. The first single, "Miss Jackson," was released on July 15, 2013, along with its music video to promote the album. Panic! at the Disco opened for Fall Out Boy on the Save Rock And Roll Arena Tour with Kenneth Harris replacing Crawford. Shortly before the band began its first tour in support of the album, Smith wrote an open letter to fans regarding his abuse of alcohol and prescription medications since the recording of "Pretty. Odd." Although Smith joined the band for the first handful of dates, he left the tour to "continue fighting addiction." Urie posted on the band's official website on August 7, 2013, that "It's become evident that Spencer still needs more time to take care of himself. I can't expect him to be fighting addiction one minute and be fully immersed in a national tour the next. With that said, the tour will continue without Spencer while he is away getting the help he needs." Since Spencer's leave of absence, Dan Pawlovich of the band Valencia has filled in on tour.  In an interview with "Pure Fresh" on September 23, 2014, Urie stated that he had already thought about ideas on the fifth studio album; however, he was not sure if it would be a Panic! at the Disco album, or a solo album. Urie has also stated there are no current plans for Smith to return to the band.

Transition to solo project and "Death of a Bachelor" (2015–2017).

On April 2, 2015, Smith announced that he had officially left the band. That same month, Urie revealed in an interview with "Kerrang!" that he was working on new material for the band's fifth studio album. On April 20, 2015, Urie released "Hallelujah" as a single without any previous formal announcements. It debuted on the "Billboard" Hot 100 at No. 40, the band's second highest ever after "I Write Sins Not Tragedies." The band performed at the KROQ Weenie Roast on May 16, 2015. On September 1, 2015, another song from the fifth studio album, "Death of a Bachelor", premiered on an Apple Music broadcast hosted by Pete Wentz. The second single, "Victorious" was released at the end of the month. On October 22, 2015, through the band's official Facebook page, Urie announced the new album as "Death of a Bachelor" with a scheduled release date of January 15, 2016. It is the first album written and composed by Urie with a team of writers, as the status of Weekes was announced to have changed from an official member to that of a touring member once again. Weekes' status was rumored during the promotion of "Death of a Bachelor" that he was no longer an official member, until it was confirmed through a blog post on October 20, 2015, and by Weekes himself on October 24, 2015, via Twitter that he was "not contributing creatively anymore." The third single "Emperor's New Clothes" was released on the same day, along with the official music video. "LA Devotee" was released November 26 as a promotional single. On December 31, 2015, the band released "Don't Threaten Me with a Good Time."  The band co-headlined the Weezer & Panic! at the Disco Summer Tour 2016 with Weezer from June to August 2016. The band released a cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in August 2016, on the "Suicide Squad" soundtrack album.  On September 22, 2016, the band released the music video for "LA Devotee." With the release came the announcement of the Death of a Bachelor Tour in 2017. MisterWives and Saint Motel were announced as the opening acts. In a December 2016 interview, Urie said that he hoped to make a music video for every song on the album "Death of a Bachelor".

"Pray for the Wicked" (2017–present).

On December 15, 2017, the band released their fourth live album "All My Friends We're Glorious: Death of a Bachelor Tour Live". It was released as a limited-edition double-vinyl and digital download. Five days later, the band released a non-album Christmas song titled "Feels Like Christmas." On December 27, bassist Dallon Weekes officially announced his departure from Panic! at the Disco after over eight years of performing in the band, subsequently shifting his focus as the frontman of the band I Don't Know How But They Found Me. On March 19, 2018, the band played a surprise show in Cleveland, Ohio with new touring bassist, Nicole Row. On March 21, 2018, the band released two new songs "Say Amen (Saturday Night)" and "(Fuck A) Silver Lining." At the same time, the band also announced the Pray for the Wicked Tour and a new album called "Pray for the Wicked".  On June 7, 2018, the band performed at the fountains at the Bellagio prior to game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The performance is said to have had sentimental value to the band as they took to the stage in their hometown. The band also performed as a headliner at the Reading and Leeds Festival 2018 which lasted over the weekend from August 24 to 26, 2018. On August 27, 2018, the band dropped the music video for the single "High Hopes". In fall of 2018, High Hopes became the highest placing single from the band, becoming number 4 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.  On September 22, 2018, the band announced that longtime touring guitarist Kenneth Harris would be dismissed following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct involving underage fans. Harris' replacement was announced to be former Sparks the Rescue guitarist Mike Naran on October 6, 2018. In 2018, Urie has expressed interest of Panic! At The Disco doing a metal album of some sorts which he has expressed unclean vocals in years prior.  The band's version of the song "Into the Unknown" is featured on the soundtrack to the 2019 film "Frozen II", and in the end credits. The song appears in the film as performed by Idina Menzel.

Musical style and influences.

Panic! at the Disco have been known to change their sound each album. Musically, they have mainly been described as pop rock, pop, pop punk, baroque pop, electropop, synth-pop, dance-punk, power pop, alternative rock, emo pop, vaudeville, and emo.  Panic! at the Disco went on record many times saying that the group's second album would be completely different from "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out", as "Rolling Stone" wrote in an article: "The group cemented its next direction with their first single, called "Nine in the Afternoon." "It's influenced by the music our parents listened to: the Beach Boys, the Kinks, the Beatles," says Ross. "Our new songs are more like classic rock than modern rock. We got older and started listening to different music – and this seems like the natural thing to do right now." "Pretty. Odd." has been described as being like "[Panic] dropping the entire Beatles catalog into a blender, adding some modern alternative ice and the horn section from Sonia Dada, then churning out a new-millennium Liverpool smoothie." In his review of the band's live album, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted, "..."Pretty. Odd." suggests that they're becoming that rare thing in 2008: a pop-oriented rock band. They might not be doing this knowingly, but the results are entertaining all the same." Urie has cited bands/artists such as Frank Sinatra, Queen, David Bowie, Weezer, Green Day and My Chemical Romance as his biggest influences.

Band members.

Current members  Former members

Discography.

Band releases Solo project releases

Tours.

Headlining  Co-headlining  Opening Act

Awards and nominations.

Other awards.

! Year!! Award!! Category!! Nominated work!! Result!! Ref.

Panic! at the Disco is the solo project of American musician Brendon Urie, accompanied on tour by drummer Dan Pawlovich, bassist Nicole Row, and guitarist Mike Naran.

Panic! at the Disco (von 2008 bis 2009 in der Schreibung Panic at the Disco) ist eine US-amerikanische Alternative-Rock-Band aus Las Vegas, Nevada, die von zwei High-School-Schülern gegründet wurde.


Plot.

Ariel and Eric celebrate the birth of their newborn daughter Melody on a ship at sea with all the merfolk of Atlantica present. Ariel sings a lullaby to baby Melody expressing her love and how she hopes Melody’s heart will always belong to her and the sea because of her mermaid heritage. Ariel's father King Triton presents Melody with a magic locket with her name on it. The party is interrupted by Ursula's younger sister Morgana, who threatens to have Melody fed to her pet tiger shark, Undertow, unless Triton surrenders his trident to her. Morgana then announces her plan to use the trident to avenge Ursula and take over the ocean. Ariel and Eric work together to foil Morgana's plan, and Triton shrinks Undertow to the size of a piranha. Morgana escapes, eluding the attempts of King Triton's forces to capture her and declaring that she will someday exact her revenge on both Ariel and Triton and avenge Ursula's death.  Fearing Morgana and remembering Ursula, Ariel decides that, until Morgana is captured, they will have to withhold all knowledge of the sea world and her heritage from Melody in order to protect her. Triton tosses the locket into the ocean, and a massive wall is built to separate the royal castle from the sea. Triton assigns Sebastian to watch over Melody.  12 years later, Melody remains unaware of her mother's mermaid heritage and is forbidden from ever going into the sea. However, she has been sneaking out of the castle regularly to swim, and one day finds the locket. She later returns to the palace for her 12th birthday party, but has a hard time fitting in with the other children her age, who thinks she's strange for "talking to fish". The party was a disaster after an accident indirectly caused by Sebastian, and while Ariel tries to comfort her, she sees her name on the locket. After Melody and Ariel have a heated argument about Ariel’s refusal to answer her questions, Melody steals a small boat and sails away from home. Melody is discovered by Undertow, who leads her straight to Morgana.  In a panic, Sebastian confesses to Ariel and Eric that Melody went out to the sea. Meanwhile, Melody meets Morgana, who reveals that Melody's background is marine, and uses the remains of Ursula's magic to transform Melody into a mermaid. Triton prepares search parties, and is convinced by Ariel and Eric to use his trident to transform Ariel back into a mermaid in order to help in the search for Melody. Ariel searches the sea for Melody, regretting not sharing her heritage with her, while Melody explores her newfound abilities as a mermaid, and has a strong feeling that she was meant to be part of the sea.  Melody visits Morgana to thank her, only for Morgana to tell Melody that the spell was only temporary, and that she can only make the spell permanent if Melody retrieves the trident from her grandfather, which Morgana claims he stole from her. Melody decides to get the trident, and during her search befriends Tip and Dash, a penguin and walrus duo who join her.  Melody succeeds in stealing the trident, and returns to Morgana, but before Melody can hand the trident over to Morgana, Ariel arrives and pleads for Melody not to give Morgana the trident. Melody refuses to listen to Ariel, having been angered by Ariel's decision to lie to her, and gives Morgana the trident. With the power of the trident in her hands, Morgana reveals her true intentions, captures Ariel with her tentacle, and traps Melody in a cave by sealing the entrance with a thick layer of ice, while also informing her that her time as a mermaid is about to expire. Morgana uses the trident's magic to be lord over the ocean, rising to the surface to gloat before restoring Undertow to his original, terrifying size.  Scuttle, Triton, Sebastian, and Eric arrive, and a battle ensues against Morgana and her minions. Undertow goes after Tip and Dash, trying to eat them both. Meanwhile, Morgana's spell on Melody wears off, causing her to revert into a human and nearly drown. Tip and Dash defeat Undertow by having him smash through the layer of ice covering the entrance to Melody's cave and crash straight into the solid rock wall behind it, knocking him unconscious and causing all of his teeth to shatter and fall out. Afterwards they grab Melody and drag her to the shore, saving her. Melody then manages to get hold of the trident and throw it back to Triton, who encases Morgana in a block of ice, which sinks underwater along with a picture of Ursula.  Melody reunites with her family, Eric and Ariel apologize to Melody for not telling her the truth years earlier, and Triton offers his granddaughter the choice of becoming a mermaid permanently. Instead, Melody uses the trident to disintegrate the wall separating her home from the sea, reuniting the humans and the merpeople.

Production.

Tip and Dash's characters and positions are similar to Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King.

Release.

Home media.

The film was released directly-to-video on September 19, 2000. It was released on May 7, 2001 in the UK. On November 6, 2006, the film was released in a bundle together with the original film in the Region 2 release. The original DVD release was later discontinued and a special edition DVD with a deleted song, "Gonna Get My Wish", and a new game was released on December 16, 2008. A package called "The Little Mermaid Trilogy", which includes all three "Little Mermaid" films, was released on the same day. This film, along with "", was released in a 2-Movie collection on DVD and Blu-ray on November 19, 2013.

Reception.

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that the film has a 33% approval rating based on 9 reviews and an average rating of 4.5/10. In 2011, "Total Film" ranked it as 27th among the 50 worst children's films ever made.

Soundtrack.

The film's official soundtrack was released on September 19, 2000, and again on October 31, 2000 in a special edition double pack with the original film's soundtrack. Additionally, two limited edition two-tracked CD samples were released as a promotion for the soundtrack.  The film's ending credits play a new recording of Part of Your World, performed by country singer Chely Wright. Another version of the song, performed by Ann Marie Boskovich, was used in some international releases of the film.

The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea is a 2000 animated direct-to-video musical adventure film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, the sequel to the 1989 Disney animated film "The Little Mermaid" and the third and final in the chronology of the story running through the series. Directed by Jim Kammerud and Brian Smith, the story of the film takes place 12 years after the original, and focuses on Ariel and Eric's daughter Melody, a human princess who longs to swim in the ocean despite her parents' law that the sea is forbidden to her. The film features the voices of Jodi Benson as Ariel, Tara Strong as Melody, and Pat Carroll as Morgana, the film's new villain. In 2008, Disney released a third film in the "Little Mermaid" series, "", which is a prequel to the original film. This was Buddy Hackett's final film role before his death in June 2003. The film received largely negative reviews with criticism directed at the plot, which many considered to be a generic rehash of the original film.

Arielle, die Meerjungfrau 2 – Sehnsucht nach dem Meer aus dem Jahr 2000 ist die Fortsetzung des Disney-Films "Arielle, die Meerjungfrau". Der Zeichentrickfilm wurde nur für den Video-Verkauf animiert.


Beginnings.

The Cat Empire's origins are traced back to Jazz Cat, a Melbourne-based band, led by Steve Sedergreen in 1999. Jazz Cat was a nine-piece group from different schools and backgrounds which debuted at the Manly Jazz Festival in Sydney. They gigged around Melbourne's jazz club scene including at Dizzy's (Sedergreen was a part-owner). Late that year, Jazz Cat spawned The Cat Empire, originally as a three-piece, with Ollie McGill on keyboards, Felix Riebl on percussion and vocals and Ryan Monro on double bass. The band's name was taken from the title of a drawing by Riebl's younger brother, Max, and its distinctive cat's eye icon, known as "Pablo", was created by Ian McGill, Ollie McGill's father. For a few months both groups performed alternate Thursdays at Dizzy's. The Cat Empire's sound is a fusion of jazz, ska, funk, indie and rock with heavy Latin influences. They started playing a variety of gigs at other clubs including Bennett's Lane. The band expanded in July 2001 by adding Harry James Angus on trumpet, Will Hull-Brown (ex-Jazz Cat) on drums and Jamshid "Jumps" Khadiwala as a DJ on turntables (later on percussion).  In late 2001, the band appeared in the Spiegeltent at the Melbourne Festival. By year's end, they had released an independent single "Feline" that October, and a live six-track extended play, "Live @ Adelphia" was released in December. In early 2002, the group played gigs at the Adelaide Festival of Arts, and in March, they headlined the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and St Kilda Film Festival. The ensemble commenced its first overseas tour on the West Coast of the United States playing at The Matrix in San Francisco and at the Napa Valley Wine Auction in June. The band received a Music for the Future grant to fund the recording of a live album, "The Sun", at Melbourne's Adelphia studio. At the Edinburgh Festival, they played sixteen successive shows in the Late 'n' Live slot between 3am and 5am. They performed at the 2002 Melbourne Festival and a series of local gigs; Kate Ceberano appeared as a guest vocalist at their final show for the year.

Debut album.

The Cat Empire recorded its debut studio album, "The Cat Empire", in seven months during 2003 with producer Andy Baldwin in Melbourne. Between recording sessions they toured Australia, including appearing at the St Kilda Festival with Ceberano, and at the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival in April. The ensemble was nominated in two categories at the Australian Jazz Bell Awards. They successfully applied for an International Pathways grant from The Australian Arts Council. The band was featured on BBC Four performing at the 2003 WOMAD Festival. The lead single, "Hello", was placed on high rotation on BBC Radio 1 in August. The group's growing live and critical reputation enabled them to approach record companies for a deal to issue the album in August. They signed with EMI and Virgin Records, and, in the UK, with an independent label.

"Two Shoes".

The Cat Empire released their second album, "Two Shoes" on 19 April 2005. It was recorded in Havana, Cuba, at Egrem Studios, late in 2004, with production by The Cat Empire, Riebl and Jerry Boys. It debuted at number 1 and until 2016 was their only album to reach the number-one position. The tracks were more Latin in flavour, with a higher proportion written by Angus than on the first album and it contained some songs previously released on their debut. Allmusic's Jeff Tamarkin wrote "Skipping merrily from alt-rock crunch to hip-hop beats, landing on reggae/ska, Latin jazz, and points in between, "Two Shoes" is clever and brainy, danceable and absorbing". The Australian version contains a hidden track, called "1001", which is coupled with the track, "The Night That Never End". The lead single, "Sly", was issued ahead of the album on 28 March and reached the top 30. The song appeared on EA Sports' "FIFA 08" soundtrack. "The Car Song", written by Angus, was released as the second single in July, and peaked in the top 50.  In July, the band played two sets at the Cambridge Folk Festival (Cambridge, United Kingdom). Later in the month, they performed a set on Sunday evening of Sheep Music (Presteigne, Wales) Festival for World music. In October, "Two Shoes Deluxe Edition" DVD was released, which contained live footage of Lullaby and The Car Song, a documentary on the making of the album in Cuba, the original video clips created for the album, and behind-the-scenes footage. The ensemble also featured on a Triple J CD entitled "Like a Version", featuring cover versions of songs performed by artists on Mel Bampton's show, "Mel In The Morning". Their track was a version of "Hotel California" (originally by the Eagles), sung in French by Angus. By the end of 2005, "The Cat Empire" achieved double platinum certificate and "Two Shoes" achieved platinum status.

"Cities" to "So Many Nights".

In March 2006, The Cat Empire participated in the opening ceremony of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, playing their own compositions for approximately an hour as the Games' athletes entered the stadium, introducing the group to an estimated worldwide audience of one billion. The band signed an American record deal with Velour Recordings, which released a modified version of the second Australian album, "Two Shoes" with different tracks.  On 1 April 2006, the group issued their third studio album, "Cities" (aka "Cities: The Cat Empire Project") in Australia, which peaked at number 11. Described by the group as "between a tribute to our own city and an experiment in sounds that we've found abroad". A limited edition of 10,000 individually numbered copies were made available. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2006, they won the 'Best World Music Album' category and received a nomination for 'Engineer of the Year' for Adam Rhodes' work.  The band toured extensively over the year, visiting Asia, America and Europe and playing over 45 gigs in 12 countries.  The ensemble started 2007 with a busy touring schedule and US TV appearances including the "Late Show with David Letterman" in February, followed by "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" in March. Angus' side project, Jackson Jackson, released their first album, "The Fire Is on the Bird" that month. In May, The Cat Empire performed on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". In June, on the group's European tour they appeared on the Avalon Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, where the mud was so deep that Riebl and Khadiwhala performed the "gumboot shuffle".  The Cat Empire released their fourth album, "So Many Nights" in Australia on 22 September 2007, it was produced by John Porter and reached number two. The lead single, "No Longer There", was issued two weeks earlier and peaked at number 12. "So Many Nights" was listed at number 50 on the Triple J Hottest 100 for 2007, while "No Longer There" finished at number 62.  In February 2008, the band concluded their Outdoor Australian Tour, with performances in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Newcastle, Canberra, Geelong, Townsville and Launceston. The group later played at a Melbourne Grand Prix event, sharing the stage with KISS. In March, the band headlined on the Sunday night at the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival in Byron Bay.  In January 2009, the ensemble opened the Sydney Festival 2009 at The Domain. In early February, they performed at Hisense Arena as part of the Australian Open for A Day on the Baseline. Also in February, the group issued "Live on Earth" – a live album featuring 22 songs recorded around the world – and a DVD "Live at the Bowl" of their Sidney Myer Music Bowl performance, with others shows and on-the-road videos. They issued a box set which was limited to 2000 copies. It contained the "Live on Earth" CD and DVD as well as a tour diary written by Monro, and band memorabilia. On 28 February, the band played two free shows at Bondi Beach and Circular Quay, welcoming donations, in an effort to raise funds to be put towards the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.  In March, the group played at the annual Bass in the Grass festival in Darwin to a crowd of 5000. They returned to the WOMADelaide Festival for a second time. After touring Australia, the ensemble completed a tour of the UK with Balkan support act, Paprika Balkanicus. The tour started in July at O2 Academy Oxford. The band then performed a range of shows in Melbourne, Brisbane and the Northern Territory, before heading off to Canada for a short tour.

"Cinema".

The Cat Empire's fifth studio album, "Cinema", was issued on 25 June 2010 in Australia, followed by releases in Canada, the US, and then Europe. It was produced by Steve Schram and reached number three. The track, "Beyond All", was featured on Triple J's "New Music with Richard Kingsmill" in April. However, the lead single, "Feeling's Gone", was released in May.  A promotional copy of "Cinema" had been leaked to eBay about three weeks before its due date and sold for $200; EMI provided a statement regarding the leak. In October 2011, the ensemble played their 800th show at the O2 Academy Bournemouth in front of a sell out crowd. In April 2011, they performed at the West Coast Blues & Roots Festival in Fremantle.

"Steal the Light".

In December 2012, the Cat Empire returned to Melbourne to commence the recording of a new album after touring extensively throughout 2012. The album, produced by Jan Skubiszewski, was scheduled for a May 2013 release, but the band embarked on a March 2013 "warm-up" tour, on which they played intimate shows in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as bigger stages at the Fremantle Arts Centre in Western Australia and WOMADelaide in South Australia.  "Brighter Than Gold", the first single from their sixth album, "Steal the Light", was released on 22 February 2013 on the Two Shoes music label. A music video for the song was directed by Nicholas Verso for Asphodel Films. Brighter Than Gold received high rotation on Australian and European radio.  "Steal The Light" was released on 17 May 2013 and a worldwide "Steal the Light Tour" was announced shortly afterwards. The band performed nine US shows in July 2013, supported by Blackalicious and, for some of the American dates, were joined by fellow Australians Tinpan Orange. They played nine UK dates throughout October, then embarked on a European tour. Support was provided by fellow Australians FLAP!, and the tour eventually consisted of a total of 70 shows on four continents. The most notable of these performances was in Sydney, September 2013, where they performed in the Enmore Theatre.The show attracted more than 1500 people from Sydney, including Riebl's old schoolmate who designed the band's posters, Arthur Brammall.  In February 2014, the Romanian B’ESTFEST Summer Camp announced that the Cat Empire was the first band to confirm their position on the events musical lineup. The festival was scheduled for July 31, 1 and 2 August 2014, on the Mogoşoaia Palace estate, approximately 10 minutes from Bucharest.  On 16 January 2015, the Cat Empire performed at Triple J's 40th anniversary "Beat The Drum" celebration concert at the Domain in Sydney, along with other Australian musicians, including Hilltop Hoods, The Presets, You Am I, Daniel Johns, Vance Joy, The Preatures, Ball Park Music, Sarah Blasko and Gotye. During their set, the Cat Empire collaborated with special guests Remi and Owl Eyes. With the latter, they performed a cover of Kylie Minogue's "Confide In Me".  They were in Romania again the following year, at the "Electric Castle" Festival in Transylvania, on July 28, 2015.

"Rising With The Sun".

In early 2016, The Cat Empire announced their second fully independent album, "Rising With The Sun", produced by Jan Skubiszewski. The album was made available worldwide on March 4. On the week of release, the band performed a series of secret 'pop up busking' events around Melbourne, with locations given to fans via clues shared on social media. The locations performed at were Federation Square, Circus Oz Spiegeltent and South Melbourne market.  The album debuted at #1 on the ARIA and AIR charts in Australia, staying in the AIR top 20 for an impressive 21 weeks to date to date since release. Internationally successful, the album achieved Top 10 debut in 7 countries, and Top 20 debuts in 16 countries: #1 Australia, #1 Romania, #4 Hungary, #7 Sweden, # 8 Canada, #9 Czech Republic, #10 Switzerland, #13 Malaysia, #13 New Zealand, #14 Netherlands, #17 Germany, #18 Denmark, #18 South Africa, #19 United Kingdom, #20 Portugal, #20 Spain.  Supported by lead singles Que Sera Ahora, Wolves (#79 in Triple J Hottest 100) and Bulls, the band has performed live on triple J, Terry Wogan Show on BBC2 and Breakfast TV Toronto, as well as achieving extensive media coverage in all of their major markets globally.  "Rising With the Sun" was supported by an extensive global tour, with close to 100 shows booked across Australia, Europe, America, and Asia for 2016. Major festivals the band were booked for in 2016 were Sula Festival (India) WOMADelaide (Australia) Bluesfest Byron Bay (Australia) Osheaga (Canada) Edmonton Folk Festival (Canada) Regina Folk Festival (Canada) Rock The Shores (Canada) Pleasure Garden (Australia) and Southbound Festival (Australia), among others.

"Stolen Diamonds".

In early 2018, The Cat Empire recorded their third fully independent album, "Stolen Diamonds", at Red Moon Studio (Gisbourne, Victoria), also their third to be produced by Jan Skubiszewski. The album was drip fed to the band's global audience via their release strategy of releasing one new track on the 1st day of each month, where each song was also complemented with the release of a 360 VR video clip. The videos were filmed at The Mission To Seafarers Dome in Melbourne, Victoria, and regularly featured on YouTube's dedicated VR channel highlights.  July: Ready Now  August: Stolen Diamonds  September: La Sirene (Feat. Eloise Mignon)  October: Kila  November: Sola (Feat. DePedro)  December: Barricades  January: Oscar Wilde  February: Echoes  Stolen Diamonds, the album, was released globally on February 15, 2019.  The album debuted at #1 AIR charts in Australia, and #4 on the ARIA charts – their 6th release to debut in the top 10 of this chart.  2018 saw The Cat Empire “Awarded Best Live Band by Public Vote” at the 2018 Australian National Live Music Awards, and co-lead singer Harry James Angus Awarded “Best Live Voice by Public Vote” at the 2018 Australian National Live Music Awards  Melbourne magazine "Beat" rated the album 7 out of 10, stating: "The album barely takes a break from its upbeat tempo, and flows seamlessly between funk, reggae, and ska...". They went on to say that the album "...sees The Cat Empire take one step closer towards legend status."  "Double J" presented "Stolen Diamonds" as its feature album, and was also very positive in its review, saying: "The worst thing about "Stolen Diamonds" is that you’re gonna need to clear some space around you if you're planning on listening to it. Because this is very much a record that inspires movement."  The band's iconic St Kilda Festival set was recorded for Double J’s Live at The Wireless segment, and they performed a live performance on Breakfast TV Toronto, as well as achieving extensive media coverage in all of their major markets globally.  With a history of putting fans in the spotlight, lead singers Felix Reibl and Harry Angus hand delivered copies of the album to fans on release day, and also gave them opportunities to put their own spin on the music with a Karaoke competition for the track Oscar Wilde, and a Busking competition that included an entry from long time friends of the band, Pierce Brothers.  "Stolen Diamonds" was supported by an extensive global tour, with shows booked across Australia, Europe and America throughout both the single release and album release years 2018/2019. The band were the first band to sell out two consecutive shows at London’s prestigious Roundhouse (UK), and hold the record for the band to have sold out the most shows at Bristol’s O2 Academy (UK) with 10 shows. Major festivals the band were booked for in 2019 included opening night of The Commonwealth Games (Australia), Woodford Folk Festival (Australia), St Kilda Festival (Australia), Doctor Music (Spain), Larmer Tree Festival (UK), Bristol Sounds (UK), Bands In The Sands (UK), Blue Balls (Switzerland), BosPop (Netherlands), among others.

Activism.

In response to the proposed dumping of around 3 million cubic metres of dredged seabed onto the Great Barrier Reef, a legal fighting team was formed by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Australia and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) in late 2013/early 2014. The legal team received further support in April 2014, following the release of the "Sounds For The Reef" musical fundraising project. Produced by Straightup, the digital album features the Cat Empire, in addition to artists such as John Butler, The Herd, Sietta, Missy Higgins, Fat Freddys Drop, The Bamboos (featuring Kylie Auldist) and Resin Dogs. Released on 7 April, the album's 21 songs—including The Cat Empire's song "Steal The Light"—were sold on the Bandcamp website.  The band have been official ambassadors for Melbourne organization Asylum Seeker Resource Centre since 2011, actively participating in events and running fundraising initiatives to support the work of the center, including their 2016 Telethon, band member run donation drives and raffling off rare memorabilia.

Band members.

An auxiliary group of brass musicians.  Kristy Conrau - cello Alyssa Conrau - violin  Touring string musicians during 2008:

The Cat Empire is an Australian rock band formed in 1999. Their core members are Felix Riebl (percussion and vocals), Harry James Angus (trumpet and vocals), Will Hull-Brown (drums), Jamshid "Jumps" Khadiwhala (decks, percussion), Ollie McGill (keyboard and backing vocals), and Ryan Monro (bass and backing vocals). They are often supplemented by The Empire Horns, a brass duo composed of Ross Irwin (trumpet) and Kieran Conrau (trombone), among others. Their sound is a fusion of jazz, ska, funk and rock with heavy Latin influences.

The Cat Empire ist eine sechsköpfige Musikgruppe aus Melbourne, Australien. Ihre Songs sind geprägt von Einflüssen aus Jazz, Ska, Reggae, Funk, Latin bis hin zu Hip-Hop, Klezmer und Rock.


Life.

Reid was born in the manse at Strachan, Aberdeenshire, on 26 April 1710 O.S., the son of Lewis Reid (1676–1762) and his wife Margaret Gregory, first cousin to James Gregory. He was educated at Kincardine Parish School then the O'Neil Grammar School in Kincardine.  He went to the University of Aberdeen in 1723 and graduated MA in 1726 (the young age was normal at that time). He was licensed to preach by the Church of Scotland in 1731, when he came of age. He began his career as a minister of the Church of Scotland but ceased to be a minister when he was given a professorship at King's College, Aberdeen, in 1752. He obtained his doctorate and wrote "An Inquiry Into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense" (published in 1764). He and his colleagues founded the 'Aberdeen Philosophical Society' which was popularly known as the 'Wise Club' (a literary-philosophical association). Shortly after the publication of his first book, he was given the prestigious Professorship of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow when he was called to replace Adam Smith. He resigned from this position in 1781, after which he prepared his university lectures for publication in two books: "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man" (1785) and "Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind" (1788).  In 1740 Thomas Reid married his cousin Elizabeth, daughter of the London physician Dr George Reid. His wife and "numerous" children predeceased him, except for a daughter who married Dr Patrick Carmichael. Reid died of palsy, in Glasgow. He was buried at Blackfriars Church in the grounds of Glasgow College and when the university moved to Gilmorehill in the west of Glasgow, his tombstone was inserted in the main building.

Philosophical work.

Overview.

Reid believed that common sense (in a special philosophical sense of "sensus communis") is, or at least should be, at the foundation of all philosophical inquiry. He disagreed with Hume, who asserted that we can never know what an external world consists of as our knowledge is limited to the ideas in the mind, and George Berkeley, who asserted that the external world is merely ideas in the mind. By contrast, Reid claimed that the foundations upon which our "sensus communis" are built justify our belief that there is an external world.  In his day and for some years into the 19th century, he was regarded as more important than Hume. > He advocated direct realism, or common sense realism, and argued strongly against the Theory of Ideas advocated by John Locke, René Descartes, and (in varying forms) nearly all Early Modern philosophers who came after them. He had a great admiration for Hume and had a mutual friend send Hume an early manuscript of Reid's "Inquiry." Hume responded that the work "is wrote in a lively entertaining manner," although he found "there seems to be some Defect in Method", and he criticized Reid's doctrine for implying the presence of innate ideas. (pp. 256–257)

Thomas Reid's theory of common sense.

Reid's theory of knowledge had a strong influence on his theory of morals. He thought epistemology was an introductory part to practical ethics: When we are confirmed in our common beliefs by philosophy, all we have to do is to act according to them, because we know what is right. His moral philosophy is reminiscent of Roman stoicism in its emphasis on the agency of the subject and self-control. He often quotes Cicero, from whom he adopted the term "sensus communis". Reid's answer to Hume's sceptical and naturalist arguments was to enumerate a set of principles of "common sense" ("sensus communis") which constitute the foundations of rational thought. Anyone who undertakes a philosophical argument, for example, must implicitly presuppose certain beliefs like, "I am talking to a real person," and "There is an external world whose laws do not change," among many other positive, substantive claims. For Reid, the belief in the truth of these principles is not rational; rather, reason itself demands these principles as prerequisites, as does the innate "constitution" of the human mind. It is for this reason (and possibly a mocking attitude toward Hume and Berkeley) that Reid sees belief in the principles of common sense as a litmus test for sanity. For example, in "The Intellectual Powers of Man" he states, "For, before men can reason together, they must agree in first principles; and it is impossible to reason with a man who has no principles in common with you." One of the first principles he goes on to list is that "qualities must necessarily be in something that is figured, coloured, hard or soft, that moves or resists. It is not to these qualities, but to that which is the subject of them, that we give the name body. If any man should think fit to deny that these things are qualities, or that they require any subject, I leave him to enjoy his opinion as a man who denies first principles, and is not fit to be reasoned with."  Reid also made positive arguments based in phenomenological insight to put forth a novel mixture of direct realism and ordinary language philosophy. In a typical passage in the "Intellectual Powers" he asserts that when he has a conception of a centaur, the thing he conceives is an animal, and no idea is an animal; therefore, the thing he conceives is not an idea, but a centaur. This point relies both on an account of the subjective experience of conceiving an object and also on an account of what we mean when we use words. Because Reid saw his philosophy as publicly accessible knowledge, available both through introspection and through the proper understanding of how language is used, he saw it as the philosophy of common sense.

Exploring sense and language.

Reid started out with a 'common sense' based on a direct experience of an external reality but then proceeded to explore in two directions - external to the senses, and internal to human language - to account more effectively for the role of rationality.  Reid saw language as based on an innate capacity pre-dating human consciousness, and acting as an instrument for that consciousness. (In Reid's terms: it is an 'artificial' instrument based on a 'natural' capacity.) On this view, language becomes a means of examining the original form of human cognition. Reid notes that current human language contains two distinct elements: first, the acoustic element, the sounds; and secondly the meanings - which seem to have nothing to do with the sounds as such. This state of the language, which he calls 'artificial', cannot be the primeval one, which he terms 'natural', wherein sound was not an abstract sign, but a concrete gesture or natural sign. Reid looks to the way a child learns language, by imitating sounds, becoming aware of them long before it understands the meaning accorded to the various groups of sounds in the artificial state of contemporary adult speech. If, says Reid, the child needed to understand immediately the conceptual content of the words it hears, it would never learn to speak at all. Here Reid distinguishes between natural and artificial signs:  His external exploration, regarding the senses, led Reid to his critical distinction between'sensation' and 'perception'. While we become aware of an object through the senses, the content of that perception is not identical with the sum total of the sensations caused in our consciousness. Thus, while we tend to focus on the object perceived, we pay no attention to the process leading from sensation to perception, which contains the knowledge of the thing as real. How, then, do we receive the conviction of the latter's existence? Reid's answer is, by entering into an immediate intuitive relationship with it, as a child does. In the case of the adult, the focus is on perceiving, but with the child, it is on receiving of the sensations in their living nature. For Reid, the perception of the child is different from the adult, and he states that man must become like a child to get past the artificial perception of the adult, which leads to Hume's view that what we perceive is an illusion. Also, the artist provides a key to the true content of sense experience, as he engages the 'language of nature':  Thus, for Reid, common sense was based on the innate capacity of man in an earlier epoch to directly participate in nature, and one we find to some extent in the child and artist, but one that from a philosophical and scientific perspective, we must re-awaken at a higher level in the human mind above nature. Why does Reid believe that perception is the way to recognize? Well, to him "an experience is purely subjective and purely negative. It supports the validity of a proposition, only on the fact that I find that it is impossible for me not to hold it for true, to suppose it therefore not true" (Reid, 753). To understand this better, it is important to know that Reid divides his definition of perception into two categories: conception, and belief. "Conception is Reid's way of saying to visualize an object, so then we can affirm or deny qualities about that thing. Reid believes that beliefs are our direct thoughts of an object, and what that object is" (Buras, The Functions of Sensations to Reid). So, to Reid, what we see, what we visualize, what we believe of an object, is that object's true reality. Reid believes in direct objectivity, our senses guide us to what is right since we cannot trust our own thoughts. "The worlds of common sense and of philosophy are reciprocally the converse of each other" (Reid, 841). Reid believes that Philosophy overcomplicates the question of what is real. So, what does Common Sense actually mean then? Well, "common sense is the senses being pulled all together to form one idea" (Cambridge Companion to Thomas Reid, 164). Common sense (all the senses combined) is how we truly identify the reality of an object; since all that can be perceived about an object, are all pulled into one perception. How do people reach the point of accessing common sense? That's the trick, everyone is born with the ability to access common sense, that is why it is called common sense. "The principles of common sense are common to all of humanity," (Nichols, Ryan, Yaffe, and Gideon, Thomas Reid).  Common sense works as such: If all men observe an item and believe the same qualities about that item, then the knowledge of that item is universally true. It is common knowledge, which without explanation is held true by other people; so, what is universally seen is universally believed. "The real, then, is that which, sooner or later, information and reasoning would finally result in, and which is therefore independent of the vagaries of me and you. Thus, the very origin of the conception of reality shows that this conception essentially involves the notion of a community, without definite limits, and capable of a definite increase of knowledge," (Reid, 155). The combination of the same ideas, of a thing, by multiple people, is what confirms the reality of an object. Reid also believes that the philosophers of his time exaggerated what is truly real. Where most philosophers believe that what we see is not fully what that thing is, for example, Descartes, Reid counters this argument simply by stating that "such a hypothesis is no more likely to be true than the common-sensical belief that the world is much the way we perceive it to be," (Nichols, Ryan, Yaffe, and Gideon, Thomas Reid). Reality is what we make it out to be, nothing more.  Reid also claimed that this discovery of the link between the natural sign and the thing signified was the basis of natural philosophy and science, as proposed by Bacon in his radical method of discovery of the innate laws of nature:

Influences.

It has been claimed that Reid's reputation waned after attacks on the Scottish School of Common Sense by Immanuel Kant (although Kant, only 14 years Reid's junior, also bestowed much praise on Scottish philosophy - Kant attacked the work of Reid, but admitted he had never actually read the works of Thomas Reid) and by John Stuart Mill. But Reid's was the philosophy taught in the colleges of North America during the 19th century and was championed by Victor Cousin, a French philosopher. Justus Buchler has shown that Reid was an important influence on the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, who shared Reid's concern to revalue common sense and whose work links Reid to pragmatism. To Peirce, conceptions of truth and the real involve the notion of a community without definite limits (and thus potentially self-correcting as far as needed), and capable of a definite increase of knowledge. Common sense is socially evolved, open to verification much like scientific method, and constantly evolving, as evidence, perception, and practice warrant, albeit with a slowness that Peirce came only in later years to see, at which point he owned his "adhesion, under inevitable modification, to the opinion of...Thomas Reid, in the matter of Common Sense". (Peirce called his version "critical common-sensism"). By contrast, on Reid's concept, the "sensus communis" is not a social evolutionary product but rather a precondition of the possibility that humans could reason with each other. The work of Thomas Reid influenced the work of Noah Porter and James McCosh in the 19th century United States and is based upon the claim of universal principles of objective truth. Pragmatism is not the development of the work of the Scottish "Common Sense" School - it is the negation of it. There are clear links between the work of the Scottish Common Sense School and the work of the Oxford Realist philosophers Harold Prichard and Sir William David Ross in the 20th century.  Reid's reputation has revived in the wake of the advocacy of common sense as a philosophical method or criterion by G. E. Moore early in the 20th century, and more recently because of the attention given to Reid by contemporary philosophers, in particular philosophers of religion in the school of Reformed epistemology such as William Alston, Alvin Plantinga, and Nicholas Wolterstorff, seeking to rebut charges that theistic belief is irrational where it has no doxastic foundations (that is, where that belief is not inferred from other adequately grounded beliefs).  He wrote a number of important philosophical works, including "Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense" (1764, Glasgow & London), "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man" (1785) and "Essays on the Active Powers of Man" (1788). In 1844, Schopenhauer praised Reid for explaining that the perception of external objects does not result from the raw data that is received through the five senses:

Other philosophical positions.

Though known mainly for his epistemology, Reid is also noted for his views in the theory of action and the metaphysics of personal identity. Reid held an incompatibilist or libertarian notion of freedom, holding that we are capable of free actions of which we are the cause, and for which we are morally appraisable. Regarding personal identity, he rejected Locke's account that self-consciousness in the form of memory of one's experiences was the basis of a person's being identical with their self over time. Reid held that continuity of memory was neither necessary nor sufficient to make one numerically the same person at different times. Reid also argued that the operation of our mind connecting sensations with belief in an external world is accounted for only by an intentional Creator. In his natural religion lectures, Reid provides five arguments for the existence of God, focusing on two mainly, the cosmological and design. Reid loves and frequently uses Samuel Clarke's cosmological argument, which says, in short that the universe either has always been, or began to exist, so there must be a cause (or first principle) for both (Cuneo and Woudenberg 242). As everything is either necessary or contingent, an Independent being is required for contingency (Cuneo and Woudenberg 242). Reid spends even more time on his design argument, but is unclear exactly what he wanted his argument to be, as his lectures only went as far as his students needed. Though there is no perfect interpretation, Reid states that "there are in fact the clearest marks of design and wisdom in the works of nature" (Cuneo and Woudenberg 291) If something carries marks of design (regularity or variety of structure), there must be an intelligent being behind it (Reid EIP 66). This can't be known by experience, fitting with the casual excellence principle, but the cause can be seen in works of nature (Cuneo and Woudenberg 241).

Works.

Until recently the standard edition of the "Inquiry" and the "Essays" has been the sixth edition of William Hamilton (ed.), Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart, 1863. A new critical edition of these titles, plus correspondence and other important material, is being brought out by Edinburgh University Press as The Edinburgh Edition of Thomas Reid. An accessible selection from Hamilton's 6th ed. is "Thomas Reid's Inquiry and Essays", ed. Ronald Beanblossom and Keith Lehrer, Indianapolis, In: Hackett, 1983.

Thomas Reid (; 7 May (O.S. 26 April) 1710 – 7 October 1796) was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher. He was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment. In 1783 he was a joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. A contemporary of David Hume, Reid was also "Hume's earliest and fiercest critic".

Thomas Reid (* 26. April 1710 in Strachan, Kincardineshire, Schottland; † 7. Oktober 1796 in Glasgow, Schottland) war ein schottischer Philosoph und Zeitgenosse David Humes. Er gilt als der Begründer der schottischen Schule der Common-Sense-Philosophie und spielte eine wichtige Rolle in der (schottischen) Aufklärung.


Development and design.

In May 1946, the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) project was started by the Air Force. Studies under this program were done until May 1951 when NEPA was replaced by the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program. The ANP program included plans for Convair to modify two B-36s under the MX-1589 project. One of the B-36s was used to study shielding requirements for an airborne reactor, while the other became the X-6.

Nuclear Test Aircraft.

The first modified B-36 was called the Nuclear Test Aircraft (NTA), a B-36H-20-CF (Serial Number 51-5712) that had been damaged in a tornado at Carswell AFB on September 1, 1952. This plane was redesignated the XB-36H, then the NB-36H and was modified to carry a 3 megawatt, air-cooled nuclear reactor in its bomb bay. The reactor, named the Aircraft Shield Test Reactor (ASTR), was operational but did not power the plane. Water, acting as both moderator and coolant, was pumped through the reactor core and then to water-to-air heat exchangers to dissipate the heat to the atmosphere. Its sole purpose was to investigate the effect of radiation on aircraft systems.  To shield the flight crew, the nose section of the aircraft was modified to include a 12-ton lead and rubber shield. The standard windshield was replaced with one made of acrylic glass. The amount of lead and water shielding was variable. Measurements of the resulting radiation levels were then compared with calculated levels to enhance the ability to design optimal shielding with minimum weight for nuclear-powered bombers.  The NTA completed 47 test flights and 215 hours of flight time (during 89 of which the reactor was operated) between September 17, 1955, and March 1957 over New Mexico and Texas. This was the only known airborne reactor experiment by the U.S. with an operational nuclear reactor on board. The NB-36H was scrapped at Fort Worth in 1958 when the Nuclear Aircraft Program was abandoned. After the ASTR was removed from the NB-36H, it was moved to the National Aircraft Research Facility.  Based on the results of the NTA, the X-6 and the entire nuclear aircraft program was abandoned in 1961.

Development plans.

Had the program progressed, follow-on aircraft would have been based on the successor to the B-36, Convair's swept-wing B-60.  The X-6 would have been powered by General Electric X-39 engines (J47 engines modified to use nuclear energy as fuel), utilizing a P-1 reactor. In a nuclear jet engine, the reactor core was used as a heat source for the turbine's air flow, instead of burning jet fuel. One disadvantage of the design was that, since the airflow through the engine was used to cool the reactor, this airflow had to be maintained even after the aircraft had landed and parked. GE built two prototype engines, which can be seen outside the Experimental Breeder Reactor I in Arco, Idaho.  A large, wide hangar was built at Test Area North, part of the National Reactor Testing Station (now part of the Idaho National Laboratory; Monteview) to house the X-6 project, but the project was cancelled before the planned runway was built, necessitated by the expected weight of the nuclear-powered aircraft.

Soviet program.

In the 1960s, the Soviet Union's Tupolev design bureau had its own design for an experimental nuclear-powered aircraft, the Tupolev Tu-119, which was a Tu-95 bomber with two of its conventional turboprops replaced by nuclear-powered turboprops.

The Convair X-6 was a proposed experimental aircraft project to develop and evaluate a nuclear-powered jet aircraft. The project was to use a Convair B-36 bomber as a testbed aircraft, and though one NB-36H was modified during the early stages of the project, the program was canceled before the actual X-6 and its nuclear reactor engines were completed. The X-6 was part of a larger series of programs, costing US$7 billion in all, that ran from 1946 through 1961. Because such an aircraft's range would not have been limited by liquid jet fuel, it was theorized that nuclear-powered strategic bombers would be able to stay airborne for weeks at a time.

Die Convair X-6 war ein Experimentalflugzeugprojekt, das nicht über das Konzeptstadium hinauskam. Ein Erprobungsträger für den vorgesehenen Nuklearantrieb flog zwar, wobei jedoch lediglich die Strahlenabschirmung getestet wurde.