text:
James Hird

James Albert Hird (born 4 February 1973) is a former professional Australian rules football player and past senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Hird played as a midfielder and half-forward, but he was often given free rein by then-Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy to play wherever he thought necessary. Hird was a highly decorated footballer, with accolades including the 1996 Brownlow Medal and membership of the Australian Football Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was listed by journalist Mike Sheahan as the 20th greatest player of all time in the AFL-commissioned book The Australian Game of Football.

Hird was appointed as the coach of the Essendon Football Club in September 2010. In August 2013, he was suspended from coaching for 12 months when he was charged by the AFL with conduct prejudicing the game in relation to his role in the Essendon Football Club supplements controversy. He returned to the club following the 2014 season but resigned in August 2015.

Early life
Hird is the son of Allan and Margaret Hird. He was born in Canberra, where his father worked in the public service and his mother was a teacher, although they had met in Melbourne. Hird has two younger sisters. After first living in the Canberra suburb of Ainslie, his family moved to Latham. When Hird was in high school, the family moved to the suburb of Reid.

Hird participated in rugby league, ballet,  and soccer in his youth. He played for the Ainslie Football Club in the ACTAFL, and in June 1990, at the age of 17, he was a member of the league's senior representative team in a match against the Victorian Football Association.

Early career
He was recruited to the AFL by Essendon from the 1990 AFL Draft; however, due to a serious hip injury along with other injuries in his junior football career, he was not selected until pick number 79, Essendon's seventh pick and one of the last in the draft. Due to injury, Hird missed out on playing for most of 1991, his first season with the club. At the end of the season, a vote was held on whether to delist him. The majority (4–2) voted in favour of Hird being delisted, but coach Kevin Sheedy, sensing a promising future for the young Hird, voted to keep him. Ultimately, Hird remained with the club. He made his senior debut against St Kilda in 1992 at Waverley Park as a late replacement for former captain Terry Daniher. Hird spent most of the season in the Essendon Reserves, which, under Denis Pagan, won the premiership that season. He achieved regular selection in the Essendon senior team during the 1993 season. In that season, he was a member of what was referred to as the "Baby Bombers", a group of young players (most notably including Hird, Mark Mercuri, Gavin Wanganeen, Dustin Fletcher, Ricky Olarenshaw, David Calthorpe, Paul Hills and Joe Misiti) that played a key role in the side winning the premiership that year. In 1994, Hird won the first of three consecutive best-and-fairest awards, culminating in his 1996 season that earned him a Brownlow Medal.

A series of injuries restricted Hird's appearances during the remainder of the 1990s. He played only seven games in 1997, and, although he was named captain in 1998 (a position he held until the end of 2005), he was restricted to thirteen games that year due to injury-related issues. An even worse year followed in 1999, with stress fractures in his foot keeping him to only two games.

Early 2000s
In 2000, both Hird and the Essendon Football Club experienced the most dominant season in AFL football to date. Injury-free, he received numerous honours, including selection in the All-Australian team and the Norm Smith Medal as best on ground in the AFL Grand Final. The Essendon team also won the Ansett Cup pre-season competition as well as the regular season premiership. The team only lost one game—against the Western Bulldogs—in the entire calendar year.

The year 2002 then saw Hird's worst injury, a horrific facial injury sustained in a match against when he collided with teammate Mark McVeigh's knee, fracturing several bones; Hird was in hospital for a week and missed several weeks of the season.

In 2003, despite again missing many games through various injuries (eight games in total), Hird tied with Scott Lucas for the best-and-fairest award. He also narrowly missed out on a second Brownlow Medal, finishing three votes shy of joint winners Mark Ricciuto, Nathan Buckley and Adam Goodes. He gained a place in the 2003 All-Australian team, the fifth and final time in his career.

One of Hird's more memorable performances was in his Round 3 game against West Coast in 2004. Up until three-quarter time, Hird had 19 disposals and one goal; in the final quarter, however, he managed 15 disposals and two decisive goals. Despite the incredible effort, and to the consternation of fans, Hird did not receive any Brownlow Medal votes from the umpires for his 34 disposals and clutch goals, which was perceived by some as retribution for his comments earlier in the week against umpire Scott McLaren, for which he was fined $20,000. Hird's winning goal was the focus of a popular instalment of the Toyota Memorable Moments advertising campaign, and the hug is captured in Jamie Cooper's painting the Game That Made Australia, commissioned by the AFL in 2008 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the sport.

On 27 September 2005, Hird handed the captaincy to Matthew Lloyd following the side's 2005 season in which it missed the finals for the first time since 1997.

After Lloyd sustained a season-ending hamstring injury in Round 3, 2006, Hird served briefly as acting captain until young ruckman David Hille was named acting captain for the remainder of the 2006 season.

Hird continued to be an outstanding performer in his utility role when fit, but age was forcing him to miss games through injury with increasing frequency. He suffered broken ribs and a calf strain during his 200th and 250th games, respectively.

Final season and retirement
Despite much speculation that he would retire at the end of the 2006 season, Hird played out the 2007 season, playing 17 of a possible 22 games. Aged 34, Hird continued to feature prominently among Essendon's best players and concluded his career by winning a fifth best-and-fairest award.

Hird played two farewell games: his final game in Victoria at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against Richmond and his final game overall at Subiaco Oval against West Coast. The games were made higher profile as they were also the final games coached by 27-year coach Kevin Sheedy. Hird was one of the best on field in his final game, with 34 disposals, one shy of his career high. As Hird and Sheedy left the field for the last time, the crowd gave them a standing ovation.

Before season 2008, the Archer–Hird Medal was created to honour Hird and former North Melbourne Football Club player and fellow future Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee Glenn Archer. From 2008 until 2013, the medal was awarded to the player showing the most determination, courage and skill in matches between the Kangaroos and the Bombers.

Coaching career
Immediately after Hird retired from playing football, there was much speculation as to whether he would be interested in a coaching role at a club in the AFL, but primarily at Essendon. After initially dodging questions about his future, Hird stated in August 2010 that "There's something in me, deep in my heart, that says at some point I want to coach Essendon". These words came as a surprise to many, including former premiership teammate Matthew Lloyd, who said that Hird had "changed his whole persona in regards to how he's answering his questions... Just in regards to saying, 'I'll coach one day. I want to coach Essendon one day'. Even those type of words, I haven't heard before." These comments by Hird, considered to be Essendon's "favourite son", furthered speculation towards the future of then-Essendon coach Matthew Knights. A rumour emerged following these comments suggesting that Hird was part of an unofficial agreement with the Essendon board to replace Matthew Knights for the 2011 AFL Season. However, two days after Hird's initial comments, he announced that he had changed his mind due to the intense division and speculation over Matthew Knights' future following Hird's initial comments. Hird stated that he was ruling himself out of coaching Essendon for at least three years.

Essendon
On 28 September 2010, the rumours were confirmed when Essendon's chief executive officer, Ian Robson, and chairman, David Evans, announced at an official press conference that Hird would be the next senior coach of the Essendon Football Club on a four-year contract.

Hird's coaching career began with the Bombers winning against triple preliminary finalists the in the first round. Wins against, the (by a record margin of 139 points),  and  in the first eight rounds saw the Bombers in the top four by round eight, but a draw against , losses to  and  and a five-game losing streak halfway through the season saw Essendon drop to tenth on the ladder after Round 14. Hird's team then won by four points against the previously undefeated in Round 15, whom assistant coach Mark Thompson was coaching against for the first time since his exit from the club. Prior to that match, Essendon had one of the worst records among current AFL clubs against Geelong in recent times, having only beaten the club once since 2003. Hird coached Essendon to the 2011 finals, where they lost against rivals in an elimination final at the MCG.

At the start of the 2012 season, Essendon won eight of their first nine games (the only loss being by one point to Collingwood on ANZAC Day), at which point Essendon were in first position on the league ladder. The club then won 11 of their first 14 games but this was followed by seven consecutive losses until the end of the season. The club ended 2012 in 11th place. A spate of soft-tissue injuries accompanied the decline, as did noticeable fatigue in other players, leading to criticism of the club's fitness and conditioning coach Dean Robinson and, indirectly, Hird and his assistant Thompson for having overseen Robinson's program.

The 2013 season was initially a good one for Hird and the football club, during which the team was second on the AFL ladder with a 13–3 win–loss record after 17 rounds. However, internal pressure on the club finally took its toll on the players and coach when the AFL banned Essendon from participating in the 2013 finals series. The club on-field performances fell away and lost five of their last six games. In August 2013, he was suspended from coaching for 12 months when he was charged by the AFL with conduct prejudicing the game in relation to his role in the Essendon Football Club supplements controversy.

Banned from coaching in 2014, Hird spent several months living in France attending an exclusive business school, INSEAD, near Paris. He returned to the club following the 2014 season. Shortly after returning from his suspension, on 2 October 2014, it was reported that Hird was to be sacked by Essendon due to his determination to lodge an appeal against the Federal Court decision handed down the previous month when the club had chosen not to.

On 18 August 2015, following a 112-point loss to in Round 20, 2015—and a dismal season overall for the Essendon Football Club, by which time they had a 5–14 win–loss record and were fifteenth on the AFL ladder—Hird resigned as senior coach.

Greater Western Sydney
On 17 May 2022, it was announced that Hird would be joining the coaching staff at as part-time assistant coach for the rest of the 2022 season under GWS caretaker senior coach and his former teammate Mark McVeigh, who replaced Leon Cameron after he resigned as the club's senior coach midway through the season. On 2 February 2023, it was announced that Hird left GWS Giants.

Media career
Following Hird's retirement as a player from the Bombers at the end of the 2007 AFL season, he became a commentator and football analyst for Australian rules football on Fox Sports, a position which he held until he began his coaching career at the end of 2010. Hird also became a writer for Melbourne newspaper the Herald Sun.

Honours
Hird jointly won the Brownlow Medal with Michael Voss in 1996, the award for the fairest and best player in the Australian Football League. After his retirement, Hird stated that being a member of the "Brownlow Club" was a privilege.

In 1997, the Essendon Football Club named the then-triple best and fairest winner in its Team of the Century on the half-forward flank.

In 2002, the Essendon Football Club conducted a fan-voted promotion to find the "Champions of Essendon". Hird was eventually named as the number three player on the all-time list of Essendon players.

Supplements controversy
In April 2013, Hird, as coach, was accused of being personally injected with supplements in 2011 and 2012 that would be deemed performance enhancing if he were a player. Essendon players from 2011 and 2012 were also accused of ingesting performance enhancing supplements. As head coach, Hird was subsequently implicated.

Following months of rumours and investigations, on 13 August 2013, Hird, along with the Essendon Football Club, senior assistant coach Mark Thompson, football manager Danny Corcoran and club doctor Bruce Reid, was charged by the AFL with bringing the game into disrepute in relation to the poor governance of the supplements program at the club in 2011 and 2012. The club was given 14 days to consider the charges and faced an AFL Commission hearing on 26 August 2013.

On 27 August 2013, following much negotiation, Hird accepted charges that he had brought the game into disrepute and abandoned possible Supreme Court action against the AFL and its chief executive, Andrew Demetriou. He maintained that he did little wrong, but said he should have known more about the club's supplements program. He was banned from working at any AFL club in any capacity for twelve months commencing from 25 August 2013. Hird was allowed to attend Essendon matches as a spectator during this period. However, despite not being allowed to pay him for working as a coach during 2014, the club paid Hird $1 million in advance for 2014 in December 2013.

A media report on 3 October 2013 said that Hird denied pleading guilty for a reduced charge as alleged by Demetriou. Hird's lawyer, Steven Amendola, asserted that the AFL withdrew all charges against Hird under the deeds of settlement that he and the club signed with the AFL. At the time of the media report, Hird was considering legal action against both the AFL and Demetriou.

Essendon chairman Paul Little said that Hird would be wanted as the senior coach once his suspension was served and that he had been offered a two-year extension from 2015, which would have seen him coaching until the end of the 2016 season. However, Hird resigned after round 20 in August 2015, near the end of the season, with the team near the bottom of the ladder.

Personal life
Hird married Tania Poynton on 11 October 1997, and they have four children: a daughter and three sons. One of his sons, Tomas Hird, is a category B rookie at Essendon (due to the father–son rule), who was drafted in 2019 and re-signed for the 2022 season.

Hird's paternal grandfather, the late Allan Hird, Sr., was a notable player for and president of the Essendon Football Club, and his father, Allan Hird, Jr., had a brief playing career with Essendon.

Hird completed a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1998 and worked in that capacity as a consultant on the CityLink project. He has also spent time working for a stockbroking firm and is an active partner in Gemba, a sports marketing and media consultancy firm based in Melbourne.

On 5 January 2017, Hird was taken to a private hospital following a drug overdose and suspected suicide attempt and was subsequently transferred to a specialist mental health care facility for further care and treatment.

On 28 November 2018, James Hird was hit by a car when cycling in Richmond.

Playing statistics
! colspan=3 | Career ! 253 !! 343 !! 234 !! 3342 !! 1733 !! 5075 !! 1483 !! 439 !! 1.4 !! 0.9 !! 13.2 !! 6.8 !! 20.1 !! 5.9 !! 1.7 !! 125
 * 1991 || || 49
 * 0 || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || 0
 * 1992 || || 49
 * 4 || 5 || 5 || 45 || 24 || 69 || 29 || 2 || 1.2 || 1.2 || 11.2 || 6.0 || 17.2 || 7.2 || 0.5 || 0
 * bgcolor=F0E68C | 1993# || || 5
 * 16 || 31 || 20 || 174 || 88 || 262 || 89 || 16 || 1.9 || 1.2 || 10.9 || 5.5 || 16.4 || 5.6 || 1.0 || 6
 * 1994 || || 5
 * 20 || 27 || 17 || 224 || 155 || 379 || 143 || 31 || 1.4 || 0.8 || 11.2 || 7.8 || 19.0 || 7.2 || 1.6 || 6
 * 1995 || || 5
 * 24 || 47 || 31 || 254 || 201 || 455 || 177 || 25 || 2.0 || 1.3 || 10.6 || 8.4 || 19.0 || 7.4 || 1.0 || 7
 * 1996 || || 5
 * 24 || 39 || 39 || 330 || 237 || 567 || 175 || 34 || 1.6 || 1.6 || 13.8 || 9.9 || 23.6 || 7.3 || 1.4 || bgcolor=98FB98 | 21±
 * 1997 || || 5
 * 7 || 31 || 18 || 75 || 47 || 122 || 31 || 11 || 2.6 || 1.3 || 10.7 || 6.7 || 17.4 || 4.4 || 1.6 || 3
 * 1998 || || 5
 * 13 || 19 || 19 || 159 || 89 || 248 || 73 || 24 || 1.5 || 1.5 || 12.2 || 6.8 || 19.1 || 5.6 || 1.8 || 4
 * 1999 || || 5
 * 2 || 1 || 2 || 19 || 11 || 30 || 5 || 3 || 0.5 || 1.0 || 9.5 || 5.5 || 15.0 || 2.5 || 1.5 || 0
 * bgcolor=F0E68C | 2000# || || 5
 * 20 || 36 || 18 || 294 || 145 || 439 || 115 || 41 || 1.8 || 0.9 || 14.7 || 7.2 || 22.0 || 5.8 || 2.0 || 16
 * 2001 || || 5
 * 22 || 27 || 17 || 266 || 134 || 400 || 109 || 45 || 1.2 || 0.8 || 12.1 || 6.1 || 18.2 || 5.0 || 2.0 || 5
 * 2002 || || 5
 * 16 || 11 || 9 || 232 || 104 || 336 || 84 || 29 || 0.7 || 0.6 || 14.5 || 6.5 || 21.0 || 5.2 || 1.8 || 7
 * 2003 || || 5
 * 18 || 13 || 11 || 279 || 117 || 396 || 77 || 44 || 0.7 || 0.6 || 15.5 || 6.5 || 22.0 || 4.3 || 2.4 || 19
 * 2004 || || 5
 * 20 || 25 || 14 || 307 || 114 || 421 || 103 || 40 || 1.2 || 0.7 || 15.4 || 5.7 || 21.0 || 5.2 || 2.0 || 9
 * 2005 || || 5
 * 17 || 17 || 8 || 234 || 80 || 314 || 78 || 36 || 1.0 || 0.5 || 13.8 || 4.7 || 18.5 || 4.6 || 2.1 || 8
 * 2006 || || 5
 * 13 || 19 || 9 || 172 || 93 || 265 || 86 || 20 || 1.5 || 0.7 || 13.2 || 7.2 || 20.4 || 6.6 || 1.5 || 5
 * 2007 || || 5
 * 17 || 8 || 6 || 278 || 94 || 372 || 109 || 38 || 0.5 || 0.4 || 16.4 || 5.5 || 21.9 || 6.4 || 2.2 || 9
 * - class=sortbottom
 * 16 || 11 || 9 || 232 || 104 || 336 || 84 || 29 || 0.7 || 0.6 || 14.5 || 6.5 || 21.0 || 5.2 || 1.8 || 7
 * 2003 || || 5
 * 18 || 13 || 11 || 279 || 117 || 396 || 77 || 44 || 0.7 || 0.6 || 15.5 || 6.5 || 22.0 || 4.3 || 2.4 || 19
 * 2004 || || 5
 * 20 || 25 || 14 || 307 || 114 || 421 || 103 || 40 || 1.2 || 0.7 || 15.4 || 5.7 || 21.0 || 5.2 || 2.0 || 9
 * 2005 || || 5
 * 17 || 17 || 8 || 234 || 80 || 314 || 78 || 36 || 1.0 || 0.5 || 13.8 || 4.7 || 18.5 || 4.6 || 2.1 || 8
 * 2006 || || 5
 * 13 || 19 || 9 || 172 || 93 || 265 || 86 || 20 || 1.5 || 0.7 || 13.2 || 7.2 || 20.4 || 6.6 || 1.5 || 5
 * 2007 || || 5
 * 17 || 8 || 6 || 278 || 94 || 372 || 109 || 38 || 0.5 || 0.4 || 16.4 || 5.5 || 21.9 || 6.4 || 2.2 || 9
 * - class=sortbottom
 * 13 || 19 || 9 || 172 || 93 || 265 || 86 || 20 || 1.5 || 0.7 || 13.2 || 7.2 || 20.4 || 6.6 || 1.5 || 5
 * 2007 || || 5
 * 17 || 8 || 6 || 278 || 94 || 372 || 109 || 38 || 0.5 || 0.4 || 16.4 || 5.5 || 21.9 || 6.4 || 2.2 || 9
 * - class=sortbottom
 * - class=sortbottom
 * }

Coaching statistics
! colspan=2 | Career ! 85 !! 41 !! 43 !! 1 !! 48.8% !! colspan=3 |
 * 2011 ||
 * 23 || 11 || 11 || 1 || 50.0% || bgcolor=CAE1FF | 8† || 17 || 8
 * 2012 ||
 * 22 || 11 || 11 || 0 || 50.0% || 11 || 18 || —
 * 2013 ||
 * 21 || 14 || 7 || 0 || 66.7% || 9 || 18 || —
 * 2015 ||
 * 19 || 5 || 14 || 0 || 26.3% || 15 || 18 || —
 * - class=sortbottom
 * 2015 ||
 * 19 || 5 || 14 || 0 || 26.3% || 15 || 18 || —
 * - class=sortbottom
 * - class=sortbottom
 * }

Honours and achievements
Team
 * 2× AFL premiership player : 1993, 2000 (c)
 * 4× McClelland Trophy : 1993, 1999, 2000, 2001

Individual
 * Australian Football Hall of Fame (inducted 2011)
 * Essendon Football Club Team of the Century (half-forward flank)
 * Champions of Essendon: no. 3
 * Essendon captain: 1998–2005
 * Norm Smith Medal: 2000
 * Brownlow Medal: 1996
 * Australian Football Media Association Player of the Year: 1996
 * 5× All-Australian team: 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2003
 * 5× Crichton Medal: 1994, 1995, 1996, 2003, 2007
 * 2× Essendon leading goalkicker: 1995, 1996
 * Jim Stynes Medal: 2000
 * 2× Australia representative honours in international rules football: 2000 (c), 2004
 * 3× Anzac Medal: 2000, 2003, 2004
 * Yiooken Award: 2007
 * AFL Rising Star nominee: 1993

title: James Hird


text:
Microsatellite

A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. They have a higher mutation rate than other areas of DNA leading to high genetic diversity. Microsatellites are often referred to as short tandem repeats (STRs) by forensic geneticists and in genetic genealogy, or as simple sequence repeats (SSRs) by plant geneticists.

Microsatellites and their longer cousins, the minisatellites, together are classified as VNTR (variable number of tandem repeats) DNA. The name "satellite" DNA refers to the early observation that centrifugation of genomic DNA in a test tube separates a prominent layer of bulk DNA from accompanying "satellite" layers of repetitive DNA.

They are widely used for DNA profiling in cancer diagnosis, in kinship analysis (especially paternity testing) and in forensic identification. They are also used in genetic linkage analysis to locate a gene or a mutation responsible for a given trait or disease. Microsatellites are also used in population genetics to measure levels of relatedness between subspecies, groups and individuals.

History
Although the first microsatellite was characterised in 1984 at the University of Leicester by Weller, Jeffreys and colleagues as a polymorphic GGAT repeat in the human myoglobin gene, the term "microsatellite" was introduced later, in 1989, by Litt and Luty. The name "satellite" DNA refers to the early observation that centrifugation of genomic DNA in a test tube separates a prominent layer of bulk DNA from accompanying "satellite" layers of repetitive DNA. The increasing availability of DNA amplification by PCR at the beginning of the 1990s triggered a large number of studies using the amplification of microsatellites as genetic markers for forensic medicine, for paternity testing, and for positional cloning to find the gene underlying a trait or disease. Prominent early applications include the identifications by microsatellite genotyping of the eight-year-old skeletal remains of a British murder victim (Hagelberg et al. 1991), and of the Auschwitz concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele who escaped to South America following World War II (Jeffreys et al. 1992).

Structures, locations, and functions
A microsatellite is a tract of tandemly repeated (i.e. adjacent) DNA motifs that range in length from one to six or up to ten nucleotides (the exact definition and delineation to the longer minisatellites varies from author to author), and are typically repeated 5–50 times. For example, the sequence TATATATATA is a dinucleotide microsatellite, and GTCGTCGTCGTCGTC is a trinucleotide microsatellite (with A being Adenine, G Guanine, C Cytosine, and T Thymine). Repeat units of four and five nucleotides are referred to as tetra- and pentanucleotide motifs, respectively. Most eukaryotes have microsatellites, with the notable exception of some yeast species. Microsatellites are distributed throughout the genome. The human genome for example contains 50,000–100,000 dinucleotide microsatellites, and lesser numbers of tri-, tetra- and pentanucleotide microsatellites. Many are located in non-coding parts of the human genome and therefore do not produce proteins, but they can also be located in regulatory regions and coding regions.

Microsatellites in non-coding regions may not have any specific function, and therefore might not be selected against; this allows them to accumulate mutations unhindered over the generations and gives rise to variability that can be used for DNA fingerprinting and identification purposes. Other microsatellites are located in regulatory flanking or intronic regions of genes, or directly in codons of genes – microsatellite mutations in such cases can lead to phenotypic changes and diseases, notably in triplet expansion diseases such as fragile X syndrome and Huntington's disease.

Telomeres are linear sequences of DNA that sit at the very ends of chromosomes and protect the integrity of genomic material (not unlike an aglet on the end of a shoelace) during successive rounds of cell division due to the "end replication problem". In white blood cells, the gradual shortening of telomeric DNA has been shown to inversely correlate with ageing in several sample types. Telomeres consist of repetitive DNA, with the hexanucleotide repeat motif TTAGGG in vertebrates. They are thus classified as minisatellites. Similarly, insects have shorter repeat motifs in their telomeres that could arguably be considered microsatellites.

Mutation mechanisms and mutation rates
Unlike point mutations, which affect only a single nucleotide, microsatellite mutations lead to the gain or loss of an entire repeat unit, and sometimes two or more repeats simultaneously. Thus, the mutation rate at microsatellite loci is expected to differ from other mutation rates, such as base substitution rates. The mutation rate at microsatellite loci depends on the repeat motif sequence, the number of repeated motif units and the purity of the canonical repeated sequence. A variety of mechanisms for mutation of microsatellite loci have been reviewed, and their resulting polymorphic nature has been quantified. The actual cause of mutations in microsatellites is debated.

One proposed cause of such length changes is replication slippage, caused by mismatches between DNA strands while being replicated during meiosis. DNA polymerase, the enzyme responsible for reading DNA during replication, can slip while moving along the template strand and continue at the wrong nucleotide. DNA polymerase slippage is more likely to occur when a repetitive sequence (such as CGCGCG) is replicated. Because microsatellites consist of such repetitive sequences, DNA polymerase may make errors at a higher rate in these sequence regions. Several studies have found evidence that slippage is the cause of microsatellite mutations. Typically, slippage in each microsatellite occurs about once per 1,000 generations. Thus, slippage changes in repetitive DNA are three orders of magnitude more common than point mutations in other parts of the genome. Most slippage results in a change of just one repeat unit, and slippage rates vary for different allele lengths and repeat unit sizes, and within different species. If there is a large size difference between individual alleles, then there may be increased instability during recombination at meiosis.

Another possible cause of microsatellite mutations are point mutations, where only one nucleotide is incorrectly copied during replication. A study comparing human and primate genomes found that most changes in repeat number in short microsatellites appear due to point mutations rather than slippage.

Microsatellite mutation rates
Direct estimates of microsatellite mutation rates have been made in numerous organisms, from insects to humans. In the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria, the microsatellite mutation rate was estimated at 2.1 × 10−4 per generation per locus. The microsatellite mutation rate in human male germ lines is five to six times higher than in female germ lines and ranges from 0 to 7 × 10−3 per locus per gamete per generation. In the nematode Pristionchus pacificus, the estimated microsatellite mutation rate ranges from 8.9 × 10−5 to 7.5 × 10−4 per locus per generation.

Microsatellite mutation rates vary with base position relative to the microsatellite, repeat type, and base identity. Mutation rate rises specifically with repeat number, peaking around six to eight repeats and then decreasing again. Increased heterozygosity in a population will also increase microsatellite mutation rates, especially when there is a large length difference between alleles. This is likely due to homologous chromosomes with arms of unequal lengths causing instability during meiosis.

Biological effects of microsatellite mutations
Many microsatellites are located in non-coding DNA and are biologically silent. Others are located in regulatory or even coding DNA – microsatellite mutations in such cases can lead to phenotypic changes and diseases. A genome-wide study estimates that microsatellite variation contributes 10–15% of heritable gene expression variation in humans.

Effects on proteins
In mammals, 20–40% of proteins contain repeating sequences of amino acids encoded by short sequence repeats. Most of the short sequence repeats within protein-coding portions of the genome have a repeating unit of three nucleotides, since that length will not cause frame-shifts when mutating. Each trinucleotide repeating sequence is transcribed into a repeating series of the same amino acid. In yeasts, the most common repeated amino acids are glutamine, glutamic acid, asparagine, aspartic acid and serine.

Mutations in these repeating segments can affect the physical and chemical properties of proteins, with the potential for producing gradual and predictable changes in protein action. For example, length changes in tandemly repeating regions in the Runx2 gene lead to differences in facial length in domesticated dogs (Canis familiaris), with an association between longer sequence lengths and longer faces. This association also applies to a wider range of Carnivora species. Length changes in polyalanine tracts within the HOXA13 gene are linked to hand-foot-genital syndrome, a developmental disorder in humans. Length changes in other triplet repeats are linked to more than 40 neurological diseases in humans, notably trinucleotide repeat disorders such as fragile X syndrome and Huntington's disease. Evolutionary changes from replication slippage also occur in simpler organisms. For example, microsatellite length changes are common within surface membrane proteins in yeast, providing rapid evolution in cell properties. Specifically, length changes in the FLO1 gene control the level of adhesion to substrates. Short sequence repeats also provide rapid evolutionary change to surface proteins in pathenogenic bacteria; this may allow them to keep up with immunological changes in their hosts. Length changes in short sequence repeats in a fungus (Neurospora crassa) control the duration of its circadian clock cycles.

Effects on gene regulation
Length changes of microsatellites within promoters and other cis-regulatory regions can change gene expression quickly, between generations. The human genome contains many (>16,000) short sequence repeats in regulatory regions, which provide 'tuning knobs' on the expression of many genes.

Length changes in bacterial SSRs can affect fimbriae formation in Haemophilus influenzae, by altering promoter spacing. Dinucleotide microsatellites are linked to abundant variation in cis-regulatory control regions in the human genome. Microsatellites in control regions of the Vasopressin 1a receptor gene in voles influence their social behavior, and level of monogamy.

In Ewing sarcoma (a type of painful bone cancer in young humans), a point mutation has created an extended GGAA microsatellite which binds a transcription factor, which in turn activates the EGR2 gene which drives the cancer. In addition, other GGAA microsatellites may influence the expression of genes that contribute to the clinical outcome of Ewing sarcoma patients.

Effects within introns
Microsatellites within introns also influence phenotype, through means that are not currently understood. For example, a GAA triplet expansion in the first intron of the X25 gene appears to interfere with transcription, and causes Friedreich's ataxia. Tandem repeats in the first intron of the Asparagine synthetase gene are linked to acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. A repeat polymorphism in the fourth intron of the NOS3 gene is linked to hypertension in a Tunisian population. Reduced repeat lengths in the EGFR gene are linked with osteosarcomas.

An archaic form of splicing preserved in zebrafish is known to use microsatellite sequences within intronic mRNA for the removal of introns in the absence of U2AF2 and other splicing machinery. It is theorized that these sequences form highly stable cloverleaf configurations that bring the 3' and 5' intron splice sites into close proximity, effectively replacing the spliceosome. This method of RNA splicing is believed to have diverged from human evolution at the formation of tetrapods and to represent an artifact of an RNA world.

Effects within transposons
Almost 50% of the human genome is contained in various types of transposable elements (also called transposons, or 'jumping genes'), and many of them contain repetitive DNA. It is probable that short sequence repeats in those locations are also involved in the regulation of gene expression.

Applications
Microsatellites are used for assessing chromosomal DNA deletions in cancer diagnosis. Microsatellites are widely used for DNA profiling, also known as "genetic fingerprinting", of crime stains (in forensics) and of tissues (in transplant patients). They are also widely used in kinship analysis (most commonly in paternity testing). Also, microsatellites are used for mapping locations within the genome, specifically in genetic linkage analysis to locate a gene or a mutation responsible for a given trait or disease. As a special case of mapping, they can be used for studies of gene duplication or deletion. Researchers use microsatellites in population genetics and in species conservation projects. Plant geneticists have proposed the use of microsatellites for marker assisted selection of desirable traits in plant breeding.

Cancer diagnosis
In tumour cells, whose controls on replication are damaged, microsatellites may be gained or lost at an especially high frequency during each round of mitosis. Hence a tumour cell line might show a different genetic fingerprint from that of the host tissue, and, especially in colorectal cancer, might present with loss of heterozygosity. Microsatellites analyzed in primary tissue therefore been routinely used in cancer diagnosis to assess tumour progression. Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) have been used to identify microsatellite biomarkers as a source of genetic predisposition in a variety of cancers.

Forensic and medical fingerprinting
Microsatellite analysis became popular in the field of forensics in the 1990s. It is used for the genetic fingerprinting of individuals where it permits forensic identification (typically matching a crime stain to a victim or perpetrator). It is also used to follow up bone marrow transplant patients.

The microsatellites in use today for forensic analysis are all tetra- or penta-nucleotide repeats, as these give a high degree of error-free data while being short enough to survive degradation in non-ideal conditions. Even shorter repeat sequences would tend to suffer from artifacts such as PCR stutter and preferential amplification, while longer repeat sequences would suffer more highly from environmental degradation and would amplify less well by PCR. Another forensic consideration is that the person's medical privacy must be respected, so that forensic STRs are chosen which are non-coding, do not influence gene regulation, and are not usually trinucleotide STRs which could be involved in triplet expansion diseases such as Huntington's disease. Forensic STR profiles are stored in DNA databanks such as the UK National DNA Database (NDNAD), the American CODIS or the Australian NCIDD.

Kinship analysis (paternity testing)
Autosomal microsatellites are widely used for DNA profiling in kinship analysis (most commonly in paternity testing). Paternally inherited Y-STRs (microsatellites on the Y chromosome) are often used in genealogical DNA testing.

Genetic linkage analysis
During the 1990s and the first several years of this millennium, microsatellites were the workhorse genetic markers for genome-wide scans to locate any gene responsible for a given phenotype or disease, using segregation observations across generations of a sampled pedigree. Although the rise of higher throughput and cost-effective single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) platforms led to the era of the SNP for genome scans, microsatellites remain highly informative measures of genomic variation for linkage and association studies. Their continued advantage lies in their greater allelic diversity than biallelic SNPs, thus microsatellites can differentiate alleles within a SNP-defined linkage disequilibrium block of interest. Thus, microsatellites have successfully led to discoveries of type 2 diabetes (TCF7L2) and prostate cancer genes (the 8q21 region).

Population genetics
Microsatellites were popularized in population genetics during the 1990s because as PCR became ubiquitous in laboratories researchers were able to design primers and amplify sets of microsatellites at low cost. Their uses are wide-ranging. A microsatellite with a neutral evolutionary history makes it applicable for measuring or inferring bottlenecks, local adaptation, the allelic fixation index (FST), population size, and gene flow. As next generation sequencing becomes more affordable the use of microsatellites has decreased, however they remain a crucial tool in the field.

Plant breeding
Marker assisted selection or marker aided selection (MAS) is an indirect selection process where a trait of interest is selected based on a marker (morphological, biochemical or DNA/RNA variation) linked to a trait of interest (e.g. productivity, disease resistance, stress tolerance, and quality), rather than on the trait itself. Microsatellites have been proposed to be used as such markers to assist plant breeding.

Analysis
Repetitive DNA is not easily analysed by next generation DNA sequencing methods, for some technologies struggle with homopolymeric tracts. A variety of software approaches have been created for the analysis or raw nextgen DNA sequencing reads to determine the genotype and variants at repetitive loci. Microsatellites can be analysed and verified by established PCR amplification and amplicon size determination, sometimes followed by Sanger DNA sequencing.

In forensics, the analysis is performed by extracting nuclear DNA from the cells of a sample of interest, then amplifying specific polymorphic regions of the extracted DNA by means of the polymerase chain reaction. Once these sequences have been amplified, they are resolved either through gel electrophoresis or capillary electrophoresis, which will allow the analyst to determine how many repeats of the microsatellites sequence in question there are. If the DNA was resolved by gel electrophoresis, the DNA can be visualized either by silver staining (low sensitivity, safe, inexpensive), or an intercalating dye such as ethidium bromide (fairly sensitive, moderate health risks, inexpensive), or as most modern forensics labs use, fluorescent dyes (highly sensitive, safe, expensive). Instruments built to resolve microsatellite fragments by capillary electrophoresis also use fluorescent dyes. Forensic profiles are stored in major databanks. The British data base for microsatellite loci identification was originally based on the British SGM+ system using 10 loci and a sex marker. The Americans increased this number to 13 loci. The Australian database is called the NCIDD, and since 2013 it has been using 18 core markers for DNA profiling.

Amplification
Microsatellites can be amplified for identification by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process, using the unique sequences of flanking regions as primers. DNA is repeatedly denatured at a high temperature to separate the double strand, then cooled to allow annealing of primers and the extension of nucleotide sequences through the microsatellite. This process results in production of enough DNA to be visible on agarose or polyacrylamide gels; only small amounts of DNA are needed for amplification because in this way thermocycling creates an exponential increase in the replicated segment. With the abundance of PCR technology, primers that flank microsatellite loci are simple and quick to use, but the development of correctly functioning primers is often a tedious and costly process.

Design of microsatellite primers
If searching for microsatellite markers in specific regions of a genome, for example within a particular intron, primers can be designed manually. This involves searching the genomic DNA sequence for microsatellite repeats, which can be done by eye or by using automated tools such as repeat masker. Once the potentially useful microsatellites are determined, the flanking sequences can be used to design oligonucleotide primers which will amplify the specific microsatellite repeat in a PCR reaction.

Random microsatellite primers can be developed by cloning random segments of DNA from the focal species. These random segments are inserted into a plasmid or bacteriophage vector, which is in turn implanted into Escherichia coli bacteria. Colonies are then developed, and screened with fluorescently–labelled oligonucleotide sequences that will hybridize to a microsatellite repeat, if present on the DNA segment. If positive clones can be obtained from this procedure, the DNA is sequenced and PCR primers are chosen from sequences flanking such regions to determine a specific locus. This process involves significant trial and error on the part of researchers, as microsatellite repeat sequences must be predicted and primers that are randomly isolated may not display significant polymorphism. Microsatellite loci are widely distributed throughout the genome and can be isolated from semi-degraded DNA of older specimens, as all that is needed is a suitable substrate for amplification through PCR.

More recent techniques involve using oligonucleotide sequences consisting of repeats complementary to repeats in the microsatellite to "enrich" the DNA extracted (microsatellite enrichment). The oligonucleotide probe hybridizes with the repeat in the microsatellite, and the probe/microsatellite complex is then pulled out of solution. The enriched DNA is then cloned as normal, but the proportion of successes will now be much higher, drastically reducing the time required to develop the regions for use. However, which probes to use can be a trial and error process in itself.

ISSR-PCR
ISSR (for inter-simple sequence repeat) is a general term for a genome region between microsatellite loci. The complementary sequences to two neighboring microsatellites are used as PCR primers; the variable region between them gets amplified. The limited length of amplification cycles during PCR prevents excessive replication of overly long contiguous DNA sequences, so the result will be a mix of a variety of amplified DNA strands which are generally short but vary much in length.

Sequences amplified by ISSR-PCR can be used for DNA fingerprinting. Since an ISSR may be a conserved or nonconserved region, this technique is not useful for distinguishing individuals, but rather for phylogeography analyses or maybe delimiting species; sequence diversity is lower than in SSR-PCR, but still higher than in actual gene sequences. In addition, microsatellite sequencing and ISSR sequencing are mutually assisting, as one produces primers for the other.

Limitations
Repetitive DNA is not easily analysed by next generation DNA sequencing methods, which struggle with homopolymeric tracts. Therefore, microsatellites are normally analysed by conventional PCR amplification and amplicon size determination. The use of PCR means that microsatellite length analysis is prone to PCR limitations like any other PCR-amplified DNA locus. A particular concern is the occurrence of 'null alleles':
 * Occasionally, within a sample of individuals such as in paternity testing casework, a mutation in the DNA flanking the microsatellite can prevent the PCR primer from binding and producing an amplicon (creating a "null allele" in a gel assay), thus only one allele is amplified (from the non-mutated sister chromosome), and the individual may then falsely appear to be homozygous. This can cause confusion in paternity casework. It may then be necessary to amplify the microsatellite using a different set of primers. Null alleles are caused especially by mutations at the 3' section, where extension commences.
 * In species or population analysis, for example in conservation work, PCR primers which amplify microsatellites in one individual or species can work in other species. However, the risk of applying PCR primers across different species is that null alleles become likely, whenever sequence divergence is too great for the primers to bind. The species may then artificially appear to have a reduced diversity. Null alleles in this case can sometimes be indicated by an excessive frequency of homozygotes causing deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium expectations.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Microsatellite


text:
Albion, New York

Albion may refer to the following places in the U.S. state of New York:

 * Albion (town), Orleans County, New York
 * Albion (village), New York, most of which is in the town above
 * Albion, Oswego County, New York, a town

title: Albion, New York


text:
Pribilof Islands

The Pribilof Islands (formerly the Northern Fur Seal Islands; Amiq, Острова Прибылова) are a group of four volcanic islands off the coast of mainland Alaska, in the Bering Sea, about 200 mi north of Unalaska and 200 miles (320 km) southwest of Cape Newenham. The islands are part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The Siberian coast is roughly 500 mi northwest. About 77 sqmi in total area, they are mostly rocky and are covered with tundra, with a population of 572 as of the 2010 census.

Principal islands
The principal islands are Saint Paul and Saint George. The former was named for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, on the day of which the island was first encountered by the Russian explorer Gavriil Pribylov; the latter was probably named for the ship sailed by Pribylov. The Otter and Walrus islets are near St. Paul. The total land area of all the islands is 75.072 sqmi. The islands are part of the Bering Sea unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

Fur trade
While oral traditions of the Aleut people maintain the islands were sparingly visited, "no ethnohistoric or archaeological evidence points to the use or occupation of the Pribilof Islands... by any native people before the Russian period in Alaska." The seasonal migrations of the northern fur seal became known by the Russians in the 1780s. Swimming north through the Aleutian Islands, the seals returned in the autumn with newly born pups. The unknown northern breeding grounds became a focus of Russian trappers. An employee of the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company, Gavriil Pribylov, sailed in 1786 to discover the location, after disobeying orders to retrieve company property in the Kurile Islands. The rookeries Pribylov visited held upwards of four million seals, for which they became famous. The islands became the site of the LLC's first artel in what later became Russian America.

With the creation of the Russian-American Company, a monopoly, Russian operations continued on the islands. Under the Alaska Purchase sovereignty was passed to the United States in 1867. From 1870 to 1890, the U.S. government leased them to the Alaska Commercial Company. From 1890 through 1910, the North American Commercial Company held the monopoly on seal-hunting there, but the industry shrank considerably owing to seal-hunting on the open sea.

The North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911 was signed by the United Kingdom, Japan, Russia, and the United States to restrict hunting in the area. Under the Fur Seal Act of 1966, hunting of the seals was forbidden in the Pribilofs, with the exception of subsistence hunting by native Aleuts.

Ambrose Bierce suggested that the island should adopt for its motto 'locus sigilli' ("Place of the Seal (emblem)") in his The Devil's Dictionary.

A post office was established for the Pribilofs in 1948 at St. Paul, with Mrs. Ruth Anderson as postmistress.

Seal Island Historic District
Naturalist and paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews visited the islands in 1913 aboard the schooner Adventuress on her maiden voyage with John Borden and crew. His films of fur seals led to efforts to protect the animals. The buildings on St. George and St. Paul Islands related to the hunting of the northern fur seal make up the national historic district.

Today
Residents are concentrated in the towns of St. Paul and St. George, each on the island of the same name. Many of the residents of the islands are related. St. Paul and St. George each have small airports; air service is provided from the Alaskan mainland.

St. Paul has a population of 479 (2010 census), with its economy heavily dependent on the annual taking of the snow crab and on subsistence and commercial halibut harvests. Support services to commercial fleets plying the waters of the Bering Sea also contribute to the economy. The balance of economic activity on the island relates to working for the United States Government. The U.S. Coast Guard maintains a base on St. Paul, but no longer maintains a LORAN-C master station, as LORAN technology has been replaced by satellite navigation. The National Weather Service has a station on the island, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintains a presence.

St. George has a population of 102. Its economy is similar to that of St. Paul.

The Pribilof Islands are a birdwatching attraction, home to many species that do not fly in North America beyond Alaska. More than 210 species have been identified, and an estimated two million seabirds nest there annually. St. Paul is particularly popular, having a high cliff wall, known as Ridge Wall, above the Bering Sea.

title: Pribilof Islands


text:
Talk:Commonwealth of Independent States

Introductory
In the introductory someone wrote that "The CIS has its origins in the Russian Empire..." Why not the Kyivan Rus or the Egyptian Empire of Pharaohs? The CIS has its origins in Novo-Ogorevo and Belavezha state dacha and has nothing to do with the Russian Empire by means of absolutely. Aleksandr Grigoryev (talk) 13:45, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * The CIS is the Eden garden of corruption for the post-Soviet elites in connection with the local mafia groups and clans who parasite on what is left from the Soviet Union. It has nothing to do with political science or history. Aleksandr Grigoryev (talk) 13:49, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Take a deep breath and look at its equivalent - the Visegrád_Group. CIS is just a logical development of economic and geopolitical situation. Neighboring countries tend to form unions to clear things up. And the Post-Soviet elite is very little different from West elite, West elite is same closed club and uses the word "lobby" instead of "corruption" for the very same reason of indirect influece. 89.0.125.95 (talk) 05:33, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Seems to me that the CIS finds its origin in the dissolution of the USSR. Gerard von Hebel (talk) 01:41, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Agreed - it had nothing to do with the Czarist R.E. 74.37.206.38 (talk) 18:37, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

Bump on updating map
A new updated map including the disputed areas Russia has annexed would be nice.

I personally don’t know how to make one, so that’s why I’m requesting a new one. Kalebop1 (talk) 03:35, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

 * I also support this. Preferably also the area that Armenia claims inside Azerbaijan as well. --66.234.78.234 (talk) 09:28, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Armenia does not claim territory inside Azerbaijan. As for Russia, that is a hot war, and territory held is likely to change. CMD (talk) 09:31, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
 * 2f53@Kalebop1@Chipmunkdavis 192.124.197.109 (talk) 14:31, 17 November 2023 (UTC)
 * 200
 * @Chipmunkdavis 192.124.197.109 (talk) 14:31, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

Proposed merge of Member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States into Commonwealth of Independent States
To avoid content duplication – Member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States contains no substantial content that's not already present in this article. — kashmīrī  TALK  21:21, 19 February 2023 (UTC)

 * Merge. It’s kind of a nice standalone summary, but pretty much entirely a content fork per guidelines. —Michael Z. 15:44, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Merge. Was created by a banned user anyway, and does not have any content that is really different from this page.132.231.51.111 (talk) 17:17, 27 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Merge It's got a lot of content but I agree, if it was standalone as a list page maybe it could stand on it's own but it's extremely redundant currently. Marleeashton (talk) 04:51, 16 March 2023 (UTC)

✅ — kashmīrī  TALK  06:49, 16 March 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Commonwealth of Independent States


text:
Metafont

Metafont is a description language used to define raster fonts. It is also the name of the interpreter that executes Metafont code, generating the bitmap fonts that can be embedded into e.g. PostScript. Metafont was devised by Donald Knuth as a companion to his TeX typesetting system.

One of the characteristics of Metafont is that the points defining the shapes of the glyphs—for example top of a stem, or intersection of a stem and crossbar—are defined with geometrical equations; the intent that the three stems of an ‘m’ are equally spaced horizontally might be expressed as $$ x_2-x_1 = x_3-x_2 $$ if points 1, 2, and 3 are at the bottom ends of the three stems, whereas the intent that they all end on the same vertical position would be $$ y_1 = y_2 = y_3 $$.

Metafont is a macro language, where operations such as "draw a lower case top of stem serif at point 4" might appear as one macro instruction (with the point as argument) in the program for a letter. For describing shapes, Metafont has a rich set of path construction operations that mostly relieves the user of having to calculate control points.

Many families of Metafont fonts are set up so that the main source file for a font only defines a small number of design parameters (x-height, em width, slant, vertical stroke width, etc.), then calling a separate source file common for a whole range of fonts to actually draw the individual glyphs; this is the meta aspect of the system.

Modes of operation
Metafont is most often run as a helper to output device (printer, screen) drivers; in those cases, its job is to generate bitmaps for a font for a specific combination of output device (called a mode in Metafont) and resolution (visible in the name of the output file, see below). These bitmaps are typically stored for later reuse, so that Metafont does not have to be run every time a document is displayed, but on the other hand TeX distributions with a Metafont component have typically not included any prebuilt bitmap fonts, since they would be rather large in comparison to the sources from which they could be generated. Since Metafont fonts were traditionally the TeX default from which other font formats were exceptions, an incomplete installation of a non-Metafont font can sometimes result in Metafont being called and emitting a confusing "somefont.mf not found" error message.

Equally important, but not as common, is running Metafont to generate a font metric (TFM) file; a TFM file is only generated if the fontmaking variable is positive. Traditionally TeX distributions have often come with all TFM files pregenerated (since they are pretty small), but someone installing a Metafont font from sources will have to generate its TFM file before TeX can use it.

A third way of operating Metafont is proof mode: if the proofing variable is positive then the bitmap font file also contains additional information provided via  commands, in particular the positions and names of points the font designer considered important for the design. If using the separate  utility to generate enlarged images of the font glyphs, this  information from specials is included; point positions are not limited to pixel resolution.

Metafont can also be run interactively, and has commands for displaying on the screen the images it produces. Knuth has said that he uses Metafont as a kind of desk calculator for solving complicated equations, though he now uses MetaPost for mathematical illustrations.

Metafont can render any kind of graphical output, not just glyphs. However, MetaPost and Asymptote are preferred for mathematical illustrations. Metafont is most commonly invoked without a direct request from the user. DVI files can only contain references to typefaces, rather than the sets of raster or vector glyphs that other formats like PostScript allow. Consequently, the glyphs in the typefaces need to be accessed whenever a request is made to view, print or convert a DVI file.

Output files
Metafont outputs several kinds of files: for a file called NAME.mf, it can output:

 * NAME.NNNNgf – File with raster output at resolution NNNN (2602 by default).
 * NAME.tfm – File with TeX font metric information, which is the information TeX needs. Usually metafont has to be told to generate this file.
 * NAME.log – Log file output from processing

After running Metafont, typically one uses the gftopk program to convert the NNNNgf files to pk (packed) format (.NNNNpk). The pk format was primarily introduced to reduce file size (to about half), but expected to also speed up processing since less data would have to be input/output. The GF and PK formats both employ run-length encoding of bitmaps, but make different binary encodings of the run-lengths. The PK format also does some preprocessing of the bitmaps (bounding box, eliding repeated rows) and encodes all rows of a character as one long bit-sequence.

In the TeX Directory Structure standard, filenames are limited to 8+3 characters, so GF and PK files would only have extensions  and. Files for different resolutions are kept apart by placing them in separate directories, named NNNN, e.g..

Language
The Metafont language is an interpreted language for programs that are essentially declarative rather than imperative.

Variables and equations
Variables in Metafont can be of eight different types: Metapost adds color (a triple of numerics) as a ninth type and has a completely different (non-raster) model for pictures; the latter is the main point of divergence between the two programs. Metafont vardef macros also live in the same namespace as variables and may in some ways be regarded as a ninth type of variable, although macros do not exist as first-class values in Metafont.
 * Numeric: fixed-point signed numbers with an epsilon of $$2^{-16}$$, capped to be less than 4096 (Q12.16). This is the default for variables not declared to be of another type.
 * Pair: a pair of numerics, used primarily for representing points in the plane.
 * Path: as in PostScript/PDF/SVG, a parametric curve in the plane whose coordinate functions are piecewise cubic polynomials. As in those other systems, path segments are encoded as Bézier curves in terms of knots and control points.
 * Transform: an affine transformation of the plane, equivalent to a "(transformation) matrix" in PostScript/PDF.
 * Pen: a convex polygon, representing the shape of a "pen" used for drawing.
 * Picture: a raster image with a signed integer value for each pixel.
 * Boolean
 * String (of 8-bit characters)

Unusually, the names of variables are not simple tokens, but sequences of symbolic tokens and numeric indices; the variable name  is thus not one alphanumeric token, but a sequence of the three tokens   (symbolic),   (numeric), and   (symbolic). Record and array types may be simulated through collections of variables that share a common name prefix, an idiom supported by the type declaration system giving all variables whose names which differ only in numeric indices the same type (as expected for arrays) while keeping variables whole name differ in some symbolic token separate (as expected for records).

A very distinctive feature of Metafont is the use of equations to define variables. A numeric variable (or component of a pair or transformation variable) may be in the three states known (set), unknown independent (not set), and unknown dependent (not set, but given by a linear expression of one or several independents). When Metafont executes an equation statement, it turns one of the independents involved into a dependent and eliminates it from the expressions for all other dependents; when no independents remain in the expression for a dependent variable, that variable becomes known. Solving linear equation systems thus is a built-in feature of the Metafont language, and the recommended method of assigning most variables (especially those whose values have geometric significance) is to state equations determining their values. Equation systems frequently mix numeric (scalar) equations with pair (vector) equations.

An exception to the above is the class of internal quantity variables. These have names consisting of just one symbolic token, are always numeric, and are always known. They have a more direct internal representation than ordinary variables, making it convenient for primitive operations in Metafont (or extensions thereof) to use them implicitly.

Syntax
Metafont has numeric and string constant tokens with mainstream syntaxes; strings are delimited by  quotes, numeric constants can have decimals but not an exponent part. All other tokens are classified as symbolic, and can be redefined arbitrarily; there is no restriction that tokens with certain meanings must have names consisting of certain characters. At runtime, there can additionally be capsule tokens, which are effectively constant value tokens of arbitrary type; in the source code those appear as symbolic tokens.

Except where characters are involved in numeric or string constants, the extent of the token containing a particular character depends on to which class the character belongs; unlike TeX, Metafont has fixed character classes. The characters,  ,  , and   are "loners" and only form single character tokens. For the character classes,   (single quotes),  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , and  , as well as the class of underscore together with upper and lower case A–Z, the token consists of the longest consecutive sequence of characters from the same class. Whitespace characters don't contribute tokens. starts a comment lasting until end of line.

A notable application of these rules is that  is frequently appearing as part of variable names in Metafont code, e.g.   and.

Delimiters (such as parentheses) do not have built-in meanings, instead there is a command that turns two symbolic tokens into a pair of matching delimiters, but normally Metafont programs use only the ordinary parentheses. Besides to override priorities in expressions, delimiters are also required around certain kinds of macro arguments.

Graphics
Curves in Metafont are defined as cubic splines rather than quadratic, for greater versatility at the cost of more complex arithmetic.

Unlike more common outline font formats (such as TrueType or PostScript Type 1), a Metafont font is primarily made up of strokes with finite-width "pens", along with filled regions. Thus, rather than describing the outline of the glyph directly, a Metafont file describes the pen paths. Some simpler Metafont fonts, such as the calligraphic mathematics fonts in the Computer Modern family, use a single pen stroke with a relatively large pen to define each visual "stroke" of the glyphs. More complex fonts such as the Roman text fonts in the Computer Modern family use a small pen to trace around the outline of the visual "strokes", which are then filled; the result is much like an outline font, but with slightly softened corners defined by the pen shape.

Since the font shapes are defined by equations rather than directly coded numbers, it is possible to treat parameters such as aspect ratio, font slant, stroke width, serif size, and so forth as input parameters in each glyph definition (which then define not a single font, but a meta-font). Thus, by changing the value of one of these parameters at one location in the Metafont file, one can produce a consistent change throughout the entire font. Computer Modern Roman illustrates many uses of this feature; a typical TeX installation includes a number of versions of the font in pitches from 5 to 17 cpi, with the stroke widths the same in all sizes (rather than increasing as the font is scaled up). In addition, the Computer Modern typewriter and sans-serif fonts are defined using essentially the same Metafont file as the Roman font, but with different global parameters.

Use
While well-known type designers, such as Hermann Zapf, have collaborated with Knuth to create new fonts using Metafont, the system has not been widely adopted by professional type designers. Knuth attributes this to the fact that "asking an artist to become enough of a mathematician to understand how to write a font with 60 parameters is too much." Jonathan Hoefler commented that the Metafont system ultimately became "a technology behind zero of your favourite fonts...Knuth's idea that letters start with skeletal forms is flawed."

The Metafont system allows fonts to be processed in unusual ways; in 1982 Knuth showed how it could be used to morph fonts, with a serif font slowly transitioning into a sans-serif design over the course of a text.

History
Donald Knuth started work on font creation software in 1977, and produced the first version of Metafont in 1979. Due to shortcomings in the original Metafont language, Knuth developed an entirely new Metafont system in 1984, and it is this revised system that is used today; Metafont has a versioning system similar to that of TeX, where the number asymptotically approaches e with each revision.

Example
The following example creates a closed beanlike shape for the character "B" of a font: This yields the following glyph:

The above example will be processed with a command line such as:

Then it can be used in a LaTeX file such as (all files should dwell in the same directory or the TeX system should be informed about them using appropriate methods): The resulting PDF file should look like this:

Producing PostScript Type 1 fonts
There are several tools for converting Metafont programs to PostScript Type 1 fonts. Most make use of MetaPost's ability to convert a subset of Metafont's language into EPS outlines, which can subsequently be converted to PostScript Type 1 fonts. Generating vector outlines of Metafont pen strokes is nontrivial, as the Metafont model of a glyph is a raster image and the exact outlines of most strokes are not Bézier curves.

 * The Polish JNS team developed METATYPE1 (based on MetaPost) for creating PostScript Type 1 fonts. Its big disadvantage is that no pens may be used which highly reduces the power of Metafont language. Initially, tool has been used by the Polish GUST typeface foundry to produce a modernized and extended variant of Computer Modern, called Latin Modern.
 * mf2pt1, which is also based on Metapost, was developed by Scott Pakin with some contributions from Werner Lemberg. It also has several limitations detailed in its manual, the most significant one being the restriction that each glyph must be drawn entirely from closed paths. In order to overcome the limitations of mf2pt1, the EPS output by Metapost can be post-processed with FontForge, which is capable of interpreting complex PostScript paths generated by Metapost from Metafont's elliptic pens, and also capable of removing contour overlaps. Since FontForge supports scripting, this post-processing step can also be automated. This approach was used to produce Type 1 outlines for the MnSymbol mathematical font developed by Achim Blumensath; MnSymbol was designed as a companion to Minion Pro.
 * MetaFog is a proprietary converter that can analytically convert pen strokes, but it requires manual post processing to eliminate degenerate cases, and it is not publicly available. It can process only Metapost output.

The common approach to generate Type 1 fonts with pen strokes remains to generate a high-resolution bitmap and then using an autotracer, implemented by packages such as mftrace and TeXtrace

title: Metafont


text:
Wayne Carey

Wayne Francis Carey (born 27 May 1971) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the North Melbourne Football Club and Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

A dual-premiership captain at North Melbourne (1996 and 1999), four-time North Melbourne best-and-fairest (Syd Barker Medallist) and seven-time All-Australian, Carey is nicknamed "The King", or "Duck". In 2001, he was named as centre half-forward and captain of North Melbourne's Team of the Century, and in 2008 was named as Australian football's greatest ever player, as part of a list of the top 50 players of all time, published in the book The Australian Game of Football, which was released by the League to celebrate 150 years of Australian rules football.

In 2002, he left North Melbourne in disgrace after it was revealed he had been having an extramarital affair with the wife of his then-teammate Anthony Stevens. He is also known for a string of legal problems, which include domestic violence charges and assault convictions.

From 2014, Carey has worked as a Friday night football commentator and Talking Footy panelist with Channel Seven. He has also written as a columnist for The Age and is a regular fixture on Triple M's The Rush Hour segment called "The Midweek Rub", which has since been spun off as its own podcast. He had previously worked for 3AW and Channel 9 before being fired for a glassing incident in Miami. Carey worked at Channel 7, Triple M and The Age until 2022 when he was sacked from all three roles due to an alleged incident at the Perth Casino. Carey then started his own podcast in 2023 called “The Truth Hurts” - the original co-host was Ayrton Woolley in 2023 and then Tony Sheahan from 2024.

Early life and education
Wayne Francis Carey  was born on born 27 May 1971, the son of Kevin and Lynne Carey. Carey was one of five children, and spent his early years in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. His mother and father separated when Carey was aged six, with his mother taking four of the children to Adelaide, living in a homeless shelter. According to Carey's autobiography, his father was a violent man who had spent time at Mannus Correctional Centre and was troubled by alcoholism. A few months later, Kevin Carey retrieved the children from his estranged wife, and they returned to Wagga Wagga.

Carey played rugby league as a junior, and began playing Australian rules football at the age of eight. At the age of thirteen, Carey returned to Adelaide, where he attended The Heights School and played junior football for North Adelaide.

VFL debut: 1987–1989
In 1987, Carey was recruited by North Melbourne after their CEO, Greg Miller, met with the Sydney Swans' football department to discuss the transfer to North Melbourne of John Longmire, a highly regarded junior key-position player. Once that deal was concluded, Miller then inquired about Carey who, like Longmire, was zoned to the Swans due to having lived in New South Wales. He made a token offer of $10,000 as a transfer fee, to which the Swans surprisingly agreed. As a 16-year-old, Carey made the move to Melbourne and played for the North Melbourne under-19s, where he starred in their 1988 premiership side under coach Denis Pagan. Carey was promoted to the senior list prior to the 1989 season and, after recovering from dislocating his left shoulder in a practice match early in the year, made his first appearance for the seniors as an 18-year-old in round 11 of 1989 against Fitzroy.

State of Origin
Carey had a relatively short but successful State of Origin career, and what he describes as a significant period in his career. Carey first played at the game's highest level in 1990 for New South Wales, in a famous win over Victoria, in the side's only 3rd-ever win against the state; Carey scored one goal. In 1992, playing for South Australia against Victoria, Carey played an outstanding game, dominating at centre half-forward and kicking two goals, including the match-winner from 55 metres out in the dying moments. Carey had four opponents in the game, dominating them all, including Chris Langford, Danny Frawley and Garry Lyon. Carey has described this game as the moment he knew he belonged in the AFL. Saying if he could do well at State of Origin level, a higher level than the AFL, he knew he belonged at AFL level. Carey played for NSW/ACT the following year in the State of Origin Carnival scoring one goal. In the latter half of the 1990s, clubs began putting pressure on players to pull out of games due to fear of injury, and players began to stop participating, with the final State of Origin game occurring in 1999.

1989–2001

The 1990s was a decade dominated by forwards, and Wayne Carey dominated his role at centre half-forward more than perhaps any other player in his position before or since.

"Carey had established a reputation as one of perhaps the dozen greatest players of all time," according to writer John Devaney of australianfootball.com. "It was clear right from the outset that the Kangaroos had managed to get their hands on someone special. Powerfully built even then, Carey could mark strongly even under the most extreme pressure, and his kicking either to position or at goal was impeccable. He was also surprisingly quick, both over the ground, and in terms of his decision making and use of the ball. Carey won the first of his four North Melbourne best and fairest awards in 1992, and the following year was appointed captain.

"North's emergence as one of the power clubs of the AFL during the mid- to late 1990s was attributable in no small measure to Carey's presence and contribution. It is arguable that no footballer in history has ever been capable of winning a game entirely off his own boot, but Carey at his peak perhaps came as close as anyone. On a purely objective measure, he was probably worth at least three players—which, coincidentally, is sometimes the number of opponents he had to contend with. Named an AFL All-Australian in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000, Carey was selected as captain of the side on four occasions. In both 1996 and 1999 he was a pivotal member of his club's two most recent premiership sides."

—John Devaney

Extramarital affair and leaving North Melbourne for Adelaide: 2002–2004
In March 2002, Carey had an extramarital affair with the wife of North Melbourne stalwart and Vice Captain Anthony Stevens, Kelli. Making the situation even messier was the fact that Carey was himself married to his long-term partner Sally McMahon. Carey and Stevens were attending a party at teammate Glenn Archer's house. Carey is quoted as saying Kelli followed him into the toilets in front of a large crowd, including her husband. An argument ensued between Carey and Stevens, and both players subsequently failed to attend football training. In the face of his team being united against him, as well as nationwide condemnation, Carey resigned in disgrace from North Melbourne. Carey's then manager Ricky Nixon infamously stated that his client was on "suicide watch" during the aftermath. To avoid media attention, Carey fled to Las Vegas, USA. Stevens had played groomsman to Carey at his wedding to Sally.

North Melbourne Legend Brent Harvey said it set the club back "four or five years". The aftermath of the affair resulted in Carey missing the 2002 AFL season and transferring to the Adelaide Crows for the 2003 AFL season; he would play two seasons with the Crows, including kicking 56 goals, retiring at the end of the 2004 AFL season. The first game played between North Melbourne and Adelaide in 2003 made for gripping viewing, with Archer and Stevens both taunting and making aggressive moves towards Carey. Although tension was at fever pitch, all players involved managed to restrain themselves from doing anything overly rash. Adelaide went on to win convincingly by 54 points. In a twist of fate, Stevens took over Carey's role of captain in 2004.

In February 2022, 20 years after the initial fallout from the affair, Carey labelled his affair with Stevens "the biggest regret of my life as an adult" while participating on season three of the reality TV show SAS Australia. Despite withdrawing from the show, Carey was reportedly paid A$250,000 for the appearance.

In August 2022, Carey and Stevens met again at a function to celebrate the 26th anniversary of their 1996 premiership (which was initially supposed to be a 25th anniversary but was delayed by a year due to COVID-19); Carey engaged Stevens in a "verbal stoush" at the function, although the situation was reportedly de-escalated. The Herald Sun reported there was no potential of violence and that the pair "moved on and shared a beer together" afterwards.

Despite both players' marriages being rocked by the public scandal, it took each marriage several years to dissolve. Carey's marriage ended in 2006, four years after the incident, while Kelli and Anthony Stevens divorced in 2008, six years after the affair.

Australian Football Hall of Fame
Carey was inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame in 2010. Although he was eligible for induction in 2008, his off-field troubles with drugs and violence delayed his induction.

“Alleged creative accounting"
Due to restrictions in the salary cap, North Melbourne was capped at $300,000 per year for Carey for the 2000 AFL season. However, the North Melbourne staff knew that Carey was far more valuable to the team than this, so Carey's manager Ricky Nixon came up with a creative salary cap move to secure Carey an additional $400,000 in salary.

Nixon said, "So I requested Wayne’s intellectual property, and it was owned by Wayne Carey Pty Ltd, and he licensed it to me for $2 so I could sell it to North Melbourne for marketing rights of $700,000," Nixon said on the Real Footy podcast. "He was getting paid $300,000 from North Melbourne and $700,000 went to me, and I gave Wayne $400,000. People said it was cheating, but it was absolutely within the rules."

According to Nixon, when the AFL complained about this manoeuvre, he simply told them: "I run the competition, not you."

Legacy
Carey has been named by many media commentators as the greatest footballer to play the game. In 1999, Leigh Matthews, who was voted the greatest player of the 20th century, honoured Carey by saying that he was the best player he had ever seen. In 2008, Carey was named as Australian Football's greatest-ever player as part of a list of the top 50 players of all time, published in the book The Australian Game of Football, and he placed third in a similar list put together by a panel of football legends in The Age newspaper the same year. In 2011, the Herald Sun polled 21 past and present AFL greats, including Carey, to find the players' opinion as to the greatest player of the AFL era. Carey topped the list, polling 85 of a possible 100 votes, 26 votes ahead of second-placed Gary Ablett Sr.

"Sure Got Me" on Paul Kelly's 2004 double album Ways & Means recounts the love triangle involving Carey, Anthony Stevens, and Stevens's wife at the time, Kelli. Hunters & Collectors frontman Mark Seymour also wrote a song inspired by the affair, but he declined to release it after learning of Kelli's take on the events. Jock Cheese, bassist of the satirical Melbourne band TISM, released a tribute to Carey titled "Why Don't You Get A Bigger Set of Tits?" on his 2002 solo album Platter.

Statistics
As of 2023, Carey's career total of 727 goals ranks him equal 20th in VFL/AFL history, and his 671 goals for North Melbourne is the club record.

! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1989 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1990 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1991 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1992 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1993 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1994 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1995 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1997 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1998 ! style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba; | 1999† ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2000 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2001 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2003 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2004 ! colspan=3| Career ! 272 ! 727 ! 457 ! 3217 ! 1272 ! 4489 ! 1830 ! 319 ! 2.7 ! 1.7 ! 11.8 ! 4.7 ! 16.5 ! 6.7 ! 1.2
 * - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 40 || 4 || 0 || 2 || 26 || 8 || 34 || 14 || 4 || 0.0 || 0.5 || 6.5 || 2.0 || 8.5 || 3.5 || 1.0
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 18 || 21 || 38 || 23 || 196 || 94 || 290 || 98 || 18 || 1.8 || 1.1 || 9.3 || 4.5 || 13.8 || 4.7 || 0.9
 * - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 18 || 14 || 28 || 21 || 132 || 56 || 188 || 84 || 10 || 2.0 || 1.5 || 9.4 || 4.0 || 13.4 || 6.0 || 0.7
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 18 || 21 || 46 || 32 || 278 || 107 || 385 || 157 || 26 || 2.2 || 1.5 || 13.2 || 5.1 || 18.3 || 7.5 || 1.2
 * - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 18 || 19 || 64 || 44 || 216 || 123 || 339 || 150 || 21 || 3.4 || 2.3 || 11.4 || 6.5 || 17.8 || 7.9 || 1.1
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 18 || 19 || 63 || 42 || 237 || 116 || 353 || 164 || 13 || 3.3 || 2.2 || 12.5 || 6.1 || 18.6 || 8.6 || 0.7
 * - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 18 || 25 || 65 || 46 || 309 || 143|| 452 || 187 || 28 || 2.6 || 1.8 || 12.4 || 5.7 || 18.1 || 7.5 || 1.1
 * style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;"|1996†
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 18 || 25 || 82 || 55 || 332 || 154 || 486 || 200 || 31 || 3.3 || 2.2 || 13.3 || 6.2 || 19.4 || 8.0 || 1.2
 * - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
 * - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 18 || 14 || 25 || 15 || 160 || 66 || 226 || 74 || 14 || 1.8 || 1.1 || 11.4 || 4.7 || 16.1 || 5.3 || 1.0
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 18 || 25 || 80 || 49 || 368 || 121 || 489 || 193 || 40 || 3.2 || 2.0 || 14.7 || 4.8 || 19.6 || 7.7 || 1.6
 * - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 18 || 20 || 76 || 39 || 253 || 100 || 353 || 145 || 33 || 3.8 || 2.0 || 12.7 || 5.0 || 17.7 || 7.3 || 1.7
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 18 || 23 || 69 || 37 || 336 || 86 || 422 || 176 || 35 || 3.0 || 1.6 || 14.6 || 3.7 || 18.3 || 7.7 || 1.5
 * - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 18 || 14 || 35 || 11 || 137 || 37 || 174 || 69 || 13 || 2.5 || 0.8 || 9.8 || 2.6 || 12.4 || 4.9 || 0.9
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 2 || 16 || 29 || 19 || 136 || 35 || 171 || 62 || 21 || 1.8 || 1.2 || 8.5 || 2.2 || 10.7 || 3.9 || 1.3
 * - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
 * style="text-align:center;"|
 * 2 || 12 || 27 || 22 || 101 || 26 || 127 || 57 || 12 || 2.3 || 1.8 || 8.4 || 2.2 || 10.6 || 4.8 || 1.0
 * - class="sortbottom"
 * }

Post-playing career
In early 2005, Carey agreed to assist former coach and mentor Denis Pagan at the Carlton Football Club, acting voluntarily as a part-time skills coach. In 2006 he was an assistant coach at Collingwood Football Club. Carey also worked as a commentator and host of shows on the Fox Footy Channel throughout the 2006 season. In 2007 he participated in the Nine Network football analysis program Footy Classified, as well as special comments for radio station 3AW's football coverage. Subsequent to his dual arrests for domestic violence and assault he was sacked from both positions.

In 2009, Carey was approached in a confidential meeting with influential North Melbourne board member Ron Joseph to return to the club as coach in a succession plan which also involved Malcolm Blight. Carey confirmed this when queried by noted football journalist Damian Barrett in May 2021.

Controversies
Carey has had a string of scandals besides the aforementioned extramarital affair with Anthony Stevens' wife.

In 1997, Carey pleaded guilty to indecent assault after grabbing a passing woman's breast on a Melbourne city street after 12 hours of drinking with teammates. He allegedly told her, "Why don't you get a bigger pair of tits". Carey later settled out of court when the woman filed a civil suit against him.

In 2000, Carey provided character evidence for Jason Moran, an infamous gangster who was subsequently murdered in Melbourne's gang war.

In 2004, while holidaying with his then wife, Carey was subject to arrest for a misdemeanour battery report while holidaying in Las Vegas. He was placed in custody for one night then released. The local District Attorney elected not to pursue the case.

Carey again became the subject of public comment in February 2006 when he announced he was leaving his pregnant wife Sally for model Kate Neilson. His daughter Ella was born six weeks later. In December 2006, Neilson allegedly reported Carey to Australian police for domestic violence, alleging he had punched her in the face. Neilson and Carey denied this report. Subsequently, US security guard Kyle Banks told the Nine Network's A Current Affair he saw Carey attacking Neilson while working at the exclusive W Hotel in New York City in October 2006. Banks said he saw Carey break a bottle of French champagne over his own head.

On 27 January 2008, Carey was arrested after reports of a disturbance at his Port Melbourne apartment. Police had to subdue Carey with capsicum spray and he was seen handcuffed after allegedly assaulting the officers.

Two days later, the Nine Network announced it would not renew Carey's television contract after it was revealed that Carey had been arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer and Neilson in Miami, Florida, on 27 October 2007, after he allegedly glassed Neilsen in the face and neck with a wine glass. Police Lieutenant Bill Schwartz, however, reported: "When officers went and spoke to him, he immediately was belligerent, starting striking out at the officers, in fact, kicked one of the female officers in the face with his foot, elbowed another one in the side of the face. They had to wrestle him down and handcuff him. When he was in the police car, he used his head as a battering ram and tried to smash a hole between the front compartment of the police car and the prisoner compartment."

To stop Carey harming himself and damaging the car, the officers put him into a leather hobble restraint around his hands and legs. Carey faced up to fifteen years in jail and US$30,000 fines. Additionally, Carey was fired from commentary jobs at 3AW and the Nine Network following the coverage of the two arrests. Ultimately Carey pleaded guilty to assaulting and resisting Miami police. In exchange for his guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed that Carey should only serve 50 hours of community service, attend alcohol- and anger-management classes, serve two years probation, and pay US$500 to a Miami police charity. As a consequence of his criminal record in the United States, Carey was refused an entry visa in October 2009.

In March 2008, Carey publicly revealed he was, for a long period, an abuser of alcohol and cocaine. He was interviewed by Andrew Denton on Enough Rope, where he talked candidly about his life and recent controversies. 1.5 million viewers tuned into the highly publicised interview.

Carey was attempting to visit Barwon Prison in February 2012 to speak to indigenous inmates as part of a mentoring program; however, he was found to have traces of cocaine on his clothing following a routine drug scan. Carey was informed that he could enter the prison if he submitted to a strip search. He declined and left the correctional facility.

On 1 September 2022, according to numerous sources, including The Herald Sun and The Age, Carey was gambling when a Ziploc bag of white powder fell onto a gaming table. Carey denied the substance was illegal, claiming it was a "crushed-up anti-inflammatory". Carey was issued with a "withdrawal of license" notice, which means he cannot attend Crown properties for two years. It saw him ejected from the Crown hotel, where he was staying for the Fremantle–Bulldogs elimination final. This also means that he was unable to attend the 2022 Brownlow Medal count that was held at Crown Palladium in Melbourne.

title: Wayne Carey