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Lipschitz continuity

In mathematical analysis, Lipschitz continuity, named after German mathematician Rudolf Lipschitz, is a strong form of uniform continuity for functions. Intuitively, a Lipschitz continuous function is limited in how fast it can change: there exists a real number such that, for every pair of points on the graph of this function, the absolute value of the slope of the line connecting them is not greater than this real number; the smallest such bound is called the Lipschitz constant of the function (and is related to the modulus of uniform continuity). For instance, every function that is defined on an interval and has a bounded first derivative is Lipschitz continuous.

In the theory of differential equations, Lipschitz continuity is the central condition of the Picard–Lindelöf theorem which guarantees the existence and uniqueness of the solution to an initial value problem. A special type of Lipschitz continuity, called contraction, is used in the Banach fixed-point theorem.

We have the following chain of strict inclusions for functions over a closed and bounded non-trivial interval of the real line:

 * Continuously differentiable ⊂ Lipschitz continuous ⊂ $$\alpha$$-Hölder continuous,

where $$0 < \alpha \leq 1$$. We also have

 * Lipschitz continuous ⊂ absolutely continuous ⊂ uniformly continuous.

Definitions
Given two metric spaces (X, dX) and (Y, dY), where dX denotes the metric on the set X and dY is the metric on set Y, a function f : X → Y is called Lipschitz continuous if there exists a real constant K ≥ 0 such that, for all x1 and x2 in X,
 * $$ d_Y(f(x_1), f(x_2)) \le K d_X(x_1, x_2).$$

Any such K is referred to as  a Lipschitz constant for the function f and f may also be referred to as K-Lipschitz. The smallest constant is sometimes called the (best) Lipschitz constant of f or the dilation or dilatation  of f. If K = 1 the function is called a short map, and if 0 ≤ K < 1 and f maps a metric space to itself, the function is called a contraction.

In particular, a real-valued function f : R → R is called Lipschitz continuous if there exists a positive real constant K such that, for all real x1 and x2,
 * $$ |f(x_1) - f(x_2)| \le K |x_1 - x_2|.$$

In this case, Y is the set of real numbers R with the standard metric dY(y1, y2) = |y1 − y2|, and X is a subset of R.

In general, the inequality is (trivially) satisfied if x1 = x2. Otherwise, one can equivalently define a function to be Lipschitz continuous if and only if there exists a constant K ≥ 0 such that, for all x1 ≠ x2,
 * $$\frac{d_Y(f(x_1),f(x_2))}{d_X(x_1,x_2)}\le K.$$

For real-valued functions of several real variables, this holds if and only if the absolute value of the slopes of all secant lines are bounded by K. The set of lines of slope K passing through a point on the graph of the function forms a circular cone, and a function is Lipschitz if and only if the graph of the function everywhere lies completely outside of this cone (see figure).

A function is called locally Lipschitz continuous if for every x in X there exists a neighborhood U of x such that f restricted to U is Lipschitz continuous. Equivalently, if X is a locally compact metric space, then f is locally Lipschitz if and only if it is Lipschitz continuous on every compact subset of X. In spaces that are not locally compact, this is a necessary but not a sufficient condition.

More generally, a function f defined on X is said to be Hölder continuous or to satisfy a Hölder condition of order α > 0 on X if there exists a constant M ≥ 0 such that
 * $$d_Y(f(x), f(y)) \leq M d_X(x, y)^{\alpha}$$

for all x and y in X. Sometimes a Hölder condition of order α is also called a uniform Lipschitz condition of order α > 0.

For a real number K ≥ 1, if
 * $$\frac{1}{K}d_X(x_1,x_2) \le d_Y(f(x_1), f(x_2)) \le K d_X(x_1, x_2)\quad\text{ for all }x_1,x_2\in X,$$

then f is called K-bilipschitz (also written K-bi-Lipschitz). We say f is bilipschitz or bi-Lipschitz to mean there exists such a K. A bilipschitz mapping is injective, and is in fact a homeomorphism onto its image. A bilipschitz function is the same thing as an injective Lipschitz function whose inverse function is also Lipschitz.

Examples

 * Lipschitz continuous functions that are everywhere differentiable:
 * Lipschitz continuous functions that are not everywhere differentiable:
 * Lipschitz continuous functions that are everywhere differentiable but not continuously differentiable:
 * Continuous functions that are not (globally) Lipschitz continuous:
 * Differentiable functions that are not (locally) Lipschitz continuous:
 * Analytic functions that are not (globally) Lipschitz continuous:

Properties

 * An everywhere differentiable function g : R → R is Lipschitz continuous (with K = sup |g′(x)|) if and only if it has bounded first derivative; one direction follows from the mean value theorem. In particular, any continuously differentiable function is locally Lipschitz, as continuous functions are locally bounded so its gradient is locally bounded as well.
 * A Lipschitz function g : R → R is absolutely continuous and therefore is differentiable almost everywhere, that is, differentiable at every point outside a set of Lebesgue measure zero. Its derivative is essentially bounded in magnitude by the Lipschitz constant, and for a < b, the difference g(b) − g(a) is equal to the integral of the derivative g′ on the interval [a, b].
 * Conversely, if f : I → R is absolutely continuous and thus differentiable almost everywhere, and satisfies |f′(x)| ≤ K for almost all x in I, then f is Lipschitz continuous with Lipschitz constant at most K.
 * More generally, Rademacher's theorem extends the differentiability result to Lipschitz mappings between Euclidean spaces: a Lipschitz map f : U → Rm, where U is an open set in Rn, is almost everywhere differentiable. Moreover, if K is the best Lipschitz constant of f, then $$\|Df(x)\|\le K$$ whenever the total derivative Df exists.
 * For a differentiable Lipschitz map $$f: U \to \R^m$$ the inequality $$\|Df\|_{W^{1,\infty}(U)}\le K$$ holds for the best Lipschitz constant $$K$$ of $$f$$. If the domain $$U$$ is convex then in fact $$\|Df\|_{W^{1,\infty}(U)}= K$$.
 * Suppose that {fn} is a sequence of Lipschitz continuous mappings between two metric spaces, and that all fn have Lipschitz constant bounded by some K. If fn converges to a mapping f uniformly, then f is also Lipschitz, with Lipschitz constant bounded by the same K.  In particular, this implies that the set of real-valued functions on a compact metric space with a particular bound for the Lipschitz constant is a closed and convex subset of the Banach space of continuous functions.  This result does not hold for sequences in which the functions may have unbounded Lipschitz constants, however.  In fact, the space of all Lipschitz functions on a compact metric space is a subalgebra of the Banach space of continuous functions, and thus dense in it, an elementary consequence of the Stone–Weierstrass theorem (or as a consequence of Weierstrass approximation theorem, because every polynomial is locally Lipschitz continuous).
 * Every Lipschitz continuous map is uniformly continuous, and hence continuous. More generally, a set of functions with bounded Lipschitz constant forms an equicontinuous set.  The Arzelà–Ascoli theorem implies that if {fn} is a uniformly bounded sequence of functions with bounded Lipschitz constant, then it has a convergent subsequence.  By the result of the previous paragraph, the limit function is also Lipschitz, with the same bound for the Lipschitz constant.  In particular the set of all real-valued Lipschitz functions on a compact metric space X having Lipschitz constant ≤ K  is a locally compact convex subset of the Banach space C(X).
 * For a family of Lipschitz continuous functions fα with common constant, the function $$\sup_\alpha f_\alpha$$ (and $$\inf_\alpha f_\alpha$$) is Lipschitz continuous as well, with the same Lipschitz constant, provided it assumes a finite value at least at a point.
 * If U is a subset of the metric space M and f : U → R is a Lipschitz continuous function, there always exist Lipschitz continuous maps M → R which extend f and have the same Lipschitz constant as f (see also Kirszbraun theorem). An extension is provided by
 * $$\tilde f(x):=\inf_{u\in U}\{ f(u)+k\, d(x,u)\},$$
 * where k is a Lipschitz constant for f on U.

Lipschitz manifolds
A Lipschitz structure on a topological manifold is defined using an atlas of charts whose transition maps are bilipschitz; this is possible because bilipschitz maps form a pseudogroup. Such a structure allows one to define locally Lipschitz maps between such manifolds, similarly to how one defines smooth maps between smooth manifolds: if $\sqrt{x}$ and $M$ are Lipschitz manifolds, then a function $$f:M \to N$$ is locally Lipschitz if and only if for every pair of coordinate charts $$\phi:U \to M$$ and $$\psi:V \to N$$, where $N$ and $U$ are open sets in the corresponding Euclidean spaces, the composition $$\psi^{-1} \circ f \circ \phi:U \cap (f \circ \phi)^{-1}(\psi(V)) \to V$$ is locally Lipschitz. This definition does not rely on defining a metric on $V$ or $M$.

This structure is intermediate between that of a piecewise-linear manifold and a topological manifold: a PL structure gives rise to a unique Lipschitz structure. While Lipschitz manifolds are closely related to topological manifolds, Rademacher's theorem allows one to do analysis, yielding various applications.

One-sided Lipschitz
Let F(x) be an upper semi-continuous function of x, and that F(x) is a closed, convex set for all x. Then F is one-sided Lipschitz if
 * $$(x_1-x_2)^T(F(x_1)-F(x_2))\leq C\Vert x_1-x_2\Vert^2$$

for some C and for all x1 and x2.

It is possible that the function F could have a very large Lipschitz constant but a moderately sized, or even negative, one-sided Lipschitz constant. For example, the function

 * $$\begin{cases}

F:\mathbf{R}^2\to\mathbf{R},\\ F(x,y)=-50(y-\cos(x)) \end{cases}$$

has Lipschitz constant K = 50 and a one-sided Lipschitz constant C = 0. An example which is one-sided Lipschitz but not Lipschitz continuous is F(x) = e−x, with C = 0.

title: Lipschitz continuity


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Conveyor belt

A conveyor belt is the carrying medium of a belt conveyor system (often shortened to belt conveyor). A belt conveyor system is one of many types of conveyor systems. A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to as drums), with a closed loop of carrying medium—the conveyor belt—that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are powered, moving the belt and the material on the belt forward. The powered pulley is called the drive pulley while the unpowered pulley is called the idler pulley. There are two main industrial classes of belt conveyors; Those in general material handling such as those moving boxes along inside a factory and bulk material handling such as those used to transport large volumes of resources and agricultural materials, such as grain, salt, coal, ore, sand, overburden and more.

Overview
Conveyors are durable and reliable components used in automated distribution and warehousing, as well as manufacturing and production facilities. In combination with computer-controlled pallet handling equipment this allows for more efficient retail, wholesale, and manufacturing distribution. It is considered a labor-saving system that allows large volumes to move rapidly through a process, allowing companies to ship or receive higher volumes with smaller storage space and with labor expense.

Belt conveyors are the most commonly used powered conveyors because they are the most versatile and the least expensive. Products are conveyed directly on the belt so both regular and irregular shaped objects, large or small, light and heavy, can be transported successfully. Belt conveyors are also manufactured with curved sections that use tapered rollers and curved belting to convey products around a corner. These conveyor systems are commonly used in postal sorting offices and airport baggage handling systems.

Belt conveyors are generally fairly similar in construction consisting of a metal frame with rollers at either end of a flat metal bed. Rubber conveyor belts are commonly used to convey items with irregular bottom surfaces, small items that would fall in between rollers (e.g. a sushi conveyor bar), or bags of product that would sag between rollers. The belt is looped around each of the rollers and when one of the rollers is powered (by an electrical motor) the belting slides across the solid metal frame bed, moving the product. In heavy use applications, the beds in which the belting is pulled over are replaced with rollers. The rollers allow weight to be conveyed as they reduce the amount of friction generated from the heavier loading on the belting. The exception to the standard belt conveyor construction is the sandwich belt conveyor. The sandwich belt conveyor uses two conveyor belts, instead of one. These two conventional conveyor belts are positioned face to face, to firmly contain the items being carried in a "sandwich-like" hold.

Belt conveyors can be used to transport products in a straight line or through changes in elevation or direction. For conveying bulk materials, over gentle slopes or gentle curvatures, a troughed belt conveyor is used. The trough of the belt ensures that the flowable material is contained within the edges of the belt. The trough is achieved by keeping the idler rollers in an angle to the horizontal at the sides of the idler frame. A pipe conveyor is used for material travel paths that require sharper bends and inclines up to 35 degrees. A pipe conveyor features the edges of the belt being rolled together to form a circular section like a pipe. Like a troughed belt conveyor, a pipe conveyor also uses idler rollers. However, in this case, the idler frame completely surrounds the conveyor belt helping it to retain the pipe section while pushing it forward. In the case of travel paths requiring high angles and snake-like curvatures, a sandwich belt is used. The sandwich belt design enables materials carried to travel along a path of high inclines up to 90-degree angles, enabling a vertical path as opposed to a horizontal one. This transport option is also powered by idlers.

Other important components of the belt conveying system apart from the pulleys and idler rollers include the drive arrangement of reducer gear boxes, drive motors, and associated couplings. scrapers to clean the belt, chutes for controlling the discharge direction, skirts for containing the discharge on the receiving belt, take up assembly for "tensioning" the belt, safety switches for personnel safety and technological structures like stringer, short post, drive frames, pulley frames make up the balance items to complete the belt conveying system. In certain applications, belt conveyors can also be used for static accumulation or cartons.

History
Primitive conveyor belts have been in use since the 19th century. In 1892, Thomas Robins began a series of inventions which led to the development of a conveyor belt used for carrying coal, ores and other products. In 1901, Sandvik invented and started the production of steel conveyor belts. In 1905, Richard Sutcliffe invented the first conveyor belts for use in coal mines which revolutionized the mining industry. In 1913, Henry Ford introduced conveyor-belt assembly lines at Ford Motor Company's Highland Park, Michigan factory. In 1972, the French society REI created in New Caledonia the longest straight-belt conveyor in the world in that moment, at a length of 13.8 km. Hyacynthe Marcel Bocchetti was the concept designer.. The longest conveyor belt is that of the Bou Craa phosphate mine in Western Sahara (1973, 98 km in 11 sections). The longest single-span conveyor belt is at the Boddington bauxite mine in Western Australia (31 km).

In 1957, the B. F. Goodrich Company patented a Möbius strip conveyor belt, that it went on to produce as the "Turnover Conveyor Belt System". Incorporating a half-twist, it had the advantage over conventional belts of a longer life because it could expose all of its surface area to wear and tear. Such Möbius strip belts are no longer manufactured because untwisted modern belts can be made more durable by constructing them from several layers of different materials. In 1970, Intralox, a Louisiana-based company, registered the first patent for all plastic, modular belting.

Structure
The belt consists of one or more layers of material. It is common for belts to have three layers: a top cover, a carcass and a bottom cover. The purpose of the carcass is to provide linear strength and shape. The carcass is often a woven or metal fabric having a warp & weft. The warp refers to longitudinal cords whose characteristics of resistance and elasticity define the running properties of the belt. The weft represents the whole set of transversal cables allowing to the belt specific resistance against cuts, tears and impacts and at the same time high flexibility. The most common carcass materials are steel, polyester, nylon, cotton and aramid (class of heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibers, with Twaron or Kevlar as brand names). The covers are usually various rubber or plastic compounds specified by use of the belt.

Steel conveyor belts are used when high strength class is required. For example, the highest strength class conveyor belt installed is made of steel cords. This conveyor belt has a strength class of 10000 N/mm and it operates at Chuquicamata mine, in Chile. Polyester, nylon and cotton are popular with low strength classes. Aramid is used in the range 630 - 3500 N/mm. The advantages of using aramid are energy savings, enhanced lifetimes and improved productivity. As an example, a 2250 N/mm, 3400 m underground belt installed at Baodian Coal Mine, part of in Yanzhou Coal Mining Company, China, was reported to provide energy savings of over 15%. Whilst Shenhua Group, has installed several aramid conveyor belts, including a 4400 N/mm belt with a length of 11600 m.

Applications
Today there are different types of conveyor belts that have been created for conveying different kinds of material available in PVC and rubber materials. Material flowing over the belt may be weighed in transit using a beltweigher. Belts with regularly spaced partitions, known as elevator belts, are used for transporting loose materials up steep inclines. Belt Conveyors are used in self-unloading bulk freighters and in live bottom trucks. Belt conveyor technology is also used in conveyor transport such as moving sidewalks or escalators, as well as on many manufacturing assembly lines. Stores often have conveyor belts at the check-out counter to move shopping items, and may use checkout dividers in this process. Ski areas also use conveyor belts to transport skiers up the hill. Industrial and manufacturing applications for belt conveyors include package handling, trough belt conveyors, trash handling, bag handling, coding conveyors, and more. Integration of Human-Machine Interface(HMI) to operate the conveyor system is in the developing stages and will prove to be an efficient innovation.

Some of the major global conveyor belt manufacturers and service providers are Berndorf AG, Continental AG, Fenner, Dunlop conveyor belting Kale Conveyor, Terra Nova Technologies, ThyssenKrupp, HESE Maschinenfabrik GmbH and Tenova Takraf.

Long belt conveyors
The longest belt conveyor system in the world is in Western Sahara. It was built in 1972 by Friedrich Krupp GmbH (now thyssenkrupp) and is 98 km long, from the phosphate mines of Bu Craa to the coast south of El-Aaiun.

The longest conveyor system in an airport is the Dubai International Airport baggage handling system at 63 km. It was installed by Siemens and commissioned in 2008, and has a combination of traditional belt conveyors and tray conveyors.

Boddington Bauxite Mine in Western Australia is officially recognized as having the world's longest single flight conveyor. Single flight means the load is not transferred, it is a single continuous system for the entire length. This conveyor is a cable belt conveyor system with a 31 km conveyor feeding a 20 km conveyor. Cable belt conveyors are a variation on the more conventional idler belt system. Instead of running on top of idlers, cable belt conveyors are supported by two endless steel cables (steel wire rope) which are in turn supported by idler pulley wheels. This system feeds bauxite through the difficult terrain of the Darling Ranges to the Worsley Alumina refinery.

The second longest single trough belt conveyor is the 26.8 km Impumelelo conveyor near Secunda, South Africa. It was designed by Conveyor Dynamics, Inc. based in Bellingham, Washington, USA and constructed by ELB Engineering based in Johannesburg South Africa. The conveyor transports 2400 t/h coal from a mine to a refinery that converts the coal to diesel fuel. The third longest trough belt conveyor in the world is the 20 km Curragh conveyor near Westfarmers, QLD, Australia. Conveyor Dynamics, Inc. supplied the basic engineering, control system and commissioning. Detail engineering and Construction was completed by Laing O'Rourke.

The longest single-belt international conveyor runs from Meghalaya in India to a cement factory at Chhatak Bangladesh. It is about 17 km long and conveys limestone and shale at 960 t/h, from the quarry in India to the cement factory (7 km long in India and 10 km long in Bangladesh). The conveyor was engineered by AUMUND France and Larsen & Toubro. The conveyor is actuated by three synchronized drive units for a total power of about 1.8 MW supplied by ABB (two drives at the head end in Bangladesh and one drive at the tail end in India). The conveyor belt was manufactured in 300 m lengths on the Indian side and 300 m lengths on the Bangladesh side. The idlers, or rollers, of the system are unique in that they are designed to accommodate both horizontal and vertical curves along the terrain. Dedicated vehicles were designed for the maintenance of the conveyor, which is always at a minimum height of 5 m above the ground to avoid being flooded during monsoon periods.

Belt conveyor safety system
Conveyors used in industrial settings include tripping mechanisms such as trip cords along the length of the conveyor. This allows for workers to immediately shut down the conveyor when a problem arises. Warning alarms are included to notify employees that a conveyor is about to turn on. In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued regulations for conveyor safety, as OSHA 1926.555.

Some other systems used to safeguard the conveyor are belt sway switches, speed switches, belt rip switch, and emergency stops. The belt sway switch will stop the conveyor if the belt starts losing its alignment along the structure. The speed switch will stop the belt if the switch is not registering that the belt is running at the required speed. The belt rip switch will stop the belt when there is a cut, or a flap indicating that the belt is in danger of further damage. An emergency stop may be located on the conveyor control box in case of trip chord malfunctions.

Reuse
Worn rubber or elastomer belts can be reused in many ways. Applications for the material include toolbox liners, anti-fatigue floor mats, dock bumpers, landscale edging, livestock fencing, and water diversion.

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

title: Conveyor belt


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Dark moon

The term dark moon describes the last visible crescent of a waning Moon. The duration of a dark moon varies between 1.5 and 3.5 days, depending on its ecliptic latitude. In current astronomical usage, the new moon occurs in the middle of this dark period, when the Moon and Sun are in conjunction. This definition has entered popular usage, so that calendars will typically indicate the date of the "new moon" rather than the "dark moon".

Dark moon as the 30th division
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the new moon as "the first visible crescent of the Moon, after conjunction with the Sun". Dark moon is a term used for a waning crescent moon. When the Moon's orbit is divided into 30 segments, as the ancient Greeks did in the time of Homer, the Babylonians did, and the Indians still do today (calling them tithi), the last phase is called the "dark moon". In Greek, it was called the "old moon" and associated with Hecate. In India, it is called Amavasya and associated with Kali. Both of these goddesses have a dark connotation, hence the term dark moon.

In Babylonian, Greek, and Indian culture, the dark moon occurs within the 12° of angular distance between the Moon and the Sun before conjunction (a type of syzygy). The new moon occurs within the 12° after syzygy. This 12° arc is called uma by the Babylonians and tithi by the Indians.

The Moon takes a mean duration of 23 hours and 37 minutes to cover this length, but this period can vary from 21 to 26 hours because of the Moon's orbital anomaly. This means that the "dark moon" actually lasts approximately 23 hours and 37 minutes and includes any time marked as "new moon" on a lunar calendar, and not 1.5 to 3.5 days as stated earlier.

title: Dark moon


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Blimp

A blimp (/blɪmp/), or non-rigid airship, is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigid airships (e.g. Zeppelins), blimps rely on the pressure of the lifting gas (usually helium, rather than hydrogen) inside the envelope and the strength of the envelope itself to maintain their shape. Blimps are known for their use in advertising, surveillance, and as observation platforms due to their maneuverability and steady flight capabilities.

Principle

Since blimps keep their shape with internal overpressure, typically the only solid parts are the passenger car (gondola) and the tail fins. A non-rigid airship that uses heated air instead of a light gas (such as helium) as a lifting medium is called a hot-air airship (sometimes there are battens near the bow, which assist with higher forces there from a mooring attachment or from the greater aerodynamic pressures there).

Volume changes of the lifting gas due to temperature changes or to changes of altitude are compensated for by pumping air into internal ballonets (air bags) to maintain the overpressure. Without sufficient overpressure, the blimp loses its ability to be steered and is slowed due to increased drag and distortion. The propeller air stream can be used to inflate the ballonets and so the hull. In some models, such as the Skyship 600, differential ballonet inflation can provide a measure of pitch trim control.

The engines driving the propellers are usually directly attached to the gondola, and in some models are partly steerable.

Blimps are the most commonly built airships because they are relatively easy to build and easy to transport once deflated. However, because of their unstable hull, their size is limited. A blimp with too long a hull may kink in the middle when the overpressure is insufficient or when maneuvered too fast (this has also happened with semi-rigid airships with weak keels). This led to the development of semi-rigids and rigid airships.

Modern blimps are launched somewhat heavier than air (overweight), in contrast to historic blimps. The missing lift is provided by lifting the nose and using engine power, or by angling the engine thrust. Some types also use steerable propellers or ducted fans. Operating in a state heavier than air avoids the need to dump ballast at lift-off and also avoids the need to lose costly helium lifting gas on landing (most of the Zeppelins achieved lift with very inexpensive hydrogen, which could be vented without concern to decrease altitude).

Etymology

The origin of the word "blimp" has been the subject of some confusion. Lennart Ege notes two possible derivations: "Colloquially non-rigid airships always were referred to as 'Blimps'. Over the years several explanations have been advanced about the origin of this word. The most common is that in the military vernacular the Type B was referred to as 'limp bag', which was simply abbreviated to 'blimp'. An alternative explanation is that on 5 December 1915, Commander A. D. Cunningham, R.N., of the Capel-Le-Ferne Air Ship Station, flicked the envelope of the airship SS.12 with his fingers during an inspection, which produced a sound that he mimicked and pronounced as 'blimp'; and that the word then caught on as the nickname for all small non-rigid airships."

A 1943 etymology, published in The New York Times, supports a British origin during the First World War when the British were experimenting with lighter-than-air craft. The initial non-rigid aircraft was called the A-limp; and a second version called the B-limp was deemed more satisfactory.

Yet a third derivation is given by Barnes and James in Shorts Aircraft since 1900: "In February 1915 the need for anti-submarine patrol airships became urgent, and the Submarine Scout type was quickly improvised by hanging an obsolete B.E.2c fuselage from a spare Willows envelope; this was done by the R.N.A.S. at Kingsnorth, and on seeing the result for the first time, Horace Short, already noted for his very apt and original vocabulary, named it 'Blimp', adding, 'What else would you call it?'"

Dr. A. D. Topping researched the origins of the word and concluded that the British had never had a "Type B, limp" designation, and that Cunningham's coinage appeared to be the correct explanation.

The Oxford English Dictionary notes its use in print in 1916: "Visited the Blimps ... this afternoon at Capel". In 1918, the Illustrated London News said that it was "an onomatopœic name invented by that genius for apposite nomenclature, the late Horace Short".

Use

The B-class blimps were patrol airships operated by the United States Navy during and shortly after World War I. The Navy learned a great deal from the DN-1 fiasco. The result was the very successful B-type airships. Dr. Jerome Hunsaker was asked to develop a theory of airship design. This was followed by then-Lieutenant John H. Towers, USN, returning from Europe having inspected British designs, and the U.S. Navy subsequently sought bids for 16 blimps from American manufacturers. On 4 February 1917 the Secretary of the Navy directed that 16 nonrigid airships of Class B be procured. Ultimately Goodyear built 9 envelopes, Goodrich built five and Curtiss built the gondolas for all of those 14 ships. Connecticut Aircraft contracted with U.S. Rubber for its two envelopes and with Pigeon Fraser for its gondolas. The Curtiss-built gondolas were modified JN-4 fuselages and were powered by OX-5 engines. The Connecticut Aircraft blimps were powered by Hall-Scott engines.

In 1930, a former German airship officer, Captain Anton Heinen, working in the US for the US Navy on its dirigible fleet, attempted to design and build a four-place blimp called the "family air yacht" for private fliers which the inventor claimed would be priced below $10,000 and easier to fly than a fixed-wing aircraft if placed in production. It was unsuccessful.

In 2021, Reader's Digest said that "consensus is that there are about 25 blimps still in existence and only about half of them are still in use for advertising purposes". The Airsign Airship Group is the owner and operator of 8 of these active ships, including the Hood Blimp, DirecTV blimp, and the MetLife blimp.

Surveillance blimp

This blimp is a type of airborne early warning and control aircraft, typically as the active part of a system which includes a mooring platform, communications and information processing. Example systems include the U.S. JLENS and Israeli Aeronautics Defense Skystar 300.

Surveillance blimps known as aerostats have been used extensively in the Middle East by the United States military, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Examples of non-rigid airships
Manufacturers in many countries have built blimps in many designs. Some examples include:

 * ADB-3-X01, the largest lightship ever manufactured by Airship do Brasil, the only blimp manufacturing company in Latin America
 * AVIC AS700 Airship
 * Astra-Torres airship, non-rigid airships manufactured by Société Astra and used in World War I by France and UK
 * British Army airship Beta
 * Coastal class airship, C* class airship UK coastal blimps used in WW I
 * SS, SSP, SST, SSZ and NS class airships, convoy escort blimps used by the UK in WW I
 * G class blimp and L class blimp, US training blimps built by Goodyear during World War II
 * K class blimp and M class blimp, US anti-submarine blimps operated during World War II
 * Mantainer Ardath, an Australian blimp, in use during the mid-1970s
 * N class blimp (the "Nan ship"), used for anti-submarine and as a radar early-warning platform during the 1950s
 * Goodyear Blimps, a fleet of blimps operated for advertising purposes and as a television camera platform
 * Skyship 600, a private blimp used by advertising companies
 * P-791, an experimental aerostatic/aerodynamic hybrid airship developed by Lockheed-Martin corporation
 * SVAM CA-80, an airship manufactured by the Shanghai Vantage Airship Manufacture Co in China
 * TC-3 and TC-7, two US Army Corps non-rigid blimps used for parasite fighter trials during 1923–24
 * WDL 2, airship for aerial advertising manufactured and used by WDL Group, Germany
 * Willows airships

title: Blimp


text:
American Pie

American Pie may refer to:
 * "American Pie" (song), a 1971 song by Don McLean
 * American Pie (Don McLean album), the 1971 Don McLean album which included the namesake song
 * American Pie (Groove Holmes album), a 1972 album by Groove Holmes featuring a cover of the above song
 * "American Pie", a 2018 song by Shea Diamond
 * American Pie (film series), a series of teen films
 * American Pie (film), a 1999 film, first in the series
 * American Pie, a 1996 sitcom pilot starring Andy Buckley
 * Tim Rice's American Pie, a British radio programme about American music, hosted by Tim Rice
 * Pie in American cuisine

title: American Pie


text:
Talk:Population explosion

Population explosion

Removed
I snipped "In terms of the large annual increases in aggregate world population identifiable from the 1950s onward, the population explosion is still with us, though numbers added per year have fallen from a peak of 86 million in the late 1980s to an estimated 77 million today, while the annual rate of world population growth has fallen from 2.1% in the mid-1960s to only 1.25%.

As birth rates around the world have tended to follow death rates down, fear of runaway population growth has largely given way to concern about the environmental implications of general human expectations of increased material prosperity, the consequences of population aging among the developed regions, and the uneven demographic impact of AIDS."

And why was this removed? --maveric149 :deleted material reintegrated. --maveric149

I think this article has a Point of View title. Fred Bauder 20:32 19 May 2003 (UTC)
 * I agree, I don't think "explosion" is a neutral term to decribe "high population growth", sounds more like a newspaper title --Rotem Dan

 * Maybe there should be an article named Population growth, that includes the phrase "population explosion" somewhere? --Rotem Dan 20:55 19 May 2003 (UTC)

 * I'd say the article is POV, period. The idea that the populations of "less developed countries" are some sort of "bomb" that is going to destroy the world is frankly racist, and feeds into all sorts of terrible stereotypes. There's many arguments against the idea that India, China, Indonesia, et al. are dangerously overpopulated: fertility rates are not much higher in these countries than they are in the "first world", and in terms of resource usage (probably in absolute terms, for most of the countries, never mind per capita) the first world continues to use a disproportionate amount of the resources and represent the most significant burden on the earth and the environment.
 * In other words, the "population explosion" idea is pseudoscientific racist crap that needs to be eradicated from people's consciousnesses, and we might well start here. This is what results in nonsense like forced sterilization programs (which, yes, happen to this day) and regressive population control policies based on the idea that "Oh my god, we have to stop these rats from breeding!" rather than land reform, anti-poverty measures and other programs to stop population displacement, which would do much better at stabilizing populations and would solve other problems to boot.
 * Instead of "population explosions" we should be talking about "rampant overconsumption" in the first world, but that would definitely not be P.C. Too pinko/whacko to diss the American lifestyle, nay?
 * Enough ranting, so I'll stop. Some good reading on this subject might be done at the Institute for Food and Development (Food First) website. Graft 21:16 19 May 2003 (UTC)

An older version, writen by anon:

Population explosion (Revision as of 03:17 22 Mar 2002)

A living being (in case of sexual reproduction it needs a couple) can bear a certain amount of children in a certain time. Now if there is a surplus of births over deaths, and if every child bears the same amount of children like its parents did, the population can grow very high. The mathematical description of this characteristic is called exponential, see also exponential growth.

The term population explosion is the name which has been given to the fact that mankind keeps growing fast. It´s now 7 billions, and the resources to feed and supply them all don´t grow as fast as the population does, the resources are in fact limited. More people cause more environmental destruction what even reduces ressources, see for example desert grow due to intensive cattle breeding, slash and burn and the needs for firewood and the wood industry.

This is how this article started, notice the phrases:
 * "explosion"
 * "It´s now 7 billions"
 * "resources to feed"
 * "can bear a certain amount of children"
 * "exponential growth"
 * "environmental destruction"
 * "cattle breeding"

Great, with an article that started like this racist propaganda (and with this title), I'm not surprised that anything NPOV can be made out of it without a major deletion or rewrite with another title. There is already an article about overpopulation, so I am making this a redirect. -- Rotem Dan 12:22 20 May 2003 (UTC)

I had made a start on improving it, RD, but there was a lot still to do (as you know) and I too had pondered merging it into overpopulation. Yep. Way to unlock population explosion

title: Talk:Population explosion


text:
Drawing board

A drawing board (also drawing table, drafting table or architect's table) is, in its antique form, a kind of multipurpose desk which can be used for any kind of drawing, writing or impromptu sketching on a large sheet of paper or for reading a large format book or other oversized document or for drafting precise technical illustrations (such as engineering drawings or architectural drawings). The drawing table used to be a frequent companion to a pedestal desk in a study or private library, during the pre-industrial and early industrial era.

During the Industrial Revolution, draftsmanship gradually became a specialized trade and drawing tables slowly moved out of the libraries and offices of most gentlemen. They became more utilitarian and were built of steel and plastic instead of fine woods and brass.

More recently, engineers and draftsmen use the drawing board for making and modifying drawings on paper with ink or pencil. Different drawing instruments (set square, protractor, etc.) are used on it to draw parallel, perpendicular or oblique lines. There are instruments for drawing circles, arcs, other curves and symbols too (compass, French curve, stencil, etc.). However, with the gradual introduction of computer aided drafting and design (CADD or CAD) in the last decades of the 20th century and the first of the 21st century, the drawing board is becoming less common.

A drawing table is also sometimes called a mechanical desk because, for several centuries, most mechanical desks were drawing tables. Unlike the gadgety mechanical desks of the second part of the 18th century, however, the mechanical parts of drawing tables were usually limited to notches, ratchets, and perhaps a few simple gears, or levers or cogs to elevate and incline the working surface.

Very often a drawing table could look like a writing table or even a pedestal desk when the working surface was set at the horizontal and the height adjusted to 29 inches, in order to use it as a "normal" desk. The only giveaway was usually a lip on one of the sides of the desktop. This lip or edge stopped paper or books from sliding when the surface was given an angle. It was also sometimes used to hold writing implements. When the working surface was extended at its full height, a drawing table could be used as a standing desk.

Many reproductions have been made and are still being produced of drawing tables, copying the period styles they were originally made in during the 18th and 19th centuries.

History
In the 18th and 19th centuries, drawing paper was dampened and then its edges glued to the drawing board. After drying the paper would be flat and smooth. The completed drawing was then cut free. Paper could also be secured to the drawing board with drawing pins or even C-clamps. More recent practice is to use self-adhesive drafting tape to secure paper to the board, including the sophisticated use of individualized adhesive dots from a dispensing roll. Some drawing boards are magnetized, allowing paper to be held down by long steel strips. Boards used for overlay drafting or animation may include registration pins or peg bars to ensure alignment of multiple layers of drawing media.

Contemporary drafting tables

Despite the prevalence of computer aided drafting, many older architects and even some structural designers still rely on paper and pencil graphics produced on a drafting table.

Modern drafting tables typically rely on a steel frame. Steel provides as much strength as the old oak drafting table frames and much easier portability. Typically the drafting board surface is a thick sheet of compressed fibreboard with sheets of Formica laminated to all its surfaces. The drafting board surface is usually secured to the frame by screws which can easily be removed for drafting table transportation.

The steel frame allows mechanical linkages to be installed that control both the height and angle of the drafting board surface. Typically, a single foot pedal is used to control a clutch which clamps the board in the desired position. A heavy counterweight full of lead shot is installed in the steel linkage so that if the pedal is accidentally released, the drafting board will not spring into the upright position and injure the user. Drafting table linkages and clutches have to be maintained to ensure that this safety mechanism counterbalances the weight of the table surface. The drafting table surface is usually covered with a thin vinyl sheet called a board cover. This provides an optimum surface for pen and pencil drafting. It allows compasses and dividers to be used without damaging the wooden surface of the board. A board cover must be frequently cleaned to prevent graphite buildup from making new drawings dirty. At the bottom edge of the table, a single strip of aluminum or steel may serve as a place to rest drafting pencils. More purpose-built trays are also used which hold pencils even while the board is being adjusted.

Various types of drafting machine may be attached to the board surface to assist the draftsperson or artist. Parallel rules often span the entire width of the board and are so named because they remain parallel to the top edge of the board as they are moved up and down. Drafting machines use pre-calibrated scales and built in protractors to allow accurate drawing measurement.

Some drafting tables incorporate electric motors to provide the up and down and angle adjustment of the drafting table surface. These tables are at least as heavy as the original oak and brass drafting tables and so sacrifice portability for the convenience of push button table adjustment.

Modern-day idiom
The expression "back to the drawing board" is used when a plan or course of action needs to be changed, often drastically; usually due to a very unsuccessful result; e.g., "The battle plan, the result of months of conferences, failed because the enemy retreated too far back. It was back to the drawing board for the army captains."

The phrase was coined in the caption to a Peter Arno cartoon of The New Yorker of March 1, 1941.

title: Drawing board


text:
American Pie (song)

"American Pie" is a song by American singer and songwriter Don McLean. Recorded and released in 1971 on the album of the same name, the single was the number-one US hit for four weeks in 1972 starting January 15 after just eight weeks on the US Billboard charts (where it entered at number 69). The song also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In the UK, the single reached number 2, where it stayed for three weeks on its original 1971 release, and a reissue in 1991 reached No. 12. The song was listed as the No. 5 song on the RIAA project Songs of the Century. A truncated version of the song was covered by Madonna in 2000 and reached No. 1 in at least 15 countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. At 8 minutes and 42 seconds, McLean's combined version is the sixth longest song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 (at the time of release it was the longest). The song also held the record for almost 50 years for being the longest song to reach number one before Taylor Swift's "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" broke the record in 2021. Due to its exceptional length, it was initially released as a two-sided 7-inch single. "American Pie" has been described as "one of the most successful and debated songs of the 20th century".

The repeated phrase "the day the music died" refers to a plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, ending the era of early rock and roll; this became the popular nickname for that crash. The theme of the song goes beyond mourning McLean's childhood music heroes, reflecting the deep cultural changes and profound disillusion and loss of innocence of his generation – the early rock and roll generation – that took place between the 1959 plane crash and either late 1969 or late 1970. The meaning of the other lyrics, which cryptically allude to many of the jarring events and social changes experienced during that period, has been debated for decades. McLean repeatedly declined to explain the symbolism behind the many characters and events mentioned; he eventually released his songwriting notes to accompany the original manuscript when it was sold in 2015, explaining many of these, and further elaborated on the lyrical meaning in a 2022 interview/documentary celebrating the song's 50th anniversary, in which he stated the song was driven by impressionism and debunked some of the more widely speculated symbols.

In 2017, McLean's original recording was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". To mark the 50th anniversary of the song, McLean performed a 35-date tour through Europe, starting in Wales and ending in Austria, in 2022.

Background
Don McLean drew inspiration for the song from his childhood experience delivering newspapers during the time of the plane crash that killed early rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper:

"I first found out about the plane crash because I was a 13-year-old newspaper delivery boy in New Rochelle, New York, and I was carrying the bundle of the local Standard-Star papers that were bound in twine, and when I cut it open with a knife, there it was on the front page."

McLean reportedly wrote "American Pie" in Saratoga Springs, New York, at Caffè Lena, but a 2011 New York Times article quotes McLean as disputing this claim. Some employees at Caffè Lena claim that he started writing the song there, and then continued to write the song in both Cold Spring, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. McLean claims that the song was only written in Cold Spring and Philadelphia. Tin & Lint, a bar on Caroline Street in Saratoga Springs, claims the song was written there, and a plaque marks the table. While some have claimed other places, such as Saint Joseph's University, as where the song was first performed, McLean insists that the song made its debut in Philadelphia at Temple University when he opened for Laura Nyro on March 14, 1971. However a 2022 documentary on the history of the song notes that particular concert actually occurred at the nearby Saint Joseph's University.

The song was produced by Ed Freeman and recorded with a few session musicians. Freeman did not want McLean to play rhythm guitar on the song but eventually relented. McLean and the session musicians rehearsed for two weeks but failed to get the song right. At the last minute, the pianist Paul Griffin was added, which is when the tune came together. McLean used a 1969 or 1970 Martin D-28 guitar to provide the basic chords throughout "American Pie".

The song debuted in the album American Pie in October 1971 and was released as a single in December. The song's eight-and-a-half-minute length meant that it could not fit entirely on one side of the 45 RPM record, so United Artists had the first taking up the A-side of the record and the final  the B-side. Radio stations initially played the A-side of the song only, but soon switched to the full album version to satisfy their audiences.

Upon the single release, Cash Box called it "folk-rock's most ambitious and successful epic endeavor since 'Alice's Restaurant.'" Record World called it a "monumental accomplishment of lyric writing".

Interpretations
The song has nostalgic themes, stretching from the late 1950s until late 1969 or 1970. Except to acknowledge that he first learned about Buddy Holly's death on February 3, 1959 – McLean was age 13 – when he was folding newspapers for his paper route on the morning of February 4, 1959 (hence the line "February made me shiver/with every paper I'd deliver"), McLean has generally avoided responding to direct questions about the song's lyrics; he has said: "They're beyond analysis. They're poetry." He also stated in an editorial published in 2009, on the 50th anniversary of the crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson (all of whom are alluded to in the final verse in a comparison with the Christian Holy Trinity), that writing the first verse of the song exorcised his long-running grief over Holly's death and that he considers the song to be "a big song… that summed up the world known as America". McLean dedicated the American Pie album to Holly.

Some commentators have identified the song as outlining the darkening of cultural mood, as over time the cultural vanguard passed from Pete Seeger and Joan Baez (the "King and Queen" of folk music), then from Elvis Presley (known as "the King" of Rock and Roll), to Bob Dylan ("the Jester") – who wore a jacket similar to that worn by cultural icon James Dean, was known as "the voice of his generation" ("a voice that came from you and me"), and whose motorcycle accident ("in a cast") left him in reclusion for many years, recording in studios rather than touring ("on the sidelines"), to The Beatles (John Lennon, punned with Lenin, and "the Quartet" – although McLean has stated the Quartet is a reference to other people ), to The Byrds (who wrote one of the first psychedelic rock songs, "Eight Miles High", and then "fell fast" – the song was banned and one of the group entered rehabilitation, known colloquially as a "fallout shelter"), and shortly after, the group declined as it lost members, changed genres, and alienated fans), to The Rolling Stones (who released Jumpin' Jack Flash, Their Satanic Majesties Request and the single "Sympathy for the Devil" ("Jack Flash", "Satan", "The Devil"), and used Hells Angels – "Angels born in Hell" – as event security, with fatal consequences, bringing the 1960s to a violent end ), and to Janis Joplin (the "girl who sang the blues" but just "turned away" – she died of a heroin overdose the following year).

It has also been speculated that the song contains numerous references to post-World War II American political events, such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy (known casually as "Jack"), First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy ("his widowed bride"), and subsequent killing of his assassin (whose courtroom trial obviously ended as a result ["adjourned"]), the Cuban Missile Crisis ("Jack be nimble, Jack be quick"), the murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, and elements of culture such as sock hops ("kicking off shoes" to dance, preventing damage to the varnished floor), cruising with a pickup truck, the rise of the political protest song ("a voice that came from you and me"), drugs and the counterculture, the Manson Family and the Tate–LaBianca murders in the "summer swelter" of 1969 (the Beatles' song "Helter Skelter") and much more.

Apparent allusions to notable 50s songs include Don Cornell’s The Bible Tells Me So (“If the Bible tells you so?”), Marty Robbins' A White Sport Coat, the lonely teenager ("With a pink carnation") mirroring Robbins' narrator who is rejected in favor of another man for the prom, and The Monotones' The Book of Love  ("Did you write the book of love").

Many additional and alternative interpretations have also been proposed.

For example, Bob Dylan's first performance in Great Britain was also at a pub called "The King and Queen", and he also appeared more literally "on the sidelines in a (the) cast" – as one of many stars at the back far right of the cover art of the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ("the Sergeants played a marching tune").

The song title itself is a reference to apple pie, an unofficial symbol of the United States and one of its signature comfort foods, as seen in the popular expression "As American as apple pie". By the twentieth century, this had become a symbol of American prosperity and national pride.

The original United Artists Records inner sleeve featured a free verse poem written by McLean about William Boyd, also known as Hopalong Cassidy, along with a picture of Boyd in full Hopalong regalia. Its inclusion in the album was interpreted to represent a sense of loss of a simplistic type of American culture as symbolized by Hopalong Cassidy and by extension black and white television as a whole.

Mike Mills of R.E.M. reflected: "'American Pie' just made perfect sense to me as a song and that's what impressed me the most. I could say to people this is how to write songs. When you've written at least three songs that can be considered classic that is a very high batting average and if one of those songs happens to be something that a great many people think is one of the greatest songs ever written you've not only hit the top of the mountain but you've stayed high on the mountain for a long time."

McLean's responses
When asked what "American Pie" meant, McLean jokingly replied, "It means I don't ever have to work again if I don't want to." Later, he stated, "You will find many interpretations of my lyrics but none of them by me… Sorry to leave you all on your own like this but long ago I realized that songwriters should make their statements and move on, maintaining a dignified silence." He also commented on the popularity of his music, "I didn't write songs that were just catchy, but with a point of view, or songs about the environment."

In February 2015, however, McLean announced he would reveal the meaning of the lyrics to the song when the original manuscript went for auction in New York City, in April 2015. The lyrics and notes were auctioned on April 7, 2015, and sold for $1.2 million. In the sale catalogue notes, McLean revealed the meaning in the song's lyrics: "Basically in 'American Pie' things are heading in the wrong direction. It [life] is becoming less idyllic. I don't know whether you consider that wrong or right but it is a morality song in a sense." The catalogue confirmed that the song climaxes with a description of the death of Meredith Hunter at the Altamont Free Concert, ten years after the plane crash that killed Holly, Valens, and Richardson, and did acknowledge that some of the more well-known symbols in the song were inspired by figures such as Elvis Presley ("the king") and Bob Dylan ("the jester"). In 2017, Bob Dylan was asked about how he was referenced in the song. "A jester? Sure, the jester writes songs like 'Masters of War', 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall', 'It's Alright, Ma' – some jester. I have to think he's talking about somebody else. Ask him." Dylan's predictions were later confirmed to be true, when McLean denied that Dylan was the jester and Presley the king in the song.

In 2022, the documentary The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean's American Pie, produced by Spencer Proffer, was released on the Paramount+ video on-demand service. Proffer said that he told McLean: "It's time for you to reveal what 50 years of journalists have wanted to know." McLean stated that he "needed a big song about America", and the first verse and melody seemed to just come to mind: "A long, long, time ago...".

McLean then answers some of the long-standing questions on the song's lyrics, although not all. He reveals that Elvis was not the king referenced in the song, the "girl who sang the blues" was not Janis Joplin, and Bob Dylan was not the jester, although he is open to other interpretations. He says that "marching band" means the military–industrial complex, "sweet perfume" refers to tear gas, and Los Angeles is the "coast" that the Trinity head to ("caught the last train for the coast") – "even God has been corrupted", he comments. He says that "This'll be the day that I die" originated from the John Wayne film The Searchers (which inspired Buddy Holly's song "That'll Be the Day"), and "Bye Bye Miss American Pie" is a reference to a song by Pete Seeger, "Bye Bye, My Roseanna". McLean had originally intended to use "Miss American apple pie" but "apple" was dropped.

On the whole, McLean stated that the lyrics were meant to be impressionist, and that many of the lyrics, only a portion of which were included in the finished recording, were completely fictional with no basis in real-life events.

Personnel
Credits from Richard Buskin, except where noted.

Musicians

 * Don McLean – vocals, acoustic guitar
 * Paul Griffin – piano, clavinet
 * David Spinozza – electric guitar
 * Bob Rothstein – bass, backing vocals
 * Roy Markowitz – drums
 * West Forty Fourth Street Rhythm and Noise Choir – chorus

Technical

 * Ed Freeman - producer
 * Tom Flye - engineer, tambourine
 * Photography/ artwork – George Whiteman

Parodies, revisions, and uses
In 1999, "Weird Al" Yankovic wrote and recorded a parody of "American Pie". Titled "The Saga Begins", the song recounts the plot of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace from Obi-Wan Kenobi's point of view. While McLean gave permission for the parody, he did not make a cameo appearance in its video, despite popular rumor. McLean himself praised the parody, even admitting to almost singing Yankovic's lyrics during his own live performances because his children played the song so often. An unrelated comedy film franchise by Universal Pictures, who secured the rights to McLean's title, also debuted in 1999.

"American Pie" was the last song to be played on Virgin Radio before it was rebranded as Absolute Radio in 2008. It was also the last song played on BFBS Malta in 1979.

Jeremy Renner sings an a cappella version in the 2006 movie Love Comes to the Executioner, as his character walks to the execution chamber.

In 2012, the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, created a lip dub video to "American Pie" in response to a Newsweek article that stated the city was "dying". (Due to licensing issues, the version used in the video was not the original, but rather a later-recorded live version.) The video was hailed as a fantastic performance by many, including film critic Roger Ebert, who said it was "the greatest music video ever made".

On March 21, 2013, Harmonix announced that "American Pie" would be the final downloadable track made available for the Rock Band series of music video games. This was the case until Rock Band 4 was released on October 6, 2015, reviving the series' weekly releases of DLC.

On March 14, 2015, the National Museum of Mathematics announced that one of two winners of its songwriting contest was "American Pi" by mathematics education professor Dr. Lawrence M. Lesser. The contest was in honor of "Pi Day of the Century" because "3/14/15" would be the only day in the 21st-century showing the first five digits of π (pi).

On April 20, 2015, John Mayer covered "American Pie" live on the Late Show with David Letterman, at the request of the show's eponymous host.

On January 29, 2021, McLean released a re-recording of "American Pie" featuring lead vocals by country a cappella group Home Free.

The song was featured in Marvel's Black Widow movie in 2021. It is the favorite song of the character Yelena Belova, and sung by Red Guardian later in the film to comfort her.

"American Pie" is also featured in the 2021 Tom Hanks movie Finch.

During his visit to the United States in 2023, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol sang this song at a state dinner. This has attracted worldwide attention, as well as the attention of Don McLean.

Background
American singer Madonna released a cover version of the song in February 2000 to promote the soundtrack of her film The Next Best Thing (2000), with the song being serviced to radio between February 2-8, 2000 and being sold in stores on February 22, 2000. Her cover is much shorter than the original (it contains only the beginning of the first verse and all of the second and sixth verses) and was recorded as a dance-pop song. It was co-produced by Madonna and William Orbit and released on the singer's Maverick label, after Rupert Everett (Madonna's co-star in The Next Best Thing) had convinced her to cover the song for the film's soundtrack. Madonna said of her choice to cover the song: "To me, it's a real millennium song. We're going through a big change in terms of the way we view pop culture, because of the Internet. In a way, it's like saying goodbye to music as we knew it—and to pop culture as we knew it." It is included as an international bonus track on her eighth studio album, Music.

"American Pie" was not included in the 2001 greatest hits compilation GHV2 (2001) because Madonna had regretted putting it on Music. "It was something a certain record company executive twisted my arm into doing, but it didn't belong on the album so now it's being punished... My gut told me not to [put the song on Music], but I did it and then I regretted it so just for that reason it didn't deserve a place on GHV2," she said.

Release and reception
Released on February 28, 2000, the song was a worldwide hit, reaching No. 1 in many countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Iceland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Finland. The song was the 19th-best-selling single of 2000 in the UK and the ninth best-selling single of 2000 in Sweden. The single was not released commercially in the United States, but it reached No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 due to strong radio airplay.

Chuck Taylor of Billboard was impressed by the recording and commented, "Applause to Madonna for not pandering to today's temporary trends and for challenging programmers to broaden their playlists. ... In all, a fine preview of the forthcoming soundtrack to The Next Best Thing." Peter Robinson of The Guardian called the cover as "brilliant". Don McLean himself praised the cover, saying it was "a gift from a goddess", and that her version is "mystical and sensual". NME, on the other hand, gave it a negative review, saying that "Killdozer did it first and did it better", that it was "sub-karaoke fluff" and that "it's a blessing she didn't bother recording the whole thing."

In 2017, the Official Charts Company stated the song had sold 400,000 copies in the United Kingdom and was her 16th best selling single to date in the nation.

Music video
The music video, filmed in the southern United States and in London and directed by Philipp Stölzl, depicts a diverse array of ordinary Americans, including scenes showing same-sex couples kissing. Throughout the music video Madonna, who is wearing a tiara on her head, dances and sings in front of a large American flag.

Two official versions of the video were produced, the first of which now appears on Madonna's greatest-hits DVD compilation, Celebration, and was released as the official video worldwide. The second version was issued along with the "Humpty Remix", a more upbeat and dance-friendly version of the song. This video was aired on MTV's dance channel in the United States to promote the film The Next Best Thing, starring Madonna and Rupert Everett; it contains totally different footage and new outtakes of the original and omits the lesbian kiss. Everett, who provides backing vocals in the song, is also featured in the video.

Formats and track listings

 * Digital single / (2022)
 * 1) "American Pie" – 4:34
 * 2) "American Pie" (Richard Humpty Vission Radio Mix) – 4:29
 * 3) "American Pie" (Victor Calderone Vocal Club Mix) – 9:07
 * 4) "American Pie" (Richard Humpty Vission Visits Madonna) – 5:43
 * 5) "American Pie" (Victor Calderone Extended Vocal Club Mix) – 10:36
 * 6) "American Pie" (Victor Calderone Vocal Dub Mix) – 6:15
 * 7) "American Pie" (Victor Calderone Filter Dub Mix) – 6:06

Credits and personnel
Credits and personnel are adapted from the American Pie single liner notes.
 * Madonna – vocals, producer
 * William Orbit – producer, guitar, drums and keyboard
 * Don McLean – writer
 * Mark "Spike" Stent – mixing
 * Rupert Everett – backup vocals
 * Mark Endert – engineering
 * Sean Spuehler – engineering, programming
 * Jake Davies – engineering
 * Rico Conning – sequencer programming
 * Dah Len – photography

title: American Pie (song)


text:
Baen Books

Baen Books is an American publishing house for science fiction and fantasy. In science fiction, it emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, and military science fiction. The company was established in 1983 by science fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. After his death in 2006, he was succeeded as publisher by long-time executive editor Toni Weisskopf.

History
Baen Books was founded in 1983 out of a negotiated agreement between Jim Baen and Simon & Schuster. Simon & Schuster was undergoing massive reorganization and wanted to hire Baen to head and revitalize the science fiction line of its Pocket Books division. Baen, with financial backing from some friends, counteroffered with a proposal to start up a new company named Baen Books and provide Simon & Schuster with a science fiction line to distribute instead.

According to Locus's 2004 Book Summary, Baen Books was the ninth most active publisher in the U.S. in terms of most books published in the genres indicated, and the fifth most active publisher of the dedicated science fiction imprints, publishing a total of 67 titles (of which 40 were original titles). It is difficult to judge the issue of quality but, based on the number of times a title published by Baen Books appeared in the bestseller lists produced by the major bookselling chains, it is ranked the seventh most popular science fiction publisher. In 2005, Baen moved up to the eighth position in the total books published with 72 books published (of which 40 were original titles).

Electronic publishing
Beginning in mid-1999, Baen emphasized electronic publishing and Internet-focused promotions for its publications. The discussions on Baen's bar convinced him to do so. Baen's electronic strategy is explained exhaustively in a series of "letters" or "essays" called The Prime Palaver by Baen Free Library "First Librarian" Eric Flint, but in a nutshell, emphasizes distribution of unencrypted digital versions of its works free of Digital Rights Management copy protection schemes through Baen Ebooks (formerly Webscriptions, which was not formally part of Baen Books, but in effect an independent e-publisher). Baen and his successors believe that DRM does more harm than good to a publisher. Consequently, Baen also makes its entire catalog available in multiple formats for downloading and typically prices electronic versions of its books at or below that of paperback editions—and makes a profit doing it. According to essays on Baen's science fiction e-magazine Jim Baen's Universe, also edited by Flint, the strategy is if anything, getting stronger and more fruitful with the passage of time, especially with the advent of e-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle, and the Barnes & Noble Nook.

Baen's Bar
Initially, the company invested resources in "Baen's Bar", its online community service that provides a forum for customers, authors, and editors to interact, beginning as a BBS. In the early 2000s, a blogger wrote: "Like every other publisher, Jim Baen set up a website. But several of his authors and fan friends convinced him to put a chat client on his site. Since he was interested, and since several of those authors (like Jerry Pournelle, a former columnist for Byte Magazine, for instance) were very Internet savvy, he did. The chat client grew into an incredibly vibrant community called Baen's Bar."

On February 15, 2021, American author Jason Sanford posted via Patreon "Baen Books Forum Being Used to Advocate for Political Violence". Publisher Toni Weisskopf released a statement saying the Bar will remain closed pending an investigation. The site was reopened on April 9, 2021.

Baen's Webscriptions
In addition to selling individual titles in electronic format, Baen has distributed serialized e-book versions of new books at reduced prices in monthly bundles. Originally called Webscriptions, these Monthly Baen Bundles are scheduled three months in advance of print publication. Webscription.net was implemented by Baen's preferred website expert, Arnold Bailey, who also sold e-books for other publishers. At the start of 2012, the Webscription.net website was redesigned, renamed to Baen Ebooks, and moved to baenebooks.com. Despite the new name, Baen Ebooks continues to sell e-books for other publishers, notably science fiction genre rival Night Shade Books.

Baen's standard setup is based on monthly bundles. Each month, whichever books Baen has coming out in paper (paperback or hardcover, new or reissued) are bundled put together in a fixed price (currently $20 ) bundle regardless of the number of books (historically 4–9 books, average 5–6). The Monthly Baen Bundles are released in installments beginning three months prior to physical publication. The first installment, released three months prior to paper publication includes roughly a half of every book in the bundle, with some books usually included in their entirety. The second installment, two months prior to print publication includes roughly three quarters, and the third installment on the 16th of the month prior to official print release includes the full text. The first two installments are generally available only as HTML, while the last includes all formats supported. Each bundle can only be bought until the 15th of the month prior to official print publication, which is about the time the printed books reach retailers. (Until December 2012, bundles remained on sale indefinitely.)

Another avenue for distribution that Baen uses for some of its new titles is the offering of eARCs (electronic advance reading copies) 3 to 5 months prior to publication. Marketed as a premium product for the fans who absolutely positively have to read it now, they are priced at $15 per single title and can differ from the final text (as they are electronic proofs). After print publication, the "cleaned up and finalized" electronic copy is available both online through the monthly bundle or as a single title (priced variably $7–10, older titles are less).

The electronic versions by Baen are produced in five common formats (HTML, Palm Pilot/Mobipocket/Kindle format, Rocketbook, EPUB/Stanza, Sony LRF, RTF, and MS Reader versions), all unencrypted in drastic contrast to the rest of the e-publishing industries strategy. Jim Baen disliked Adobe's portable document format for reading purposes, but Baen Ebooks offers some non-Baen titles in that format. When customers purchase a title from Baen, they can read it online or download it in any format they want as often as they want. Baen instituted a parallel practice of using promotional CD-ROMs with permissive copyright licenses containing many of its stable of authors' works. Whether downloaded or by CD-ROM, the source material is available in all the formats Baen supports.

The great majority of books published by Baen are still available as e-books, long after the hardcover or paperback versions have gone out of print. This is especially important for midlist titles, which rarely get reprinted. Until December 2012, it was also possible to purchase older monthly bundles.

Baen has made liberal use of free content in its marketing efforts. For example, free sample chapters of its books are typically available on the Baen Web site. The "Baen Free Library" allows free access to dozens of titles from the company's backlist, often the first book published in a series by a Baen author. Baen also provides free electronic copies of its books to readers who are blind, paralyzed, dyslexic, or are amputees.

Baen's emphasis on electronic publishing has generated press coverage for the company. In 2001, Wired magazine described Webscriptions as "innovative". Charles N. Brown, publisher of Locus magazine, has praised Baen's approach in an interview in The New York Times, saying "Baen has shown that putting up electronic versions of books doesn't cost you sales. It gains you a larger audience for all of your books. As a result, they've done quite well."

Magazine experiments
Baen's first run at magazine-style book publishing took place in the late 1970s, in the form of Destinies, a quarterly 'bookazine' that featured fiction and non-fiction by well-known and new authors that Baen was promoting. It was published by Ace, where Baen was employed at the time. Under the aegis of Baen Books in the 1980s, he published two more bookazine series. The first was Far Frontiers. The second was New Destinies, edited by Baen, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Michael A. Banks.

The Grantville Gazettes
Baen's began the experimental publication of The Grantville Gazette, an e-magazine anthology series specifically related to the popular Ring of Fire alternate history plenum. The Gazettes are professionally edited and approved fan fiction. They are published on a regular schedule and available individually at Baen Books or Amazon, or by subscription.

Jim Baen's Universe
In the early 2000s, Baen tried magazine-like publishing again, establishing two self-sustaining e-zine enterprises with a separate staff for each, both spearheaded by Eric Flint: Jim Baen's Universe and the Grantville Gazette series, which was reconfigured after Grantville Gazette V.

The general audience speculative fiction anthology Baen's Universe is available only online. At approximately 120,000 words, this latter publication is unusually large when compared to most traditional print editions of science fiction magazines, and the average size of the newly reconfigured Gazettes is similarly generous.

Baen Digital Object Identifiers (DOI)
From 1999 to 2011, Baen's e-books were produced by Webscriptions under contract for Baen Books in various (at least five) common digital formats. Because these multiple formats complicate the issue of identifying electronic versions, Baen and Webscriptions did not use DOIs to identify their e-books (even though some of their books had DOIs). The electronic e-ARC practices also complicate things in "publications dates", since the first released text starts two to three months before the release of the print copy, though the released text is not guaranteed to fully copy edited—and so occasionally differs from the final released fully copy-edited versions. Thus, like the Grantville Gazettes the e-publication date antedates the print copy by about two months—the interval before the release of the last third and the hardcover print edition is simultaneously released.

Authors
Authors whose works have been published by Baen include the following:

 * Andre Norton
 * Andrew Dennis
 * Ann Downer
 * Brad R. Torgersen
 * C. J. Cherryh
 * Catherine Asaro
 * Charles Sheffield
 * Christopher Ruocchio
 * D. J. Butler
 * Dave Freer
 * David Drake
 * David Weber
 * Elizabeth Moon
 * Eric Flint
 * Esther Friesner
 * Gregory Frost
 * Harry Turtledove
 * Holly Lisle
 * Howard Andrew Jones
 * James P. Hogan
 * Jane Lindskold
 * Jerry Pournelle
 * Jody Lynn Nye
 * Joel Rosenberg
 * John Ringo
 * K. D. Wentworth
 * Karl Edward Wagner
 * L. Sprague de Camp
 * Larry Correia
 * Larry Niven
 * Lois McMaster Bujold
 * Mark L. Van Name
 * Mercedes Lackey
 * Michael Shea
 * Michael Z. Williamson
 * P. C. Hodgell
 * Paul Chafe
 * Poul Anderson
 * Robert A. Heinlein
 * Robert Asprin
 * Robert Buettner
 * S. M. Stirling
 * Sarah A. Hoyt
 * Sharon Lee
 * Spider Robinson
 * Steve Miller
 * Steve White
 * Timothy Zahn
 * Tom Kratman
 * Travis S. Taylor
 * Virginia DeMarce

Series
Series published by Baen include the following:

 * 1632 series/Ring of Fire series
 * Belisarius series: The premise of this science fiction (more specifically alternate history) series is that a war between two competing societies in the future spills over to 6th century Earth.
 * Bolo
 * Chicks in Chainmail: A series of anthologies centered on this theme, edited by Esther Friesner.
 * Freehold War
 * Heroes in Hell
 * Honorverse (Honor Harrington)
 * Legacy of the Aldenata
 * Liaden universe
 * March Upcountry Series
 * Raj Whitehall
 * The Bard's Tale: A series of books based on the RPG computer game series of the same name.
 * The Man-Kzin Wars: A shared universe based on the Kzinti Conflicts in Larry Niven's Known Space universe, featuring writers personally selected by Niven
 * Vorkosigan Saga
 * War Between the Provinces
 * Wing Commander: Baen published seven Wing Commander novels from 1992 to 1999 (starting with Freedom Flight by Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon, and ending with False Colors by William R. Forstchen and Andrew Keith), including the novelizations of two of the games, Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger and Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom.

Also

 * Hard science fiction
 * Military science fiction
 * Space opera

title: Baen Books