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JFK (film)

JFK is a 1991 American epic political thriller film written and directed by Oliver Stone. It examines the investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, who came to believe there was a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy and that Lee Harvey Oswald was a scapegoat.

The film's screenplay was adapted by Stone and Zachary Sklar from the books On the Trail of the Assassins by Garrison and Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs. Stone described this account as a "counter-myth" to the Warren Commission's "fictional myth". JFK's embrace of conspiracy theories made it controversial. Many major American newspapers ran editorials accusing Stone of spreading untruths, including the claim that Kennedy was killed as part of a coup d'état to install Lyndon B. Johnson in his place.

Despite the controversy, JFK received critical praise for its performances, directing, score, editing, and cinematography. It gradually picked up momentum at the box office after a slow start, grossing over $205 million worldwide, making it the sixth highest-grossing film of 1991 worldwide. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won two for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing. It was the first of three films Stone made about American presidents, followed by Nixon (1995) and W. (2008).

Plot
During his farewell address in 1961, outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns about the build-up of the military-industrial complex. He is succeeded by John F. Kennedy as president, whose time in office is marked by the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis until his assassination in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Former US marine and suspected Soviet defector Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested for the murder of police officer J. D. Tippit and arraigned with both murders but is killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison and his team investigate potential New Orleans links to the JFK assassination, including private pilot David Ferrie, but their investigation is publicly rebuked by the federal government and Garrison closes the investigation.

The investigation is reopened in 1966 after Garrison reads the Warren Report and notices what he believes to be multiple inaccuracies. Garrison and his staff interrogate people involved with Oswald and Ferrie. One such witness is Willie O'Keefe, a male prostitute serving five years in prison for solicitation, who says that he witnessed Ferrie talking with a man called "Clay Bertrand" about assassinating Kennedy, and that he briefly met Oswald. Garrison and his team theorize Oswald was an agent of the CIA and was framed for the assassination.

In 1967, Garrison and his team talk to several witnesses, including Jean Hill, a teacher who says she witnessed a gunman shooting from the "grassy knoll", a small hill, that Secret Service threatened her into saying three shots came from the Texas School Book Depository from which Oswald was said to have shot Kennedy, and her testimony was altered by the Warren Commission. Garrison's staff also test fire an empty rifle from the Depository and conclude that Oswald was too poor a marksman to make the shots, and that there was more than one shooter. Garrison comes to believe that "Bertrand" is really New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw. Garrison interviews Shaw, who denies having ever met Ferrie, O'Keefe or Oswald.

Some key witnesses become scared and refuse to testify while others, such as Ruby and Ferrie, die in suspicious circumstances. Before his death, Ferrie tells Garrison that there was a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. Garrison meets a high-level figure in Washington D.C. who identifies himself as "X". He suggests a coup d'état at the highest levels of government, implicating members of the CIA, the Mafia, the military-industrial complex, Secret Service, FBI, and then-Vice President Lyndon Johnson as either co-conspirators or as having motives to cover up the truth of the assassination. X suggests that Kennedy was killed because he wanted to pull the United States out of the Vietnam War and dismantle the CIA. X encourages Garrison to keep digging and prosecute Shaw. Soon afterward, Garrison indicts Shaw with conspiring to murder Kennedy.

Garrison's marriage is strained when his wife Liz complains that he is spending more time on the case than with his own family. After a sinister phone call is made to their daughter, Liz accuses Garrison of being selfish and attacking Shaw only because of his homosexuality. Some of Garrison's staff begin to doubt his motives and disagree with his methods, and leave the investigation. One of them, Bill Broussard, is later revealed to have been an insider for the FBI for some time, and even plays a peripheral, undisclosed role in what seems to be an attempt to kidnap, murder or otherwise scare Garrison. In addition, Garrison is criticized in the media as wasting taxpayer money to investigate a conspiracy theory. Garrison suspects a connection with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

Shaw's trial takes place in 1969. Garrison presents the court with a dismissal of the single-bullet theory, proposing a scenario involving three assassins firing six shots and framing Oswald for the murders of Kennedy and Tippit, all for the purpose of installing Johnson as president so he could escalate the war in Vietnam and enrich the defense industry. However, the jury acquits Shaw after less than one hour of deliberation. While his prosecution has failed, Garrison wins his wife and children's respect for his determination, and so repairs his relationship with his family.

Cast

 * Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison
 * Kevin Bacon as Willie O'Keefe
 * Tommy Lee Jones as Clay Shaw / Clay Bertrand
 * Laurie Metcalf as Susie Cox
 * Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald
 * Michael Rooker as Bill Broussard
 * Jay O. Sanders as Lou Ivon
 * Sissy Spacek as Liz Garrison
 * Joe Pesci as David Ferrie
 * Beata Poźniak as Marina Oswald Porter
 * Jack Lemmon as Jack Martin
 * Walter Matthau as Senator Russell B. Long
 * Donald Sutherland as Mr. X
 * Ed Asner as Guy Banister
 * Brian Doyle-Murray as Jack Ruby
 * John Candy as Dean Andrews Jr.
 * Sally Kirkland as Rose Cheramie
 * Wayne Knight as Numa Bertel
 * Pruitt Taylor Vince as Lee Bowers
 * Tony Plana as Carlos Bringuier
 * Vincent D'Onofrio as Bill Newman
 * Dale Dye as General Y
 * Lolita Davidovich as Beverly Oliver
 * Ellen McElduff as Jean Hill
 * John Larroquette as Jerry Johnson
 * Willem Oltmans as George de Mohrenschildt
 * Tomas Milian as Leopoldo
 * Gary Grubbs as Al Oser
 * Ron Rifkin as Mr. Goldberg / Spiesel
 * Peter Maloney as Colonel Finck
 * John Finnegan as Judge Haggerty
 * Wayne Tippit as FBI Agent Frank
 * Jo Anderson as Julia Ann Mercer
 * Bob Gunton as News Anchor
 * Frank Whaley as Imposter Oswald
 * Jim Garrison as Earl Warren
 * Martin Sheen as Narrator

Production
Zachary Sklar, a journalist and a professor of journalism at the Columbia School of Journalism, met Garrison in 1987 and helped him rewrite a manuscript that he was working on about Kennedy's assassination. He changed it from a scholarly book in the third person to "a detective story – a whydunnit" in the first person. Sklar edited the book and it was published in 1988. While attending the Latin American Film Festival in Havana, Cuba, Stone met Sheridan Square Press publisher Ellen Ray on an elevator. She had published Jim Garrison's book On the Trail of the Assassins. Ray had gone to New Orleans and worked with Garrison in 1967. She gave Stone a copy of Garrison's book and told him to read it. He did and quickly bought the film rights with $250,000 of his own money to prevent talk going around the studios about projects he might be developing.

Kennedy's assassination had always had a profound effect on Stone: "The Kennedy murder was one of the signal events of the postwar generation, my generation." Stone met Garrison and grilled him with a variety of questions for three hours. Garrison stood up to Stone's questioning and then got up and left. His pride and dignity impressed the director. Stone's impressions from their meeting were that "Garrison made many mistakes. He trusted a lot of weirdos and followed a lot of fake leads. But he went out on a limb, way out. And he kept going, even when he knew he was facing long odds."

Stone was not interested in making a film about Garrison's life, but rather the story behind the conspiracy to kill Kennedy. He also bought the film rights to Jim Marrs' book Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy. One of the filmmaker's primary goals with JFK was to provide a rebuttal to the Warren Commission's report that he believed was "a great myth. And in order to fight a myth, maybe you have to create another one, a counter-myth." Even though Marrs' book collected many theories, Stone was hungry for more and hired Jane Rusconi, a recent Yale University graduate, to lead a team of researchers and assemble as much information about the assassination as possible while the director completed post-production on Born on the Fourth of July. Stone read two dozen books on the assassination while Rusconi read between 100 and 200 books on the subject.

By December 1989, Stone began approaching studios to back his film. While in pre-production on The Doors, he met with three executives at Warner Bros. who wanted him to make a film about Howard Hughes. However, Warren Beatty owned the rights and so Stone pitched JFK. Studio president and chief operating officer Terry Semel liked the idea. He had a reputation for making political and controversial films, including All the President's Men, The Parallax View and The Killing Fields. Stone made a handshake deal with Warner Bros. whereby the studio would get all the rights to the film and put up $20 million for the budget. The director did this so that the screenplay would not be widely read and bid on, and he also knew that the material was potentially dangerous and wanted only one studio to finance it. Finally, Stone liked Semel's track record of producing political films.

Screenplay
When Stone set out to write the screenplay, he asked Sklar (who also edited Marrs' book) to co-write it with him and distill the Garrison and Marrs books and Rusconi's research into a script that would resemble what he called "a great detective movie". Stone told Sklar his vision of the film: "I see the models as Z and Rashomon, I see the event in Dealey Plaza taking place in the first reel, and again in the eighth reel, and again later, and each time we're going to see it differently and with more illumination." Although he did employ ideas from Rashomon, his principal model for JFK was Z: "Somehow I had the impression that in Z you had the showing of the crime and then the re-showing of the crime throughout the picture until it was seen another way. That was the idea of JFK – that was the essence of it: basically, that's why I called it JFK. Not J dot F dot K dot. JFK. It was a code, like Z was a code, for he lives, American-style. As it was written it became more fascinating: it evolved into four DNA threads." Stone broke the film's structure down into four stories: Garrison investigating the New Orleans connection to the assassination; the research that revealed what Stone calls, "Oswald legend: who he was and how to try to inculcate that"; the recreation of the assassination at Dealey Plaza; and the information that the character of "X" imparts on Garrison, which Stone saw as the "means by which we were able to move between New Orleans, local, into the wider story of Dealey Plaza."

Sklar worked on the Garrison side of the story while Stone added the Oswald story, the events at Dealey Plaza and the "Mr. X" character. Sklar spent a year researching and writing a 550-page triple-spaced screenplay and then Stone rewrote it and condensed it closer to normal screenplay length. Stone and Sklar used composite characters, most notably the "Mr. X" character played by Donald Sutherland. This was a technique that would be criticized in the press. He was a mix of Richard Case Nagell and retired Air Force colonel Fletcher Prouty, another adviser for the film and who was a military liaison between the CIA and the Pentagon. Meeting Prouty was, for Stone, "one of the most extraordinary afternoons I've ever spent. Pretty much like in the movie, he just started to talk." According to Stone: "I feel this was in the spirit of the truth because Garrison also met a deep throat type named Richard Case Nagell, who claimed to be a CIA agent and made Jim aware of a much larger scenario than the microcosm of New Orleans."

The screenplay's early drafts suggested a four and a half-hour film with a potential budget of $40 million – double what Stone had agreed to with Warner Bros. The director knew film mogul Arnon Milchan and met with him to help finance the film. Milchan was eager to work on the project and launch his new company, Regency Enterprises, with a high profile film like JFK. Milchan made a deal with Warner Bros. to put up the money for the film. Stone managed to pare down his initial revision, a 190-page draft, to a 156-page shooting script.

There were many advisers for the film, including Gerald Hemming, a former Marine who claimed involvement in various CIA activities, and Robert Groden, a self-proclaimed photographic expert and longtime JFK assassination researcher and author.

Stone later published JFK: The Documented Screenplay, a heavily annotated version of the screenplay in which he cites sources for nearly every claim made in the film (ISBN 1557831270).

Casting
Trying to cast the role of Garrison, Stone sent copies of the script to Costner, Mel Gibson, and Harrison Ford. Initially, Costner turned Stone down. However, the actor's agent, Michael Ovitz, was a big fan of the project and helped Stone convince the actor to take the role. Before accepting the role, Costner conducted extensive research on Garrison, including meeting the man and his enemies. Two months after finally signing on to play Garrison in January 1991, his film Dances with Wolves won seven Academy Awards and so his presence greatly enhanced JFK's bankability in the studio's eyes.

Tommy Lee Jones was originally considered for another role that was ultimately cut from the film and Stone then decided to cast him as Shaw. In preparation for the film, Jones interviewed Garrison on three different occasions and talked to others who had worked with Shaw and knew him.

Stone originally wanted James Woods to play David Ferrie, but Woods wanted to play Garrison. Stone also approached Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich, who both turned down the role.

Stone considered Marlon Brando for the role of Mr. X, which eventually went to Donald Sutherland.

According to Gary Oldman, very little was written about Oswald in the script. Stone gave him several plane tickets, a list of contacts, and told him to do his own research. Oldman met with Oswald's wife, Marina, and her two daughters to prepare for the role. Beata Poźniak studied 26 volumes of the Warren Report and spent time living with Marina Oswald. Since the script contained few lines for the Oswalds, Poźniak interviewed acquaintances of the Oswalds in order to improvise her scenes with Gary Oldman.

Many actors were willing to waive their normal fees because of the nature of the project and to lend their support. Martin Sheen provided the opening narration. Jim Garrison played Chief Justice Earl Warren, during the scene in which he questions Jack Ruby in a Dallas jail and in a TV appearance. Assassination witness Beverly Oliver, who claims to be the "Babushka Lady" seen in the Zapruder film, also appeared in a cameo in Ruby's club. Sean Stone, Oliver Stone's son, plays Garrison's oldest son Jasper. Perry Russo, one of the sources for the fictional character Willie O'Keefe, appeared in a cameo as an angry bar patron who says Oswald should get a medal for shooting Kennedy.

Principal photography
The story revolves around Costner's Jim Garrison, with a large cast of well-known actors in supporting roles. Stone was inspired by the casting model of the documentary epic The Longest Day, which he had admired as a child: "It was realistic, but it had a lot of stars ... the supporting cast provides a map of the American psyche: familiar, comfortable faces that walk you through a winding path in the dark woods."

Cinematographer Robert Richardson was a week and a half into shooting City of Hope for John Sayles when he got word that Stone was thinking about making JFK. By the time principal photography wrapped on City of Hope, Richardson was ready to make Stone's film. To prepare, Richardson read up on various JFK assassination books starting with On the Trail of the Assassins and Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy.

The original idea was to film the opening sequence in 1.33:1 aspect ratio in order to simulate the TV screens that were available at the time of the assassination, then transition to 1.85:1 when Garrison began his investigation, and finally switch to 2.35:1 for scenes occurring in 1968 and later. However, because of time constraints and logistics, Richardson was forced to abandon this approach.

Stone wanted to recreate the Kennedy assassination in Dealey Plaza. His producers had to pay the Dallas City Council a substantial amount of money to hire police to reroute traffic and close streets for three weeks. He only had ten days to shoot all of the footage he needed and so he used seven cameras (two 35 mm and five 16 mm) and 14 film stocks. Getting permission to shoot in the Texas School Book Depository was more difficult. They had to pay $50,000 to put someone in the window from which Oswald was supposed to have shot Kennedy. They were allowed to film in that location only between certain hours with only five people on the floor at one time: the camera crew, an actor and Stone. Co-producer Clayton Townsend has said that the hardest part was getting the permission to restore the building to the way it looked back in 1963. It took five months of negotiation.

The production spent $4 million to restore Dealey Plaza to 1963 conditions. Stone utilized a variety of film stocks. Richardson said, "It depends whether you want to shoot in 35 or 16 or Super 8. In many cases the lighting has to be different." For certain shots in the film, Stone employed multiple camera crews shooting at once, using five cameras at the same time in different formats. Richardson said of Stone's style of direction, "Oliver disdains convention, he tries to force you into things that are not classic. There's this constant need to stretch." This forced the cinematographer to use lighting in diverse positions and rely very little on classic lighting modes. Shooting began on April 15, 1991, and ended on July 31, lasting 78 days with filming finished four-and-a-half months before the release date.

Editing
JFK marked a fundamental change in the way that Stone constructed his films: a subjective lateral presentation of the plot, with the editing's rhythm carrying the story. Stone brought in Hank Corwin, an editor of commercials, to help edit the film. Stone chose him because his "chaotic mind" was "totally alien to the film form." Stone also commented that Corwin "had not developed the long form yet. And so a lot of his cuts were very chaotic." Stone employed extensive use of flashbacks within flashbacks for a specific effect. He said in an interview: "I wanted to do the film on two or three levels – sound and picture would take us back, and we'd go from one flashback to another, and then that flashback would go inside another flashback ... I wanted multiple layers because reading the Warren Commission Report is like drowning." Because of being shot on various sized film stocks, conventional 35mm film editing was impossible. Although digital editing was in nascent form, LightWorks and AVID were still not available as editing systems when editing began on JFK. For that reason, all the footage was transferred to 3/4" videotape and edited on videotape. The 35mm film negative, along with the other sized film stocks were then conformed to match the videotape edit.

Years after its release, Stone said of the film that it "was the beginning of a new era for me in terms of film making because it's not just about a conspiracy to kill John Kennedy. It's also about the way we look at our recent history ... It shifts from black and white to color, and then back again, and views people from offbeat angles."

Music
Because of his enormous commitment to Steven Spielberg's Hook, which opened the same month as JFK, composer John Williams did not have time to compose a conventional score for the entire film. Instead he composed and conducted six musical sequences in full for JFK before he saw the film in its entirety. Soon after recording this music, he traveled to New Orleans where Stone was still shooting the film and saw approximately an hour's worth of edited footage and dailies. Williams remembers, "I thought his handling of Lee Harvey Oswald was particularly strong, and I understood some of the atmosphere of the film – the sordid elements, the underside of New Orleans." Stone and his team then actually cut the film to fit Williams' music after the composer had scored and recorded musical cues in addition to the six he had done prior to seeing the film. For the motorcade sequence, Williams described the score he composed as "strongly kinetic music, music of interlocking rhythmic disciplines." The composer remembered the moment he learned of Kennedy's assassination and it stuck with him for years. This was a significant factor in his deciding to work on the film. Williams said, "This is a very resonant subject for people of my generation, and that's why I welcomed the opportunity to participate in this film."

Critical reaction
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 84% based on 68 reviews and an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "As history, Oliver Stone's JFK is dubious, but as filmmaking it's electric, cramming a ton of information and excitement into its three-hour runtime and making great use of its outstanding cast." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average of 72 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

The film's production and release were subject to intense scrutiny and criticism. A few weeks after shooting had begun, on May 14, 1991, Jon Margolis wrote in the Chicago Tribune that JFK was "an insult to the intelligence". Five days later, The Washington Post ran a scathing article by national security correspondent George Lardner titled, "On the Set: Dallas in Wonderland" that used the first draft of the JFK screenplay to blast it for "the absurdities and palpable untruths in Garrison's book and Stone's rendition of it." The article pointed out that Garrison lost his case against Clay Shaw and that he inflated his case by trying to use Shaw's homosexual relationships to prove guilt by association. Stone responded to Lardner's article by hiring a public relations firm that specialized in political issues. Anthony Lewis in The New York Times stated the film "tells us that our government cannot be trusted to give an honest account of a Presidential assassination." Washington Post columnist George Will called Stone "a man of technical skill, scant education and negligible conscience."

Time ran its own critique of the film-in-progress on June 10, 1991, and alleged Stone was trying to suppress a rival JFK assassination film based on Don DeLillo's 1988 novel Libra. Stone rebutted these claims in a letter to the magazine.

Richard Corliss, Time's film critic, wrote: Whatever one's suspicions about its use or abuse of the evidence, JFK is a knockout. Part history book, part comic book, the movie rushes toward judgment for three breathless hours, lassoing facts and factoids by the thousands, then bundling them together into an incendiary device that would frag any viewer's complacency. Stone's picture is, in both meanings of the word, sensational: it's tip-top tabloid journalism. In its bravura and breadth, JFK is seditiously enthralling; in its craft, wondrously complex.

Stone split his time making the film, responding to criticism, and conducting a publicity campaign that saw him "omnipresent, from CBS Evening News, to Oprah." The Lardner Post piece was reputed to have hit Stone the most because Lardner had a copy of the script. Stone recalls, "He had the first draft, and I went through probably six or seven drafts."

Upon theatrical release, The New York Times ran an article by Bernard Weinraub that called for intervention by the studio: "At what point does a studio exercise its leverage and blunt the highly charged message of a film maker like Oliver Stone?" The newspaper ran a review of the film by Vincent Canby who wrote, "Mr. Stone's hyperbolic style of film making is familiar: lots of short, often hysterical scenes tumbling one after another, backed by a soundtrack that is layered, strudel-like, with noises, dialogue, music, more noises, more dialogue." Pat Dowell, film critic for The Washingtonian, had her 34-word capsule review for the January issue rejected by her editor John Limpert on the grounds he did not want the magazine to give a positive review to a film he felt was "preposterous". Dowell resigned in protest.

The Miami Herald said, "the focus on the trivialities of personality conveniently prevents us from having to confront the tough questions [Stone's] film raises." Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both gave the film positive reviews on their television show. Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Siskel called the film "thoroughly compelling" and suggested that while it contained "gross alterations of fact", Stone had "the right to speculate on American history". Ebert praised the film in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, saying, "The achievement of the film is not that it answers the mystery of the Kennedy assassination, because it does not, or even that it vindicates Garrison, who is seen here as a man often whistling in the dark. Its achievement is that it tries to marshal the anger which ever since 1963 has been gnawing away on some dark shelf of the national psyche." Rita Kempley in The Washington Post wrote, "Quoting everyone from Shakespeare to Hitler to bolster their arguments, Stone and Sklar present a gripping alternative to the Warren Commission's conclusion. A marvelously paranoid thriller featuring a closetful of spies, moles, pro-commies and Cuban freedom-fighters, the whole thing might have been thought up by Robert Ludlum."

New York Newsday published two articles on Boxing Day: "The Blurred Vision of JFK" and "The Many Theories of a Jolly Green Giant". A few days later, the Chicago Sun-Times followed suit with "Stone's Film Trashes Facts, Dishonors J.F.K." Jack Valenti, then president and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, denounced Stone's film in a seven-page statement. He wrote: "In much the same way, young German boys and girls in 1941 were mesmerized by Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, in which Adolf Hitler was depicted as a newborn God. Both JFK and Triumph of the Will are equally a propaganda masterpiece and equally a hoax. Mr. Stone and Leni Riefenstahl have another genetic linkage: neither of them carried a disclaimer on their film that its contents were mostly pure fiction." Stone recalls in an interview, "I can't even remember all the threats, there were so many of them."

TIME magazine ranked it the fourth best film of 1991, while also including it in "Top 10 Historically Misleading Films" in 2011.

Ebert named Stone's film as the year's best and one of the top ten films of the decade as well as one of The Great Movies. Gene Siskel ranked it the seventh best film of the year. The Sydney Morning Herald named JFK as the best film of 1991. Entertainment Weekly ranked it the 5th Most Controversial Movie Ever.

Ebert's future colleague Richard Roeper was less complimentary: "One can admire Stone's filmmaking skills and the performances here while denouncing the utter crapola presented as 'evidence' of a conspiracy to murder." Roeper applauded the film's "dazzling array of filmmaking techniques and a stellar roster of actors" but criticized Stone's narrative: "As a work of fantastical fiction, JFK is an interesting if overblown vision of a parallel universe. As a dramatic interpretation of events, it's journalistically bankrupt nonsense."

Harry Connick Sr., the New Orleans district attorney who defeated Garrison in 1973, criticized Stone's view of the assassination: "Stone was either unaware of the details and particulars of the Clay Shaw investigation and trial or, if he was aware, that didn't get in his way of what he perceived to be the way the case should have been." In his book Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a history of the assassination published 16 years after the film's release, Vincent Bugliosi devoted an entire chapter to Garrison's prosecution of Shaw and Stone's subsequent film. Bugliosi lists thirty-two separate "lies and fabrications" in Stone's film and describes the film as "one continuous lie in which Stone couldn't find any level of deception and invention beyond which he was unwilling to go." David R. Wrone stated that "80 percent of the film is in factual error" and rejected the premise of a conspiracy involving the CIA and the so-called military-industrial complex as "irrational". Warren Commission investigator David Belin called the film "a big lie that would make Adolf Hitler proud". Former Indiana Representative Floyd Fithian, who had served on the House Select Committee on Assassinations said the film had manipulated the past. Kennedy's son, John F. Kennedy Jr., refused to watch the film, "because that's not entertainment for me… people, historians, filmmakers…are going to take time and money studying (the assassination)." He cared little about the controversy, stating that regardless of the truth, it would not bring his father back. Clint Hill, a Secret Service agent who was with Kennedy when he was shot, criticized the film, calling it "absurd".

Box-office
JFK was released in theaters on December 20, 1991. In its first week of release, JFK tied with Beauty and the Beast for fifth place in the U.S. box office and its critics began to say it was a flop. Warner Bros. executives argued that this was at least partly because the film's long running time meant it had had fewer screenings than other films. Box-office picked up momentum, however, in part due to a $15 million marketing campaign from the studio. By the first week in January 1992, it had grossed over $50 million worldwide, eventually earning over $200 million worldwide and $70 million in the United States during its initial run.

Garrison's estate subsequently sued Warner Bros. for a share of the film's profits, alleging fraud perpetrated through a book-keeping practice known as "Hollywood accounting". The lawsuit contended that JFK made in excess of $150 million worldwide but the studio claimed that, under its "net profits" accounting formula, the film earned no money, and that Garrison's estate did not receive any of the more than $1 million net profits income he was due.

Awards and nominations
Upon winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Director – Motion Picture, Stone said in his acceptance speech: ''A terrible lie was told to us 28 years ago. I hope that this film can be the first step in righting that wrong.''

Entertainment Weekly ranked JFK as one of the 25 "Powerful Political Thrillers". In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild listed the film as the ninth best-edited film of all time based on a survey of its membership.

Legislative impact
The final report of the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) partially credited concern over the conclusions in JFK with the passage of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, also known as the JFK Act.

The ARRB stated that the film "popularized a version of President Kennedy's assassination that featured U.S. government agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the military as conspirators." While describing the film as "largely fictional", the ARRB acknowledged Stone's point that official records were to be sealed from the public until 2029, and his suggestion that "Americans could not trust official public conclusions when those conclusions had been made in secret." By ARRB law, all existing assassination-related documents were to be made public by 2017, and most are now released.

Home media and alternate versions
The original theatrical cut of JFK was released on VHS and Laserdisc on May 20, 1992.

The "Director's Cut" of the film, extending it to 206 minutes, was released on VHS and laserdisc in 1993.

The Director's Cut was released on DVD in 1997.

On January 16, 2001, the Director's Cut was re-released on DVD as part of the Oliver Stone Collection box-set, with the film on one disc and supplemental material on the second. Stone contributed several extras to this edition, including an audio commentary, two multimedia essays, and 54 minutes' worth of deleted/extended scenes with optional commentary by Stone.

On November 11, 2003, a "Special Edition" DVD of the Director's Cut was released with the film on one disc and all of the extras from the 2001 edition on a second disc, in addition to a 90-minute documentary entitled, Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy.

The Director's Cut was released on Blu-ray on November 11, 2008. The disc features many of the extras included on the previous DVD releases, including the Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy documentary.

The theatrical cut was not released on physical media in the US for many years after the first 1992 laserdisc and VHS releases, although it was released on DVD in the United Kingdom as a poor quality non-anamorphic transfer. The theatrical cut and the director's cut were both made available for digital download and streaming in the United States.

On December 19th, 2023, Shout! Factory, through their Shout Select label, released both the theatrical and extended versions together as a boxset on UHD & Blu-ray. However, while the director's cut was made available on the 4K disc, the theatrical cut has only been included as a remastered Blu-ray disc.

In popular culture
Seinfeld spoofed the film in the 1992 episode "The Boyfriend".

The "back and to the left" scene was parodied on an episode on the cult animated sitcom The Critic.

The film is referenced twice in the 90s sitcom Family Matters by Waldo Faldo, who pronounces the name literally. During a date with Laura Winslow, he says "We should've seen 'Jifkuh'." When Laura corrects him with "Oh you mean JFK.", he responds "I know how it's spelled!" The second time was following his date with Maxine, where the movie choices were either Malcolm X (which he believes stood for the Roman numeral 10) or "Jifkuh".

The film was used for Stan Dane's book Prayer Man: The Exoneration of Lee Harvey Oswald to have high quality frames of the James Darnell film to support a theory that a man standing on the Depository front steps during the assassination, referred to as "prayer man", is Oswald.

title: JFK (film)


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Fascist Manifesto

"The Manifesto of the Italian Fasces of Combat" ("Il manifesto dei fasci italiani di combattimento"), also referred to as the Fascist Manifesto or the San Sepolcro Programme ("Programma di San Sepolcro") being the political platform developed from statements made during the founding of the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, held in Piazza San Sepolcro in Milan on March 23, 1919.

It was the initial declaration of the political stance of the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento ("Italian Fasces of Combat") the movement founded in Milan by Benito Mussolini in 1919 and it is an early expression of fascism known as sansepolcrismo. The Manifesto was co-authored by national syndicalist Alceste de Ambris and the futurist poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

Contents of the Fascist Manifesto
The Manifesto (published in Il Popolo d'Italia on June 6, 1919) is divided into four sections, describing the movement's objectives in political, social, military and financial fields.

Politically, the Manifesto calls for:
 * Universal suffrage with a lowered voting age to 18 years, and voting and electoral office eligibility for all ages 25 and up;
 * Proportional representation on a regional basis;
 * Voting for women;
 * Representation at government level of newly created national councils by economic sector;
 * The abolition of the Italian Senate (at the time, the Senate, as the upper house of parliament, was by process elected by the wealthier citizens, but were in reality direct appointments by the king. It has been described as a sort of extended council of the crown);
 * The formation of a national council of experts for labor, for industry, for transportation, for the public health, for communications, etc. Selections to be made of professionals or of tradesmen with legislative powers, and elected directly to a general commission with ministerial powers.

In labor and social policy, the Manifesto calls for:
 * The quick enactment of a law of the state that sanctions an eight-hour workday for all workers;
 * A minimum wage;
 * The participation of workers' representatives in the functions of industry commissions;
 * To show the same confidence in the labor unions (that prove to be technically and morally worthy) as is given to industry executives or public servants;
 * Reorganization of the railways and the public transport sector;
 * Revision of the draft law on invalidity insurance;
 * Reduction of the retirement age from 65 to 55.

In military affairs, the Manifesto advocates:
 * Creation of a short-service national militia with specifically defensive responsibilities;
 * Armaments factories are to be nationalized;
 * A peaceful but competitive foreign policy.

In finance, the Manifesto advocates:
 * A strong extraordinary tax on capital of a progressive nature, which takes the form of true partial expropriation of all wealth;
 * The seizure of all the possessions of the religious congregations and the abolition of all the bishoprics, which constitute an enormous liability on the Nation and on the privileges of the poor;
 * Revision of all contracts for military provisions;
 * The revision of all military contracts and the seizure of 85 percent of the profits therein.

These early positions reflected in the Manifesto would later be characterized by Mussolini in "The Doctrine of Fascism" as "a series of pointers, forecasts, hints which, when freed from the inevitable matrix of contingencies, were to develop in a few years time into a series of doctrinal positions entitling Fascism to rank as a political doctrine differing from all others, past or present."

The Manifesto in practice
Of the Manifesto's proposals, the commitment to corporative organisation of economic interests was to be the longest lasting. Far from becoming a medium of extended democracy, parliament became by law an exclusively Fascist-picked body in 1929; being replaced by the "chamber of corporations" a decade later.

Eight-hour workday was introduced in 1925.

Fascism's pacifist foreign policy ceased during its first year of Italian government. In September 1923, the Corfu crisis demonstrated the regime's willingness to use force internationally. Perhaps the greatest success of Fascist diplomacy was the Lateran Treaty of February 1929, which accepted the principle of non-interference in the affairs of the Church. This ended the 59-year-old dispute between Italy and the Papacy.

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title: Fascist Manifesto


text:
Compass

A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with magnetic north. Other methods may be used, including gyroscopes, magnetometers, and GPS receivers.

Compasses often show angles in degrees: north corresponds to 0°, and the angles increase clockwise, so east is 90°, south is 180°, and west is 270°. These numbers allow the compass to show azimuths or bearings which are commonly stated in degrees. If local variation between magnetic north and true north is known, then direction of magnetic north also gives direction of true north.

Among the Four Great Inventions, the magnetic compass was first invented as a device for divination as early as the Chinese Han dynasty (since c. 206 BC), and later adopted for navigation by the Song dynasty Chinese during the 11th century. The first usage of a compass recorded in Western Europe and the Islamic world occurred around 1190.

The magnetic compass is the most familiar compass type. It functions as a pointer to "magnetic north", the local magnetic meridian, because the magnetized needle at its heart aligns itself with the horizontal component of the Earth's magnetic field. The magnetic field exerts a torque on the needle, pulling the North end or pole of the needle approximately toward the Earth's North magnetic pole, and pulling the other toward the Earth's South magnetic pole. The needle is mounted on a low-friction pivot point, in better compasses a jewel bearing, so it can turn easily. When the compass is held level, the needle turns until, after a few seconds to allow oscillations to die out, it settles into its equilibrium orientation.

In navigation, directions on maps are usually expressed with reference to geographical or true north, the direction toward the Geographical North Pole, the rotation axis of the Earth. Depending on where the compass is located on the surface of the Earth the angle between true north and magnetic north, called magnetic declination can vary widely with geographic location. The local magnetic declination is given on most maps, to allow the map to be oriented with a compass parallel to true north. The locations of the Earth's magnetic poles slowly change with time, which is referred to as geomagnetic secular variation. The effect of this means a map with the latest declination information should be used. Some magnetic compasses include means to manually compensate for the magnetic declination, so that the compass shows true directions.

History

The first compasses in ancient Han dynasty China were made of lodestone, a naturally magnetized ore of iron. The wet compass reached Southern India in the 4th century AD. Later compasses were made of iron needles, magnetized by striking them with a lodestone, which appeared in China by 1088 during the Song dynasty, as described by Shen Kuo. Dry compasses began to appear around 1300 in Medieval Europe and the Islamic world. This was supplanted in the early 20th century by the liquid-filled magnetic compass.

Design

Modern compasses usually use a magnetized needle or dial inside a capsule completely filled with a liquid (lamp oil, mineral oil, white spirits, purified kerosene, or ethyl alcohol are common). While older designs commonly incorporated a flexible rubber diaphragm or airspace inside the capsule to allow for volume changes caused by temperature or altitude, some modern liquid compasses use smaller housings and/or flexible capsule materials to accomplish the same result. The liquid inside the capsule serves to damp the movement of the needle, reducing oscillation time and increasing stability. Key points on the compass, including the north end of the needle are often marked with phosphorescent, photoluminescent, or self-luminous materials to enable the compass to be read at night or in poor light. As the compass fill liquid is noncompressible under pressure, many ordinary liquid-filled compasses will operate accurately underwater to considerable depths.

Many modern compasses incorporate a baseplate and protractor tool, and are referred to variously as "orienteering", "baseplate", "map compass" or "protractor" designs. This type of compass uses a separate magnetized needle inside a rotating capsule, an orienting "box" or gate for aligning the needle with magnetic north, a transparent base containing map orienting lines, and a bezel (outer dial) marked in degrees or other units of angular measurement. The capsule is mounted in a transparent baseplate containing a direction-of-travel (DOT) indicator for use in taking bearings directly from a map.

Other features found on modern orienteering compasses are map and romer scales for measuring distances and plotting positions on maps, luminous markings on the face or bezels, various sighting mechanisms (mirror, prism, etc.) for taking bearings of distant objects with greater precision, gimbal-mounted, "global" needles for use in differing hemispheres, special rare-earth magnets to stabilize compass needles, adjustable declination for obtaining instant true bearings without resorting to arithmetic, and devices such as inclinometers for measuring gradients. The sport of orienteering has also resulted in the development of models with extremely fast-settling and stable needles utilizing rare-earth magnets for optimal use with a topographic map, a land navigation technique known as terrain association. Many marine compasses designed for use on boats with constantly shifting angles use dampening fluids such as isopar M or isopar L to limit the rapid fluctuation and direction of the needle.

The military forces of a few nations, notably the United States Army, continue to issue field compasses with magnetized compass dials or cards instead of needles. A magnetic card compass is usually equipped with an optical, lensatic, or prismatic sight, which allows the user to read the bearing or azimuth off the compass card while simultaneously aligning the compass with the objective (see photo). Magnetic card compass designs normally require a separate protractor tool in order to take bearings directly from a map.

The U.S. M-1950 military lensatic compass does not use a liquid-filled capsule as a damping mechanism, but rather electromagnetic induction to control oscillation of its magnetized card. A "deep-well" design is used to allow the compass to be used globally with a card tilt of up to 8 degrees without impairing accuracy. As induction forces provide less damping than fluid-filled designs, a needle lock is fitted to the compass to reduce wear, operated by the folding action of the rear sight/lens holder. The use of air-filled induction compasses has declined over the years, as they may become inoperative or inaccurate in freezing temperatures or extremely humid environments due to condensation or water ingress.

Some military compasses, like the U.S. M-1950 (Cammenga 3H) military lensatic compass, the Silva 4b Militaire, and the Suunto M-5N(T) contain the radioactive material tritium and a combination of phosphors. The U.S. M-1950 equipped with self-luminous lighting contains 120 mCi (millicuries) of tritium. The purpose of the tritium and phosphors is to provide illumination for the compass, via radioluminescent tritium illumination, which does not require the compass to be "recharged" by sunlight or artificial light. However, tritium has a half-life of only about 12 years, so a compass that contains 120 mCi of tritium when new will contain only 60 when it is 12 years old, 30 when it is 24 years old, and so on. Consequently, the illumination of the display will fade.

Mariners' compasses can have two or more magnets permanently attached to a compass card, which moves freely on a pivot. A lubber line, which can be a marking on the compass bowl or a small fixed needle, indicates the ship's heading on the compass card. Traditionally the card is divided into thirty-two points (known as rhumbs), although modern compasses are marked in degrees rather than cardinal points. The glass-covered box (or bowl) contains a suspended gimbal within a binnacle. This preserves the horizontal position.

The magnetic compass is very reliable at moderate latitudes, but in geographic regions near the Earth's magnetic poles it becomes unusable. As the compass is moved closer to one of the magnetic poles, the magnetic declination, the difference between the direction to geographical north and magnetic north, becomes greater and greater. At some point close to the magnetic pole the compass will not indicate any particular direction but will begin to drift. Also, the needle starts to point up or down when getting closer to the poles, because of the so-called magnetic inclination. Cheap compasses with bad bearings may get stuck because of this and therefore indicate a wrong direction.

Magnetic compasses are influenced by any fields other than Earth's. Local environments may contain magnetic mineral deposits and artificial sources such as MRIs, large iron or steel bodies, electrical engines or strong permanent magnets. Any electrically conductive body produces its own magnetic field when it is carrying an electric current. Magnetic compasses are prone to errors in the neighborhood of such bodies. Some compasses include magnets which can be adjusted to compensate for external magnetic fields, making the compass more reliable and accurate.

A compass is also subject to errors when the compass is accelerated or decelerated in an airplane or automobile. Depending on which of the Earth's hemispheres the compass is located and if the force is acceleration or deceleration the compass will increase or decrease the indicated heading. Compasses that include compensating magnets are especially prone to these errors, since accelerations tilt the needle, bringing it closer or further from the magnets.

Another error of the mechanical compass is the turning error. When one turns from a heading of east or west the compass will lag behind the turn or lead ahead of the turn. Magnetometers, and substitutes such as gyrocompasses, are more stable in such situations.

Variants

A thumb compass is a type of compass commonly used in orienteering, a sport in which map reading and terrain association are paramount. Consequently, most thumb compasses have minimal or no degree markings at all, and are normally used only to orient the map to magnetic north. An oversized rectangular needle or north indicator aids visibility. Thumb compasses are also often transparent so that an orienteer can hold a map in the hand with the compass and see the map through the compass. The best models use rare-earth magnets to reduce needle settling time to 1 second or less.

Small compasses found in clocks, mobile phones, and other electronic devices are solid-state microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) compasses, usually built out of two or three magnetic field sensors that provide data for a microprocessor. Often, the device is a discrete component which outputs either a digital or analog signal proportional to its orientation. This signal is interpreted by a controller or microprocessor and either used internally, or sent to a display unit. The sensor uses highly calibrated internal electronics to measure the response of the device to the Earth's magnetic field.

Apart from navigational compasses, other specialty compasses have also been designed to accommodate specific uses. These include:

 * The Qibla compass, which is used by Muslims to show the direction to Mecca for prayers.
 * The optical or prismatic compass, most often used by surveyors, but also by cave explorers, foresters, and geologists. These compasses generally use a liquid-damped capsule and magnetized floating compass dial with an integral optical sight, often fitted with built-in photoluminescent or battery-powered illumination. Using the optical sight, such compasses can be read with extreme accuracy when taking bearings to an object, often to fractions of a degree. Most of these compasses are designed for heavy-duty use, with high-quality needles and jeweled bearings, and many are fitted for tripod mounting for additional accuracy.
 * The trough compass, mounted in a rectangular box whose length was often several times its width, date back several centuries. They were used for land surveying, particularly with plane tables.
 * The luopan, a compass used by feng shui practitioners.

Construction
A magnetic rod is required when constructing a compass. This can be created by aligning an iron or steel rod with Earth's magnetic field and then tempering or striking it. However, this method produces only a weak magnet so other methods are preferred. For example, a magnetised rod can be created by repeatedly rubbing an iron rod with a magnetic lodestone. This magnetised rod (or magnetic needle) is then placed on a low friction surface to allow it to freely pivot to align itself with the magnetic field. It is then labeled so the user can distinguish the north-pointing from the south-pointing end; in modern convention the north end is typically marked in some way.

If a needle is rubbed on a lodestone or other magnet, the needle becomes magnetized. When it is inserted in a cork or piece of wood, and placed in a bowl of water it becomes a compass. Such devices were universally used as compasses until the invention of the box-like compass with a "dry" pivoting needle, sometime around 1300.

Originally, many compasses were marked only as to the direction of magnetic north, or to the four cardinal points (north, south, east, west). Later, these were divided, in China into 24, and in Europe into 32 equally spaced points around the compass card. For a table of the thirty-two points, see compass points.

In the modern era, the 360-degree system took hold. This system is still in use today for civilian navigators. The degree system spaces 360 equidistant points located clockwise around the compass dial. In the 19th century some European nations adopted the "grad" (also called grade or gon) system instead, where a right angle is 100 grads to give a circle of 400 grads. Dividing grads into tenths to give a circle of 4000 decigrades has also been used in armies.

Most military forces have adopted the French "millieme" system. This is an approximation of a milli-radian (6283 per circle), in which the compass dial is spaced into 6400 units or "mils" for additional precision when measuring angles, laying artillery, etc. The value to the military is that one angular mil subtends approximately one metre at a distance of one kilometer. Imperial Russia used a system derived by dividing the circumference of a circle into chords of the same length as the radius. Each of these was divided into 100 spaces, giving a circle of 600. The Soviet Union divided these into tenths to give a circle of 6000 units, usually translated as "mils". This system was adopted by the former Warsaw Pact countries, e.g., the Soviet Union, East Germany, etc., often counterclockwise (see picture of wrist compass). This is still in use in Russia.

Because the Earth's magnetic field's inclination and intensity vary at different latitudes, compasses are often balanced during manufacture so that the dial or needle will be level, eliminating needle drag. Most manufacturers balance their compass needles for one of five zones, ranging from zone 1, covering most of the Northern Hemisphere, to zone 5 covering Australia and the southern oceans. This individual zone balancing prevents excessive dipping of one end of the needle, which can cause the compass card to stick and give false readings.

Some compasses feature a special needle balancing system that will accurately indicate magnetic north regardless of the particular magnetic zone. Other magnetic compasses have a small sliding counterweight installed on the needle. This sliding counterweight, called a "rider", can be used for counterbalancing the needle against the dip caused by inclination if the compass is taken to a zone with a higher or lower dip.

Like any magnetic device, compasses are affected by nearby ferrous materials, as well as by strong local electromagnetic forces. Compasses used for wilderness land navigation should not be used in proximity to ferrous metal objects or electromagnetic fields (car electrical systems, automobile engines, steel pitons, etc.) as that can affect their accuracy. Compasses are particularly difficult to use accurately in or near trucks, cars or other mechanized vehicles even when corrected for deviation by the use of built-in magnets or other devices. Large amounts of ferrous metal combined with the on-and-off electrical fields caused by the vehicle's ignition and charging systems generally result in significant compass errors.

At sea, a ship's compass must also be corrected for errors, called deviation, caused by iron and steel in its structure and equipment. The ship is swung, that is rotated about a fixed point while its heading is noted by alignment with fixed points on the shore. A compass deviation card is prepared so that the navigator can convert between compass and magnetic headings. The compass can be corrected in three ways. First the lubber line can be adjusted so that it is aligned with the direction in which the ship travels, then the effects of permanent magnets can be corrected for by small magnets fitted within the case of the compass. The effect of ferromagnetic materials in the compass's environment can be corrected by two iron balls mounted on either side of the compass binnacle in concert with permanent magnets and a Flinders bar. The coefficient $$a_0$$ represents the error in the lubber line, while $$a_1,b_1$$ the ferromagnetic effects and $$a_2,b_2$$ the non-ferromagnetic component.

A similar process is used to calibrate the compass in light general aviation aircraft, with the compass deviation card often mounted permanently just above or below the magnetic compass on the instrument panel. Fluxgate electronic compasses can be calibrated automatically, and can also be programmed with the correct local compass variation so as to indicate the true heading.

Use

A magnetic compass points to magnetic north pole, which is approximately 1,000 miles from the true geographic North Pole. A magnetic compass's user can determine true North by finding the magnetic north and then correcting for variation and deviation. Variation is defined as the angle between the direction of true (geographic) north and the direction of the meridian between the magnetic poles. Variation values for most of the oceans had been calculated and published by 1914. Deviation refers to the response of the compass to local magnetic fields caused by the presence of iron and electric currents; one can partly compensate for these by careful location of the compass and the placement of compensating magnets under the compass itself. Mariners have long known that these measures do not completely cancel deviation; hence, they performed an additional step by measuring the compass bearing of a landmark with a known magnetic bearing. They then pointed their ship to the next compass point and measured again, graphing their results. In this way, correction tables could be created, which would be consulted when compasses were used when traveling in those locations.

Mariners are concerned about very accurate measurements; however, casual users need not be concerned with differences between magnetic and true North. Except in areas of extreme magnetic declination variance (20 degrees or more), this is enough to protect from walking in a substantially different direction than expected over short distances, provided the terrain is fairly flat and visibility is not impaired. By carefully recording distances (time or paces) and magnetic bearings traveled, one can plot a course and return to one's starting point using the compass alone.

Compass navigation in conjunction with a map (terrain association) requires a different method. To take a map bearing or true bearing (a bearing taken in reference to true, not magnetic north) to a destination with a protractor compass, the edge of the compass is placed on the map so that it connects the current location with the desired destination (some sources recommend physically drawing a line). The orienting lines in the base of the compass dial are then rotated to align with actual or true north by aligning them with a marked line of longitude (or the vertical margin of the map), ignoring the compass needle entirely. The resulting true bearing or map bearing may then be read at the degree indicator or direction-of-travel (DOT) line, which may be followed as an azimuth (course) to the destination. If a magnetic north bearing or compass bearing is desired, the compass must be adjusted by the amount of magnetic declination before using the bearing so that both map and compass are in agreement. In the given example, the large mountain in the second photo was selected as the target destination on the map. Some compasses allow the scale to be adjusted to compensate for the local magnetic declination; if adjusted correctly, the compass will give the true bearing instead of the magnetic bearing.

The modern hand-held protractor compass always has an additional direction-of-travel (DOT) arrow or indicator inscribed on the baseplate. To check one's progress along a course or azimuth, or to ensure that the object in view is indeed the destination, a new compass reading may be taken to the target if visible (here, the large mountain). After pointing the DOT arrow on the baseplate at the target, the compass is oriented so that the needle is superimposed over the orienting arrow in the capsule. The resulting bearing indicated is the magnetic bearing to the target. Again, if one is using "true" or map bearings, and the compass does not have preset, pre-adjusted declination, one must additionally add or subtract magnetic declination to convert the magnetic bearing into a true bearing. The exact value of the magnetic declination is place-dependent and varies over time, though declination is frequently given on the map itself or obtainable on-line from various sites. If the hiker has been following the correct path, the compass' corrected (true) indicated bearing should closely correspond to the true bearing previously obtained from the map.

A compass should be laid down on a level surface so that the needle only rests or hangs on the bearing fused to the compass casing – if used at a tilt, the needle might touch the casing on the compass and not move freely, hence not pointing to the magnetic north accurately, giving a faulty reading. To see if the needle is well leveled, look closely at the needle, and tilt it slightly to see if the needle is swaying side to side freely and the needle is not contacting the casing of the compass. If the needle tilts to one direction, tilt the compass slightly and gently to the opposing direction until the compass needle is horizontal, lengthwise. Items to avoid around compasses are magnets of any kind and any electronics. Magnetic fields from electronics can easily disrupt the needle, preventing it from aligning with the Earth's magnetic fields, causing inaccurate readings. The Earth's natural magnetic forces are considerably weak, measuring at 0.5 gauss and magnetic fields from household electronics can easily exceed it, overpowering the compass needle. Exposure to strong magnets, or magnetic interference can sometimes cause the magnetic poles of the compass needle to differ or even reverse. Avoid iron rich deposits when using a compass, for example, certain rocks which contain magnetic minerals, like Magnetite. This is often indicated by a rock with a surface which is dark and has a metallic luster, not all magnetic mineral bearing rocks have this indication. To see if a rock or an area is causing interference on a compass, get out of the area, and see if the needle on the compass moves. If it does, it means that the area or rock the compass was previously at is causing interference and should be avoided.

Non-magnetic compasses
There are other ways to find north than the use of magnetism, and from a navigational point of view a total of seven possible ways exist (where magnetism is one of the seven). Two sensors that use two of the remaining six principles are often also called compasses, i.e. the gyrocompass and GPS-compass.

A gyrocompass is similar to a gyroscope. It is a non-magnetic compass that finds true north by using an (electrically powered) fast-spinning wheel and friction forces in order to exploit the rotation of the Earth. Gyrocompasses are widely used on ships. They have two main advantages over magnetic compasses:
 * they find true north, i.e., the direction of Earth's rotational axis, as opposed to magnetic north,
 * they are not affected by ferromagnetic metal (including iron, steel, cobalt, nickel, and various alloys) in a ship's hull. (No compass is affected by nonferromagnetic metal, although a magnetic compass will be affected by any kind of wires with electric current passing through them.)

Large ships typically rely on a gyrocompass, using the magnetic compass only as a backup. Increasingly, electronic fluxgate compasses are used on smaller vessels. However, magnetic compasses are still widely in use as they can be small, use simple reliable technology, are comparatively cheap, are often easier to use than GPS, require no energy supply, and unlike GPS, are not affected by objects, e.g. trees, that can block the reception of electronic signals.

GPS receivers using two or more antennae mounted separately and blending the data with an inertial motion unit (IMU) can now achieve 0.02° in heading accuracy and have startup times in seconds rather than hours for gyrocompass systems. The devices accurately determine the positions (latitudes, longitudes and altitude) of the antennae on the Earth, from which the cardinal directions can be calculated. Manufactured primarily for maritime and aviation applications, they can also detect pitch and roll of ships. Small, portable GPS receivers with only a single antenna can also determine directions if they are being moved, even if only at walking pace. By accurately determining its position on the Earth at times a few seconds apart, the device can calculate its speed and the true bearing (relative to true north) of its direction of motion. Frequently, it is preferable to measure the direction in which a vehicle is actually moving, rather than its heading, i.e. the direction in which its nose is pointing. These directions may be different if there is a crosswind or tidal current.

GPS compasses share the main advantages of gyrocompasses. They determine true North, as opposed to magnetic North, and they are unaffected by perturbations of the Earth's magnetic field. Additionally, compared with gyrocompasses, they are much cheaper, they work better in polar regions, they are less prone to be affected by mechanical vibration, and they can be initialized far more quickly. However, they depend on the functioning of, and communication with, the GPS satellites, which might be disrupted by an electronic attack or by the effects of a severe solar storm. Gyrocompasses remain in use for military purposes (especially in submarines, where magnetic and GPS compasses are useless), but have been largely superseded by GPS compasses, with magnetic backups, in civilian contexts.

title: Compass


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Wikipedia:Federal Standard 1037C terms/computer graphics terms

This is a list of computer graphics related terms derived from the Glossary of Telecommunication Terms published as Federal Standard 1037C. Please see the Federal Standard article for copyright-related issues, as not all parts of the source document are in the public domain.

addressability -- addressable point -- computer graphics -- hard copy -- joy stick -- landscape mode -- pointer -- portrait mode -- regeneration -- stroke


text:
Wikipedia:Federal Standard 1037C terms/computer hardware terms

This is a list of computer hardware related terms derived from the Glossary of Telecommunication Terms published as Federal Standard 1037C. Please see the Federal Standard article for copyright-related issues, as not all parts of the source document are in the public domain.

central processor unit (CPU) -- comparator -- compatibility -- computer -- computer architecture -- computer system -- CPU -- digital computer -- direct connect -- file server -- general purpose computer -- hardware -- host computer -- hybrid computer -- input-output channel -- inverter -- inverter -- mainframe -- microcomputer -- micro-mainframe link -- microprocessor -- monitor -- mouse -- multiprocessor -- operating system -- parallel computer -- parallel port -- POSIX -- process computer system -- process control -- processing unit -- process interface system -- processor -- register -- security filter -- security kernel -- serial computer -- serial port -- special purpose computer -- standby -- stored-program computer -- touch-sensitive -- trusted computing base (TCB) -- trusted computer system (TCS) -- warm restart -- work station


text:
Wikipedia:Federal Standard 1037C terms/antenna terms

This is a glossary of antenna-related terms, derived from the Glossary of Telecommunication Terms published as Federal Standard 1037C. Please see the Federal Standard article for copyright-related issues, as not all parts of the source document are in the public domain.

Category:Antennas (radio) Antenna


text:
Wikipedia:Federal Standard 1037C terms/computer programming terms

This is a list of computer programming terms taken from the Glossary of Telecommunication Terms, published as Federal Standard 1037C. Additional terms have been added from different sources.

A
abstract syntax notation one (ASN.1) -- accumulator -- program address -- application -- application programming interface (API) -- ASCII -- assemble -- assembler -- assembly language -- assembly time

B
BCD -- binary system (numeral) -- binding -- bit -- bitmap -- bool -- booting -- breakpoint -- branch -- bug -- byte

C
call -- CASE -- CASE technology -- classes -- compartmentation -- compatibility -- compile -- compiler -- computer language -- computer numbering formats -- computer-oriented language -- computer program -- computer word -- conversion -- core dump -- cross assembler

D
data type -- debugger -- diagnostic program -- driver -- DLL

E
editor

F
firmware -- floating point -- foo

G
general protection fault -- graphical user interface (GUI) -- graphic character

H
hello world program -- high-level language (HLL) -- HTML -- hypermedia -- hypertext

I
icon -- identifier (ID) -- illegal character -- instruction -- instruction set matrix -- intermediate language -- intermediate-level language -- interpret

J
job

K
kernel (computers)

L
label -- LAN application (software) -- language -- language processor -- library -- link -- listing -- load -- loop

M
machine-independent -- machine instruction -- machine language -- macro -- microinstruction -- microprogram -- monitor -- multitasking

N
network control program (NCP) -- network operating system -- nibble

O
operand -- operating system -- overlay

P
path -- pointer -- procedure-oriented language -- program -- program architecture -- programmable -- programmable read-only memory (PROM) -- programmer -- programming language -- prompt

Q
query

R
return -- restart -- retrieval service -- routine -- run -- runtime, run time, or runtime library

S
screen -- security filter -- security kernel -- SGML -- shell -- software -- source language -- source program -- stack -- statement -- string manipulation -- structured programming -- subroutine -- supervisory program -- switch -- symbolic language -- syntax -- system software

T
target language -- time-sharing -- trace program -- translator -- trusted computing base (TCB) -- trusted computer system (TCS)

U
underflow -- UNIX -- utility program

V
virus -- variable

W
wide character -- wildcard character -- word -- word processing

(Important Note: refer to the Federal Standard article for copyright-related issues, as not all parts of that source document are in the public domain)


text:
Congruence (geometry)

In geometry, two figures or objects are congruent if they have the same shape and size, or if one has the same shape and size as the mirror image of the other.

More formally, two sets of points are called congruent if, and only if, one can be transformed into the other by an isometry, i.e., a combination of rigid motions, namely a translation, a rotation, and a reflection. This means that either object can be repositioned and reflected (but not resized) so as to coincide precisely with the other object. Therefore two distinct plane figures on a piece of paper are congruent if they can be cut out and then matched up completely. Turning the paper over is permitted.

In elementary geometry the word congruent is often used as follows. The word equal is often used in place of congruent for these objects.
 * Two line segments are congruent if they have the same length.
 * Two angles are congruent if they have the same measure.
 * Two circles are congruent if they have the same diameter.

In this sense, two plane figures are congruent implies that their corresponding characteristics are "congruent" or "equal" including not just their corresponding sides and angles, but also their corresponding diagonals, perimeters, and areas.

The related concept of similarity applies if the objects have the same shape but do not necessarily have the same size. (Most definitions consider congruence to be a form of similarity, although a minority require that the objects have different sizes in order to qualify as similar.)

Determining congruence of polygons

For two polygons to be congruent, they must have an equal number of sides (and hence an equal number—the same number—of vertices). Two polygons with n sides are congruent if and only if they each have numerically identical sequences (even if clockwise for one polygon and counterclockwise for the other) side-angle-side-angle-... for n sides and n angles.

Congruence of polygons can be established graphically as follows:

 * First, match and label the corresponding vertices of the two figures.
 * Second, draw a vector from one of the vertices of one of the figures to the corresponding vertex of the other figure. Translate the first figure by this vector so that these two vertices match.
 * Third, rotate the translated figure about the matched vertex until one pair of corresponding sides matches.
 * Fourth, reflect the rotated figure about this matched side until the figures match.

If at any time the step cannot be completed, the polygons are not congruent.

Congruence of triangles
Two triangles are congruent if their corresponding sides are equal in length, and their corresponding angles are equal in measure.

Symbolically, we write the congruency and incongruency of two triangles $△ABC$ and $△A′B′C′$ as follows:

 * $$ABC\cong A'B'C' $$
 * $$ABC\ncong A'B'C' $$

In many cases it is sufficient to establish the equality of three corresponding parts and use one of the following results to deduce the congruence of the two triangles.

Determining congruence

Sufficient evidence for congruence between two triangles in Euclidean space can be shown through the following comparisons:

 * SAS (side-angle-side): If two pairs of sides of two triangles are equal in length, and the included angles are equal in measurement, then the triangles are congruent.
 * SSS (side-side-side): If three pairs of sides of two triangles are equal in length, then the triangles are congruent.
 * ASA (angle-side-angle): If two pairs of angles of two triangles are equal in measurement, and the included sides are equal in length, then the triangles are congruent.

The ASA postulate is attributed to Thales of Miletus. In most systems of axioms, the three criteria – SAS, SSS and ASA – are established as theorems. In the School Mathematics Study Group system SAS is taken as one (#15) of 22 postulates.

 * AAS (angle-angle-side): If two pairs of angles of two triangles are equal in measurement, and a pair of corresponding non-included sides are equal in length, then the triangles are congruent. AAS is equivalent to an ASA condition, by the fact that if any two angles are given, so is the third angle, since their sum should be 180°. ASA and AAS are sometimes combined into a single condition, AAcorrS – any two angles and a corresponding side.
 * RHS (right-angle-hypotenuse-side), also known as HL (hypotenuse-leg): If two right-angled triangles have their hypotenuses equal in length, and a pair of other sides are equal in length, then the triangles are congruent.

Side-side-angle
The SSA condition (side-side-angle) which specifies two sides and a non-included angle (also known as ASS, or angle-side-side) does not by itself prove congruence. In order to show congruence, additional information is required such as the measure of the corresponding angles and in some cases the lengths of the two pairs of corresponding sides. There are a few possible cases:

If two triangles satisfy the SSA condition and the length of the side opposite the angle is greater than or equal to the length of the adjacent side (SSA, or long side-short side-angle), then the two triangles are congruent. The opposite side is sometimes longer when the corresponding angles are acute, but it is always longer when the corresponding angles are right or obtuse. Where the angle is a right angle, also known as the hypotenuse-leg (HL) postulate or the right-angle-hypotenuse-side (RHS) condition, the third side can be calculated using the Pythagorean theorem thus allowing the SSS postulate to be applied.

If two triangles satisfy the SSA condition and the corresponding angles are acute and the length of the side opposite the angle is equal to the length of the adjacent side multiplied by the sine of the angle, then the two triangles are congruent.

If two triangles satisfy the SSA condition and the corresponding angles are acute and the length of the side opposite the angle is greater than the length of the adjacent side multiplied by the sine of the angle (but less than the length of the adjacent side), then the two triangles cannot be shown to be congruent. This is the ambiguous case and two different triangles can be formed from the given information, but further information distinguishing them can lead to a proof of congruence.

Angle-angle-angle
In Euclidean geometry, AAA (angle-angle-angle) (or just AA, since in Euclidean geometry the angles of a triangle add up to 180°) does not provide information regarding the size of the two triangles and hence proves only similarity and not congruence in Euclidean space.

However, in spherical geometry and hyperbolic geometry (where the sum of the angles of a triangle varies with size) AAA is sufficient for congruence on a given curvature of surface.

CPCTC
This acronym stands for Corresponding Parts of Congruent Triangles are Congruent, which is an abbreviated version of the definition of congruent triangles. In more detail, it is a succinct way to say that if triangles $ABC$ and $DEF$ are congruent, that is,

 * $$\triangle ABC \cong \triangle DEF,$$

with corresponding pairs of angles at vertices $A$ and $D$; $B$ and $E$; and $C$ and $F$, and with corresponding pairs of sides $AB$ and $DE$; $BC$ and $EF$; and $CA$ and $FD$, then the following statements are true:

 * $$\overline{AB} \cong \overline{DE}$$
 * $$\overline{BC} \cong \overline{EF}$$
 * $$\overline{AC} \cong \overline{DF}$$
 * $$\angle BAC \cong \angle EDF$$
 * $$\angle ABC \cong \angle DEF$$
 * $$\angle BCA \cong \angle EFD.$$

The statement is often used as a justification in elementary geometry proofs when a conclusion of the congruence of parts of two triangles is needed after the congruence of the triangles has been established. For example, if two triangles have been shown to be congruent by the SSS criteria and a statement that corresponding angles are congruent is needed in a proof, then CPCTC may be used as a justification of this statement.

A related theorem is CPCFC, in which "triangles" is replaced with "figures" so that the theorem applies to any pair of polygons or polyhedrons that are congruent.

Definition of congruence in analytic geometry
In a Euclidean system, congruence is fundamental; it is the counterpart of equality for numbers. In analytic geometry, congruence may be defined intuitively thus: two mappings of figures onto one Cartesian coordinate system are congruent if and only if, for any two points in the first mapping, the Euclidean distance between them is equal to the Euclidean distance between the corresponding points in the second mapping.

A more formal definition states that two subsets A and B of Euclidean space Rn are called congruent if there exists an isometry f : Rn → Rn (an element of the Euclidean group E(n)) with f(A) = B. Congruence is an equivalence relation.

Congruent conic sections
Two conic sections are congruent if their eccentricities and one other distinct parameter characterizing them are equal. Their eccentricities establish their shapes, equality of which is sufficient to establish similarity, and the second parameter then establishes size. Since two circles, parabolas, or rectangular hyperbolas always have the same eccentricity (specifically 0 in the case of circles, 1 in the case of parabolas, and $$\sqrt{2}$$ in the case of rectangular hyperbolas), two circles, parabolas, or rectangular hyperbolas need to have only one other common parameter value, establishing their size, for them to be congruent.

Congruent polyhedra
For two polyhedra with the same combinatorial type (that is, the same number E of edges, the same number of faces, and the same number of sides on corresponding faces), there exists a set of E measurements that can establish whether or not the polyhedra are congruent. The number is tight, meaning that less than E measurements are not enough if the polyhedra are generic among their combinatorial type. But less measurements can work for special cases. For example, cubes have 12 edges, but 9 measurements are enough to decide if a polyhedron of that combinatorial type is congruent to a given regular cube.

Congruent triangles on a sphere
As with plane triangles, on a sphere two triangles sharing the same sequence of angle-side-angle (ASA) are necessarily congruent (that is, they have three identical sides and three identical angles). This can be seen as follows: One can situate one of the vertices with a given angle at the south pole and run the side with given length up the prime meridian. Knowing both angles at either end of the segment of fixed length ensures that the other two sides emanate with a uniquely determined trajectory, and thus will meet each other at a uniquely determined point; thus ASA is valid.

The congruence theorems side-angle-side (SAS) and side-side-side (SSS) also hold on a sphere; in addition, if two spherical triangles have an identical angle-angle-angle (AAA) sequence, they are congruent (unlike for plane triangles).

The plane-triangle congruence theorem angle-angle-side (AAS) does not hold for spherical triangles. As in plane geometry, side-side-angle (SSA) does not imply congruence.

Notation
A symbol commonly used for congruence is an equals symbol with a tilde above it, $≅$, corresponding to the Unicode character 'approximately equal to' (U+2245). In the UK, the three-bar equal sign $≡$ (U+2261) is sometimes used.

title: Congruence (geometry)


text:
Wikipedia:Federal Standard 1037C terms/fax terms

This is a list of fax-related terms derived from the Glossary of Telecommunication Terms published as Federal Standard 1037C. Please see the Federal Standard article for copyright-related issues, as not all parts of the source document are in the public domain.


text:
Wikipedia:Federal Standard 1037C terms/fiber optic terms

The following terms are defined in Federal Standard 1037C, which is essentially a dictionary of technical terms promulgated by the United States government, and available to view here: Federal Standard 1037C. The articles listed require review. See Federal Standard 1037C terms for a description of what is required.

A
aligned bundle --

all-silica fiber --

axial propagation constant --

B
bandwidth-distance product --

bound mode --

breakout cable --

buffer --

C
cable cutoff wavelength (cc) --

cladding diameter --

cladding mode --

cladding mode stripper --

concentricity error --

coupled modes --

coupling efficiency --

cutoff mode --

D
deeply depressed cladding fiber --

differential quantum efficiency --

dispersion-unshifted fiber --

duplex cable --

E
effective mode volume --

electrical length --

end finish --

equilibrium mode simulator --

extrinsic joint loss --

F
fiber optic link --

first window --

flooding compound --

G
group index --

H
homogeneous cladding -- hybrid cable --

hybrid mode --

hydroxyl ion absorption --

I
index dip --

intensity modulation (IM) --

intramodal distortion --

intrinsic joint loss --

L
lateral offset loss --

launch angle --

launching fiber --

launch numerical aperture (LNA) --

lay length --

leaky mode --

long wavelength --

M
material dispersion coefficient [M] --

material scattering --

mechanical splice --

minimum-dispersion window --

minimum-loss window --

modal loss --

modal noise --

mode coupling --

mode field diameter (MFD) --

mode partition noise --

mode volume --

multifiber joint --

N
nonlinear scattering --

numerical aperture loss --

O
OFC

OFN --

OFNP --

open waveguide --

optical damage threshold --

optical junction --

ovality --

overfill --

P
parabolic profile --

phase term --

pigtail --

precision-sleeve splicing --

primary coating --

profile parameter (g ) --

Q
quadruply clad fiber --

R
radiation angle --

radiation-hardened fiber --

radiation mode --

reference surface --

refractive index contrast --

refractive index profile --

S
scattering center --

second window --

short wavelength --

spectral loss curve --

splice loss --

splice organizer --

strength member --

T
tapered fiber --

T-coupler --

thin-film optical waveguide --

third window --

tolerance field --

transmitter central wavelength range (max- min) --

W
weakly guiding fiber --

Z
zip-cord --


text:
Wikipedia:Federal Standard 1037C terms/telecommunications filter terms

This is a list of filter-related terms initially derived from the Glossary of Telecommunication Terms published as Federal Standard 1037C. Please see the Federal Standard article for copyright-related issues, as not all parts of the source document are in the public domain.

bandpass filter -- bandpass limiter -- band-stop filter -- character filter -- dichroic filter -- digital filter -- filter -- Hanning filter -- high-pass filter -- interference filter -- Kalman filter -- loop filter -- low-pass filter -- mode filter -- optical filter -- roofing filter -- security filter


text:
Wikipedia:Federal Standard 1037C terms/telecommunication service terms

This is a list of telecommunication-service-related terms derived from the Glossary of Telecommunication Terms, published as Federal Standard 1037C. Please see the Federal Standard article for copyright-related issues, as not all parts of the source document are in the public domain.

Services
aeronautical fixed service -- aeronautical mobile (off-route) service (OR) -- aeronautical mobile (route) service (R) -- aeronautical mobile-satellite service -- aeronautical mobile-satellite (off-route) service (OR) -- aeronautical mobile-satellite (route) service (R) -- aeronautical mobile service -- aeronautical multicom service -- aeronautical radionavigation-satellite service -- aeronautical radionavigation service -- amateur-satellite service -- amateur service -- Archie -- Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) -- attendant position -- base communications (basecom) -- basic exchange telecommunications radio service (BETRS) -- basic service -- basic service element (BSE) -- basic serving arrangement (BSA) -- Centrex® service (CTX) -- class of service -- common management information service (CMIS) -- comparably efficient interconnection (CEI) -- complementary network service (CNS) -- consolidated local telecommunications service -- conversational service -- custom local area signaling service (CLASS) -- dedicated service -- domestic fixed public service -- domestic public radio services -- eight-hundred service (800) -- enhanced service -- facility -- Federal Telecommunications System (FTS) -- five-hundred service (500) -- flat rate service -- foreign exchange service (FX) -- FTS2000 -- interactive service -- intercom -- inter-satellite service -- leased circuit -- maritime mobile-satellite service -- maritime mobile service -- maritime radionavigation-satellite service -- maritime radionavigation service -- message service -- meteorological aids service -- meteorological-satellite service -- mobile-satellite service -- mobile service -- multipoint distribution service -- nine-hundred service (900) -- other common carrier (OCC) -- paging -- PCS -- port operations service -- private NS/EP telecommunications services -- provisioning -- public data transmission service -- public switched network (PSN) -- public switched NS/EP telecommunications services -- public switched telephone network (PSTN) -- radio channel -- radio common carrier (RCC) -- radiodetermination-satellite service -- radiolocation service -- radionavigation-satellite service -- resale carrier -- resale service -- reserved circuit service -- restricted access -- retrieval service -- rural radio service -- rural subscriber station -- safety service -- service access point (SAP) -- service bit -- seven-hundred service (700) -- space research service -- special grade of service -- standard frequency and time signal-satellite service -- teleaction service -- telecommunications service -- Telecommunications Service Priority service (TSP) -- teletex -- teletext -- Telex® -- unbundling -- Universal Personal Telecommunications service (UPT) -- universal service -- viewdata -- voice grade -- white pages -- Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS) -- World Wide Web (WWW)

Service features
abbreviated dialing -- access control -- add-on conference -- automatic answering -- automatic identified outward dialing (AIOD) -- automatic message accounting (AMA) -- automatic number identification (ANI) -- automatic redial -- automatic sequential connection -- busy verification -- call detail recording (CDR) -- called-line identification facility -- called-party camp-on -- caller ID -- call forwarding -- call hold -- calling-line identification facility -- calling-party camp-on -- call pickup -- call restriction -- calls-barred facility -- call splitting -- call transfer -- call waiting -- classmark -- conference call -- consultation hold -- dial service assistance (DSA) -- dial-up -- direct dialing service -- direct distance dialing (DDD) -- direct inward dialing (DID) -- direct outward dialing (DOD) -- essential service -- extended area service (EAS) -- fixed loop -- group alerting and dispatching system -- line load control -- multiaddress calling -- network inward dialing (NID) -- network outward dialing (NOD) -- remote access -- remote call forwarding -- service feature -- speed calling -- spill-forward feature -- three-way calling -- transit network identification -- verified off-hook -- virtual call -- virtual circuit capability