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Kuala Lumpur International Airport

Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) (Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur) is the main international airport serving Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. It is located in the Sepang District of Selangor, approximately 45 km south of downtown Kuala Lumpur and serves the city's greater conurbation.

KLIA is the largest and busiest airport in Malaysia. In 2023, it handled 47,224,000 passengers, 980,040 tonnes of cargo and 819,026 aircraft movements. It is the world's 30th-busiest airport by total passenger traffic.

The airport is operated by Malaysia Airports (MAHB) Sepang Sdn Bhd and is the major hub of Malaysia Airlines, MASkargo, Batik Air Malaysia, UPS Airlines and World Cargo Airlines, and the major operating base of AirAsia and AirAsia X.

Background
The ground breaking ceremony for Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) took place on 1 June 1993 when the government under Mahathir Mohamad decided that the existing Kuala Lumpur airport, then known as Subang International Airport (now Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport) could not handle future demand. The construction of the airport was done mainly by a few state owned construction companies as well as Ekovest Berhad – helmed by Tan Sri Datuk Lim Kang Hoo. It was created as part of the Multimedia Super Corridor, a grand development plan for Malaysia. The chief architect who designed the new airport terminal was the Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa.

Upon KLIA's completion, Subang Airport's Terminal 1 building was demolished. Malaysia Airports agreed to redevelop the remaining Terminal 3 to create a specialist airport for turboprop and charter planes surrounded by a residential area and a business park. The IATA airport code KUL was transferred from Subang Airport, which currently handles only turboprop aircraft, general aviation and military aircraft.

Current site
The airport's site spans 100 km2 2 of former agricultural land and is one of the world's largest airport sites. An ambitious three-phase development plan anticipates KLIA to have three runways and two terminals each with two satellite terminals. Phase One involved the construction of the main terminal and one satellite terminal, giving a capacity of 25 million passengers, and two full service runways. The Phase One airport had sixty contact piers, twenty remote parking bays with eighty aircraft parking positions, four maintenance hangars and fire stations. Phase Two, designed to increase capacity to 35 million passengers per year is largely complete. Phase Three is anticipated to increase capacity to 100 million passengers per year.

Grand opening
Kuala Lumpur International Airport was officially inaugurated by the tenth Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Ja'afar of Negeri Sembilan, on 27 June 1998 at 20:30 MST. The first domestic arrival was Malaysia Airlines flight MH1263 from Kuantan at 07:10 MST. The first international arrival was Malaysia Airlines flight MH188 from Malé at 07:30 MST. The first domestic departure was Malaysia Airlines flight MH1432 to Langkawi at 07:20 MST; the first international departure was Malaysia Airlines flight MH84 to Beijing at 09:00 MST.

Inauguration
The inauguration of the airport was marked with numerous problems. The aerobridge and bay allocation systems broke down, with queues building up throughout the airport and the baggage handling breaking down. Bags were lost, and there were waits of over five to seven hours. Most of these issues were remedied eventually, though the baggage handling system was plagued with problems until it was put up for a complete replacement tender in 2007.

The airport suffered greatly reduced traffic with the general reduction in economic activity brought about by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, September 11 attacks, SARS, bird flu epidemic (Avian flu), the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the 2009 swine flu pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic. The airport is also largely overshadowed by the more internationally renowned Changi Airport located approximately 300 km to the southeast in Singapore, especially in regards to connecting flights by various airlines or Malaysians especially living in the southern parts of the country (e.g. Johor) preferring to travel via Changi rather than at KLIA. But now, Kuala Lumpur International Airport is slowly chasing up with Singapore's Changi Airport.

The first year of opening immediately saw reduction of passenger numbers as some airlines, including All Nippon Airways (resumed on 1 September 2015), British Airways (reinstated on 28 May 2015 until 28 March 2021 ), Lufthansa (resumed between 28 March 2004 until 28 February 2016) and Northwest Airlines, terminated their loss-making services to KLIA. KLIA's first full year of operations in 1999, in its Phase One manifestation (capacity of 25 million passengers per year), saw only 13.2 million passengers. Passenger numbers eventually increased to 21.1 million in 2004 and 47 million in 2013 — though short of the originally estimated 25 million passengers per year by 2003.

Rebranding
On 9 February 2023, transport minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook announced that the government and MAHB had agreed to rebrand KLIA and klia2 to KLIA Terminal 1 and KLIA Terminal 2 respectively. The costs associated with the rebranding will be fully borne by MAHB.

Runways
Kuala Lumpur International Airport has three parallel runways (14L/32R; 14R/32L; 15/33 ).

The current three runway system is capable of handling 78 landings per hour and was expected to increase to 108 landings per hour once upgrading of the Kuala Lumpur Flight Information Region had been completed in 2019. These runways operate on different departure/arrival modes according to the air traffic requirements.

Operations and infrastructure
Kuala Lumpur International Airport features a number of modern design features that assist in the efficient operation of the airport. It is one of the first Asia Pacific airports to become 100% Bar Coded Boarding Pass capable. Malaysia Airlines; AirAsia; MASkargo, a cargo airline; and Malaysia Airports, the Malaysian Airports operator and manager; are headquartered on the property of KLIA. Malaysia Airlines also operates its Flight Management Building at KLIA.

Terminals
Kuala Lumpur International Airport comprises two main terminals: the original terminal, Terminal 1, previously known simply as "KLIA"; and the newer Terminal 2 (formerly KLIA2). Terminal 1 was designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, who also designed the Domestic Terminal (T2) at Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport, with an emphasis of natural lighting within the airport complex. Spanning 38.4m along a grid pattern allowing for future expansions, the abstract symbolic architecture by the late Kisho Kurokawa encompasses the Islamic geometry and cutting-edge technology with the tropical rainforest in mind.

Main Terminal Building
The KLIA Main Terminal Building (MTB) now also referred to as KLIA Main is located in between the two runways. The floor area of the terminal covers 390000 m2 and the building consists of 39 square roof units, which enables future expansion of the building. There are a total of 216 check-in counters, located in 6 different islands, identified by the letters A – M (excluding I). Multi check-in services are available, designed for the use of all passengers arriving, departing or in transit. Self check in facilities are available in this airport since 2007, and KLM was the first airline to use the Common-use self-service kiosks. The contact pier is an extension of the main terminal building with gates marked with prefix A and B for domestic departures, G and H for international flights. The gate allocation is based on operational requirements, although it has been observed that Malaysia Airlines has been operating most of its operations out from the contact pier.

Satellite Terminal A
The 176000 m2 satellite building accommodates international flights departing and arriving at KLIA T1. Passengers taking flights parked at the satellite terminal are transported by bus from the main terminal; as of March 2023, the Aerotrain that connects this building with the main terminal has been suspended for repairs and rolling stock replacement.

There is a wide array of duty-free shops and prestige brand boutiques in the satellite building. This includes international brands such as Burberry, Harrods, Montblanc, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Hermes. Among all international labels available within the terminal, some boutiques such as Harrods are only available in the airport. A number of restaurants and international airlines' lounges are available as well as an Airside Transit Hotel.

Within the terminal, wireless internet (Wi-Fi) is provided free of charge. The terminal also has prayer rooms, showers and massage service. Various lounge areas are provided, some including children's play areas and movie lounge, broadcasting movie and sport channels. The terminal also features a natural rainforest in the middle of the terminal, exhibiting the Malaysian rainforests.

Under Malaysia Airports Berhad retail optimisation plan, the retail space in satellite terminal A will be further optimised to increase its revenue derived from commercial space rental and a percentage of sale receipts to 50% by year 2010 which currently stands at 35%. Some notable improvements that will be seen after the refurbishments will be the Jungle Boardwalk which will be the first of its kind in the world and larger mezzanine floor to accommodate F&B outlets and viewing galleries.

The gates in Satellite Terminal A have the prefix C. The Satellite A terminal has 27 boarding gates altogether.

KL City Air Terminal
KL City Air Terminal, sometimes known as Kuala Lumpur City Air Terminal or KL CAT, located at KL Sentral, is a virtual extension of KL International Airport where city check-in services are provided. KL City Air Terminal is recognised by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and carries the IATA designation XKL. Currently there are only three airlines providing city check-in services: Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines and Batik Air Malaysia.

KLIA Terminal 2 (Formerly known as KLIA2)
Built at approximately RM4 billion, it is the largest purpose-built terminal optimised for low-cost carriers in response to the exponential growth of low-cost travel in the region. It was built to replace the previous Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT). KLIA T2 began its operations on 2 May 2014, and all flight operations at LCCT were moved to KLIA T2 by 9 May 2014. As part of its development, a third runway (Runway 15/33) and a new air traffic control tower (Tower West) were built to support its operation. KLIA T2 has an initial capacity of 45 million passengers per year. The terminal has a built-up area of 257,845 sqm with 68 departure gates, 10 remote stands, 80 aerobridges, includes a retail space of 32,000 sqm to accommodate a total of 220 retail outlets. The main terminal building of KLIA T2 is connected with its satellite piers with a skybridge, making it the first airport in Asia with such facility. KLIA T2 is certified with Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED).

Check-in counters are divided into 8 rows located in 4 islands, each row identified by the letters S – Z. Boarding gates are located in 5 piers, indicated by the letters J and K for domestic flights, and L, P and Q for international flights. Piers J, K and L are connected directly to the main terminal building, while Piers P and Q are accessible via the skybridge. Piers K and L are physically the same pier and share the same gates, but with waiting lounges on different levels (Level 1A for K and Level 2 for L). For international flights, the access door from Pier K is sealed off, while for domestic flights, the access door from Pier L is sealed off instead.

At present, inter-terminal connection is provided on the landside at Gateway@klia2 complex and there are provisions for future airside inter-terminal connection.

Gateway@klia2
Gateway@klia2 is an integrated shopping complex that is connected to the main KLIA T2 terminal building. It has a 350,000 square feet of net lettable space spanning over four levels. The transport hub at Gateway@klia2 links klia2 to the KLIA Ekspres and KLIA Transit service, with allotted pick-up and drop-off areas for coaches, taxis, rented vehicles and private transportation.

Gateway@klia2 hosts an 8-storey car park that directly adjoins KLIA T2. There are 6,000 covered parking lots at Blocks A and B and another 5,500 lots at car park D (KLIA2 parking rate). Shuttle buses are available to take the public from the car park D to the terminal. The first capsule transit hotel in Asia named as the Capsule by Container Hotel is also located at Gateway@klia2. Gateway@klia2 is managed by WCT Holdings Berhad.

Former Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT)
The now defunct 36000 m2 low cost carrier terminal (LCCT) was opened at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on 23 March 2006 to cater for the growing number of users of low-cost airlines, especially the passengers of Malaysia's "no-frills" airline AirAsia. The terminal was designed and built in accordance to the low cost carrier business model, with limited terminal amenities. As requested by the low-cost airlines, the terminal did not provide aerobridges, nor were there transfer facilities, rail connections, and the other facilities provided in a fully fledged terminal. LCCT was located within the Air Support Zone; it ceased operations on 9 May 2014, and all low-cost carrier flights subsequently operated out of KLIA T2.

Accidents and incidents
On 4 July 2024, at least 39 airport employees were sickened following a leakage of methyl mercaptan at an aircraft engineering facility. The leak was found to have been caused by a skid tank that was left unattended for nine years.

Inter-terminal transportation

The Aerotrain, currently out of service for repairs, is an automated people mover (APM) that connects the airside of KLIA Main Terminal Building (MTB) and the Satellite Building. Each 250-person capacity train can transport 3,000 passengers per hour in each direction at up to 56 km/h (35 mph). These three-car driverless trains run on elevated rail and under the taxiways. The journey takes under two minutes. The Aerotrain operates between three and five-minute intervals between terminal. Automatic train controls manage the operation of the entire Aerotrain system, controlling the speeds, headways, stops and door openings in stations, and integrating functions that enhance the reliability and performance of the system.

No airside connection currently exists between the Main Terminal Building and Terminal 2; connecting passengers must clear Malaysian immigration and customs checks before taking a landside transportation option (Express Rail Link, bus or taxi).

Rail
Kuala Lumpur International Airport is linked to the KL Sentral transportation hub in the city centre by the 57 km long Express Rail Link (ERL). There are two ERL stations at the airport: KLIA station at the Main Terminal Building and klia2 station at Gateway@klia2.

Bus
Kuala Lumpur International Airport has bus terminals in both KLIA and KLIA2 building which serves local buses, city express and intercity express buses to various destination in Kuala Lumpur, Klang Valley and also various parts of Peninsular Malaysia, as well as shuttles between KLIA and KLIA2, terminals to Long Term Car Park and terminals to Mitsui Outlet Park. KLIA bus terminal is located on Ground Floor, Block C and KLIA 2 bus terminal is located on Level 1 of the terminal. Ticketing counters are present in the terminals.

Buses to the Kuala Lumpur city mainly goes to KL Sentral railway station and Integrated Southern Terminal bus terminal (TBS), both a prominent transport hub of Kuala Lumpur, as well as various other places like Pudu Sentral, Jalan Ipoh and Jalan Pekeliling Terminal. There are also buses to parts of other Klang Valley cities like Shah Alam (Section 17 terminal), Klang (AEON Bukit Tinggi) as well as Putra Heights LRT station. Popular providers are Aerobus, Airport Coach and Jetbus.

Intercity services are available to Penang, Ipoh, Yong Peng (central Johor), Johor Bahru, Malacca and Sitiawan (Perak). Local buses are also available to Nilai and Banting, with SmartSelangor free shuttle available to Banting, Tanjung Sepat and Salak Tinggi.

Car
Kuala Lumpur International Airport is mainly served by tolless KLIA Expressway (Federal Route 26) which is an 11 kilometre direct road from KLIA Interchange of ELITE Expressway (E6) to both KLIA and KLIA2. The expressway also has connection to:

 * KLIA Outer Ring Road (Federal 27) to KLIA mosque and Sepang International Circuit
 * Labohan Dagang–Nilai Road (Federal 32) to Banting, Nilai and Salak Tinggi

The further end of the expressway leads to tolled ELITE Expressway, which connects it to the PLUS expressway networks (E1 North-South Expressway-North, E1 New Klang Valley Expressway and E2 North-South Expressway-South) which links to most of Klang Valley's major townships and further to Peninsular Malaysia's west coast states, to the extent of the border with Thailand and Singapore.

Plans

With the slight modification of the masterplan, the future Terminal 2's satellite terminal will be combined into one satellite terminal. The expansion of Terminal 2's satellite terminal will be exactly the same as Terminal 1's (the current Main Terminal) satellite terminal, where initially the satellite terminal will have four arms, and another four arms when the terminal reached its capacity. There is sufficient land and capacity to develop facilities to handle up to 97.5 million passengers a year, four runways by 2020 and two mega-terminals, each linked with satellite terminals.

A380 upgrades
The operator of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad, had spent about RM135 million (approx) to upgrade facilities at the KL International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang to accommodate the Airbus A380. KLIA is the only airport in Malaysia that accommodate the landing and take off of the A380. Upgrading works started on 3 April 2006, and was completed by 28 May 2007. Works include the provision of shoulders on both sides of the two existing runways of 15 meters as well as the taxiways, building additional aerobridges at the three departure halls, namely C17, C27 and C37, and enhancing the mezzanine lounges for upper deck passengers of the aircraft at the departure halls. Emirates is the only current operator of the Airbus A380 to Kuala Lumpur; its services commenced on 1 January 2012. Malaysia Airlines started its A380 services from Kuala Lumpur to London on 1 July 2012 before retiring the aircraft type at the end of 2018.

title: Kuala Lumpur International Airport


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Talk:Amdahl's law

Suggestion for a simpler/more general introduction
Hi, may I suggest a simpler version of the introduction, which explains the significance of the law and also sets it in a more general context: Amdahl's law, also known as Amdahl's argument, is named after computer architect Gene Amdahl, and defines a theoretical maximum for the ability of systems to scale up. "Scaling up" refers to the ability to do more work by adding more resources. The critical parameter in Amdahl's law is the percentage of work which cannot be parallelized - in other words, work which must be performed by one central component and cannot be divided between resources. The basic finding of the law is that as long as there is a non-zero percentage of work which cannot be parallelized, the system will not be able to scale beyond a certain theoretical maximum. The law also shows how to compute the theoretical maximum scale depending on the percentage, and some other parameters.

Amdahl's law is most often applied to parallel computing. In this context, the speedup of a program using multiple processors is limited by the time needed for the "sequential fraction" of the program to run - this is the percentage of work which cannot be parallelized. For example, if a program needs 20 hours using a single processor core, and a particular portion of 1 hour cannot be parallelized, while the remaining promising portion of 19 hours (95%) can be parallelized, then regardless of how many processors we devote to a parallelized execution of this program, the minimum execution time cannot be less than that critical 1 hour. Hence the speedup is limited up to 20×, as the diagram illustrates. Anne.naimoli (talk) 12:27, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

The application of this would tie well to the concepts of Critical Path Method for project management. The tracing of the shortest path identifies the shortest time of execution. Please note a link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_path_method — Preceding unsigned comment added by JimDelRossi (talk • contribs) 22:17, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

The explanations in this article are pretty horrible. In fact other articles are also not so good, because of errors, but this one isn't too bad - http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/amdahls-law-gustafsons-trend-and-the-performance-limits-of-parallel-applications/ though there is an incorrect sign in one part. If we use P for the proportion of time spent on the parallelisable part of the task, then we can write P=1-S, so that the expression is really quite easily seen to be Speedup (N) = 1/ (S + P/N) - offset terms. Then the details do become really rather obvious. The first section of this article is far too confusing, and if needed at all, should come after the basic expression shown here. If the offset terms (due to communications) are ignored, then if N is allowed to "proceed to infinity" it is easy to see that the maximum Speedup is 1/S. As commented, the performance/price ratio deteriorates if attempts are made to use more than 1/S processors/threads/cores. I don't have time to sort this myself, but the article really could be tidied up a lot. David Martland (talk) 09:37, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Irony
This article (itself) is longer, has more math, and more graphs than Amdahl's own original article. 198.123.56.223 (talk) 18:52, 12 April 2012 (UTC)

Error in graph scales
Depending on your perspective the graph is either scaled incorrectly or the Y axis is mislabeled. It states that a single processor is twice as fast as a single processor, i.e. speedup and speed multiplier have been confused. Justin Urquhart Stewart (talk) 02:28, 29 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Please clarify. Each curve on the graph starts at (1,1) [and this was true even when you posted your comment]. According to Speedup, a "speedup" value of 1 represents no improvement at all. So what are you talking about? - 72.182.55.186 (talk) 00:02, 27 February 2018 (UTC)

Limitations of Amdahl's law, and ways to mitigate it using frequency scaling
It seems like it would be appropriate to discuss turbo boost (and other frequency scaling techniques) in this article since one of their purposes is to mitigate the effects of Amdahl's law. See http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=1431565, here's a quote from their abstract "In order to mitigate the effects of Amdahl's law, in this paper we make a compelling case for varying the amount of energy expended to process instructions according to the amount of available parallelism."

I personally do not know how successful these methods are, currently, as I have seen some more recent papers that show only a modest performance gain (around 5%) for both applications with limited and with copious amounts of parallelism. It seems worthwhile to mention these techniques in this article, however.

In addition, Amdahl's law is not considered to be as useful as "work/span analysis" in the analysis of parallel computations. See chapter 2 of Structured Parallel Programming (http://books.google.com/books?id=2hYqeoO8t8IC). For more information about work/span analysis you can also see intel's brief tutorial here: https://software.intel.com/sites/products/documentation/doclib/iss/2013/compiler/cpp-lin/GUID-83D8631F-8ECA-498A-A091-CF952FE77A24.htm

I think that we need a separate article on work/span analysis on wikipedia. If I get some time I'll try and write one, but if someone else in the wikipedia world is interested in doing so let me know and I'll be happy to lend a hand. -Tim Kaler 20:24, 15 October 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Timkaler (talk • contribs)

Inequality
Isn't there some value to point out that Amdahl's law functions as a limit or at least an inequality? s is really <= the rest. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jimperrywebcs (talk • contribs) 15:55, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Amdahl's law


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Lou Costello

Louis Francis Cristillo (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959), better known as Lou Costello, was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known for his double act with Bud Abbott and their routine "Who's on First?".

Abbott and Costello, who teamed in burlesque in 1936, were among the most popular and highest-paid entertainers in the world during World War II. During a national tour in 1942, they sold $85 million in war bonds in 35 days. By 1955, their popularity waned from overexposure, and their film and television contracts lapsed. Their partnership ended in 1957.

Early life
Louis Francis Cristillo was born on March 6, 1906, in Paterson, New Jersey, the son of Helen Rege and Sebastiano Cristillo, a silk weaver and insurance sales agent. His father was Italian, from Caserta, while his mother was an American of Italian, French and Irish ancestry, with her grandfather Francesco Rege being a native of Piedmont, Italy.

Costello attended Public School 15 in Paterson and was considered a gifted athlete. He excelled in basketball and reportedly was twice Paterson's free-throw champion. His basketball prowess can be seen in Here Come the Co-Eds (1945), in which he performs his own trick basketball shots. He also fought as a boxer under the name of Lou King.

Career
Costello was a great admirer of silent-film comedian Charlie Chaplin. In 1927, Costello hitchhiked to Hollywood to become an actor, but could only find work as a laborer or extra at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Hal Roach Studios. His athletic skill brought him occasional work as a stunt man, notably in The Trail of '98 (1928). He can also be spotted sitting ringside in the Laurel and Hardy film The Battle of the Century (1927). He said that he took his professional name from actress Helene Costello, although by this time his brother Anthony (Pat) had used the name in his career as a professional musician.

Burlesque and Bud Abbott
In 1928, with the advent of talking pictures, Costello headed back east intending to acquire theatrical experience. Stranded in St. Joseph, Missouri, he persuaded a local burlesque producer to hire him as a Dutch comic. Dutch meaning "German" in this context, Costello performed with a German accent. By the end of 1928, he was back in New Jersey. He began working in burlesque on the Mutual Burlesque wheel in 1929.

After the Mutual Wheel collapsed during the Great Depression, Costello worked for several stock burlesque impresarios, including the Minskys, where he crossed paths with talented producer and straight man Bud Abbott. They first worked together in 1935 at the Eltinge Theatre on 42nd Street in New York City after Costello's straight man fell ill. They formally teamed in 1936.

Radio and Hollywood
Abbott and Costello were signed by the William Morris talent agency, which landed them featured roles and national exposure on The Kate Smith Hour, a popular radio variety show, in 1938. The team's signature routine, "Who's on First?", made its radio debut on Smith's show early that year. Many of the team's sketches were further polished by John Grant, who was hired soon after the team joined the program. Their success on the Smith show led to their appearance in a Broadway musical in 1939, The Streets of Paris.

Abbott and Costello were hosting a summer replacement series for The Fred Allen Show in 1940 when they were signed by Universal Pictures for supporting roles in One Night in the Tropics (1940). They stole the film with their classic routines, including a shortened version of "Who's On First?" (the complete version was performed in The Naughty Nineties, released in 1945). The team's breakthrough picture was Buck Privates, released early in 1941. Three more films followed in 1941, and they were voted the No. 3 box-office stars that year.

That year they became regulars on Edgar Bergen's The Chase and Sanborn Program, and in October 1942 launched their own series, The Abbott and Costello Show on NBC. The show ran on NBC through the spring of 1947, then ABC through the spring of 1949.

Fame and tragedy
As their careers grew more successful, serious cracks began to appear in Abbott and Costello's relationship. Reportedly their first disagreement occurred in 1936 over a booking in a minstrel show at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Costello wanted to accept the gig, which was outside their usual burlesque venues, but Abbott was hesitant. Costello offered Abbott a larger split of their salary, and Abbott agreed. At the end of 1941, Costello insisted that the team split their income 60/40 in Costello's favor, and Abbott agreed.

Abbott and Costello appeared in 36 films from 1940 to 1956 and were among the most popular and highest-paid entertainers in the world during World War II. Among their most popular films are Buck Privates, Hold That Ghost, Who Done It?, Pardon My Sarong, The Time of Their Lives, Buck Privates Come Home, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man.

In the summer of 1942, Abbott and Costello embarked on a 35-day cross-country tour to promote and sell war bonds. The Treasury Department credited them with the sale of $85 million in bonds.

In March 1943, after completing a winter tour of army bases, Costello suffered an attack of rheumatic fever and was unable to work for six months. On November 4 of that year, he returned to the team's popular radio show, but while rehearsing at their NBC studio, Costello received word that his infant son Lou Jr. had accidentally drowned in the family pool. Unnoticed by the nanny, the baby had worked loose the slats in his playpen and fallen into the pool.

The baby was just two days short of his first birthday. Costello had asked his wife to keep Lou Jr. up to hear his father on the radio for the first time. Rather than cancel the broadcast, Costello said, "Wherever he is tonight, I want him to hear me," and proceeded with the show. No one in the audience knew of the death until after the show, when Bud Abbott explained the sad events of the day and how Costello epitomized the phrase "the show must go on" that night. Maxene Andrews of the Andrews Sisters said that Costello's demeanor changed after the loss of his son: "He didn't seem as fun-loving and as warm... He seemed to anger easily... there was a difference in his attitude."

In 1945, when Costello fired a maid and Abbott hired her, Costello announced that he would no longer work with Abbott. They remained under contract to Universal and were required to complete two films in 1946, which became Little Giant and The Time of Their Lives. The two men did not appear together much in either film and rarely spoke to one another off-camera. Abbott attempted to heal their relationship by suggesting that the foundation that they had founded for rheumatic fever sufferers be named the Lou Costello Jr. Youth Foundation, which touched Costello deeply. The youth foundation still exists in Los Angeles.

Their radio program moved to ABC, the former NBC Blue Network, from 1947 to 1949 and was prerecorded.

In 1951, the duo began to appear on live television, joining the rotating hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour. Eddie Cantor, Martin and Lewis and Bob Hope were among the others. In 1952, their filmed situation comedy The Abbott and Costello Show began running in syndication nationwide. Costello owned the half-hour series, with Abbott working on salary. The show, which was loosely adapted from their radio program and films, ran for two seasons from 1952 to 1954 but found long life in syndicated reruns.

Abbott and Costello were forced to withdraw from Fireman Save My Child in 1954 after Costello suffered a relapse of rheumatic fever. They were replaced by studio contract players Hugh O'Brian and Buddy Hackett.

Costello was surprised and honored by Ralph Edwards on NBC's This Is Your Life in 1956.

Abbott and Costello split
By the mid-1950s, Abbott and Costello no longer ranked among the top box-office stars. They were undermined by overexposure in concurrent film and television appearances, and were eclipsed by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, who were as popular in the 1950s as Abbott and Costello had been a decade earlier. In 1955 the team could not reach a contract agreement with Universal and left the studio after 15 years.

In the early 1950s, troubles with the Internal Revenue Service forced both men to sell their large homes and the rights to some of their films. Abbott and Costello's final film together, Dance with Me, Henry (1956), was a box-office disappointment and received mixed critical reviews.

Abbott and Costello dissolved their partnership amicably early in 1957. Costello worked with other comedians, including Sidney Fields in Las Vegas, and sought film and television projects. He appeared several times on Steve Allen's The Tonight Show, most often performing his old routines with Louis Nye or Tom Poston in the straight-man role. In 1958, he played a dramatic role on The Tobias Jones Story episode of Wagon Train.

Death
Shortly after completion of The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, his only film after the partnership with Abbott ended, Costello suffered a heart attack. He died at Doctors Hospital in Beverly Hills on March 3, 1959, three days before his 53rd birthday. Sources conflict on the circumstances of his last day and final words. According to some accounts, he told visitors that the strawberry ice cream soda that he had just finished was "the best I ever tasted" and then died.

By other reports, including those of several contemporaneous obituaries, the ice-cream soda exchange occurred earlier in the day. Later, after his wife and friends had departed, he asked his nurse to adjust his position in bed just before suffering a fatal cardiac arrest.

After a funeral Mass at his Catholic parish, St. Francis de Sales in Sherman Oaks, Costello was interred at the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles on March 8. His wife Anne died from an apparent heart attack nine months later on December 5, 1959, at age 47.

Family
On January 30, 1934, Costello married Anne Battler, a burlesque chorus dancer. Their first child, Patricia "Paddy" Costello, was born in 1936, followed by Carole on December 23, 1938, and Lou Jr. (nicknamed "Butch") on November 6, 1942, who died in a drowning incident a year later. Their last child, Christine, was born on August 15, 1947.

Costello's older brother Pat Costello was a musician who led his own band before moving to Hollywood, where he was enlisted to perform stunts in Lou's place in the first ten Abbott and Costello films. He later appeared in a supporting role in Mexican Hayride (1948).

Costello's sister Marie Katherine Cristillo (1912–1988) was married to actor Joe Kirk (Nat Curcuruto), who portrayed Mr. Bacciagalupe on the Abbott and Costello radio and television shows and appeared in supporting roles in several of the team's films.

Costello's daughter Carole appeared in uncredited baby roles in a few Abbott and Costello films. She would later become a contestant coordinator for the game show Card Sharks as well as a nightclub singer. She died of a stroke on March 29, 1987 at age 48 while married to Craig Martin, eldest son of Dean Martin. Carole's daughter Marki Costello is an actress, director and producer in film and television.

Costello's daughter Chris published a biography titled Lou's on First in 1981.

Memorials
In 1946, Costello was joined by Abbott to fund the Lou Costello Jr. Youth Foundation, a 3.3-acre recreation center on Olympic Blvd. in the Boyle Heights district of Los Angeles. Opened on May 3, 1947, it included a baseball field and swimming pool. In 1951 the center was sold to the city for less than one-third of its cost, and the name was changed to the Lou Costello Jr. Youth Recreation Center.

On June 26, 1992, the city of Paterson, New Jersey, in conjunction with the Lou Costello Memorial Association, erected a statue of Costello in the newly named Lou Costello Memorial Park in the city's historic downtown section. It shows Costello holding a baseball bat, a reference to the team's most famous routine, "Who's on First?". The statue has been shown in two episodes of The Sopranos and in the film Paterson (2016). In 2005, Madison Street, in the Sandy Hill section of Paterson where Costello was born, was renamed Lou Costello Place.

The centennial of Costello's birth was celebrated in Paterson in March 2006. From June 24 to 26, 2006, the Fort Lee Film Commission held a centennial film retrospective at the Fine Arts Theatre in Hollywood. Films screened included the premiere of a digital film produced by the teenagers of the present-day Lou Costello Jr. Recreation Center in East Los Angeles. Also premiered was a 35 mm restored print of the Costello-produced 1948 short film 10,000 Kids and a Cop, which was shot at the Lou Costello Jr. Youth Center in East Los Angeles.

In 2009, Costello was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Abbott and Costello are among the few non-baseball personnel to be memorialized in the Baseball Hall of Fame, although they are not formal inductees. A plaque and a gold record of the "Who's on First?" sketch have been on permanent display there since 1956, and a video of the routine loops endlessly in the exhibit area.

title: Lou Costello


text:
Cayley's theorem

In group theory, Cayley's theorem, named in honour of Arthur Cayley, states that every group $G$ is isomorphic to a subgroup of a symmetric group. More specifically, $G$ is isomorphic to a subgroup of the symmetric group $$\operatorname{Sym}(G)$$ whose elements are the permutations of the underlying set of $G$. Explicitly, The homomorphism $$G \to \operatorname{Sym}(G)$$ can also be understood as arising from the left translation action of $g$ on the underlying set $x$.
 * for each $$g \in G$$, the left-multiplication-by-$G$ map $$\ell_g \colon G \to G$$ sending each element $g$ to $gx$ is a permutation of $G$, and
 * the map $$G \to \operatorname{Sym}(G)$$ sending each element $G$ to $$\ell_g$$ is an injective homomorphism, so it defines an isomorphism from $G$ onto a subgroup of $$\operatorname{Sym}(G)$$.

When $G$ is finite, $$\operatorname{Sym}(G)$$ is finite too. The proof of Cayley's theorem in this case shows that if $G$ is a finite group of order $n$, then $G$ is isomorphic to a subgroup of the standard symmetric group $$S_n$$. But $G$ might also be isomorphic to a subgroup of a smaller symmetric group, $$S_m$$ for some $$m<n$$; for instance, the order 6 group $$G=S_3$$ is not only isomorphic to a subgroup of $$S_6$$, but also (trivially) isomorphic to a subgroup of $$S_3$$. The problem of finding the minimal-order symmetric group into which a given group $G$ embeds is rather difficult.

Alperin and Bell note that "in general the fact that finite groups are imbedded in symmetric groups has not influenced the methods used to study finite groups".

When $G$ is infinite, $$\operatorname{Sym}(G)$$ is infinite, but Cayley's theorem still applies.

History
While it seems elementary enough, at the time the modern definitions did not exist, and when Cayley introduced what are now called groups it was not immediately clear that this was equivalent to the previously known groups, which are now called permutation groups. Cayley's theorem unifies the two.

Although Burnside attributes the theorem to Jordan, Eric Nummela nonetheless argues that the standard name—"Cayley's Theorem"—is in fact appropriate. Cayley, in his original 1854 paper, showed that the correspondence in the theorem is one-to-one, but he failed to explicitly show it was a homomorphism (and thus an embedding). However, Nummela notes that Cayley made this result known to the mathematical community at the time, thus predating Jordan by 16 years or so.

The theorem was later published by Walther Dyck in 1882 and is attributed to Dyck in the first edition of Burnside's book.

Background
A permutation of a set $A$ is a bijective function from $A$ to $A$. The set of all permutations of $A$ forms a group under function composition, called the symmetric group on $A$, and written as $$\operatorname{Sym}(A)$$. In particular, taking $A$ to be the underlying set of a group $G$ produces a symmetric group denoted $$\operatorname{Sym}(G)$$.

Proof of the theorem
If g is any element of a group G with operation ∗, consider the function fg : G → G, defined by fg(x) = g ∗ x. By the existence of inverses, this function has also an inverse, $$f_{g^{-1}}$$. So multiplication by g acts as a bijective function. Thus, fg is a permutation of G, and so is a member of Sym(G).

The set K = {fg : g ∈ G} is a subgroup of Sym(G) that is isomorphic to G. The fastest way to establish this is to consider the function T : G → Sym(G) with T(g) = fg for every g in G. T is a group homomorphism because (using · to denote composition in Sym(G)):

 * $$ (f_g \cdot f_h)(x) = f_g(f_h(x)) = f_g(h*x) = g*(h*x) = (g*h)*x = f_{g*h}(x) ,$$

for all x in G, and hence:
 * $$ T(g) \cdot T(h) = f_g \cdot f_h = f_{g*h} = T(g*h) .$$

The homomorphism T is injective since T(g) = idG (the identity element of Sym(G)) implies that g ∗ x = x for all x in G, and taking x to be the identity element e of G yields g = g ∗ e = e, i.e. the kernel is trivial. Alternatively, T is also injective since g ∗ x = g′ ∗ x implies that g = g′ (because every group is cancellative).

Thus G is isomorphic to the image of T, which is the subgroup K.

T is sometimes called the regular representation of G.

Alternative setting of proof
An alternative setting uses the language of group actions. We consider the group $$G$$ as acting on itself by left multiplication, i.e. $$g \cdot x = gx$$, which has a permutation representation, say $$\phi : G \to \mathrm{Sym}(G)$$.

The representation is faithful if $$\phi$$ is injective, that is, if the kernel of $$\phi$$ is trivial. Suppose $$g\in\ker\phi$$. Then, $$g = ge = g\cdot e = e$$. Thus, $$\ker\phi$$ is trivial. The result follows by use of the first isomorphism theorem, from which we get $$\mathrm{Im}\, \phi \cong G$$.

Remarks on the regular group representation
The identity element of the group corresponds to the identity permutation. All other group elements correspond to derangements: permutations that do not leave any element unchanged. Since this also applies for powers of a group element, lower than the order of that element, each element corresponds to a permutation that consists of cycles all of the same length: this length is the order of that element. The elements in each cycle form a right coset of the subgroup generated by the element.

Examples of the regular group representation
$$ \mathbb Z_2 = \{0,1\} $$ with addition modulo 2; group element 0 corresponds to the identity permutation e, group element 1 to permutation (12) (see cycle notation). E.g. 0 +1 = 1 and 1+1 = 0, so $1\mapsto0$ and $0\mapsto1,$  as they would under a permutation.

$$ \mathbb Z_3 = \{0,1,2\} $$ with addition modulo 3; group element 0 corresponds to the identity permutation e, group element 1 to permutation (123), and group element 2 to permutation (132). E.g. 1 + 1 = 2 corresponds to (123)(123) = (132).

$$ \mathbb Z_4 = \{0,1,2,3\} $$ with addition modulo 4; the elements correspond to e, (1234), (13)(24), (1432).

The elements of Klein four-group {e, a, b, c} correspond to e, (12)(34), (13)(24), and (14)(23).

S3 (dihedral group of order 6) is the group of all permutations of 3 objects, but also a permutation group of the 6 group elements, and the latter is how it is realized by its regular representation.

More general statement
Theorem: Let $G$ be a group, and let $H$ be a subgroup. Let $$G/H$$ be the set of left cosets of $H$ in $G$. Let $N$ be the normal core of $H$ in $G$, defined to be the intersection of the conjugates of $H$ in $G$. Then the quotient group $$G/N$$ is isomorphic to a subgroup of $$\operatorname{Sym}(G/H)$$.

The special case $$H=1$$ is Cayley's original theorem.

title: Cayley's theorem


text:
Earl of Albemarle

Earl of Albemarle is a title created several times from Norman times onwards. The word Albemarle is derived from the Latinised form of the French county of Aumale in Normandy (Latin: Alba Marla meaning "White Marl", marl being a type of fertile soil), other forms being Aubemarle and Aumerle. It is described in the patent of nobility granted in 1697 by William III to Arnold Joost van Keppel as "a town and territory in the Dukedom of Normandy."

The family seat is Hurst Barns Farm, near East Chiltington, East Sussex.

Early creations
Aumale was raised by William the Conqueror into a county for his half-sister, Adelaide, and in England translated to an earldom for her husband and their descendants. The earldom became extinct with the death of Aveline, daughter of the 4th earl, in 1274. The title was twice raised to a dukedom, in 1385 and in 1397, before being recreated as an earldom in 1412 for Thomas, 2nd son of Henry IV.

In 1660 the title, anglicized as Albemarle, was revived in the peerage by King Charles II for General George Monck, who became Duke of Albemarle. The title became extinct in 1688, on the death of Christopher, 2nd Duke of Albemarle.

Early counts, earls and dukes of Aumale
See Counts and dukes of Aumale

1697 creation

In 1697, King William III created his Dutch favourite Arnold Joost van Keppel Earl of Albemarle in the Peerage of England. He was made Baron Ashford, of Ashford in the County of Kent, and Viscount Bury, in the County of Lancaster, at the same time. The motive for choosing this title was probably that, apart from its traditions, it avoided the difficulty created by the fact that the Keppels had as yet no territorial possessions in the British Islands. Lord Albemarle was succeeded by his only son, the second Earl. He was a general in the army and also served as titular Governor of Virginia and as Ambassador to France. Albemarle County in Virginia is named in his honour, even though he never set foot in North America (but, instead, saw plenty of "North Britain" after the Battle of Culloden in 1746). He married Lady Anne Lennox, daughter of Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, illegitimate son of King Charles II.

His eldest son, the third Earl, was also a successful military commander, best known as the commander-in-chief of the invasion and occupation of Havana and west Cuba in 1762. He was succeeded by his son, the fourth Earl. He served as Master of the Buckhounds and as Master of the Horse. His second but eldest surviving son, the fifth Earl, was also a soldier and fought at the Battle of Waterloo at an early age. He later represented Arundel in the House of Commons. He was childless and was succeeded by his younger brother, the sixth Earl who lived on his estate at Drumsna in County Leitrim, Ireland, for much of his life. He also fought at Waterloo in early life and was later promoted to general. Albemarle also sat as Member of Parliament for East Norfolk and Lymington.

His only son, the seventh Earl, was a soldier and politician. At first a Liberal, he held minor office under Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell from 1859 to 1866. In 1876, he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's junior title of Baron Ashford. He had previously joined the Conservative Party and served under Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Salisbury as Under-Secretary of State for War. He was succeeded by his eldest son, the eighth Earl. He was a colonel in the army and also briefly represented Birkenhead in Parliament. the titles are held by his great-grandson, the tenth Earl, who succeeded his grandfather in 1979. Lord Albemarle is also in remainder to the ancient barony of de Clifford as the great-great-great-great-grandson Elizabeth Southwell, daughter of Edward Southwell, 20th Baron de Clifford and wife of the fourth Earl of Albemarle.

Several other members of the Keppel family have also gained distinction. Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, second son of the second Earl, was a prominent naval commander, when he passed his home Elveden Hall to his nephew the 1st Earl Albemarle, who sold it. William Keppel, third son of the second Earl, was a lieutenant-general in the army. Frederick Keppel, fourth son of the second Earl, was Bishop of Exeter. Sir Henry Keppel, fourth son of the fourth Earl, was an admiral in the Royal Navy. Sir Derek Keppel, second son of the seventh Earl, was a soldier and prominent member of the Royal household. George Keppel, third son of the seventh Earl, was the husband of Alice Edmondstone, one of the many mistresses of King Edward VII, and the father (although his paternity has been questioned) of the writer and socialite Violet Trefusis and of Mrs. Sonia Cubitt. The latter was the grandmother of Queen Camilla.

Coat of arms
The heraldic blazon for the coat of arms of the Keppel family is: Gules, three escallops argent.

Earls of Albemarle (1697)

 * Arnold Joost van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albemarle (1670–1718)
 * Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle (1702–1754)
 * George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle (1724–1772)
 * William Charles Keppel, 4th Earl of Albemarle (1772–1849)
 * William Keppel, Viscount Bury (1793–1804)
 * Augustus Frederick Keppel, 5th Earl of Albemarle (1794–1851)
 * George Thomas Keppel, 6th Earl of Albemarle (1799–1891)
 * William Coutts Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle (1832–1894)
 * Arnold Allan Cecil Keppel, 8th Earl of Albemarle (1858–1942)
 * Walter Egerton George Lucian Keppel, 9th Earl of Albemarle (1882–1979)
 * Derek William Charles Keppel, Viscount Bury (1911–1968)
 * Rufus Arnold Alexis Keppel, 10th Earl of Albemarle (born 1965)

The heir apparent is the present holder's son, Augustus Sergei Darius Keppel, Viscount Bury (born 2003).

Line of succession

 * Coronet of a British Earl.svg Arnold Joost van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albemarle (1670–1718)
 * Coronet of a British Earl.svg William Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle (1702–1754)
 * Coronet of a British Earl.svg Gen. George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle (1724–1772)
 * Coronet of a British Earl.svg William Charles Keppel, 4th Earl of Albemarle (1772–1849)
 * William Keppel, Viscount Bury (1793–1804)
 * Coronet of a British Earl.svg Augustus Frederick Keppel, 5th Earl of Albemarle (1794–1851)
 * Coronet of a British Earl.svg Gen. George Thomas Keppel, 6th Earl of Albemarle (1799–1891)
 * Coronet of a British Earl.svg William Coutts Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle (1832–1894)
 * Coronet of a British Earl.svg Lt.-Col. Arnold Allen Cecil Keppel, 8th Earl of Albemarle (1858–1942)
 * Coronet of a British Earl.svg Walter Egerton George Lucian Keppel, 9th Earl of Albemarle (1882–1979)
 * Derek William Charles Keppel, Viscount Bury (1911–1968)
 * Coronet of a British Earl.svg Rufus Arnold Alexis Keppel, 10th Earl of Albemarle (born 1965)
 * (1) Augustus Sergei Darius Keppel, Viscount Bury (born 2003)
 * Lt.-Cdr. Walter Arnold Crispin Keppel (1914–1986)
 * (2) Crispian Walter John Keppel (born 1948)
 * (3) Colin Rupert Harrington Keppel (born 1951)
 * (4) Oliver George Rupert Keppel (born 1982)
 * (5) William George Crispian Keppel (born 1986)

title: Earl of Albemarle


text:
Abbott and Costello

Abbott and Costello were an American comedy duo composed of comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, whose work in radio, film, and television made them the most popular comedy team of the 1940s and 1950s, and the highest-paid entertainers in the world during the Second World War. Their patter routine "Who's on First?" is considered one of the greatest comedy routines of all time, a version of which appears in their 1945 film The Naughty Nineties.

Abbott and Costello made their film debut in the 1940 comedy One Night in the Tropics. The following year, they appeared in three war-themed comedies: Buck Privates, In the Navy, and Keep 'Em Flying. They also appeared in the 1941 horror comedy film Hold That Ghost, and went on to appear in several other horror comedies, including Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949), Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). Other films starring the duo include Pardon My Sarong, Who Done It? (both 1942), The Time of Their Lives (1946), Buck Privates Come Home (1947), Africa Screams (1949), and Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953).

Burlesque
The two comedians had crossed paths a few times previously, but first worked together in 1935 at the Eltinge Burlesque Theater on 42nd Street in New York City. Their first performance resulted from Costello's regular partner becoming ill, and Abbott substituting for him.

Other performers in the show, including Abbott's wife, encouraged a permanent pairing. The duo built an act by refining and reworking numerous burlesque sketches with Abbott as the devious straight man and Costello as the dimwitted comic.

Decades later, when AMC moved the old theater 168 ft further west on 42nd Street to its current location, giant balloons of Abbott and Costello were rigged to appear to pull it.

Radio
The team's first known radio broadcast was on The Kate Smith Hour on February 3, 1938. At first, the similarities between their voices made it difficult for radio listeners (as opposed to stage audiences) to tell them apart during their rapid-fire repartee. As a result, Costello affected a high-pitched, childish voice. "Who's on First?" was first performed for a national radio audience the following month. They performed on the program as regulars for two years, while also landing roles in a Broadway revue, The Streets of Paris, in 1939.

After debuting their own program, The Abbott and Costello Show, as Fred Allen's summer replacement in 1940, Abbott and Costello joined Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on The Chase and Sanborn Hour in 1941. Two of their films (Hold That Ghost and Buck Privates) were adapted for radio that year. Hold That Ghost was presented as a half-hour adaptation on August 1, 1941 on Louella Parsons' Hollywood Premiere, and Buck Privates was presented on Lux Radio Theatre as a one-hour adaptation on October 13, 1941. Their program returned in its own weekly time slot starting on October 8, 1942, with Camel cigarettes as sponsor.

The Abbott and Costello Show mixed comedy with musical interludes (by vocalists such as Connie Haines, Ashley Eustis, the Delta Rhythm Boys, Skinnay Ennis, Marilyn Maxwell and the Les Baxter Singers).

Among the show's regular and semi-regular performers were Joe Kirk (Costello's brother-in-law) as the excitable Sicilian immigrant Mr. Bacciagalupe, Artie Auerbach as Mr. Kitzel, Elvia Allman, Iris Adrian, Mel Blanc, Wally Brown, Sharon Douglas, Verna Felton, Sidney Fields, Frank Nelson, Martha Wentworth and Benay Venuta. Guest stars included Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, The Andrews Sisters and Lucille Ball.

Ken Niles was the show's longtime announcer, doubling as an exasperated foil to Costello, who routinely insulted his on-air wife (played by Elvia Allman). Niles was succeeded by Michael Roy, alternating over the years with Frank Bingman and Jim Doyle.

The show went through several orchestras, including those of Ennis, Charles Hoff, Matty Matlock, Matty Malneck, Jack Meakin, Will Osborne, Fred Rich, Leith Stevens and Peter van Steeden.

The show's writers included Howard Harris, Hal Fimberg, Parke Levy, Don Prindle, Eddie Cherkose (later known as Eddie Maxwell), Leonard B. Stern, Martin Ragaway, Paul Conlan and Eddie Forman, as well as producer Martin Gosch. Sound effects were handled primarily by Floyd Caton.

In 1947, the show moved to ABC (the former NBC Blue Network). During their time on ABC the duo also hosted a 30-minute children's radio program (The Abbott and Costello Children's Show) on Saturday mornings. The program featured child vocalist Anna Mae Slaughter and child announcer Johnny McGovern. It finished its run in 1949.

Film
In 1940, Universal Studios signed them for a musical, One Night in the Tropics starring Allan Jones and Nancy Kelly. Cast in supporting roles, Abbott and Costello stole the picture with several classic routines, including "Who's on First?". Signed to a two-picture contract, their second film, Buck Privates (1941), directed by Arthur Lubin and co-starring The Andrews Sisters, was a massive hit, earning $4 million at the box office and launching Abbott and Costello as stars.

Their next film was a haunted house comedy, Oh, Charlie!; however, Buck Privates was so successful that the studio decided to delay the release so the team could hastily film and release a second service comedy. In the Navy (1941), co-starred crooner Dick Powell and the Andrews Sisters, and initially out-grossed Buck Privates. Loew's Criterion in Manhattan was open until 5 a.m. to oblige over 49,000 customers during the film's first week.

Oh, Charlie went back into production to add music featuring the Andrews Sisters and Ted Lewis. The film was eventually retitled Hold That Ghost (1941). The duo next appeared in Ride 'Em Cowboy (1941), with Dick Foran, but its release was delayed so they could appear in a third service comedy, Keep 'Em Flying (1941). This was their last film directed by Arthur Lubin. All of their 1941 films were big hits, and Abbott and Costello were voted the third biggest box office attraction in the country in 1941.

Universal loaned the team to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for a musical comedy, Rio Rita (1942). During filming Abbott and Costello had their hand and foot prints set in concrete at what was then "Grauman's Chinese Theatre". Back at Universal they made Pardon My Sarong (1942), a spoof of South Sea Island movies; and Who Done It? (1942), a comedy-mystery.

In 1942, exhibitors voted them the top box office stars in the country, and their earnings for the fiscal year were $789,026. The team did a 35-day tour during the summer of 1942 to promote and sell War Bonds. The Treasury Department credited them with $85 million in sales.

After the tour the team starred in It Ain't Hay (1943), from a story by Damon Runyon; and Hit the Ice (1943).

Costello was stricken with rheumatic fever upon his return from a winter tour of army bases in March 1943 and was bedridden for approximately six months. On November 4, 1943, the same day that Costello returned to radio after a one-year hiatus due to his illness, his infant son Lou Jr. (nicknamed "Butch" and born November 6, 1942) died in an accidental drowning in the family's swimming pool. Maxene Andrews remembers visiting Costello with sisters Patty and LaVerne during his illness, and remembered how Costello's demeanor changed after the tragic loss of his son, recalling, "He didn't seem as fun-loving and as warm...He seemed to anger easily...there was a difference in his attitude".

After Costello recovered, the duo returned to MGM for Lost in a Harem (1944) then were back at Universal for In Society (1944), Here Come the Co-Eds (1945) and The Naughty Nineties (1945). Their third and final film for MGM was Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945).

In 1945, a rift developed when Abbott hired a domestic servant who had been fired by Costello. Costello refused to speak to his partner except when performing. The following year they made two films, (Little Giant and The Time of Their Lives), in which they appeared as separate characters rather than as a team. This was likely the result of the tensions between them, plus the fact that their most recent films had not performed as well at the box office. Abbott resolved the rift when he suggested naming Costello's pet charity, a foundation for underprivileged children, the "Lou Costello Jr. Youth Foundation." The facility opened in 1947 and still serves the Boyle Heights district of Los Angeles.

Abbott and Costello reunited as a team in Buck Privates Come Home (1947), a sequel to their 1941 hit. In The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947) they were supported by Marjorie Main. They signed a new contract with Universal which allowed them to appear in films outside of their studio contract. The first of these, The Noose Hangs High (1948), was distributed by Eagle-Lion.

The team's next film, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), co-starring Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr, was a massive hit and revitalized the duo's careers. It was followed by Mexican Hayride (1948), an adaptation of a Cole Porter musical without the songs. They followed with Africa Screams (1949) for Nassour Studios, an independent company which was released through United Artists. Back at Universal, they returned to horror comedy with Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949).

The pair was sidelined again for several months when Costello suffered a relapse of rheumatic fever. They returned to the screen in Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950). They returned the following year in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951); then Comin' Round the Mountain (1952), a hillbilly comedy.

Their first color film, Jack and the Beanstalk (1952), was an independent production distributed by Warner Bros. After filming Lost in Alaska (1952) back at Universal, they made a second independent color movie, Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1953) co-starring Charles Laughton, which was also distributed by Warner Bros.

At Universal, they starred in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953) and Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953). They were forced to withdraw from Fireman Save My Child in 1954 due to Costello's ill health, and were replaced by lookalikes Hugh O'Brian and Buddy Hackett along with Spike Jones and his City Slickers. Their last two films for Universal were Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). In 1956, they appeared in their final film together, Dance With Me, Henry, an independent production released through United Artists.

Television

In January 1951, Abbott and Costello joined the roster of rotating hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour on NBC. (Eddie Cantor and Martin and Lewis were among the others.) Each show was a live hour of vaudeville in front of an audience, revitalizing the comedians' performances and giving their old routines a new sparkle.

From the fall of 1952 to the spring of 1954, a filmed half-hour series, The Abbott and Costello Show, appeared in syndication on over 40 local stations across the United States. Loosely based on their radio series, the show cast the duo as unemployed wastrels. One of the show's running gags involved Abbott perpetually hounding Costello to get a job, while Abbott was happily unemployed. The show featured Sidney Fields as their landlord and Hillary Brooke as a neighbor and sometime love interest for Costello. Other regulars were future Stooge Joe Besser as Stinky, a whiny child in a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit; Gordon Jones as Mike the cop, who always lost patience with Costello; Joe Kirk, an Italian immigrant caricature whose role varied with the requirements of the script; and Bobby Barber, who played many "extra" parts.

The simple plot lines were often an excuse to recreate comedy routines from their films and burlesque days, including "Who's on First?" Since Costello owned the series (with Abbott working on salary), this allowed them to own these versions of the classic routines as well. The 2nd season was more story-driven. There was no continuity. Although The Abbott and Costello Show originally ran for only two seasons, it found a larger viewership in reruns from the 1960s to the 1990s. The shows have also been released in three different DVD sets over the years.

"Who's on First?"
"Who's on First?" is Abbott and Costello's signature routine. Time magazine (December 26, 1999) named it the best comedy routine of the 20th century. The sketch was based on other earlier burlesque wordplay routines. They began honing the routine shortly after teaming up in 1936, and performed it in vaudeville in 1937 and 1938. It was first heard by a national radio audience on March 24, 1938, when the team were regulars on the Kate Smith radio show. By then, John Grant had been writing or adapting other sketches for the team and may have helped expand "Who's on First?" prior to its radio debut. He stayed on as their head writer into the 1950s.

Depending upon the version, Abbott has either organized a new baseball team and the players have nicknames, or he points out the proliferation of nicknames in baseball (citing St. Louis Cardinals sibling pitchers Dizzy and Daffy Dean) before launching into the routine. The infielders' nicknames are Who (first base), What (second base) and I Don't Know (third base). The key to the routine is Costello's mounting frustration set against Abbott's unyielding formality. Audio recordings are readily available on the Internet.

A notable version is the first television performance on the 1951 Colgate Comedy Hour.

"Who's on First?" is believed to be available in as many as twenty versions, ranging from one minute to up to ten minutes. The team could time the routine at will, adding or deleting portions as needed for films, radio or television. The longest version is seen in "The Actors' Home" episode of their filmed TV series, running approximately eight minutes. A live performance commemorating the opening day of the Lou Costello Jr Youth Foundation in 1947 was recorded, and has been included in numerous comedy albums. The team's final performance of "Who's on First?" on TV was on Steve Allen's variety show in 1957.

Personal lives
Abbott and Costello both married performers they met in burlesque. Abbott wed Betty Smith, a dancer and comedienne, in 1918, and Costello married a chorus girl, Anne Battler, in 1934. The Costellos had four children; the Abbotts adopted two. Abbott and Costello faced personal demons at times. Both were inveterate gamblers and had serious health problems. Abbott suffered from epilepsy and turned to alcohol for seizure management. Costello had occasional, near-fatal bouts with rheumatic fever.

Later years
In the 1950s, Abbott and Costello's popularity waned with the emergence of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Another reason for their decline was overexposure. Each year they made two new films, while Realart Pictures re-issued their older hits; their filmed television series was widely syndicated, and the same routines appeared frequently on the Colgate program. (Writer Parke Levy told Jordan R. Young, in The Laugh Crafters: Comedy Writing in Radio and TV's Golden Age, that he was stunned to learn that the pair were afraid to perform new material.)

Universal dropped the comedy team in 1955 after they could not agree on contract terms. In the early 1950s, the Internal Revenue Service charged them for back taxes, forcing them to sell their homes and most of their assets, including the rights to most of their films.

In 1956, they made one independent film, Dance with Me, Henry, and Costello was the subject of the television program This Is Your Life, then formally dissolved their partnership in 1957. In his posthumously published 1959 autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, Errol Flynn claims that he triggered the breakup. Flynn, a chronic practical joker, invited them, along with their wives and children, to his house for dinner, and afterwards, he commenced to show a home movie that "accidentally" turned out to be hard-core pornography. While Flynn pretended to be baffled, Costello and Abbott each blamed the other for the film's substitution.

In his last years, Costello made about ten solo appearances on The Steve Allen Show doing many of the old routines without Abbott. Costello performed stand-up in Las Vegas, and appeared in episodes of GE Theater and Wagon Train. On March 3, 1959, not long after completing his lone solo film, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, he died of a heart attack three days short of his 53rd birthday.

Abbott attempted a comeback in 1960 with Candy Candido. Although the new act received good reviews, Abbott quit, saying, "No one could ever live up to Lou." Abbott made a solo, dramatic appearance on an episode of General Electric Theater in 1961. In 1966, Abbott voiced his character in a series of 156 five-minute Abbott and Costello cartoons made by Hanna-Barbera. Costello's character was voiced by Stan Irwin. Bud Abbott died of cancer on April 24, 1974.

Box office ranking
For a number of years Abbott and Costello were ranked among the most popular stars in the US according to the Quigley Publishers Poll of Exhibitors:
 * 1941 – 3rd
 * 1942 – 1st
 * 1943 – 3rd
 * 1944 – 8th
 * 1947 – 16th
 * 1948 – 3rd
 * 1949 – 3rd
 * 1950 – 6th (US), 2nd (UK)
 * 1951 – 4th (US), 4th (UK)
 * 1952 – 11th
 * 1953 – 20th

Discography

 * 1942: Laugh, Laugh, Laugh (Parts I and II) Victor 27737

Spin-offs
The 1960s cartoon series was not the first time Abbott and Costello were animated. During the height of their popularity in the 1940s, Warner Bros.'s Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies animation unit produced 3 cartoons featuring the pair as cats or mice named "Babbit and Catstello". One of the cartoons, Bob Clampett's A Tale of Two Kitties (1942), introduced Tweety. The other cartoons are A Tale of Two Mice and Mouse-Merized Cat. In all three cartoons, Tedd Pierce (normally a storyman/writer for the cartoons) and Mel Blanc, respectively, provide voice impressions of the comedy duo. The revival of their former television series in syndicated reruns in the late 1960s and early 1970s helped spark renewed interest in the duo, as did the televising of many of their old film hits. In 1994, comedian Jerry Seinfeld—who says Abbott and Costello were strong influences on his work—hosted a television special Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld (the title refers to the duo's popular film series in which they met some of Universal's famed horror picture characters), on NBC; the special was said to have been seen in 20 million homes.

In popular culture
Abbott and Costello were frequently referred to in 1940s Looney Tunes cartoons, such as A Tale of Two Kitties (1942), A Tale of Two Mice (1945), Hollywood Canine Canteen, Hollywood Daffy and The Mouse-Merized Cat (all three from 1946). A catchphrase from Abbott and Costello's radios show, "I'm only three and a half years old" was often quoted in these cartoons too. Even Bugs Bunny's famous catchphrase, "Ain't I a stinker?" was borrowed from Lou Costello.

Although they are not inductees of the Hall itself, Abbott and Costello are among the few non-baseball personnel to be memorialized in the Baseball Hall of Fame. A plaque and a gold record of the "Who's on First?" sketch have been on permanent display there since 1956, and the routine runs on an endless video loop in the exhibit area.

Their "Who's on First?" routine has been referred to numerous times. In the 1988 movie Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman's autistic character Raymond Babbitt recites an affectless "Who's on First?" as a defence mechanism. In 1982, Tonight Show host Johnny Carson performed a topical sketch as then-President Ronald Reagan in which "Who's on First?"-style confusion arose from the names of Interior Secretary James Watt, Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat and Chinese leader Hu Yaobang.

The comedy group The Credibility Gap performed a rock and roll update of "Who's on First?" using the names of rock groups The Who, The Guess Who, and Yes, recorded and released on their first album, The Bronze Age of Radio. On the January 13, 2001, episode of Saturday Night Live host Charlie Sheen and SNL cast-member Rachel Dratch performed a modified version of "Who's on First?" in a sketch. NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006), a drama about life backstage at a television comedy series, used "Who's on First?" as a plot device.

A TV movie called Bud and Lou, based on a book by Hollywood correspondent Bob Thomas, was broadcast in 1978. Starring Harvey Korman as Bud Abbott and Buddy Hackett as Lou Costello, the film told the duo's life story, focusing on Costello and portraying him as volatile and petty.

Jerry Seinfeld is an avid Abbott and Costello fan and their influence on him was celebrated in a 1994 NBC special, Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld's TV series includes numerous references to the team. George Costanza's middle name is "Louis", after Costello. "The Old Man" (Season 4, Episode 18, aired February 18, 1993) featured a cantankerous old man named "Sid Fields" (played by veteran actor Bill Erwin) as a tribute to the landlord on the Abbott and Costello TV show. A friend of Kramer's is named Mickey Abbott. A copywriter for the J. Peterman catalog is named Eddie Sherman, after the team's longtime agent. In Episode 30, Kramer hears the famous Abbott and Costello line, "His father was a mudder. His mother was a mudder."

In 1991, the US Postal Service featured Abbott and Costello on a first-class stamp,  part of a "Comedian Commemorative Issue", illustrated by Al Hirschfeld.

In 2003, Montclair State University dedicated a student residential complex named The Abbott and Costello Center on Clove Road in the Little Falls portion of the university's campus.

In Robin Hood: Men in Tights, a 1993 spoof comedy directed by Mel Brooks, Dick Van Patten played the part of the Abbot. At one point, a man who looked and sounded like Lou Costello (played by Chuck McCann) yelled "Hey, Abbott!", in exactly the same way Lou did in the Abbott and Costello movies, repeating a joke from Brooks' Robin Hood sitcom When Things Were Rotten in which Van Patten shouted the line. Patten responds, "I hate that guy!"

Abbott and Costello were inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2009.

In 2015, a non-profit fan film was produced titled Abbott & Costello Meet Superman. The film was screened at the Superman Celebration Film Festival in Metropolis Illinois and is currently streaming on YouTube. Abbott and Costello are played by two actors from New York, Aaron M. Lambert and Jake Navatka.

In the 2016 sci-fi movie Arrival, the two Heptapods (alien beings) are named Abbott and Costello by the scientists, because the one named Abbott is taller and quieter while the one named Costello is shorter and chattier. The names also have extra-diegetic significance as two of the main themes in the movie are linguistics and (mis)communication, which mirrors themes of the "Who's on First?" routine.

title: Abbott and Costello


text:
XOR (disambiguation)

XOR is a logical operator whose negation is the logical biconditional.

XOR may also refer to:
 * XOR cipher, an encryption algorithm
 * XOR gate, a digital logic gate
 * bitwise XOR, an operator used in computer programming
 * XOR (video game), a 1987 puzzle video game
 * XOR, an x200 instruction
 * Xor DDoS, a Linux Trojan malware
 * XOR Corporation, a video game publisher and developer
 * XOR, a character from Ultimate Custom Night

title: XOR (disambiguation)


text:
Initialization vector

In cryptography, an initialization vector (IV) or starting variable is an input to a cryptographic primitive being used to provide the initial state. The IV is typically required to be random or pseudorandom, but sometimes an IV only needs to be unpredictable or unique. Randomization is crucial for some encryption schemes to achieve semantic security, a property whereby repeated usage of the scheme under the same key does not allow an attacker to infer relationships between (potentially similar) segments of the encrypted message. For block ciphers, the use of an IV is described by the modes of operation.

Some cryptographic primitives require the IV only to be non-repeating, and the required randomness is derived internally. In this case, the IV is commonly called a nonce (a number used only once), and the primitives (e.g. CBC) are considered stateful rather than randomized. This is because an IV need not be explicitly forwarded to a recipient but may be derived from a common state updated at both sender and receiver side. (In practice, a short nonce is still transmitted along with the message to consider message loss.) An example of stateful encryption schemes is the counter mode of operation, which has a sequence number for a nonce.

The IV size depends on the cryptographic primitive used; for block ciphers it is generally the cipher's block-size. In encryption schemes, the unpredictable part of the IV has at best the same size as the key to compensate for time/memory/data tradeoff attacks. When the IV is chosen at random, the probability of collisions due to the birthday problem must be taken into account. Traditional stream ciphers such as RC4 do not support an explicit IV as input, and a custom solution for incorporating an IV into the cipher's key or internal state is needed. Some designs realized in practice are known to be insecure; the WEP protocol is a notable example, and is prone to related-IV attacks.

Motivation
A block cipher is one of the most basic primitives in cryptography, and frequently used for data encryption. However, by itself, it can only be used to encode a data block of a predefined size, called the block size. For example, a single invocation of the AES algorithm transforms a 128-bit plaintext block into a ciphertext block of 128 bits in size. The key, which is given as one input to the cipher, defines the mapping between plaintext and ciphertext. If data of arbitrary length is to be encrypted, a simple strategy is to split the data into blocks each matching the cipher's block size, and encrypt each block separately using the same key. This method is not secure as equal plaintext blocks get transformed into equal ciphertexts, and a third party observing the encrypted data may easily determine its content even when not knowing the encryption key.

To hide patterns in encrypted data while avoiding the re-issuing of a new key after each block cipher invocation, a method is needed to randomize the input data. In 1980, the NIST published a national standard document designated Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) PUB 81, which specified four so-called block cipher modes of operation, each describing a different solution for encrypting a set of input blocks. The first mode implements the simple strategy described above, and was specified as the electronic codebook (ECB) mode. In contrast, each of the other modes describe a process where ciphertext from one block encryption step gets intermixed with the data from the next encryption step. To initiate this process, an additional input value is required to be mixed with the first block, and which is referred to as an initialization vector. For example, the cipher-block chaining (CBC) mode requires an unpredictable value, of size equal to the cipher's block size, as additional input. This unpredictable value is added to the first plaintext block before subsequent encryption. In turn, the ciphertext produced in the first encryption step is added to the second plaintext block, and so on. The ultimate goal for encryption schemes is to provide semantic security: by this property, it is practically impossible for an attacker to draw any knowledge from observed ciphertext. It can be shown that each of the three additional modes specified by the NIST are semantically secure under so-called chosen-plaintext attacks.

Properties
Properties of an IV depend on the cryptographic scheme used. A basic requirement is uniqueness, which means that no IV may be reused under the same key. For block ciphers, repeated IV values devolve the encryption scheme into electronic codebook mode: equal IV and equal plaintext result in equal ciphertext. In stream cipher encryption uniqueness is crucially important as plaintext may be trivially recovered otherwise.

 * Example: Stream ciphers encrypt plaintext P to ciphertext C by deriving a key stream K from a given key and IV and computing C as C = P xor K. Assume that an attacker has observed two messages C1 and C2 both encrypted with the same key and IV. Then knowledge of either P1 or P2 reveals the other plaintext since
 * C1 xor C2 = (P1 xor K) xor (P2 xor K) = P1 xor P2.

Many schemes require the IV to be unpredictable by an adversary. This is effected by selecting the IV at random or pseudo-randomly. In such schemes, the chance of a duplicate IV is negligible, but the effect of the birthday problem must be considered. As for the uniqueness requirement, a predictable IV may allow recovery of (partial) plaintext.

 * Example: Consider a scenario where a legitimate party called Alice encrypts messages using the cipher-block chaining mode. Consider further that there is an adversary called Eve that can observe these encryptions and is able to forward plaintext messages to Alice for encryption (in other words, Eve is capable of a chosen-plaintext attack). Now assume that Alice has sent a message consisting of an initialization vector IV1 and starting with a ciphertext block CAlice. Let further PAlice denote the first plaintext block of Alice's message, let E denote encryption, and let PEve be Eve's guess for the first plaintext block. Now, if Eve can determine the initialization vector IV2 of the next message she will be able to test her guess by forwarding a plaintext message to Alice starting with (IV2 xor IV1 xor PEve); if her guess was correct this plaintext block will get encrypted to CAlice by Alice. This is because of the following simple observation:
 * CAlice = E(IV1 xor PAlice) = E(IV2 xor (IV2 xor IV1 xor PAlice)).

Depending on whether the IV for a cryptographic scheme must be random or only unique the scheme is either called randomized or stateful. While randomized schemes always require the IV chosen by a sender to be forwarded to receivers, stateful schemes allow sender and receiver to share a common IV state, which is updated in a predefined way at both sides.

Block ciphers
Block cipher processing of data is usually described as a mode of operation. Modes are primarily defined for encryption as well as authentication, though newer designs exist that combine both security solutions in so-called authenticated encryption modes. While encryption and authenticated encryption modes usually take an IV matching the cipher's block size, authentication modes are commonly realized as deterministic algorithms, and the IV is set to zero or some other fixed value.

Stream ciphers
In stream ciphers, IVs are loaded into the keyed internal secret state of the cipher, after which a number of cipher rounds are executed prior to releasing the first bit of output. For performance reasons, designers of stream ciphers try to keep that number of rounds as small as possible, but because determining the minimal secure number of rounds for stream ciphers is not a trivial task, and considering other issues such as entropy loss, unique to each cipher construction, related-IVs and other IV-related attacks are a known security issue for stream ciphers, which makes IV loading in stream ciphers a serious concern and a subject of ongoing research.

WEP IV
The 802.11 encryption algorithm called WEP (short for Wired Equivalent Privacy) used a short, 24-bit IV, leading to reused IVs with the same key, which led to it being easily cracked. Packet injection allowed for WEP to be cracked in times as short as several seconds. This ultimately led to the deprecation of WEP.

SSL 2.0 IV
In cipher-block chaining mode (CBC mode), the IV need not be secret, but must be unpredictable (In particular, for any given plaintext, it must not be possible to predict the IV that will be associated to the plaintext in advance of the generation of the IV.) at encryption time. Additionally for the output feedback mode (OFB mode), the IV must be unique. In particular, the (previously) common practice of re-using the last ciphertext block of a message as the IV for the next message is insecure (for example, this method was used by SSL 2.0). If an attacker knows the IV (or the previous block of ciphertext) before he specifies the next plaintext, he can check his guess about plaintext of some block that was encrypted with the same key before. This is known as the TLS CBC IV attack, also called the BEAST attack.

title: Initialization vector


text:
Death Becomes Her

Death Becomes Her is a 1992 American satirical black fantasy comedy film directed and produced by Robert Zemeckis and written by David Koepp and Martin Donovan. The film stars Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis, and Isabella Rossellini. Its plot follows two women who fight for the affections of the same man and drink a magic potion that promises eternal youth. Filming began in December 1991 and concluded in April 1992; it was shot entirely in Los Angeles.

Death Becomes Her was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on July 31, 1992. The film received mixed reviews from critics. It was also a pioneer in the use of computer-generated effects and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Plot
In 1978, narcissistic and fading actress Madeline Ashton performs in an awful Broadway musical called Songbird. She invites long-time frenemy, the meek aspiring writer Helen Sharp, backstage along with Helen's fiancé, famed plastic surgeon Ernest Menville. Smitten with Madeline, Ernest breaks off his engagement with Helen to marry Madeline. Seven years later, a lonely, obese, depressed, and destitute Helen is committed to a psychiatric hospital where she obsesses over taking revenge against Madeline.

Another seven years later, Madeline and Ernest live an opulent but miserable life in Beverly Hills: Madeline is depressed about her age and withering beauty and Ernest, now an alcoholic, has been reduced to working as a reconstructive mortician. After receiving an invitation to a party celebrating Helen's new book, Madeline rushes for beauty treatments. Desperate to look younger, Madeline is given the business card of Lisle Von Rhuman, a mysterious, wealthy socialite who specializes in rejuvenation.

Madeline and Ernest attend Helen's party and discover that Helen is now slim, glamorous and youthful despite being fifty years old. Jealous of Helen's appearance, Madeline observes as Helen tells Ernest that she blames Madeline for his career decline. Madeline later visits her young lover but discovers he is with a woman of his own age. Despondent, Madeline drives to Lisle's mansion. The youthful Lisle claims to be seventy-one years old and offers Madeline a potion that promises eternal life and youth. Madeline drinks the potion which reverses her age, restoring her beauty, but Lisle warns her that she must disappear from the public eye after ten years, to avoid suspicion of her immortality, and treat her body well.

Meanwhile, Helen seduces Ernest and convinces him to kill Madeline. When Madeline returns home, she belittles Ernest who snaps and pushes her down the stairs, breaking her neck. However, she inexplicably survives and Ernest takes Madeline to the hospital where the doctor's analysis shows she is clinically dead. Ernest considers her reanimation to be a miracle and uses his skills to repair her body at home. Helen arrives and, after overhearing her and Ernest discussing their murder plot, Madeline shoots Helen with a shotgun. The blast leaves a large hole in Helen's torso but she remains alive, revealing that she also has taken Lisle's potion. Helen and Madeline fight before apologizing and reconciling. Depressed at the situation, Ernest prepares to leave, but Helen and Madeline convince him to first repair their bodies. Realizing they will need regular maintenance, they scheme to have Ernest drink the potion to ensure his permanent availability.

The pair knock out Ernest and bring him to Lisle, who offers him the potion in exchange for his surgical skills. Although tempted, Ernest rejects immortality, concerned about outliving anyone he cares about—forcing him to spend eternity with Madeline and Helen—and the physical consequences Madeline and Helen have already suffered. He flees with the potion but becomes trapped on the roof. Helen and Madeline implore Ernest to drink the potion to survive an impending fall but, realizing they only want him for selfish reasons, he throws the potion away. Ernest survives the fall after landing in Lisle's pool and escapes. Lisle banishes Madeline and Helen from her group, leaving the pair in despair at the realization that they will have to depend on each other for companionship and maintenance, forever.

Thirty-seven years later, Madeline and Helen attend Ernest's funeral, where he is eulogized as having achieved true immortality by living an adventurous and fulfilling life and having many children and grandchildren. Now grotesque parodies of themselves, with cracked, peeling paint and putty covering most of their grey and decrepit flesh, Helen and Madeline mock the eulogy and leave. Outside, Helen trips and falls down a flight of steps, dragging Madeline with her. Their bodies break apart, and Helen sardonically asks Madeline if she remembers where they parked their car.

Casting
Before Bruce Willis was cast, Kevin Kline was the first choice to play Dr. Ernest Menville; however, he fell out of the project due to a pay dispute with the studio. Jeff Bridges and Nick Nolte were both considered before Willis was eventually cast.

Visual effects
Death Becomes Her was a technologically complex film to make, and represented a major advancement in the use of computer-generated effects, under the pioneering direction of Industrial Light and Magic. It was the first film where computer-generated skin texture was used, in the shot where Madeline resets her neck after her head is smashed with a shovel by Helen. Creating the sequences where Madeline's head is dislocated and facing the wrong way around involved a combination of blue screen technology, an animatronic model created by Amalgamated Dynamics, and prosthetic make-up effects on Meryl Streep to create the look of a twisted neck.

The digital advancements pioneered on Death Becomes Her would be incorporated into Industrial Light and Magic's next project, Jurassic Park, released by Universal only a year later. The two films also shared cinematographer Dean Cundey and production designer Rick Carter.

The production had a fair number of mishaps. In the scene where Helen and Madeline are battling with shovels, Streep accidentally cut Goldie Hawn's face, leaving a faint scar. Streep admitted that she disliked working on a project that focused so heavily on special effects and vowed never to work on another film with heavy special effects again, saying:

My first, my last, my only. I think it's tedious. Whatever concentration you can apply to that kind of comedy is just shredded. You stand there like a piece of machinery—they should get machinery to do it. I loved how it turned out. But it's not fun to act to a lampstand. "Pretend this is Goldie, right here! Uh, no, I'm sorry, Bob, she went off the mark by five centimeters, and now her head won't match her neck!" It was like being at the dentist.

Filming
Principal photography for Death Becomes Her began on December 9, 1991, and wrapped up on April 7, 1992. The film was shot entirely in Los Angeles and featured several locations frequently used in film and television, including the Greystone Mansion (Ernest's funeral home) and the Ebell of Los Angeles (Helen's book party). The exterior of Madeline and Ernest's mansion is located at 1125 Oak Grove Avenue in San Marino, but the interior was a set built on a soundstage. The ending scene where Helen and Madeline tumble down a set of stairs outside a chapel was filmed at Mount St. Mary's University in Brentwood.

Post-production
Multiple scenes that were filmed were omitted from the film's final cut. Director Robert Zemeckis decided on cutting the scenes to accelerate the film's pacing and to eliminate extraneous jokes. Most dramatically, the original ending was entirely redone after test audiences reacted negatively to it. That ending featured Ernest, after he has fled Lisle's party, meeting a bartender (Tracey Ullman) who helps him fake his death to evade Madeline and Helen. The two women encounter Ernest and the bartender 27 years later, living happily as a retired couple while Madeline and Helen give no sign that they are enjoying their eternal existence. Zemeckis thought the ending was too happy and opted for the darker ending featured in the final cut. Ullman was one of five actors with speaking roles in the film to be eliminated. Other scenes that were eliminated included one in which Madeline talks to her agent (Jonathan Silverman) and one in which Ernest removes a frozen Madeline from the kitchen freezer he has stored her in. Some of the scenes can be viewed in the original theatrical trailer.

Box office
Death Becomes Her was a box office success and opened at number one at the box office with $12,110,355, the same weekend as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Bebe's Kids. It went on to earn over $58.4 million domestically and $90.6 million internationally. In Taipei, Death Becomes Her set a box-office record by earning $269,310 in two days, marking it the "biggest opening ever" for overseas distributor United International Pictures.

Home media
The film's release on DVD was called "appallingly bad" due to the quality of its transfer, which has been said to suffer from excessive grain, blur, and muted colors. A BBC review described it as "horrible" and "sloppy". Many online DVD forum users speculated that the DVD transfer was taken from the Laserdisc edition of the film and called for a restorative release. Death Becomes Her was initially distributed in an open matte fullscreen (1.33:1) edition in the U.S. while a Widescreen version with its theatrical aspect ratio (1.85:1) was released worldwide. The latter version has also been mistakenly labelled anamorphic. It was later released in North America on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory in 2016.

Reception
Death Becomes Her received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 55% based on reviews from 55 critics with the consensus: "Hawn and Streep are as fabulous as Death Becomes Her's innovative special effects; Zemeckis' satire, on the other hand, is as hollow as the world it mocks." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both gave Death Becomes Her a 'thumbs down', commenting that while the film had great special effects, it lacked any real substance or character depth.

Legacy
Death Becomes Her has acquired a significant cult following, especially in the LGBT community. In RogerEbert.com, Jessica Ritchey wrote, "Time has been kind to 'Death Becomes Her', and the mordantly funny eye it turns to Hollywood pretense and our cultural inability to forgive women for aging. With the virtual extinction of Hollywood's interest in women over thirty, it's a real pleasure to see a film centered on and held down by two actresses as strong as Streep and Hawn." An article in Vanity Fair titled "The Gloriously Queer Afterlife of 'Death Becomes Her'" called the film a "gay cult classic" and "a touchstone of the queer community". The movie is screened in bars during Pride Month, while the characters of Madeline and Helen are favorites of drag performers. In this vein, the movie inspired a Death Becomes Her-themed runway show on season 7 of RuPaul's Drag Race. The winner of season 5, Jinkx Monsoon, has cited the movie as an inspiration to become a drag queen. Jinkx has participated in Death Becomes Her-themed photoshoots, and in 2018 they played Madeline in a drag stage show parody called "Drag Becomes Her" alongside season 6 contestant BenDeLaCreme. Tom Campbell, an executive producer of RuPaul's Drag Race, reflected on the appeal of the movie to gay audiences:They're fighting for beauty. They're against the system. They're also villains, but we understand their complexity. We root for the undead divas because they're trying to win a game that's rigged against them, and—to borrow an apocryphal quote from Ginger Rogers—they sort of have to do it 'backwards and in high heels.'In May 2024, RuPaul's Drag Race's Trinity the Tuck and Jujubee released their single "'Til Death Becomes Us" alongside a music video, serving as an homage to the original film.

Musical
A musical adaptation of Death Becomes Her was produced by Broadway In Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago from April 30 to June 2, 2024. It was directed and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli with a book by Marco Pennette and music and lyrics by Julia Mattison and Noel Carey. The cast featured Megan Hilty as Madeline, Jennifer Simard as Helen, Christopher Sieber as Ernest and Michelle Williams as Viola Van Horn, the character originally named Lisle von Rhuman. In May 2024, the producers announced their plans to have the musical begin performances at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on October 23 of that year, with an official opening scheduled for November 21.

title: Death Becomes Her