text:
Posthumous name

A posthumous name is an honorary name given mainly to revered dead people in East Asian culture. It is predominantly used in Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand. Reflecting on the person's accomplishments or reputation, the title is assigned after death and essentially replaces the name used during life. Although most posthumous names are given to royalty, some posthumous names are given to honour significant people without hereditary titles, such as courtiers or military generals.

To create a posthumous name, one or more adjectives are inserted before the deceased's title. The name of the state or domain of the owner may be added to avoid ambiguity.

Origins
Early mythological rulers such as Emperor Yao were known to have posthumous names. Archaeological discoveries have shown that the titles of kings as far back as the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046 to 256 BC) are posthumous names, as in the cases of King Wu and King Wen. Posthumous names commonly made tracing linear genealogies simpler and kept a bloodline apparent.

In the Zhou dynasty, the posthumous name was usually only one character, such as Wen ('cultured') or Wu ('martial'). Over time, rulers began adding more characters to their ancestors' posthumous names. By the time of the first emperor of Tang, the length had grown to seven characters, which was taxing to pronounce or write. Therefore, emperors after the Tang dynasty are commonly referred to by either their temple name (Tang through Yuan dynasties) or era name (Ming and Qing dynasties), both of which are always two characters long.

Later developments
The use of posthumous names temporarily stopped when emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty proclaimed it disrespectful for the descendants of emperors to judge their elders by assigning them descriptive titles. The Han dynasty resumed using posthumous names after the fall of the Qin.

Posthumous names were used by non-Han rulers of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Nanzhao, Liao dynasty, Western Xia, Jin dynasty, Yuan dynasty, Qing dynasty, Silla, Japan, and Vietnam. King names of Hồng Bàng dynasty and Mahan followed the posthumous naming but are considered later works. Some rulers, such as Wu Zetian or rebel leaders, had similarly styled regnal names when they were alive.

Most monarchs inherited the throne and did not give negative posthumous names to the previous monarch. Later monarchs lengthened or changed some names. Emperor Aizong of Jin and the Chongzhen Emperor were referred to by different names by different people. Qin Hui of the Song dynasty had a name with a positive connotation, was then given a negative one, and later had the positive name restored. After the Song dynasty, few received negative names. In Korea, the disfavored monarchs of the Joseon dynasty did not receive posthumous names.

Selection
Posthumous names can be praises or deprecations. There are more praises than deprecations, so posthumous names are also commonly called respectful names in Chinese. Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian extensively outlines the rules behind choosing the names. Most qualifications for a given name are subjective, repetitive, and highly stereotypical, meaning posthumous names are often chosen arbitrarily. Court historians usually provide such names according to the deceased's notable deeds.

Format
When combining an emperor's temple name and posthumous name, the temple name is placed first. For example, the Shunzhi Emperor, whose full posthumous title would be "Shizu, Emperor Zhang", combines his temple name and the last three characters of his posthumous reputation, which is the form most commonly seen in formal documents. Some monarchs' and royal members' posthumous names were extended, such as Hongwu Emperor, Nurhaci, Crown Prince Hyomyeong, Sunjo of Joseon, and Empress Dowager Cixi.

Some monarchs did not follow these guidelines; for example, monarchs of Ju, Chu, and Qi used place names, while some monarchs of Yue had Chinese transliterated posthumous words, and some monarchs of Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje had differently styled posthumous names. Some early Japanese monarchs also had Japanese-style posthumous names (和風諡号).

China
Shihao is a Chinese term that means posthumous name and title. The names of living Chinese people may be any combination of characters. Most often, posthumous names are chosen from a relatively small list, with their literal meaning eroding as a result.

Format
The Chinese language format for posthumous names is "[state] [adjective] [title]". When translated into English, they take on the format "[title] [adjective] of [state]", such as King Wen of Zhou ('Cultured King of Zhou'), Duke Mu of Qin ('Solemn Duke of Qin'), and King Cheng of Chu ('Accomplished King of Chu'). The literal meaning of the adjective usually needs to be translated.

Monarchs and consorts
All Chinese posthumous names for rulers end in one or two of the characters for "emperor", huángdì (皇帝), which can be shortened to Dì, except about a dozen less-recognized ones who have had only Dì and not Huáng.

Starting with Emperor Xiaowen of Han (more commonly Emperor Wen), every single Han emperor, except the first of the Eastern Han dynasty, has the character of 'filial' at the beginning of his posthumous name. 'Filial' is also used in the full posthumous names of virtually all emperors and empresses of the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties. For Qing emperors, the character xiào is placed in various positions in the string of characters. For Qing empresses given posthumous names, xiào is always initial.

The number of characters in posthumous names increased over time. The emperors of the Tang dynasty have posthumous names between 7 and 18 characters, while most in the Qing dynasty have more than 20 characters. For instance, the Shunzhi Emperor's posthumous name has 25 characters. The woman with the longest posthumous name (also 25 characters) is Empress Dowager Cixi; the shortened version of the name was 孝欽顯皇后 ('the Distinguished Empress who was Admirably Filial').

Members of the ruling family
According to the noble system since the Zhou dynasty, the immediate family members of the Emperor were given the titles like King, Prince, Duke, or Earl, with or without actual control over a region. After their death, they would be referred to by the same title, with the posthumous name (usually one character) inserted in the middle. The characters used are mainly those used for emperors. For example, Prince Gong of the Qing dynasty was posthumously named Zhong (忠) and thus is referred to as Prince Gongzhong. Prince Chun was posthumously named Xian (賢), and is therefore referred to as Prince Chunxian.

The posthumous name could include more than one character. For example, Prince Shuncheng Lekdehun was posthumously honoured as Prince Shuncheng Gonghui (多罗顺承恭惠郡王). Yinxiang, Prince Yi was granted a posthumous name consisting of 9 characters, Zhongjing chengzhi qinshen lianming xian (忠敬诚直勤慎廉明贤).

Officials
It was also common for people with no hereditary titles, primarily accomplished scholar-officials or ministers, to be given posthumous names by the imperial court. The characters used are mainly the same as those used for emperors. The length, however, was restricted to one or two characters. The posthumous name is sometimes rendered canonization in English, for the scholar-official to Confucianism is considered analogous to the saint in the Catholic Church. However, the process is shorter.

Confucius has been given long posthumous names in almost every prominent dynasty; one of the most commonly used was Zhìshèngxiānshī (至聖先師). Sometimes a person is given a posthumous name not by the court, but by his family or disciples. Such names are private posthumous names. For example, the sīshì given to Tao Qian was Jìngjié (靖節).

Modern use and discontinuation
The emperors of China continued to receive posthumous names of increasing length as a matter of ritual long after the naming convention had been abandoned in casual speech and writing. The Guangxu Emperor, who died in 1908 and was the last emperor to receive a posthumous name, has a 21-character title: "Emperor Tongtian Chongyun Dazhong Zhizheng Jingwen Weiwu Renxiao Ruizhi Duanjian Kuanqin Jing". Puyi, the last emperor of China, did not receive a posthumous name upon his death in 1967.

Korea
In Silla, every monarch was given the title of wang with two characters in posthumous names from Jijeung of Silla. On the other hand, all posthumous names for kings of Balhae were restricted to one character. Most of the kings of Goryeo and Joseon were more often given temple names than posthumous names, unlike in the dynasties of ancient Korea. All posthumous names for the rulers of Goryeo and Joseon end in two of the characters for Daewang. This is a longer name made up of adjectives characteristic of the king's rule.

Details of the system of posthumous names were recorded during the Joseon dynasty. During the Joseon dynasty, officials discussed and decided on the king's posthumous name five days after the king's funeral. Before his temple and posthumous names were chosen, the deceased king was called Daehaeng daewang. The Ministry of Culture and Education was in charge of the naming. The Ministry of Culture and Education selected three candidates and reported them to the next king, who chose the name he liked best.

The deposed kings' names were made up of three parts: the temple name (묘호), eulogistic names (존호), and posthumous names (시호). A deposed king was not given any posthumous names with temple names unless reinstated. They were degraded to the rank of a gun ; Yeonsan-gun and Gwanghae-gun are notable examples. Some men did not ascend to the throne in their lifetime but were proclaimed kings after they died by their descendants who became kings. In Joseon, nine men were raised to the status of emeritus kings.

Gojong of Joseon proclaimed Korea an empire in 1897, receiving the title of emperor, thus the posthumous names of Gojong and Sunjong end in two of the characters for Hwangje. Crown Prince Hyomyeong has been given the longest posthumous name in Korea. He was posthumously elevated in status and given the title Emperor Munjo with 117 characters in posthumous names in 1899.

Modern use
In the Republic of Korea, the Jeonju Lee Royal Family Association has issued posthumous names, without the recognition the government, to Empress Sunjeonghyo; Crown Prince Euimin; and Gu, Prince Imperial Hoeun.

Japan
In Japan, posthumous names are divided into two types: shigō (諡号) and.

In addition to the title, is a part of all Japanese emperors' posthumous names, most of them consisting of two kanji characters, although a few have three. Some names are given several generations later—this is the case for Emperor Jimmu and Emperor Antoku, for example. Others are provided immediately after death, like that Emperor Monmu.

Shigō
A, or , name describes the accomplishments and the virtues of the rulers. There are two styles of emperors' shigō: Chinese or Han style (漢風諡号) and Japanese style (和風諡号).

Chinese-style (Han-style)

 * Jinmu Tennō (神武天皇, lit. 'Divine Might') – Emperor Jimmu
 * Nintoku Tennō (仁徳天皇, lit. 'Benevolent and Virtuous') – Emperor Nintoku
 * Ōjin Tennō (応神天皇, lit. 'Answering the Deities') – Emperor Ōjin

Japanese-style

 * Ōhatsuse Wakatake no Sumera-mikoto (大泊瀬幼武天皇) – Emperor Yūryaku, better known by his Chinese-style shigō of Yūryaku Tennō (雄略天皇, lit. 'Mighty Strategist')
 * Nunakuranofutotamashiki no Sumeramikoto (渟中倉太珠敷天皇) – Emperor Bidatsu, better known by his Chinese-style shigō of Bidatsu Tennō (敏達天皇, lit. 'Intelligent and Virtuous')

Tsuigō
Tsuigō names are derived from the name of locations and era names, among others. Those Japanese emperors are also sometimes called.

Those who were named after the place where the emperor was born, lived or frequented: Those who were named after an emperor whose admirable characteristics resemble those of an earlier one by adding as a prefix to the earlier emperor's name: The posthumous name of some emperors was derived from the combination of characters from two previous emperors' posthumous names:
 * Saga Tennō (嵯峨天皇) – Emperor Saga, named after a palace (in, 院)
 * Ichijō Tennō (一条天皇) – Emperor Ichijō, named after an official residence (tei, 邸)
 * Kōmyō Tennō (光明天皇) – Emperor Kōmyō, named after a temple
 * Higashiyama Tennō (東山天皇) – Emperor Higashiyama, named after a hill
 * Meiji Tennō (明治天皇) – Emperor Meiji, named after his era name
 * Go-Ichijō Tennō (後一条天皇) – Emperor Go-Ichijō, who was preceded by Emperor Ichijō
 * Go-Daigo Tennō (後醍醐天皇) – Emperor Go-Daigo, who was preceded by Emperor Daigo
 * Go-Sakuramachi Tennō (後桜町天皇) – Empress Go-Sakuramachi, who was preceded by her father Emperor Sakuramachi
 * Empress Gen mei + Empress Gen shō  → Empress Meishō
 * Empress Shō toku + Emperor Kō nin → Emperor Shōkō

Modern use
Official posthumous names are still used in Japan. This tradition began with Emperor Meiji. Since the death of Emperor Meiji (明治天皇) in 1912, the posthumous name of an emperor has always been the era name of his reign. In such cases, the posthumous names belong to the category of tsuigō. After his death, Hirohito was formally renamed Emperor Shōwa (昭和天皇) after his era; Japanese people now refer to him by only that name, and not by his given name Hirohito. Most Japanese people never refer to emperors by their given names, as it is considered disrespectful. A non-royal deceased person may be given a posthumous Buddhist name known as kaimyō but is, in practice, still referred to by the living name.

Malay world
In the Malay sultanates and other related sultanates and kingdoms of Southeast Asia, the posthumous names of the sultans and rulers always begin with the word Marhum (Jawi: مرحوم), an Arabic loanword meaning 'the late ruler'. The word Marhum is followed by either the place of death or the burial site. Mahmud II of Johor, who was killed while being carried on a royal litter in 1699, was posthumously known as Marhum Mangkat dijulang, which literally means 'the late ruler who died while being carried'.

Other Malay posthumous names include:
 * Marhum Kampar (مرحوم كمڤر, lit. 'the late ruler who was buried at Kampar') – Mahmud Shah of Malacca
 * Marhum Langgar (مرحوم لڠݢر, lit. 'the late ruler who was buried at Langgar') – Muhammad Shah of Pahang

Thailand
Since the death of King Chulalongkorn in 1910, the king has been named for his reigning era formally used in the Royal Gazette. Some were given posthumous names to elevate their title, such as in the case of King Ananda, who was posthumously titled Phra Athamaramathibodin. Kings Ananda and Bhumibol do not have specific reign names, and other kings, such as Chulalongkorn, are referred to using personal names. Most Thai people never refer to the king by their unique name or the informal Chula Chom Klao, as it is considered disrespectful. The personal name of King Vajiralongkorn will be regarded as casual until his death, when it will be replaced with the reign name Vajilaklao.

Vietnam
The use of posthumous names ceased in Vietnam with the Khải Định Emperor, who died in 1925.

title: Posthumous name


text:
ER

ER or Er may refer to:

Places

 * English Republic, alternative name for the Commonwealth of England
 * Eritrea (ISO 3166-2 two letter country code)

United States

 * East Rochester, New York
 * Erie, Pennsylvania

People

 * Er (biblical person), the eldest son of Judah in the biblical book of Genesis
 * Nie Er (1912–1935), Chinese composer
 * Elliot Rodger (July 24, 1991 – May 23, 2014), English-American incel mass shooter
 * A Royal cypher representing a monarch
 * Elizabeth Regina (ER), the royal cypher of Elizabeth I
 * Edward Rex (ER / E VII R), the royal cypher of Edward VII
 * Edward Rex (ER / E VIII R), the royal cypher of Edward VIII
 * Elizabeth II Regina (E II R), the royal cypher of Elizabeth II

Fictional characters

 * Er, a character in Plato's Myth of Er

Music

 * Er, an album by Nils Petter Molvær
 * "ER" (song), a 2012 single by Japanese boy band Kanjani Eight
 * "ER", a song by Royce da 5'9" featuring Kid Vishis from Success Is Certain

Periodicals

 * Chico Enterprise-Record, the daily newspaper of Chico, California

Television

 * ER (TV series), a 1994–2009 American television medical drama series
 * E/R, a 1984–1985 American television sitcom

Businesses and organizations

 * Astar Air Cargo (IATA designator ER)
 * Eastern Railway (India)
 * Eldorado Reno, a hotel and casino in Reno, Nevada
 * Eldorado Resorts, a gaming company located in Reno, Nevada
 * Entre Ríos Railway in Argentina (reporting mark ER)
 * Estonian Reform Party
 * United Russia, or Yedinaya Rossiya, a Russian political party

Finance and banking

 * ER, abbreviation of exchange rate
 * ER, abbreviation of expense ratio

Language

 * Er (Cyrillic) (Р / р), a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet corresponding to the Latin letter "R"
 * Er (cuneiform), a sign in cuneiform writing
 * "er", a filler word in English
 * Er, alternate spelling for Yer (Ъ / ъ), the hard-sign letter of the Cyrillic alphabet
 * Suffix -er
 * -er, a suffix added to adjectives or adverbs to form a comparative (e.g., fast to faster)
 * -er, a suffix added to a noun to indicate resident of, as in New Yorker
 * -er, a suffix added to a verb to make it an agent noun (e.g., cut to cutter)
 * Oxford "-er", a suffix used to form words like rugger and footer
 * Erhua (儿化), rhotacization of spoken syllables in Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese with the -er suffix (儿)

Science and technology

 * Erdős–Rényi model, a model in graph theory

Biology and medicine

 * Emergency room, or emergency department, in a medical facility
 * Endoplasmic reticulum, a type of organelle in cell biology
 * Er blood group system
 * Equine exertional rhabdomyolysis, a syndrome that damages muscle tissue in horses
 * Estrogen receptor, a type of protein molecule
 * Extraction ratio, a pharmacokinetic property

Chemistry and physics

 * $$\epsilon_r$$, a representation for relative static permittivity
 * Electrorheological (ER) fluid, a type of chemical suspension
 * Enantiomeric ratio, a concept in chemistry
 * Erbium, symbol Er, a chemical element
 * Einstein-Rosen bridge (ER) relativistic wormholes

Computing

 * .er, country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Eritrea
 * Entity–relationship model, a conceptual representation of data
 * Error Resilience, an audio coding method used in MPEG-4 Part 3

Other uses

 * Er., Hebrew abbreviation for 'Eruvin, the second tractate of Moed
 * Earned run, a term in the game of baseball
 * Emergency Response, incident response team or emergency procedure related to emergency services
 * English Reports of the English Courts from 1220 to 1866

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

title: ER


text:
Earthworm Jim (video game)

Earthworm Jim is a 1994 run and gun platform game developed by Shiny Entertainment, featuring an earthworm named Jim, who wears a robotic suit and battles the forces of evil. The game was released for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, before being subsequently ported to a number of other video game consoles.

It was well received by critics, and received a sequel, Earthworm Jim 2, in 1995. In 2009, Gameloft developed and released a remake for mobile phones and Nintendo DSi which was later ported to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as Earthworm Jim HD. In February 2018, Gameloft's contract with Interplay ended and all of the ports developed by Gameloft were removed from digital stores.

Gameplay

The game plays as a 2D sidescrolling platformer with elements of a run and gun game as well. The player controls Jim and must maneuver him through the level while avoiding obstacles and enemies. The player can use Jim's gun as a method of shooting enemies, or his worm body as a whip for whipping enemies. The whip move also allows the player to grab hold of, and swing from, certain hooks in the game. Some levels have additional requirements beyond merely getting to the end of the level. For example, the level "For Pete's Sake", involves making sure the computer-controlled Peter Puppy character gets through the level unharmed, which is accomplished by whipping him to make him jump over pits, and defeating enemies before they can damage him. Failure to do so results in Peter lashing out at Jim, taking away from his health.

Levels commonly culminate with a boss battle. The game incorporates a large variety of villains in the boss battles, including Hickboy, Psy-Crow, Queen Slug-for-a-Butt, Evil the Cat, Bob the Killer Goldfish, Major Mucus and Professor Monkey-for-a-Head-exclusive Robotic Chicken. Two villains made their only appearance in this game: Chuck, a junkyard man with a tendency to vomit bizarre objects; and Doc Duodenum, a crazed organ of a giant alien.

In-between most levels, a racing level called "Andy Asteroids" is played. Unlike the rest of the game, it places the viewpoint behind Jim. The player must direct Jim on his rocket, in a race against Psy-Crow, through a tube-like structure while collecting items and boosts and avoiding asteroids. If the player wins, the next level is started instantly. If the player loses, a boss fight against Psy-Crow must be won in order to progress to the next level.

Other variations in gameplay occur over the course of the game as well, such as a competitive bungee-jumping and fighting level, and an underwater maze that must be traversed both within a timelimit and without crashing too many times.

Plot
Jim is a normal earthworm, until a special "super suit" falls from the sky and allows him to operate much like a human, with his worm body acting as a head and the suit acting as a body. Jim now must evade the game's many antagonists, who want the suit back. The game plays out with Jim succeeding in his quest of meeting Princess What's-Her-Name. However, she is crushed by a cow that Jim launched into space at the beginning of the game.

Development
Playmates Toys, finding success with the license for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, wanted to start their own franchise. Inspired by the success of the Sonic the Hedgehog series with its first and second installments, they decided that they wanted to start the franchise as a video game, a rare approach at the time. From there, the game's design actually started with Douglas TenNapel's simple sketch of an earthworm that he presented to Shiny Entertainment. Impressed, programmer David Perry and the rest of Shiny bought the rights to Earthworm Jim from TenNapel, and started developing the game. From there, TenNapel would work on doing the game design, creating level ideas, and voicing Jim's character, while Perry and the other programmers created other characters and game mechanics. Perry recounted that the giant hamster "was drawn by one of our guys at three o'clock one morning".

The game was developed simultaneously for the Genesis and Super NES using a "custom heterogeneous programming language" developed by Shiny Entertainment. Almost all levels were first programmed by Dave Perry on the Genesis and then converted to the Super NES by Nick Jones. "For Pete's Sake" was coded simultaneously on both platforms by Andy Astor; and "Andy Asteroids" and "Snot a Problem" were originally programmed on the Super NES by Nick Jones and then converted to the Genesis.

The game's unique atmosphere, world, and characters was due to the fact that the company had previously always been restricted to doing licensed games, like 7up's Cool Spot, where they had to conform to the other company's preset limitations. In that respect, the game was actually created as a satire of platform video games at the time; for instance, "Princess What's-Her-Name" was a parody of how so many video games had throw-away female characters to be saved.

Release
The original version was released for the Genesis in October 1994. A version for the Super NES was released shortly after the original and is largely the same as the Genesis version. The Super NES version has altered graphics, with alternate backgrounds and special effects, but lacked some sound effects and one of the levels from the Genesis version (titled "Intestinal Distress"). The stated reason for the Genesis version having the extra level was that the "Genesis version was more easily compressed and had the room for the bonus level". Subsequently, Nick Bruty has stated in an interview that Sega asked Shiny Entertainment to add a level exclusively to the Sega version in exchange for reduced cartridge cost. Nick states that they designed the level overnight, and completed coding and testing the level in a single day–the day the game was sent to be printed to the consoles. The game was released in Japan physically only on Super Famicom on June 23, 1995, published by Takara, while the Japanese Mega Drive version was available exclusively via the Sega Channel service on December 1, 1995.

The game's Genesis release was promoted with a television commercial in which an elderly woman tells a bedtime story about Earthworm Jim while eating live earthworms (actually plastic props). The networks airing the commercial received so many complaints from nauseated viewers that the commercial was pulled in some markets, including stations in Portland, Spokane, and Sacramento.

The game's Special Edition was released for the Sega Genesis add-on, the Sega CD. It was based on the Genesis version, contained all of its levels, plus some extended section to the levels and a single completely new level, titled "Big Bruty", a new remixed Red Book CD audio soundtrack, as well as around 1,000 more frames of in-game animation. These versions were also the only ones to contain alternate endings when winning on the "Easy" or "Difficult" difficulties, in which a narrator rambles on about many (false) facts about worms or congratulates the player in a similar absurd manner respectively. The Special Edition was later ported to Windows 95 by Activision.

Another special edition of the game was released exclusively through the Sega Channel for a contest dubbed The Great Earthworm Jim Race. This version included a secret room which, when reached by the first 200 players, would display a password and a toll-free telephone number. Those that called the number were awarded prizes.

Eurocom ported a compressed and scaled down version for the Game Boy. It was hindered by the lack of color, lack of graphical detail due to both processor and small screen size, choppy animations, and a lack of buttons, which made it hard to control. This version was also ported to the Game Gear, which included color graphics, but still suffered from all of the other problems of the Game Boy version. A direct port of the Game Gear version was also brought to the Master System, but only in Brazil. However, it only has 4 levels, and the boss in "What the Heck?" is missing.

A conversion of the game was also being developed by German studio Softgold and planned to be published by Atari Corporation for both the Atari Jaguar and the Atari Jaguar CD, but it was never finished due to the departure of Normen B. Kowalewski from Atari, who was the lead developer of the port, sometime between or at the end of 1995. The alpha prototype, which consisted of basic character animations, and the source code of the conversion are currently lost.

The game also had a MS-DOS port released in a package titled Earthworm Jim 1 & 2: The Whole Can 'O Worms (along with the MS-DOS port of Earthworm Jim 2) with redrawn graphics and missing the level "Intestinal Distress". The game was ported by Rainbow Arts.

In 2001 Game Titan ported the Super NES version to the Game Boy Advance. Despite the extra power of the Game Boy Advance, this version still ran very poorly, with poor animation, missing details, and was widely criticized.

The game was re-released digitally on a number of platforms in the late 2000s as well. The original Genesis version was released through Wii's Virtual Console service in Europe on October 3, 2008, in North America on October 27, 2008 and in Japan on December 16, 2008. The Genesis version was also re-released on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack on September 15, 2022. The MS-DOS version was re-released through DOSbox emulation on GOG.com on October 7, 2008 and on Steam on November 4, 2009.

Earthworm Jim is included in the Sega Genesis Mini console.

High-definition remake
In 2009, Gameloft released digitally an updated remake of the game on a number of mobile/handheld platforms. The remake was made entirely from scratch, without using the original game's code, and featured overhauled and smoothed graphics, a remixed soundtrack, re-recorded voice of Jim and touchscreen controls. Completely new, computer-themed levels were added; however, some previous features were lost. While the extended version of the "New Junk City" level from the "Special Edition" is included, "Big Bruty" ("Special Edition" new level) and "Who Turned Out the Lights?" (secret level from the original release) are not present. It was later released as a download for the Nintendo DSi as DSiWare, which is also downloadable on the Nintendo 3DS system. The only new addition for the DSiWare version was an extra minigame that involved the player using the system's camera on their own face, in order to mimic the same faces Jim would make on-screen. The Gameloft remake was also later released digitally on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network as "Earthworm Jim HD". It featured a comic book-like introduction, three new computer-themed bonus levels, and a 4-player multiplayer mode with special levels based on already existing ones.

Reception
The game received a positive reception upon release. Earthworm Jim was awarded Best Genesis Game of 1994 by Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro gave the Genesis version a perfect score, and Famicom Tsūshin scored the Super Famicom version of the game a 30 out of 40.

The game has been noted for its fluid animation, featuring a hand-drawn style that was unusual for 16-bit releases. GamePro argued that the game has "the most innovative game play since Sonic first raced onto the Genesis", backing up the point by noting "In the first level, New Junk City, Jim leaps off old tires, climbs strange crevices and cliffs, swings from chains, and creeps through a maze of garbage - and that's the most traditional level in the game!" Electronic Gaming Monthly gave rave reviews for both the Genesis and Super NES versions, praising animations, long levels, and warped sense of humor. One of their reviewers summarized that "This game was made by a gamer, and it shows." With regard to the game's overall appeal, a review from GameZone stated "Back when platformers were the king of genres, Earthworm Jim made its presence known as the 'cool kid on the block' by appealing to many demographics. Obtaining a moderate difficulty level and establishing itself with stylish humor, Earthworm Jim was a financial and critical success for Interplay and Shiny Entertainment. Even though I feel the sequel is the best of the series, the original still is able to stand out on its own." The review also went on to praise the soundtrack from Mark Miller as well. Next Generation reviewed the Genesis version of the game, and stated that "Sure, it's only a slick 16bit platform game. And anyone looking for anything revolutionary will be disappointed - there's nothing strictly new here. But it's a whole load of fun, and that's what counts."

The Sega CD enhanced port was also well received. GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly remarked that whereas most Sega CD ports simply add enhanced music, Earthworm Jim included a number of worthwhile additions such as new animations, new levels, and the new homing missile weapon.

Electronic Gaming Monthly reviewed that the Game Gear version has impressive graphics by portable standards but is crippled by the Game Gear's limited two-button control, frequent screen blurring, and frustrating difficulty. GamePro also felt the two-button control to be a serious problem, but concluded the Game Gear version to be "Overall ... fine for fans who want to take their EWJ show on the road."

Reviewing the Windows 95 version, Maximum claimed "it's not only a damn fine platform game, it's probably the best the PC has seen to date." They particularly praised the non-frustrating challenge and the strong personality of the graphics. Computer Game Review remarked, "If you found Pitfall, The Mayan Adventure entertaining, you'll want to check this one out." Computer Games Strategy Plus named the computer release of Earthworm Jim the best arcade title of 1995.

Next Generation reviewed the Sega CD version of Earthworm Jim: Special Edition, and stated that "While a prepackaged, presold character, who's as cynically calculated for hip success as Earthworm Jim does rub us the wrong way, we admit there was a cracking good game to back him up, and this new CD version is even better." Entertainment Weekly gave the game an A and wrote that the game is too similar to the Genesis and Super NES versions to warrant a new purchase.

However, later Gameloft remakes of the games received mixed reviews. Reception for the 2010 remake, Earthworm Jim HD, was less positive. IGN and GameSpot both felt that the surreal art style and animation stood the test of time, but felt that some gameplay aspects and controls felt dated in comparison to modern platformers. Similarly, the iPhone version of the game was criticized for its sloppy controls, mostly due to being touchscreen only.

The game sold more than 1 million copies by 1995.

Next Generation reviewed the Game Boy Advance version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Luckily, aside from some cheap hits, missed dodges, and blind jumps, everything else is pretty fun."

Accolades
Earthworm Jim was rated the 114th-best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power ' s Top 200 Games list. EGM gave it their "Game of the Month" award, and GamePro later awarded it Best Sega CD Game of 1995. In 2018, Complex rated the game 54th on their The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time writing: "Earthworm Jim was unlike any other game out there at the time, and it’s still quite original today. Its weird, surreal storyline was only made all the better by the solid platforming and shooting that went on here. We still love Earthworm Jim. Ga-roo-vy!" In 2017, Gamesradar ranked the game 19th on their "Best Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games of all time." They felt the game's free-form shooting and platforming kept the game fresh and relevant and called the game "a jolly side-scrolling adventure". IGN listed Earthworm Jim 57th in their "Top 100 SNES Games of All Time." In 1995, Total! ranked the game 14th in its Top 100 SNES Games summarizing: "The game reeks of quality, plays like a dream, is hilariously funny and is packed with more original touches then anyone would have thought possible." In the same year, Flux magazine placed Earthworm Jim 7th on its Top 100 Video Games. They praised the game writing: "Intensely great gameplay. Wiggy, hilarious animation. Complex, richly rendered backgrounds."

Legacy
A sequel, Earthworm Jim 2, was released in 1995. It was released in the same manner as the original; first on the Sega Genesis, and then ported to many other systems. It too was generally well received. Two further games, Earthworm Jim 3D for the Nintendo 64 and PC, and Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy for the Game Boy Color, were produced in 1999. However, they were developed without the involvement of Shiny Entertainment and were mostly met with negative reviews. An enhanced remake, Earthworm Jim PSP, by Atari was planned for a 2007 release for the PlayStation Portable, but was ultimately cancelled.

The game also inspired non-video game products, such as the Earthworm Jim television series, a comic book series, and a line of action figures. Earthworm Jim is playable as a standard character in ClayFighter 63⅓, and as a secret character in the "Sculptor's Cut" version of that game.

title: Earthworm Jim (video game)


text:
Lillehammer affair

The Lillehammer affair (פרשת לילהאמר, Parshat Lillehammer, Norwegian: Lillehammer-saken) was the murder of Ahmed Bouchikhi, a Moroccan waiter and brother of the French musician Chico Bouchikhi, by Mossad agents in Lillehammer, Norway, on 21 July 1973. The Israeli agents had mistaken their target for Ali Hassan Salameh, the chief of operations for Black September. Six of 15 of the Mossad team were captured and convicted of complicity in the killing by the Norwegian justice system in a major blow to the intelligence agency's reputation.

Background
Undercover agents had been sent by Israel as part of series of planned assassinations following the 1972 Munich massacre to assassinate Ali Hassan Salameh, the head of Force 17 and an operative of the Black September Organization, the Palestinian militant group responsible. In the summer of 1973, Mossad received a tip that Salameh was working as a waiter in Lillehammer. Author and former Mossad katsa (case officer) Victor Ostrovsky wrote that Salameh was instrumental in leading Mossad off course by feeding it false information about his whereabouts. A team of 15 Mossad agents was sent to Lillehammer to assassinate him, where they were joined by Mossad director general Zvi Zamir and operation commander Michael Harari. Lillehammer was a relatively small city, and the sudden arrival of more than a dozen strangers attracted attention from residents. The local police began to watch them.

A known Palestinian courier in Lillehammer was identified and followed by Mossad agents to a public swimming pool, where he was seen speaking with Bouchikhi, who had no connection to Palestinian armed groups and whose conversation with the courier was coincidental. Bouchikhi, who resembled Salameh, was found to match the photographs of Salameh. A female Mossad agent then jumped into the pool and got close enough to Bouchikhi to hear him speaking French. The agents knew that Salameh was multilingual, and concluded that this had to be him. The Mossad team followed Bouchikhi to his home. His residence was placed under constant surveillance by Mossad agents sitting in hired cars.

Assassination
On the evening of 21 July, a day after having misidentified Bouchikhi as Salameh, the Mossad agents carried out the assassination. Bouchikhi and his pregnant wife had gone to see a movie. After taking a bus back and getting off at a bus stop, they began slowly walking back home. As they were in sight of their home, a car with four Mossad agents pulled up beside them. While two stayed in the car to provide cover, the other two got out and shot Bouchikhi 13 times with a 22 caliber pistol, his wife witnessing the shooting. They then jumped back into the car, which immediately drove away at high speed. Local police were close by, but by the time police and rescue arrived, Bouchikhi was dead.

The killing shocked the residents of Lillehammer, where there had not been a murder for 36 years. The Israelis learned that they had killed the wrong man after the story was publicized the following day. Nine members of the hit team, including the two actual killers, escaped and were out of Norway the day following the assassination. Six other members of the team, four men and two women, were arrested before they could escape. Two agents were caught in a getaway car they were using again without having changed the license plates while trying to get to an airport the day after the assassination. Their interrogations led to the arrests of the remaining members of the cell. Incriminating documents and the keys to a network of safe houses were discovered.

While the defence counsel said their clients played only minor roles such as shadowing and passing on information, five of the six agents were found guilty on a variety of charges and convicted of complicity in the killing, receiving sentences ranging from one year to five and a half years but were released and returned to Israel in 1975. The Mossad later found Ali Hassan Salameh in Beirut and killed him on 22 January 1979 with a remote-controlled car bomb in an attack that also caused the deaths of eight other persons (including four of Salameh’s bodyguards) and injured 18 others.

Later developments
The revelations of the captured agents dealt a massive blow to the secret infrastructure of the Mossad in Europe. The captured agents were interrogated over the operation. One of them, Dan Arbel, became extremely nervous as soon as his cell door shut due to his extreme claustrophobia; he provided many details on the operation in exchange for being transferred to a larger cell with a small window. Authorities discovered a key on one of the suspects for a Mossad safe house in Paris. It was handed over to the French police, who raided the flat and discovered keys to other Mossad safe houses in the city, along with evidence that several of those involved in the Lillehammer operation had been involved in other assassinations as part of Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre. Information on Mossad safe houses, phone numbers and agents gathered during the interrogation of the agents was rapidly shared with its European counterparts. As a result, Mossad agents who had been exposed had to be recalled, safe houses abandoned, phone numbers changed and operational methods modified.

For the first time, clear evidence had been found of Israel's involvement in the string of assassinations of Palestinians that had taken place on European soil as part of Operation Wrath of God. Under intense international pressure, Golda Meir ordered the operation suspended. It was resumed under Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

Israel never officially took responsibility for the assassination. In January 1996, Prime Minister Shimon Peres said that Israel would never take responsibility for the killing but would consider compensation. The Government of Israel appointed an attorney, Amnon Goldenberg, to negotiate a settlement with Bouchikhi's widow Torill and daughter Malika, who were represented by attorney Thor-Erik Johansen. That same month, an agreement was reached; Israel paid compensation equal to US$283,000 split between Bouchikhi's wife and daughter. A separate settlement of US$118,000 was paid to a son from a previous marriage. An Israeli statement was also issued which stopped short of an apology but expressed "sorrow" over Bouchikhi's "unfortunate" death.

In 1990, Norway reopened the case. In 1998 it issued a global arrest warrant for the leader of the operation, Michael Harari, who had successfully escaped, but closed the case the following year after judging that it would be impossible to get a conviction. According to the September 2004 book release of Mange liv (English: Many lives) by the former lawyer Annæus Schjødt, who represented two of the agents in the case and later married one of them (Sylvia Raphael), information about the Israeli nuclear weapons program was leaked to the Government of Norway by one of the arrested agents, Dan Arbel. However, the Norwegians decided to remain silent about their findings.

title: Lillehammer affair


text:
Polar Air Cargo

Polar Air Cargo Worldwide Inc. is a cargo airline based in Purchase, New York, United States. It operates scheduled all-cargo services to North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Its main base is Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, with hubs at Los Angeles International Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Narita International Airport and Incheon International Airport near Seoul, South Korea. Polar's parent company is Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings and DHL has a 49% equity interest in the airline.

History
Polar was formed in 1993 as a joint venture between Southern Air Transport and GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS). It started operations in June 1993 and began with charter flights, later adding scheduled services. During 1994, Polar was certified as a supplemental air carrier by the Federal Aviation Administration and on 4 July 1994 as a US all-cargo carrier by the United States Department of Transportation. After several years of continued growth, the remainder of the company was acquired by GECAS.

In November 2001, Polar was acquired by Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings (AAWW), whose Atlas Air subsidiary is a provider of ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) freighter leasing. Polar became the scheduled service provider for AAWW, while Atlas continued to supply Boeing 747-400 freighters on a wet-lease basis to major airlines. In October 2006, it was announced that DHL Express would be acquiring a 49% stake in Polar. , Polar is still majority-owned by Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings (51%) and has 736 employees.

In April 2023 Former Polar Air Cargo COO Lars Winkelbauer was arrested in Thailand and charged, along with 10 others, with defrauding the company of an estimated $52m.

Scheduled services
Polar provides scheduled freight service covering the transpacific, transatlantic, trans-Asia, and Middle East markets. Polar offers frequent flights to China, connecting Shanghai to the United States and multiple points in Asia and Europe, e.g., Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany & East Midlands Airport in the United Kingdom

Charter services
Polar Air Cargo also offers its customers charter freight services, using its fleet of Boeing 747 and 767. Polar and its sister company, Atlas Air, also do extensive work for the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command (AMC).

Current fleet
The Polar Air Cargo fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Former fleet
Polar Air Cargo formerly operated the following aircraft:

title: Polar Air Cargo


text:
1994 Winter Olympics

The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (De 17. olympiske vinterleker; Dei 17. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Having lost the bid for the 1992 Winter Olympics to Albertville in France, Lillehammer was awarded the 1994 Winter Games on 15 September 1988, two days before the 1988 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies at the 94th IOC Session in Seoul, South Korea. Due to the calendar changes made in 1985, this was the only time that the Winter Olympics took place two years after the previous Winter Games, and the first to be held in a different year from the Summer Olympics. This was the second Olympic Games of any type hosted in Norway — the first being the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo — and the fourth Olympics overall to be held in a Nordic country, after the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, and the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Lillehammer is the northernmost city ever to host the Olympic Games.

Although Lillehammer was the main host city, some events were held in neighboring cities and counties, and the speed skating events were held in Hamar, some ice hockey matches were played in Gjøvik, and the Alpine skiing events were held in Øyer and Ringebu areas. Sixty-seven National Olympic Committees and 1,737 athletes participated in six sports and sixty-one events. Fourteen countries made their Olympic debuts, of which nine were former Soviet republics. The Games also saw the introduction of stricter and more rigid qualifying rules, reducing the number of under-performing participants. Six new events were introduced into the Olympic programme: new distances in short-track speed skating and aerials, and speed skating events were held indoors. Almost two million people spectated at the Games, which were the first to have the Olympic Truce in effect. The Olympics were followed by the 1994 Winter Paralympics from 10 to 19 March.

Manuela Di Centa and Lyubov Yegorova dominated women's cross-country skiing, taking five and four medals for Italy and Russia respectively. A crowd of more than 100,000 saw Italy beat Norway by 0.4 seconds in the men's 4 × 10 km relay. Vreni Schneider won a complete set of medals for Switzerland in Alpine skiing, while Norway took a podium sweep in the men's combined competition. In ladies' singles figure skating, 16-year-old Ukrainian Oksana Baiul won gold, narrowly defeating Nancy Kerrigan, who won silver; this was the first Ukrainian medal at the Olympics in their first independent appearance. Johann Olav Koss won three speed skating golds for Norway, while 13-year-old Kim Yun-mi from South Korea became the youngest-ever Olympic gold medalist. Sweden defeated Canada in a dramatic penalty shootout in the ice hockey final. Russia topped the medal table, winning 11 gold medals, while Norway collected the highest number of medals overall, with 26.

Host city selection
The idea for an Olympic bid for Norway was born in 1981, when Falun, in neighbouring Sweden was defeated by Calgary in Canada to host the 1988 Winter Olympics. Along with the Norwegian government, the bid was also publicly encouraged and supported by the Swedish government, largely to help stimulate the economy of their inland counties. Lillehammer originally bid for the 1992 Games but came fourth in the voting, with the Games ultimately awarded to Albertville, France. In 1985, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to separate the Summer and Winter Games (which had been held in the same year since the inception of the Winter Olympics in 1924) and arrange for them to take place in alternating even-numbered years. Lillehammer subsequently launched another bid, now for the 1994 Games, with some drastic modifications of the project, such as a new indoor speed skating venue and an additional ice hall in Lillehammer. Supplementary government guarantees and funds were secured for the new bid.

Three other locations put in bids for the 1994 Games: Anchorage (United States), Östersund (Sweden), and Sofia (Bulgaria). Lillehammer was elected to host the 1994 Winter Games at the 94th IOC Session, held in Seoul on 15 September 1988, two days before the start of the 1988 Summer Olympics. Until 2018, the Lillehammer Games were the last Winter Olympics to be held in a town, rather than centered in a city.

Organization

The overall responsibility for the games was held by the Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee, which was created on 14 November 1988 and led by Gerhard Heiberg. Between 1989 and 1993, was reorganized several times with various subsidiaries,but in 11 february 1993.This led a company who was owned 51% by Lillehammer Municipality (as main stakeholder), 24.5% by the Government of Norway and 24.5% by the Norwegian Olympic Committee.This model was also the same used for the Paralympic Organizing Committee (LPOC). The government had issued a guarantee for the games, and also covered the expenses related to infrastructure. The total costs of the games was 7.4 billion Norwegian krone (NOK), of which NOK 0.95 billion was expenditure by the ministries, NOK 4.48 billion was for operations and event expenses, and NOK 1.67 billion was for investments. The games had a revenue of NOK 2.71 billion, of which NOK 1.43 billion was from television rights, NOK 0.65 billion was from sponsors, and NOK 0.15 billion was from ticket sales.

Production and execution of the broadcasting, which costs NOK 462 million, was a joint venture work from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK),the CTV (Canada) (CTV) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) (the NRK is part of the collegiate of EBU members). NRK and EBU had 1,424 people working at the Olympics, while international broadcasters sent an additional 4,050 accredited broadcasting personnel. The transmission rights for the games were held by EBU in Europe, CBS in the United States, NHK in Japan, CTV in Canada, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, Nine Network in Australia, as well as other broadcasters in other countries. The total transmission rights price was 350 million United States dollars, 310 of which were paid only by CBS. This value raised in part because of the Harding–Kerrigan affair, the viewership in the United States is still the highest ever for Winter Olympics.

NOK 460 million was used on information technology, with the main system running on an IBM AS/400. 3,500 media terminals were in use during the games based on the Info '94 system; it was the first Winter Olympics to have terminals installed abroad. Seiko delivered the time-keeping devices. Telecommunications were delivered by Telenor, including signal transmission. This included a mobile radio network with nine base stations.

Cost and cost overrun
The Oxford Olympics Study established the outturn cost of the Lillehammer 1994 Winter Olympics at US$2.2 billion in 2015-dollars and cost overrun at 277% in real terms. This includes sports-related costs only, that is, (i) operational costs incurred by the organizing committee for the purpose of staging the Games, e.g., expenditures for technology, transportation, workforce, administration, security, catering, ceremonies, and medical services, and (ii) direct capital costs incurred by the host city and country or private investors to build, e.g., the competition venues, the Olympic village, international broadcast center, and media and press center, which are required to host the Games. Indirect capital costs are not included, such as for road, rail, or airport infrastructure, or for hotel upgrades or other business investment incurred in preparation for the Games but not directly related to staging the Games. The cost and cost overrun for Lillehammer 1994 compares with costs of US$2.5 billion and a cost overrun of 13% for Vancouver 2010, and costs of US$51 billion and a cost overrun of 289% for Sochi 2014, the latter being the most costly Olympics to date. Average cost for Winter Games since 1960 is US$3.1 billion, average cost overrun is 142%.

Events
There were 61 events contested in 6 sports (12 disciplines).

Opening ceremony

In a change from previous Games, the Organizing Committee decided not to build a specific Olympic Stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies and opted to take them to the ski jumping hill Lysgårdsbakken. Artistic content was made to present a range of Norwegian and Nordic cultures, included Sami joik, Telemark skiing, fiddlers and folk dancing, simulations of traditional events and their wedding processions, and the figure of vetter from Norse mythology. After speeches by Heiberg and IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, the games were officially declared opened by King Harald V. and the Olympic Anthem was performed by the lyrical singer Sissel Kyrkjebø.After,the Olympic Flame was to be skied down the skijump before lighting the cauldron. Originally this task had rested upon Ole Gunnar Fidjestøl, but after he broken one arm in a practice jump, his back-up Stein Gruben received the honor.The cauldron was lit by Crown Prince Haakon Magnus. The Olympic oaths were issued by Vegard Ulvang for the athletes and Kari Kåring for the officials.

Alpine skiing

Since the 1992 Games, the rules for combined changed, where the winner was determined by total time instead of points. The women's downhill was originally scheduled for Hafjell, but after protests due the hill difficulties it was moved to Kvitfjell, which also hosted the men's downhill and super-G. In the men's events, Germany's Markus Wasmeier won two disciplines, giant slalom and super-G, finishing ahead of the United States's Tommy Moe on the super-G. Moe won the downhill ahead of Norway's Kjetil André Aamodt, who came in third in the super-G. Austria's Thomas Stangassinger won the slalom ahead of Italy's Alberto Tomba. In the combined, Norway took a medal sweep, with Lasse Kjus winning ahead of Aamodt and Harald Christian Strand Nilsen.

In the women's events, Switzerland's Vreni Schneider was the most successful, winning the slalom, taking silver in combined and taking bronze in giant slalom. The only other athlete to take multiple medals was Italy's Isolde Kostner, who took a third place in both downhill and super-G. The downhill was won by Germany's Katja Seizinger, super-G by the United States' Diann Roffe, the giant slalom by Italy's Deborah Compagnoni, and the combined by Sweden's Pernilla Wiberg.

Biathlon
Russia and Germany split all the individual men's medals. In the 10 km sprint, Russia's Sergei Tchepikov won ahead of Ricco Groß, both with a clean sheet. Bronze winner Sergei Tarasov won the 20 km individual ahead of Germany's Frank Luck and Sven Fischer. Germany easily revenged itself by winning the 4 × 7.5 km relay ahead of Russia and France. In the women's class, Canada's Myriam Bédard won both the individual events, finishing ahead of Belarus' Svetlana Paramygina on the 7.5 km sprint and ahead of France's Anne Briand on the 15 km individual. In the 4 × 7.5 km relay, the format since 1992 was changed from three to four participants. Russia, with a clean sheet, won ahead of Germany, who made six misses, with France taking the bronze.

Bobsleigh
In two-man, Switzerland took the top two places, with Gustav Weder, Donat Acklin winning 0.05 seconds ahead of Reto Götschi and Guido Acklin, who were again 0.15 seconds ahead of Italy's Günther Huber and Stefano Ticci placing third. In four-man, Germany-II, consisting of Harald Czudaj, Karsten Brannasch, Olaf Hampel and Alexander Szelig, finished 0.06 seconds ahead of Switzerland-I and 0.23 ahead of Germany-I.

Cross-country skiing

Participants from five countries took all the medals of the ten events. Starting in 1994, the Olympics alternated which of the medium-distance and long-distance races had classical and freestyle. men's 4 × 10 km relay was watched by a crowd of nearly 150,000. Norway, Italy and Finland followed each other tightly for three and a half rounds, with the second and third exchange of the three talking place within 1.1 seconds of each other. Finland fell behind in the end, and Norwegian Bjørn Dæhlie and Italian Silvio Fauner battled to the end, with Italy beating Norway by 0.4 seconds. Dæhlie won the 10 km classical and 15 km freestyle pursuit, while taking silver in the 30 km freestyle. Kazakhstan's Vladimir Smirnov won the 50 km classical, in addition to silver in the 10 km and the 15 km. Norway's Thomas Alsgaard won the 30 km, while Finland's Mika Myllylä took an individual silver and a bronze.

Italy's Manuela Di Centa and Russia's Lyubov Yegorova dominated the women's events. They took five and four medals each, respectively, and between them winning all the races. Yegorova finished ahead of Di Centa on the 5 km classical and the 10 km pursuit, while Di Centa finished ahead of Yegorova on the 15 km freestyle, and also won the 30 km classical ahead of Norway's Marit Wold. Finland's Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi took two bronze medals, in 5 km and 30 km. In the 4 × 5 km relay, Norway and Russia kept up with each other until the final stage, in which Anita Moen lost to Yegorova, with Italy finishing third. With Yegorova's sixth career gold, she was tied as the most-winning Winter Olympic participant.

Figure skating

On 6 January, Tonya Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly and his friend Shawn Eckardt, conspired with Shane Stant to club fellow female figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in the knee. Both Harding and Kerrigan were selected for the Olympic team. After Harding admitted to helping to cover up the attack, the United States Olympic Committee initiated proceedings to remove her from the Olympic team, but Harding retained her place after threatening legal action. In the ladies' singles, Ukraine's Oksana Baiul narrowly won ahead of Kerrigan and Chen Lu, with Harding finishing eighth. In the men's singles, Russia's Alexei Urmanov won ahead of Canada's Elvis Stojko and France's Philippe Candeloro. Relaxation of the rules led to several former stars returning, such as ice dancing 1984 Champions Great Britain's Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who took a bronze behind Russians Oksana Grishuk and Evgeny Platov, and Maya Usova and Alexander Zhulin. In pair skating, the Russians also took a double, with Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov winning ahead of Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev.

Freestyle skiing

Aerials was added as a discipline, after it had been a demonstration sport at the previous two games. Ski ballet, which had been a demonstration sport in 1992, was dropped. Canada dominated the men's events, with Jean-Luc Brassard winning the men's moguls ahead of Russian Sergey Shupletsov. In the men's aerials, Switzerlands's Andreas Schönbächler won ahead of Canada's Philippe LaRoche and Lloyd Langlois, with Canadians also claiming the fourth and sixth places. In the women's disciplines, Norway was the only nation to take two medals; Stine Lise Hattestad won the moguls ahead of the United States' Liz McIntyre. In the aerials, Lina Cheryazova won, claiming Uzbekistan's only medal, ahead of Sweden's Marie Lindgren and Norway's Hilde Synnøve Lid.

Ice hockey
Twelve teams participated in the ice hockey tournament, divided into two groups. Each played as a single round robin, with the four best advancing to the single elimination medal tournament. Group A saw Finland win all five matches, while the host nation lost all theirs. Also Germany, the Czech Republic and Russia advanced from the group, all with three victories. Group B was won by Slovakia ahead of Canada, Sweden and the United States. The quarter-finals saw the Czech Republic, the United States, Germany and Slovakia eliminated. In the semi-finals, Canada beat Finland 5–3, while Sweden beat Russia 4–3. After the final period of the final, the match was a 2–2 tie, resulting in a shoot-out. After six shots, it was tied 2–2 until Sweden's Peter Forsberg beat Corey Hirsch, making the Swedes win after Paul Kariya missed his shot. This led to Tomas Jonsson, Håkan Loob and Mats Näslund becoming the first three members of the Triple Gold Club.

Luge
Italy, Germany and Austria collected all the medals in the luge events. Germany's Georg Hackl won the men's singles, making him the first to defend an Olympic title in the event in thirty years. He finished ahead of Austria's Markus Prock and Italy's Armin Zöggeler. In the doubles, the two Italian teams finished on top, with Kurt Brugger and Wilfried Huber winning ahead of Hansjörg Raffl and Norbert Huber. In the women's singles, Italy's Gerda Weissensteiner won ahead of Germany's Susi Erdmann and Austria's Andrea Tagwerker. The own debuts was start Nedžad Lomigora from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Marco Feder from Liechtenstein, Sminon J. Payne from Bermuda, Paul Hix from United Kingdom, Josef Svarek from Slovakia, Roger White from Australia.

Nordic combined
Although the events were the same, since the 1992 Games there was a rule change so that instead of jumping three times and taking the points for the best two, the competitors only jumped twice. In the individual normal hill/15 km, Japan's Kenji Ogiwara had only lost a single event in the season's World Cup, but came in sixth on the hill, which was won by Norway's Fred Børre Lundberg. He won the event after finishing eight-best in the skiing, ahead of Japan's Takanori Kono, Norway's Bjarte Engen Vik and Ogiwara in fourth. In the team normal hill/3 x 10 km, Japan finished first, third and fifth among the jumpers, giving them a 5:07 minute lead over Norway and finishing 4:49 minutes ahead. Switzerland took the bronze.

Short track speed skating
Short track speed skating was dominated by South Korea, who won four of the six events. After the discipline's debut in 1992, 1994 featured two new events, the men's 500 meters and the women's 1000 meters. South Korea's Chae Ji-Hoon won the men's 500 meters, while taking silver on the 1000 meters behind countryman Kim Ki-Hoon, who defended his 1992 gold. The bronze was won by Canada's Marc Gagnon, who won the B final. In the A final, countryman Derrick Campbell was obstructed by Great Britain's Nicky Gooch, who was disqualified. Campbell got up and started celebrating his bronze medal, when he discovered he had not completed the race.

In the men's 5000 meter relay, South Korea did not enter after a fall in the sole qualifying event, which took place in March 1993. Canada fell during the final, which saw Italy take a clear victory ahead of the United States, who were marginally ahead of Australia. The United States' Eric Flaim became the first to take Olympic medals in both short track and long track speed skating, while Australia took its first Winter Olympic medal ever. Six people took the individual medals in the women's events, with the United States' Cathy Turner defending her 1992 gold on the 500 meters and South Korea's Chun Lee-Kyung taking the gold in 1000 meters. South Korea won the 3000 meter relay with a team of four girls under 19. At 13, Kim Yoon-Mi became the world's youngest Olympic gold medalist.

Ski jumping

Norway won three of the six individual medals, with Norway's Espen Bredesen winning the normal hill ahead of Norway's Lasse Ottesen and Germany's Dieter Thoma. In the large hill, Germany's Jens Weißflog won ahead of Bredesen and Austria's Andreas Goldberger. In the large hill team, the 1994 Games introduced new rules whereby all four jumps in each round counted, and not just the best three. Neither Norway nor Finland, who between them had won all but one former Olympic team jump, managed to collect a medal. The event became a duel between Germany and Japan, with only a point separating them after the first round of jumps. Masahiko Harada had the last jump, and would secure a gold if he managed 105 meters but lost his 'cool' mistiming his leap and landed at 97.5 meters, giving the gold to the Germans.

Speed skating
In 1989, the International Skating Union mandated that, from the 1994 Olympics onwards, speed skating events would be held indoors to avoid interference from wind and weather conditions in the competitions. The 1994 Games also introduced a new system of qualification rules, limiting the number of participants in the men's 5000 meters and women's 3000 meters to 32, and only allowing the 16 best in each of these events to participate in the men's 10000 meters and the women's 5000 meters.

Norway's Johann Olav Koss took three golds, in the men's 1,500 meters, 5000 meters and 10000 meters. In the latter two, he finished ahead of fellow countryman Kjell Storelid. The men's 500 meters was won by Russia's Aleksandr Golubev ahead of fellow countryman Sergey Klevchenya, while the men's 1000 meters was won by American Dan Jansen. For women, American Bonnie Blair defended her two 1992 golds in 500 meters and 1000 meters. Austria's Emese Hunyady won the 1500 meters ahead of Russia's Svetlana Bazhanova and Germany's Gunda Niemann. However, Bazhanova took gold ahead of Nemeth-Hunyady on the 3000 meters, with Germany's Claudia Pechstein in third. Pechstein would go on to win the 5000 meters ahead of Niemann.

Closing ceremony
At the closing ceremonies, also held at Lysgårdsbakken, all spectators were handed a flashlight with the inscription "Remember Sarajevo"—the host of the 1984 Winter Olympics which was at worst moment of the Bosnian War, the Siege of Sarajevo. The first entrants on the stage were Liv Ullmann and Thor Heyerdahl, followed by the athletes' precession. After the Olympic flag had been transferred to Nagano mayor Tasuka Tsukada, speeches were held by Lillehammer mayor Audun Tron, Heiberg and Samaranch. The latter used his speech to remind about Sarajevo's situation, before giving Heiberg IOC's gold medal. Artistic presentations followed with many of the themes from the opening ceremony.At the 15-minute presentation as the next host city, Nagano was presented to world as a modern Yama-uba,also the 1998 Winter Olympics mascots, the Snowlets, was also presented on a public eye for the first time. Of the 2,200 people performing in the opening and closing ceremonies, only 50 were professionals.

Paralympics
The VI Winter Paralympics were run in part by a different Organizing Committee (LPOC), but the LOOC managed all the common areas of the two events, serving as a model for Sydney that would host the 2000 Summer Paralympics, six years later. The Games were held from 10 to 19 March. Competitions were held in Alpine skiing, ice sledge speed racing, biathlon and cross-country skiing; the games also introduced ice sledge hockey. The Paralympics also used four of the same venues as the Olympics,with the ice sledge hockey tournament was held on an extra venue,the Kristins Hall as the Håakons Hall was converted in the opening,medal and closing ceremonies venue.The Lillehammer Paralympics were the second time that the Games were held in Norway, after the 1980 Winter Paralympics in Geilo. 471 athletes from 31 countries participated, with Norway claiming the most gold medals ahead of Germany. This was the first Paralympics which the International Paralympic Committee had 100% involvement and responsibility.This give the right to use the five taeguk logo.As a different event,they featured their own logo (the people under the midnight sun), the amputee mascot Sondre. However, the Paralympics despite being organized by an Organizing Committee in a different composition, had the same visual identity and was treated as an integral part of the event.

Venues

The games were spread out over ten venues in five municipalities in two counties, Oppland and Hedmark. Lillehammer, with 25,000 inhabitants, and Hamar and Gjøvik, both with 27,000 inhabitants, are all situated on the lake Mjøsa. Gjøvik and Hamar are located 45 and 54 km south of Lillehammer. Hunderfossen is located 15 km north of Lillehammer, but lies within the municipality. Øyer and Ringebu, both with just under 5,000 inhabitants, are located 18 and 50 km north of Lillehammer, in the valley Gudbrandsdalen. Lillehammer had four venues, Hamar had two venues, while Hunderfossen, Gjøvik, Øyer and Ringebu had one venue each.

In Lillehammer, Lysgårdsbakken features twin ski jumping hills. The large hill has a hill size of 138 and a critical point of 120, while the normal hill has a hill size of 100 and a critical point of 90. The hill has capacity for 35,000 spectators and hosted, in addition to the ski jumping events, the opening and closing ceremonies. Birkebeineren Skistadion featured cross-country skiing and biathlon, with the stadium itself having a capacity for 31,000 spectators during cross-country skiing and 13,500 during biathlon. In addition, spectators could watch from along the tracks. Kanthugen Freestyle Arena featured a capacity for 15,000 spectators. All the outdoor skiing arenas had free areas, which saw up to 25,000 extra spectators at the team jump and 75,000 extra spectators at the 50 km.

Lillehammer Olympic Bobsleigh and Luge Track is located at Hunderfossen. It had a capacity for 10,000 spectators and is the only bobsleigh and luge track in the Nordic countries. Ice hockey was played at two venues, in Håkons Hall in Lillehammer and Gjøvik Olympic Cavern Hall in Gjøvik. Håkons Hall has a capacity for 10,500 spectators, and also features the Norwegian Olympic Museum. The Cavern Hall is built as a man-made cave and had a capacity for 5,300 spectators. Skating events took place at two venues in Hamar. Vikingskipet had a capacity for 10,600 spectators and featured speed skating events, while figure skating and short-track speed skating were held at Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre. Alpine skiing was split between two ski resorts: Hafjell in Øyer and Kvitfjell in Ringebu. The former was used for the slalom and giant slalom, while the latter hosted downhill and super-G.

Spectators relied heavily on the use of buses and trains for transportation. Downtown Lillehammer and the axis between Lillehammer and Oslo were the most limiting areas, and the Norwegian State Railways ran up to 22 trains per day between Oslo and Lillehammer. Trains were also used northwards towards Trondheim, while other areas were served by bus. All the venues were located along railway lines, making use of spectators walking from the stations to the venues to limit road congestion, although special services were available for disabled people. Shuttle buses were established between venues and also connected to park and ride facilities.

Participating National Olympic Committees
A record 67 nations participated in the 1994 Winter Olympics. These Games were the first to implement stricter qualifying standards that prevented low-performing athletes from competing without meeting minimum requirements. As a consequence, eleven "warm-weather countries" that signed up to take part in the Games were mostly absent because very few of their athletes succeeded in qualifying; the number of African athletes fell from nineteen in 1992 to three in 1994. These rules were, however, not applied to bobsled events, enabling the U.S. Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica to compete in that sport. On 25 October 1993, the United Nations General Assembly urged its members to observe the Olympic truce, lasting from seven days before the start of the Games until seven days after the close, making the Lillehammer Olympics the first to observe the truce. The IOC appealed for a truce in the ongoing Bosnian War and the Siege of Sarajevo, the city that had hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics.

The former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan participated as independent nations. This was the first time since the 1912 Summer Olympics that Russia competed independently at the Olympic Games. Athletes of these countries previously competed in the Winter Olympics as part of the Soviet Union team until 1991. The Czech Republic and Slovakia participated for the first time, after the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Bosnia and Herzegovina made their Olympic debut, following their independence from Yugoslavia in 1992; the composition of their four-man bob team was one Croat, two Bosniaks and a Serb, mirroring the ethnic diversity of the country. This was also Israel's first appearance at the Winter Olympics and a member of the European Olympic Committees. American Samoa participated for the first time, as did Trinidad and Tobago.

Number of athletes by National Olympic Committee
1,737 athletes from 67 NOCs

Calendar

 * All dates are in Central European Time (UTC+1)

Medal table
Russia won the most golds, while Norway won the most medals overall. The following table presents the top ten nations, sorted by gold medals, with the host nation highlighted.

title: 1994 Winter Olympics


text:
Talk:Adele Goldberg

Untitled
Is the Adele Goldberg, linguist the same person as Adele Goldberg, computer scientist (Smalltalk)? I doubt it. --HJH

Most certainly not. - Ambarish

The confusion probably arose from this page which lists the computer scientist's publications, but which links to one of the linguist's homepages. (It uses some silly automatic "HomePageSearch" system.) -- Oliver P. 03:18 15 Jun 2003 (UTC)

title: Talk:Adele Goldberg


text:
Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox

"Hadda be Playin' on the Jukebox" is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1975. The "Hadda" of the poem is Hadda Brooks (October 29, 1916 – November 21, 2002), the American pianist, vocalist and composer, who was billed as "Queen of the Boogie".

Background
Many of the themes of "Hadda be Playin' on the Jukebox" were recurring in Ginsberg's poetry. Police violence, student revolt and corporations, for example, had been previously touched on in his 1974 "Thoughts on a Breath", and conspiracies surrounding the state security apparatus would be explored in 1980, in "Birdbrain!". That same year, in "Capitol Air", he would compare America's Attica with Russia's "Lubyanka wall". Ginsberg's own view on both his political poems and the events they describe was occasionally critical. In Indian Journals, he wrote "I shouldn't waste my time on America like this. It may be patriotic / but it isn't good art".

Subject and style
The poem frames various events of the 1960s and 1970s, including the Kennedy assassination and the Kent State massacre, as part of a larger trend. Ginsberg refers to the Cold War as "gang wars across oceans", and calls capitalism a "vortex of this rage" and a competition "man to man."

One of Ginsberg's "spontaneous" poems, it has a "long-breathed rolling rhythm", with an emphasis on hard, single facts presented one at a time over an ever-increasing energy. The poem reflects, too, says Paul Berman, Ginsberg's sense of "impotence" at being unable to change—or even convey—the "hypocrisy and criminality" he saw in American foreign policy and domestic politics. Hilton Kramer posits that although a motif of conspiracy runs through the poem, Ginsberg is not actually supporting such a view of history as factual; rather, he is demonstrating "what runaway paranoia looks like"

The reiterated phrase "Hadda be..." is heard at the beginning of every line, giving each line rhythm, It has been taken to indicate a sense of futility by Ginsberg, in that there was nothing anyone could have done to have prevented the litany of outrages he described, and yet which remorselessly occurred. Possibly, suggests Berman, it is also indicating Ginsberg's sorrow: "as if he were saying, 'Why did it have to be you, America, that these things happened to?'".

Organizations and events referenced

 * NKVD - CIA
 * OGPU - DIA
 * KGB - FBI
 * Attica Prison Riots
 * Bay of Pigs Invasion
 * Cold War
 * Kennedy assassination
 * Kent State shootings
 * Vietnam War

People referenced

 * Frank Costello
 * Rockefeller
 * J. Edgar Hoover
 * John F. Kennedy
 * Kissinger
 * Lucky Luciano

Critical reception
Willard Spiegelman has described "Hadda be Playin' on the Jukebox" as a rap poem utilising what appears to be "an improvised set of variations". The poem, says Spiegelman, begins relatively neutrally but becomes increasingly political: "a denunciation of organised crime and its connections to national politics".

Ginsberg's technique is to comment with ever-increasing belligerence regarding events of ever-increasing significance.

It concludes with a critical note referencing the United States' role on the world stage, and ends in a "final vision of international mayhem".

Publication
"Hadda Be Playin' On The Jukebox" was first published in 1978 as part of Mind Breaths. This was a collection of poetry Ginsberg had written between 1972 and 1977. It was number 35 in the City Lights Pocket Poets series.

Reworking
It has been performed live, with accompanying music, by the rap metal band Rage Against the Machine, appearing on their album Live & Rare, originally a Japan-only release in 1998.

title: Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox


text:
Talk:Pole

Untitled
Might be an idea to merge North Pole and South Pole, so we have one article that covers geographic & magnetic poles instead of two stubs that the reader has to bounce between. -- Tarquin

Where do polar graphs fit? Polar redirects to this page, which mentions nothing about polar graphs... ugen64 22:38, Mar 17, 2004 (UTC)

It fits in Coordinates (elementary mathematics). I'll make a note on this page. --zandperl 00:34, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Crystallography

 * something to do with crystallography

Uh, so, "A pole has something to do with crystallography". That's not very helpful, is it? - furrykef (Talk at me) 04:07, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Agreed. I removed it -- Serephine / talk - 16:23, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Hey! You go read that page and try to figure out what they're talking about. Here's the sole reference:"The position in 3D space of each crystal face is plotted on a stereographic net, e.g. Wolff net or Lambert net. In fact, the pole to each face is plotted on the net. Each point is labelled with its Miller Index.  The final plot allows the symmetry of the crystal to be established." Note that pole helpfully links back to this disambiguation page. Cheers! Ewlyahoocom 17:38, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Oh believe me I tried, I couldn't figure it out. Because there is only one reference to pole, and it is neither explained nor points to an article which explains its use in this contex, I decided the disambiguation page would have been better off without it. Especially considering the informal way in which it was pasted on the disambig. page - it looks as if someone had simply searched for the world pole in all the articles and found it in crystallography. In any case, linking it back to the disambig. page seems like a good idea, hopefully someone who knows a bit about the subject can provide a bit more of an idea. -- Serephine / talk - 01:06, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Pole and Polar on one page
Why are "pole" and "polar" lumped together on one page? Wouldn't it be better to split it into two separate disambiguation pages? Kpalion 09:12, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Well, it's certainly possbile. About 1/4th of the entries are Polar, although 2/3rds of those are names (I guess Pole doesn't have the same frosty connotations). I do hate to break up Polar circle and Polar climate and North pole and South pole. I'll try adding another section. Did you have a problem finding a particular entry (or finding that it isn't here)? Ewlyahoocom 12:18, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I think that they should be split up. Very few of the entries would be listed on both pages and it would be easier to find things. A link to the other page could be put on both disambiguation pages. -- Kjkolb 23:02, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Category for the unit
I have moved the unit of length from "Cylindrical objects" to "Science, technology, and mathematics" since a unit of length is neither cylindrical nor an object. I don't think the etymology ought to be determinative because otherwise the vast majority of the definitions ought to be in "cylindrical objects" since most uses of the word "pole" are ultimately derived from the word for a rod-shaped object. -- Ian Jackson 22 August 2010

ERROR!!!
Pole - unit of length and area. Is NOT derived from the cubit. A Pole is the length of a plough team from the horses nose to the ploughmans heels, and is 16 foot 6 inches. Your definition in this article is incorrect. It is an Old English measurement, and still used in some rural parts of lincolnshire, especially for allotments, a standard size for an allotment is 17 poles (ie 17 x (16 feet 6 inches x 16 feet 6 inches)

82.21.207.51 (talk) 12:48, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Section Title
What in the world is the "Politics" section doing being labelled as such, and containing such links as "Axle", "Polar", "Polarity", and "Quarterstaff"? I'd rename it myself, but I'm not sure what the traditional name for an "other" section on a disambiguation page is. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hawk777 (talk • contribs) 23:33, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

Magnetic pole shift on the earth
The earth can not flip magnetic poles. It is a fact the the measurement taken show opposite pole shift however those areas were also impacted by meteors which would of disrupted the magnetic flow below the crust causing eddy currents. The stones/materials that were tested had shown magnetite southern pole settings. Poles don’t flip. Show me proof that measurement were taken along a longitudinal line from pole to pole. Brian sauve (talk) 11:53, 28 November 2017 (UTC)

post-move discussion
In Talk:Polish people, Poles was moved here. https://wikinav.toolforge.org/?language=en&title=Pole for March '23 shows the Polish people are still the most commonly looked up topic, individually significantly ahead of the other entries, and overall 648 outgoing clicks out of 2.5k incoming views (~26%), so I reformatted the list to restore that entry at the top. --Joy (talk) 16:00, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

We can still track the readership of the redirects at |Pole|Poles_(people) monthly pageviews stats. So for example WikiNav for January '24 says there were 639 outgoing clickstreams to Polish people, and there were 510 views of the redirect and 2900 views of the list, meaning that's either ~22% or possibly much more for "Poles".

We'd have to split off the plural into its own list to be able to measure clickstreams for that specifically, but because of the topical redirect Poles (people), we can at least vaguely compare its traffic of 884 to the total incoming traffic to see ~30.5%. --Joy (talk) 22:09, 3 March 2024 (UTC)

Note that the traffic for the topical redirect is also impacted by 82 incoming links to it. --Joy (talk) 08:57, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Pole


text:
Large-group awareness training

The term large-group awareness training (LGAT) refers to activities - usually offered by groups with links to the human potential movement - which claim to increase self-awareness and to bring about desirable transformations in individuals' personal lives. LGATs are unconventional; they often take place over several days, and may compromise participants' mental wellbeing.

LGAT programs may involve several hundred people at a time. Though early definitions cited LGATs as featuring unusually long durations, more recent texts describe trainings lasting from a few hours to a few days.

Forsyth and Corazzini cite Lieberman (1994) as suggesting "that at least 1.3 million Americans have taken part in LGAT sessions".

Definitions of LGAT
In 2005 Rubinstein compared large-group awareness training to certain principles of cognitive therapy, such as the idea that people can change their lives by reinterpreting the way they view external circumstances.

In the 1997 collection of essays Consumer Research: Postcards from the edge, discussing behavioral and economic studies, the authors contrast the "enclosed locations" used in Large Group Awareness Trainings with the relatively open environment of a "variety store".

The Handbook of Group Psychotherapy (1994) characterised Large Group Awareness Training as focusing on "philosophical, psychological and ethical issues" relating "to personal effectiveness, decision-making, personal responsibility, and commitment."

Psychologist Dennis Coon's textbook, Psychology: A Journey, defines the term "Large-group awareness training" as referring to programs claiming "to increase self-awareness and facilitate constructive personal change". Coon further defines Large Group Awareness Training in his book Introduction to Psychology. Coon and Mitterer emphasize the commercial nature of several LGAT organizations.

The evolution of LGAT providers
Lou Kilzer, writing in The Rocky Mountain News, identified Leadership Dynamics (in operation 1967–1973) as "the first of the genre psychologists call 'large group awareness training'". Leadership Dynamics directly or indirectly influenced several permutations of large-group transformation trainings. Werner Erhard (successively associated with Erhard Seminars Training (est or EST), WE&A and Landmark Education) trained as an instructor with Mind Dynamics. Michael Langone notes that Erhard Seminars Training (est) became in the popular mind the archetype for LGATs.

While working for Holiday Magic, Lifespring founder John Hanley attended a course at Leadership Dynamics. Chris Mathe, at the time a PhD candidate in clinical psychology, wrote that most of the current commercial forms of Large Group Awareness Training were modeled after the Leadership Dynamics Institute.

Academic analyses, studies
"Large Group Awareness Training", a 1982 peer-reviewed article published in Annual Review of Psychology, sought to summarize literature on the subject of LGATs and to examine their efficacy and their relationship with more standard psychology. This academic article describes and analyzes large group awareness training as influenced by the work of humanistic psychologists such as Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow and Rollo May.

LGATs as commercial trainings took many techniques from encounter groups. They existed alongside but "outside the domains of academic psychology or psychiatry. Their measure of performance was consumer satisfaction and formal research was seldom pursued."

The article describes an est training, and discusses the literature on the testimony of est graduates. It notes minor changes on psychological tests after the training and mentions anecdotal reports of psychiatric casualties among est trainees. The article considers how est compares to more standard psychotherapy techniques such as behavior therapy, group and existential psychotherapy before concluding with a call for "objective and rigorous research" and stating that unknown variables might have accounted for some of the positive accounts. Psychologists advised borderline or psychotic patients not to participate.

Psychological factors cited by academics include emotional "flooding", catharsis, universality (identification with others), the instillation of hope, identification and what Sartre called "uncontested authorship".

In 1989 researchers from the University of Connecticut received the "National Consultants to Management Award" from the American Psychological Association for their study: Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training.

Psychologist Chris Mathe has written in the interests of consumer-protection, encouraging potential attendees of LGATs to discuss such trainings with any current therapist or counselor, to examine the principles underlying the program, and to determine pre-screening methods, the training of facilitators, the full cost of the training and of any suggested follow-up care. One study noted the many difficulties in evaluating LGATs, from proponents' explicit rejection of certain study models to difficulty in establishing a rigorous control group. In some cases, organizations under study have partially funded research into themselves.

Not all professional researchers view LGATs favorably. Researchers such as psychologist Philip Cushman, for example, found that the program he studied "consists of a pre-meditated attack on the self". A 1983 study on Lifespring found that "although participants often experience a heightened sense of well-being as a consequence of the training, the phenomenon is essentially pathological", meaning that, in the program studied, "the training systematically undermines ego functioning and promotes regression to the extent that reality testing is significantly impaired". Lieberman's 1987 study, funded partially by Lifespring, noted that 5 out of a sample of 289 participants experienced "stress reactions" including one "transitory psychotic episode". He commented: "Whether [these five] would have experienced such stress under other conditions cannot be answered. The clinical evidence, however, is that the reactions were directly attributable to the large group awareness training."

In 2003 the Vatican reported its study results about New Age training courses:

"New Age training courses (what used to be known as 'Erhard seminar trainings' [EST] etc.) marry counter-cultural values with the mainstream need to succeed, inner satisfaction with outer success ..."

In Coon's psychology textbook (Introduction to Psychology) the author references many other studies, which postulate that many of the "claimed benefits" of Large Group Awareness Training actually take the form of "a kind of therapy placebo effect".

Jarvis described Large Group Awareness Training as "educationally dubious" in the 2002 book The Theory & Practice of Teaching.

Tapper mentions that "some large group-awareness training and psychotherapy groups" exemplify non-religious "cults". Benjamin criticizes LGAT groups for their high prices and spiritual subtleties.

LGAT techniques
Specific techniques used in some Large Group Awareness Trainings may include:

 * meditation
 * biofeedback
 * jargon
 * self-hypnosis
 * relaxation techniques
 * visualization
 * neuro-linguistic programming
 * yoga

LGATs utilize such techniques during long sessions, sometimes called "marathon" sessions. Paglia describes "EST's Large Group Awareness Training": "Marathon, eight-hour sessions, in which [participants] were confined and harassed, supposedly led to the breakdown of conventional ego, after which they were in effect born again."

Finkelstein's 1982 article provides a detailed description of the structure and techniques of an Erhard Seminars Training event - techniques similar to those used in some group therapy and encounter groups. The academic textbook, Handbook of Group Psychotherapy regards Large Group Awareness Training organisations as "less open to leader differences", because they follow a "detailed written plan" that does not vary from one training to the next.

In his book Life 102, LGAT participant and former trainer Peter McWilliams describes the basic technique of marathon trainings as pressure/release and asserts that advertising uses pressure/release "all the time", as do "good cop/bad cop" police-interrogations and revival meetings. By spending approximately half the time making a person feel bad and then suddenly reversing the feeling through effusive praise, the programs cause participants to experience a stress-reaction and an "endorphin high". McWilliams gives examples of various LGAT activities called processes with names such as "love bomb," "lifeboat", "cocktail party" and "cradling", which take place over many hours and days, physically exhausting the participants to make them more susceptible to the trainer's message, whether in the participants' best interests or not.

Although extremely critical of some LGATs, McWilliams found positive value in others, asserting that they varied not in technique but in the application of technique.

LGATs and the anti-cult movement
After commissioning a report in 1983 by the APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control (DIMPAC) chaired by anti-cult psychologist Margaret Singer, the American Psychological Association (APA) subsequently rejected and strongly criticised the 1986 DIMPAC report, which included large group awareness trainings as one example of what it called "coercive persuasion". In 1997 the APA characterized Singer's hypotheses as "uninformed speculations based on skewed data". It stated in 1987 that the report generally lacked "the scientific rigor and evenhanded critical approach necessary for APA imprimatur." The APA also stated that "the specific methods by which Drs. Singer and Benson have arrived at their conclusions have also been rejected by all serious scholars in the field." Singer sued the APA, and lost on June 17, 1994. Despite the APA rejection of her task-force's report, Singer remained in good standing among psychology researchers. Singer reworked much of the DIMPAC report material into the book Cults in Our Midst (1995, second edition: 2003), which she co-authored with Janja Lalich.

Singer and Lalich state that "large group awareness trainings" tend to last at least four days and usually five. Their book mentions Erhard Seminars Training ("est") and similar undertakings, such as the Landmark Forum, Lifespring, Actualizations, MSIA/Insight and PSI Seminars.

In Cults in our Midst, Singer differentiated between the usage of the terms cult and Large Group Awareness Training, while pointing out some commonalities. Elsewhere she groups the two phenomena together, in that they both use a shared set of thought-reform techniques.

Articles

 * Polaski, Mary. "The Mary Polaski "L" Series"
 * Polaski, Mary. "The Mary Polaski "L" Series"
 * Polaski, Mary. "The Mary Polaski "L" Series"
 * Polaski, Mary. "The Mary Polaski "L" Series"
 * Polaski, Mary. "The Mary Polaski "L" Series"
 * Polaski, Mary. "The Mary Polaski "L" Series"
 * Polaski, Mary. "The Mary Polaski "L" Series"
 * Polaski, Mary. "The Mary Polaski "L" Series"
 * Polaski, Mary. "The Mary Polaski "L" Series"

title: Large-group awareness training