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Broadcasting

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began with AM radio, which came into popular use around 1920 with the spread of vacuum tube radio transmitters and receivers. Before this, most implementations of electronic communication (early radio, telephone, and telegraph) were one-to-one, with the message intended for a single recipient. The term broadcasting evolved from its use as the agricultural method of sowing seeds in a field by casting them broadly about. It was later adopted for describing the widespread distribution of information by printed materials or by telegraph. Examples applying it to "one-to-many" radio transmissions of an individual station to multiple listeners appeared as early as 1898.

Over-the-air broadcasting is usually associated with radio and television, though more recently, both radio and television transmissions have begun to be distributed by cable (cable television). The receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively small subset; the point is that anyone with the appropriate receiving technology and equipment (e.g., a radio or television set) can receive the signal. The field of broadcasting includes both government-managed services such as public radio, community radio and public television, and private commercial radio and commercial television. The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, title 47, part 97 defines broadcasting as "transmissions intended for reception by the general public, either direct or relayed". Private or two-way telecommunications transmissions do not qualify under this definition. For example, amateur ("ham") and citizens band (CB) radio operators are not allowed to broadcast. As defined, transmitting and broadcasting are not the same.

Transmission of radio and television programs from a radio or television station to home receivers by radio waves is referred to as over the air (OTA) or terrestrial broadcasting and in most countries requires a broadcasting license. Transmissions using a wire or cable, like cable television (which also retransmits OTA stations with their consent), are also considered broadcasts but do not necessarily require a license (though in some countries, a license is required). In the 2000s, transmissions of television and radio programs via streaming digital technology have increasingly been referred to as broadcasting as well.

History
The earliest broadcasting consisted of sending telegraph signals over the airwaves, using Morse code, a system developed in the 1830s by Samuel Morse, physicist Joseph Henry and Alfred Vail. They developed an electrical telegraph system which sent pulses of electric current along wires which controlled an electromagnet that was located at the receiving end of the telegraph system. A code was needed to transmit natural language using only these pulses, and the silence between them. Morse therefore developed the forerunner to modern International Morse code. This was particularly important for ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication, but it became increasingly important for business and general news reporting, and as an arena for personal communication by radio amateurs.

In 1894, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi began developing a wireless communication using the then-newly discovered phenomenon of radio waves, showing by 1901 that they could be transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean. This was the start of wireless telegraphy by radio. Audio radio broadcasting began experimentally in the first decade of the 20th century. On 17 December 1902, a transmission from the Marconi station in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, became the world's first radio message to cross the Atlantic from North America. In 1904, a commercial service was established to transmit nightly news summaries to subscribing ships, which incorporated them into their onboard newspapers.

World War I accelerated the development of radio for military communications. After the war, commercial radio AM broadcasting began in the 1920s and became an important mass medium for entertainment and news. World War II again accelerated the development of radio for the wartime purposes of aircraft and land communication, radio navigation, and radar. Development of stereo FM broadcasting of radio began in the 1930s in the United States and the 1970s in the United Kingdom, displacing AM as the dominant commercial standard.

On 25 March 1925, John Logie Baird demonstrated the transmission of moving pictures at the London department store Selfridges. Baird's device relied upon the Nipkow disk and thus became known as the mechanical television. It formed the basis of experimental broadcasts done by the British Broadcasting Corporation beginning on 30 September 1929. However, for most of the 20th century, televisions depended on the cathode ray tube invented by Karl Braun. The first version of such a television to show promise was produced by Philo Farnsworth and demonstrated to his family on 7 September 1927. After World War II, interrupted experiments resumed and television became an important home entertainment broadcast medium, using VHF and UHF spectrum. Satellite broadcasting was initiated in the 1960s and moved into general industry usage in the 1970s, with DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellites) emerging in the 1980s.

Originally, all broadcasting was composed of analog signals using analog transmission techniques but in the 2000s, broadcasters switched to digital signals using digital transmission. An analog signal is any continuous signal representing some other quantity, i.e., analogous to another quantity. For example, in an analog audio signal, the instantaneous signal voltage varies continuously with the pressure of the sound waves. In contrast, a digital signal represents the original time-varying quantity as a sampled sequence of quantized values which imposes some bandwidth and dynamic range constraints on the representation. In general usage, broadcasting most frequently refers to the transmission of information and entertainment programming from various sources to the general public:
 * Analog audio radio (AM, FM) vs. digital audio radio (HD radio), digital audio broadcasting (DAB), satellite radio and digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)
 * Analog television vs. digital television
 * Wireless

The world's technological capacity to receive information through one-way broadcast networks more than quadrupled during the two decades from 1986 to 2007, from 432 exabytes of (optimally compressed) information, to 1.9 zettabytes. This is the information equivalent of 55 newspapers per person per day in 1986, and 175 newspapers per person per day by 2007.

Methods
In a broadcast system, the central high-powered broadcast tower transmits a high-frequency electromagnetic wave to numerous receivers. The high-frequency wave sent by the tower is modulated with a signal containing visual or audio information. The receiver is then tuned so as to pick up the high-frequency wave and a demodulator is used to retrieve the signal containing the visual or audio information. The broadcast signal can be either analog (signal is varied continuously with respect to the information) or digital (information is encoded as a set of discrete values).

Historically, there have been several methods used for broadcasting electronic media audio and video to the general public:
 * Telephone broadcasting (1881–1932): the earliest form of electronic broadcasting (not counting data services offered by stock telegraph companies from 1867, if ticker-tapes are excluded from the definition). Telephone broadcasting began with the advent of Théâtrophone ("Theatre Phone") systems, which were telephone-based distribution systems allowing subscribers to listen to live opera and theatre performances over telephone lines, created by French inventor Clément Ader in 1881. Telephone broadcasting also grew to include telephone newspaper services for news and entertainment programming which were introduced in the 1890s, primarily located in large European cities. These telephone-based subscription services were the first examples of electrical/electronic broadcasting and offered a wide variety of programming.
 * Radio broadcasting (experimentally from 1906, commercially from 1920); audio signals sent through the air as radio waves from a transmitter, picked up by an antenna and sent to a receiver. Radio stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common radio programs, either in broadcast syndication, simulcast or subchannels.
 * Television broadcasting (telecast), experimentally from 1925, commercially from the 1930s: an extension of radio to include video signals.
 * Cable radio (also called cable FM, from 1928) and cable television (from 1932): both via coaxial cable, originally serving principally as transmission media for programming produced at either radio or television stations, but later expanding into a broad universe of cable-originated channels.
 * Direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) (from c. 1974) and satellite radio (from c. 1990): meant for direct-to-home broadcast programming (as opposed to studio network uplinks and down-links), provides a mix of traditional radio or television broadcast programming, or both, with dedicated satellite radio programming. (See also: Satellite television)
 * Webcasting of video/television (from c. 1993) and audio/radio (from c. 1994) streams: offers a mix of traditional radio and television station broadcast programming with dedicated Internet radio and Internet television.

Economic models
There are several means of providing financial support for continuous broadcasting:
 * Commercial broadcasting: for-profit, usually privately owned stations, channels, networks, or services providing programming to the public, supported by the sale of air time to advertisers for radio or television advertisements during or in breaks between programs, often in combination with cable or pay cable subscription fees.
 * Public broadcasting: usually non-profit, publicly owned stations or networks supported by license fees, government funds, grants from foundations, corporate underwriting, audience memberships, contributions or a combination of these.
 * Community broadcasting: a form of mass media in which a television station, or a radio station, is owned, operated or programmed, by a community group to provide programs of local interest known as local programming. Community stations are most commonly operated by non-profit groups or cooperatives; however, in some cases they may be operated by a local college or university, a cable company or a municipal government.
 * Internet Webcast: the audience pays to recharge and buy virtual gifts for the anchor, and the platform converts the gifts into virtual currency. The anchor withdraws the virtual currency, which is drawn by the platform. If the anchor belongs to a trade union, it will be settled by the trade union and the live broadcasting platform, and the anchor will get the salary and part of the bonus. This is the most common profit model of live broadcast products.

Broadcasters may rely on a combination of these business models. For example, in the United States, National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS, television) supplement public membership subscriptions and grants with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which is allocated bi-annually by Congress. US public broadcasting corporate and charitable grants are generally given in consideration of underwriting spots which differ from commercial advertisements in that they are governed by specific FCC restrictions, which prohibit the advocacy of a product or a "call to action".

Recorded and live forms
The first regular television broadcasts started in 1937. Broadcasts can be classified as recorded or live. The former allows correcting errors, and removing superfluous or undesired material, rearranging it, applying slow-motion and repetitions, and other techniques to enhance the program. However, some live events like sports television can include some of the aspects including slow-motion clips of important goals/hits, etc., in between the live television telecast. American radio-network broadcasters habitually forbade prerecorded broadcasts in the 1930s and 1940s, requiring radio programs played for the Eastern and Central time zones to be repeated three hours later for the Pacific time zone (See: Effects of time on North American broadcasting). This restriction was dropped for special occasions, as in the case of the German dirigible airship Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in 1937. During World War II, prerecorded broadcasts from war correspondents were allowed on U.S. radio. In addition, American radio programs were recorded for playback by Armed Forces Radio radio stations around the world.

A disadvantage of recording first is that the public may learn the outcome of an event before the recording is broadcast, which may be a spoiler. Prerecording may be used to prevent announcers from deviating from an officially approved script during a live radio broadcast, as occurred with propaganda broadcasts from Germany in the 1940s and with Radio Moscow in the 1980s. Many events are advertised as being live, although they are often recorded live (sometimes called "live-to-tape"). This is particularly true of performances of musical artists on radio when they visit for an in-studio concert performance. Similar situations have occurred in television production ("The Cosby Show is recorded in front of a live television studio audience") and news broadcasting.

A broadcast may be distributed through several physical means. If coming directly from the radio studio at a single station or television station, it is sent through the studio/transmitter link to the transmitter and hence from the television antenna located on the radio masts and towers out to the world. Programming may also come through a communications satellite, played either live or recorded for later transmission. Networks of stations may simulcast the same programming at the same time, originally via microwave link, now usually by satellite. Distribution to stations or networks may also be through physical media, such as magnetic tape, compact disc (CD), DVD, and sometimes other formats. Usually these are included in another broadcast, such as when electronic news gathering (ENG) returns a story to the station for inclusion on a news programme.

The final leg of broadcast distribution is how the signal gets to the listener or viewer. It may come over the air as with a radio station or television station to an antenna and radio receiver, or may come through cable television or cable radio (or wireless cable) via the station or directly from a network. The Internet may also bring either internet radio or streaming media television to the recipient, especially with multicasting allowing the signal and bandwidth to be shared. The term broadcast network is often used to distinguish networks that broadcast over-the-air television signals that can be received using a tuner inside a television set with a television antenna from so-called networks that are broadcast only via cable television (cablecast) or satellite television that uses a dish antenna. The term broadcast television can refer to the television programs of such networks.

Social impact
The sequencing of content in a broadcast is called a schedule. As with all technological endeavors, a number of technical terms and slang have developed. A list of these terms can be found at List of broadcasting terms. Television and radio programs are distributed through radio broadcasting or cable, often both simultaneously. By coding signals and having a cable converter box with decoding equipment in homes, the latter also enables subscription-based channels, pay-tv and pay-per-view services. In his essay, John Durham Peters wrote that communication is a tool used for dissemination. Peters stated, "Dissemination is a lens—sometimes a usefully distorting one—that helps us tackle basic issues such as interaction, presence, and space and time ... on the agenda of any future communication theory in general". Dissemination focuses on the message being relayed from one main source to one large audience without the exchange of dialogue in between. It is possible for the message to be changed or corrupted by government officials once the main source releases it. There is no way to predetermine how the larger population or audience will absorb the message. They can choose to listen, analyze, or ignore it. Dissemination in communication is widely used in the world of broadcasting.

Broadcasting focuses on getting a message out and it is up to the general public to do what they wish with it. Peters also states that broadcasting is used to address an open-ended destination. There are many forms of broadcasting, but they all aim to distribute a signal that will reach the target audience. Broadcasters typically arrange audiences into entire assemblies. In terms of media broadcasting, a radio show can gather a large number of followers who tune in every day to specifically listen to that specific disc jockey. The disc jockey follows the script for his or her radio show and just talks into the microphone. He or she does not expect immediate feedback from any listeners. The message is broadcast across airwaves throughout the community, but there the listeners cannot always respond immediately, especially since many radio shows are recorded prior to the actual air time. Conversely, receivers can select opt-in or opt-out of getting broadcast messages using an Excel file, offering them control over the information they receive

Broadcast engineering
Broadcast engineering is the field of electrical engineering, and now to some extent computer engineering and information technology, which deals with radio and television broadcasting. Audio engineering and RF engineering are also essential parts of broadcast engineering, being their own subsets of electrical engineering.

Broadcast engineering involves both the studio and transmitter aspects (the entire airchain), as well as remote broadcasts. Every station has a broadcast engineer, though one may now serve an entire station group in a city. In small media markets the engineer may work on a contract basis for one or more stations as needed.

title: Broadcasting


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Talk:Broadcasting

Wiki Education assignment: Digital Communication
— Assignment last updated by Jamie.green-2 (talk) 18:17, 9 March 2023 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Broadcasting


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Leiston

Leiston is a town in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It is close to Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, 21 mi north-east of Ipswich and 90 mi north-east of London. The town had a population of 5,508 at the 2011 Census.

History
The 14th-century remains of Leiston Abbey lie north-west of the town.

Leiston thrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a manufacturing town, dominated by Richard Garrett & Sons, owners of Leiston Works, which boasted the world's first flow assembly line, for the manufacture of portable steam engines. The firm also made steam tractors and a huge variety of cast and machined metal products, including munitions during both world wars. The works closed in 1981 and the site was reused as a mixture of housing, flats and industrial sites. The Long Shop Museum, showing the history, vehicles and products of the works, remains as a heritage tourist attraction.

In 1927, A. S. Neill relocated Summerhill School from Lyme Regis to Leiston. This was the first major "free school" – referring to freedom in education. Children are not required to attend classes and discipline is meted by pupil self-government meetings. Summerhill has inspired a large "free school" movement and more recently, democratic schools in several countries. The school occupies the former mansion of Richard Garrett, owner of Leiston Works.

In the Second World War, RAF Leiston, 1 mi north-west of the town in the neighbouring village of Theberton, sent fighter squadrons of the American 357th Fighter Group to fight the Luftwaffe. Famous American test pilot and fighter ace General Chuck Yeager (later, first to break the sound barrier) flew out of RAF Leiston. The Friends of Leiston Airfield hold a memorial service and flying display at the end of May each year, with veterans and their families attending.

Notable people
In birth order:
 * Ranulf de Glanvill (died 1190), Chief Justiciar of England, founded Leiston Abbey for White Canons in 1183.
 * Richard Garrett (1755–1839) founded the engineering company Richard Garrett and Sons in Leiston.
 * Edward Buckton Lamb (1806–1869), architect, designed St Margaret's Church in Leiston.
 * Newson Garrett (1812–1893), born in Leiston, built up the malting business whose premises were converted into the Snape Maltings concert hall.
 * A. S. Neill (1883–1973), Scottish educationalist, founded the progressive Summerhill School in 1924 and moved it to Leiston in 1927.
 * M. E. Aldrich Rope (1891–1988), born and died in Leiston, was a stained-glass artist in the Arts and Crafts tradition.
 * Paxton Chadwick (1903–1961), artist and illustrator, taught at Summerhill and was Communist chair of Leiston Town Council.

Governance
There is an electoral ward named Leiston, with a population at the 2011 census of 6,360.

Business
Since the closure of Garrett's, the town's economy has been dominated by two nuclear power stations on the coast at Sizewell: the now decommissioned Magnox reactors of Sizewell A, and the more modern 1,200 MW Pressurised Water Reactor of Sizewell B. The 850 MW Greater Gabbard and Galloper offshore wind farms connect to the Leiston substation adjacent to the Sizewell nuclear power station; all supplying power to the 400kV National Grid.

A number of smaller companies operate from industrial areas within the town.

Leiston's High Street serves as the business and market hub of the surrounding agricultural district. The town's facilities include a post office, library, banks, pubs and a range of shops and other services.

Transport
A railway branch spur from the Great Eastern line, known as the Aldeburgh branch line, went from Saxmundham to Aldeburgh, with intermediate stations at Leiston and Thorpeness. On 12 September 1966 British Rail withdrew all passenger services to Leiston and beyond. However, the line to Leiston remained active for the purpose of removing nuclear materials from Sizewell power station.

Leiston has direct bus services to Ipswich, Saxmundham, Aldeburgh, Thorpeness and Halesworth.

Culture
Leiston Film Theatre, a half-timbered building with street front shops, is the oldest purpose-built cinema in Suffolk. The cinema is owned and run by Leiston-cum-Sizewell Town Council and backed by Leiston Film Theatre Support Club, which has raised money for stage refurbishment and enabled the cinema to install a digital 3D projection system.

The town has a traditional Anglican church, St Margaret's, with an ancient tower and an unusual 19th-century nave. There are Roman Catholic and Baptist churches on the edge of the town.

Sport and leisure
The town's football club is Leiston F.C., who as of the 2023–24 season play in the Southern League Premier Central. In November 2008 the team reached the first round of the FA Cup for the first time in its history, drawing 0–0 with Fleetwood Town before losing the replay 2–0.

Leiston also has a leisure centre, a skate park and several parks.

Leiston and Thorpeness Rugby Club was in existence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It closed in 1995, but was revived in March 2010 as Aldeburgh and Thorpeness Rugby Club, with many of the previous club's members.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia. Television signals are received from the Tacolneston TV transmitter and via a local relay transmitter in Aldeburgh.

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Suffolk, Heart East, Greatest Hits Radio Ipswich & Suffolk, and Alde and Blyth Community Radio (ABC), a community based station.

The town's local newspaper is the East Anglian Daily Times.

Education
Other than Summerhill School, Leiston also has conventional primary and secondary schools.

Leiston Primary School caters for pupils aged 5–11 and runs a nursery with 52 places.

Alde Valley Academy is a secondary school with academy status, formerly known as Leiston Community High School, then as Alde Valley School from September 2012, after reorganisation involving the closure of Leiston Middle School and conversion from a 13–18 school to one taking pupils from the age of 11. The school received academy status in January 2015 and was renamed Alde Valley Academy.

In 2001 the school had become a Specialist Technology College, and in following years was named as one of the most improved schools in England. It was the lead school in the Schools Energy Network based at the Orbis Centre in Lowestoft and had strong links with the Sizewell nuclear power stations.

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Richard Wilbur

Richard Purdy Wilbur (March 1, 1921 – October 14, 2017) was an American poet and literary translator. One of the foremost poets of his generation, Wilbur's work, often employing rhyme, and composed primarily in traditional forms, was marked by its wit, charm, and gentlemanly elegance. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987 and received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry twice, in 1957 and 1989.

Early years
Wilbur was born in New York City on March 1, 1921, and grew up in North Caldwell, New Jersey. In 1938 he graduated from Montclair High School, where he worked on the school newspaper. At Amherst College, he also displayed his "ample literary gifts" as one of the "sharpest" reporters for the college newspaper, edited by upperclassman Robert Morgenthau. After graduation in 1942, he served in the United States Army from 1943 to 1945 during World War II. He attended graduate school at Harvard University. Wilbur taught at Wellesley College, then Wesleyan University for two decades and at Smith College for another decade. At Wesleyan he was instrumental in founding the award-winning poetry series of the Wesleyan University Press. He received two Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and taught at Amherst College as late as 2009, where he also served on the editorial board of the literary magazine The Common.

Literary career
When only eight years old, Wilbur published his first poem in John Martin's Magazine. His first book, The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems, appeared in 1947. Thereafter he published several volumes of poetry, including New and Collected Poems (Faber, 1989). Wilbur was also a translator, specializing in the 17th century French comedies of Molière and dramas of Jean Racine. His translation of Tartuffe has become the play's standard English version and has been presented on television twice (a 1978 production is available on DVD). Wilbur also published several children's books, including Opposites, More Opposites, and The Disappearing Alphabet. In 1959 he became the general editor of The Laurel Poetry Series (Dell Publishing).

Continuing the tradition of Robert Frost and W. H. Auden, Wilbur's poetry finds illumination in everyday experiences. Less well-known is Wilbur's foray into writing theatre lyrics. He provided lyrics to several songs in Leonard Bernstein's 1956 musical Candide, including the famous "Glitter and Be Gay" and "Make Our Garden Grow". He also produced several unpublished works, including "The Wing" and "To Beatrice".

His honors included the 1983 Drama Desk Special Award and the PEN Translation Prize for his translation of The Misanthrope, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the National Book Award for Things of This World (1956), the Edna St Vincent Millay award, the Bollingen Prize, and the Chevalier, Ordre des Palmes Académiques. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1959. In 1987 Wilbur became the second poet, after Robert Penn Warren, to be named U.S. Poet Laureate after the position's title was changed from Poetry Consultant. In 1988 he won the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry and in 1989 he won a second Pulitzer, for his New and Collected Poems. On October 14, 1994, he received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton. He also received the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation in 1994. In 2003 Wilbur was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. In 2006 he won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. In 2010 he won the National Translation Award for the translation of The Theatre of Illusion by Pierre Corneille. In 2012 Yale University conferred an honorary Doctor of Letters on Wilbur.

Wilbur died on October 14, 2017, at a nursing home in Belmont, Massachusetts, from natural causes aged 96.

Awards and honors
During his lifetime, Wilbur received numerous awards in recognition of his work, including:

 * Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts (1952, 1963)
 * Poetry Society of America Millay Award (1957)
 * National Book Award for Poetry (1957) for Things of This World
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1957, 1989) for Things of This World, New and Collected Poems
 * Bollingen Prize for Poetry (1971)
 * Shelley Memorial Award (1973)
 * New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical (1973–1974) for Candide
 * Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical (1973–1974) for Candide
 * Drama Desk Special Award (1983) for translation of The Misanthrope
 * United States Poet Laureate (1987–1988)
 * Laurence Olivier Award for Musical of the Year (1988) for Candide
 * St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates
 * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry (1991)
 * Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (1995)
 * PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation (1994)
 * Frost Medal (1996)
 * Wallace Stevens Award (2003)
 * Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (2006)
 * Edward MacDowell Medal (1992)

Poetry collections

 * 1947: The Beautiful Changes, and Other Poems
 * 1950: Ceremony, and Other Poems
 * 1955: A Bestiary
 * 1956: Things of This World – won Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and National Book Award, both in 1957
 * 1961: Advice to a Prophet, and Other Poems
 * 1969: Walking to Sleep: New Poems and Translations
 * 1976: The Mind-Reader: New Poems
 * 1988: New and Collected Poems – won Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1989
 * 2000: Mayflies: New Poems and Translations
 * 2004: Collected Poems, 1943–2004
 * 2010: Anterooms

Editor

 * 2003 Edgar Allan Poe: Poems and Poetics

Prose collections

 * 1976: Responses: Prose Pieces, 1953–1976
 * 1997: The Catbird's Song: Prose Pieces, 1963–1995

Translated from Molière

 * The Misanthrope (1955/1666)
 * Tartuffe (1963/1669)
 * The School for Wives (1971/1662)
 * The Learned Ladies (1978/1672)
 * The School for Husbands (1992/1661)
 * The Imaginary Cuckold, or Sganarelle (1993/1660)
 * Amphitryon (1995/1668)
 * The Bungler (2000/1655)
 * Don Juan (2001/1665)
 * Lovers' Quarrels (2009/1656)
 * Molière: The Complete Richard Wilbur Translations (2021)

From Jean Racine

 * Andromache (1982/1667)
 * Phaedra (1986/1677)
 * The Suitors (2001/1668)

From Pierre Corneille

 * The Theatre of Illusion (2007/1636)
 * Le Cid (2009/1636)
 * The Liar (2009/1643)

title: Richard Wilbur


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Stockholm County

Stockholm County (Stockholms län ) is a county (län) on the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden. It borders Uppsala County and Södermanland County. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stockholm is the capital of Sweden. Stockholm County is divided by the historic provinces of Uppland (Roslagen) and Södermanland (Södertörn). More than one fifth of the Swedish population lives in the county. Stockholm County is also one of the statistical riksområden (national areas) according to NUTS:SE, Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics within the EU. With more than two million inhabitants, Stockholm is the most densely populated county of Sweden.

History
Stockholm County was established in 1714. The City of Stockholm then constituted its own administrative entity under the Governor of Stockholm and was not part of Stockholm County. Though outside Stockholm County, the City of Stockholm was its seat.

On 1 January 1968, Stockholm County was united with the City of Stockholm. At the same time, the borders were redrawn in other directions too; Upplands-Bro Municipality was transferred from Uppsala County and a large part of the modern day Östhammar Municipality was transferred to Uppsala County.

Lakes

 * Flemingsbergsviken
 * Karptjärn
 * Långsjön, Hanveden
 * Lundsjön–Dammsjön
 * Måsnaren
 * Ramsjön, Haninge kommun
 * Segersjön
 * Strålsjön

Economy
The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 145.6 billion € in 2018, accounting for 30.9% of Swedish economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 49,500 € or 164% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 132% of the EU average.

Heraldry
Arms granted in 1968. The arms for the County of Stockholm is a combination of the arms of Uppland, Södermanland and the City of Stockholm. When it is shown with a royal crown it represents the County Administrative Board.

Riksdag
The table details all Riksdag elections held in Stockholm County since the unicameral era began in 1970. Stockholm and the wider county have separate parliamentary constituencies. The latter is named after the county as a whole.

Municipalities
The county of Stockholm comprises 26 political municipalities (kommuner):

Localities by population (2017)
All 132 built-up places (tätorter) in the county are shown below. These refer to contiguous settlements and may straddle municipal (and occasionally county) boundaries.

Population
The current population of Stockholm county is 2,440,027.

Foreign background
SCB have collected statistics on backgrounds of residents since 2002. These tables consist of all who have two foreign-born parents or are born abroad themselves. The chart lists election years and the last year on record alone.

County Administrative Board
Prior to 1968 the County of Stockholm did not include the City of Stockholm. The City was instead under the Office of the Governor of Stockholm, and the County included the surrounding countryside. The County had its separate Governor of Stockholm County.

The main aim of the County Administrative Board is to fulfill the goals set in national politics by the Riksdag and the Government, to coordinate the interests of the county, to promote the development of the county, to establish regional goals and safeguard the due process of law in the handling of each case. The County Administrative Board is a Government Agency headed by a governor.

See List of Stockholm Governors.

County council
The local administration of the county is under Stockholm County Council (Stockholms läns landsting). Its main responsibilities are for the public healthcare system and public transport.

The county council has 149 members elected by proportional representation through elections held in conjunction with the general elections every four years. The county council itself elects the county's executive committee.

The president of the committee also holds the title Commissioner of Finance. The commissioner is Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd, of the Moderate Party. The members of the executive committee (landstingsstyrelsen) represent both the political majority and the opposition, with responsibility for implementing policies approved by the county council.

Elections
Stockholm County contains two multi-seat constituencies for county council elections. Stockholm Municipality makes up the first constituency while the second makes up the rest of the county.

Hospitals
The county council operates most of the hospitals in the county, some of the major facilities are:

 * Karolinska University Hospital. The hospital contains two major facilities; one in Solna and one in Huddinge (since the merger with Huddinge University Hospital in 2004).
 * Södersjukhuset
 * Danderyd Hospital
 * Södertälje Hospital
 * Norrtälje Hospital
 * S:t Erik Ocular Clinic

Public transport
The county council is responsible for the public transport in Stockholm. The main organizers of the transportation system are two publicly owned companies. Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, SL, handles the bus, tram and train services while the boat traffic is handled by Waxholmsbolaget. The operation and maintenance of the public transport systems is delegated by the companies to several contractors.

The county is also responsible for paratransit services and Närtrafiken, a number of share taxi routes.

Culture and education
Besides the health and transportation services, the county council operates Stockholm County Museum, and two agricultural high schools at Berga and Säbyholm.

title: Stockholm County


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Tudor

Tudor most commonly refers to:
 * House of Tudor, Welsh and English royal house of Welsh origins
 * Tudor period, a historical era in England and Wales coinciding with the rule of the Tudor dynasty

Tudor may also refer to:

Architecture

 * Tudor architecture, the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period (1485–1603)
 * Tudor Revival architecture, or Mock Tudor, later emulation of Tudor architecture
 * Tudor House (disambiguation)

People

 * Tudor (name)

Other uses

 * Montres Tudor SA, a Swiss watchmaker owned by Rolex
 * United SportsCar Championship, sponsored by the Tudor watch brand in 2014
 * Tudor Pro Cycling Team, sponsored by Tudor watches since 2022
 * HMS Tudor (P326), a British submarine
 * Tudor, California, unincorporated community, United States
 * Tudor, Mombasa, Kenya
 * The Tudors, a TV series
 * Tudor domain, in molecular biology
 * Tudor rose, the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England
 * Avro Tudor, a type of aeroplane
 * Tudor, a name for two-door sedan body used by some manufacturers
 * Tudor batteries, a brand of batteries
 * Tudor Crisps, a brand of potato crisps

title: Tudor


text:
Glossary of vexillology

Flag terminology is the nomenclature, or system of terms, used in vexillology, the study of flags, to describe precisely the parts, patterns, and other attributes of flags and their display.

Flag types
Banderole: A small flag or streamer carried on the lance of a knight, or a long, narrow flag flown from the masthead of a ship. Banner: Generically, a synonym for a flag of any kind, and in heraldry specifically, a square or rectangular flag whose design is identical to the shield of a coat of arms; also denominated a banner of arms. Burgee: A distinguishing flag of a recreational boating organisation, which commonly has the shape of a pennant. Civil ensign: A version of a national flag that is flown on civil ships to denote their nationality. Civil flag: A version of a national flag that is flown on civil installations or craft. Colour: The flag of a military unit. Corner flag: A small flag flown at each of the corners of a football pitch or other sports field. Courtesy flag: A flag that is flown on a visiting ship in foreign waters as a sign of respect for the foreign nation. Ensign: The flag of any ship or military unit, or, generically, a synonym for any kind of flag. On ships, an ensign is normally flown at the stern. Fanion: A small flag that the French military uses. Gonfalon: A heraldic flag that is suspended and pendent from a crossbar. Guidon: A small flag that a military unit flies; in Scottish heraldry, a smaller version of the standard (see below). Jack: A flag flown from a short jackstaff at the bow of a ship. Pennon: A flag that is wider at the hoist than at the fly. Pipe banner: A decorative flag for Scottish Highland bagpipes. Prayer flag: A kind of flag that is flown along mountain ridges and peaks in the Himalayas in order to bless the surrounding land. Rank flag: A flag that a superior naval officer flies on his flagship or headquarters. Signal flag: A flag or pennant that communicates or signals information that is not heraldic. Standard: In heraldry, a long tapering flag that bears heraldic badges and the motto of the armiger; it may also refer to a military colour that cavalry units fly or a royal standard of a monarch or member of a royal family. State flag: A version of a national flag that represents and may be restricted in use only to the national government and agencies thereof; the design of many state flags consists of the civil flag (see above) defaced with a coat of arms or other heraldic charge. Vexilloid: A flag-like object that is used in a similar symbolic manner as a flag, but that differs from a conventional flag in some way. Vexillum: A flag-like object that is suspended from a horizontal crossbar; the Ancient Roman army used it as its military standard. War flag: A variant of a national flag that a nation's military forces use on land. Windsock: A conical textile tube that is used to indicate the direction and strength of wind.

Flag elements

Badge: A coat of arms or simple heraldic symbol. Canton: Any quarter of a flag, but commonly means the upper hoist quarter, such as the field of stars in the flag of the United States or the Union Jack in the Australian Flag. Charge: A figure or symbol appearing in the field of a flag. Emblem: A device often used as a charge on a flag. It may be heraldic in origin or modern, for example the maple leaf on the Canadian Flag. Field: The background of a flag; the color behind the charges. Fimbriation: A narrow edging or border, often in white or gold, on a flag to separate two other colors. For example the white and gold lines of the South African Flag. Finial: A decorative or protective cap atop the flagpole. Often shaped like a sphere, but can also be a shape with heraldic significance, such as a spear or an eagle. Sometimes referred to as a capper. Fly: The half or edge of a flag farthest away from the flagpole. This term also sometimes refers to the horizontal length of a flag. Heading: A piece of loose fabric running along the hoist for attaching a flag to its rope. Hoist: The half or edge of a flag nearest to the flagpole. This term also sometimes refers to the vertical dimension of a flag. Length: The span of a flag along the side at right angles to the flagpole. Width or breadth: The span of a flag down the side parallel to the flagpole.

Basic patterns
Flags often inherit traits seen in traditional European heraldry designs, and as a result, patterns often share names.

Techniques in flag display
Distress: Flying the flag upside-down, or tying it into a wheft. Half-mast: A style of flag display where the flag is flown at least the width of the flag between the top of the flag and the top of the pole. Hoist: The act or function of raising a flag, as on a rope. Lower: The act or function of taking down a flag, as on a rope.

Illustrations
Flag illustrations generally depict flags flying from the observer's point of view from left to right, the view known as the obverse (or "front"); the other side is the reverse (or "back"). There are some exceptions, notably some Islamic flags inscribed in Arabic, which is written from right to left; for these the obverse is defined as the side with the hoist to the observer's right.

title: Glossary of vexillology


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Charles MacArthur

Charles Gordon MacArthur (November 5, 1895 – April 21, 1956) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and 1935 winner of the Academy Award for Best Story.

Life and career
MacArthur was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the sixth of seven children of stern evangelist William Telfer MacArthur and Georgiana Welsted MacArthur. Early in life, MacArthur developed a passion for reading. Declining to follow his father into ministry, he moved to the Midwest and soon became a successful reporter in Chicago, working for the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Daily News. MacArthur joined the United States Army for World War I, and served in France as a private assigned to Battery F, 149th Field Artillery, a unit of the 42nd Division, The Rainbow Division. He recounted his wartime experience in 1919's A Bug's-Eye View of the War. After the war, he wrote several short stories, two of which, "Hang It All" (1921) and "Rope" (1923), were published in H. L. Mencken's The Smart Set magazine. Eventually he settled in New York City, where he turned to playwriting.

MacArthur is best known for his plays in collaboration with Ben Hecht, Ladies and Gentlemen (filmed as Perfect Strangers), Twentieth Century and the frequently filmed The Front Page, which was based in part on MacArthur's experiences at the City News Bureau of Chicago. MacArthur also co-wrote, with Edward Sheldon, the play Lulu Belle, which was staged in 1926 by David Belasco.

MacArthur was friends with members of the Algonquin Round Table, shared an apartment with Robert Benchley and had an affair with Dorothy Parker.

His second marriage was to the stage and screen actress Helen Hayes, from 1928 until his death. They lived in Nyack, New York. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Mary, who died of polio in 1949 at the age of 19. The shock of her death hastened MacArthur's own, according to those who knew him. Their adopted son, James MacArthur, was also an actor, best known for playing Danny "Danno" Williams on the very popular American television series Hawaii Five-O.

His brother, John D. MacArthur, was an insurance-company owner and executive, and founded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the benefactor of the MacArthur Fellowships.

Awards and nominations
Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story - The Scoundrel (shared with Ben Hecht) (1936)
 * Nominations:
 * Best Writing, Screenplay - Wuthering Heights (shared with Ben Hecht) in 1940
 * Best Writing, Original Story - Rasputin and the Empress in 1934

In 1983, MacArthur was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Film portrayal
MacArthur was portrayed by Matthew Broderick in the 1994 film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.

Plays

 * Swan Song (1946), (with Ben Hecht)
 * Ladies and Gentlemen (1939), (with Ben Hecht), made into the 1950 film Perfect Strangers
 * Spring Tonic, made into the 1935 movie of the same name
 * Johnny on a Spot
 * Jumbo, (with Ben Hecht), made into the 1935 musical play Jumbo and the 1962 film musical Billy Rose's Jumbo
 * Twentieth Century (with Ben Hecht), made into the 1934 film Twentieth Century
 * The Front Page (1928), with Ben Hecht, made into the 1931, 1945, and 1974 motion pictures of the same name, the 1940 film His Girl Friday, and the 1988 movie Switching Channels
 * Lulu Belle (1926), (with Edward Sheldon)

Screenplays

 * Wuthering Heights (1939)
 * Gunga Din (1939)
 * Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) (uncredited)
 * King of Gamblers (1937), aka Czar of the Slot Machines (uncredited)
 * Soak the Rich (1936)
 * The Scoundrel (1935)
 * Barbary Coast (1935)
 * Once in a Blue Moon (1935)
 * Crime Without Passion (1934) (also directed by him and Ben Hecht)
 * Topaze (1933)
 * Freaks (1932) (uncredited)
 * Rasputin and the Empress (1932)
 * The Unholy Garden (1931)
 * Quick Millions (1931) (uncredited)
 * Hell Divers (1931)
 * New Adventures of Get Rich Quick Wallingford (1931)
 * The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)
 * Paid (1930)
 * Way for a Sailor (1930)
 * King of Jazz (1930) (uncredited)
 * Billy the Kid (1930)
 * The Girl Said No (1930)

title: Charles MacArthur


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Durandal (disambiguation)

Durandal or Durendal is the legendary sword of the French hero Roland.

Durandal may also refer to:

Military:
 * Durandal-class destroyer, a group of four destroyers built for the French Navy between 1896 and 1900, used during the First World War
 * French destroyer Durandal, the name ship of her class
 * Matra Durandal, an anti-runway penetration bomb
 * SNCASE SE.212 Durandal, a French prototype fighter aircraft

Arts and entertainment:
 * Durendal (journal), a Belgian literary and cultural review (1894-1921)
 * Durandal (novel), a novel by Harold Lamb
 * Marathon 2: Durandal, 1995 video game
 * Gilbert Durandal, a character in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny

People:
 * Segundo Durandal (1912–1976), Bolivian football defender

Places:
 * Durandal is the name of a rock off the coast of Île Amsterdam in the Indian Ocean.

title: Durandal (disambiguation)


text:
Talk:Clifford Harper

Harper's images copyright status
Are Harper's images in the public domain? Otherwise, there may be copyright issues with these images. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.253.40.206 (talk • contribs) 2002-10-20T07:11:06

 * I'll ask him next time I see him to make sure but I'mm 99.9999999999999999% sure that he would not have a problem with his pics being here —Preceding unsigned comment added by Quercusrobur (talk • contribs) 2002-10-20T16:04:00

Agraphia
Moved from Agraphia- is it necesary to have a page explaining an external (to wikipedia) website when one might as well just go straight to the website? (Bloody good website though it is!); See also Clifford Harper. This site has been set up recently to link with an exhibition in the Guardian 'Newsroom' archive and the publication of the Country Diary drawings. The site uses Flash. You have to move the mouse about a bit to find where to click. Please change this page to explain more. My timer is running out for now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Quercusrobur (talk • contribs) 2002-10-20T16:04:00

Long publications list
That long, unremitting list of supposedly radical publications is aesthetically unpleasant and additionally inaccurate unless one regards such mainstream publications as the Financial Times and The Independent as secretly subversive. 2600:1004:B164:1C66:11B3:84CA:DDBE:CA8A (talk) 03:29, 5 June 2017 (UTC)

I agree, it does drag onBooklung (talk) 10:01, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

It does. I've reduced the list to a handful that have articles which can be linked to. --Lord Belbury (talk) 08:40, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

 * I've moved the current unsourced list to talk, below Mujinga (talk) 11:24, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

External links modified
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publications list
A long unsourced list removed from article:

Freedom Press, Undercurrents, Respect for Animals, BIT Newsletter, Arts Lab Newsletter, Idiot International, !977 Firemans Strike, Libertarian Education, The Idler, Radical Community Medicine, Anarchy Magazine, Black Flag, Anarchy Comix, Common Ground, Industrial Worker, Abelour Distillery, Country Life, Graphical Paper and Media Union, The Times Saturday Review, Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival, New Scientist, Oxford University Press, Penguin Books, Times Educational Supplemnt, London Anarchist Bookfair, Public and Commercial Services Union, The Sunday Times Magazine, Catholic Worker, Soil Association, The Bodleian Library, New Statesman, Cienfeugos Anarchist Review, Headline Books, The Financial Times, Resurgence, Scotland on Sunday, Town and Country Planning Association, Movement Against a Monarchy, Nursing Times, John Hegarty, The Listener, Zero, McCallan Whisky, Solidarity, New Society, News From Neasden, House & Garden, The Tablet, Radical Science Journal, Royal Mail, The Co-ops Fairs, Picador Books, Pluto Press, Working Press, Anarchismo, Insurrection, Our Generation, Ogilvy & Mather, Vogue, Radio Times, National Union of Teachers, Faber & Faber, Pimlico, Trades Union Congress, Transport and General Workers Union, Serpents Tale, Compendium Books, Poison Girls, Yale University Press, Verso, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Elephant Editions, Intelligent Life, Landworker, Zounds, Honey, New Musical Express, Knockabout Comics, Trickett & Webb, The Times, See Sharp Press, Countryside Commission, Industrial Common Ownership Movement, Agricultural Workers Union, BBC Worldwide, Stop The War Coalition, Aganovich, The Folio Society, Unison, Unite The Union, Anarchist Studies, Country Standard, Strike, Fitzrovia News, UNESCO, Anarchist Black Cross, Dog Section Press and many others. In 1992 he won a W H Smith Illustration Award and in 2002 he was the winner of the Trade Union Press and PR Award for Best Illustration. Mujinga (talk) 11:23, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Undercurrents
Moving uncited paragraph to talk:

His early drawing style was typically exemplified by the utopian 'Visions' series of posters, for the Undercurrents 1974 anthology Radical Technology. These were highly detailed and precise illustrations showing scenes of post-revolutionary self-sufficiency, autonomy and alternative technology in urban and rural settings, becoming almost de rigueur on the kitchen wall of any self-respecting radical's commune, squat or bedsit during the 1970s. Of these posters Harper writes:"Funnily enough they were particularly popular in Spain following the death of Franco and the liberalisation that followed that happy, but long overdue, event. I think the reason for their success is that although they are utopian images they depict an existence that is immediately approachable—all it would take is the seizing of a few empty buildings and the knocking down of a few meaningless walls..." Mujinga (talk) 13:48, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Clifford Harper


text:
Roland

Roland (*Hrōþiland; or Rotholandus; Orlando or Rolando; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was military governor of the Breton March, responsible for defending Francia's frontier against the Bretons. His only historical attestation is in Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni, which notes he was part of the Frankish rearguard killed in retribution by the Basques in Iberia at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass.

The story of Roland's death at Roncevaux Pass was embellished in later medieval and Renaissance literature. The first and most famous of these epic treatments was the Old French Chanson de Roland of the 11th century.

Two masterpieces of Italian Renaissance poetry, the Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso (by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Ludovico Ariosto respectively), are even further detached from history than the earlier Chansons, similarly to the later Morgante by Luigi Pulci. Roland is poetically associated with his sword Durendal, his horse Veillantif, and his oliphant horn.

In the late 17th century, French Baroque composer Jean-Baptiste Lully wrote an opera titled Roland, based on the story of the title character.

History
The only historical mention of the actual Roland is in the Vita Karoli Magni by Charlemagne's courtier and biographer Einhard. Einhard refers to him as Hruodlandus Brittannici limitis praefectus ("Roland, prefect of the borders of Brittany"), indicating that he presided over the Breton March, Francia's border territory against the Bretons. The passage, which appears in Chapter 9, mentions that Hroudlandus (a Latinization of the Frankish *Hrōþiland, from *hrōþi, "praise"/"fame" and *land, "country") was among those killed in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass:

"While he was vigorously pursuing the Saxon war, almost without a break, and after he had placed garrisons at selected points along the border, [Charles] marched into Spain [in 778] with as large a force as he could mount. His army passed through the Pyrenees and [Charles] received the surrender of all the towns and fortified places he encountered. He was returning [to Francia] with his army safe and intact, but high in the Pyrenees on that return trip he briefly experienced the Basques. That place is so thoroughly covered with thick forest that it is the perfect spot for an ambush. [Charles's] army was forced by the narrow terrain to proceed in a long line and [it was at that spot], high on the mountain, that the Basques set their ambush. [...] The Basques had the advantage in this skirmish because of the lightness of their weapons and the nature of the terrain, whereas the Franks were disadvantaged by the heaviness of their arms and the unevenness of the land. Eggihard, the overseer of the king's table, Anselm, the count of the palace, and Roland, the lord of the Breton March, along with many others died in that skirmish. But this deed could not be avenged at that time, because the enemy had so dispersed after the attack that there was no indication as to where they could be found."

Roland was evidently the first official appointed to direct Frankish policy in Breton affairs, as local Franks under the Merovingian dynasty had not previously pursued any specific relationship with the Bretons. Their frontier castle districts such as Vitré, Ille-et-Vilaine, south of Mont Saint-Michel, are now divided between Normandy and Brittany. The distinctive culture of this region preserves the present-day Gallo language and legends of local heroes such as Roland. Roland's successor in Brittania Nova was Guy of Nantes, who like Roland, was unable to exert Frankish expansion over Brittany and merely sustained a Breton presence in the Carolingian Empire.

According to legend, Roland was laid to rest in the basilica at Blaye, near Bordeaux, on the site of the citadel.

Medieval icon
Roland was turned into a popular and iconic figure of medieval Europe and its minstrel culture. Many tales made him a nephew of Charlemagne and turned his life into an epic tale of the noble Christian killed by hostile forces, which forms part of the medieval Matter of France.

The tale of Roland's death is retold in the 11th-century poem The Song of Roland, where he is equipped with the olifant (a signaling horn) and an unbreakable sword, enchanted by various Christian relics, named Durendal. The Song contains a highly romanticized account of the Battle of Roncevaux Pass and Roland's death, setting the tone for later fantastical depiction of Charlemagne's court.

It was adapted and modified throughout the Middle Ages, including an influential Latin prose version Historia Caroli Magni (latterly known as the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle), which also includes Roland's battle with a Saracen giant named Ferracutus who is only vulnerable at his navel. The story was later adapted in the anonymous Franco-Venetian epic L'Entrée d'Espagne (c. 1320) and in the 14th-century Italian epic La Spagna, attributed to the Florentine Sostegno di Zanobi and likely composed between 1350 and 1360.

Other texts give further legendary accounts of Roland's life. His friendship with Olivier and his engagement with Olivier's sister Aude are told in Girart de Vienne by Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube. Roland's youth and the acquisition of his horse Veillantif and sword are described in Aspremont. Roland also appears in Quatre Fils Aymon, where he is contrasted with Renaud de Montauban against whom he occasionally fights.

In Norway, the tales of Roland are part of the 13th-century Karlamagnús saga.

In the Divine Comedy Dante sees Roland, named Orlando as is usual in Italian literature, in the Heaven of Mars together with others who fought for the faith.

Roland appears in Entrée d'Espagne, a 14th-century Franco-Venetian chanson de geste (in which he is transformed into a knight errant, similar to heroes from the Arthurian romances) and La Spagna, a 14th-century Italian epic.

From the 15th century onwards, Roland appears as a central character in a sequence of Italian verse romances as "Orlando", including Morgante by Luigi Pulci, Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo, and Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. (See below for his later history in Italian verse.) The Orlandino of Pietro Aretino then waxed satirical about the "cult of personality" of Orlando the hero. The Orlando narrative inspired several composers, amongst whom were Claudio Monteverdi, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Antonio Vivaldi and George Frideric Handel, who composed an Italian-language opera with Orlando.

In Germany, Roland gradually became a symbol of the independence of the growing cities from the local nobility. In the late Middle Ages many cities featured defiant statues of Roland in their marketplaces. The Roland in Wedel was erected in 1450 as symbol of market and Hanseatic justice, and the Roland statue in front of Bremen City Hall (1404) has been listed together with the city hall itself on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since 2004.

In the Faroe Islands, Roland appears in the ballad of "Runtsivalstríðið" (Battle of Roncevaux).

Legacy
In Aragón there are several placenames related to Roldán or Rolando, including the mountain pass Roland's Breach and the rock formation Salto de Roldán.

In Catalonia Roland (or Rotllà, as it is rendered in Catalan) became a legendary giant. Numerous places in Catalonia (both North and South) have a name related to Rotllà. In step with the trace left by the character in the whole Pyrenean area, Basque Errolan turns up in numerous legends and place-names associated with a mighty giant, usually a heathen, capable of launching huge stones. The Basque word erraldoi (giant) stems from Errol(d)an, as pointed out by the linguist Koldo Mitxelena.

Jean Lannes, a Marshal of the First French Empire, was given the nickname Roland de l'Armée d'Italie, which later became Roland de la Grande Armée, for his bravery and charisma.

A statue of Roland stands in the city of Rolândia in Brazil. The city was established by German immigrants, many of them refugees from Nazi Germany, who named their new home after Roland to represent freedom.

Roland is a servant in the game Fate/Grand Order, portrayed as a faithful servant to God and a righteous paladin.

The English expression "to give a Roland for an Oliver", meaning either to offer a quid pro quo or to give as good as one gets, recalls the Chanson de Roland and Roland's companion Oliver.

title: Roland


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Ahmed Zewail

Ahmed Hassan Zewail (February 26, 1946 – August 2, 2016) was an Egyptian and American chemist, known as the "father of femtochemistry". He was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry and became the first Egyptian and Arab to win a Nobel Prize in a scientific field, and the second African to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He was the Linus Pauling Chair Professor of Chemistry, a professor of physics, and the director of the Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology at the California Institute of Technology.

Early life and education
Ahmed Hassan Zewail was born on February 26, 1946, in Damanhur, Egypt, and was raised in Desouk. He received Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in chemistry from Alexandria University before moving to the United States to complete his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Robin M. Hochstrasser.

Career
After completing his PhD, Zewail did postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, supervised by Charles B. Harris. Following this, he was awarded a faculty appointment at the California Institute of Technology in 1976, and eventually became the first Linus Pauling Chair in Chemical Physics there. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States on March 5, 1982. Zewail was the director of the Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology at the California Institute of Technology. Zewail was nominated and participated in President Barack Obama's Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), an advisory group of the nation's leading scientists and engineers to advise the President and Vice President and formulate policy in the areas of science, technology, and innovation.

Research
Zewail's key work was a pioneer of femtochemistry —i.e. the study of chemical reactions across femtoseconds. Using a rapid ultrafast laser technique (consisting of ultrashort laser flashes), the technique allows the description of reactions on very short time scales – short enough to analyse transition states in selected chemical reactions. Zewail became known as the "father of femtochemistry". He also made critical contributions in ultrafast electron diffraction, which uses short electron pulses rather than light pulses to study chemical reaction dynamics.

Political work
In a speech at Cairo University on June 4, 2009, US President Barack Obama proclaimed a new Science Envoy program as part of a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world." In January 2010, Ahmed Zewail, Elias Zerhouni, and Bruce Alberts became the first US science envoys to Islam, visiting Muslim-majority countries from North Africa to Southeast Asia. When asked about rumors that he might contest the 2011 Egyptian presidential election, Ahmed Zewail said: "I am a frank man... I have no political ambition, as I have stressed repeatedly that I only want to serve Egypt in the field of science and die as a scientist."

During the 2011 Egyptian protests he announced his return to the country. Zewail said that he would join a committee for constitutional reform alongside Ayman Nour, Mubarak's rival at the 2005 presidential elections and a leading lawyer. Zewail was later mentioned as a respected figure working as an intermediary between the military regime ruling after Mubarak's resignation, and revolutionary youth groups such as the April 6 Youth Movement and young supporters of Mohamed ElBaradei. He played a critical role during this time as described by Egyptian Media.

Awards and honours
Zewail's work brought him international attention, receiving awards and honors throughout most of his career for his work in chemistry and physics. In 1999, Zewail became the first Egyptian to receive a science Nobel Prize when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Zewail gave his Nobel Lecture on "Femtochemistry: Atomic-Scale Dynamics of the Chemical Bond Using Ultrafast Lasers".

In 1999, he received Egypt's highest state honour, the Grand Collar of the Nile. Other notable awards include the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award (1983), the King Faisal International Prize (1989), the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1993), the Earle K. Plyler Prize (1993), the Herbert P. Broida Prize (1995), the Peter Debye Award (1996), the Tolman Award (1997), the Robert A. Welch Award (1997), the Linus Pauling Medal (1997), the Franklin Medal (1998) and the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (2000). In October 2006, Zewail received the Albert Einstein World Award of Science for "his pioneering development of the new field of femtoscience and for his seminal contributions to the revolutionary discipline of physical biology, creating new ways for better understanding the functional behavior of biological systems by directly visualizing them in the four dimensions of space and time." Zewail was awarded the Othmer Gold Medal (2009), the Priestley Medal (2011) from the American Chemical Society and the Davy Medal (2011) from the Royal Society.

In 1982 he was named as a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Zewail became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1989, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993, and the American Philosophical Society in 1998. Zewail was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2001. He was also elected as a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences in 2001.

Zewail was made a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 2005, the Ahmed Zewail Award for Ultrafast Science and Technology was established by the American Chemical Society and the Newport Corporation in his honor. In 2010 the journal Chemical Physics Letters established the Ahmed Zewail Prize in Molecular Sciences. In May 2010, Zewail gave the commencement address at Southwestern University. The Zewail City of Science and Technology, established in 2000 and revived in 2011, is named in his honour.

Honorary degrees
Zewail was bestowed honorary degrees by the following institutions: University of Oxford, UK (1991); The American University in Cairo, Egypt (1993); Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium (1997); University of Pennsylvania, US (1997); University of Lausanne, Switzerland (1997); Swinburne University of Technology, Australia (1999); Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, Egypt (1999); D.Sc. Alexandria University, Egypt (1999); D.Sc. University of New Brunswick, Canada (2000); Sapienza University of Rome, Italy (2000); University of Liège, Belgium (2000); Heriot-Watt University, Scotland (2002); Lund University, Sweden (2003); Cambridge University (2006); Complutense University of Madrid, Spain (2008); University of Jordan, Jordan (2009); University of Glasgow, Scotland (2011); Yale University, US (2014).

Egyptian national honours
🇪🇬 Egypt
 * Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (Egypt) (1995)
 * Grand Cordon of the Order of the Arab Republic of Egypt (1998)
 * Grand Collar of the Order of the Nile (1999)

Foreign honours
🇫🇷 France 🇱🇧 Lebanon 🇸🇩 Sudan 🇹🇳 Tunisia 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
 * Knight of the Legion of Honour
 * Officier of the National Order of Merit
 * Grand Cordon of the National Order of the Cedar
 * Grand Officer of the Order of the Two Niles
 * Commander of the Order of the Republic
 * Grand Officer of Order of Zayed

Personal life
Zewail and his first wife, Mervat, were married in 1967, just before leaving Egypt to attend the University of Philadelphia. He had two daughters with Mervat, Maha and Amani. They separated in 1979.

Zewail married Dema Faham in 1989. Zewail and Faham had two sons, Nabeel and Hani.

Death and funeral
Zewail died aged 70 on the morning of August 2, 2016. He was recovering from cancer, however, the exact cause of his death is unknown. Zewail returned to Egypt, but only his body was received at Cairo Airport. A military funeral was held for Zewail on August 7, 2016, at the El-Mosheer Tantawy mosque in Cairo, Egypt. Those attending included President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb, Defence Minister Sedki Sobhi, former President Adly Mansour, former Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub. The funeral prayers were led by Ali Gomaa, former Grand Mufti of Egypt.

Scientific

 * Advances in Laser Spectroscopy I, ed. A. H. Zewail, SPIE, Bellingham, 1977
 * Advances in Laser Chemistry, ed. A. H. Zewail, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1978
 * Photochemistry and Photobiology, Vols. 1 and 2, ed. A. H. Zewail, Harwood Academic, London, 1983
 * Ultrafast Phenomena VII, eds. C. B. Harris, E. P. Ippen, G. A. Mourou and A. H. Zewail, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1990
 * The Chemical Bond: Structure and Dynamics, ed. A. H. Zewail, Academic Press, Boston, 1992
 * Ultrafast Phenomena VIII, eds. J.-L. Martin, A. Migus, G. A. Mourou, and A. H. Zewail, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1993
 * Ultrafast Phenomena IX, eds. P. F. Barbara, W. H. Knox, G. A. Mourou, and A. H. Zewail, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1994
 * Femtochemistry: Ultrafast Dynamics of the Chemical Bond Vol. I, A. H. Zewail, World Scientific, 1994
 * Femtochemistry: Ultrafast Dynamics of the Chemical Bond Vol. II, A. H. Zewail, World Scientific, 1994
 * Physical Biology: From Atoms to Medicine, ed. A. H. Zewail, Imperial College Press, London, 2008
 * 4D Electron Microscopy, ed. A. H. Zewail, Imperial College Press, London, 2009
 * International Advisory Board for Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry (1999–2014)
 * 4D Visualization of Matter: Recent Collected Works of Ahmed H Zewail, Nobel Laureate, Imperial College Press, London, 2014

Biographical

 * Voyage Through Time: Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize, Ahmed H Zewail, World Scientific, 2002
 * Age of Science (2005, autobiography in Arabic)

title: Ahmed Zewail


text:
Stereolab

Stereolab are an Anglo-French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group's sound features influences from krautrock and 1960s French pop music, often incorporating a repetitive motorik beat with the use of vintage electronic keyboards and female vocals sung in English and French. Their lyrics have political and philosophical themes influenced by the Surrealist and Situationist art movements. While performing, they play in a more feedback-driven and guitar-oriented style. From the mid-1990s, the band began to draw from funk, jazz and Brazilian music.

Stereolab were formed by Gane (guitar and keyboards) and Sadier (vocals, keyboards and guitar) after the break-up of McCarthy. The two were romantically involved for fourteen years and are the group's only consistent members. Other longtime members included 1992 addition Mary Hansen (backing vocals, keyboards and guitar), who died in 2002, and 1993 addition Andy Ramsay (drums). The High Llamas' leader Sean O'Hagan (guitar and keyboards) was a member from 1993 to 1994 and continued appearing on later records for occasional guest appearances.

Throughout their career, Stereolab has achieved moderate commercial success. The band were released from their recording contract with Elektra Records, and their self-owned label Duophonic signed a distribution deal with Too Pure and later Warp Records. After a ten-year hiatus, the band reunited for live performances in 2019.

1990–1993: Formation
In 1985, Tim Gane formed McCarthy, a band from Essex, England, known for their left-wing politics. Gane met Lætitia Sadier, born in France, at a 1988 McCarthy concert in Paris and the two quickly fell in love. The musically-inclined Sadier was disillusioned with the rock scene in France and soon moved to London to be with Gane and pursue her career. In 1990, after three albums, McCarthy broke up and Gane immediately formed Stereolab with Sadier (who had also contributed vocals to McCarthy's final album), ex-Chills bassist Martin Kean and Gina Morris on backing vocals. Stereolab's name was taken from a division of Vanguard Records demonstrating hi-fi effects.

Gane and Sadier, along with future band manager Martin Pike, set up a record label called Duophonic Super 45s which, along with later offshoot Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Disks, would become commonly known as "Duophonic". Gane said that their "original plan" was to distribute multiple 7 and 10-inch records "–to just do one a month and keep doing them in small editions". The 10 inch vinyl EP Super 45, released in May 1991, was the first release for both Stereolab and the label, and was sold through mail order and through the Rough Trade Shop in London. Super 45's band-designed album art and packaging was the first of many customised and limited-edition Duophonic records. In a 1996 interview in The Wire, Gane calls the "do-it-yourself" aesthetic behind Duophonic "empowering", and said that by releasing one's own music "you learn; it creates more music, more ideas".

Stereolab released the EP Super-Electric in September 1991, and a single, titled "Stunning Debut Album" (which was neither debut nor album), followed in November 1991. The early material was rock and guitar-oriented; of Super-Electric Jason Ankeny wrote in AllMusic that "Droning guitars, skeletal rhythms, and pop hooks—not vintage synths and pointillist melodies—were their calling cards ..." Under the independent label Too Pure, the group's first full-length album, Peng!, was released in May 1992. A compilation titled Switched On was released in October 1992 and would be part of a series of compilations that anthologise the band's more obscure material.

Around this time, the line-up consisted of Gane and Sadier plus vocalist and guitarist Mary Hansen, drummer Andy Ramsay, bassist Duncan Brown, and keyboardist Katharine Gifford. Hansen, born in Australia, had been in touch with Gane since his McCarthy days. After joining, she and Sadier developed a style of vocal counterpoint that distinguished Stereolab's sound. Sean O'Hagan of the High Llamas joined as a quick replacement for their touring keyboardist, but was invited for their next record and "was allowed to make suggestions".

1993–2001: Sign to Elektra
Stereolab introduced easy-listening elements into their sound with the EP Space Age Bachelor Pad Music, released in March 1993. The work raised the band's profile and landed them a major-label American record deal with Elektra Records. Their first album under Elektra, Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements (August 1993), was an underground success in both the US and the UK. Mark Jenkins commented in Washington Post that with the album, Stereolab "continues the glorious drones of [their] indie work, giving celestial sweep to [their] garage-rock organ pumping and rhythm-guitar strumming". In the UK, the album was released on Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Disks, which is responsible for domestic releases of Stereolab's major albums. In January 1994, Stereolab achieved their first chart entry when the 1993 EP Jenny Ondioline, entered at number 75 on the UK Singles Chart. (Over the next three years, four more releases by the band would appear on this chart, ending with the EP Miss Modular in 1997.) Their third album, Mars Audiac Quintet, was released in August 1994. The album contains the single "Ping Pong", which gained press coverage for its explicitly Marxist lyrics. The band focused more on pop and less on rock, resulting in what AllMusic described as "what may be the group's most accessible, tightly-written album". It was the last album to feature O'Hagan as a full-time member. He would continue to make guest appearances on later releases. The group issued an EP titled Music for the Amorphous Body Study Center in April 1995. The EP was their musical contribution to an interactive art exhibit put on in collaboration with New York City artist Charles Long. Their second compilation of rarities, titled Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On, Vol. 2), was released in July 1995.

The band's fourth album, Emperor Tomato Ketchup (March 1996), was a critical success and was played heavily on college radio. A record that "captivated alternative rock", it represented the group's "high-water mark" said music journalists Tom Moon and Joshua Klein, respectively. The album incorporated their early krautrock sound with funk, hip-hop influences and experimental instrumental arrangements. John McEntire of Tortoise also assisted with production and played on the album. Katharine Gifford was replaced by Morgane Lhote before recording, and bassist Duncan Brown by Richard Harrison after. Lhote was required to both learn the keyboards and 30 of the group's songs before joining.

Released in September 1997, Dots and Loops was their first album to enter the Billboard 200 charts, peaking at number 111. The album leaned towards jazz with bossa nova and 60's pop influences. Barney Hoskyns wrote in Rolling Stone that with it the group moved "ever further away from the one-chord Velvets drone-mesh of its early days" toward easy-listening and Europop. A review in German newspaper Die Zeit stated that in Dots and Loops, Stereolab transformed the harder Velvet Underground-like riffs of previous releases into "softer sounds and noisy playfulness". Contributors to the album included John McEntire and Jan St. Werner of German electropop duo Mouse on Mars. Stereolab toured for seven months and took a break when Gane and Sadier had a child. The group's third compilation of rarities, Aluminum Tunes, was issued in October 1998.

Their sixth album, Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night, was released in September 1999. It was co-produced by McEntire and American producer Jim O'Rourke, and was recorded with their new bassist, Simon Johns. The album received middling reviews from critics and peaked at number 154 on the Billboard 200. An unsigned NME review said that "this record has far more in common with bad jazz and progressive rock than any experimental art-rock tradition." In a 1999 article of Washington Post, Mark Jenkins asked Gane about the album's apparent lack of guitars; Gane responded, "There's a lot less upfront, distorted guitar ... But it's still quite guitar-based music. Every single track has a guitar on it."

Stereolab's seventh album, Sound-Dust (August 2001), rose to number 178 on the Billboard 200. The album also featured producers McEntire and O'Rourke. Sound-Dust was more warmly received than Cobra and Phases Group…. Critic Joshua Klein said that "the emphasis this time sounds less on unfocused experimentation and more on melody ... a breezy and welcome return to form for the British band." Erlewine of Allmusic stated that the album "[finds the group] deliberately recharging their creative juices" but he argued that Sound-Dust was "anchored in overly familiar territory."

2002–2008: Death of Hansen and later releases
In 2002, as they were planning their next album, Stereolab started building a studio north of Bordeaux, France. ABC Music: The Radio 1 Sessions; a compilation of BBC Radio 1 sessions was released in October. In the same year, Gane and Sadier's romantic relationship ended.

On 9 December 2002, Hansen was killed when hit by a truck while riding her bicycle in London. She was 36. Writer Pierre Perrone said that her "playful nature and mischievous sense of humour came through in the way she approached the backing vocals she contributed to Stereolab and the distinctive harmonies she created with Sadier." For the next few months, Stereolab lay dormant as the members grieved. They eventually decided to continue. Future album and concert reviews would mention the effects of Hansen's absence.

The EP Instant 0 in the Universe (October 2003) was recorded in France, and was Stereolab's first release following Hansen's death. Music journalist Jim DeRogatis said that the EP marked a return to their earlier, harder sound—"free from the pseudo-funk moves and avant-garde tinkering that had been inspired by Chicago producer Jim O'Rourke".

Stereolab's eighth album, Margerine Eclipse, was released on 27 January 2004 with generally positive reviews, and peaked at number 174 on the US Billboard 200. The track "Feel and Triple" was written in tribute to Hansen; Sadier said, "I was reflecting on my years with her ... reflecting on how we sometimes found it hard to express the love we had for one another." Sadier continued, "Our dedication to her on the album says, 'We will love you till the end', meaning of our lives. I'm not religious, but I feel Mary's energy is still around somewhere. It didn't just disappear." The Observer's Molloy Woodcraft gave the album four out of five stars, and commented that Sadier's vocal performance as "life- and love-affirming", and the record as a whole as "Complex and catchy, bold and beatific." Kelefa Sanneh commented in Rolling Stone that Margerine Eclipse was "full of familiar noises and aimless melodies". Margerine Eclipse was Stereolab's last record to be released on American label Elektra Records, which shut down that same year. Future material would be released on Too Pure, the same label which had released some of the band's earliest material. The group released six limited-edition singles in 2005 and 2006, which were anthologised in the 2006 compilation Fab Four Suture, and contained material which Mark Jenkins thought continued the brisker sound of the band's post-Hansen work. By June 2007, Stereolab's line-up comprised Tim Gane, Lætitia Sadier, Andy Ramsay, Simon Johns, Dominic Jeffrey, Joseph Watson, and Joseph Walters. In 2008, the band issued their next album under the label 4AD titled, Chemical Chords, which "[downplays] their arsenal of analog synths in favor of live instrumentation". The release was followed by an autumn tour in Europe, the United States and Canada. In February 2009, they toured Australia as part of the St Jerome's Laneway Festival.

2009–present: Hiatus and reunion
In April 2009, Stereolab manager Martin Pike announced a pause in their activities for the time being. He said that it was an opportune time for the members to move on to other projects. Not Music, a collection of unreleased material recorded at the same time as Chemical Chords, was released in 2010. In 2013, Gane and Sadier, who both focused on Cavern of Anti-Matter and solo work respectively, performed at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival held at Pontins in Camber Sands.

In February 2019, the group announced a tour of Europe and the United States to coincide with expanded, remastered reissues of several of the albums released under Warp Records. Stereolab were part of the lineup for 2019's Primavera Sound festival, taking part on the weekend of 30 May in Barcelona, Spain, and the following weekend in Porto, Portugal. It was the group's first live performance since 2009.

Musical style
Stereolab's music combines a droning rock sound with lounge instrumentals, overlaid with sing-song female vocals and pop melodies, and has also made use of unorthodox time signatures. It has been generally described as avant-pop, indie pop, art pop, indie electronic, indie rock, post-rock, experimental rock, and experimental pop. Sadier remarked in 2015 that "[the band's] records were written and recorded very quickly… we would write 35 tracks, sometimes more".

The band have played on vintage electronic keyboards and synthesizers from brands such as Farfisa and Vox and Moog. Gane has praised the instruments for their versatility: "We use the older effects because they're more direct, more extreme, and they're more like plasticine: you can shape them into loads of things." The 1994 album Mars Audiac Quintet prominently features Moog synthesizers.

Lætitia Sadier's English and French vocals have been a part of Stereolab's music since the beginning, and she would occasionally sing wordlessly along with the music. In reference to her laid-back delivery, Peter Shapiro wrote facetiously in Wire that Sadier "display[ed] all the emotional histrionics of Nico", while some critics have commented that her vocals were unintelligible. Sadier would often trade vocals with Mary Hansen back-and-forth in a sing-song manner that has been described as "eerie" and "hypnotic", as well as "sweet [and] slightly alien". After Hansen's death in 2002, critic Jim Harrington commented that her absence is noticeable on live performances of Stereolab's older tracks, and that their newer songs could have benefited from Hansen's backing vocals.

In interviews, Gane and Sadier have discussed their musical philosophy. Gane said that "to be unique was more important than to be good." On the subject of being too obscure, he said in a 1996 interview that "maybe the area where we're on dodgy ground, is this idea that you need great knowledge [of] esoteric music to understand what we're doing." Sadier responded to Gane, saying that she "think[s] we have achieved a music that will make sense to a lot of people whether they know about Steve Reich or not." The duo were up-front about their desire to grow their sound: for Gane, "otherwise it just sounds like what other people are doing", and for Sadier, "you trust that there is more and that it can be done more interesting."

Influences
Their records have been heavily influenced by the "motorik" technique of 1970s krautrock groups such as Neu! and Faust. Tim Gane has supported the comparison: "Neu! did minimalism and drones, but in a very pop way." Dave Heaton of PopMatters said that their music also had "echoes of bubblegum, of exotica, of Beach Boys and bossa nova", with their earlier work "bearing strong Velvet Underground overtones". Funk, jazz, and Brazilian music were additional inspirations for the band. Stephan Davet of French newspaper Le Monde said that Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996) had musical influences such as Burt Bacharach, and Françoise Hardy. The sounds influenced by minimalist composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich can be found on the 1999 album Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night. Stereolab's style also incorporates easy-listening music of the 1950s and '60s. Joshua Klein in Washington Post said that, "Years before everyone else caught on, Stereolab [were] referencing the 1970s German bands Can and Neu!, the Mexican lounge music master Esquivel and the decidedly unhip Burt Bacharach." Regarding their later work such as Instant 0 in the Universe (2003) and Margerine Eclipse (2004), critics have compared the releases to the band's earlier guitar-driven style.

Live performances
Stereolab toured regularly to support their album releases. In a 1996 Washington Post gig review, Mark Jenkins wrote that Stereolab started out favouring an "easy-listening syncopation", but eventually reverted to a "messier, more urgent sound" characteristic of their earlier performances. In another review Jenkins said that the band's live songs "frequently veer[ed] into more cacophonous, guitar-dominated territory", in contrast to their albums such as Cobra and Phases Group… In the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jon Bream compared the band's live sound to feedback-driven rock bands like the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. Jim Harrington of The Oakland Tribune argued that "Sadier often sounded like a third percussion instrument more than a lead vocalist", further stating in regard to her switching between singing in English and French that "a Stereolab show is one of the few concerts where it's hard to find even the biggest fans mouthing along with the lyrics." Regarding being onstage, Gane has said that "I don't like to be the center of attention ... I just get into the music and am not really aware of the people there. That's my way of getting through it." Remarking of the band's 2019 reunion tour, he added that "[Stereolab] never were really a festival band… We’re not like, 'Hey, how you all doing?' and all that stuff.”

Lyrics and titles
Stereolab's music is politically and philosophically charged. Dave Heaton of PopMatters said that the group "[uses] lyrics to convey ideas while using them for the pleasurable way the words sound." Lætitia Sadier, who writes the group's lyrics, was influenced by both the Situationist philosophy Society of the Spectacle by Marxist theorist Guy Debord, and her anger towards the Iraq War. The Surrealist, as well as other Situationist cultural and political movements were also influences, as stated by Sadier and Gane in a 1999 Salon interview.

Critics have seen Marxist allusions in the band's lyrics, and have gone so far as to call the band members themselves Marxist. Music journalist Simon Reynolds commented that Sadier's lyrics tend to lean towards Marxist social commentary rather than "affairs of the heart". The 1994 single "Ping Pong" has been put forward as evidence in regard to these alleged views. In the song, Sadier sings "about capitalism's cruel cycles of slump and recovery" with lyrics that constitute "a plainspoken explanation of one of the central tenets of Marxian economic analysis" (said critics Reynolds and Stewart Mason, respectively).

Band members have resisted attempts to link the group and its music to Marxism. In a 1999 interview, Gane stated that "none of us are Marxists ... I've never even read Marx." Gane said that although Sadier's lyrics touch on political topics, they do not cross the line into "sloganeering". Sadier also said that she had read very little Marx. In contrast, Cornelius Castoriadis, a radical political philosopher but strong critic of Marxism, has been cited as a marking influence in Sadier's thinking. The name of her side project, Monade, and its debut album title, Socialisme ou Barbarie, are also references to the work of Castoriadis.

Stereolab's album and song titles occasionally reference avant-garde groups and artists. Gane said that the title of their 1999 album Cobra and Phases Group… contains the names of two Surrealist organisations, "CoBrA" and "Phases Group", The title of the song "Brakhage" from Dots and Loops (1997), is a nod to experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage. Other examples are the 1992 compilation Switched On, named after Wendy Carlos' 1968 album Switched-On Bach, and the 1993 song "Jenny Ondioline", a portmanteau of inventor Georges Jenny and his instrument the Ondioline.

Legacy
Stereolab have been called one of the most "influential" and "fiercely independent and original groups of the Nineties" by writers Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Pierre Perrone respectively; as well as one of "the decade's most innovative British bands." by Mark Jenkins. Simon Reynolds commented in Rolling Stone that the group's earlier records form "an endlessly seductive body of work that sounds always the same, always different." In a review for the 1992 single "John Cage Bubblegum", Jason Ankeny said that "No other artist of its generation fused the high-minded daring of the avant-garde and the lowbrow infectiousness of pop with as much invention, skill, and appeal." In The Wire, Peter Shapiro compared the band to Britpop bands Oasis and Blur, and defended their music against the charge that it is "nothing but the sum total of its arcane reference points." They were one of the first groups to be termed post-rock—in a 1996 article, journalist Angela Lewis applied the "new term" to Stereolab and three other bands who have connections to the group. Stylistically, music journalist J. D. Considine credits the band for anticipating and driving the late 1990s revival of vintage analogue instruments among indie rock bands. Stephen Christian, a creative director of Warp Records, said that the group "exists in the gap between the experimentation of the underground and the appeal of the wider world of pop music".

The group have also received negative press. Barney Hoskyns questioned the longevity of their music in a 1996 Mojo review, saying that their records "sound more like arid experiments than music born of emotional need." In Guardian, Dave Simpson stated: "With their borrowings from early, obscure Kraftwerk and hip obtuse sources, [Stereolab] sound like a band of rock critics rather than musicians." Lætitia Sadier's vocals were cited by author Stuart Shea as often being "indecipherable".

A variety of artists, musical and otherwise, have collaborated with Stereolab. In 1995 the group teamed up with sculptor Charles Long for an interactive art show in New York City, for which Long provided the exhibits and Stereolab the music. They have released tracks by and toured with post-rock band Tortoise, while John McEntire of Tortoise has in turn worked on several Stereolab albums. In the 1990s, the group collaborated with the industrial band Nurse With Wound and released two albums together, Crumb Duck (1993) and Simple Headphone Mind (1998), and Stereolab also released "Calimero" (1998) with French avant-garde singer and poet Brigitte Fontaine. The band worked with Herbie Mann on the song "One Note Samba/Surfboard" for the 1998 AIDS-Benefit album, Red Hot + Rio, produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Stereolab alumni have also founded bands of their own. Guitarist Tim Gane founded the side project Cavern of Anti-Matter and also formed Turn on alongside band member Sean O'Hagan, who formed his own band the High Llamas. Katharine Gifford formed Snowpony with former My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe. Sadier has released three albums with her four-piece side-project Monade, whose sound Mark Jenkins called a "little more Parisian" than Stereolab's. Backing vocalist Mary Hansen formed a band named Schema with members of Hovercraft and released their eponymous EP in 2000.

As of August 1999, US album sales stood at 300,000 copies sold. Despite receiving critical acclaim and a sizeable fanbase, commercial success eluded the group. Early in their career, their 1993 EP Jenny Ondioline entered the UK Singles Chart, but financial issues prevented the band from printing enough records to satisfy demand. According to Sadier, however, the band "[avoided] going overground" like PJ Harvey, Pulp and the Cranberries, all of whom quickly rose from obscurity to fame, adding: "This kind of notoriety is not a particularly good thing, [and] you don't enjoy it anymore." When Elektra Records was closed down by Warner Bros. Records in 2004, Stereolab was dropped along with many other artists, reportedly because of poor sales. Tim Gane said in retrospect that the group "signed to Elektra because we thought we would be on there for an album or two and then we'd get ejected. We were surprised when we got to our first album!" Since then, Stereolab's self-owned label Duophonic has inked a worldwide distribution deal with independent label Too Pure. Through Duophonic, the band both licenses their music and releases it directly (depending on geographic market). Gane said, "... we license our recordings and just give them to people, then we don't have to ask for permission if we want to use it. We just want to be in control of our own music."

Members
Current members
 * Tim Gane - guitar, keyboards (1990–2009, 2019–present)
 * Lætitia Sadier - lead vocals, keyboards, guitar, percussion, trombone (1990–2009, 2019–present)
 * Andy Ramsay - drums (1992–2009, 2019–present)
 * Joseph Watson - keyboards, vibraphone, backing vocals (2004–2009, 2019–present)
 * Xavier Muñoz Guimera - bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)

Former members
 * Joe Dilworth - drums (1990–1992)
 * Martin Kean - bass guitar (1990–1992)
 * Gina Morris - backing vocals (1991)
 * Mick Conroy - keyboards (1992)
 * Mary Hansen - backing and lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion (1992–2002) (died 2002)
 * Sean O'Hagan - keyboards, guitar (1993)
 * Duncan Brown - bass guitar (1993–1995)
 * Katharine Gifford - keyboards (1993–1995)
 * Morgane Lhote - keyboards (1995–2001)
 * David Pajo - bass guitar (1995)
 * Richard Harrison - bass guitar (1996–1998)
 * Simon Johns - bass guitar (1999–2009)
 * Dominic Jeffery - keyboards (2001–2006)
 * Joseph Walters - french horn, guitar, keyboards (2004–2008)
 * Julien Gasc - keyboards, backing vocals (2008–2009)

Timeline

Discography
Studio albums
 * Peng! (1992)
 * Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements (1993)
 * Mars Audiac Quintet (1994)
 * Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)
 * Dots and Loops (1997)
 * Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night (1999)
 * Sound-Dust (2001)
 * Margerine Eclipse (2004)
 * Chemical Chords (2008)
 * Not Music (2010)

Compilation albums Stereolab released many non-LP tracks that they later anthologised as compilation albums.
 * Switched On (1992)
 * Refried Ectoplasm: Switched On, Vol. 2 (1995)
 * Aluminum Tunes: Switched On, Vol. 3 (1998)
 * ABC Music: The Radio 1 Sessions (2002)
 * Oscillons from the Anti-Sun (2005)
 * Fab Four Suture (2006)
 * Serene Velocity: A Stereolab Anthology (2006)
 * Electrically Possessed: Switched On, Vol. 4 (2021)
 * Pulse of the Early Brain: Switched On, Vol. 5 (2022)

title: Stereolab