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User:Crystal hawk777

Hello, I am Sybil, M. Ed. I graduated from college in 1965 with a Bachelor of Education degree; and began my teaching career that fall. For years; I was on a spiritual quest. Raised Protestant. In my young adulthood I went through my study of Wikkan rituals and exploration. Eastern philosophies, and then the Egyptian series. After that; I was in my period of exploring my roots, which included Choctaw ancestors which lead me to my period of studying Native American Spirituality; during this segment in 1987 I was snagged by a quartz crystal and that began a new phase of the life long activities of spiritual seeking. The romance with crystals and gemstones is still going on and at first developed into special interests and hobbies of how to utilize crystals and gemstones in the “Laying on of Stones” a type of energy bodywork, Therapy with Crystals and Gemstones is the utilization of crystal and gemstone tools for Holistic Spiritual Healing, Energy Bodywork, Massage and Reflexology. Music for meditation and relaxation is a technique that enhances the therapeutic healing. Medicine Bag Collection for activation of the self healing of the body-mind by activation of the body’s energy points (chakras). I retired from classroom teaching in 1995 after 30 years in the classrooms of Oklahoma City Public Schools. In the winter of 1995 I was introduced to The Urantia Book and this will be an ongoing study of the spiritual universe for the remainder of my years. About a year after retiring it was Fall 1996; I was introduced to Mannatech Products by a former colleague. I decided that I wanted to try the products so I joined as a consumer associate so I could use the products and buy at wholesale. After I reviewed all of the materials in the Consumer Associate packet (now the Associate Registration Pack) I said I can do this; plus, I want to be as healthy as it is nutritionally possible for me to be as a youthful senior citizen. I then upgraded to All-Star and made a trip to Dallas-Fort Worth for conference and training as an All- Star Associate. I have renewed as an All- Star; each year since that beginning. Long before there was any company in USA like Mannatech I was interested in Holistic Spiritual Healing and Alternative Health and Complementary Therapies. I have found that Mannatech is a good fit for my philosophy. I have continued to enjoy improved health and helped friends and family members to discover the benefits of using the Mannatech Products. I hope that you will give the products 12 to 16 weeks to show you that you too can find improved health and general improvement in your overall well-being. This is also an opportunity to develop a home based business of your own to improve your earning capacity. In addition to that; by sharing and teaching others about the products, and the opportunity; you will be Creating Healthier Lives with the Business of Wellness. October 2002 I decided that I should turn my hobbies into a business so that my hobbies could at least maybe pay for themselves and also if I keep learning and exploring I can remain young in spirit. I attended a seminar at the Oklahoma Small Business Development Center and then I went to the Oklahoma Secretary of State and filed organizational papers for Loving Circles Ministry, LLC which is my umbrella for the Loving Circles Holistics Therapy and Loving Circles Gems of Light; two sections of my business.

Everything is still in the start up phase for the Loving Circles Ministries, LLC since I am planning to add a Therapy/Show Room in the Metal Building; (Jerry’s Barn) that my husband has had under construction since last summer. The concrete is now in place. When the weather improves the construction will be completed later this Spring (I hope) then I can have my room put in place for the Holistic Spiritual Healing and Crystal and Gemstones. I have some lapidary equipment in storage and there is going to be a His and Hers work bench in the barn when construction is completed I am going to learn to do lapidary and use up some of the rocks that I have collected as a rock hound. Favorite Quote– "If we know God, our real business on earth is so to live as to permit the Father to reveal himself in our lives, and thus will all God-seeking persons see the Father and ask for our help in finding out more about the God who in this manner finds expression in our lives." The Urantia Papers" Paper-132

title: User:Crystal hawk777


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Riemann sum

In mathematics, a Riemann sum is a certain kind of approximation of an integral by a finite sum. It is named after nineteenth century German mathematician Bernhard Riemann. One very common application is in numerical integration, i.e., approximating the area of functions or lines on a graph, where it is also known as the rectangle rule. It can also be applied for approximating the length of curves and other approximations.

The sum is calculated by partitioning the region into shapes (rectangles, trapezoids, parabolas, or cubics — sometimes infinitesimally small) that together form a region that is similar to the region being measured, then calculating the area for each of these shapes, and finally adding all of these small areas together. This approach can be used to find a numerical approximation for a definite integral even if the fundamental theorem of calculus does not make it easy to find a closed-form solution.

Because the region by the small shapes is usually not exactly the same shape as the region being measured, the Riemann sum will differ from the area being measured. This error can be reduced by dividing up the region more finely, using smaller and smaller shapes. As the shapes get smaller and smaller, the sum approaches the Riemann integral.

Definition
Let $$f: [a, b] \to \mathbb R$$ be a function defined on a closed interval $$[a, b]$$ of the real numbers, $$\mathbb R$$, and $$P = (x_0, x_1, \ldots, x_n)$$ as a partition of $$[a, b]$$, that is $$a = x_0 <x_1 < x_2 < \dots < x_n = b.$$ A Riemann sum $$S$$ of $$f$$ over $$[a, b]$$ with partition $$P$$ is defined as $$S = \sum_{i = 1}^{n} f(x_i^*)\, \Delta x_i,$$ where $$\Delta x_i = x_i - x_{i - 1}$$ and $$x_i^* \in [x_{i - 1}, x_i]$$. One might produce different Riemann sums depending on which $$x_i^*$$'s are chosen. In the end this will not matter, if the function is Riemann integrable, when the difference or width of the summands $$\Delta x_i$$ approaches zero.

Types of Riemann sums
Specific choices of $$x_i^*$$ give different types of Riemann sums:
 * If $$x_i^*=x_{i-1}$$ for all i, the method is the left rule and gives a left Riemann sum.
 * If $$x_i^* = x_i$$ for all i, the method is the right rule and gives a right Riemann sum.
 * If $$x_i^* = (x_i + x_{i - 1})/2$$ for all i, the method is the midpoint rule and gives a middle Riemann sum.
 * If $$f(x_i^*) = \sup f([x_{i - 1}, x_i])$$ (that is, the supremum of$f$ over $$[x_{i - 1}, x_i]$$), the method is the upper rule and gives an upper Riemann sum or upper Darboux sum.
 * If $$f(x_i^*) = \inf f([x_{i - 1}, x_i])$$ (that is, the infimum of f over $$[x_{i - 1}, x_i]$$), the method is the lower rule and gives a lower Riemann sum or lower Darboux sum.

All these Riemann summation methods are among the most basic ways to accomplish numerical integration. Loosely speaking, a function is Riemann integrable if all Riemann sums converge as the partition "gets finer and finer".

While not derived as a Riemann sum, taking the average of the left and right Riemann sums is the trapezoidal rule and gives a trapezoidal sum. It is one of the simplest of a very general way of approximating integrals using weighted averages. This is followed in complexity by Simpson's rule and Newton–Cotes formulas.

Any Riemann sum on a given partition (that is, for any choice of $$x_i^*$$ between $$x_{i - 1}$$ and $$x_i$$) is contained between the lower and upper Darboux sums. This forms the basis of the Darboux integral, which is ultimately equivalent to the Riemann integral.

Riemann summation methods
The four Riemann summation methods are usually best approached with subintervals of equal size. The interval $[a, b]$ is therefore divided into $$ n $$ subintervals, each of length $$\Delta x = \frac{b-a}{n}.$$

The points in the partition will then be $$a, \; a + \Delta x, \; a + 2 \Delta x, \; \ldots, \; a + (n-2) \Delta x, \; a + (n - 1)\Delta x, \; b.$$

Left rule
For the left rule, the function is approximated by its values at the left endpoints of the subintervals. This gives multiple rectangles with base $x ↦ x^{3}$ and height $Δx$. Doing this for $f(a + iΔx)$, and summing the resulting areas gives $$S_\mathrm{left} = \Delta x \left[f(a) + f(a + \Delta x) + f(a + 2 \Delta x) + \dots + f(b - \Delta x)\right].$$

The left Riemann sum amounts to an overestimation if f is monotonically decreasing on this interval, and an underestimation if it is monotonically increasing. The error of this formula will be $$\left\vert\int_{a}^{b} f(x)\, dx - S_\mathrm{left}\right\vert \le \frac{M_1 (b - a)^2}{2n},$$ where $$M_1$$ is the maximum value of the absolute value of $$f^{\prime}(x)$$ over the interval.

Right rule
For the right rule, the function is approximated by its values at the right endpoints of the subintervals. This gives multiple rectangles with base $i = 0, 1, ..., n − 1$ and height $x ↦ x^{3}$. Doing this for $Δx$, and summing the resulting areas gives $$S_\mathrm{right} = \Delta x \left[f(a + \Delta x) + f(a + 2 \Delta x) + \dots + f(b)\right].$$

The right Riemann sum amounts to an underestimation if f is monotonically decreasing, and an overestimation if it is monotonically increasing. The error of this formula will be $$\left\vert\int_{a}^{b} f(x)\, dx - S_\mathrm{right}\right\vert \le \frac{M_1 (b - a)^2}{2n},$$ where $$M_1$$ is the maximum value of the absolute value of $$f^{\prime}(x)$$ over the interval.

Midpoint rule
For the midpoint rule, the function is approximated by its values at the midpoints of the subintervals. This gives $f(a + iΔx)$ for the first subinterval, $i = 1, ..., n$ for the next one, and so on until $x ↦ x^{3}$. Summing the resulting areas gives $$S_\mathrm{mid} = \Delta x\left[f\left(a + \tfrac{\Delta x}{2}\right) + f\left(a + \tfrac{3\Delta x}{2}\right) + \dots + f \left(b - \tfrac{\Delta x}{2}\right)\right].$$

The error of this formula will be $$\left\vert\int_a^b f(x)\, dx - S_\mathrm{mid}\right\vert \le \frac{M_2(b - a)^3}{24n^2},$$ where $$M_2$$ is the maximum value of the absolute value of $$f^{\prime\prime}(x)$$ over the interval. This error is half of that of the trapezoidal sum; as such the middle Riemann sum is the most accurate approach to the Riemann sum.

Generalized midpoint rule
A generalized midpoint rule formula, also known as the enhanced midpoint integration, is given by $$\int_0^1 f(x)\,dx = 2\sum_{m=1}^M {\sum_{n=0}^\infty {\frac{1}{{\left(2M\right)^{2n+1}}\left({2n+1}\right)!}{{\left. f^{(2n)}(x) \right|}_{x=\frac{m-1/2}{M}}}}}\,\,,$$ where $$f^{(2n)}$$ denotes even derivative.

For a function $$ g(t) $$ defined over interval $$ (a,b) $$, its integral is $$\int_a^b g(t) \, dt = \int_0^{b-a} g(\tau+a) \, d\tau= (b-a) \int_0^1 g((b-a)x+a) \, dx.$$ Therefore, we can apply this generalized midpoint integration formula by assuming that $$ f(x) = (b-a) \, g((b-a)x+a) $$. This formula is particularly efficient for the numerical integration when the integrand $$ f(x) $$ is a highly oscillating function.

Trapezoidal rule
For the trapezoidal rule, the function is approximated by the average of its values at the left and right endpoints of the subintervals. Using the area formula $$\tfrac{1}{2}h(b_1 + b_2)$$ for a trapezium with parallel sides $f(a + Δx/2)$ and $f(a + 3Δx/2)$, and height $h$, and summing the resulting areas gives $$S_\mathrm{trap} = \tfrac{1}{2}\Delta x\left[f(a) + 2f(a + \Delta x) + 2f(a + 2\Delta x) + \dots + f(b)\right].$$

The error of this formula will be $$\left\vert\int_a^b f(x)\, dx - S_\mathrm{trap}\right\vert \le \frac{M_2(b - a)^3}{12n^2},$$ where $$M_2$$ is the maximum value of the absolute value of $$f''(x)$$.

The approximation obtained with the trapezoidal sum for a function is the same as the average of the left hand and right hand sums of that function.

Connection with integration
For a one-dimensional Riemann sum over domain $$[a, b]$$, as the maximum size of a subinterval shrinks to zero (that is the limit of the norm of the subintervals goes to zero), some functions will have all Riemann sums converge to the same value. This limiting value, if it exists, is defined as the definite Riemann integral of the function over the domain, $$\int_a^b f(x)\, dx = \lim_{\|\Delta x\| \rightarrow 0} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} f(x_i^*)\, \Delta x_i.$$

For a finite-sized domain, if the maximum size of a subinterval shrinks to zero, this implies the number of subinterval goes to infinity. For finite partitions, Riemann sums are always approximations to the limiting value and this approximation gets better as the partition gets finer. The following animations help demonstrate how increasing the number of subintervals (while lowering the maximum subinterval size) better approximates the "area" under the curve:

Since the red function here is assumed to be a smooth function, all three Riemann sums will converge to the same value as the number of subintervals goes to infinity.

Example
Taking an example, the area under the curve $f(b − Δx/2)$ over [0, 2] can be procedurally computed using Riemann's method.

The interval [0, 2] is firstly divided into $n$ subintervals, each of which is given a width of $$\tfrac{2}{n}$$; these are the widths of the Riemann rectangles (hereafter "boxes"). Because the right Riemann sum is to be used, the sequence of $x$ coordinates for the boxes will be $$x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_n$$. Therefore, the sequence of the heights of the boxes will be $$x_1^2, x_2^2, \ldots, x_n^2$$. It is an important fact that $$x_i = \tfrac{2i}{n}$$, and $$x_n = 2$$.

The area of each box will be $$\tfrac{2}{n} \times x_i^2$$ and therefore the nth right Riemann sum will be: $$\begin{align} S &= \frac{2}{n} \left(\frac{2}{n}\right)^2 + \dots + \frac{2}{n} \left(\frac{2i}{n}\right)^2 + \dots + \frac{2}{n} \left(\frac{2n}{n}\right)^2\\[1ex] &= \frac{8}{n^3} \left(1 + \dots + i^2 + \dots + n^2\right)\\[1ex] &= \frac{8}{n^3} \left(\frac{n(n + 1)(2n + 1)}{6}\right)\\[1ex] &= \frac{8}{n^3} \left(\frac{2n^3 + 3n^2 + n}{6}\right)\\[1ex] &= \frac{8}{3} + \frac{4}{n} + \frac{4}{3n^2}. \end{align}$$

If the limit is viewed as n → ∞, it can be concluded that the approximation approaches the actual value of the area under the curve as the number of boxes increases. Hence: $$\lim_{n \to \infty} S = \lim_{n \to \infty}\left(\frac{8}{3} + \frac{4}{n} + \frac{4}{3n^2}\right) = \frac{8}{3}.$$

This method agrees with the definite integral as calculated in more mechanical ways: $$\int_0^2 x^2\, dx = \frac{8}{3}.$$

Because the function is continuous and monotonically increasing over the interval, a right Riemann sum overestimates the integral by the largest amount (while a left Riemann sum would underestimate the integral by the largest amount). This fact, which is intuitively clear from the diagrams, shows how the nature of the function determines how accurate the integral is estimated. While simple, right and left Riemann sums are often less accurate than more advanced techniques of estimating an integral such as the Trapezoidal rule or Simpson's rule.

The example function has an easy-to-find anti-derivative so estimating the integral by Riemann sums is mostly an academic exercise; however it must be remembered that not all functions have anti-derivatives so estimating their integrals by summation is practically important.

Higher dimensions
The basic idea behind a Riemann sum is to "break-up" the domain via a partition into pieces, multiply the "size" of each piece by some value the function takes on that piece, and sum all these products. This can be generalized to allow Riemann sums for functions over domains of more than one dimension.

While intuitively, the process of partitioning the domain is easy to grasp, the technical details of how the domain may be partitioned get much more complicated than the one dimensional case and involves aspects of the geometrical shape of the domain.

Two dimensions
In two dimensions, the domain $$A$$ may be divided into a number of two-dimensional cells $$A_i$$ such that $A = \bigcup_i A_i$. Each cell then can be interpreted as having an "area" denoted by $$\Delta A_i$$. The two-dimensional Riemann sum is $$S = \sum_{i = 1}^n f(x_i^*, y_i^*)\, \Delta A_i,$$ where $$(x_i^*, y_i^*) \in A_i$$.

Three dimensions
In three dimensions, the domain $$V$$ is partitioned into a number of three-dimensional cells $$V_i$$ such that $V = \bigcup_i V_i$. Each cell then can be interpreted as having a "volume" denoted by $$\Delta V_i$$. The three-dimensional Riemann sum is $$S = \sum_{i = 1}^n f(x_i^*, y_i^*, z_i^*)\, \Delta V_i,$$ where $$(x_i^*, y_i^*, z_i^*) \in V_i$$.

Arbitrary number of dimensions
Higher dimensional Riemann sums follow a similar pattern. An n-dimensional Riemann sum is $$S = \sum_i f(P_i^*)\, \Delta V_i,$$ where $$P_i^* \in V_i$$, that is, it is a point in the n-dimensional cell $$V_i$$ with n-dimensional volume $$\Delta V_i$$.

Generalization
In high generality, Riemann sums can be written $$S = \sum_i f(P_i^*) \mu(V_i),$$ where $$P_i^*$$ stands for any arbitrary point contained in the set $$V_i$$ and $$\mu$$ is a measure on the underlying set. Roughly speaking, a measure is a function that gives a "size" of a set, in this case the size of the set $$V_i$$; in one dimension this can often be interpreted as a length, in two dimensions as an area, in three dimensions as a volume, and so on.

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title: Riemann sum


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Gil Scott-Heron

Gilbert Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011) was an American jazz poet, singer, musician, and author known for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson fused jazz, blues, and soul with lyrics relative to social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles. He referred to himself as a "bluesologist", his own term for "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues". His poem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", delivered over a jazz-soul beat, is considered a major influence on hip hop music.

Scott-Heron's music, most notably on the albums Pieces of a Man and Winter in America during the early 1970s, influenced and foreshadowed later African-American music genres, including hip hop and neo soul. His recording work received much critical acclaim, especially for "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". AllMusic's John Bush called him "one of the most important progenitors of rap music", stating that "his aggressive, no-nonsense street poetry inspired a legion of intelligent rappers while his engaging songwriting skills placed him square in the R&B charts later in his career."

Scott-Heron remained active until his death, and in 2010 released his first new album in 16 years, titled I'm New Here. A memoir he had been working on for years up to the time of his death, The Last Holiday, was published posthumously in January 2012. Scott-Heron received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He also is included in the exhibits at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) that officially opened on September 24, 2016, on the National Mall, and in an NMAAHC publication, Dream a World Anew. In 2021, Scott-Heron was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a recipient of the Early Influence Award.

Early years
Gil Scott-Heron was born in Chicago. His mother, Bobbie Scott, born in Mississippi, was an opera singer who performed with the Oratorio Society of New York. His father, Gil Heron, nicknamed "The Black Arrow", was a Jamaican footballer who in the 1950s became the first black man to play for Celtic F.C. in Glasgow, Scotland. Gil's parents separated in his early childhood and he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother, Lillie Scott, in Jackson, Tennessee. When Scott-Heron was 12 years old, his grandmother died and he returned to live with his mother in The Bronx in New York City. He enrolled at DeWitt Clinton High School but later transferred to The Fieldston School, after impressing the head of the English department with some of his writings and earning a full scholarship. As one of five Black students at the prestigious school, Scott-Heron was faced with alienation and a significant socioeconomic gap. During his admissions interview at Fieldston, an administrator asked him: How would you feel if you see one of your classmates go by in a limousine while you're walking up the hill from the subway?' And [he] said, 'Same way as you. Y'all can't afford no limousine. How do you feel? This type of intractable boldness would become a hallmark of Scott-Heron's later recordings.

After completing his secondary education, Scott-Heron decided to attend Lincoln University in Pennsylvania because Langston Hughes (his most important literary influence) was an alumnus. It was here that Scott-Heron met Brian Jackson, with whom he formed the band Black & Blues. After about two years at Lincoln, Scott-Heron took a year off to write the novels The Vulture and The Nigger Factory. Scott-Heron was very heavily influenced by the Black Arts Movement (BAM). The Last Poets, a group associated with the Black Arts Movement, performed at Lincoln in 1969 and Abiodun Oyewole of that Harlem group said Scott-Heron asked him after the performance, "Listen, can I start a group like you guys?" Scott-Heron returned to New York City, settling in Chelsea, Manhattan. The Vulture was published by the World Publishing Company in 1970 to positive reviews.

Although Scott-Heron never completed his undergraduate degree, he was admitted to the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, where he received an M.A. in creative writing in 1972. His master's thesis was titled Circle of Stone. Beginning in 1972, Scott-Heron taught literature and creative writing for several years as a full-time lecturer at University of the District of Columbia (then known as Federal City College) in Washington, D.C., while maintaining his music career.

Recording career
Scott-Heron began his recording career with the LP Small Talk at 125th and Lenox in 1970. Bob Thiele of Flying Dutchman Records produced the album, and Scott-Heron was accompanied by Eddie Knowles and Charlie Saunders on conga and David Barnes on percussion and vocals. The album's 14 tracks dealt with themes such as the superficiality of television and mass consumerism, the hypocrisy of some would-be black revolutionaries, and white middle-class ignorance of the difficulties faced by inner-city residents. The album also included the spoken-word poem Whitey on the Moon. In the liner notes, Scott-Heron acknowledged as influences Richie Havens, John Coltrane, Otis Redding, Jose Feliciano, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Nina Simone, and long-time collaborator Brian Jackson.

Scott-Heron's 1971 album Pieces of a Man used more conventional song structures than the loose, spoken-word feel of Small Talk. He was joined by Jackson, Johnny Pate as conductor, Ron Carter on bass and bass guitar, drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Burt Jones playing electric guitar, and Hubert Laws on flute and saxophone, with Thiele producing again. Scott-Heron's third album, Free Will, was released in 1972. Jackson, Purdie, Laws, Knowles, and Saunders all returned to play on Free Will and were joined by Jerry Jemmott playing bass, David Spinozza on guitar, and Horace Ott (arranger and conductor). Carter later said about Scott-Heron's voice: "He wasn't a great singer, but, with that voice, if he had whispered it would have been dynamic. It was a voice like you would have for Shakespeare."

In 1974, he recorded another collaboration with Brian Jackson, Winter in America, with Bob Adams on drums and Danny Bowens on bass. Winter in America has been regarded by many critics as the two musicians' most artistic effort. The following year, Scott-Heron and Jackson released Midnight Band: The First Minute of a New Day. In 1975, he released the single "Johannesburg", a rallying cry for the end of apartheid in South Africa. The song would be re-issued, in 12"-single form, together with "Waiting for the Axe to Fall" and "B-movie" in 1983.

A live album, It's Your World, followed in 1976 and a recording of spoken poetry, The Mind of Gil Scott-Heron, was released in 1978. Another success followed with the hit single "Angel Dust", which he recorded as a single with producer Malcolm Cecil. "Angel Dust" peaked at No. 15 on the R&B charts in 1978.

In 1979, Scott-Heron played at the No Nukes concerts at Madison Square Garden. The concerts were organized by Musicians United for Safe Energy to protest the use of nuclear energy following the Three Mile Island accident. Scott-Heron's song "We Almost Lost Detroit" was included in the No Nukes album of concert highlights. It alluded to a previous nuclear power plant accident and was also the title of a book by John G. Fuller. Scott-Heron was a frequent critic of President Ronald Reagan and his conservative policies.

Scott-Heron recorded and released four albums during the 1980s: 1980 and Real Eyes (1980), Reflections (1981) and Moving Target (1982). In February 1982, Ron Holloway joined the ensemble to play tenor saxophone. He toured extensively with Scott-Heron and contributed to his next album, Moving Target the same year. His tenor accompaniment is a prominent feature of the songs "Fast Lane" and "Black History/The World". Holloway continued with Scott-Heron until the summer of 1989, when he left to join Dizzy Gillespie. Several years later, Scott-Heron would make cameo appearances on two of Ron Holloway's CDs: Scorcher (1996) and Groove Update (1998), both on the Fantasy/Milestone label.

Scott-Heron was dropped by Arista Records in 1985 and quit recording, though he continued to tour. The same year he helped compose and sang "Let Me See Your I.D." on the Artists United Against Apartheid album Sun City, containing the famous line: "The first time I heard there was trouble in the Middle East, I thought they were talking about Pittsburgh." The song compares racial tensions in the U.S. with those in apartheid-era South Africa, implying that the U.S. was not too far ahead in race relations. In 1993, he signed to TVT Records and released Spirits, an album that included the seminal track "'Message to the Messengers". The first track on the album criticized the rap artists of the day. Scott-Heron is known in many circles as "the Godfather of rap" and is widely considered to be one of the genre's founding fathers. Given the political consciousness that lies at the foundation of his work, he can also be called a founder of political rap. "Message to the Messengers" was a plea for the new generation of rappers to speak for change rather than perpetuate the current social situation, and to be more articulate and artistic. Regarding hip hop music in the 1990s, he said in an interview: "They need to study music. I played in several bands before I began my career as a poet. There's a big difference between putting words over some music, and blending those same words into the music. There's not a lot of humor. They use a lot of slang and colloquialisms, and you don't really see inside the person. Instead, you just get a lot of posturing."

Prison terms and more performing

In 2001, Scott-Heron was sentenced to one to three years imprisonment in a New York State prison for possession of cocaine. While out of jail in 2002, he appeared on the Blazing Arrow album by Blackalicious. He was released on parole in 2003, the year BBC TV broadcast the documentary Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Scott-Heron was arrested for possession of a crack pipe during the editing of the film in October 2003 and received a six-month prison sentence.

On July 5, 2006, Scott-Heron was sentenced to two to four years in a New York State prison for violating a plea deal on a drug-possession charge by leaving a drug rehabilitation center. He claimed that he left because the clinic refused to supply him with HIV medication. This story led to the presumption that the artist was HIV positive, subsequently confirmed in a 2008 interview. Originally sentenced to serve until July 13, 2009, he was paroled on May 23, 2007.

After his release, Scott-Heron began performing live again, starting with a show at SOB's restaurant and nightclub in New York on September 13, 2007. On stage, he stated that he and his musicians were working on a new album and that he had resumed writing a book titled The Last Holiday, previously on long-term hiatus, about Stevie Wonder and his successful attempt to have the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. declared a federally recognized holiday in the United States.

Malik Al Nasir dedicated a collection of poetry to Scott-Heron titled Ordinary Guy that contained a foreword by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin of The Last Poets. Scott-Heron recorded one of the poems in Nasir's book entitled Black & Blue in 2006.

In April 2009, on BBC Radio 4, poet Lemn Sissay presented a half-hour documentary on Gil Scott-Heron entitled Pieces of a Man, having interviewed Gil Scott-Heron in New York a month earlier. Pieces of a Man was the first UK announcement from Scott-Heron of his forthcoming album and return to form. In November 2009, the BBC's Newsnight interviewed Scott-Heron for a feature titled The Legendary Godfather of Rap Returns. In 2009, a new Gil Scott-Heron website, gilscottheron.net, was launched with a new track "Where Did the Night Go" made available as a free download from the site.

In 2010, Scott-Heron was booked to perform in Tel Aviv, Israel, but this attracted criticism from pro-Palestinian activists, who stated: "Your performance in Israel would be the equivalent to having performed in Sun City during South Africa's apartheid era... We hope that you will not play apartheid Israel". Scott-Heron responded by canceling the performance.

I'm New Here
Scott-Heron released his album I'm New Here on independent label XL Recordings on February 9, 2010. Produced by XL label owner Richard Russell, I'm New Here was Scott-Heron's first studio album in 16 years. The pair began recording the album in 2007; the majority being recorded over the 12 months leading up to the release date, with engineer Lawson White at Clinton Studios in New York. I'm New Here is 28 minutes long with 15 tracks; however, casual asides and observations collected during recording sessions are included as interludes.

The album attracted critical acclaim, with The Guardian's Jude Rogers declaring it one of the "best of the next decade", while some have called the record "reverent" and "intimate", due to Scott-Heron's half-sung, half-spoken delivery of his poetry. In a music review for public radio network NPR, Will Hermes stated: "Comeback records always worry me, especially when they're made by one of my heroes ... But I was haunted by this record ... He's made a record not without hope but which doesn't come with any easy or comforting answers. In that way, the man is clearly still committed to speaking the truth". Writing for music website Music OMH, Darren Lee provided a more mixed assessment of the album, describing it as rewarding and stunning, but he also states that the album's brevity prevents it "from being an unassailable masterpiece".

Scott-Heron described himself as a mere participant, in a 2010 interview with The New Yorker:

This is Richard's CD. My only knowledge when I got to the studio was how he seemed to have wanted this for a long time. You're in a position to have somebody do something that they really want to do, and it was not something that would hurt me or damage me—why not? All the dreams you show up in are not your own.

The remix version of the album, We're New Here, was released in 2011, featuring production by English musician Jamie xx, who reworked material from the original album. Like the original album, We're New Here received critical acclaim.

In April 2014, XL Recordings announced a third album from the I'm New Here sessions, titled Nothing New. The album consists of stripped-down piano and vocal recordings and was released in conjunction with Record Store Day on April 19, 2014.

Death
Scott-Heron died on May 27, 2011, in New York City after a trip to Europe. Scott-Heron had confirmed press speculation about his health when he disclosed in a 2008 New York Magazine interview that he had been HIV-positive for several years, and that he had been previously hospitalized for pneumonia.

He was survived by his firstborn daughter Raquiyah "Nia" Kelly Heron from his relationship with Pat Kelly, his son Rumal Rackley from his relationship with Lurma Rackley, daughter Gia Scott-Heron from his marriage to Brenda Sykes; and daughter Chegianna Newton, who was 13 years old at the time of her father's death. He is also survived by his sister Gayle, brother Denis Heron who once managed Scott-Heron, his uncle Roy Heron, and nephew Terrance Kelly, an actor and rapper who performs as Mr. Cheeks and is a member of Lost Boyz.

Before his death Scott-Heron had been in talks with Portuguese director Pedro Costa over his film Horse Money to be screenwriter, composer and an actor.

In response to Scott-Heron's death, Public Enemy's Chuck D stated "RIP GSH...and we do what we do and how we do because of you" on his Twitter account. His UK publisher, Jamie Byng, called him "one of the most inspiring people I've ever met". On hearing of the death, R&B singer Usher stated: "I just learned of the loss of a very important poet...R.I.P., Gil Scott-Heron. The revolution will be live!!". Richard Russell, who produced Scott-Heron's final studio album, called him a "father figure of sorts to me", while Eminem said "He influenced all of hip-hop". Lupe Fiasco wrote a poem about Scott-Heron that was published on his website.

Scott-Heron's memorial service was held at Riverside Church in New York City on June 2, 2011, where Kanye West performed "Lost in the World" and "Who Will Survive in America", two songs from West's album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The studio album version of West's "Who Will Survive in America" features a spoken-word excerpt by Scott-Heron. Scott-Heron is buried at Kensico Cemetery in Westchester County in New York.

Scott-Heron was honored posthumously in 2012 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Charlotte Fox, member of the Washington, DC NARAS and president of Genesis Poets Music, nominated Scott-Heron for the award while a letter of support came from Grammy-winner and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee Bill Withers.

Scott-Heron's memoir, The Last Holiday, was published in January 2012. In her review for the Los Angeles Times, professor of English and journalism Lynell George wrote:

The Last Holiday is as much about his life as it is about context, the theater of late 20th century America — from Jim Crow to the Reagan '80s and from Beale Street to 57th Street. The narrative is not, however, a rise-and-fall retelling of Scott-Heron's life and career. It doesn't connect all the dots. It moves off-the-beat, at its own speed ... This approach to revelation lends the book an episodic quality, like oral storytelling does. It winds around, it repeats itself.

Scott-Heron's estate
At the time of Scott-Heron's death, a will could not be found. Raquiyah Kelly-Heron filed papers in Manhattan's New York Surrogate's Court in August 2013, claiming that Rumal Rackley was not Scott-Heron's son and should be omitted from the musician's estate. According to the Daily News website, Rackley, Kelly-Heron and two other sisters were seeking a resolution to the management of the estate. Rackley stated in court papers that Scott-Heron had asked him to be the administrator of the estate. Scott-Heron's 1994 album Spirits was dedicated to "my son Rumal and my daughters Nia and Gia", and in court papers Rackley added that Scott-Heron "introduced me [Rackley] from the stage as his son".

In 2011 Rackley had filed a suit against sister Gia Scott-Heron and her mother, Scott-Heron's first wife, Brenda Sykes believing they had unfairly attained US$250,000 of Scott-Heron's money. That case was settled for an undisclosed sum in early 2013 but the relationship between Rackley and Scott-Heron's two adult daughters had already become strained in the months after Gil's death. In her submission to the Surrogate Court, Kelly-Heron stated that a DNA test completed by Rackley in 2011—using DNA from Scott-Heron's brother—revealed that they "do not share a common male lineage", while Rackley has refused to undertake another DNA test. A hearing to address Kelly-Heron's filing was scheduled for late August 2013, but by March 2016 further information on the matter was not publicly available. Rackley continued to serve as court-appointed administrator for the estate, and he donated material to the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture to be displayed when the museum opened in September 2016.

The case was decided in December 2018 when the Surrogate Court ruled that Rumal Rackley and his half-sisters are all legal heirs, and in a ruling issued in May 2019 Rackley was granted Letters of Administration.

Influence and legacy
Scott-Heron's work has influenced writers, academics and musicians, from indie rockers to rappers. His work during the 1970s influenced and helped engender subsequent African-American music genres, such as hip hop and neo soul. He has been described by music writers as "the godfather of rap" and "the black Bob Dylan". Jamiroquai lead singer Jay Kay performed "The Bottle" with him at the Phoenix Festival in 1993 when his band was starting out, and Kay said in a 2022 interview that Scott-Heron had whispered to him: "It's your turn now." In the same interview, Kay called him a "super influence for me" and "a master, a poet, and so much more". In a review for Jamiroquai's Emergency on Planet Earth, Entertainment Weekly writer Marisa Fox wrote: "Gil Scott-Heron is still alive, but his ghost has already surfaced in the form of 22-year-old mad hatter Jay Kay and his trendy London acid-jazz group."

Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot comments on Scott-Heron's collaborative work with Jackson:

Together they crafted jazz-influenced soul and funk that brought new depth and political consciousness to '70s music alongside Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. In classic albums such as Winter in America and 'From South Africa to South Carolina,' Scott-Heron took the news of the day and transformed it into social commentary, wicked satire, and proto-rap anthems. He updated his dispatches from the front lines of the inner city on tour, improvising lyrics with an improvisational daring that matched the jazz-soul swirl of the music".

Of Scott-Heron's influence on hip hop, Kot said he "presag[ed] hip-hop and infus[ed] soul and jazz with poetry, humor and pointed political commentary". Ben Sisario of The New York Times wrote, "He [Scott-Heron] preferred to call himself a "bluesologist", drawing on the traditions of blues, jazz and Harlem renaissance poetics". Tris McCall of The Star-Ledger writes that "The arrangements on Gil Scott-Heron's early recordings were consistent with the conventions of jazz poetry – the movement that sought to bring the spontaneity of live performance to the reading of verse". A music writer later noted that "Scott-Heron's unique proto-rap style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists", while The Washington Post wrote that "Scott-Heron's work presaged not only conscious rap and poetry slams, but also acid jazz, particularly during his rewarding collaboration with composer-keyboardist-flutist Brian Jackson in the mid- and late '70s". The Observer's Sean O'Hagan discussed the significance of Scott-Heron's music with Brian Jackson, stating:

Together throughout the 1970s, Scott-Heron and Jackson made music that reflected the turbulence, uncertainty and increasing pessimism of the times, merging the soul and jazz traditions and drawing on an oral poetry tradition that reached back to the blues and forward to hip-hop. The music sounded by turns angry, defiant and regretful while Scott-Heron's lyrics possessed a satirical edge that set them apart from the militant soul of contemporaries such as Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield.

Will Layman of PopMatters wrote about the significance of Scott-Heron's early musical work:

In the early 1970s, Gil Scott-Heron popped onto the scene as a soul poet with jazz leanings; not just another Bill Withers, but a political voice with a poet's skill. His spoken-voice work had punch and topicality. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and "Johannesburg" were calls to action: Stokely Carmichael if he'd had the groove of Ray Charles. "The Bottle" was a poignant story of the streets: Richard Wright as sung by a husky-voiced Marvin Gaye. To paraphrase Chuck D, Gil Scott-Heron's music was a kind of CNN for black neighborhoods, prefiguring hip-hop by several years. It grew from the Last Poets, but it also had the funky swing of Horace Silver or Herbie Hancock—or Otis Redding. Pieces of a Man and Winter in America (collaborations with Brian Jackson) were classics beyond category".

Scott-Heron's influence over hip hop is primarily exemplified by his definitive single "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", sentiments from which have been explored by various rappers, including Aesop Rock, Talib Kweli and Common. In addition to his vocal style, Scott-Heron's indirect contributions to rap music extend to his and co-producer Jackson's compositions, which have been sampled by various hip-hop artists. "We Almost Lost Detroit" was sampled by Brand Nubian member Grand Puba ("Keep On"), Native Tongues duo Black Star ("Brown Skin Lady"), and MF Doom ("Camphor"). Additionally, Scott-Heron's 1980 song "A Legend in His Own Mind" was sampled on Mos Def's "Mr. Nigga", the opening lyrics from his 1978 recording "Angel Dust" were appropriated by rapper RBX on the 1996 song "Blunt Time" by Dr. Dre, and CeCe Peniston's 2000 song "My Boo" samples Scott-Heron's 1974 recording "The Bottle".

In addition to the Scott-Heron excerpt used in "Who Will Survive in America", Kanye West sampled Scott-Heron and Jackson's "Home is Where the Hatred Is" and "We Almost Lost Detroit" for the songs "My Way Home" and "The People", respectively, both of which are collaborative efforts with Common. Scott-Heron, in turn, acknowledged West's contributions, sampling the latter's 2007 single "Flashing Lights" on his final album, 2010's I'm New Here.

Scott-Heron admitted ambivalence regarding his association with rap, remarking in 2010 in an interview for the Daily Swarm: "I don't know if I can take the blame for [rap music]". As New York Times writer Sisario explained, he preferred the moniker of "bluesologist". Referring to reviews of his last album and references to him as the "godfather of rap", Scott-Heron said: "It's something that's aimed at the kids ... I have kids, so I listen to it. But I would not say it's aimed at me. I listen to the jazz station." In 2013, Chattanooga rapper Isaiah Rashad recorded an unofficial mixtape called Pieces of a Kid, which was greatly influenced by Heron's debut album Pieces of a Man.

Following Scott-Heron's funeral in 2011, a tribute from publisher, record company owner, poet, and music producer Malik Al Nasir was published on The Guardian's website, titled "Gil Scott-Heron saved my life".

In the 2018 film First Man, Scott-Heron is a minor character and is played by soul singer Leon Bridges.

He is one of eight significant people shown in mosaic at the 167th Street renovated subway station on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx that reopened in 2019.

Film scores

 * The Baron (1977) — with Brian Jackson and Barnett Williams

Filmography

 * Saturday Night Live, musical guest, December 13, 1975.
 * Black Wax (1982). Directed by Robert Mugge.
 * 5 Sides of a Coin (2004). Directed by Paul Kell
 * The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (2005). Directed by Don Letts for BBC.
 * The Paris Concert (2007).
 * Tales of the Amnesia Express Live at the Town & Country (1988).

title: Gil Scott-Heron


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Metroid

Metroid (メトロイド) is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic Metroid creatures.

Metroid combines the platforming of Super Mario Bros. and the exploration of The Legend of Zelda with a science fiction setting and an emphasis on nonlinear gameplay. Most Metroid games are side-scrolling, while the 3D games use a first-person perspective. Players battle hostile alien enemies and obtain power-ups as they progress through the game world. The series is known for its isolated atmosphere, featuring few non-player characters.

The first Metroid was developed by Nintendo R&D1 and released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. Metroid II: Return of Samus was released for the handheld Game Boy in 1991. Super Metroid (1994), released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, received acclaim. After a hiatus, Metroid Fusion (2002) and Metroid: Zero Mission (2004) were released for the Game Boy Advance.

The first 3D Metroid game, Metroid Prime (2002), was developed by Retro Studios for the GameCube and received acclaim. It was followed by Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004) and the Wii game Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007). Metroid: Other M (2010), developed by Team Ninja for the Wii, received weaker reviews. After another hiatus, MercurySteam developed a remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus, Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) for the handheld Nintendo 3DS, followed by Metroid Dread (2021) for the Nintendo Switch. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is scheduled for 2025.

As of September 2012, the Metroid series had sold over 17.44 million copies. It has been represented in other Nintendo media, including the Super Smash Bros. series. Additional media includes soundtracks, comic books, and manga. Along with the 1997 Konami game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the early Metroid games defined the Metroidvania subgenre, inspiring other games with continuous, explorable side-scrolling levels. Samus was one of the first prominent female video game characters.

Gameplay
The Metroid series contains gameplay elements from shooter, platformer, adventure, survival and sometimes first person games. The series is notable for its non-linear progression and solitary exploration format where the player only controls Samus Aran, with few or no other characters to interact with. The player gains items and power-ups for Samus's cybernetic suit primarily through exploration, and occasionally by defeating alien creatures through real-time combat with the suit's arm cannon. Many such upgrades enable further avenues of exploration. A recurring upgrade is the Morph Ball, which allows Samus to curl into a ball, roll into tight places and plant bombs.

The classic series consists of 2D side-scrollers, while the Metroid Prime series uses a first-person perspective, and first-person shooter mechanics. The 2010 Other M made use of a third person shooter format.

The original Metroid was influenced by two other major Nintendo franchises: Mario, from which it borrowed extensive areas of platform jumping, and The Legend of Zelda, from which it borrowed non-linear exploration. Metroid differed in its atmosphere of solitude and foreboding. Metroid was also one of the first video games to feature an exploration to the left as well as the right, and backtracking to already explored areas to search for secret items and paths. Since the late 1990s, the term "Metroidvania" has been applied to this format.

Audio
The Metroid series has been noted and praised for its unique style of video game music. Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka, composer of the original Metroid, has said he wanted to make a score that made players feel like they were encountering a "living creature" and had no distinction between music and sound effects. The only time the main Metroid theme was heard was after Mother Brain is defeated; this is intended to give the player a catharsis. At all other times, no melodies are present in the game. The composer of Super Metroid, Kenji Yamamoto, came up with some themes by humming to himself while riding his motorcycle to work. He was asked to compose the music for Metroid Prime to reinforce the series continuity. Metroid Prime's Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound was mixed by a member of Dolby.

Developers from Retro Studios noted how the 6 MB memory budget for all sound effects of a level in Metroid Prime was crucial in producing a quality soundtrack, as each sound had to be of high quality to be included. Yamamoto used heavy drums, piano, voiced chants, clangs of pipes, and electric guitar. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption took advantage of the increased RAM in the Wii, allowing for higher-quality audio samples. Kenji Yamamoto, who composed the music for Super Metroid and the Prime trilogy, copied the musical design of the original Metroid in Metroid Prime 3, by keeping the music and themes dark and scary until the very end, when uplifting music is played during the credits.

Setting
The Metroid franchise takes place in a science fiction setting where humanity is shown to be a part of a spacefaring sovereignty known as the Galactic Federation. Other races are both a part of the Federation as well as close allies, the most prolific being the Chozo, an avian species possessing advanced technology and skills in bioengineering. The mutual nemesis of the Federation and the Chozo are the Space Pirates, a villainous interstellar cabal comprising multiple alien races of disreputable nature that all refuse to abide to the Galactic Federation's rule. They are led by the dragon-like warlord Ridley, and plot to develop weapons of mass destruction from hazardous life forms and materials to destroy the Federation and secure galactic dominance.

The eponymous Metroids are a species of predatory, jellyfish-like organisms that feed on an undetectable life energy found in all living creatures. Biological weapons, the Metroids were engineered by the Chozo to eradicate a parasitic, shapeshifting virus known as the "X" that threatened their civilization. While the Metroids succeeded in stopping the X, they became a danger to the Chozo themselves when they developed the ability to evolve into different and far deadlier forms. Most of the games center around the efforts of various organizations, including the Space Pirates, the Galactic Federation, and rogue members of the Chozo race, to weaponize the Metroids and the subsequent conflicts they cause.

Story
Metroid follows the adventures of the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who battles the Space Pirates and the Metroids. Samus was raised by the Chozo after her parents were killed by a Space Pirate raid led by Ridley. She serves in the military of the Galactic Federation before departing and beginning work as a bounty hunter, while facing the forces of Ridley and Mother Brain.

In the original Metroid, Samus travels to the planet Zebes to stop the Space Pirates from using the Metroids to create biological weapons. She defeats the cybernetic lifeform Mother Brain, as well as Ridley and his fellow Space Pirate leader, Kraid.

The Metroid Prime series is set between Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus, and chronicles Samus' conflicts with a malignant, radioactive substance named Phazon. In Metroid Prime, Samus travels to Tallon IV to stop the Space Pirates from exploiting a Phazon-infused meteor that has poisoned the local ecosystem. After battling a cybernetically enhanced Ridley and clearing out the Space Pirate presence on the planet, Samus purges the Phazon from Tallon IV by defeating the titular enemy, a Phazon-infected Metroid. Metroid Prime: Hunters, which is unconnected to the Phazon storyline, sees Samus respond to a distress call to the Alimbic Cluster. Other bounty hunters respond to the call, and after conflicting amongst themselves, they all ultimately band together to fight against a creature named Gorea. In Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Samus explores the planet Aether, which is suffering from a Phazon outbreak. The Phazon has split the world into "light" and "dark" dimensions, leading to the rise of the evil Ing race. While liberating Aether from the Ing, Samus encounters Dark Samus, a revitalized Metroid Prime that has partially copied her physical appearance. In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Samus and three other bounty hunters are recruited by the Federation to stop Dark Samus from infecting the galaxy with Phazon. While fighting to avoid being slowly corrupted by Phazon herself, Samus eradicates Phazon and her double. Metroid Prime: Federation Force, the only game in which players do not control Samus, sees Samus mind-controlled by Space Pirates; the Federation Force, an elite squadron of marines equipped with powerful exosuits, battles to rescue her and destroy the Space Pirates.

In Metroid II, the Galactic Federation calls for the extermination of the Metroid species and contracts Samus to travel to the species' homeworld, SR388, to carry out their extinction. She succeeds in wiping out the planet's Metroid population, but saves a single hatchling Metroid that bonds to her and delivers it to the Ceres research station for study. In Super Metroid, Ridley steals the hatchling and takes it to Zebes, where the Space Pirates are attempting to clone the Metroids. After killing Ridley, Samus herself is nearly killed by the revived Mother Brain, but is rescued by the now grown Metroid which sacrifices itself. Samus destroys Mother Brain in retaliation and escapes as Zebes explodes, exterminating her old enemies for good.

In Metroid: Other M, set after Super Metroid, Samus investigates the Bottle Ship, a derelict scientific research station, with a Galactic Federation platoon led by her former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich. They team up against many bioweapons created by a Federation science group, including clones of creatures Samus faced on Zebes like Ridley and the Metroids. A revived Mother Brain, now occupying a humanoid body supplied to her by the Federation, takes control of the Metroids and attempts to unleash them upon the Federation, but is stopped by Samus at the cost of Adam's life. Afterward, Samus encounters and kills the ethereal entity Phantoon and sets the Bottle Ship to self-destruct. In Metroid Fusion, Samus accompanies a team of scientists to SR388, where she has her first encounter with the X parasites when the species reappears in the absence of the Metroids. The X overruns a scientific research station in the planet's orbit, assimilating and imitating many creatures being studied on board. Samus is infected by one but is saved using a vaccine made from the baby Metroid's cells. She discovers that the Federation has been cloning Metroids in secret, and sets the space station on a collision with SR388 to destroy the X parasites. Metroid Dread continues where Fusion left off, with the Federation dispatching a squadron of advanced automatons known as E.M.M.I. to investigate the planet ZDR, where X parasites have been sighted. Samus is sent to the planet herself after contact is lost, coming into conflict with the X and a Chozo war criminal named Raven Beak, stopping both from invading the rest of the galaxy.

1986: Conception and first game

The central figures in the production and development of the Metroid series are Satoru Okada, who directed Metroid and created the series; Yoshio Sakamoto, who was a character designer for the first game and has directed or supervised most of the sequels; Gunpei Yokoi, who headed the R&D1 division and produced the first two games; Makoto Kano, who wrote the scenario for Metroid, co-designed the second game, and produced the third; and Hiroji Kiyotake, who designed characters for the original.

The original Metroid, an action game for the Family Computer Disk System, was developed by Nintendo's Research & Development 1 (R&D1) and released in Japan on August 6, 1986. It was published for the Nintendo Entertainment System on August 15, 1987 in North America and on January 15, 1988, in Europe. It was directed by Satoru Okada.

Metroid was designed to be a shooting game that combined the platform jumping of Super Mario Bros. with the non-linear exploration of The Legend of Zelda and a darker aesthetic. The name of the game is a portmanteau of the words "metro" (as in rapid transit) and android, and was meant to allude to the mainly underground setting of the first game as well as its robot-like protagonist. Halfway through development of the original Metroid, one of the staff said to his fellow developers "Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?", and the idea was accepted. Ridley Scott's 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien was described by Sakamoto as a "huge influence" after the world of the first Metroid had been created. In recognition of this, an antagonist was given the name Ridley, after director Ridley Scott. The development staff were also influenced by the work of the film's creature designer H. R. Giger, finding his style to be fitting for the Metroid universe.

1991–2002: Sequels and first hiatus
Metroid II: Return of Samus was released for the Game Boy in 1991 in North America and in 1992 in Japan and Europe. Metroid II also further established Samus' visual design, with the bulky Varia Suit upgrade and different arm cannons.

As R&D1 were committed to making another game, Nintendo brought in Intelligent Systems to develop Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Development began in late 1991. Released in 1994, Super Metroid drastically expanded the Metroid formula, with numerous new power-ups and a richer story. It received acclaim and is considered one of the best SNES games. It was directed by Yoshio Sakamoto, character designer for the first Metroid; Sakamoto has directed or produced most of the 2D Metroid games since.

After Super Metroid, Nintendo released no new Metroid games for eight years. They considered developing a Metroid game for its next console, the Nintendo 64, but could not generate firm ideas. Sakamoto said he could not imagine how the Nintendo 64 controller could be used to move Samus. An unidentified company declined an offer from Nintendo to develop a Metroid game for the Nintendo 64, as they were not confident they could create a worthwhile successor to Super Metroid. Samus appeared in the Nintendo 64 fighting game Super Smash Bros. (1999).

2002–2009: Metroid Prime and Game Boy Advance games

In 2000, the Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto visited the new Nintendo subsidiary Retro Studios in Austin, Texas. He did not like any of the projects they had in development, but spent time playing Action Adventure, a third-person science-fiction action game with a female protagonist. Miyamoto tasked Retro with developing a Metroid game for the new Nintendo console, the GameCube. The team terminated Action Adventure and moved to Metroid.

Metroid Prime, the first 3D Metroid game, released in 2002, moved the nonlinear structure of Super Metroid to a first-person perspective. Nintendo stressed that it was not a first-person shooter but a "first-person adventure". Metroid Prime received acclaim. It sold 2.84 million copies worldwide and was the best-selling Metroid game until Metroid Dread (2021).

In 2002, Nintendo released Metroid Fusion, a 2D game for the Game Boy Advance (GBA). It was developed by R&D1 and written and directed by Sakamoto. Its gameplay is similar to Super Metroid, but with a more mission-based structure that gives more guidance to the player. The team's next GBA project was Zero Mission (2004), a remake of the original Metroid. Both GBA games received acclaim. A Nintendo restructure merged R&D1 with R&D2 in 2003, shortly ahead of the release of Zero Mission. A 2D Metroid game for the Nintendo DS, Metroid Dread, was in development around 2006, but the hardware was not suitable for the project. Dread was ultimately revived in 2021 for the Nintendo Switch.

In 2004, Nintendo also released Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, which sees Samus switching between parallel light and dark worlds and introduced more difficulty. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, released for the Wii in 2007, added motion controls and has Samus exploring separate planets, with more emphasis on shooting action. The Prime games were rereleased for the Wii in the compilation Metroid Prime: Trilogy.

In 2005, Nintendo released Metroid Prime Pinball, a pinball spin-off for the DS developed by Fuse Games. Metroid Prime Hunters, a multiplayer game developed by Nintendo Software Technology, was released for the DS in 2006.

2010–2016: Other M and second hiatus
A new 3D Metroid game, Metroid: Other M, developed with the Japanese studio Team Ninja and directed by Sakamoto, was released for Wii in 2010. It featured a third-person perspective and placed a greater focus on story and action. Other M received weaker reviews, with criticism for its characterization of Samus as timid and emotional and its reduced emphasis on exploration. Polygon described Other M as "such a massive misfire and a flop with fans that it practically killed the series", with the series going on another hiatus for six years.

A Metroid minigame, "Metroid Blast", appeared in the Wii U game Nintendo Land (2012), which had a mixed reception. Using the Wii U GamePad, the player controls Samus's gunship, while up to four players with Wii Remotes and Nunchuks control Mii characters on foot, wearing Varia Suits. Miyamoto said this reflected his ideas for future Metroid games.

In 2014, a former artist from Next Level Games said that Next Level had built a Metroid prototype for the Nintendo 3DS handheld before Nintendo asked them to develop Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon instead. In 2016, Nintendo released Metroid Prime: Federation Force, a multiplayer game for the 3DS developed by Next Level. It received criticism for its multiplayer focus and frivolous tone.

2017–present: Samus Returns, Dread and Prime 4: Beyond

A remake of Metroid II, Metroid: Samus Returns, was developed by MercurySteam and released for the 3DS in September 2017. It retained the gameplay of the original and added 3D graphics and gameplay features such as melee combat. MercurySteam's next project was Metroid Dread for the Nintendo Switch, a realization of the cancelled Nintendo DS project from the late 2000s. Released in October 2021, it had sold more than 2.9 million copies worldwide by May 2022, making it the best-selling Metroid game.

In February 2023, Nintendo released Metroid Prime Remastered, a high-definition remaster of Metroid Prime for the Switch. It was developed by Retro Studios with assistance from developers including Iron Galaxy Studios.

In June 2017, at E3, Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4 for the Switch. While not confirmed by Nintendo, Eurogamer reported that Prime 4 was being developed by Bandai Namco Studios. Unsatisfied with the progress, Nintendo announced in January 2019 that it had restarted the development under Retro Studios, the developer of the previous Metroid Prime games. In June 2024, Nintendo revealed a trailer and the title Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, with a release year of 2025.

Reception
Metroid ranked the 70th top game (collectively) by Next Generation in 1996 and the 6th in 1999, and as the eighth best game franchise by IGN in 2008. In 2001, Electronic Gaming Monthly named Super Metroid the best game ever. All the Metroid games released by 2005 were included in a Nintendo Power top 200 Nintendo games list, Prime in the IGN top 100, Metroid, Super Metroid, Prime and Echoes in a list by GameFAQs users; Metroid and Super Metroid in Game Informers list; and Prime and Super Metroid in Edges list. The series has influenced games including Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Samus Aran was recognized by Guinness World Records as "enduringly popular" and as the "first playable human female character in a mainstream video game", although Toby Masuyo ("Kissy") from Namco's Alien Sector predates her by one year. Ridley was the second-most requested Nintendo character by IGN and number one by the fans to be added as a playable character to the Super Smash Bros. series and Mother Brain is often named among the best video game bosses.

The original Metroid has been described as boosted by its "eerie" music, adding a "sense of mystery and exploration" to the game by making the game "moody and atmospheric". IGN praised the well-timed music that helped add suspense. GameSpot described Super Metroid as better than the original "in literally every conceivable way", Metroid Fusion was noted for its "understated score" which fit the mood of the adventure and its excellent stereo sound effects, making it an uncommonly good Game Boy Advance sound experience. Metroid Prime was considered one of the best games ever made upon its release, winning Game of the Year from various publications and websites. IGN called the aural experience with Metroid Prime 2: Echoes "mesmerizing". Music from Metroid has been frequently re-released as part of "best of" video game music releases. Metroid Prime's soundtrack was called the best sound design on the GameCube. The sound effects were also noted for a high degree of accuracy and blending with the soundtrack. On the popular video game music site OverClocked ReMix, Super Metroid is the tenth-most remixed video game, while the first Metroid video game was twenty-fifth.

Sales
Each Metroid game, excluding spin-offs and remakes, has sold more than one million copies. By September 2012, the series had sold over 17.44 million copies worldwide.

Sales of Metroid games in Japan have typically been lower than in the United States. In its debut week in Japan, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption sold 32,388 units, ranking it behind Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Wii Fit, and Gundam Musou Special. Metroid: Other M was the third-bestselling video game in Japan during its week of release with 45,398 copies sold, ranking it behind Wii Party and Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airu Village. It sold an additional 11,239 copies the following week.

Legacy
Along with the 1997 Konami game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the early Metroid games defined a subgenre known as Metroidvania. Tom Happ, developer of the 2015 Metroidvania game Axiom Verge, defined Metroidvania games as side-scrolling adventures with continuous maps, rather than discrete levels, that require the player to collect items and backtrack. Other notable Metroidvania games include Cave Story (2004), Shadow Complex (2009), Ori and the Blind Forest (2014), Hollow Knight (2017), and Chasm (2018). Metroid is therefore among a handful of game series to have genres named after them, along with Dark Souls (Soulslike) and Rogue (Roguelike).

In 2016, AM2R, a fan-made remake of Metroid II was released. Nintendo issued takedown notices to halt its distribution, citing the potential damage to its intellectual property. AM2R was nominated for the Game Awards 2016, but was removed as it had not been cleared by Nintendo for inclusion.

Super Smash Bros. franchise
Samus is a playable character in all five Super Smash Bros. games. Games from Super Smash Bros. Brawl onward also feature Zero Suit Samus, a version of the heroine using the blue form-fitting suit seen in Zero Mission and the Prime series. Ridley makes cameos in Super Smash Bros., where he can be seen flying through the level Zebes, and in Super Smash Bros. Melee both as an unlockable trophy and in the game's opening, where he is fighting Samus at Ceres Space Station. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Ridley appears as a boss character in both normal and Meta Ridley forms. Ridley's clone from Metroid: Other M appears as a boss on the Pyroshpere stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, where he will join a fighter's side if they manage to knock him out. Due to demand from fans, Ridley was made a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Kraid also appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a stage hazard in Brinstar Depths and unlockable trophy. Various other characters such as Metroids, Mother Brain and Dark Samus appear as either trophies or stickers in the Super Smash Bros. series as well. Dark Samus would later debut as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, sharing a moveset similar to Samus. A number of locations from the Metroid franchise have appeared in Super Smash Bros. games as battle stages.

Other games
Samus has appeared in other Nintendo games such as Super Mario RPG, the NES version of Tetris, Tetris DS, Galactic Pinball, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3 and WarioWare.

A Metroid-lookalike enemy, called the Komayto, appears in Kid Icarus for the NES; the characters allude to the similarities between the two in Kid Icarus: Uprising. In Dead or Alive: Dimensions, a fighting game developed by Team Ninja for the 3DS, one stage is a replica of the arena in which Samus fights Ridley in Metroid: Other M and features both as non-playable characters. When asked why Samus is not playable in Dimensions, Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi said in an interview that "it would be better to let her focus on her job rather than kicking everyone's butt in [Dead or Alive: Dimensions]". The Wii U launch game Nintendo Land has a minigame based on the series called "Metroid Blast".

A Samus amiibo figure can be used to unlock a Mii costume based on her appearance in Mario Kart 8 and a Samus costume in Super Mario Maker.

In 2020, Nintendo and Epic Games began negotiations to include Samus in Fortnite as a skin. The plans for this first came to light publicly when internal Epic documents were released as part of the Epic Games v. Apple case in 2021. Other characters from the batch in the document such as Kratos and Master Chief were added to the game in late 2020, but Samus was not. In 2024, former Epic creative director Donald Mustard revealed that Nintendo had requested Nintendo Switch exclusivity for the Samus skin, which was against Epic's policy of maintaining feature parity for Fortnite across all platforms, and so the character was never included.

Television
A Metroid animated series was considered for the Super Mario Bros. Power Hour, a cancelled animation block that would have aired in the 1980s. Concept art was produced for the series, which notably featured a male incarnation of Samus. Power Hour never moved forward in the intended format, instead being replaced by The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! which aired in 1989. Mother Brain was the primary villain in the Captain N: The Game Master TV show.

Manga
Various magazines have published comics and manga based on Metroid, Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Metroid: Zero Mission in both the United States and Japan. Samus Aran and other Metroid characters also featured in the Captain N: The Game Master comic books by Valiant Comics. In Japan, a Metroid manga series was published in Kodansha's Monthly Magazine Z beginning in November 2003, and ran for 16 chapters which were later collected into two Tankōbon volumes. The series chronicled Samus' life up through the events of the original game, and went on to influence the plots of subsequent games in the franchise. Also in Japan, Comic Bom Bom published a three-volume manga starring Samus, Metroid: Samus and Joey. (メトロイド サムス&ジョイ)

Proposed film
In 2003, two producers optioned the rights to create a live-action film based on Metroid, but the rights expired. The director John Woo acquired the rights a few years later, and his studio Lion Rock Productions was to produce and release the film before 2006. The writers included David Greenwalt, who had worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Grimm. According to the producer Brad Froxhoven, the film would have explored Samus' origin story; she would be "an exceptionally talented, but also flawed character who was looking for redemption ... We wanted to see her struggle, to be humbled, and to be forced to rise up against crazy odds. And of course we wanted to see the cool weapons in all of their glory".

According to Foxhoven, Nintendo was protective due to the failure of the 1993 Super Mario Bros. film. Nintendo had no answers to the team's questions about Samus' personal life, relationships, and other personal characteristics, and was uncomfortable with the film team "being the ones to propose those answers". Foxhoven said Nintendo left the discussions appreciating that they needed to develop the franchise further if it were to become a Hollywood film. In 2013, Sakamoto said he could support a film directed by Ryuji Kitaura, the director of the CG scenes in Other M, if the concept and methodologies were good enough.

title: Metroid


text:
Byblos

Byblos (Βύβλος), also known as Jebeil, Jbeil or Jubayl (جُبَيْل, locally Jbeil ;, , probably Gebal), is an ancient city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. The area is believed to have been first settled between 8800 and 7000BC and continuously inhabited since 5000BC. During its history, Byblos was part of numerous cultures including Egyptian, Phoenician, Assyrian, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Genoese, Mamluk and Ottoman. Urbanisation is thought to have begun during the third millennium BC and it developed into a city making it one of the oldest cities in the world. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It was in ancient Byblos that the Phoenician alphabet, likely the ancestor of the Greek, Latin and all other Western alphabets, was developed.

Etymology
Eusebius' Onomasticon stated that Byblos was known in Hebrew as Gabel / Gobel. The name appears as Kebny in Egyptian hieroglyphic records going back to the 4th-dynasty pharaoh Sneferu (fl. 2600BC) and as Gubla (𒁺𒆷) in the Akkadian cuneiform Amarna letters to the 18th-dynasty pharaohs Amenhotep III and IV. In the 1stmillenniumBC, its name appeared in Phoenician and Punic inscriptions as Gebal (𐤂𐤁𐤋, ); in the Hebrew Bible as Geval (גבל); and in Syriac as (ܓܒܠ). The name seems to derive from (𐤂𐤁, "well") and  (𐤀𐤋, "god"), the latter a word that could variously refer to any of the Canaanite gods or to their leader in particular. The name thus seems to have meant the "Well of the God" or "Source of the God".

Its present Arabic name Jubayl (جبيل) or J(e)beil is a direct descendant of these earlier names, although apparently modified by a misunderstanding of the name as the triliteral root or, meaning "mountain". All of these, along with Byblos, are etymologically related. During the Crusades, this name appeared in European records as Gibelet or Giblet. This name was used for Byblos Castle and its associated lordship.

The Phoenician city, known to the Greeks as Býblos (Βύβλος) and to the Romans as Byblus, was important for their import of papyrus from Egypt – to the extent that "byblos" came to mean "papyrus" in Greek. The English word "Bible", therefore, ultimately derives from the Greek name of the city.

History and archaeology
Situated approximately 42 km (26 mi) north of Beirut, Byblos holds a strong allure for archaeologists due to its accumulations of various strata resulting from countless centuries of human dwelling. The initial excavation was conducted by Ernest Renan in 1860, documented in his work "Mission de Phénicie" (1865–1874). This was succeeded by Pierre Montet's efforts from 1921 to 1924, and later by Maurice Dunand, who continued excavations from 1925 for a span of forty years. Renan's expedition was to "provide the evidence that the city did not move and that Gebeil is Byblos".

Fragments attributed to the semi-legendary pre-Homeric Phoenician priest Sanchuniathon say Byblos was the first city erected in Phoenicia and was established by the god Cronus. (Cronus was considered the nearest equivalent to the Canaanite Baal or Baal Hammon in the syncretising system used by the ancient Greeks and Romans.) According to the writer Philo of Byblos (quoting Sanchuniathon, and quoted in Eusebius), Byblos was founded by the Phoenician shrine god El, (whom the Greeks identified with their god Cronus). During the 3rd millennium BC, the first signs of a town can be observed, with the remains of well-built houses of uniform size. This was the period when the Canaanite civilization began to develop.

Neolithic and Chalcolithic levels
Neolithic remains of some buildings can be observed at the site. Jacques Cauvin published studies of flint tools from the stratified Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites in 1962. Remains of humans found in Chalcolithic burials have been published by Henri Victor Vallois in 1937. Tombs from this era were discussed by Emir Maurice Chehab in 1950. Early pottery found at the tell was published by E.S. Boynton in 1960 with further studies by R. Erich in 1954 and Van Liere and Henri de Contenson in 1964.

Dunand's five-level stratigraphy
Prehistoric settlements at Byblos were divided up by Dunand into the following five periods, which were recently expanded and re-calibrated by Yosef Garfinkel to correlate with Tell es-Sultan (Jericho):

 * Early Neolithic (early phase) corresponding to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) of Jericho, represented by plastered floors and naviforme technology, dated between 8800 and 7000 BC;
 * Early Neolithic (late phase) corresponding to the PNA of Tell es-Sultan (Jericho) IX (also Yarmukian) between 6400 and 5800 BC, represented by pottery, sickle blades, figurines and small points;
 * Middle Neolithic corresponding to the PNB of Tell es-Sultan (Jericho) VIII and represented by pottery, dated between 5800 and 5300 BC;
 * Late Neolithic corresponding to the Middle Chalcolithic of Beth Shean and represented by pottery, stone vessels, silos, chamber tombs and seals, dated between 5300 and 4500 BC;
 * Early Chalcolithic corresponding to the Late Chalcolithic of Ghassulian, represented by jar burials, pierced flint, churn and a violin figurine, dated to between 4500 and 3600 BC and,
 * Late Chalcolithic corresponding to the Early Bronze Age, represented by architecture and cylinder seal impressions, dated to between 3600 and 3100 BC.

The site first appears to have been settled during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period, approximately 8800 to 7000 BC (Durand's Early Neolithic).

Early Neolithic Byblos was a later settlement than others in the Beqaa Valley such as Labweh and Ard Tlaili. It was located on the seaward slope of the larger of the two hills that used to compose ancient Byblos, with a watered valley in between.

The original site spread down into the valley and covered an area of 1.2 ha providing fertile soils and a protected landing place for boats. Dunand discovered around twenty houses although some of the settlement was suggested to have been lost to the sea, robbed or destroyed. Dwellings were rectangular with plastered floors, pottery was usually Dark faced burnished ware with some shell impressions.

The Middle Neolithic was a smaller settlement of no more than 0.15 ha adjacent to the older site. The pottery was more developed with red washes and more varied forms and elaborate decorations, buildings were poorer with unplastered floors.

The Late Neolithic period showed development from the middle in building design, a wider range of more developed flint tools and a far larger variety of pottery with fabrication including silica. The Late Chalcolithic featured developments of "Canaanean blades" and fan scrapers. Adult burials in jars started to appear along with metal in the form of one copper hook, found in a jar. Some jars were lined with white plaster that was applied and self-hardened after firing. Copper appeared more frequently in the Late Chalcolithic period along with multiple burials in tombs and jar handles with impressed signs.

Early Bronze
According to Lorenzo Nigro, Byblos moved from being a fishermen's village to its earlier urban form at the beginning of the third millennium BC. Early Bronze Age remains were characterised by the development of Byblos combed ware and a lithic assemblage studied by Jacques Cauvin.

Watson Mills and Roger Bullard suggest that during the Old Kingdom of Egypt and Middle Kingdom of Egypt Byblos was virtually an Egyptian colony. The growing city was a wealthy one and seems to have been an ally (among "those who are on his waters") of Egypt for many centuries. First Dynasty tombs used timbers from Byblos. One of the oldest Egyptian words for an oceangoing boat was "Byblos ship". Archaeologists have recovered Egyptian-made artifacts as old as a vessel fragment bearing the name of the Second dynasty ruler Khasekhemwy, although this "may easily have reached Byblos through trade and/or at a later period".

Middle Bronze
Objects have been found at Byblos naming the 13th Dynasty Egyptian king Neferhotep I.

Late Bronze
The rulers of Byblos maintained close relationships with the New Kingdom pharaohs of Ancient Egypt

Around 1350 BC, the Amarna letters include 60 letters from Rib-Hadda and his successor Ili-Rapih who were rulers of Byblos, writing to the Egyptian government. This is mainly due to Rib-Hadda's constant pleas for military assistance from Akhenaten. They also deal with the conquest of neighbouring city-states by the Habiru.

It appears Egyptian contact peaked during the 19th dynasty, only to decline during the 20th and 21st dynasties. In addition, when the New Kingdom collapsed in the 11th century BC, Byblos ceased being a colony and became the foremost city of Phoenicia. Although the archaeological evidence seems to indicate a brief resurgence during the 22nd and 23rd dynasties, it is clear after the Third Intermediate Period the Egyptians started favouring Tyre and Sidon instead of Byblos.

Archaeological evidence at Byblos, particularly the five Byblian royal inscriptions dating back to around 1200–1000 BC, shows existence of a Phoenician alphabet of twenty-two characters; an important example is the Ahiram sarcophagus. The use of the alphabet was spread by Phoenician merchants through their maritime trade into parts of North Africa and Europe. One of the most important monuments of this period is the Temple of the Obelisks, dedicated to the Canaanite war god Resheph, but this had fallen into ruins by the time of Alexander the Great.

Iron Age
In the Assyrian period, Sibittibaal of Byblos became tributary to Tiglath-Pileser III in 738 BC, and in 701 BC, when Sennacherib conquered all Phoenicia, the king of Byblos was Urumilki. Byblos was also subject to Assyrian kings Esarhaddon (r. 681–669 BC) and Ashurbanipal (r. 668–627 BC), under its kings Milkiasaph and Yehawmelek.

In the Achaemenid Empire (538–332 BC), Byblos was the fourth of four Phoenician vassal kingdoms established by the Persians; the first three being Sidon, Tyre, and Arwad.

Classical antiquity
Hellenistic rule came with the arrival of Alexander the Great in the area in 332 BC. Coinage was in use, and there is abundant evidence of continued trade with other Mediterranean countries.

During the Greco-Roman period, the temple of Resheph was elaborately rebuilt, and the city, though smaller than its neighbours such as Tyre and Sidon, was a centre for the cult of Adonis.

King Herod of Judaea, known for his extensive building projects, including beyond his own kingdom, constructed a city wall for Byblos.

In the 3rd century, a small but impressive theatre was constructed. With the rise of Christianity, a bishopric was established in Byblos, and the town grew rapidly. Although a Sasanian colony is known to have been established in the region following the early Muslim conquests of 636, there is little archaeological evidence for it. Trade with Europe effectively dried up, and it was not until the coming of the First Crusade in 1098 that prosperity returned to Byblos, known then as Gibelet or Giblet.

Crusader, Mamluk, Ottoman period
In the 12th and 13th century, Byblos became part of the County of Tripoli, a Crusader state connected to, but largely independent from, the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.

As Gibelet or Giblet, it came under the rule of the Genoese Embriaco family, who created for themselves the Lordship of Gibelet, first as administrators of the city in the name of the Republic of Genoa, and then as a hereditary fief, undertaking to pay an annual fee to Genoa and the church of San Lorenzo (Genoa's Cathedral).

The Embriaco family's residence, the Crusader castle of Gibelet, along with the fortified town, served as an important military base for the Crusaders. The remains of the castle are among the most impressive architectural structures now visible in the town centre. The town was taken by Saladin in 1187, re-taken by the Crusaders, and conquered by Baibars in 1266, but it remained in the possession of the Embriacos until around 1300.

Having voluntarily surrendered to the Mamluks, the city was relatively spared from looting following its capture. Its fortifications were subsequently restored by Baybars. From 1516 until 1918, the town and the whole region became part of the Ottoman Empire.

Contemporary history
Byblos and all of Lebanon were placed under French Mandate from 1920 until 1943 when Lebanon achieved independence. The 2006 Lebanon War negatively affected the ancient city by covering its harbour and town walls with an oil slick that was the result of an oil spill from a nearby power plant. This, however, has been cleared and the coastal area has since then become a destination for beach goers, especially in the late spring and throughout the summer season.

Demographics
Byblos's inhabitants are predominantly Christian, mostly Maronite, with minorities of Armenian Apostolic, Greek Orthodox, and Greek Catholics. There is also a minority of Shia Muslims. It is said that the city of Bint Jbeil ("Daughter of Byblos") in southern Lebanon was founded by those Shia Muslims. Byblos has three representatives in the Parliament of Lebanon: two Maronites and one Shia.

Education
Byblos is home to the professional schools of the Lebanese American University (LAU). The LAU Byblos Campus houses the Medical School, the Engineering School, the School of Architecture and Design, the Pharmacy School, which offers the only Pharm.D. Program outside the United States accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), the School of Business, and the School of Arts and Sciences. The Campus is situated on a hill overlooking the city and the Mediterranean Sea.

Tourism
Byblos is re-emerging as an upscale touristic hub. With its ancient port, Phoenician, Roman, and Crusader ruins, sandy beaches and the picturesque mountains that surround it make it an ideal tourist destination. The city is known for its fish restaurants, open-air bars, and outdoor cafes. Yachts cruise into its harbor today as they did in the 1960s and 1970s when Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra were regular visitors to the city. Byblos was crowned as the "Arab Tour Capital" for the year 2016 by the Lebanese minister of tourism in the Grand Serail in Beirut. Byblos was chosen by Condé Nast Traveler as the second best city in the Middle East for 2012, beating Tel Aviv and Dubai, and by the World Tourism Organization as the best Arab tourist city for 2013.

The Byblos archaeological site

 * Ain el-Malik or King's Spring, about 20 m deep, is a large cavity accessible by spiral stairs. Once it supplied the city with water. According to Plutarch's version of the Egyptian Osiris myth, the king's servants met Isis on the stairs of the spring and took her to the royal palace, where she found the body of her husband Osiris embedded in one of the palace pillars.

 * The L-shaped Temple was erected about 2700 BC.

 * The Temple of the Obelisks, originally built in 1600–1200 BC on top of the “L-shaped temple,” was moved by archaeologists to its present location. The many small obelisks found in this temple were used as religious offerings. The sanctuary contained a large number of human figurines made of bronze covered with gold leaf, which are now displayed in the National Museum of Beirut.
 * The royal necropolis dates back to the second millennium BC and contains tombs of the Byblos kings, including King Ahiram.
 * The Roman theater was built around AD 218.

Other historic buildings

 * Byblos Wax Museum

The Byblos Wax Museum displays wax statues of characters whose dates of origin range from Phoenician times to current days.

 * Byblos Fossil Museum

The Byblos Fossil Museum has a collection of fossilised fish, sharks, eel, flying fish, and other marine life, some of which are millions of years old.

The old medieval part of Byblos is surrounded by walls running about 270m from east to west and 200m from north to south.
 * Medieval city wall

 * Byblos Castle

Byblos Castle was built by the Crusaders in the 12th century. It is located in the archaeological site near the port.

Work on the church started during the Crusades in 1115. It was considered a cathedral and was partially destroyed during an earthquake in AD 1170. It was later given to the Maronite bishop as a gift by Prince Yusuf Shihab.
 * St John the Baptist Church

The old mosque by the Castle dates back to the Mamluk period, and adopted the name of Sultan Abdulmejid I after he renovated it.
 * Sultan Abduljid Mosque

In the southeast section of the historic city, near the entrance of the archaeological site, is an old market where tourists can shop for souvenirs and antiques, or simply stroll along the old cobblestone streets and enjoy the architecture.
 * Historic Quarter and Souks

 * Byblos International Festival

This summer music festival is an annual event that takes place in the historic quarter.

 * Temple of Baalat Gebal

The Armenian Genocide Orphans' Aram Bezikian Museum is a museum dedicated to preserving the memory of the Armenian Genocide and its survivors.
 * Aram Bezikian Museum

Notable people

 * Majdi Allawi (born 1970), Lebanese Maronite priest, association founder
 * Jihad Azour (born 1966), lebanese economist

International relations
Byblos is twinned with:
 * Twin towns – sister cities

 * Patras, Greece
 * Tripoli, Greece
 * Sparta, Greece
 * 🇫🇷 Bonifacio, Corse-du-Sud, France
 * 🇫🇷 Orange, France
 * Tripoli, Lebanon
 * 🇲🇹 Valletta, Malta
 * 🇪🇸 Cádiz, Spain
 * 🇹🇷 İzmir, Turkey

title: Byblos


text:
Jay Wiseman

Jay Joseph Wiseman (born 1949) is an American BDSM author, educator, and expert legal witness. His book SM 101: A Realistic Introduction has somewhere in the area of 100,000 copies in print. It is also one of the Society of Janus' "Suggested Readings" regarding BDSM.

Greenery Press was founded in 1991 by author Janet Hardy, and in 1995 it merged with Jay Wiseman Books under the Greenery name. Hardy continues to run the company, while Wiseman continues to serve on the Press's board of directors.

After receiving royalties from the distribution of SM 101: A Realistic Introduction, he took the resultant funds and put himself through the New College of California School of Law. Later on, he became an adjunct professor at the same college. Although the college is now defunct, he is still listed through documentation as having taught "Advanced Legal Concepts" and "Legal Analysis".

Awards
Jay Wiseman is an inductee of the Society of Janus Hall of Fame.

Works
As of 2018, Wiseman has written 12 books and dozens of articles in magazines from Playboy to Redbook. A selected list includes:
 * "An Essay about 'The Old Days'"
 * "Emergency Training For SM Practitioners"
 * Personal AD-ventures: How to Meet People Through Personal Ads
 * Bay Area Sexuality Resources Guidebook
 * SM 101: A Realistic Introduction, (1st ed, 1992), 2nd ed - Greenery Press, 2000. ISBN 0-9639763-8-9
 * Tricks—More than 125 Ways to Make Good Sex Better, 1992
 * Tricks 2 -- Another 125 Ways to Make Good Sex Better, 1993
 * Sex Toy Tricks: 125 Ways to Accessorize, 1995
 * Supermarket Tricks—More than 125 Ways to Improvise Good Sex, 1996
 * Jay Wiseman's Erotic Bondage Handbook, Greenery Press, 2000. ISBN 1-890159-13-1.
 * Dungeon Emergencies and Supplies
 * Tricks to Please a Man

title: Jay Wiseman


text:
GB

GB, or Gb may refer to:

Places

 * United Kingdom (ISO 3166-1 code), a sovereign country situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
 * Great Britain, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
 * Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800), a predecessor country of the United Kingdom
 * Gilgit-Baltistan, a region in northern Pakistan
 * Guinea-Bissau, a sovereign state in West Africa
 * Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States
 * Great Barrington, Massachusetts, United States

Businesses and organisations

 * GB Airways, a British airline
 * Gardner Bender, a manufacturer of professional electrician's tools and supplies
 * Girls' Brigade, a Christian organization for girls
 * Grande Bibliothèque, a large public library in Montreal
 * University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, an American university
 * ABX Air (IATA airline designator GB), a cargo airline
 * GB Glace, a Swedish ice cream company
 * Griesedieck Brothers beer, an American beer brand
 * GB Supermarkets, a Belgian chain that was eventually taken over by Carrefour
 * GB News, a British television news channel

Computing and electronics

 * Gigabit (Gb), a unit of information used, for example, to quantify computer memory or storage capacity
 * Gigabyte (GB), a unit of information used, for example, to quantify computer memory or storage capacity
 * Gain–bandwidth product, product of amplifier midband gain and bandwidth
 * Game Boy, a handheld video game console
 * Guobiao standards, Chinese National Standards
 * GB 2312, an encoding scheme for rendering Simplified Chinese characters; also has partial support for Traditional, and some other languages, though in practice web browser support it as (i.e. with full support):
 * GB 18030, an encoding scheme for rendering Simplified Chinese characters, but with full support for Traditional, and all languages Unicode supports, since it's a full Unicode Transformation Format

Military technology

 * Beechcraft GB Traveler, U.S. Navy aircraft
 * Steyr GB, an Austrian semi-automatic handgun
 * Sarin (NATO designation GB), a nerve gas
 * GB-1, a World War II American glide bomb

Other uses in science and technology

 * Ganglion blocker, a medication
 * Gigabase (Gb), a unit of length for DNA
 * Gilbert (unit) (Gb), a unit of magnetization named for English physicist William Gilbert
 * Government and binding theory, in linguistics, by Noam Chomsky
 * Guillain–Barré syndrome, an acute inflammatory polyneuropathy

Sport

 * Great Britain at the Olympics, the Olympic team of the United Kingdom
 * Green Bay Packers, an American football team
 * Games behind, a number reflecting the gap between two sports teams

People

 * GB (footballer), (full name Gabriel Souza da Silva), Brazilian association footballer
 * Guy Bomford, who also published as G.B.

Other uses

 * Gb (digraph), a digraph in the Latin alphabet
 * Voiced labial–velar plosive, a consonant sound transcribed as
 * G♭ (musical note), a semitone
 * G-flat major, a key
 * Group buy, buying something as a collective
 * Gazerbeam, a fictional deceased superhero in the animated film The Incredibles
 * Goin' Bulilit, Philippine television show

title: GB


text:
GBA (disambiguation)

The Game Boy Advance (GBA) is a 2001 handheld video game system developed by Nintendo.

GBA may also refer to:

Science and technology

 * Generalized Büchi automaton, in automata theory, a variant of Büchi automaton
 * Generic Bootstrapping Architecture, a cryptographic technology that enables the authentication of a user
 * Glucocerebrosidase, a human enzyme
 * GBA2, a gene which encodes for cytosolic beta-glucosidase
 * GBA3, a gene which encodes for cytosolic beta-glucosidase
 * Gut–brain axis, biochemical signaling between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system

Organizations

 * Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss (Federal Joint Committee, G-BA), a public health decision-making body in Germany
 * Geologische Bundesanstalt, the geological survey of Austria
 * National data protection authority (Belgium) (GBA)
 * Ghana Bar Association, a professional association in Ghana
 * Giving Back to Africa, a Bloomington, Indiana non-profit organization
 * Global Banking Alliance for Women, a non-profit organization concentrating on women's wealth
 * Global Biofuel Alliance, an international organization for regulation, research and promotion for biofuel.
 * Golaghat Bar Association, a voluntary bar association in India
 * Governing Bodies Association, an organisation of governing bodies of independent schools in the UK
 * Gute Bücher für Alle, a German charity which operates floating bookshops.
 * Public Prosecutor General (Germany) (Generalbundesanwalt, GBA)

Companies

 * Cahaba Government Benefit Administrators, subsidiary of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama
 * Gramin Bank of Aryavart, a Regional Rural Bank in Uttar Pradesh, India
 * Greater Bay Airlines, a low-cost carrier based in Hong Kong, China
 * Greenbrier Academy for Girls, a therapeutic college preparatory boarding school in Pence Springs, West Virginia
 * Groen Brothers Aviation, now Skyworks Global, an American autogyro research and development company
 * KGBA (AM), a radio station (1490 AM) in Calexico, California, United States
 * KGBA-FM, a radio station (100.1 FM) in Holtville, California, United States
 * WGBA-TV, a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin

People

 * G. B. A. Coker, a former Judge of the Nigerian Supreme Court

Geography

 * GBA, international vehicle country code for Alderney ('Great Britain: Alderney')
 * Greater Buenos Aires, the urban agglomeration comprising the autonomous city of Buenos Aires and the adjacent 24 partidos
 * GBA, IATA airport code for Cotswold Airport in the United Kingdom
 * Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, often simply referred to as the Greater Bay Area

Music

 * "G.B.A.", a song on Solace (Xavier Rudd album)
 * God Bless America, American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin

Sports

 * Geelong Baseball Association, an Australian baseball association and league
 * Global Basketball Association, minor league in the United States in the early 1990s
 * Guam Basketball Association, Guam's professional basketball league

Process

 * Gender-based Analysis, a management process to explore the changing realities and inequalities based on gender

Other uses

 * Game Boy Advance SP, a redesign of the Game Boy Advance, released in 2003

title: GBA (disambiguation)