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Broderbund

Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits Choplifter, Lode Runner, Karateka, and Prince of Persia (all of which originated on the Apple II), as well as The Print Shop—originally for printing signs and banners on dot matrix printers—and the Myst and Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, and moved to San Rafael, California, then later to Novato, California. Broderbund was purchased by SoftKey in 1998.

Many of Broderbund's software titles, such as The Print Shop, PrintMaster, and Mavis Beacon, are still published under the name "Brøderbund". Games released by the revived Broderbund are distributed by Encore, Inc. Brøderbund is now the brand name for Riverdeep's graphic design, productivity, and edutainment titles such as The Print Shop, Carmen Sandiego, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, the Living Books series, and Reader Rabbit titles, in addition to publishing software for other companies, notably Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm.

The company would often release school editions of their games, which contained extra features to allow teachers to use the software to facilitate students' learning.

Etymology
The word "brøderbund" is not an actual word in any language and has never been used as a surname, but is a somewhat loose translation of "band of brothers" into a mixture of Danish, Dutch, German, and Swedish. The "ø" in "brøderbund" was used partially as a play on the letter ø from the Dano-Norwegian alphabet but was mainly referencing the slashed zero found in mainframes, terminals, and early personal computers. The three crowns above the logo are also a reference to the lesser national coat of arms of Sweden.

The company's name is pronounced instead of the popularly used.

History
Broderbund was founded by brothers Doug and Gary Carlston in 1980 for the purpose of marketing Galactic Empire, a strategy computer game that Doug Carlston had created in 1979. Before founding the company, Doug was a lawyer and Gary had held several jobs, including teaching Swedish at an American college. Their sister Cathy joined the company a year later from Lord & Taylor. Galactic Empire had many names taken from African languages; a group of merchants was named Broederbond, Afrikaans for "association of brothers". To emphasize its family origin while avoiding a connection with the ethnonationalist Afrikaner organization of the same name, the Carlstons altered the spelling when naming their company "Brøderbund".

By 1982, Broderbund produced action games which, the company told Jerry Pournelle, sold much better than strategy games. Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. invested in the company that year. In 1983, the Carlstons publicly discussed their plans to emphasize home utility software (Bank Street Writer and other "Bank Street" applications), computer literacy with The Jim Henson Company, and edutainment. By early 1984 InfoWorld estimated that Brøderbund was tied with Human Engineered Software as the world's tenth-largest microcomputer-software company and largest entertainment-software company, with $13 million in 1983 sales. That year it took over the assets of the well-regarded but financially troubled Synapse Software. Although intending to keep it running as a business, they were unable to make money from Synapse's products, and closed it down after a year.

Broderbund's The Print Shop software produced signs and greeting cards. Broderbund started discussions with Unison World about creating an MS-DOS version. The two companies could not agree on a contract, but Unison World developed a product with similar function and a similar user interface. Broderbund sued for infringement of their copyright. Brøderbund v. Unison (1986) became a landmark case in establishing that the look and feel of a software product could be subject to copyright protection.

Sierra On-Line and Broderbund ended merger discussions in March 1991. By that year Brøderbund had about $50 million in revenue, and 25% share of the education market. Carmen Sandiego had been its first internally developed product, but the company now developed most of its software; Doug Carlston stated that Brøderbund needed "to control our own sources, to control our future". After an unsuccessful initial public offering in 1987, the company executed a private placement for 20% of shares with Jostens. Broderbund became a public company in November 1991 with the NASDAQ symbol BROD. When it went public The Print Shop comprised 33% of total revenue, and the Carmen Sandiego series 26%. Brøderbund stock price and market capitalization climbed to $72.50 per share in September 1995, and then fell steadily because of continued losses for several years.

The early and mid-1990s saw a video game industry trend of consolidation of development and publishing companies, as rising development costs and pressure from large retailers put pressure on smaller companies. Brøderbund acquired PC Globe in July 1992. It attempted to purchase The Learning Company in 1995, but was outbid by SoftKey, who purchased The Learning Company for US$606 million in cash and then adopted its name.

Acquisition
On June 22, 1998, The Learning Company bought Broderbund for about US$420 million in stock. The acquisition was structured as a stock swap, with The Learning Company issuing 0.80 shares for each share of Brøderbund's, with the purchasing price set at about 21 percent higher than Broderbund's valuation according to its stock price. The Learning Company then fired five hundred employees at Broderbund the same year, representing 42% of the company's workforce. Doug Carlston explained that in a bid to roll up Broderbund, SoftKey used their previous acquisitions to weaken the company's position in the industry. They allegedly gave a rebate to Mindscape's PrintMaster, a direct competitor to Broderbund's Print Shop, that was more than the product was worth.

In 1998, Broderbund inked a deal with Nickelodeon to develop CD-ROM games based on its animated cartoons, such as Rugrats.

In 1999, the combined company was purchased by Mattel for $3.6 billion. Mattel reeled from the financial impact of this transaction, and Jill E. Barad, the CEO, ended up being forced out in a climate of investor outrage. Mattel sold their game division Mattel Interactive as well as all its assets in September 2000 to Gores Technology Group, a private acquisitions firm, for a share of whatever Gores could obtain by selling the company. During this time, Broderbund products were owned by The Learning Company Deutschland GmbH, located in Oberhaching, Germany. Headed by Jean-Pierre Nordmann, the company was a subsidiary of The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey), which itself was a wholly owned subsidiary of Gores Technology Group. The company published games under two logos: Blue (Broderbund) and Red (The Learning Company). The "Brøderbund" label was used for "high-quality infotainment, design and lifestyle titles such as Cosmopolitan My Style 2 and PrintMaster", while "The Learning Company" label was used for children's software.

In 2001, Gores sold The Learning Company's entertainment holdings to Ubi Soft, and most of the other holdings, including the Brøderbund name, to Irish company Riverdeep. Many of Brøderbund's games, such as the Myst series, are published by Ubisoft. The Brøderbund line of products is published by Encore, Inc. under license from Riverdeep. Under the terms of the agreement, Encore now manages the Broderbund family of products as well as Brøderbund's direct to consumer business. In May 2010, Encore acquired the assets of Punch! Software.

In 2014, Doug Carlston donated a collection of Brøderbund's business records, software, and a collection of games that includes Myst, Prince of Persia, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? to The Strong National Museum of Play. The Strong National Museum of Play forwarded the collection to the ICHEG museum for preservation.

In 2017, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt offered the Brøderbund, The Print Shop, Calendar Creator, and ClickArt brands for licensing.

Products
Broderbund scored an early hit with the game Galactic Empire, written by Doug Carlston for the TRS-80. The company's first title for the Apple II, Tank Command, was written by the third Carlston brother, Professor Donal Carlston.

The company became a powerhouse in the educational and entertainment software markets with titles like Fantavision, Choplifter, Apple Panic, Lode Runner, Karateka, Wings of Fury, Prince of Persia, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, The Guardian Legend, Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, and Myst, which stayed the highest grossing home video game for years. Broderbund became one of the most dominant publishers in the computer market of the 1980s, releasing video games for virtually all major computer systems in the United States.

Like most early computer gaming developers, Broderbund began as an Apple II-focused company and began expanding to other platforms as time went along. They released IBM PC ports of a few games very early on, however, it was not until after 1985 that Broderbund would seriously develop for PC compatibles. Due to their strong focus on education titles, they were one of a few developers to actively support the Apple IIGS in the late 1980s. Some of the more popular Broderbund titles were licensed to Western European and Japanese developers and ported to systems in those regions. During the 1990s, Brøderbund mostly concentrated on educational titles for PCs and Macintoshes with a few forays into RPGs and strategy games.

Broderbund published the Print Shop series of desktop publishing making programs; Family Tree Maker (a genealogy program supported by hundreds of CDs of public genealogy data); 3D Home Architect, a program for designing and visualizing family homes; and Banner Mania, a program for designing and printing multi-page banners. By the end of the 1980s, games represented only a few percent of Broderbund's annual sales, which by then were heavily focused in the productivity arena and early education and learning areas.

Just before being acquired by The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey), Broderbund spun off its Living Books series by forming a joint venture with Random House Publishing. Despite the success and quality of the Living Books series, the joint venture was only marginally successful and was dissolved with The Learning Company deal.

For a brief time, Broderbund was involved in the video game console market when it published a few games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) through its New Ventures Division. All of Broderbund's games for the NES, including the port of its own franchises Lode Runner, Spelunker, and Raid on Bungeling Bay, were developed by third-party Japanese companies. Broderbund published some titles that were produced by companies that didn't have a North American subsidiary, such as Irem's Deadly Towers, Compile's The Guardian Legend, Imagineer's The Battle of Olympus, and Legacy of the Wizard, the fourth installment in Nihon Falcom's Dragon Slayer series.

Broderbund also developed and marketed an ill-fated motion sensitive NES controller device called the U-Force, which was operated without direct physical contact between the player and the device. Broderbund also served as distributing agent of Irem's North American NES release of Sqoon, because Irem didn't yet have its own American operation. In 1990, Broderbund sold its New Ventures Division, including manufacturing equipment, inventory, and assets, to then-fledgling company THQ.

Broderbund released in the United States Arsys Software's 1986 third-person action RPG shooter WiBArm.

Broderbund briefly had a board game division, which published Don Carlston's Personal Preference, along with several board game versions of its video games.

title: Broderbund


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User talk:Xribas~enwiki

Xavier Ribas Abogado

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Digital Compact Cassette

Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) is a magnetic tape sound recording format introduced by Philips and Matsushita Electric in late 1992 and marketed as the successor to the standard analog Compact Cassette. It was also a direct competitor to Sony's MiniDisc (MD), but neither format toppled the then-ubiquitous analog cassette despite their technical superiority, and DCC was discontinued in October 1996. Another competing format, the Digital Audio Tape (DAT), had by 1992 also failed to sell in large quantities to consumers, although it was popular as a professional digital audio storage format.

The DCC form factor is similar to the analog compact cassette (CC), and DCC recorders and players can play back either type: analog as well as DCC. This backward compatibility was intended to allow users to adopt digital recording without rendering their existing tape collections obsolete, but because DCC recorders couldn't record (only play back) analog cassettes, it effectively forced consumers to either replace their cassette deck with a DCC recorder and give up analog recording, or keep the existing cassette deck and make space to add the DCC recorder to their setup.

History

DCC signaled the parting of ways of Philips and Sony, who had previously worked together successfully on the audio CD, CD-ROM, and CD-i. The companies had also worked together on the Digital Audio Tape which was successful in professional environments, but was perceived as too expensive and fragile for consumers. Furthermore, the recording industry had been fighting against digital recording in court, resulting in the Audio Home Recording Act and SCMS.

Philips had developed the Compact Cassette in 1963 and allowed companies to use the format royalty-free, which made it hugely successful but not a significant money-maker. The company saw a market for a digital version of the cassette, and expected that the product would be popular if it could be made compatible with the analog cassette.

Around 1988, Philips participated in the Eureka 147 project that eventually produced the DAB standard. For this, it cooperated with the Institute for Perception Research of the Eindhoven University of Technology to create the PASC compression algorithm based on psychoacoustics.

On 8 October 1990, Philips made the first formal announcement of DCC. Tandy Corporation announced at the same time that it would help Philips with the development and distribution through its Tandy and RadioShack stores. It was expected at the time that DCC recorders would be available in the beginning of 1992 and would cost several hundred dollars less than DAT recorders. Even though this first announcement already used the term "digital compact cassette" (without capitalization), some publications around this time also referred to it as S-DAT (Stationary-Head Digital Audio Tape), to distinguish it from R-DAT (Rotary-Head Digital Audio Tape).

On 5 July 1991, Philips announced that Matsushita had joined forces with them to develop DCC.

The first DCC recorders were introduced at the CES in Chicago in May 1992 and at the Firato consumer electronics show in Amsterdam in September 1992. At that time, not only Philips and Technics (brand of Matsushita) announced DCC recorders but also other brands such as Grundig and Marantz (both related to Philips at the time). Around the same time, Sony introduced the MiniDisc.

More recorders and players were introduced by Philips and other manufacturers in the following years, including some portable players and recorders as well as in-dash DCC/radio combinations for automotive use.

At the "HCC-dagen" computer fair in Utrecht, Netherlands, between 24 and 26 November 1995, Philips presented the DCC-175 portable recorder that can be connected to an IBM-compatible PC using the "PC-link" cable. This was the only DCC recorder that can be connected to, and controlled by a computer, and it was only ever available in the Netherlands.

Philips marketed the DCC format mostly in Europe, the United States, and Japan. According to the newspaper article that announced the demise of DCC, DCC was more popular than MiniDisc in Europe (especially in the Netherlands).

DCC was quietly discontinued in October 1996 after Philips admitted it had failed at achieving any significant market penetration with the format, and unofficially conceded victory to Sony. However, the MiniDisc format had not done very well either; the price of both systems had been too high for the younger market, while audiophiles rejected MD and DCC because in their opinion, the lossy compression degraded the audio quality too much.

Magneto-resistive stationary heads
Unlike helical scan systems such as DAT or VHS, the head is stationary and the tape moves in linear direction relative to the head. Like analog audio tapes, the heads use half of the tape width in each direction. There are 9 tracks per side: eight tracks for the audio, and one track for auxiliary information. The track pitch is 195 μm. The head assembly has what Philips called "Fixed Azimuth Tape Guidance" (FATG) pins, which work together with the "Azimuth Locking Pins System" (ALPS) in the cassette to guide the tape.

DCC used magneto-resistive (MR) heads 70 μm wide for playback, and miniaturized coils 185 μm wide for recording. The heads were produced using photolithography. Some DCC head assemblies had separate MR heads to play analog tapes, others re-used two DCC heads to pick up the left and right analog audio tracks from the tape.

All DCC players and recorders are auto-reverse, so every player and recorder must have a way to position the heads for the A-side as well as the B-side of the tape. In stationary recorders, the mechanism switched sides by pivoting the head assembly 180 degrees (Philips used a modified version of an analog auto-reverse cassette deck during development, on which this mechanism was based), but in portable recorders and players, the head assemblies had heads for the tracks on both sides, which saved space in the mechanism, but made the head assembly more complicated:

 * Pivoting head mechanisms in stationary recorders such as the DCC-900 used a head assembly that had 9 (MR) playback heads and 9 (coil) recording heads for DCC, plus two (MR) heads for playing analog compact cassettes. The head assembly was mounted on a pivoting mechanism that rotated the head assembly by 180 degrees when it switched from one side of the tape to the other.
 * Playback-only portable players such as the DCC-130 and DCC-134 used head assemblies with 18 MR heads, nine for each side of the tape. When playing analog cassettes, two of the DCC MR heads were used to pick up the analog audio.
 * Portable recorders such as the DCC-170 and DCC-175 used head assemblies with 18 MR heads for DCC playback, 18 coil heads for DCC recording, and 4 MR heads for analog playback (a total of 40 heads in one head assembly).

Magneto-resistive heads do not use iron so they do not build up residual magnetism. They never need to be demagnetized, and if a magnetic field from e.g. a cassette demagnetizer is applied to MR heads, it induces so much current into the heads that they are damaged or destroyed. Also, it is recommended never to use a cleaning cassette as DCC heads are fragile and this operation could ruin them permanently.

Tape specifications and PASC audio compression
DCC tape is the same 0.15 in width as in analog compact cassettes, and operates at the same speed: 1+7/8 in per second. The tape that was used in production cassettes was chromium dioxide- or cobalt-doped ferric oxide, 3–4 μm thick in a total tape thickness of 12 μm, identical to the tape that was widely in use for video tapes.

Nine heads are used to read/write half the width of the tape; the other half of the width are used for the B-side. Eight of these tracks contain audio data, the ninth track is used for auxiliary information such as song titles and track markers, as well as markers to make the player switch from side A to side B (with or without winding towards the end of the tape first) and end-of-tape markers.

The (theoretical) maximum capacity of a DCC tape is 120 minutes, compared to 3 hours for DAT; however, no 120-minute tapes were ever produced. Also, because of the time needed for the mechanism to switch direction, there is always a short interruption in the audio between the two sides of the tape. DCC recorders could record from digital sources that used the S/PDIF standard, at sample rates of 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz, or they could record from analog sources at 44.1 kHz.

Because of the low tape speed, the achievable bit rate of DCC is limited. To compensate, DCC uses Precision Adaptive Sub-band Coding (PASC) for audio data compression. PASC was later integrated into the ISO/IEC 11172-3 standard as MPEG-1 Audio Layer I (MP1). Though MP1 allows various bit rates, PASC is fixed at 384 kilobits per second. The bandwidth of a CD recording of approximately 1.4 megabits per second is reduced to 384 kilobits per second, a compression ratio of around 3.68:1. The difference in quality between PASC and the 5:1 compression used by early versions of ATRAC in the original MiniDisc is largely a subjective matter.

After adding system information (such as emphasis settings, SCMS information, and time code) as well as adding Reed-Solomon error correction bits to the 384 kbit/s data stream, followed by 8b/10b encoding, the resulting bit rate on the eight main data tracks tape ends up being twice the rate of the original PASC data: 768 kbit/s, which is recorded onto the eight main data tracks at 96 kbit/s per track in an interleaved pattern. According to the Philips webpage, it is possible for a DCC player to recover all missing data from a tape, even if one of the 8 audio tracks is completely unreadable, or if all tracks are unreadable for 1.45 mm (about 0.03 seconds).

Auxiliary track
On prerecorded tapes, the information about album artist, album title, and track titles and lengths is recorded on the auxiliary ninth track continuously for the length of the entire tape. This makes it possible for players to recognize immediately what the tape position is and how to get to any of the other tracks (including which side of the tape to turn to), as soon as a tape was inserted and playback was started, regardless of whether the tape was rewound before inserting or not.

On user tapes, a track marker was recorded at the beginning of every track, so that it was possible to skip and repeat tracks automatically. The markers were automatically recorded when a silence was detected during an analog recording, or when a track marker was received in the S/PDIF signal of a digital input source (this track marker is automatically generated by CD players). It was possible to remove these markers (to "merge tracks"), or add extra markers (to "split tracks") without rerecording the audio. Furthermore, it was possible to add markers afterwards that would signal the end of the tape or the end of the tape side, so that during playback, the player would stop the mechanism, fast-forward to the end of the A-side, or switch from the A-side to the B-side immediately.

On later generations of recorders, it was possible to enter title information for each track, which was recorded on the auxiliary track after the start-of-track marker. Because the title information was only stored in one place (unlike prerecorded tapes where users could see the names of all tracks on a tape) it was not possible to see tracks names of any other track than the one that is currently playing.

There are some minor compatibility problems with user-recorded titles; for example:
 * On stationary recorders that had simple fourteen-segment displays, all track information had to be converted to upper-case because on those displays, showing lower-case characters is impossible. They were capable of displaying symbols that are impossible to enter with their own track information editors (such as the apostrophe).
 * The Philips DCC-822/DCC-824 car stereo with DCC player had a full dot-matrix text display which could display upper-case and lower-case characters on prerecorded tapes as well as user-recorded tapes.
 * Later-generation portable recorders DCC-170 and DCC-175 were capable of displaying text information from prerecorded tapes, but not from user-recorded tapes. The DCC-175 was capable of writing and reading the text information to/from a super-user tape via the PC, but does not show the user-recorded text information on the display.

"User tapes" and "super user tapes"
Some Philips documentation distinguishes between "user tapes" and "super user tapes". Super user tapes are tapes that have a continuously recorded stream of audio, with continuous absolute time codes relative to the start of the tape, and contiguously numbered tracks. In contrast, non-super user tapes may have one or more section that has no absolute time code and tracks that are unnumbered. The Renumber button that makes the recorder find all the track markers on a tape and makes sure that all track numbers are contiguous (which might not be the case if the user splits or merges tracks), only works on super-user tapes. Other than absolute time codes and track numbers that may become discontinuous or unavailable on a non-super user tape, it's impossible to distinguish between user tapes and super user tapes.

To make sure that the absolute time codes remain continuous (and the tape remains a super user tape), the user should start every recording at a point where absolute time codes are available. Some recorders have an APPEND button to find the end of the last recording automatically and prepare the recorder for the next recording. When recording mode is engaged (with or without the APPEND function), the electronics actually read the tape for a fraction of a second, to synchronize the internal absolute time counter with the time recorded on tape, and then start the actual recording at the beginning of a tape frame so that the resulting data stream has a continuous absolute time code.

Copy protection
All DCC recorders used the SCMS copy-protection system, which uses two bits in the S/PDIF digital audio stream and on tape to differentiate between protected vs. unprotected audio, and between original vs. copy:

 * Recording digitally from a source marked "protected" and "original" (produced by a prerecorded DCC or Minidisc, for example) was allowed, but the recorder will change the "original" bit to the "copy" state on the new tape to prevent copying of the copy. CDs do not have SCMS bits as the format predates this system. However, the recorder treats the absence of SCMS bits as "protected" and "original". Consequently the DCC recording cannot be further copied.
 * Recording digitally from a source marked "unprotected" is also allowed; the "original/copy" marker is ignored. The "unprotected" bit is preserved in the copy.
 * Recording digitally from a source marked "protected" and "copy" is not allowed: the record button will not work and any ongoing recordings will stop, and an error message is shown on the display.

Analog recording was not restricted: tapes recorded from analog source were marked "unprotected". The only limitation to analog recording on DCC as compared to that on DAT recorders is that the A/D converter was fixed to a sample frequency of 44.1 kHz. On the DCC-175 portable recorder it was possible to circumvent the SCMS protection by copying audio to the hard disk and then back to another tape, using the DCC Studio program.

Cassettes and cases
The DCC cassette and the case that Philips (but not some other cassette manufacturers) used were designed by Peter Doodson who also designed the CD jewel case.

DCCs are similar to analog compact cassettes, except that there are no "bulges" where the tape-access holes are located. DCC cassettes are flat and there are no access holes for the hubs on the top side (they are not required because auto-reverse is a standard feature on all DCC decks), so this side can be used for a larger label than can be used on an analog compact cassette. A spring-loaded metal shutter similar to the shutters on 3.5 inch floppy disks and MiniDiscs covers the tape access holes and locks the hubs while the cassette is not in use. Cassettes provide several extra holes and indentations so that DCC recorders can tell a DCC apart from an analog compact cassette, and so they can tell what the length of a DCC tape is. Also, there is a sliding write-protect tab on the DCC to enable and disable recording. Unlike the break-away notches on analog compact cassettes and VHS tapes, this tab makes it easier to make a tape recordable again, and unlike on analog compact cassettes, the marker protects the entire tape rather than just one side.

The cases that DCCs came in generally did not have the characteristic folding mechanism used for analog compact cassettes. Instead, DCC cases tended to be simple plastic boxes that were open on one of the short sides. The front side had a rectangular opening that exposed almost the entire cassette, so that any label on the cassette would be visible even when the cassette was in its case. This allowed the user to slide the cassette into and out of the case with one hand (which was seen as a major advantage for mobile use ), and reduced production costs, especially for prerecorded cassettes, because the case did not need a separate label. Format partner Matsushita (now Panasonic) and others did, however, produce blank cassettes (under their Panasonic brand) with a clam-shell-style case. Because DCCs have no "bulges" near the tape access holes, there is more space in the case behind the cassette to insert, for example, a booklet for a prerecorded tape, or a folded up card on which users could write the contents of the tape. In spite of the differences, the outside measurements of the standard DCC cases were exactly identical to the cases of analog compact cassettes, so they could be used in existing storage systems. The Matsushita-designed clam-shell case was slightly thinner than an analog compact cassette case is.

Data recording
There is only one DCC recorder that has the capability of being connected to and controlled by a computer: the DCC-175. It is a portable recorder that was developed by Marantz in Japan (unlike most of the other Philips recorders which were developed in the Netherlands and Belgium), and looks very similar to the other portables available from Philips and Marantz at the time: the DCC-134 and the DCC-170. The DCC-175 was sold only in the Netherlands, and was available separately or in a package with the "PC-link" data cable which can be used to connect the recorder to a parallel port of an IBM-compatible PC. Only small quantities of both recorder and cable were made, leaving many people searching for one or both at the time of the demise of DCC.

The DCC-175 Service Manual shows that in the recorder, the cable is connected to the I²S bus that carries the PASC bitstream, and it is also connected to a dedicated serial port of the microcontroller, to allow the PC to control the mechanism and to read and write auxiliary information such as track markers and track titles. The parallel port connector of the cable contains a custom chip created especially for this purpose by Philips Key Modules, as well as a standard RAM chip. Philips made no detailed technical information available to the public about the custom chip and therefore it is impossible for people who own a DCC-175 but no PC-link cable to make their own version of the PC-link cable.

The PC-link cable package included software consisting of:

 * DCC Backup for Windows, a backup program
 * DCC Studio, a sound recorder and editor for Windows
 * A DCC tape database program that works together with DCC Studio

Philips also provided a DOS backup application via their BBS, and later on they provided an upgrade to the DCC Studio software to fix some bugs and provide better compatibility with Windows 95 which had come out just before the release of the DCC-175. The software also works with Windows 98, Windows 98SE and Windows ME, but not with any later versions of Windows.

The backup programs for DOS as well as Windows does not support long file names which had been introduced by Windows 95 just a few months before the release. Also, because the tape runs at its usual speed and data rate, it takes 90 minutes to record approximately 250 megabytes of uncompressed data. Other backup media common in those days were faster, had more capacity, and supported long file names, so the DCC backup programs were relatively unhelpful for users.

The DCC Studio application, however, was a useful application that made it possible to copy audio from tape to hard disk and vice versa, regardless of the SCMS status of the tape. This made it possible to circumvent SCMS with DCC Studio. The program also allowed users to manipulate the PASC audio files that were recorded to hard disk in various ways: they could change equalization settings, cut/copy and paste track fragments, and place and move audio markers and name those audio markers from the PC keyboard. It was possible to record a mix tape by selecting the desired tracks from a list, and moving the tracks around in a playlist. Then the user could click on the record button to copy the entire playlist back to DCC tape, while simultaneously recording markers (such as reverse and end-of-tape) and track titles. It was not necessary to record the track titles and tape markers separately (as you would do with a stationary recorder), and thanks to the use of a PC keyboard, it was possible to use characters in song titles that were not available when using a stationary machine's remote control.

The DCC Studio program used the recorder as playback and recording device, avoiding the need for a separate sound card, an uncommon accessory at the time. Working with the PASC data directly without the need to compress and decompress, also saved a lot of hard disk space, and most computers at the time would have had a hard time compressing and decompressing PASC data in real time anyway. However, many users complained that they would have liked to have the possibility of using uncompressed WAV audio files with the DCC Studio program, and Philips responded by mailing a floppy disk to registered users, containing programs to convert a WAV file to PASC and vice versa. Unfortunately this software was extremely slow (it takes several hours to compress a few minutes of PCM music in a WAV file to PASC) but it was soon discovered that the PASC files are simply MPEG-1 Audio Layer I files that use an under-documented padding feature of the MPEG standard to make all frames the same length, so then it became easy to use other MPEG decoding software to convert PASC to PCM and vice versa.

Derivatives
The technology of using stationary MR heads was later further developed by OnStream for use as a data storage media for computers. MR heads are now also commonly used in hard disks, although hard disks now use the giant magnetoresistance variant, whereas DCCs used the earlier anisotropic magnetoresistance.

A derivative technology developed originally for DCC is now being used for filtering beer. Silicon wafers with micrometer-scale holes are ideal for separating yeast particles from beer, as the beer flows through the silicon wafer leaving the yeast particles behind. This is desirable when the final beer is meant to be extremely clear. The manufacturing process for the filters was originally developed for the read/write heads of DCC decks.

title: Digital Compact Cassette


text:
User talk:Annette Heinemeyer

Hi!

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to add or ask them here!

(I've set a watch on this page, so hopefully I'll notice if you do.)

Thanks for visiting!

Annette

Hello there Annette, welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you ever need editing help visit How does one edit a page or how to format them visit our manual of style. Experiment at Sandbox. If you need pointers on how we title pages visit Naming conventions. If you have any other questions about the project then check out Help or add a question to the Village pump. Someone else 07:16, 7 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Hi Annette. Okay, I think you just misunderstood how to add personal info. If you are registered, then you must just not have been logged in when you added the page about yourself, because all that appeared on its page history was an IP address.

Anyway, personal bios ought to go on your user page, and not as an actual wikipedia entry for yourself. All you'll need to do is transfer what you wrote to that page, and get an administrator to delete the other one.

Have a great time contributing to Wiki. Don't sweat the mistake, we all make 'em. Mw66 08:04, 7 Aug 2003 (UTC)

note
Just in case you have any knowledge of this as an Arizonan. Articles for deletion/Spider Ranch.

title: User talk:Annette Heinemeyer


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Vanessa atalanta

Vanessa atalanta, the red admiral or, previously, the red admirable, is a well-characterized, medium-sized butterfly with black wings, red bands, and white spots. It has a wingspan of about 2 in. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. The red admiral is widely distributed across temperate regions of North Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. It resides in warmer areas, but migrates north in spring and sometimes again in autumn. Typically found in moist woodlands, the red admiral caterpillar's primary host plant is the stinging nettle (Urtica dioica); it can also be found on the false nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica). The adult butterfly drinks from flowering plants like Buddleia and overripe fruit. Red admirals are territorial; females will only mate with males that hold territory. Males with superior flight abilities are more likely to successfully court females. It is known as an unusually calm butterfly, often allowing observation at a very close distance before flying away, also landing on and using humans as perches.

Geographic range
The red admiral is found in temperate regions of North Africa, North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and island regions of Hawaii, and the Caribbean.

Description
The forewing of this butterfly bears on a black ground an oblique vermilion band and a group of white subapical spots. On the hindwing the larger portion of the distal margin is red, with a row of small black spots and at the anal angle an elongate blue spot. The underside is partly variegated with blue; the forewing is on the whole similar in markings to the upper, while the hindwing is brightly variegated and clouded, bearing black markings, of which those in the cell resemble a figure (on the left wing 18 or 98, on the right 81 or 89); in the middle of the costal area there is a pale patch and in the distal marginal area a row of ocellus-like spots. Sometimes, especially in the female, the red band of the forewing bears a small white spot in the middle.

Biology
In northern Europe, it is one of the last butterflies to be seen before winter sets in, often feeding on the flowers of ivy on sunny days. The red admiral is also known to hibernate, re-emerging individuals showing prominently darker colors than the first brood. The butterfly also flies on sunny winter days, especially in southern Europe.

In North America, the red admiral generally has two broods from March through October. Most of North America must be recolonized each spring by southern migrants, but the species overwinters in south Texas.

Larval and pupal stages
Red admiral larvae measure approximately 1 in in length. Their coloration is variable, but they are usually black with white spots and spines. These spines persist into the pupal phase.

In laboratory tests where larvae were reared at various constant temperatures, a difference in pupal period and coloration was found. At higher temperatures, around 32 degrees Celsius (90 °F), the pupal period of the red admiral is 6 days. At 11 to 18 degrees Celsius (51 to 64 °F) this period increases to 18 to 50 days. At even lower temperatures around 7 degrees Celsius (45 °F), the pupal period lasts between 47 and 82 days. The pupae are bright scarlet at high temperatures and black with a smaller scarlet area at low temperatures. This differential coloration at various temperatures may explain why the summer form of the red admiral is brighter and more heavily pigmented than the winter form.

The primary host plant for the red admiral is the stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), but it can also be found on the false nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica), Pennsylvania pellitory (Parietaria) and other species within Urticaceae. Certain plants of the families Compositae and Cannabaceae may also be used as hosts.

Adult stage
The red admiral is identified by its striking black, orange, and white wing pattern. On the dorsal side, its dark wings possess orange bands on the middle of the forewings and the outer edge of the hindwings. The distal ends of the forewings contain white spots. The ventral side of the wings are brown with patches of red, white, and black. The hindwings have a brown marbled pattern. The red admiral has summer and winter morphs. Summer red admirals are larger and more pigmented than winter morphs. The wingspan ranges from 1.75 to 2.50 in.

Territoriality
Male red admirals are territorial and perch during the afternoon until sunset. Larger territories are optimal and subject to intrusion by other males more frequently than smaller territories. Territories tend to be oval, 8 - 24 ft long and 13 - 42 ft wide. Males patrol their territory by flying around the perimeter between 7 and 30 times per hour. On average, territory holders interact with intruders 10 to 15 times per hour.

When another male encroaches on a red admiral's territory, the resident chases away the intruder, often in a vertical, helical path to disorient or tire out the intruder while minimizing the horizontal distance it travels from its perch. The red admiral immediately returns to its territory after chasing off encroaching males. Time spent patrolling increases as number of the intruder interactions increases.

Patrolling behavior is correlated with warmer air temperatures, so males begin patrolling early and continue later on warmer days. Overcast skies usually led to patrolling later in the day. It is not clear whether this later start time is due to lower air temperature or a direct effect of decreased solar radiation. Another theory is that males believe it is earlier in the morning on cloudy days because of the reduced solar radiation.

Mating
Male red admirals court females for several hours before they begin mating. Because of female choice, only males with territory have the opportunity to mate. Females select males with traits that will increase the mating success of their offspring. In order to maintain their territory, males fly around and patrol the area 7 to 30 times per hour. Only males of exceptional flying ability are able to chase off intruding males and successfully court females.

Migration
Mating usually occurs in late autumn or early winter following collective migration to southern regions with a warmer climate. The red admiral's main host plant, stinging nettle, is most abundant during this migration. Larval development proceeds through winter and adults are first sighted in early spring. The new generation of adults migrates north before mating, because food is usually diminished by late spring. In Europe, the cyclic nature of this migration has been confirmed by analysing stable isotopes of wing samples. In spring, individuals arriving at northern Europe (Kaliningrad) were of a southern origin, while in autumn the isotope analyses revealed that samples came from the surrounding area or northern latitudes. During migration, the red admiral flies at high altitudes where high-speed winds carry the butterfly, reducing energy expenditure.

Vision
Red admirals have color vision in the 440–590 nm range of the visible spectrum which includes indigo, blue, green, and yellow. They have compound eyes with a transparent, crystalline structure called a rhabdom which is similar in function to a human retina. These butterflies do not have the specific lateral filtering pigments coating their rhabdom found in some other nymphalid butterflies that likely evolved later. A consequence of this lack of pigment is that the red admiral cannot differentiate between colors in the 590–640 nm range, which includes orange and red. In species such as the monarch butterfly that express these lateral filtering pigments, higher wavelengths of light are altered, so they can excite the sensory photopigments. This physiological difference between butterfly species provides insight into the evolutionary adaptation of color vision.

Climate change
Spring temperatures in central England between 1976 and 1998 increased by 1.5 degrees Celsius and summer temperatures increased by 1 degree Celsius. Following this 22-year period of warming, the red admiral appeared six weeks earlier in the year. Of 35 species of butterflies studied in central England, the change in the duration of flight period was most significant in the red admiral, exhibiting a 39.8 day increase. These changes in migration time and length could result in an increased abundance of red admirals and a northward range expansion. Warmer climates could lead to an increase in time spent finding mates, laying eggs, and collecting nectar. Conversely, more frequent droughts associated with climate change would decrease egg survival and lead to habitat and host plant destruction.

In popular culture
The red admiral features in several works of Vladimir Nabokov: Speak, Memory (1951), Pale Fire (1962), and King, Queen, Knave (1968).

title: Vanessa atalanta


text:
Moscow Domodedovo Airport

Moscow Domodedovo International Airport (Домодедово аэропорт) (IATA: DME, ICAO: UUDD), formally Domodedovo Mikhail Lomonosov International Airport, is an international airport serving Moscow, the capital of Russia. It is located in Domodedovo, Moscow Oblast, 42 km south-southeast from the city centre of Moscow. Domodedovo Airport serves regular flights across Russia, as well as to Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and it is the third largest airport in Russia and the CIS after Sheremetyevo and Pulkovo. Domodedovo Airport is among the top twenty busiest airports in Europe. In 2022, the airport served 21.2 million passengers.

In 2019, following a naming contest and a presidential decree, the airport was renamed after Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov.

History
The airport is named after the town of Domodedovo, on the territory of which it is located.

Survey work on the construction of the new Capital Airport began in 1948, after a decision by the Politburo. It was then described as special "Facility No. 306".

The Domodedovo Airport is on the former territory of a village called Elgazino (Елгозино). The village's wrecked wooden houses (Izba) at 55.41861°N, 37.86472°W and cemetery with 19th century tombstones at 55.42389°N, 37.86417°W remained in the early 21st century, less than a kilometer west of the runway, almost immediately behind the fences. The first mention of Elgazino dates back to the 16th century. In 1550, Tsar Ivan the Terrible gave his voivode and boyar Ivan Vasilyevich Sheremetyev a smaller estate in the Moscow district with 150 quarters of land. In 1627, the village appears again in the records and appears as a village of Elgozino on a pond with five peasant households, in the parish of the Church of the Resurrection in the village of Kolychevo. According to the results of the General Survey of the 1760s, the village already had 25 households and 218 inhabitants. In the 1950s, just before the village was demolished, it had a population of about 200 people.

In 1951, preparatory work on construction began: cutting firebreaks, and construction of access roads, including roads from Paveletskaya.

A 1954 Resolution of the Council of Ministers of 13 November approved the proposal of the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet under the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the construction of the second airport of the Moscow civil air fleet near the village Elgazino Podolsky (now Domodedovo) Moscow Oblast.

In 1958, a decree of the USSR Council of Ministers enabled completion of construction of the first stage of the airport in 1962.

In 1962, an Order of the Head of Main Directorate of Civil Aviation, issued on 7 April No. 200 ("On the organization of the Moscow Domodedovo airport") ordered "organize as part of the Moscow Transport Aviation Management Directorate the new airport, and continue to call it the Moscow Domodedovo Airport". Therefore, 7 April 1962 is considered the official birthday of the airport. By the end of 1962, after the official approbation, the airport began flights by postal and cargo planes.

Services from Domodedovo began in March 1964 with a flight to Sverdlovsk using a Tupolev 104. The airport, intended to handle the growth of long-distance domestic traffic in the Soviet Union, was officially opened in May 1965. A second runway, parallel to the existing one, entered service eighteen months after the opening of the airport. On 26 December 1975, Domodedovo Airport was selected for the inaugural flight of the Tupolev Tu-144 to Alma Ata.

In 1990s, the airport was privatized and came under the control of the private tourist company (later also an airline) East Line founded by Ural entrepreneurs Anton Bakov and Dmitry Kamenshchik. In 1992, their efforts led to the airport obtaining international status (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated July 13, 1992 N 1262-r On the opening of Domodedovo Airport (Moscow) for international flights. Bakov left the business in 1994, and Kamenshchik still heads the company.

The reconstruction of the airport terminal complex began in 1999 as part of the Comprehensive Airport Development Program until 2003, which was approved by the Government of the Moscow Region and the Board of the Federal Air Transport Service of the Russian Federation. According that Program almost complete reconstruction of the airport terminal complex took place, which opened in 2000. The airport do not stop operations  during period of construction.

In 2000, as a result of reconstruction, the capacity of the airport complex reached 6,000 passengers per hour: IAL – 2800 passengers per hour, DAL – 3,200 passengers per hour. As a result of this work Domodedovo airport terminal was the first in Russia to successfully pass the certification to ISO 9001:2000.

In 2003, the authoritative British magazine Airline Business recognized the growth in Domodedovo's passenger traffic as one of the highest among the 150 largest airports in the world. In 2004, the airport was among the hundred leading airports in the world, and by 2005 became the leader in passenger traffic in the Moscow aviation area, a record it held for the next ten years.

By 2009, the terminal floor space was expanded to 135,000 sq. meters (1,453,000 ft2) from 70,000 sq. meters (753,000 ft2) in 2004. The renovated terminal and airport facilities allowed the owners of the airport to attract British Airways, China Eastern Airlines, Lufthansa, Royal Air Maroc, Japan Airlines, Austrian Airlines, and Vietnam Airlines who moved their flights from another major international Moscow airport, Sheremetyevo Airport, to Domodedovo. Domodedovo topped Sheremetyevo Airport in terms of passenger traffic becoming the busiest airport in Russia. By 2010, the traffic at Domodedovo rose to over 22 million passengers per year from 2.8 million in 2000.

Domodedovo is Russia's first airport to have parallel runways operating simultaneously. Since the air traffic control tower was redeveloped in 2003, Domodedovo can control over seventy takeoffs and landings per hour. By late in the first decade of the 21st century, the airport had five business lounges set up by individual airlines. In 2003, the airport began an expansion program designed to obtain approval for wide-body aircraft operations. The runway, taxiways, and parking areas were enlarged and strengthened. In March 2009, it was announced that the approval had been granted, making Domodedovo Airport the first airport in Russia approved for new large aircraft (NLA) operations such as the Airbus A380. The approval signifies that its operations areas comply with size and strength requirements of ICAO Category F standards. The airport has ILS category III A status.

Domodedovo Airport has been the focus of two terrorist-related incidents. In 2004, Muslim suicide bombers managed to pass airport security, board two passenger planes, and carry out the bombings after departure from Domodedovo. Despite the heightened security measures taken after this incident, another suicide bomber attack occurred on 24 January 2011, when an Islamist militant entered the terminal building and detonated a bomb in the arrival hall. As a result, mandatory screening and pat-down practices have been introduced at the airport terminal entrances.

In 2011 during the run-up for the IPO the holding company published information about the final beneficiary at the London Stock Exchange website and specified Kamenshchik as its sole owner. Domodedovo Airport is the only private airport in Russia: the airport operator is DME Limited Group.

Future development
As of January 2016, new concourse extensions adjacent to the current terminal building are under construction. The construction is projected to increase the overall size of the passenger terminal to 225,000 m2. The extensions opened in stages in 2012–2014. In May 2015, the new extension of terminal A (the main building) was finished, which contains new offices, an airport lounge and new passport control desks, and its design differs from other terminal parts. All concourses will remain connected and plan to increase the efficiency of the airport operations and passenger connections by using ICAO and IATA transfer technologies. A new parking space was also finished, which can accommodate over 1500 cars.

Terminal 2
The first stage of Terminal 2 was built as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup program, for international flights. When completed, the international flights operated at concourse B were all shifted to the new segment, which became the second segment of a new passenger terminal and is twice the size of Terminal 5 at London Heathrow – the equivalent of 61 football fields. An area of 235,000 sq. meters (2,529,000 ft1) (segment T2) was mounted to the left wing of the existing terminal. There are about 100 check-in counters, 40 self check-in kiosks, as well as special jetways for the world's largest passenger aircraft, Airbus A380. As a result, the total area of the passenger terminal (including the expansion of the current main segment T1) was more than doubled to nearly 500,000 square meters. It was designed by the British company RMJM and uses the under-the-roof concept, which means that passengers from all flights will be serviced within a single terminal. One of Europe's largest air hubs – Amsterdam Airport Schiphol – operates under this concept. The construction was initially planned to be finished by March 2018, however, due to immediate changes in contractor, the construction was delayed significantly. During 2018, terminal staff worked only in specific arrival and departure zones for football fans, travelling with special fan-centered passports. The terminal was fully completed with all remaining parts left for work, in 2020.

Moscow Domodedovo Airport has commissioned a new segment of the passenger terminal – T2, increasing the area of the air harbor to almost 500 thousand m2. The total capacity of the airport will exceed 60 million passengers per year. The new segment is 7 floors with a total area of about 240 thousand m2.

Terminal 3 and Aeroexpress Terminal
In 2021 a new Aeroexpress terminal was opened, connected by a covered walkway to the airport terminal building.

Terminals
The project is implemented within the framework of the architectural concept UNDER ONE ROOF: a single terminal allows the most efficient use of the transfer potential of the airport complex. The number of jetways increased to 40, including dual ones for servicing large-capacity aircraft,  after the opening of the new segment of the passenger terminal (T2).

Hotel
In September 2017, a new hotel was opened inside the airport terminal ("Aerotel Express"). This allows passengers transiting through Moscow to stay at a hotel without exiting the terminal (previously transit passengers had to leave the terminal and use a shuttle van to access the nearest hotel). This was the first hotel inside an airport terminal in Russia.

Lounges
Business lounges are available to business class passengers, participants of airline bonus programs and passengers, regardless of the class of the air ticket, who pay for the service in cash.

In 2023 the Horizon lounge opened in the new segment of the passenger terminal (T2) - a lounge-waiting area, a buffet, a coworking area, a shower room and a playroom for children.

Family Service
The baby care room provides facilities for children aged 0 to 14 years. Family Service guests have access to playrooms, bedrooms and changing room, as well as a dining area with kitchen.

DME MED
The first in Russia consultative and diagnostic clinic based on the airport's medical center is located in the new segment of the passenger terminal. The clinic offers a full range of laboratory tests, including genetic, as well as a wide range of functional, medical ultrasound, cosmetology and psychological services.

Passenger
In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many countries have moved to ban Russian airlines from their air space and many countries ban airlines from flying in and out of Russian airspace. Other airlines from the European Union, North America, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore have indefinitely suspended their services to Domodedovo.

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter services to and from Domodedovo:

Other facilities

 * Russian Sky Airlines had its head office on the airport property.
 * Transaero had its head office at Domodedovo Airport.
 * When Domodedovo Airlines existed, its head office was on the airport property.

Rail
The airport has a railway station with service to the Paveletsky Rail Terminal in central Moscow. The rail connection, which was completed in 2002, provides Aeroexpress trains (takes 45 min; coach class costs 500 rubles, business class costs 1,000 rubles), with two stops at Paveletsky Rail Terminal and Verkhnie Kotly railway station.

Regular suburban commuter trains in the Paveletsky suburban railway line take 65 to 70 min and cost 198 rubles, but are infrequent during the day.

Bus
Connection to Moscow is served by bus 308, 1185 Aeroexpress and commercial marshrutka minivans (more frequent departures): to Domodedovskaya of Moscow Metro Zamoskvoretskaya Line (#2). The fare is 170 rubles (eq. to 1,9 US$), travel time around 45 minutes.

Local buses and marshrutkas 11, 26, 30, 17k, 30k, 47k, 52k link to nearby towns and connect to the railway station in the Paveletsky suburban railway line at Domodedovo municipality.

Bus 999 is south-east bound and connects the airport to Bronnitsy, Kolomna and Ryazan.

Road
The airport has several long and short term parking lots. The terminal itself is accessed from the junction of Moscow Ring Road and Kashirskoye Highway via a designated 22 kilometer (14 mi) four-lane freeway. Passengers can use the services of a licensed taxi, popular mobile applications for ordering a car, as well as take a carsharing located in the parking P3.

Accidents and incidents

 * On 5 December 1999, a cargo variant of the Ilyushin Il-114 crashed during a test flight at Domodedovo, killing five and injuring two.
 * On 24 August 2004, Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1303, and Siberia Airlines Flight 1047 were simultaneously bombed, killing 44 on the first, and 46 on the latter, for a total of 90 people killed in total.
 * On 22 March 2010, a Tu-204 operating Aviastar-TU Flight 1906, a ferry flight without passengers and with 8 crew from Hurghada, Egypt, crashed in a forest 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) away from the airport while trying to land in fog. There were no fatalities and the crew escaped the crashed aircraft on their own, but four of them were seriously injured.
 * On 4 December 2010, South East Airlines Flight 372 made an emergency landing at Domodedovo, killing two people and injuring 56.
 * On 24 January 2011, the Domodedovo International Airport was subject to a suicide bombing which killed 37 people and injured 173. A Chechen jihadist group, the Caucasus Emirate, was found to be responsible.
 * On 11 February 2018, Saratov Airlines Flight 703, an Antonov 148 crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 71 people on board.

title: Moscow Domodedovo Airport


text:
User:Sodaplanetpop

Everybody likes to drink soda

title: User:Sodaplanetpop


text:
Fordingbridge

Fordingbridge is a town and broader civil parish with a population of 6,000 on the River Avon in the New Forest District of Hampshire, England, near the Dorset and Wiltshire borders and on the edge of the New Forest, famed for its late medieval seven-arch bridge.

It is 81 mi southwest of London, and 10 mi south of the city of Salisbury. Fordingbridge is a former market town. The Avon Valley Path passes through the town. The town excluding linear settlement Sandleheath (included in its headline population with other outlying houses, totalling 1,526 residents) has a density of 30.2 persons per hectare (7820 per sq. mi.). Since 1982 Fordingbridge has been twinned with Vimoutiers in Normandy, France.

Overview
The Great Bridge, from which the town received its present name, is a major feature of the town. It has seven arches and can be seen from the town's large riverside park and recreation ground. The park contains a children's play area, secluded memorial gardens, and large sports playing field. A bronze statue of the painter and former resident Augustus John stands on the banks of the Avon near the Great Bridge. St. Mary's Church, which has some typical Norman characteristics, is located in the south of the town. The church has a memorial to James Alexander Seton, last British person killed in a duel in England. The town also has a Catholic church in the form of Our Lady of Sorrows and St Philip Benizi. The Building dates from 1874 while the altar dating from 1897 was originally used at Netley Hospital.

Known as the northern gateway to the New Forest, Fordingbridge is popular with tourists, with various campsites, pubs and restaurants, and other tourist facilities locally. The Fordingbridge Museum, with many local and forest history exhibits, and the Visitor Information Centre are located within King's Yard, Salisbury Street. The town's high street is well known for its pubs, cafes and local shops, and the town also has its own Cinema, within the buildings of an old pottery. Rockbourne Roman Villa is in the nearby village of Rockbourne which sits 3 mi northwest of Fordingbridge. The village of Breamore is 3 miles north of Fordingbridge and is home to Elizabethan country house, Breamore House.

Fordingbridge Hospital is a small community hospital built within the grounds of a Victorian workhouse. Most of the older buildings have been redeveloped into private housing, however, the hospital site still houses an inpatient ward, as well as limited outpatients services. Fordingbridge Doctors Surgery is on the same site in Bartons Road. Fordingbridge Hospital was used as a COVID-19 vaccination centre from 2020.

The local comprehensive school is The Burgate School And Sixth Form Centre, in Burgate, a small hamlet to the north of the town.

Fordingbridge is home to Fordingbridge Turks FC, one of the oldest football clubs in England, established circa 1868. The Turks name seems to derive from wishing to emulate the determination shown by Ottoman forces at Siege of Plevna. Fordingbridge Turks FC play their matches at the recreation ground. 'The Rec' is also home to Fordingbridge Rugby Club.

Geography
The parish of Fordingbridge contains the hamlets of Burgate to the north, Criddlestyle to the east, Bickton to the south, and Ashford to the west. Burgate and Bickton are settlements dating back to the time of the Domesday Book, and Bickton was in male heads of households greater than Fordingbridge in 1086. Criddlestyle is an ancient manor, also known as East Mill, with a history dating back to the 14th century. The largest hamlet today is Ashford, which was the location of an ancient watermill, and was also the location of Fordingbridge railway station until it was closed in 1964. Also near to Fordingbridge is the hamlet of Tinkers Cross approximately 1.1 mi northwest from the town centre.

The villages of Sandleheath, Damerham, Rockbourne, Whitsbury, Breamore, Woodgreen, Godshill and Hyde all sit within the 5 miles of Fordingbridge and are all within the county of Hampshire. Alderholt is southwest of Fordingbridge and is part of Dorset.

Fordingbridge is north of Ringwood and Bournemouth, south of Downton and Salisbury which are all linked by the A338 road.

History
Fordingbridge is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the name Forde. The manor was held by a certain Robert from "Robert the son of Gerald". Prior to 1066 it had been held by Alwy from King Edward. At the beginning of the 13th century Fordingbridge was held by Hugh de Linguire, who, dying around 1231, left a niece and heir Alice, wife of William de la Falaise. From that date Fordingbridge followed the same descent as Rowner.

The manor was held by Elias de la Falaise at his death in 1254, and his brother William died in possession of the manor in the same year. Before 1277 the property had escheated to the Crown by the felony of William de la Falaise, grandson of William, and was granted in that year to Sir William le Brune, chamberlain to the king. The manor then stayed solidly in the Brune family until the death of Charles Brune in 1769, when the family became extinct in the male line. By his will his estates eventually devolved onto his grand-nephew the Rev. Charles Prideaux-Brune of Prideaux Place, Padstow, Cornwall, and the manor then remained in the possession of the Prideaux-Brune family.

The lord of the manor had a market before 1273: it was held weekly first on Saturday and then on Friday until the middle of the 19th century, when it was discontinued. A fair was held on 9 September. From the 13th to the 15th century Fordingbridge was governed by a bailiff, and then in later centuries by a constable chosen yearly at the court leet of the manor of Lower Burgate. The constable was the chief officer until 1878, when government by Local District Council was established. A fire in the town on 23 May 1702 destroyed 43 dwelling houses, which were never rebuilt. Fordingbridge Town Hall, built in 1877, is almost in the centre of the town.

Cloth was made here in the 16th century, and in the 19th century there were factories for the manufacture of sailcloth and canvas and the spinning of flax. By 1900 the chief industries of the town were the manufacture of sailcloth and canvas and the making of bricks and tiles, and there were various flour mills, an iron foundry, and the Neave's food works.

Fordingbridge railway station was opened in 1866 but closed in 1964. It was originally just outside the town, on the road leading to Sandleheath. Today, the road is still called Station Road; however, the spot where the station once stood is now occupied by a large mill and industrial park. The site is next to the recently reopened 'Railway Hotel'. The Station connected the town with Salisbury to the north and Poole to the south, as part of the Salisbury and Dorset Junction Railway.

The Great Bridge
The first bridge at Fordingbridge was built before 1252, when the bailiff and men of the town received a grant of pontage for one year towards its repairs. Several similar grants followed, the last being dated in 1452. The bridge is 40 metres long and consists of seven stone arches, and it is one of the two bridges with seven arches in the UK. The bridge brought much traffic through the town. At the east end of the bridge was a Saint John the Baptist Hospital (hospitalry) for poor travellers. It was founded 1272, and dissolved 1546; some foundation walls remain, but no other remains.

A custom which survived until 1840 obliged the lord of Fordingbridge during one summer month known as "fence month" to keep the bridge guarded and arrest anyone found taking venison from the New Forest. Significant alterations were made in 1841 when both sides were widened, adding 45 cm to the width of the bridge. The original arches are still visible, being smaller in span than the 19th-century additions. A reinforced concrete footpath on one side was added in 1901 to widen the bridge.

Notable residents

 * Major General Andrew Hay – British Army officer, born in 1762 and moved to Fordingbridge in 1802 until his death at the Battle of Bayonne in 1814
 * William Ernest Brymer - (1840-1909) - politician and a Member of Parliament was born in Fordingbridge.
 * Charles Chubb – (1779–1845), an English lock and safe manufacturer
 * James Alexander Seton (1816–1845), the last British person killed in a duel in Britain; he is buried at St Mary's Church
 * John Charles Durant – (15 July 1846 – 14 December 1929) was an English printer and a Liberal politician
 * Augustus John – Welsh portrait artist, born 1878, who lived in Fordingbridge from 1927 until his death in 1961
 * Frank Jefferis – (1884–1938), former Southampton, Everton and England footballer
 * Neil McCarthy – (26 July 1932 – 5 Feb 1985), was an English actor
 * Anne-Marie Mallik – born 1952, former child actress, portrayed Alice in Alice in Wonderland (1966 TV play)
 * Paul Kidby – artist, born 1964, best known for his art based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld, lives and works in Fordingbridge
 * Daniel O'Mahony – writer, born 1973
 * David Oakes – actor, born 1983

title: Fordingbridge


text: List of battles in the 21st century

title: List of battles in the 21st century


text:
List of LGBT rights organizations

This is a list of LGBT rights organizations around the world. For social and support groups or organizations affiliated with mainstream religious organizations, please see List of LGBT-related organizations and conferences. For organizations affiliated with political parties, please see List of LGBT organizations that affiliate with political parties.

International

 * All Out
 * GATE
 * Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association (GLISA)
 * Global Respect In Education (GRIN)
 * Hivos
 * Human Dignity Trust
 * International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA)
 * IGLYO
 * International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Intersex Law Association (ILGLaw)
 * International Lesbian Information Service (defunct)
 * The Kaleidoscope Trust
 * Organization Intersex International (OII)
 * OutRight Action International (formerly IGLHRC)

Algeria

 * Tranz Homos DZ

Kenya

 * Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya

Nigeria

 * Bisi Alimi Foundation
 * Initiative for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Awareness (ISRHRA)

South Africa

 * Intersex South Africa

Tunisia

 * Shams

Uganda

 * Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)

Zimbabwe

 * Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ)

Asia

 * Asian Lesbian Network

Bangladesh

 * Boys of Bangladesh

China

 * Oii-Chinese
 * DiversityUNNC - Ningbo

India

 * Against Ignorance
 * Humsafar Trust
 * Naz Foundation (India) Trust
 * Nazariya
 * Orinam
 * Queerala
 * Sangama (human rights group)
 * Sappho for Equality
 * Srishti Madurai
 * Tweet Foundation
 * Udaan Trust

Iran

 * Iranian Queer Organization (based in Canada)
 * Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (based in Canada)

Israel

 * Aswat — a feminist queer group for Palestinian women based in Haifa
 * Hoshen - Education and Change
 * Israeli Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Association
 * Israel Gay Youth (IGY)
 * Jerusalem Open House
 * Tehila

Japan

 * OCCUR

Lebanon

 * Helem
 * Meem

Nepal

 * Blue Diamond Society

Palestine

 * Al Qaws—LGBTQ rights organization based in East Jerusalem

Philippines

 * Ladlad

South Korea

 * Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea

Singapore

 * Pink Dot SG
 * Young Out Here

Sri Lanka

 * Equal Ground

Taiwan

 * Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR)
 * Gender/Sexuality Rights Association Taiwan (GSRAT)
 * Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association (TTHA)

Australia

 * Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia (AISSGA)
 * Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives (ALGA)
 * Australian Marriage Equality (AME)
 * Coalition of Activist Lesbians Australia (COAL)
 * Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH)
 * Gay and Lesbian Teachers and Students Association (GaLTaS)
 * Kaleidoscope Australia Human Rights Foundation (KAHRF)
 * National LGBTI Health Alliance
 * Organisation Intersex International Australia (OII Australia)
 * South Australian Rainbow Advocacy Alliance (SARAA)
 * Safe Schools Coalition Australia (SSCA)
 * Transgender Victoria (TGV)
 * Victorian Pride Lobby
 * Zoe Belle Gender Centre (ZBGC)

New Zealand

 * Dorian Society
 * GayNZ.com
 * Intersex Aotearoa (ITANZ)
 * Rainbow Youth

Europe

 * European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights
 * ILGA-Europe
 * LGBT Network
 * OII Europe
 * Transgender Europe (TGeu)

Armenia

 * Pink Armenia
 * Right Side NGO

Austria

 * International Human Rights Tribunal

Belarus

 * LGBT Human Rights Project "GayBelarus"

Bosnia and Herzegovina

 * Sarajevo Open Centre (Sarajevski otvoreni centar)

Bulgaria

 * BGO Gemini

Croatia

 * Zagreb Pride
 * Proces

Cyprus

 * Cypriot Gay Liberation Movement

Denmark

 * LGBT Danmark
 * Copenhagen Pride
 * Sabaah

Estonia

 * Geikristlaste Kogu

Faroe Islands

 * Friðarbogin

Finland

 * Pink Rose
 * Seta - LGBTI Rights in Finland

France

 * Act Up
 * Arcadie
 * Association des Gays et Lesbiennes Arméniens de France
 * Homosexualités et Socialisme
 * Inter-LGBT
 * SOS Homophobie
 * Beit Haverim

Georgia

 * Identoba

Germany

 * Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany (LSVD)
 * Quarteera

Greenland

 * LGBT Qaamaneq

Hungary

 * Háttér Society
 * Hungarian LGBT Alliance
 * Labrisz Lesbian Association

Iceland

 * Samtökin '78
 * Trans Ísland

Ireland

 * Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform
 * LGBT Ireland
 * Gay Doctors Ireland
 * National LGBT Federation
 * Union of Students in Ireland

Italy

 * Arcigay
 * Circle of Homosexual Culture Mario Mieli

Lithuania

 * Lithuanian Gay League

Montenegro

 * Queer Montenegro

The Netherlands

 * COC Nederland

Norway

 * Norwegian National Association for Lesbian and Gay Liberation (LLH)

Poland

 * Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH)
 * Lambda Warszawa
 * Stop Bzdurom

Romania

 * Accept
 * Be An Angel

Russia

 * Children-404: a Russian public internet project which supports homosexual, bisexual and transgender teenagers in Russia. 404 alludes to the internet error message "Error 404 - Page not found" and refers to the ignoring of the existence of LGBT teenagers by Russian society and establishment.
 * LGBT Human Rights Project Gayrussia.ru
 * Russian LGBT network

Serbia

 * Gay Lesbian Info Centre
 * Belgrade Pride

Spain

 * Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gays, Transexuales y Bisexuales

Sweden

 * HomO, The Ombudsman against Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation (government office)
 * Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL)

Turkey

 * KAOS GL
 * Lambdaistanbul
 * LEGATO, LGBT group of university students and academics with nationwide organization

United Kingdom

 * Black Gay Men's Advisory Group
 * Cara-Friend (Northern Ireland)
 * Campaign for Homosexual Equality
 * Educational Action Challenging Homophobia
 * Equality Network (Scotland)
 * Intersex UK
 * The Kaleidoscope Trust
 * LGBT Foundation (formerly Lesbian and Gay Foundation)
 * LGBT Humanists UK
 * LGBT Network (Scotland)
 * LGBT Youth Scotland
 * Mermaids Gender
 * Outright Scotland (formerly the Scottish Minorities Group)
 * Peter Tatchell Foundation
 * Racing Pride
 * Stonewall

North America

 * United Caribbean Trans Network

Bahamas

 * Rainbow Alliance of The Bahamas

Belize

 * United Belize Advocacy Movement

National

 * Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion
 * Community One Foundation
 * Egale Canada, formerly Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere
 * Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees
 * Iranian Queer Organization
 * Lambda Foundation
 * PFLAG Canada
 * ProudPolitics
 * Rainbow Railroad

British Columbia

 * Qmunity (Vancouver, British Columbia)

Ontario

 * Supporting Our Youth

Jamaica

 * Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-sexuals, and Gays (JFLAG)

Chile

 * Movimiento de Integración y Liberación Homosexual (MOVILH)

Colombia

 * Colombia Diversa

Ecuador

 * Fundación Ecuatoriana Equidad

Guyana

 * Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD)

title: List of LGBT rights organizations


text:
Fade

Fade or Fading may refer to:

Science and technology

 * Fading, a loss of signal strength at a radio receiver
 * Color fade, the alteration of color by light
 * Fade (audio engineering), a gradual change in sound volume
 * Brake fade, in vehicle braking systems, a reduction in stopping power after repeated use
 * FADE, a type of anti-piracy software

Film and television

 * Fade (filmmaking), a cinematographic technique
 * Fade (2008 film), a film starring Sarah Lassez, Michael T. Weiss, and Devon Odessa
 * The Fades (TV series), a 2011 UK supernatural drama series
 * "Fade" (Smallville), a television episode

Literature

 * Fade (novel), a 1988 novel by Robert Cormier
 * The Fade, a 2007 novel by Chris Wooding
 * Fade, a humanoid race of monsters from Robert Jordan's 1990-2013 fantasy novel series The Wheel of Time.

Music

 * Dynamics (music), the variation or change in volume in a piece of music

Performers

 * Fade (band), a Japanese alternative rock band
 * The Fades, a British indie rock band

Albums

 * Fade (Remove Silence album) or the title song, 2010
 * Fade (Yo La Tengo album), 2013
 * Fade (Boris album), 2022

Songs

 * "Fade" (Jakwob song), 2013
 * "Fade" (Kanye West song), 2016
 * "Fade" (Kristine W song), 2009
 * "Fade" (Lewis Capaldi song), 2017
 * "Fade" (Staind song), 2001
 * "Fading" (song), by Rihanna, 2010
 * "Fade", by Alan Walker, 2014
 * "Fade", by Basement from I Wish I Could Stay Here, 2011
 * "Fade", by Blue Angel from Blue Angel, 1980
 * "Fade", by God Is an Astronaut from Ghost Tapes #10, 2021
 * "Fade", by Gothminister from Anima Inferna, 2011
 * "Fade", by Karnivool from Persona, 2001
 * "Fade", by Northlane from Mesmer, 2017
 * "Fade", by the Prom Kings, 2005
 * "Fade", by Solu Music, 2001

Other entertainment

 * Fade (lighting), in stage lighting, a gradual change in intensity of a light source
 * Fade (video game), a 2001 point-and-click adventure game for the Pocket PC/Windows Mobile platform
 * Fade Out – Fade In, a stage musical with a book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Jule Styne

People

 * Kris Fade (born 1980), Australian-Lebanese radio presenter, host, and musician
 * Fade Goff (1780–1836), land agent and political figure in Prince Edward Island

Other uses

 * Hi-top fade, a hairstyle
 * Fade, a characteristic of a shot in golf stroke mechanics

title: Fade


text:
Amber Room

The Amber Room (Янтарная комната, Bernsteinzimmer) was a chamber decorated in amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors, located in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg.

Constructed in the 18th century in Prussia, the room was dismantled and eventually disappeared during World War II. Before its loss, it was considered an "Eighth Wonder of the World". A reconstruction was made, starting in 1979 and completed and installed in the Catherine Palace in 2003.

The Amber Room was intended in 1701 for the Charlottenburg Palace, in Berlin, Prussia, but was eventually installed at the Berlin City Palace. It was designed by German baroque sculptor Andreas Schlüter and Danish amber craftsman Gottfried Wolfram. Schlüter and Wolfram worked on the room until 1707, when work was continued by amber masters Gottfried Turau and Ernst Schacht from Danzig (Gdańsk).

It remained in Berlin until 1716, when it was given by the Prussian King Frederick William I to his ally Tsar Peter the Great of the Russian Empire. In Russia, the room was installed in the Catherine Palace. After expansion and several renovations, it covered more than 55 m2 and contained over 6 t of amber.

The Amber Room was looted during World War II by the Army Group North of Nazi Germany, and taken to Königsberg for reconstruction and display. Some time in early 1944, with Allied forces closing in on Germany, the room was disassembled and crated for storage in the Castle basement. Königsberg was destroyed by allied bombers in August 1944 and documentation of the room location ends there. Its eventual fate and current whereabouts, if it survives, remain a mystery. In 1979, the decision was taken to create a reconstructed Amber Room at the Catherine Palace in Pushkin. After decades of work by Russian craftsmen and donations from Germany, it was completed and inaugurated in 2003.

Architecture
The Amber Room is a priceless piece of art, with extraordinary architectural features, such as gilding, carvings, 450 kg (990 lb) of amber panels, gold leaf, gemstones, and mirrors, all highlighted with candle light. Additional architectural and design features include statues of angels and children.

Because of its unique features and singular beauty, the original Amber Room was sometimes dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World". Modern estimates of the room's value range from $142 million (2007) to over $500 million (2016).

Creation
The Amber Room was begun in 1701 with the purpose of being installed at Charlottenburg Palace, the residence of Frederick, the first King in Prussia, at the urging of his second wife, Sophia Charlotte. The concept and design of the room was drafted by Andreas Schlüter. It was fabricated by Gottfried Wolfram, master craftsman to the Danish court of King Frederick IV of Denmark, with help from the amber masters Ernst Schacht and Gottfried Turau from Danzig, now Gdańsk in Poland.

Although originally intended for installation at Charlottenburg Palace, the complete panels were eventually installed at Berlin City Palace. The Amber Room did not, however, remain at Berlin City Palace for long. Peter the Great of Russia admired it during a visit, and in 1716, King Frederick I's son Frederick William I presented the room to Peter as a gift, which forged a Russo-Prussian alliance against Sweden.

The original Berlin design of the Amber Room was reworked in Russia in a joint effort by German and Russian craftsmen. It was Peter's daughter Empress Elizabeth who decided the amber treasure should be installed at Catherine Palace, where the Russian Imperial family typically spent their summers. After several other 18th-century renovations, the room covered more than 55 m2 and contained over 6 t of amber. The room took over ten years to construct.

Theft during World War II

Shortly after the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II, the curators responsible for removing the art treasures in Leningrad tried to disassemble and remove the Amber Room. However, over the years the amber had dried out and become brittle, making it impossible to move the room without the amber crumbling. The Amber Room was therefore hidden behind mundane wallpaper, in an attempt to keep German forces from seizing it, but the attempt to hide such a well-known piece of art failed.

German soldiers of Army Group North disassembled the Amber Room within 36 hours under the supervision of two experts. On 14 October 1941, the priceless room reached Königsberg in East Prussia, for storage and display in the town's castle. On 13 November 1941, a Königsberg newspaper announced an exhibition of the Amber Room at Königsberg Castle.

Last days in Königsberg
Orders given by Hitler on 21 and 24 January 1945 ordered the movement of looted possessions from Königsberg. This allowed Albert Speer, Reichsminister of Armaments, and his administration team to transport cultural goods of priority. However, before the Amber Room could be moved, Erich Koch, who was in charge of civil administration in Königsberg during the final months of the war, abandoned his post and fled from the city, leaving General Otto Lasch in command.

In August 1944, Königsberg was heavily fire-bombed by the Royal Air Force. It suffered further extensive damage from the artillery of the advancing Red Army before the final occupation on 9 April 1945.

Disappearance and mysteries
After the war, the Amber Room was never seen in public again, though reports have occasionally surfaced stating that pieces of the Amber Room survived the war. Several eyewitnesses claimed to have spotted the famous room being loaded on board the Wilhelm Gustloff, which left Gdynia on 30 January 1945, and was then promptly torpedoed and sunk by a Soviet submarine.

In 1997, an Italian stone mosaic "Feel and Touch" that was part of a set of four stones which had decorated the Amber Room was found in Germany, in the possession of the family of a soldier who claimed to have helped pack up the amber chamber. The mosaic came into the hands of the Russian authorities and was used in the reconstruction.

In 1998, two separate teams, one German and one Lithuanian, announced they had located the Amber Room. The German team pointed to a silver mine while the Lithuanian team believed the amber treasure was buried in a lagoon; neither of the two locations turned out to hold the Amber Room.

In 2004, a lengthy investigation by British investigative journalists Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy concluded that the Amber Room was most likely destroyed when Königsberg Castle was damaged, first during the bombing of Königsberg by the Royal Air Force in 1944 and then by the Soviets' burning of the castle followed by shelling of the remaining walls. Official assessments, set out in documents from the Russian National Archives written by Alexander Brusov, head of the Soviet team charged with locating the Amber Room following the war, agreed with this theory. The official report stated: "Summarizing all the facts, we can say that the Amber Room was destroyed between 9 and 11 April 1945."

These dates correspond with the end of the Battle of Königsberg, which on 9 April ended with the surrender of the German garrison. A few years later, Brusov publicly voiced a contrary opinion; this is believed to have been done due to pressure from Soviet authorities, who did not want to be seen as responsible for the loss of the Amber Room.

Among other information retrieved from the archives was the revelation that the remaining Italian stone mosaics were found in the burned debris of the castle. Scott-Clark and Levy concluded in their report that the reason the Soviets conducted extensive searches for the Amber Room, even though their own experts had concluded that it was destroyed, was because they wanted to know if any of their own soldiers had been responsible for the destruction. Scott-Clark and Levy also assessed that others in the Soviet government found the theft of the Amber Room a useful Cold War propaganda tool. Russian government officials have since denied these conclusions. Adelaida Yolkina, senior researcher at the Pavlovsk Palace, reportedly stated: "It is impossible to see the Red Army being so careless that they let the Amber Room be destroyed".

After the report was made public, Leonid Arinshtein, who was a lieutenant in the Red Army in charge of a rifle platoon during the Battle of Königsberg, said: "I probably was one of the last people who saw the Amber Room". At the same time, he explained that the whole city was burning due to artillery bombardments, but also denied allegations that the Red Army burned the city on purpose, saying: "What soldiers would burn the city where they will have to stay?"

A variation of this theory by some present-day residents of Kaliningrad (formerly Königsberg), is that at least parts of the room were found in the Königsberg Castle cellars after World War II by the Red Army. The Amber Room was allegedly still in good condition; this was not admitted at the time so the blame could fall upon the Nazis. To preserve this story, access to the ruins of the castle, which was allowed after World War II, was suddenly restricted to all, including historical and archaeological surveys, but the room is said to be in a storehouse near Königsberg Castle.

Then in 1968, despite academic protests worldwide, Soviet general secretary Leonid Brezhnev ordered the destruction of Königsberg Castle, thus making any onsite research of the last known resting place of the Amber Room all but impossible. Later the search for the Amber Room continued in different locations, including near Wuppertal, Germany.

Another hypothesis involves a bunker in Mamerki in northeastern Poland, or that Stalin ordered the Amber Room replaced with a replica prior to its looting, hiding the original. The main problem with finding the Amber Room is that the Nazi regime hid many items in many difficult-to-reach places, usually without documentation, leaving a wide search area. The Germans also moved items to destinations far from Europe in some cases. The search for the Amber Room has also been halted by authorities. In the case of Frýdlant castle it was halted because of the historic value of the castle.

In October 2020 Polish divers from the Baltictech group found the wreck of the SS Karlsruhe, a ship which took part in Operation Hannibal, a sea evacuation which allowed more than a million German troops and civilians from East Prussia to escape advancing Soviet forces. The ship was attacked off the coast of Poland by Soviet aircraft after it sailed from Königsberg in 1945. The wreck holds many crates with unknown contents. An online news website, Live Science, reports that this German steamship may hold crates that contain parts of the Amber Room.

Reconstruction
In 1979, the Soviet government decided to construct a replica of the Amber Room at Tsarskoye Selo, a process that was to take 24 years and require 40 Russian and German experts in amber craftsmanship. Using original drawings and old black-and-white photographs, every attempt was made to duplicate the original Amber Room. This included the 350 shades of amber in the original panels and fixtures that adorned the room. A major problem was the lack of skilled workers, since amber carving was a nearly lost art form.

The financial difficulties that plagued the reconstruction project from the start were solved with the donation of US$3.5 million from the German company E.ON. By 2003, the work of the Russian craftsmen was mostly completed. The new room was dedicated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder at the 300th anniversary of the city of Saint Petersburg. In Kleinmachnow, near Berlin, there is a miniature Amber Room, fabricated after the original. The Berlin miniature collector Ulla Klingbeil had this copy made of original East Prussian amber.

title: Amber Room


text:
Reginald Ray

Reginald Ray (born 1942) is an American Buddhist academic and teacher.

Ray studied Tibetan Buddhism, traditional shamanic wisdom, and yogic-contemplative practices with the Tibetan refugee and recognized Vajrayana traditional-wisdom holder Chögyam Trungpa; and later studied under the tutelage of traditional Dagara teacher from Burkina Faso, Malidoma Somé.

A founding academic member of Naropa University, Ray was a longtime senior teacher in Vajradhatu (renamed Shambhala International in 2000) and from 1996 to 2004 was teacher-in-residence at the Rocky Mountain Shambhala Center (which became Shambhala Mountain Center in February 2000). He left the Shambhala organization to found his own teaching center in 2005, Dharma Ocean. Dhama Ocean, in addition to teaching meditation programs and hosting intensive retreats, is a non-profit foundation "dedicated to the practice, study and preservation of the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche."

Academic training
Ray has a BA in religion from Williams College (1965), and received an M.A. (1967) and Ph.D. (1973) in History of Religions from the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he focused on Buddhism and Indian religions. Among his mentors at Chicago was Mircea Eliade, a Romanian historian of religion.

Teaching career
Ray first encountered his main Buddhist teacher, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1970, and studied with him until Rinpoche's death in 1987. In 1974, at the invitation of Trungpa Rinpoche, Ray left a tenure-track position at Indiana University and relocated to Boulder, Colorado—then the center of Trungpa Rinpoche's community–to become the first full-time faculty member and chair of the Buddhist Studies Department at Naropa University, where he taught until his retirement in July 2009. Ray also served on the Nalanda Translation Committee and held a half-time appointment in the Religious Studies department at the University of Colorado.

From 1996 to 2004, Ray was teacher-in-residence at the Rocky Mountain Dharma Center, which became the Shambhala Mountain Center in February 2000. Ray is the director of the Dharma Ocean Foundation.

Publications
Published books:
 * Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values & Orientations. (1994 Oxford University Press US) (ISBN 0195134834)
 * Indestructible Truth, which describes the exoteric traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. (2000 Shambhala Publications) (ISBN 1570621667)
 * Secret of the Vajra World explores the esoteric and tantric aspects of Tibetan Buddhism, focusing on the Vajrayana. (2001 Shambhala Publications) (ISBN 157062917X)
 * In the Presence of Masters: Wisdom from 30 Contemporary Tibetan Buddhist Teachers. (2004 Shambhala Publications) (ISBN 1570628491)
 * Touching Enlightenment: Finding Realization in the Body. (2008 Sounds True) (ISBN 1591796180)
 * Tibetan Buddhism Reader, editor. (2010 Shambhala Publications) (ISBN 9781590308349)
 * The Awakening Body: Somatic Meditation for Discovering our Deepest Life. (2016 Shambhala Publications) (ISBN 1611803713)
 * The Wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism. (2017 Shambhala Publications) (ISBN 1611804752)

Audio recordings:
 * Meditating With The Body: Six Tibetan Buddhist Meditations for Touching Enlightenment With the Body (2003 Sounds True) (ISBN 1591790387)
 * Buddhist Tantra: Teachings and Practices for Touching Enlightenment With the Body (2003 Sounds True) (ISBN 1591790174)
 * Your Breathing Body: Beginning Practices for Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Fulfillment, Volume 1 (2008 Sounds True) (ISBN 1591796598)
 * Your Breathing Body, Volume 2 (2008 Sounds True) (ISBN 1591796628)
 * Mahamudra for the Modern World (2012 Sounds True) (ISBN 1604075694)
 * The Practice of Pure Awareness: Somatic Meditation for Touching Infinity. (2015 Sounds True) (ASIN: B0176O6IDU)
 * Somatic Descent: Experiencing the Ultimate Intelligence of the Body. (2016 Sounds True) (ASIN: B01M24YBVS)
 * Awakening the Heart: A Somatic Training in Bodhicitta (2017 Sounds True) (ISBN 1604078693)

title: Reginald Ray


text:
Varennes-en-Argonne

Varennes-en-Argonne (, literally Varennes in Argonne) or simply Varennes (German: Wöringen) is a commune in the Meuse department in the Grand Est region in Northeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 639.

Geography
Varennes-en-Argonne lies on the river Aire to the northeast of Sainte-Menehould, near Verdun.

History
Varennes is most notable as was the ending point of the Flight to Varennes. In June 1791, Louis XVI and his immediate family made a dash for the nearest friendly border, that of the Austrian Netherlands in modern Belgium (Queen Marie Antoinette being a sister to Leopold II, Archduke of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor). In Varennes, Louis and his family were arrested by Jean-Baptiste Drouet, the local postmaster, who had been alerted by a message received from nearby Sainte-Menehould. It is said that at Sainte-Menehould, where the escaping party had spent the previous night, a merchant alerted the town authorities of their presence after recognizing the King's face on an Assignat as Louis tried to buy something from a shop. The royal family was returned to the Tuileries in humiliating captivity, and Louis and Marie-Antoinette were subsequently guillotined in 1793.

Located in the Zone rouge, Varennes was completely destroyed during the First World War but was reconstructed afterwards. The Pennsylvania Memorial, a monument for volunteers from 28th Division Pennsylvania in the First World War, was erected in Varennes during the Interwar period.

Points of interest

 * Arboretum de Varennes-en-Argonne

title: Varennes-en-Argonne