text:
Voicemail

A voicemail system (also known as voice message or voice bank) is a computer-based system that allows people to leave a recorded message when the recipient is unable to answer the phone. The caller is prompted to leave a message and the recipient can retrieve said message at a later time.

Voicemail can be used for personal calls and more complex systems exist for companies and services to handle customer requests. The term is also used more broadly to denote any system of conveying stored telecommunications voice messages, including using an answering machine.

Features

Voicemail systems are designed to convey a caller's recorded audio message to a recipient. To do so they contain a user interface to select, play, and manage messages; a delivery method to either play or otherwise deliver the message; and a notification ability to inform the user of a waiting message. Most systems use phone networks, either cellular- or landline-based, as the conduit for all of these functions. Some systems may use multiple telecommunications methods, permitting recipients and callers to retrieve or leave messages through multiple methods such as PCs or smartphones.

Simple voicemail systems function as a remote answering machine using touch-tones as the user interface. More complicated systems may use other input devices such as voice or a computer interface. Simpler voicemail systems may play the audio message through the phone, while more advanced systems may have alternative delivery methods, including email or text message delivery, message transfer and forwarding options, and multiple mailboxes.

Almost all modern voicemail systems use digital storage and are typically stored on computer data storage. Notification methods also vary based on the voicemail system. Simple systems may not provide active notification at all, instead requiring the recipient to check with the system, while others may provide an indication that messages are waiting.

More advanced systems may be integrated with a company's PABX, with a call center ACD for automatic call distribution; with mobile or paging terminals for message alert; and computer systems/data bases for delivering information or processing orders. Interactive voice response (IVR) systems may use digital information stored in a corporate data base to select pre-recorded words and phrases stored in a voicemail vocabulary to form sentences that are delivered to the caller.

History
The term Voicemail was coined by Televoice International (later Voicemail International, or VMI) for their introduction of the first US-wide Voicemail service in 1980. Although VMI trademarked the term, it eventually became a generic term for automated voice services employing a telephone. Voicemail popularity continues today with Internet telephone services such as Skype, Google Voice and ATT that integrate voice, voicemail and text services for tablets and smartphones.

Voicemail systems were developed in the late 1970s by Voice Message Exchange (VMX). They became popular in the early 1980s when they were made available on PC-based boards. In September 2012 a report from USA Today and Vonage claimed that voicemail was in decline. The report said that the number of voicemail messages declined eight percent compared to 2011.

Message centers
The conventional solution to efficient handling of telephone communication in businesses was the "message center". A message center or "message desk" was a centralized, manual answering service inside a company staffed by a few operators who answered all incoming phone calls. Extensions that were busy or rang "no answer" would forward to the message center using a device called a "call director". The call director had a button for each extension in the company which would flash when that person's extension forwarded to the message center. A little label next to the button told the operator the person being called.

While it was an improvement over basic multi-line systems, the message center had many disadvantages. Many calls would come in simultaneously at peak periods, such as lunch time, and operators were often busy. This left message attendants with little time to take each message accurately. Often, they were not familiar with employees' names and "buzzwords" and how to spell or pronounce them. Messages were scribbled on pink slips and distributed by the internal mail system and messages, often arrived at people's desks after lengthy delays, contained little content other than the caller's name and number, and were often inaccurate, with misspelled names and wrong phone numbers.

Tape-based telephone answering machines had come into the residential telephone market, but they were not used much in the corporate environment due to physical limitations of the technology. One answering machine was needed for each telephone; messages could not be recorded if the user was using the phone; messages had to be retrieved in sequential order; and messages could not be retrieved remotely, selectively discarded, saved, or forwarded to others. Further, the manufacturers of PBXs (private branch exchanges—the name for corporate phone systems) used proprietary digital phone sets in order to increase the functionality and value of the PBX. These phone sets were, by design, incompatible with answering machines.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, the cost of long-distance calling decreased and more business communications were conducted by telephone. As corporations grew and labor rates increased, the ratio of secretaries to employees decreased. With more communication by phone, multiple time zones, and fewer secretaries, real-time phone communications were hampered by callers being unable to reach people. Some early studies showed that only 1 in 4 phone calls resulted in a completed call and half the calls were one-way in nature (that is, they did not require a conversation). This happened because people were either not at work (due to time zone differences, being away on business, etc.), or if they were at work, they were on the phone, away from their desks in meetings, on breaks, etc. This bottleneck hindered the effectiveness of business activities and decreased both individual and group productivity. It also wasted the caller's time and created delays in resolving time-critical issues.

Invention
The first public records describing voice recording were reported in a New York newspaper and the Scientific American in November 1877. Thomas A. Edison had announced the invention of his "phonograph" saying "the object was to record telephone messages and transmit them again by telephone." Edison applied for a US patent in December 1877 and shortly thereafter demonstrated the machine to publishers, the US Congress and President Rutherford B. Hayes. In an article outlining his own ideas of the future usefulness of his machine Edison's list began with "Letter writing, and all kinds of dictation without the aid of a stenographer." In other words, "voice messages" or "Voice-mail". By 1914, Edison's phonograph business included a dictating machine (the Ediphone) and the "Telescribe", a machine combining the phonograph and the telephone, which recorded both sides of telephone conversations.

For nearly one hundred years, there were few innovations or advances in telephone services. Voicemail was the result of innovations in telephone products and services made possible by developments in computer technology during the 1970s. These innovations began with the Motorola Pageboy, a simple "pager" or "beeper" introduced in 1974 that was generally offered in conjunction with answering services that handled busy / no-answer overloads and after hours calls for businesses and professionals. Operators wrote down a caller's message, sent a page alert or "beep" and when the party called back, an operator dictated the message.

With the introduction of "voice" pagers, like the Motorola Pageboy II operators could transmit a voice message directly to the pager and the user could hear the message. However, messages arrival was often untimely and privacy issues, as well as the high cost, eventually caused the demise of these services. By the mid 1970s digital storage and analog to digital conversion devices had emerged and paging companies began handling client messages electronically. Operators recorded a short message (five to six seconds, e.g. "please call Mr. Smith") and the messages were delivered automatically when the client called the answering service. It would only take a short step for the first voicemail application to be born.

Computer manufacturers, telephone equipment manufacturers, and software firms began developing more sophisticated solutions as more powerful and less expensive computer processors and storage devices became available. This set the stage for a creation of a broad spectrum of computer based Central Office and Customer Premises Equipment that would eventually support enhanced voice solutions such as voicemail, audiotex, interactive voice response (IVR) and speech recognition solutions that began emerging in the 1980s. However, broad adoption of these products and services would depend on the global proliferation of touch tone phones and mobile phone services which would not occur until the late 1980s.

Inventor controversy
Many contributed to the creation of the modern-day voicemail. Legal battles ensued for decades. The of voicemail, patent number 4,124,773 (Audio Storage and Distribution System), is Robin Elkins. "Though Elkins received a patent in 1978, telecommunications giants began offering voicemail without paying Elkins a penny in royalties." "Elkins never expected to spend 10 years of his life battling some of the world's largest corporations, either. But once he patented his system, he figured he should protect it." Later, Elkins successfully licensed his patented technology to IBM, DEC, and WANG, among many others. Unfortunately, his patent did not address simultaneity of voice message access and storage and the application for patent was filed after the patent application of the system patented by Kolodny and Hughes, as described below.

Early applications
One of the first modern day voicemail applications was invented by Gerald M. Kolodny and Paul Hughes, which was described in an article in the medical journal, Radiology (Kolodny GM, Cohen HI, Kalisky A. Rapid-access system for radiology reports: a new concept. Radiology. 1974;111(3):717–9) A patent was applied for by Kolodny and Hughes in 1975, prior to the patent applications of both Elkins and Matthews and was issued in 1981 (US patent 4,260,854). The patent was assigned to Sudbury Systems of Sudbury Massachusetts who proceeded to market and sell such systems to corporations and hospitals. IBM, Sony and Lanier, as well as several smaller makers of voicemail systems, licensed the Sudbury patent for their voicemail systems. A patent suit, brought by Pitney Bowes, claiming prior art to the Sudbury patent, was denied by the US District Court, District of Connecticut on November 8, 2000. A similar suit brought byVDI Technologies against the Kolodny and Hughes patent claiming prior art was dismissed by the US District Court in New Hampshire on December 19, 1991.

IBM Audio Distribution System
The voice-messaging application, the Speech Filing System, was developed at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in 1973 under the leadership of Stephen Boies. It was later renamed the Audio Distribution System (ADS).

ADS used the human voice and the fixed-line touch-tone telephones that predated computer screens and mobile phones. The first operational prototypes were used by 750 IBM executives mainly in the US for their daily work. Those prototypes ran on an IBM System/7 computer attached to an IBM VM370 for additional storage.

In 1978 the prototype was converted to run on an IBM Series/1 computer. In September 1981 IBM started marketing ADS in America and Europe: the first customer installation was completed in February 1982.

ADS, marketed by IBM and briefly by AT&T Corporation, was well featured for voice messaging, the result of IBM's considerable human-factors research plus observation of operational use. Using a 1980s computer requiring air conditioning, it was expensive and physically large. With further development it grew to handle up to 3000 users, 100 hours of messages, multiple languages, message notification to a host computer, and 16 simultaneous users.

ADS could be connected to exchange lines and private exchanges including the IBM 2750 and 3750 Switching Systems available in Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and the UK.

IBM sold many systems, Installations including the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games "Olympic Message System"

Delta 1
Another company, Delphi Communications of California, deserves some partial credit for invention of voicemail. Delphi developed a proprietary system called Delta 1 that picked up and coming calls directly from the telephone company. Delphi presented the concept publicly to the association of Telephone Answering Services around 1973 and the prototype system was launched in San Francisco in 1976 by a Delphi company called VoiceBank. A patent was applied for and issued for Delphi's Automated Telephone Voice Service System. The patent, US Patent No. 4,625,081, was issued after Delphi's closure, but Delphi's assets (and the patent) were transferred to another Exxon company, Gilbarco, which made equipment for gas pumps at filling stations. Gilbarco is now owned by GEC in the United Kingdom.

AT&T
AT&T developed a system called 1A Voice Storage System to support custom services including voicemail for the public telephone system. It worked in conjunction with the companies 1A ESS and 5ESS systems. Development started in mid-1976, with first deployment in early 1979. Friendly user service started in March 1980. The service was terminated in 1981 as a result of the US FCC Computer Inquiry II, which prohibited enhanced services from being provided by the regulated network.

VMX
In 1979, a company was founded in Texas by Gordon Matthews called ECS Communications (the name was later changed to VMX, for Voice Message exchange). VMX developed a 3000-user voice messaging system called the VMX/64. Matthews, a prolific entrepreneur and patentor, applied for and was granted a patent on voicemail (patent number 4,371,752) which issued in February 1983. The patent was promoted as the pioneering patent for voicemail. However, the patent application was filed on November 26, 1979, five years after, and issued in 1983.

VMX asserted infringement first with IBM, AT&T and then Wang, but all three companies reportedly would have been able to invalidate the patent on the basis of prior art and their licenses from Sudbury Systems Inc, for their Kolodny and Hughes patent.

IVR Voice Recognition
In 1985, Voice Response Inc. (formerly Call-It Co) a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises, Davenport IA, entered the fast-growing Interactive Voice (IVR) response market under the direction of Bob Ross, President. About a year later, VRI introduced one of the first "successful" IVR applications that utilized voice recognition (rather than touch tone) to capture caller responses. Voice recognition technology had great difficulty with regional and ethnic differences and nuances which resulted in a high incidence of error. VRI discovered that hesitation (delayed response) signaled caller confusion or misunderstanding which often resulted in an inaccurate response. VRI developed proprietary techniques that measured user response times and used the data to make real-time changes to the application's dialog with the caller. VRI found that the confidence level of a "suspect" caller response could be increased by asking "Did you say (Chicago), Yes or No", a standard question heard in order taking or reservation making IVR applications today. VRI pioneering applications, including subscription fulfillment for Time and Life magazines, proved faster and less expensive than call centers using live operators and although VRI did not survive, their voice recognition processes became industry standards and VRI's patent USPTO – patent RE34,587 was eventually licensed by Intel/Dialogic and Nuance.

PC-based Voicemail
Amidst the booming popularity of the IBM PC-AT, a variety of companies popped up to market add-in boards to the AT. These companies aimed to use the PC as an inexpensive hardware platform for hosting add-in boards and software providing voice mail functionality for small businesses that wanted something more sophisticated than an answering machine but could not afford pricey conventional voice mail solutions. Among these was The Complete PC, founded in 1986 in Silicon Valley. The Complete PC was sold to publicly-listed Florida-based Boca Research Inc., in 1993.

International Voicemail Association
In 1987, voicemail service providers in the US and Europe joined to form the Voice Mail Association of Europe (VMA) with René Beusch, Radio-Suisse and Paul Finnigan, Finnigan USA serving as VMA Chairman and President respectively. The first VMA meeting was held in Stockholm Huddinge by Voicemail Svenska AB in 1987, organized by its founder Lars Olof Kanngard. The tech team in Voicemail Svenska AB was granted the right to port the Voicemail from PDP systems to their own PC-board solution, which become known as the MiniVoice, later become ESSELTE VOICE AB. The VMA invited service providers, vendors and consultants to attend semi-annual conferences that included presentations, discussions and reporting of experiences. VMA membership was eventually expanded to include representatives from telecommunication organizations worldwide and became "The International Voice-mail Association". By the late 1980s, the Bell Operating companies, Tigon and other independent service providers in the US had joined the VMA. In 1992, VMA members conducted an "Information Week Tour of the U.S.", sharing ideas with major telecom operators. VMA working groups promoted collaboration and adoption of industry standards to the ITU and CCITT and at the 1999 CCITT conference in Geneva, Switzerland, demonstrated worldwide exchange of messages between the major voicemail vendors' platforms using the VPIM networking standard. Beusch and Finnigan led the VMA until 1998 and 1999 respectively and the organization continues to serve the voice services industry today.

Public telephone services
In the US, the Bell Operating Companies and their cellular divisions had been prohibited by the FCC from offering voicemail and other enhanced services such as paging and telephone answering services (no such prohibition existed in foreign countries). A ruling by Judge Harold H. Greene on March 7, 1988, removed this barrier and allowed the BOCs to offer voicemail service, however, they were not allowed to design or manufacture equipment used to provide voicemail services.

The opportunity created by the Greene decision, plus Voicemail International's abandonment of its market lead for carrier-grade systems, created a new opportunity for competing manufacturers and those who had been focusing on the corporate market. Unisys, Boston Technology, and Comverse Technology were quick to address the BOC and PTT marketplace. Octel, who had high capacity systems in use internally by all seven Regional Bell Operating companies, launched a new generation of its large system specifically designed for carriers and was compliant with "NEBS standards", the tight standard required by phone companies for any equipment located in their central offices.

Unified messaging
Unified Messaging integrated voicemail into Microsoft Exchange, the corporate email system made by Microsoft. Unified Messaging had been invented by Roberta Cohen, Kenneth Huber and Deborah Mill at AT&T Bell Labs. The patent for Unified Messaging was received in June 1989 (Patent number 4,837,798).

Unified Messaging allowed users to access voicemail and email messages using either the graphical user interface (GUI) on their PC, or using the telephone user interface (TUI). For voicemail, they'd see the "header information" (sender, date sent, size, and subject). Users could double-click a voicemail from their email inbox and hear the message through their PC or a phone next to their desk. Voice messages could be sent using email or telephone addressing schemes, and the data networking infrastructure was used to send messages between locations rather than the public switched telephone network.

Virtual telephony
Other interesting markets developed from the carrier market including a concept called "virtual telephony". Virtual Telephony, developed by Octel, used voicemail to provide phone service rapidly in emerging countries without wiring for telephones. The problem this solved was that emerging countries did not have many telephones. Wiring for telephones was very expensive, and many poorer citizens did not have homes to wire. The economies of emerging countries were held back partly because people could not communicate beyond the area where they could walk or ride a bicycle. Giving them phones was one way to help their economies, but there was not a practical way to do it. In some countries, the wait for a phone was several years and the cost was in the thousands of dollars. Cellular phones were not an option at the time because they were extremely expensive (thousands of dollars per handset) and the infrastructure to install cell sites was also costly.

With virtual telephony, each person could be given a phone number (just the number, not the phone) and a voice mailbox. The citizen would also be given a pager. If someone called the phone number, it never rang on an actual phone, but would be routed immediately to a central voicemail system. The voicemail system answered the call and the caller could leave a long, detailed message. As soon as the message was received, the voicemail system would trigger the citizen's pager. When the page was received, the citizen would find a pay phone and call in to pick up the message. This concept was used successfully in South America and South Africa.

Instant messaging in voice
By the year 2000, voicemail had become a ubiquitous feature on phone systems serving companies, cellular and residential subscribers. Cellular and residential voicemail continue today in their previous form, primarily simple telephone answering. Email became the prevalent messaging system, email servers and software became quite reliable, and virtually all office workers were equipped with multimedia desktop PCs.

The increase in wireless mobility, originally through cellular services and today through IP-based Wi-Fi, was also a driver for messaging convergence with mobile telephony. Today, it is not only fostering the use of speech user interfaces for message management, but increasing the demand for retrieval of voice messages integrated with email. It also enables people to reply to both voice and email messages in voice rather than text. New services, such as GotVoice, SpinVox and YouMail, are helping to blur the boundaries between voicemail and text by delivering voicemails to mobile phones as SMS text messages.

The next development in messaging was in making text messaging real-time, rather than just asynchronous store-and-forward delivery into a mailbox. Although in the 1980s Minitel in France was extremely popular and Teletext was widely used in the US, instant messaging on the Internet began with the ICQ application developed in 1996 as a public Internet-based free text "chat" service for consumers, but soon was being used by business people as well. It introduced the concept of Internet Protocol "presence management" or being able to detect device connectivity to the Internet and contact recipient "availability" status to exchange real-time messages, as well as personalized "Buddy list" directories to allow only people you knew to find out your status and initiate a real-time text messaging exchange with you. Presence and Instant Messaging has since evolved into more than short text messages, but now can include the exchange of data files (documents, pictures) and the escalation of the contact into a voice conversational connection.

Unified messaging with VoIP
Corporate voicemail did not change much until the advent of Voice over IP (VoIP—voice being transmitted over the internet) and the development of Internet Protocol (IP) telephony applications to replace legacy PBX telephony (called TDM technologies). IP telephony changed the style and technology of PBXs and the way voicemail systems integrated with them. This, in turn, facilitated a new generation of Unified Messaging, which is now likely to catch on widely. The flexibility, manageability, lower costs, reliability, speed, and user convenience for messaging convergence is now possible where it was not before. This might include intra- and inter-enterprise contacts, mobile contacts, proactive application information delivery, and customer contact applications.

The corporate IP telephony-based voicemail customer premises equipment market is served by several vendors including Avaya, Cisco systems, Adomo, Interactive Intelligence, Nortel, Mitel, 3Com, and AVST. Their marketing strategy will have to address the need to support a variety of legacy PBXs as well as new Voice over IP as enterprises migrate towards converging IP-based telecommunications. A similar situation exists for the carrier market for voicemail servers, currently dominated by Comverse Technology, with some share still held by Lucent Technologies.

VoIP telephony enables centralized, shared servers, with remote administration and usage management for corporate (enterprise) customers. In the past, carriers lost this business because it was far too expensive and inflexible to have remote managed facilities by the phone company. With VoIP, remote administration is far more economical. This technology has re-opened opportunities for carriers to offer hosted, shared services for all forms of converged IP telecommunications, including IP-PBX and voicemail services. Because of the convergence of wired and wireless communications, such services may also include support of a variety of multi-modal handheld and desktop end user devices. This service, when offered for multiple extensions or phone numbers is sometimes also called Unified Voice-mail.

Benefits
Voicemail's introduction enabled people to leave lengthy, secure and detailed messages in natural voice, working hand-in-hand with corporate phone systems. The adoption of voicemail in corporations improved the flow of communications and saved huge amounts of money. GE, one of the pioneer adopters of voicemail in all of its offices around the world, claimed that voicemail saved, on average, over US$1,100 per year per employee. Needless to say, the ability to tell someone something without talking to them, can be a powerful reason to choose voicemail for delivery of a particular message.

title: Voicemail


text: Talk:Coriander

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

title: Talk:Coriander


text:
Talk:Filibuster

Etymology
According to https://www.etymonline.com/word/filibuster the word comes from Dutch vrijbueter (now vrijbuiter) "freebooter". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.132.202.155 (talk) 10:58, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

Also in the wikipedia article on filibuster (military) - yet the two uses come from the same source. That can't be right. -- Beardo (talk) 16:27, 10 April 2020 (UTC)

Typo Correction
Mark Page here: I believe there is a typo (years vs days). Under the United Kingdom heading, at the end of the paragraph beginning with 'In January 2011' the text reads '8 years' and should read '8 days' as the Filibuster debate had reached it's 8th day according to the article.

Hope this is correct.

Thank you,

Mark Page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 167.184.203.6 (talk) 16:57, 24 October 2017 (UTC)
 * TJRC (talk) 16:47, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

Example from Poland
By the definition of the filibuster it doesn't seem to even qualify as such. Postponing the vote within permitted, but limited, amount of time is not a debate. Filibuster is specific to the debate. If you'd qualify any and every example of postponing the vote as a "filibuster" you'd have examples flooded with just that throughout the history of the democracies, as it's a common practice. SkywalkerPL (talk) 15:19, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

Japanese ox walk Walk
Is it worth adding a section on the ox walk of the Japanese Diet?

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2020/01/31/commentary/japan-commentary/ox-walking-heckling-strange-diet-practices/

--Patbahn (talk) 21:35, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Re. Ontario Canada filibuster naming all lakes, rivers, etc.
A transcript is here https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/house-documents/parliament-35/session-1/1991-05-06/hansard#PARA385

24.141.211.239 (talk) 13:30, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

 * Should mention that there is an existing link to the transcript in the sources http://hansardindex.ontla.on.ca/hansardeissue/35-1/l028.htm, however it doesn't provide paragraph IDs to allow direct linking to the Zebra Mussels Act, and it's using the HTTP protocol, rather than HTTPS, so the existing link may cause issues with some browsers and security settings. 2001:1970:4D1E:6B00:D9EE:66FD:6E0A:5649 (talk) 00:56, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Filibuster


text:
Muni

Muni may refer to:

Municipal

 * A common US abbreviation for municipal, municipal services, and the like
 * Municipal bond
 * Municipal Bridge, the former name of the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky
 * "Muni", slang for a municipally owned and operated golf course
 * The Muny, an outdoor musical theatre in St. Louis, Missouri
 * Cleveland Public Power, known as Muny Light before 1983
 * San Francisco Municipal Railway, the public transit agency for San Francisco, California
 * Springfield Municipal Opera in Springfield, Illinois
 * Muni Metro in San Francisco

People

 * Surname
 * Craig Muni (born 1962), former professional ice hockey player
 * Ganapati Muni (1878–1936), Indian philosopher
 * Marguerite Muni (1929–1999), French actress sometimes credited as simply Muni
 * Paul Muni (1895–1967), American actor
 * Scott Muni (1930–2004), American disc jockey
 * Given name
 * Munni Begum (disambiguation)

Fictional characters

 * Munni, child mute character from film Bajrangi Bhaijaan
 * Munni, item number character from item number Munni Badnaam Hui in the film Dabangg, portrayed by Malaika Arora

Other uses

 * An abbreviation for mountain unicycling
 * Muni (film series), an Indian Tamil-language horror comedy film series by Raghava Lawrence
 * Muni (film), 2007 film, the first part of the series
 * Muni 2 or Kanchana, 2011 sequel film, second part of the series
 * Muni 3 or Kanchana 2, 2015 film, third part of the series
 * Muni 4 or Kanchana 3, 2019 film, fourth part of the series
 * Muni River, a river in Equatorial Guinea
 * Muni Village, Arua District, Uganda
 * Río Muni, the continental region of Equatorial Guinea, named after the river Muni
 * Masaryk University (muni.cz), in Brno, Czech Republic
 * Munisuvrata, 20th Jain Tirthankara
 * Rishi Muni, an ascetic who engages himself in devotion with silence
 * Jain Muni, a Jain monk
 * Muni (Hinduism), woman in mythology
 * Muni (saint)

title: Muni


text:
Talk:NaN

IEEE
How much of the modern NaN (ie the IEEE standard one) was innovation by the standard committee? I would expect at least the spelling "NaN" and the distinction between singalling and quiet NaN to be from the IEEE standard...

Pronunciation
Is NaN an acronym or an initialism? jnestorius(talk) 20:52, 21 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes. Uncle G 12:10, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Dunno, but she sure is getting old.
 * NaN = Not a Number. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 15:04, 2 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes,NaN=Not a Number 2600:8800:8380:350:ECFB:E562:9508:7478 (talk) 15:34, 6 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Ones I know pronounce it as a word (nan), or say the whole thing (not a number). Gah4 (talk) 01:34, 7 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Ones I know pronounce it as a word (nan), or say the whole thing (not a number). Gah4 (talk) 01:34, 7 October 2023 (UTC)

Nullity/Transreal numbers

 * Since AfD went through on the Transreal number article to redirect to here, should we add a mention of it? Someone looking up transreal numbers and just getting this article would be confused, since there's no way they know how they relate. fintler 23:06, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Transreal number currently redirects to a section of James A. D. W. Anderson. This appears to be used nowhere and the only sources are James A. D. W. Anderson's own papers (BTW, this has never been mentioned in the discussions in the stds-754 list). So this is original research, and I've just removed the sentence that was added in the mean time. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 14:19, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Number vs Numeral

 * In the paragraph dealing with the NaN Toolbox, the word numeral is used several times.  Should this read number instead? 67.168.55.79 16:31, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Canonical NaNs
I've had a lot of cross-platform experience with NaNs back in the 1990's. As the current article suggests, all the big h/w vendors fell into one of the two possible camps regarding the representation of signalling and quiet NaNs (basically a difference in interpretation of one bit). This affected data portability but worse still was the situation with private NaN values. The product I worked on then used several private encodings to represent special numeric cases, e.g. uninitialised, error, not-available, etc. Some were quiet and some were signalling. All architectures should have one special quiet NaN representing arithmetic calculations with no valid (real) answer, e.g. 0/0, sqrt(-1), log(0), etc., when trapping is suppressed. In the Intel architecture, this is called 'Indefinite'. A better description is the 'Canonical NaN' -- I cannot give a reference for this term but I believe I first saw it in some old DEC internal documentation. Unfortunately, different vendors used different encodings for this special value and so trying to make your own private encodings distinct from it was like trying to hit a moving target. Even more unfortunate was the fact that some vendors used a different value in their h/w to in their mathematics library, and at least one vendor used a different encoding in different versions of their h/w chipset.

Another issue was the way in which NaNs (and Infinities) were generated on some machines. Rather than being generated by h/w, or even f/w, some generated a microtrap that then dispatched to a piece of s/w to determine the correct value to return from the floating-point instruction. This could result in a calculation that generated a special value taking 50-100 times longer than one that generated a normal value. This affected several database products of that era, and especially OLAP products, since it was more efficient to just ignore IEEE special values altogether and select some arbitrary 'large real values' to represent the special cases instead (e.g. 1E38). --TonyP (talk) 19:58, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Pless admision my seet no E027086 maths no 20 plees 35 Satyaprakash rajbhar (talk) 11:33, 24 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I do not understand that. I removed the edit, there was no reason for it that I could see and it seems strange. Dmcq (talk) 11:47, 24 June 2017 (UTC)

Zero divided by Zero
In some cases, NaN is used where numbers may be results. For example, zero divided by zero is ambiguous -- any number multiplied by zero is zero, so zero divided by zero may be any number. In this context, "Not a Number" is an inaccurate description of the result. A more accurate description of this case would be "Not Any Specific Number" or, more simply "Any Number". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 159.54.131.7 (talk) 17:08, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Bubbles on beach
Mere coincidence that Patrick Mc in The Prisoner: "I am not a number" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.19.170.119 (talk) 17:27, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

 * In the original script, he was going to say "I am an arithmetic overflow," but the director liked "not a number" better. Jmdeur (talk) 18:02, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Unicode symbol?
I'm looking for the unicode symbol if any that is NaN in a single codepoint. Help? 168.251.194.25 (talk) 19:50, 16 December 2009 (UTC)
 * What is the purpose? What's wrong with using 3 separate letters N, a and N again? 2A01:119F:21D:7900:55BF:CA37:B0A2:86E5 (talk) 18:47, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
 * There does not appear to be any Unicode symbol for NaN; here's the search. + m t  21:55, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

1/0 is NaN?
The article says that "For example, 1/0 is undefined as a real number, and so represented by NaN". However, at least in Java, 1/0.0=POSITIVE_INFINITY, not NaN (and 1/-0.0=NEGATIVE_INFINITY, but 0/0.0 is NaN). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.20.159.197 (talk) 14:11, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

 * Yes that's very silly, I've gone and replaced it with 0/0. Dmcq (talk) 17:28, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

∞^0 omitted?
$$\infty ^ 0$$ is listed in Indeterminate form. Why is it not listed in the list of operations that return an NaN, while $$1 ^ \infty$$ is listed? --71.141.115.178 (talk) 20:26, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

 * I better check the article through for the power function. In fact IEEE 754-2008 has 3 different power operations. The usual one is pow which tries returning a value rather than a NaN, pow(1,∞) is 1 but powr(1,∞) is an invalid operation and so return NaN. Dmcq (talk) 22:47, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Tan(pi/2)
Uh... tan(pi/2) is not complex. Should this bullet point be moved into the second of the three categories (in the Creation section)?

 * I haven't the foggiest what whoever put that inmust have been thinking of. I think the line should just be completely removed. tan never returns NaN except for infinity or NaN arguments so it is pretty well behaved. In fact I'll just go and remove it now thanks. 19:45, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Indeterminate
According to IEEE-754 References, there is a special value *Indeterminate*. It's hard to find any useful information on it. From what little I can tell, it might be a subset of NaN, used specifically for "indeterminate forms". It would be good to properly explain that special value, and how it is the same/differs from NaN. Cmcqueen1975 (talk) 03:18, 12 October 2010 (UTC)
 * The missing reference there is . There is no special 'indeterminate' value but he gives a useful way of thinking about sNaN and qNaN. Dmcq (talk) 09:32, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions
Worth remembering:

1. Trigonometric functions tan (2x+1)π/2, csc (2x+1)π/2, cot 2πx, and sec 2πx  in which x is an integer imply division by zero and thus give only infinite results.

2. Some trigonometric functions have limited ranges for their values:

-1 ≤ sin x ≤ 1 -1 ≤ cos x ≤ 1
 * sec x| ≥ 1
 * csc x| ≥ 1

Inverse trigonometric functions that have x inappropriate for those ranges, including arcsin x > 1, arccos x > 1, -1 < arcsec x < 1, and -1 < arccsc x < 1 can have no values.

Calculators obviously give non-numbers for prohibited values for those functions. Pbrower2a (talk) 14:22, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Languages that use NaN
Would it be relevant to include a list of languages that use NaNs? This section could also include the representation used, which could give more context to the Display section. Paul2520 (talk) 15:43, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

Hardware
''and in practice are raised as hardware-level exceptions by the CPU. '' Seems to me that most hardware generates an exception for fixed point divide by zero, but the exception for fixed point overflow is rare. Converting floating point to integer for out of range values might be considered fixed point overflow. Unless all hardware generates an exception, the statement is wrong. Gah4 (talk) 20:56, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

 * I removed the sentence earlier today. There are no signals for overflow either, so that the GNU libc manual is wrong. On x86, I get -2147483648 even for positive overflow. But I have results of tests done by Bill Allombert in 2004, which show that each processor had its own behavior (never a signal, but different values). Hence the choice of a undefined behavior in C. Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 21:14, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

 * For x86, I believe for x>=0, you need an INTO instruction after any instruction you want to trap for overflow. This does an INT 4 if the OF flag is set. I believe, though, that divide by zero interrupt happens without a special instruction. (In the MS-DOS days, there were some interrupts used by MSDOS and/or the BIOS that conflicted with some processor hardware interrupts. Intel reserved the first 32, but people used them anyway. Gah4 (talk) 23:41, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

What uses or generates sNaNs?
On the topic of signaling NaN, article says "There have been several ideas for how these might be used:" ... "In practice this approach is faced with many complications". As far as I can tell, nobody has ever successfully used signaling NaNs for anything (and most environments disable them by default). If this is true, perhaps the article should say more a little clearly that almost nobody ever uses or encounters signaling NaNs? Or, if it's false, the article could mention an example of a product/project/technology which uses them. 50.197.188.73 (talk) 06:05, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

User-defined NaNs
I would like to recommend that the main contributors to this page add a section on the use of user-defined NaN values. There are clear application requirements that would benefit from the apparent freedom offered by IEEE for user-defined NaN states, but there are serious practical difficulties involved (see my earlier entry on this Talk page). Having a section that makes people aware of those difficulties, any best practices, and potential revisions to the standard, would be a useful resource for application designers.TonyP (talk) 11:19, 17 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia requires WP:Reliable sources describing the situation. It doesn't sound to me like there is much on it otherwise the situation wouldn't be in the mess you describe. Have you seen anything that could be cited?? Dmcq (talk) 12:09, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

 * There should be a section on the payload, though, with the mention of NaN-boxing in particular (as on IEEE 754). Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 12:16, 17 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Added some stuff on NaN-boxing using Robert Nystorm's book on interpreters. Also added some words on canonical NaN, which commonly goes together with NaN-boxing: the system is already using the payload for something else, so you get fewer choices for the payload; in fact, why not just one "canonical" choice? Artoria2e5 🌉 03:51, 25 February 2024 (UTC)
 * "Canonical NaN" is already used by IEEE 754 to mean "canonical encoding of a NaN" (e.g. "isCanonical(x) is true if and only if x is a finite number, infinity, or NaN that is canonical." page 38, but also for totalOrder page 42). So "canonical NaN" should not be used on WP with a different meaning. I've added a Confusing template on this new "Canonical NaN" section. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 02:57, 26 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Good point! I have had several conversations in the past with CTOs of other products in the database field, and they all had the same view on NaNs for application usage: look OK on paper but no good in practice for CPU-intensive products or where cross-platform compatibility is important. The issue with a particular provider's chipsets differing from each other, and differing from the associated mathematics library, was under Solaris/SPARC. In principle, the old manuals could be cited but you'd need a range in order to make the points (I have only one copy). It's in the nature of commercial software development that you don't normally publish your problems or weaknesses so there won't be much written on this. This is probably an excellent example of wikipedia's policy being too much of a straightjacket, and not capturing the reality of the situation. Maybe you could use a different tack: it is clear (and documented) that encodings for the "canonical NaN" differ between different platforms -- making it hard to avoid them when defining encodings for application usage -- and also for the quiet/signalling convention. That should be enough to infer repercussions for s/w development. The performance differential -- which was probably at its worst on the DEC Alpha h/w -- is harder to cite. Is there any way that the main page can refer to the Talk page?TonyP (talk) 13:41, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

 * After searching, I found several reports on operand-dependent performance anomalies in FPUs. In particular, That’s Not Normal–the Performance of Odd Floats mentions "Even today, on a SandyBridge processor, the x87 FPU causes a slowdown of about 370 to one on NaNs and infinities". Other reports have mentioned "two orders of magnitude" difference. This supports my claims above, and hence the repercussions to FPU-intensive applications that need to use infinities or application-defined NaN states.TonyP (talk) 10:29, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
 * randomascii is a blog but judging by references to it elsewhere I believe it is admissible as written by an expert under WP:SELFSOURCE. Dmcq (talk) 10:43, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

Function definition - unclear sentence
In the Function definition section one sentence reads:

"The rationale for returning the value 1 for the indeterminate forms was that the value of functions at singular points can be taken as a particular value if that value is in the limit the value for all but a vanishingly small part of a ball around the limit value of the parameters."

Seems unclear to me, two comments: "if that value is in the limit the value" should that say "if that value is in the limit of the value"? Also what does "part of a ball around the limit value" mean please? John a s (talk) 16:51, 27 December 2021 (UTC)
 * I agree that this is unclear. And this needs a source, because this is not the rationale for ISO C. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 17:54, 27 December 2021 (UTC)
 * This mainly comes from change 345227754 done in 2010 by, saying: The IEEE 754 standard says that the value of functions at singular points can be taken as a particular value if that value is in the limit the value for all but a vanishingly small part of a ball around the parameters. But this does not seem to be true. I don't see where the IEEE 754 standard says anything like that. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 18:19, 27 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Ball is used for limits in the complex case. Otherwise I don't understand the question. Gah4 (talk) 18:22, 27 December 2021 (UTC)
 * The power function (used in the context) has 2 arguments. Hence the term "ball". — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 18:40, 27 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks, can you provide an example computer language and function where the term ball is used please? Sorry I'm not a computer programmer, and Google only gives me examples of how to model a physical ball. Also the word ball doesn't appear anywhere else in the NaN article, or the IEEE 754 article, or in the IEEE 754 spec itself. John a s (talk) 18:50, 28 December 2021 (UTC)
 * The term "ball" is used in Arb - a C library for arbitrary-precision ball arithmetic, for instance. This comes from the notion of ball in topological spaces. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 19:36, 28 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the clarification! I found this https://www.texmacs.org/joris/ball/ball.html explaining the use of balls quite helpful too. This just leaves my first comment about the sentence to be worked on.John a s (talk) 23:11, 28 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks, can you provide an example computer language and function where the term ball is used please? Sorry I'm not a computer programmer, and Google only gives me examples of how to model a physical ball. Also the word ball doesn't appear anywhere else in the NaN article, or the IEEE 754 article, or in the IEEE 754 spec itself. John a s (talk) 18:50, 28 December 2021 (UTC)
 * The term "ball" is used in Arb - a C library for arbitrary-precision ball arithmetic, for instance. This comes from the notion of ball in topological spaces. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 19:36, 28 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the clarification! I found this https://www.texmacs.org/joris/ball/ball.html explaining the use of balls quite helpful too. This just leaves my first comment about the sentence to be worked on.John a s (talk) 23:11, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

Comparison
I think the case NaN = NaN resulting in false should be mentioned at least. 132.199.174.208 (talk) 13:07, 10 January 2022 (UTC) where the compiler moves the SQRT, but not the test, outside the loop. Gah4 (talk) 23:57, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
 * It is in: NaN but written in a confusing way. Well, it almost makes sense if you read the article from top to bottom, but if you just wanted to know that, you could be surprised. The article pretty much covers the IEEE-754 version, though maybe there aren't others. Even more, using IEEE floating point format doesn't mean that an implementation follows all the IEEE rules, such as for NaN. Even more, though, one should be careful and use isNaN instead of a test for equality. An optimizing compiler might optimize the test away. Gah4 (talk) 19:45, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I've just partly rewritten this section to attempt to clarify. Note also that nowadays, compilers are normally aware of IEEE 754, thus do not optimize such tests unless told to do so. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 22:09, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Looks a lot better. I think I used to believe that ≠ also returned false, but I don't know that I ever saw it written either way. OPtimizers are always funny, though.  If you make it obvious enough, I hope they figure it out.  Otherwise, maybe not. Gah4 (talk) 23:38, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
 * My old favorite for optimizers comes from an actual IBM manual (50 years ago):
 * Looks a lot better. I think I used to believe that ≠ also returned false, but I don't know that I ever saw it written either way. OPtimizers are always funny, though.  If you make it obvious enough, I hope they figure it out.  Otherwise, maybe not. Gah4 (talk) 23:38, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
 * My old favorite for optimizers comes from an actual IBM manual (50 years ago):
 * My old favorite for optimizers comes from an actual IBM manual (50 years ago):

N/A
A recent edit summary mentions N/A. As well as I know, some statistics software uses NaN for what in statistics is N/A. For example, missing data in an input data set, as it was never measured. That should be different from NaN, and maybe other bits are used to distinguish them. Gah4 (talk) 07:08, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Perhaps, but the goal of the Distinguish template (removed by the edit in question) is "to point out to our readers the existence of one or more articles whose title(s) is, or are, similar to the page in question". So this is unrelated to the fact NaN can be used for N/A. The question is whether "NaN" is similar to "N/A", with a possible confusion by the reader. IMHO, there are more differences than similarities. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 00:05, 19 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:NaN


text:
Talk:San Francisco Municipal Railway

External links modified
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I have just modified 12 external links on San Francisco Municipal Railway. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080701202605/http://www.bart.gov/tickets/plus.aspx to http://www.bart.gov/tickets/plus.aspx
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110103194445/http://www.munidiaries.com/2010/01/01/fast-pass-fare-increase-today/ to http://www.munidiaries.com/2010/01/01/fast-pass-fare-increase-today/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110809170220/http://www.sfmta.com/cms/malerts/January2010Munifareincreases.htm to http://www.sfmta.com/cms/malerts/January2010Munifareincreases.htm
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080719235015/http://www.sfmta.com/cms/apress/GrandPrizeAPTAAdWheelAward.htm to http://www.sfmta.com/cms/apress/GrandPrizeAPTAAdWheelAward.htm
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150531012046/http://www.sfcta.org/sites/default/files/content/Planning/GearyCorridorBusRapidTransit/Fact_Sheets/GearyBRT_fact_sheet_082214.pdf to http://www.sfcta.org/sites/default/files/content/Planning/GearyCorridorBusRapidTransit/Fact_Sheets/GearyBRT_fact_sheet_082214.pdf

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Some proposed changes to fare information
CharlesBelovSFMTA (talk) 18:16, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Information to be added or removed: Replace “One fare entitles a rider to unlimited vehicle transfers for the next 90 to 120 minutes.” with “One fare entitles a rider to unlimited vehicle transfers within the allotted time period. All travel on the fare must be completed within 120 minutes.” or similar text that conveys the same meaning.
 * Explanation of issue: (1) Transfers are now based on 120 minutes, not the former 90 minutes. (2) The existing text implies that if a transfer occurs before the end of the 120-minute period that the fare-payer can continue riding past the end of the 120-minute period without paying an additional fare. That is not the case. The total elapsed time between purchasing the fare and completing travel must be 120 minutes or less to be within the fare policy.
 * References supporting change: https://www.sfmta.com/fares/single-ride-adult, https://www.sfmta.com/fares/single-ride-discount, https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/reports-and-documents/2018/08/fare_policy_18.0816.pdf

Reply 25-FEB-2019
 Spintendo   19:45, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Still has incorrect information
The correction to 120 minutes was implemented, thank you. However, it still reads that unlimited transfers are available for that period, while the actual case is that unlimited travel is available for that period. If someone transfers just before the 120 minutes expire, they cannot continue riding past the 120-minute mark without paying an additional fare. CharlesBelovSFMTA (talk) 21:28, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

 * I've indicated that in the Notes section.  Spintendo   22:46, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

 * I'm sorry, I missed that. Thank you. CharlesBelovSFMTA (talk) 23:15, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Incorrect logo shown
The logo shown appears to be an attempt by someone to recreate the Muni logo as an SVG file, but the curves are wrong. Please replace with the correct logo, which I have uploaded to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Muni_worm_logo.png CharlesBelovSFMTA (talk) 00:44, 24 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Can you provide an SVG version (or a link to a PDF document that I could extract an SVG version from)? Or alternately, a diagram showing proper dimensions and color for the logo, so that I can modify the current file? There is no sense using a small PNG image with a false copyright claim when we can use an SVG with proper public domain claim. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 02:37, 24 May 2019 (UTC)
 * WP:LOGOS states "Logos uploaded to Wikipedia must be low-resolution and no larger than necessary." If I were to upload an SVG logo, it would be resolution-independent, which would violate that policy. CharlesBelovSFMTA (talk) 20:31, 24 May 2019 (UTC)

Reply 25-MAY-2019

 * The current version of the logo, an svg file:

 * The proposed version of the logo, a png file:

The licensing provided with the current svg version is valid. The licensing provided with the proposed png version is incomplete. Thus, the file that is the proposed version is currently slated for deletion, which will likely occur anytime after Saturday, June 1, 2019 if no further clarifications to its licensing are added to the file.

Regards, Spintendo  20:11, 25 May 2019 (UTC)

Muni shares four Metro stations with BART (how is this counted?)
This statement has no citation, and it's unclear how this count was arrived at. Muni Metro shares four stations with BART in the Market Street subway -- Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, and Civic Center -- but the J, K, and M lines connect with BART at Balboa Park station.

In my personal experience it's very confusing to transfer between BART and Muni Metro at Balboa Park, but is there some reason this station is seemingly omitted from the number of stations shared with BART? — Preceding unsigned comment added by MrEricSir (talk • contribs) 14:28, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:San Francisco Municipal Railway


text:
Minnie the Minx

Minnie the Minx, whose real name is Hermione Makepeace is a comic strip character published in the British comic magazine The Beano. Created and originally drawn by Leo Baxendale, she first appeared in issue 596, dated 19 December 1953, making her the third longest running Beano character behind Dennis the Menace and Roger the Dodger.

Like Desperate Dan from The Dandy, she has a statue in Dundee. In 2021, Minnie the Minx featured on a commemorative UK postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail to mark 70 years of Dennis the Menace.

Leo Baxendale strips (1953–1962)
Minnie the Minx, created and drawn by Leo Baxendale, first appeared in The Beano in December 1953. Her first strip introduced her as "wild as wild can be" and showed her exasperated mother attempting to get her to be more creative rather than fight. Taking a book, Minnie then proceeds to beat her classmates during a revenge scheme using the scrapbook as a weapon. The closing panel shows her thanking her mother for the scrapbook stating she has "won nine scraps with it." Most of Minnie's earlier strips consisted of six-panel boxes; however, as her popularity grew, it quickly became more plausible to give Minnie her own full page with added colour. This introduced her trademark flaming red hair and red and black jersey. Like many other Beano stars at the time, many of her later strips showed Minnie to get her comeuppance towards the end be it a cane, slipper or simply a case of karma. Minnie also appeared alongside Dennis the Menace in his own strip in the edition of 23 January 1954 of The Beano. In the strip, she swapped toys with Dennis for the day as she received his trusty catapult and he proceeded to 'menace' with her doll's pram. In the end, she got out of trouble scot free whilst Dennis had to suffer for all her minxing. It was possibly this that began their future eternal rivalry.

Jim Petrie strips (1962–2001)
In 1962, when Baxendale left D.C. Thomson, a new artist was taken on to continue Minnie's adventures. Young art teacher Jim Petrie was given the opportunity. His first strip, coincidentally, started similarly to Baxendale's in that Minnie is seen being asked by her mother to read rather than minx. Much to her mother's dismay, Minnie's chosen book influences her to take up red Indian traditions in which she gets up to much mischief. In the end, however, after aggravating a sleeping bull, Minnie is caught by a farmer and taken home to be slippered by her father. Despite the pain, it appears Minnie still attempts to ensure to the public that she is still an Indian stating her name is 'Minnie – Ha!'. She appeared once again alongside Dennis in issue 1894, in which she states that Dennis' famous jersey is actually her trademark, so he has no right to call them 'Dennis Jerseys'.

The Beano's 50th Anniversary issue in 1988 was significant, as an increase in the number of colour pages in the comic led to Minnie appearing in full colour for the first time. In the strip itself, Minnie dressed up as Pansy Potter in compliance with the editor's wishes. Throughout the strip she attempts impossible feats in hope to appear just like Pansy. This even consists of attempting to sink war submarines, something the old character used to do during The Beano's war times. Despite the fact she is weaker than Pansy, Minnie does manage to withhold four sailors before they finally manage to catch her and tie her up leaving her before her father. However, previously she had filled her father's jumper with balloons and using Pansy's unique hairstyle, manages to burst the balloons causing her father to flee home in the nude, the thought of punishing his daughter forgotten.

Minnie also made a cameo in the 1992 Beano Annual story, "Dennis Through The Beano Book", in which she played the Queen of Hearts. She has also been the star of several Beanotown pantomimes, playing the role of Cinderella in each.

With the turn of the new century, Minnie was featured in a feature-length strip alongside Dennis the Menace, Roger the Dodger and The Bash Street Kids. The plot revolved around treasure which was apparently buried sometime near the end of the 19th century. Minnie was called over to Dennis' house by Roger who had gained a copy of the Treasure Map due to Smiffy, the dipsy member of The Bash Street Kids, leaving the original in the photocopier machine in Beanotown Library. Upon finding out The Bash Street Kids were also hunting for the treasure, the trio followed them to London. Once the mystery had unfolded that the treasure was buried deep in the Millennium Dome, the Bash Street Kids instantly found it and celebrated their victory. However, Dennis attempts to intimidate the treasure off Fatty but he quickly flattened leaving Minnie and Roger to chase after Danny, who had just run off with the treasure. Finding him hiding in a storage cupboard, Roger forms a plan to get Danny to duel with Dennis for the treasure. Whilst all seems fair at first, it is quickly discovered that the three menaces had no intent on fair play when it comes to treasure and it is revealed that Roger had in fact tied Danny's catapult to a piece of string, thus yanking it away at a pinnacle moment. Appearing to have won, the trio leave a humiliated Danny and head home. However, a plot quickly unravels that Roger wasn't the only one who was intent on unfair play. Danny had switched the treasure with pebbles whilst he was hiding in the storage cupboard. Alongside Dennis, Minnie chased Roger through the streets of Beanotown, giving Danny the opportunity to switch the treasure.

Minnie also attended Dennis the Menace's 50th Birthday House Party. Like the other guests, Minnie bought Dennis a Beano Annual 2001. She participated in all menacing party games but, due to her friendship with Dennis, she was one of few to not get menaced. She can also be seen fighting in the final food fight and twirling her beret when the celebrities and Dandy characters arrive.

Petrie decided to retire, with his final strip appearing on 13 January 2001. The story consisted of Minnie meeting her former artist and bidding farewell. The strip was Petrie's 2000th and last, a tally for one artist drawing the same strip in the Beano, only surpassed by David Sutherland on the Bash Street Kids.

Tom Paterson strips (2001–2008)
The following week, Calamity James artist Tom Paterson took over the strip, adding his own distinct trademarks and ideas on Minnie's canon. In 2003, Brain Duane from The Dandy visited Beanotown and proceeded to mock Minnie for her lack of intelligence. Choosing brawn over brains and fuelled with jealousy over Duane's new gadget-filled car, Minnie threatened Duane into making her a custom-built skateboard. The next week, after asking to meet Dennis she proceeds to minx him with her new weapon-filled vehicle. This causes Dennis to get his revenge the next week with his own Menace Buggy. It was revealed in succeeding issues that this, along with several other strips from around the same time, was a buildup to a brand new PC Game Beanotown Racing. She appeared as a playable character in the video game upon its release date in 2003.

Initially Paterson drew the vast majority of strips, with the occasional story drawn by Keith Reynolds, but, by 2003, other artists, such as Leslie Reavey, began to ghost the strip due to Tom Paterson's workload. Through 2004 and 2005, ghosted strips became increasingly common, and eventually, in early 2006, Steve Horrocks took up the artistic duties. However, in the autumn of that year, Paterson returned to the strip, but in a different style, the most notable change being that Minnie's Parents appeared to look very similar to those of Sweeney Toddler. The following year, Tom Paterson's style changed again, and the changes made to her parents were largely reversed, although Minnie's Dad's moustache was still absent. In October 2007, Minnie's jumper changed colour from her familiar black and red stripes to red and yellow, with her skirt also changing from black to blue. This style was also seen on the cover of the 1965 Beano book.

Ken Harrison strips (2008–2012)

By 2007, Minnie was struggling in the readers' poll and, in early 2008, several significant changes were made in response to this. Iain McLaughlin took over as writer and, in Beano issue 3422, dated 15 March 2008, former Desperate Dan artist Ken Harrison took over as the strip's artist. Harrison re-introduced many aspects of Leo Baxendale's original depiction of the character and reverted her jumper to its original colours. However, the style of writing changed, with McLaughlin placing greater emphasis on the relationship between Minnie and her Dad. Some minor changes were made to her appearances, with her standard brown or grey school shoes replaced with the more modern trainers. A new tagline was introduced, citing Minnie as the World's Wildest Tom Boy, similar to Dennis the Menace's original tagline of being the World's Wildest Boy. Minnie's Teacher also became a regular character during this time, and Minnie now attends what appears to be an all-girls school. The changes reinvigorated the strip as Minnie soon returned to a top four position in the poll.

Although Harrison has been the main artist throughout this time, when he has been unavailable to draw the strip, the main ghost artist has been Laura Howell. Since 2009, occasional Jim Petrie reprints have been used, particularly during the postal strikes in autumn 2009.

In the summer of 2010, Minnie began a quest for fame which received a lot of media attention in the UK. Cheryl Cole, who was spotted sporting a red and black dress in her music video, was featured as well as Wayne Rooney and Jamie Oliver. Each attempt landed Minnie in more trouble than the last so, in her final strip, she decided to give up the search for fame and instead continue her day-to-day minxing.

On 30 July 2011, Minnie and several of her Beano co-stars were a part of a UK advertising campaign for National Trust. This included a special of The Beano which included a comic strip of her and her father exploring Northern Ireland for Finn McCool and the Giant's Causeway.

In November 2012, Minnie loses her second page as it is reserved for Funsize Funnies (Gnash Gnews, Little Plum, Winston and Rasher)

Current Strips (2012–present)
Ken Harrison drew his last Minnie the Minx strip in November 2012, drawing the first Minnie story reduced down to a single page. The week after, Nigel Parkinson took over and both wrote and drew the strip from then on. He confirmed that he was the new Minnie artist some months later, on his blog. For the 75th anniversary special, Minnie the Minx met Andy Murray in a tennis battle. Minnie also met Harry Hill, Jeremy Clarkson and Matt Smith (plus others) in the 2013 Comic Relief special. During Parkinson's time he tried to surprise the readers by never following a script template and allowing Minnie's character to dictate storylines. In 2013, Minnie stories went back up to two pages, with Nigel Parkinson and Paul Palmer and, later in 2015, Cavan Scott writing the scripts.

Laura Howell, the first woman to draw Minnie, is the current artist, first appearing as Minnie's 65th Year in the comic approached. As of April 4, 2021, her work has appeared in 127 Beano issues.

Personality traits
Minnie is known as a typical tomboy, preferring mischievous and violent antics over those that would be normal for a typical ten-year-old girl. As opposed to Dennis' boisterous menacing methods, Minnie favours a more impish style of causing trouble which she refers to as 'minxing'. Despite this, she is still keen to get into brawls much like her other fellow Beano characters. She also seems to have a distinct hatred for snob-like behaviour and spoilt children. Minnie can be deemed as hyperactive as evident in several strips which show her destroying furniture in her home or a shop whilst playing one of her games. She also considers herself to be a rebel citing she hates people telling her what to do.

Rivalries and friendships
Minnie has had a problem with many of her neighbours. One example is a baby called Delilah, who had a snob of a mother. She got Minnie plenty of punishments, including extra baths. Minnie defeated her by tricking her into eating a frighteningly hot curry and embarrassing her mother. The mother had just entered Delilah in a baby contest. The curry effect on Delilah happened at the time her boastful mother had arranged for a journalist to take her photo. Her mother was similar to another mother called "Mrs Proudpants" who was boasting about her baby who she said was sure to win the contest, just like Delilah's mother. She also appears to have a small rivalry with The Bash Street Kids, as shown in feature-length strips drawn by Mike Pearse. However, she seems to be on friendly terms with the female member, Toots.

Minnie, like most characters, is depicted as a loner; however, she is shown to have a friendship with Dennis the Menace and Roger the Dodger, often seen teaming up with them in crossovers and occasionally with them in the background. Some strips have even hinted at her having a crush on Dennis and a flash-forward in the Beano Annual of 2006 revealed that Dennis and Minnie eventually get married, though the canonicity of this story is debatable and the two have yet to pursue a romantic interest in one another in the regular strips. This was retconned however, as the two of them are now cousins.

Minnie's family
Like most DC Thomson characters, Minnie's parents are not normally mentioned by name and are referred to simply as Minnie's dad and Minnie's mum. However, in issue 2258 (dated 26 October 1985), her dad reveals that his name is 'Victor'. In a later issue, one of his colleagues addresses him as 'Mr Minx'. In the Beano Videostars, his boss says that Minnie's Dad's name is George. In one issue, Dennis' Dad calls him Malcom. Whether any of these names can be considered 'official' is unclear. As of 2021, the Beano website states that her parents are named Darren and Vicky Makepeace, and that Vicky is the older sister of Sandra Menace, making Dennis and Minnie cousins.

Chester is Minnie's pet cat. Chester has occasionally been seen in separate strips alongside fellow feline Beano characters Dodgecat (Roger the Dodger's pet cat) and Winston (from the Bash Street Kids).

Other children
Soppy Susan, a character similar to Walter the Softy but a girl. The character appeared during Jim Petrie's time as the artist and has recently returned to the strip, as well as appearing in the 2015 Beano annual.

The Haarm twins, two twins who often tease Minnie but usually end up being beaten up by her. The characters began appearing in the 2000s and appear irregularly.

Skippy Simmy, a new character who is Minnie's best friend, introduced on November 2, 2021. He goes to Posh Street School in Beanotown, attending sixth grade.

Frederick "Fatty" Fudge, as his name suggests, is a fat child. He is also sometimes called upon to assist Minnie in a particularly elaborate plot since his services can always be bought with a bag of sweets. He was briefly the subject of a spin-off strip in the early 1990s that parodied famous films, usually in ways involving the character's love of food (examples including 'You Only Eat Rice' and '20,000 Leeks Under The Sea').

Other characters
PC Thyme is a policeman similar to Dennis the Menace's Sergeant Slipper but this character pre-dates him. This character like the aforementioned Soppy Susan mainly appeared during Jim Petrie's time as artist however a similar character appeared during Tom Paterson's time as the Minnie artist called PC Pimple this character was similar to PC Thyme but as the name suggests had pimples.

Minnie's Teacher is as the name suggests Minnie's teacher this character is one of the newest recurring characters in the strip only appearing since Ken Harrison took over as the artist. It was revealed in Issue 3636 that she was 31.

Reception and legacy
Since her debut in 1953, Minnie has been hallowed as a national treasure amongst British children for generations. Long considered one of the readers' favourite characters, she was created during what many fans feel is the Beano's golden age where other famous characters, such as Dennis the Menace and Roger the Dodger, were created. Alongside the Dandy's Desperate Dan, she was given her own statue in Dundee in 2001 (part of the Dundee Public Art Programme). She was also featured in the line-up of McDonald's happy meal toys in Britain and has several models and figurines. As well as featuring on much of the Beano Merchandise, such as T-shirts and figures, Minnie is often featured in the comic's countless spin-offs such as videos, annuals and video games.

Videos

 * Minnie appeared in the direct to video release The Beano Video in 1993, alongside other famous Beano characters. It was re-titled 'The Beano All-Stars' when ported onto DVD. Minnie was voiced by Susan Sheridan. It was aired on ITV.
 * Minnie was also included in the direct to Video release The Beano Videostars in 1994. In the film, the Beano stars were invited to a premiere of an all-new Beano feature getting up to mischief along the way. Minnie was voiced by Nicola Stapleton. It was aired on ITV.

Video games

 * Minnie is a playable character in Beanotown Racing using her customised skateboard as a vehicle.

Theme parks

 * Minnie was a Meet & Greet character in the Beano Land section in Chessington World of Adventures from its opening in 2000 until it was re-furbished into Wild Asia in 2009. Her silhouette could be seen alongside other characters in the main entrance and her image was posted around different areas of the land. She was also featured on the trademark water fountain which would spray water at unsuspecting guests at random intervals.

TV Show
In 2018, it was announced that Minnie would appear in her own live-action TV show, called The Magnificent Misadventures of Minnie written by Danielle Ward. As of 2024, the show has not been released, presumed cancelled.

title: Minnie the Minx


text:
Mastering (audio)

Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication). In recent years, digital masters have become usual, although analog masters—such as audio tapes—are still being used by the manufacturing industry, particularly by a few engineers who specialize in analog mastering.

Mastering requires critical listening; however, software tools exist to facilitate the process. Results depend upon the intent of the engineer, their skills, the accuracy of the speaker monitors, and the listening environment. Mastering engineers often apply equalization and dynamic range compression in order to optimize sound translation on all playback systems. It is standard practice to make a copy of a master recording—known as a safety copy—in case the master is lost, damaged or stolen.

Pre-1940s
In the earliest days of the recording industry, all phases of the recording and mastering process were entirely achieved by mechanical processes. Performers sang or played into a large acoustic horn and the master recording was created by the direct transfer of acoustic energy from the diaphragm of the recording horn to the mastering lathe, typically located in an adjoining room. The cutting head, driven by the energy transferred from the horn, inscribed a modulated groove into the surface of a rotating cylinder or disc. These masters were usually made from either a soft metal alloy or from wax; this gave rise to the colloquial term waxing, referring to the cutting of a record.

After the introduction of the microphone and electronic amplifier in the mid-1920s, the mastering process became electro-mechanical, and electrically driven mastering lathes came into use for cutting master discs (the cylinder format by then having been superseded). Until the introduction of tape recording, master recordings were almost always cut direct-to-disc. Only a small minority of recordings were mastered using previously recorded material sourced from other discs.

Emergence of magnetic tape
In the late 1940s, the recording industry was revolutionized by the introduction of magnetic tape. Magnetic tape was invented for recording sound by Fritz Pfleumer in 1928 in Germany, based on the invention of magnetic wire recording by Valdemar Poulsen in 1898. Not until the end of World War II could the technology be found outside Europe. The introduction of magnetic tape recording enabled master discs to be cut separately in time and space from the actual recording process.

Although tape and other technical advances dramatically improved the audio quality of commercial recordings in the post-war years, the basic constraints of the electro-mechanical mastering process remained, and the inherent physical limitations of the main commercial recording media—the 78 rpm disc and later the 7-inch 45 rpm single and 33-1/3 rpm LP record—meant that the audio quality, dynamic range, and running time of master discs were still limited compared to later media such as the compact disc.

Electro-mechanical mastering process
From the 1950s until the advent of digital recording in the late 1970s, the mastering process typically went through several stages. Once the studio recording on multi-track tape was complete, a final mix was prepared and dubbed down to the master tape, usually either a single-track mono or two-track stereo tape. Prior to the cutting of the master disc, the master tape was often subjected to further electronic treatment by a specialist mastering engineer.

After the advent of tape it was found that, especially for pop recordings, master recordings could be made so that the resulting record would sound better. This was done by making fine adjustments to the amplitude of sound at different frequency bands (equalization) prior to the cutting of the master disc.

In large recording companies such as EMI, the mastering process was usually controlled by specialist staff technicians who were conservative in their work practices. These big companies were often reluctant to make changes to their recording and production processes. For example, EMI was very slow in taking up innovations in multi-track recording and did not install 8-track recorders in their Abbey Road Studios until the late 1960s, more than a decade after the first commercial 8-track recorders were installed by American independent studios.

Digital technology
In the 1990s, electro-mechanical processes were largely superseded by digital technology, with digital recordings stored on hard disk drives or digital tape and mastered to CD. The digital audio workstation (DAW) became common in many mastering facilities, allowing the off-line manipulation of recorded audio via a graphical user interface (GUI). Although many digital processing tools are common during mastering, it is also very common to use analog media and processing equipment for the mastering stage. Just as in other areas of audio, the benefits and drawbacks of digital technology compared to analog technology are still a matter for debate. However, in the field of audio mastering, the debate is usually over the use of digital versus analog signal processing rather than the use of digital technology for storage of audio.

Digital systems have higher performance and allow mixing to be performed at lower maximum levels. When mixing to 24-bits with peaks between −3 and −10 dBFS on a mix, the mastering engineer has enough headroom to process and produce a final master. Mastering engineers recommend leaving enough headroom on the mix to avoid distortion. The reduction of dynamics by the mix or mastering engineer has resulted in a loudness war in commercial recordings.

Process
The source material, ideally at the original resolution, is processed using equalization, compression, limiting and other processes. Additional operations, such as editing, specifying the gaps between tracks, adjusting level, fading in and out, noise reduction and other signal restoration and enhancement processes can also be applied as part of the mastering stage. The source material is put in the proper order, commonly referred to as assembly (or 'track') sequencing. These operations prepare the music for either digital or analog, e.g. vinyl, replication.

If the material is destined for vinyl release, additional processing, such as dynamic range reduction or frequency-dependent stereo–to–mono fold-down and equalization may be applied to compensate for the limitations of that medium. For compact disc release, start of track, end of track, and indexes are defined for playback navigation along with International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) and other information necessary to replicate a CD. Vinyl LP and cassettes have their own pre-duplication requirements for a finished master. Subsequently, it is rendered either to a physical medium, such as a CD-R or DVD-R, or to computer files, such as a Disc Description Protocol (DDP) file set or an ISO image. Regardless of what delivery method is chosen, the replicator factory will transfer the audio to a glass master that will generate metal stampers for replication.

The process of audio mastering varies depending on the specific needs of the audio to be processed. Mastering engineers need to examine the types of input media, the expectations of the source producer or recipient, the limitations of the end medium and process the subject accordingly. General rules of thumb can rarely be applied.

Steps of the process typically include the following:
 * 1) Transferring the recorded audio tracks into the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
 * 2) Sequence the separate songs or tracks  as they will appear on the final release
 * 3) Adjust the length of the silence between songs
 * 4) Process or sweeten audio to maximize the sound quality for the intended medium (e.g. applying specific EQ for vinyl)
 * 5) Transfer the audio to the final master format (CD-ROM, half-inch reel tape, PCM 1630 U-matic tape, etc.)

Examples of possible actions taken during mastering:
 * 1) Editing minor flaws
 * 2) Applying noise reduction to eliminate clicks, dropouts, hum and hiss
 * 3) Adjusting stereo width
 * 4) Equalize audio across tracks for the purpose of optimized frequency distribution
 * 5) Adjust volume
 * 6) Dynamic range compression or expansion
 * 7) Peak limit
 * 8) Inserting ISRC codes and CD text
 * 9) Arranging tracks in their final sequential order
 * 10) Fading out the ending of each song
 * 11) Dither

Engineer
A mastering engineer is a person skilled in the practice of taking audio (typically musical content) that has been previously mixed in either the analogue or digital domain as mono, stereo, or multichannel formats and preparing it for use in distribution, whether by physical media such as a CD, vinyl record, or as some method of streaming audio.

Education and experience
The mastering engineer is responsible for a final edit of a product and preparation for manufacturing copies. Although there are no official requirements to work as an audio mastering engineer, practitioners often have comprehensive domain knowledge of audio engineering, and in many cases, may hold an audio or acoustic engineering degree. Most audio engineers master music or speech audio material. The best mastering engineers might possess arrangement and production skills, allowing them to "trouble-shoot" mix issues and improve the final sound. Generally, good mastering skills are based on experience, resulting from many years of practice.

Equipment
Generally, mastering engineers use a combination of specialized audio-signal processors, low-distortion-high-bandwidth loudspeakers (and corresponding amplifiers with which to drive them), within a dedicated, acoustically-optimized playback environment. The equipment and processors used within the field of mastering are almost entirely dedicated to the purpose; engineered to a high standard, often possessing low signal-to-noise ratios [at nominal operating levels] and in many cases, the incorporation of parameter-recall, such as indented potentiometers, or in some more-sophisticated designs, via a digital-controller. Some advocates for digital software claim that plug-ins are capable of processing audio in a mastering context, though without the same degree of signal degradation as those introduced from processors within the analogue domain. The quality of the results varies according to the algorithms used within these processors, which in some cases, can introduce distortions entirely exclusive to the digital domain.

Real-time analyzers, phase oscilloscopes, and also peak, RMS, VU and K meters are frequently used within the audio analysis stage of the process as a means of rendering a visual representation of the audio, or signal, being analysed.

Aspects of their work
Most mastering engineer accolades are given for their ability to make a mix consistent with respect to subjective factors based on the perception of listeners, regardless of their playback systems and the environment. This is a difficult task due to the varieties of systems now available and the effect it has on the apparent qualitative attributes of the recording. For instance, a recording that sounds great on one speaker/amplifier combination playing CD audio, may sound drastically different on a computer-based system playing back a low-bitrate MP3. Some engineers maintain that the main mastering engineer's task is to improve upon playback systems translations while the position of others is to make a sonic impact.

Prolonged periods of listening to improperly mastered recordings usually leads to hearing fatigue that ultimately takes the pleasure out of the listening experience.

Notable audio mastering engineers

 * Brad Blackwood
 * Greg Calbi
 * Tony Dawsey
 * P. A. Deepak
 * Brian Gardner
 * Chris Gehringer
 * Kevin Gray
 * Bernie Grundman
 * Steve Hoffman
 * Ted Jensen
 * Bob Katz
 * Heba Kadry
 * Emily Lazar
 * Bob Ludwig
 * Stephen Marcussen
 * George Marino
 * Randy Merrill
 * Mandy Parnell
 * George "Porky" Peckham
 * Eric Pillai
 * Shadab Rayeen
 * Doug Sax
 * H. Sridhar
 * Ray Staff
 * Rudy Van Gelder
 * Howie Weinberg
 * Leon Zervos

title: Mastering (audio)


text:
Widow

A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died and has usually not remarried. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word can sometimes be found on older gravestones. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men.

The term widowhood can be used for either sex, at least according to some dictionaries, but the word widowerhood is also listed in some dictionaries. Occasionally, the word viduity is used. The adjective for either sex is widowed. These terms are not applied to a divorcé(e) following the death of an ex-spouse.

Effects on health
The phenomenon that refers to the increased mortality rate after the death of a spouse is called the widowhood effect. It is "strongest during the first three months after a spouse's death, when they had a 66-percent increased chance of dying". There remains controversy over whether women or men are worse off, and studies have attempted to make each case, while others suggest there are no sex differences.

While it is disputed as to whether sex plays a part in the intensity of grief, sex often influences how a person's lifestyle changes after a spouse's death. Research has shown that the difference falls in the burden of care, expectations, and how they react after the spouse's death. For example, women often carry more of an emotional burden than men and are less willing to go through the death of another spouse. After being widowed, men and women may react very differently and frequently change their lifestyles. Women tend to miss their husbands more if they died suddenly; men tend to miss their wives more if they died after suffering a long terminal illness. In addition, both men and women have been observed to experience lifestyle habit changes after the death of a spouse. Both sexes tend to have a harder time looking after themselves without their spouse to help, though these changes may differ based on the sex of the widow and the role the spouse played in their life.

The older spouses grow, the more aware they are of being alone due to the death of their husband or wife. This negatively impacts the mental as well as physical well-being in both men and women.

Mourning practices
In some parts of Europe and Latin America, including Russia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Mexico, widows used to wear black for the rest of their lives to signify their mourning, a practice that has largely died out. Orthodox Christian immigrants may wear lifelong black in the United States to signify their widowhood and devotion to their deceased husband.

After the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856 in India, the status of widowhood for Hindu women was accompanied by a body symbolism - The widow's head was shaved as part of her mourning, she could no longer wear a red dot sindoor on her forehead, was forbidden to wear wedding jewellery, had to keep her bosoms uncovered and was expected to walk barefoot. These customs are mostly considered backward but still prevalent among Hindus.

In some parts of South Asia, a woman is often accused of causing her husband's death and is not allowed to look at another person as her gaze is considered bad luck.

Some Nigerians prefer a widow to drink the water her dead husband's body was washed in, or otherwise sleep next to her husband's grave for three days.

In the folklore of Chiloé of southern Chile, widows and black cats are important elements that are needed when hunting for the treasure of the carbunclo.

Economic position
In societies where the husband is the sole provider, his death can leave his family destitute. The tendency for women generally to outlive men can compound this.

The Bible has written several commandments about caring for the widow, the prohibition against harming her and the duty to make her happy during the holidays, for example: "Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns".(Hebrew Bible, Book of Deuteronomy 16:14)

In 19th-century Britain, widows had greater opportunity for social mobility than in many other societies. Along with the ability to ascend socio-economically, widows—who were "presumably celibate"—were much more able (and likely) to challenge conventional sexual behaviour than married women in their society.

It may be necessary for a woman to comply with the social customs of her area because her fiscal stature depends on it, but this custom is also often abused by others as a way to keep money within the deceased spouse's family. It is also uncommon for widows to challenge their treatment because they are often "unaware of their rights under the modern law…because of their low status, and lack of education or legal representation.". Unequal benefits and treatment generally received by widows compared to those received by widowers globally has spurred an interest in the issue by human rights activists. During the HIV pandemic, which particularly hit gay communities, companions of deceased men had little recourse in estate court against the deceased’s family. Not yet able to have been legally married the term widower was not considered socially acceptable. This situation was usually blessed with an added stigma being attached to the surviving man.

As of 2004, women in United States who were widowed younger are at greater economic hardship risk. Married women who are in a financially unstable household are more likely to become widows "because of the strong relationship between mortality [of the male head] and wealth [of the household]." In underdeveloped and developing areas of the world, conditions for widows continue to be much more severe. The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (ratified by 135 countries) while slow, is working on proposals which will make certain types of discrimination and treatment of widows (such as violence and withholding property rights) illegal in the countries that have joined CEDAW.

In the United States, Social Security offers a Survivor's Benefit to qualified people once for a loss through their 50th birthday after which a second marriage may be considered when applying for benefits. The maximum still remains the same but here the survivor has options between accessing their earned benefits or one of their qualifying late spouses at chosen intervals to maximize the increased benefits for delaying a filing (i.e. at age 63 claim husband one's reduced benefit, then husband two's full amount at 67 and your own enhanced benefit at 68).

Sexual violence
In parts of Africa, such as Kenya, widows are viewed as impure and in need of cleansing. This often requires having sex with someone. Those refusing to be cleansed risk getting beaten by superstitious villagers, who may also harm the woman and her late husband's children. It is argued that this notion arose from the idea that if a husband dies, the woman may have performed witchcraft against him.

Use of widows in harem has been recorded in Ancient Egypt, medieval Europe, and Islamic empires.

Ritual killing
Sati was a practice in South Asia where a woman would immolate herself upon her husband's death. These practices were outlawed in 1827 in British India and again in 1987 in independent India by the Sati Prevention Act, which made it illegal to support, glorify or attempt to commit sati. Support of sati, including coercing or forcing someone to commit sati, can be punished by the death sentence or life imprisonment, while glorifying sati is punishable with one to seven years in prison.

The people of Fiji practised widow-strangling. When Fijians adopted Christianity, widow-strangling was abandoned.

Witch hunts
Those likely to be accused and killed as witches, such as in Papua New Guinea, are often widows.

Forced remarriage
Widow inheritance (also known as bride inheritance) is a cultural and social practice whereby a widow is required to marry a male relative of her late husband, often his brother.

Banned remarriage
The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856, enacted in response to the campaign of the reformer Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, to encourage widow remarriage and provided legal safeguards against loss of certain forms of inheritance for remarrying a Hindu widow, though, under the Act, the widow forsook any inheritance due her from her deceased husband.

Social stigma in Joseon Korea required that widows remain unmarried after their husbands' death. In 1477, Seongjong of Joseon enacted the Widow Remarriage Law, which strengthened pre-existing social constraints by barring the sons of widows who remarried from holding public office. In 1489, Seongjong condemned a woman of the royal clan, Yi Guji, when it was discovered that she had cohabited with her slave after being widowed. More than 40 members of her household were arrested and her lover was tortured to death.

Theft
In some parts of the world, such as Zimbabwe, the property of widows, such as land, is often taken away by her in-laws. While illegal, since most marriages are conducted under customary law and not registered, redressing the issue of property grabbing is complicated.

title: Widow