text:
Talk:Radio propagation

plus the horizon distance corresponding to the height of the receiver antenna (with adjustments if the terrain is not flat).

Why removed? - Patrick 12:37 18 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Conduction?
Radio propagation is *influenced* by the conductive properties of the earth and ionosphere but does not rely on them. Radio waves propagate through a vacuum without movement of charge carriers.--Wtshymanski 20:37, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Radio propagation is made by electrical conduction through a transmission medium. On the earth, electrical conduction in a media. In space, it is a vacuum. JDR 20:46, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

 * No, you are mistaken. Radio propagation does not occur by electrical conduction. In particular, when radio waves or light or any other EM radiation propagate in a vacuum there are no charge carriers moving, as Wtshymanski said. It's a little more complicated when a wave propagates through a medium, since then electrons in the medium do move in response to the wave, and this affects the propagation of the wave. The electrons do not, however, propagate along with the wave—they move perpendicularly to the direction of wave propagation. Fundamentally, propagation of EM waves is not an electrical conduction phenomenon. --Srleffler 22:49, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Precisely. You can't see down a copper wire, for example. --Wtshymanski 03:44, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Cleaned up the topics on troposcatter, meteor scatter, and diffraction, adding more generic descriptions of all three. Added separate category for meteor scatter. --Highsand 23:32, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I think this article needs a bit of work - I'll just mention one sentence that jumped out at me.

"The far-field magnitudes of the electric and magnetic field components of electromagnetic radiation are equal,and their field strengths are inversely proportional to distance."

To me this is a nonsense sentence. How are A/m and V/m equal? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.63.206.237 (talk) 23:44, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Agree, it makes no sense, nor is it relevant to the context. I have never really read this article until you brought that up. The equation adds nothing but 'intimidation'. The first paragraph is repetitious and self contradicting. This article is in need of attention, I wish I had nothing else to do right now. John 05:47, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect Nerdseeksblonde (talk) 01:47, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

VSWR
I have to disagree that doubling the distance from the transmitter means the signal strength is reduced to (exactly) one quarter - the same cannot inherently be true in radio signal propagation - being that electromagnetic transmission is subject to the same velocity constraints as the speed of light (providing no distortion) - radio signal strength (VSWR) and distance (distortion) go hand in hand with power signal integrity - therefore transmission is reduced to "NEARLY" one quarter. --Lperez2029 23:06, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

 * It sounds like most of that whole paragraph was lifted from a textbook of some description, see my edit below. MonstaPro 03:08, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Underwater propagation
It would be good to have some information about radio propagation through other media than Earth's atmosphere, in particular submarine radio propagation. 131.111.8.103 15:05, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Inverse-square law, format of
Thought I'd rearrange it so the mathematical formula is easier to read. MonstaPro 03:08, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

 * Also added link to Google Maps as paradigm of increased stability in satellite links (yes, this occasionally conjecturous!). MonstaPro 03:15, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

 * What does Google Maps have to do with satellite link stability? --Drizzd 09:04, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Signal strength(?) vs. field strength
(I first asked this over at Watt, but it was suggested that this might be a better venue P=)

Ignoring gains, losses and free-space loss for the moment, field strength is typically defined as $$\scriptstyle{V/m=\frac{V}{4\pi\,m}=\sqrt{\frac{4\pi 30W}{4\pi\,m^2}}=\frac{\sqrt{30W}}{m}\,\!}$$ or $$\scriptstyle{W/m^2=\frac{W}{4\pi\,m^2}.\,\!}$$ I realize field strength defines the surface area of a "power sphere" (inversely, $$\scriptstyle{W=\frac{W}{m^2}4\pi\,m^2\,\!}$$), but when attempting to define the strength of a signal at a receiver's input point (i.e., antenna connection point), isn't the situation like a ball resting on a flat surface?:  The ball's contact to the surface is only at a single point (or very small surface area around the point), not the whole surface area of the ball, thus the more relevant measurement is the "strength/intensity" of the radius <touching the flat surface (i.e., the particular "flux line"). Wouldn't the strength of the flux line be $$\scriptstyle{\frac{W}{m}\,\!}$$ and be considered the "signal strength" (signal strength seems to confirm that, but other articles and outside sources seem to use signal and field strength interchangeably)?
 * [[image:InverseSquareLaw.png|300px]]

Let $$W_l=W/m=\frac{W}{m};\qquad\;W_a=W/m^2=\frac{W}{4\pi\,m^2}.\,\!$$

Let's say you have a 100kW station that is 1km away, giving the following results:

 * {|class="wikitable"

 * 100,000W @ 1000m
 * 100Wl
 * .007958Wa
 * }
 * }

If you have ten other stations with different ERPs and distances, five equaling Wl and five Wa ,

 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

 * Line
 * Area
 * 10,000W @ 100m
 * 100Wl
 * .07958Wa
 * 1000W @  10m
 * 100Wl
 * .7958Wa
 * 100W @   1m
 * 100Wl
 * 7.958Wa
 * 10W @  .1m
 * 100Wl
 * 79.58Wa
 * 1W @ .01m
 * 100Wl
 * 795.8Wa
 * }
 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:right"
 * 79.58Wa
 * 1W @ .01m
 * 100Wl
 * 795.8Wa
 * }
 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:right"
 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:right"

 * Line
 * Area
 * 1000W @ 100m
 * 10Wl
 * .007958Wa
 * 10W @  10m
 * 1Wl
 * .007958Wa
 * .1W @   1m
 * .1Wl
 * .007958Wa
 * .001W @  .1m
 * .01Wl
 * .007958Wa
 * .00001W @ .01m
 * .001Wl
 * .007958Wa
 * }
 * .01Wl
 * .007958Wa
 * .00001W @ .01m
 * .001Wl
 * .007958Wa
 * }
 * }

and you measured the strength of the signal right at the antenna connection point (but not through any antenna, just "barefoot") of a receiver, which set of five stations would equal the same strength of the 100kW station, the 100Wl or .007958Wa set? If it is Wl, would it be the same for any antenna attached or, as antenna length/size increases, is that when area (i.e., Wa ) comes into play? Now let's say there is an eleventh, distant station, say 500km away (well beyond its prescribed field strength), coming in via, say, either ducting or E-skip, wouldn't that be the same 100Wl or .007958Wa ? Finally, incorporating free-space loss (where λ is wavelength), $$W/m^2=\frac{W}{4\pi\,m^2}.\,\!$$ becomes $$W/m^2=\frac{W}{4\pi\,m^2}\cdot\frac{\lambda^2}{4\pi}=W\left(\frac{\lambda}{4\pi\,m}\right)^2.\,\!$$.

Does that mean $$W/m\,\!$$ becomes $$\frac{W\lambda}{\sqrt{4\pi}\,m}\,\!$$ or just $$\frac{W\lambda}{m}\,\!$$? ~Kaimbridge ~16:41, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

 * The strength of the "flux" or field strength, is actually measured in volts per meter, which as you indicate drops off inversely proportionally to the distance. So an antenna receving a signal will have a voltage produced that drops off proportionally to the distance from the transmitter.  However the current available from the antenna is proportional to the voltage.  The power available is proportional to the voltage multiplied by the current, so that the power from the receiving antennna still falls off inversely propoprtional to the square of the distance from the emiitter. GB

Right, but that's ignoring the actual question: Yes, field strength is usually measured in volts, but it is a constant that $$\scriptstyle{W=\frac{V^2}{\Omega}\,\!}$$. I guess the core question is why is it $$\scriptstyle{\frac{(V/m)^2}{\Omega}\,\!}$$ and not the appearingly more obvious $$\scriptstyle{\frac{V^2}{\Omega\,m}\,\!}$$, as distance has nothing to do with the actual conversion of V to W?!? Relatedly, I find it misleading to define $$\scriptstyle{\operatorname{dB}V/m=20\log_{10}(V/m)\,\!}$$, as $$\scriptstyle{20\log_{10}(V/m)=10\log_{10}(V^2/m^2)\,\!}$$, thus $$\scriptstyle{\operatorname{dB}V/m\,\!}$$ should actually be $$\scriptstyle{\operatorname{dB}(V/m)^2\,\!}$$! But back to the original question, which way is more fundamentally "right" depends on which of the above two sets of five signals (100Wl or .007958Wa ) is true——since only one of them can be! P=) ~Kaimbridge ~19:29, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Field Strength, Power Flux Density and Signal Strength
There are two inter-related parameters: Field Strength, which has the dimensions Volts per metre, and Power Flux Density, which has the dimensions Watts per square metre. They are related by the formula:

E^2 PFD = --- Zfs

Where:

 * PFD = Power Flux Density in Watts per square metre
 * E = Field Strength in Volts per metre
 * Zfs = Characteristic Impedance of Free Space, a constant with a value of 377 ohms.

The terms Field Strength and Power Flux Density have these dimensions and are precise engineering terms. The term Signal Strength is more vague. It could mean the same thing as field strength (i.e. relating to an electromagnetic wave ), or it could refer to a signal voltage in a circuit. --Harumphy 13:08, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Proposal to Merge this with "Radio Waves"
Radio waves has an section on propagation that needs this material. There may be propagation of other than radio wave material that could be retained here? Ideas? John 19:15, 15 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose Radio propogation is a seperate dicipline, and can go into far more detail on interaction of radio waves with the earth. The Radio waves article should be more general and higher level, including creation, detection, history, natural phenomena.  There should be jst too much material to merge them together. Graeme Bartlett 21:54, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

 * Oppose As above. It isn't just maxwell's equations but notable phenomena that occur when notable radio waves proporaate in notable media systems- for example "Whistlers" and tropo ducting aren't actually properties of radio waves. Nerdseeksblonde (talk) 01:49, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Metor scatter
Removed the term 'base' and replaced with 'station' base sound's like 'CB slang' station is the proper term. Also removed reference to 'power input' satellite communications do not require allot of 'power' just allot of 'antenna'. -- DP 67  talk/contribs 14:32, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
 * fix header. -- DP 67  talk/contribs 14:46, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

"During solar cycle minimas, frequencies only up to about 15 MHz are usable"
This is bullcrap. We're in a solar minimum now. CQWW, the largest ham radio contest of the year, was the weekend just gone, and there was PLENTY of actvity on 21 and 28 MHz bands. True, it's mostly single hop, but to imply the bands are unusable is patently false. When the results and reviews of the contest are published this should be eminently confirmed.

Replace with "During solar minima, propagation of higher frequencies is generally worse." 128.232.250.254 12:24, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Sporadic E
Correct me if I'm behind the latest scientific research, although I don't think I am, but doesn't the section on Sproadic E contain many speculative and unproven hypotheses about the cause of Es? Gerry Lynch (talk) 18:00, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
 * This is a well established phenomena with many papers on the topic showing in an internet search. The gravity waves are air moving up and down not gravitational waves.

03:36, 18 July 2008 (UTC)
 * http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2004/2004JA010508.shtml
 * http://www.amfmdx.net/propagation/Es.html Review
 * http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v435/n7043/full/nature03638.html
 * If someone doesn't beat me to it, I'll put it back (with a mention of air movements, not gravitational waves). I must say they are stunningly badly named. What's waving in a "gravity wave" ? --Wtshymanski (talk) 12:10, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Does anyone understand the diagram?
I thought I understood a little about radio propagation but I don't understand the diagram at all. Does this explain *anything* to the reader without experience in the field? --Wtshymanski (talk) 14:45, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Google maps
I removed the reference to google maps. The original sentence read "(see Google Maps for a "real-world" application)". However, this is not an example of satellite communication. It is an example of satellite imaging. Further, information on satellite communication is more accurately included in the satellite article, and not in here. Once the difference is explained and the corresponding article has been linked that should be sufficient. So. I took it out. Wilson Harron (talk) 03:36, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

any links to ionosphere or plasma stuff etc?
The reason I came here is that someone had an open req for a wiki page on the F1 and F2 layers etc. It occured to me to see what existed. Certainly some plasma stuff and diagrams of atmosphere must exist somewhere, something like an electromagnetic cross section of the atmosphere.

While I'm here, I think their are plenty of good sites to ref here but haven't looked in a while. Obviously ARRL plays to my soapbox but I would expect them to have good refs here. Just skimming these, I guess qsl.net and hfradio.org do have a good selection of stuff,

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&um=1&q=radio+propagation&sa=N&start=40&ndsp=20

Allocation is not equivalent to prop but factors influence it. Cool charts like this,

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.pdf

Nerdseeksblonde (talk) 00:31, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Two Ray Path Loss Model
I'd like to add some information to wikipedia about the two ray path loss model. It's hinted at here when ground reflections and the inverse fourth law are mentioned. Presumably this wants to go in its own article, and just be linked from this page? Thelastbert (talk) 11:18, 21 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, here's my take on it. If you're planning on a couple of paragraphs, with maybe a diagram and a few references, as a sort of overview explaining what the model is and where you'd go to find out more about it, I'd like to see it in here.  I think then you won't have to give so much context to explain what you're talking about (what's a radio wave? what's an ionosphere? etc.). If you're planning a longish article, with maybe a brief introductory section that provides the background for a general reader and allows the keener to wade deeply into the volume integrals and relativistic effects, then it should be mentioned here and linked when it's ready. I would err on the side of a short, accurate, comprehensive introductory section here - Einstein said we should be able to explain physics to a barmaid - rather than getting into retyping someone's graduate thesis project. I, of course, am a dangerous and non-consensus-holding minority.  I love reading well-written material in Wikipedia on things that I know only a little or nothing about. I'm looking forward to anything on the two-ray path loss model. A good explanation of how these things work would help the reader who wants to know why, even though there's a cell tower every three blocks, his phone that worked fine *over there* quits working *over here*. --Wtshymanski (talk) 14:27, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

T.F. Giella on Es propagation
T.F. Giella is a well known name in propagatio studies, but the block of text attributed to him needs a formal citation to a reliable source, per WP:V. Also this block of text, after resolving the reference issue, is more suited for the main article Sporadic E propagation. If no reference can be found I shall delete it fro here and copy it to the discussion page of the main article. SV1XV (talk) 06:41, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
 * This text was from the old site of T.F. Giella. It seems that it is no longer available at the original site, but it was copied by the author to the Propagation mailing list and is archived at contesting.com as http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/Propagation/2005-04/msg00075.html Therefore I have to delete it as copyvio and replace it with a link to the contesting.com archive. SV1XV (talk) 07:43, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

title: Talk:Radio propagation


text:
Gakkel Ridge

The Gakkel Ridge (formerly known as the Nansen Cordillera and Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge) is a mid-oceanic ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate. It is located in the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean, between Greenland and Siberia. Geologically, it connects the northern end of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge with the Laptev Sea Rift.

History
The existence and approximate location of the Gakkel Ridge were predicted by Soviet polar explorer Yakov Yakovlevich Gakkel and confirmed on Soviet expeditions in the Arctic around 1950. The Ridge is named after him, and the name was recognized in April 1987 by SCUFN (under that body's old name, the Sub-Committee on Geographical Names and Nomenclature of Ocean Bottom Features).

Until 1999, it was believed to be non-volcanic; that year, scientists operating from a nuclear submarine discovered active volcanoes along it. The largest, the Gakkel Ridge Caldera, is a supervolcano that erupted approximately 1.1 million years ago during the Pleistocene. In 2001 two research icebreakers, the German Polarstern and the American Healy, with several groups of scientists, cruised to the Gakkel Ridge to explore it and collect petrological samples. Among other discoveries, this expedition found evidence of hydrothermal vents. In 2007, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution conducted the "Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition" (AGAVE), which made some unanticipated discoveries, including the unconsolidated fragmented pyroclastic volcanic deposits that cover the axial valley of the ridge (whose area is greater than 10 km2). These suggest volatile substances in concentrations ten times those in the magmas of normal mid-ocean ridges. Using "free-swimming" robotic submersibles on the Gakkel ridge, the AGAVE expedition also discovered what they called "bizarre 'mats' of microbial communities containing a half dozen or more new species". A hydrothermal site, named "Aurora", was discovered in 2014. Aurora has elevated levels of methane and high temperatures, suggesting interactions between water and ultramafic rock below the vent field (rather than basalt reactions). Aurora's geochemistry may resemble that of the Rainbow Vent Field in the Atlantic Ocean.

Geology

The Gakkel Ridge is approximately 1800 km long and is the slowest known spreading ridge on earth, with a rate of less than one centimeter per year. It continues to the south and connects with the Knipovich Ridge.

The Gakkel ridge is not offset by any transform faults. The ridge does have segments with variable orientation and varying degrees of volcanism: the Western Volcanic Zone From the Lena trough (7° W, to 3° E longitude), the Sparsely Magmatic Zone (from 3° E to 29° E longitude), and the Eastern Magmatic Zone (from 29° E to 89°E). The gaps of volcanic activity imply very cold crust and mantle, probably related to the very low spreading rate, but it is not yet known why some parts of the ridge are more magmatic than others. Some earthquakes have been detected from the mantle, below the crust, which is very unusual for a mid-ocean ridge. It confirms that the mantle and crust of Gakkel ridge, like some segments of the Southwest Indian Ridge, are very cold.

Hydrothermal Activity
The Gakkel ridge features several confirmed and inferred hydrothermal fields, including Aurora (visually confirmed in 2014) and Lucky B (dredged in 2001). More sites have been inferred, but not confirmed due to difficulties with ice at higher latitudes.

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

title: Gakkel Ridge


text:
Jim Broadbent

James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972, he came to prominence as a character actor for his many roles in film and television. He has received various accolades including an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award.

He received an Academy Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the film Iris (2001). Broadbent won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Moulin Rouge! (2001). His early film roles include in Terry Gilliam films Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985) before a breakthrough role in Mike Leigh's Life Is Sweet (1990). Notable film roles include Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Topsy-Turvy (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Gangs of New York (2002), Another Year (2010), The Iron Lady (2011), Le Week-End (2013), and Brooklyn (2015).

Broadbent is also known for his roles in franchise films such as Horace Slughorn in the Harry Potter film series, Digory Kirke in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and Samuel Gruber in the Paddington film series. He also acted in blockbuster and studio films such as Hot Fuzz (2007), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Arthur Christmas (2011), and Cloud Atlas (2012).

Broadbent's television roles include playing Roy Slater in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, Desmond Morton in the HBO / BBC film The Gathering Storm (2002), and Lord Longford in the Channel 4 film Longford (2006). He portrayed Archmaester Ebrose in the seventh season of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones in 2017. He also acted in London Spy (2015), War & Peace (2016), King Lear (2018) and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (2023).

Early life and education
James Broadbent was born on 24 May 1949 in Holton cum Beckering, in Lincolnshire, the second son of Doreen "Dee" Findlay, a sculptor, and Roy Laverick Broadbent, an artist, sculptor, interior designer and furniture maker. Broadbent's parents were both amateur actors who co-founded the Holton Players acting troupe at Holton. The two have been described by the BBC as conscientious objectors who "worked the land" rather than participate in World War II. In Wickenby, a former Methodist Chapel was purchased in 1970 by Holton Players, who converted it into a 100-seat theatre, named Broadbent Theatre in memory of Roy Broadbent, who designed the conversion.

Broadbent was educated at Leighton Park School, a Quaker school in Reading, and briefly attended art college before transferring to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He graduated in 1972. His early stage work included appearances as Patrick Barlow's assistant in the mock National Theatre of Brent.

1971–1989: Rise to prominence
Broadbent's early stagework included a number of productions for The National Theatre of Brent as the downtrodden assistant Wallace to Patrick Barlow's self-important actor-manager character Desmond Olivier Dingle. Broadbent and Barlow played many male and female character roles in comically less-than-epic tellings of historical and religious stories, such as The Complete Guide to Sex, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Revolution!!, and All The World's A Globe. These were hits at the Edinburgh Fringe, in London, and on tour. In 1978, he notably appeared as two alien guards Vroomfondel and Shooty in the Primary Phase of the groundbreaking radio series The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Forty years later, he took the role of Marvin in the Hexagonal Phase radio series. Towards the end of the decade, Broadbent began appearing in small roles on television and films, including a Fielder in The Shout and Mackanees in the Play for Today episode Long Distance Information. He also appeared in an edition of Not the Nine O'Clock News, playing a Union Negotiator.

During that decade, his stage work included the original productions of Kafka's Dick (1986) and Our Country's Good (1988) at the Royal Court Theatre and work for the Royal National Theatre including "The Government Inspector". Work on the stage with Mike Leigh includes Goosepimples and Ecstasy. He had worked with Stephen Frears in The Hit (1984) and Terry Gilliam in Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985).

Broadbent also appeared in 1983, 1985 and 1991 as DCI Roy Slater, an associate character in the enormously popular sitcom Only Fools and Horses. The character appeared in three episodes over an eight-year period. He had originally been offered the lead role of Del Boy in the series, but he turned it down due to other commitments. He also made occasional guest appearances in other comedy shows including Happy Families and Victoria Wood As Seen on TV. In 1983, he portrayed Don Speekingleesh in "The Queen of Spain's Beard" in the first series of The Black Adder. He later played Prince Albert in Blackadder's Christmas Carol, first broadcast in 1988. One of his final roles that decade, was as the disgruntled Northern playwright Alan Hammond in the final episode of the playlet series Victoria Wood.

1991–2007: Established actor
Broadbent's film breakthrough came in Mike Leigh's independent British comedy drama Life Is Sweet (1990). In the 1990s he established himself as a character actor in films including Mike Newell's period romance Enchanted April (1991), Neil Jordan's thriller The Crying Game (1992), Woody Allen's 1920s-set showbiz comedy Bullets over Broadway (1994) and Richard Loncraine's film adaptation of Richard III (1995). He appeared in broad fantasy comedy The Borrowers (1997) with John Goodman and the musical comedy Little Voice (1998) with Michael Caine. Broadbent ended the decade by taking a leading role in another Mike Leigh film, Topsy-Turvy (1999), playing dramatist Sir William S. Gilbert.

Broadbent's television work during the Nineties included Jim Morley in Gone to the Dogs and Monty in the follow-up series Gone to Seed. Further comic roles included Murder Most Horrid as Selwyn Proops, The Comic Strip Presents as George and most notably the lead role of branch manager Peter Duffley in the sitcom The Peter Principle which ran for two series, broadcast between 1995 - 2000. He also appeared as Charlie Bennett in an episode of Inspector Morse. In 1999, he made a notable appearance as the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor in the Doctor Who spoof Doctor Who: Curse of the Fatal of Death which was written by future writer and showrunner Steven Moffat.

In 2001, Broadbent starred in three of the year's most successful films: Richard Curtis' Bridget Jones's Diary, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! and Richard Eyre's Iris, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. In 2002, he appeared in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York and in the film adaptation of Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby. In 2005, Broadbent appeared in the film adaptation of C. S. Lewis' classic children's fantasy novel The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as Professor Kirke. That same year Broadbent had voice roles in Robots, Valiant and The Magic Roundabout. He also joined Rowan Atkinson in his Spider-Man spoof Spider-Plant Man, as a disgruntled Batman, envious of Spider-Plant Man's success.

Broadbent played the lead role of the TV film Wide-Eyed and Legless. Based on a true story, the drama tells of Deric Longden's wife, Diana and her fight against a mysterious wasting illness which turned out to be myalgic encephalomyelitis. It began as a type of flu but it grew progressively worse. She was subject to blackouts and became so debilitated that she could barely get out of her wheelchair. It led to years of pain and paralysis that ended in her death. Broadbent portrayed the title role in the Channel 4 drama Longford in October 2006, earning a BAFTA TV Award, a Golden Globe and a 2007 Emmy nomination for his performance as Frank Pakenham (1905–2001), Earl of Longford, which was centred on Longford's ultimately unsuccessful campaign for the parole of Myra Hindley from her life imprisonment for the Moors Murders. Broadbent appeared as Inspector Frank Butterman in Hot Fuzz in 2007. He was also a regular in Stephen Fry's radio comedy show Saturday Night Fry, which aired on BBC Radio 4 in 1988. In 2008, he starred as pro-Newtonian physicist Sir Oliver Lodge in the fact-based single drama Einstein and Eddington for the BBC.

2008–present: Career expansion
Broadbent also appeared in the fourth film in the Indiana Jones series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) with Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett and Ray Winstone, directed by Steven Spielberg; and in The Young Victoria (2009) alongside Emily Blunt as King William IV. Broadbent joined a long list of British actors by appearing in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, as well as the final movie in the series Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 as Horace Slughorn In 2009, he portrayed Sam Longson, chairman of Derby County football club in the 1960s and 1970s, in the film The Damned United; the starring character in the film was football manager Brian Clough, played by Michael Sheen. In 2010, he provided the voice for the character Major Mouse in a series of radio advertisements and one produced for television for an energy company, E.ON, for their eonenergyfit.com website campaign. He also starred as the older Logan Mountstuart in the TV adaptation of William Boyd's novel Any Human Heart. He had a lead role in Exile, a BBC One drama, starring John Simm and written by Danny Brocklehurst.

In 2010, Broadbent reunited with director Mike Leigh, in Another Year with Ruth Sheen and Lesley Manville. The film premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in competition for the Palme d'Or. According to review aggregation website, Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of critics have given the film a positive review, with the critical consensus reading, "Characterized by strong performances and the director's trademark feel for the nuances of everyday life, Another Year marks another solid entry in Mike Leigh's career of kitchen-sink English drama."

In 2012, he played Denis Thatcher opposite Meryl Streep as the former Prime Minister in The Iron Lady. Broadbent nominated her for a BAFTA Award for her performance. That same year he also starred in Cloud Atlas with Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, and Ben Whishaw. In 2014, he starred in Roger Mitchell's critically acclaimed drama film, Le Week-End alongside Lindsay Duncan.

In 2015, Broadbent starred in the Oscar nominated film Brooklyn alongside Saoirse Ronan, Domhnaal Gleeson and Julie Walters. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Later that year, he also appeared in a role in Alan Bennett's comedy film The Lady in the Van (2015) alongside Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings.

In 2015, Broadbent along with Daniel Rigby, Antonia Thomas, Fearne Cotton and Jane Horrocks are revealed to be the new cast with Broadbent as a Voice Trumpet in the reboot of classic British children's television series Teletubbies. Since 2016, Broadbent narrates Kevin the Carrot Christmas adverts for the UK branch of Aldi. In the 2020 advert, Broadbent portrayed Santa Claus, who was revealed to be the narrator. Broadbent has also appeared in the critically acclaimed British comedy films, Paddington (2014) and Paddington 2 (2018) alongside Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters and Ben Whishaw.

In 2016, he was cast in the seventh season of the HBO series Game of Thrones. In 2017 he starred in the ensemble thriller The Sense of an Ending alongside Charlotte Rampling, Michelle Dockery, and Emily Mortimer. The film premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival to positive reviews. On 28 May 2018, he played Gloucester in the BBC Two production of King Lear acting alongside Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson and Florence Pugh.

In 2018, he played Hans Christian Andersen in the premiere of Martin McDonagh's play A Very Very Very Dark Matter at the Bridge Theatre in London. In 2020, Broadbent starred in the limited series Black Narcissus based on the classic Powell and Pressburger film. The series premiered on 23 November 2020 on FX. The series also stars Gemma Arterton, Alessandro Nivola and Diana Rigg. Broadbent starred in Roger Michell's comedy drama film The Duke opposite Helen Mirren. The film had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on 4 September 2020 and was pushed to be released in cinemas in the UK on 25 February 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was announced that in 2023 he will return to the third installment of Paddington with again Hugh Bonneville and Julie Walters, and new cast Rachel Zegler, Antonio Banderas, Olivia Colman and Emily Mortimer.

Films
Selected films:

 * The Passage (1979)
 * Time Bandits (1981)
 * Brazil (1985)
 * Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
 * Life is Sweet (1990)
 * Enchanted April (1992)
 * The Crying Game (1992)
 * Bullets over Broadway (1994)
 * Richard III (1995)
 * The Borrowers (1997)
 * Little Voice (1998)
 * Topsy-Turvy (1999)
 * Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
 * Moulin Rouge! (2001)
 * Iris (2001)
 * Gangs of New York (2002)
 * Nicholas Nickleby (2002)
 * Bright Young Things (2003)
 * Vanity Fair (2004)
 * Vera Drake (2004)
 * Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
 * Robots (2005)
 * The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
 * Art School Confidential (2006)
 * Hot Fuzz (2007)
 * Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
 * The Young Victoria (2009)
 * The Damned United (2009)
 * Another Year (2010)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011)
 * The Iron Lady (2011)
 * Cloud Atlas (2012)
 * Le Week-End (2013)
 * Big Game (2014)
 * Paddington (2014)
 * Brooklyn (2015)
 * The Lady in the Van (2015)
 * Bridget Jones's Baby (2016)
 * The Sense of an Ending (2017)
 * Paddington 2 (2017)
 * The Duke (2020)
 * Paddington in Peru (2024)
 * Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025)

Television
Selected Television:

 * Tales of the Unexpected - Stranger in Town S5 ep5 (uncredited) (1982)
 * The Gathering Storm (2002)
 * And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003)
 * Longford (2006)
 * Any Human Heart (2010)
 * London Spy (2015)
 * War & Peace (2016)
 * Game of Thrones (2017)
 * King Lear (2018)
 * Black Narcissus (2020)

Personal life
Broadbent has been married to painter and former theatre designer Anastasia Lewis since 1987. He has no children, but Lewis has two sons from a previous relationship.

Broadbent primarily lives in the Lincolnshire Wolds. He also owns a property in London.

He is an atheist.

Awards and honours
Broadbent received his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Richard Eyre's Iris (2001) starring alongside Judi Dench. That same year he won his British Academy Film Award for his performance in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! (2001). In 2007, he received a British Academy Television Award for his work in Tom Hooper's television film, Longford (2007). He has received two Golden Globe Awards for his performances in Iris (2001) and Longford (2007). He also received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performance as Desmond Morton in the BBC/HBO production The Gathering Storm (2002) and as Lord Longford in Longford (2007).

Broadbent was offered an OBE in 2002, but he declined it, stating that there were more deserving recipients than actors and that the British Empire was not something he wanted to "celebrate". Broadbent was made an Honorary Associate of London Film School.

title: Jim Broadbent


text:
Philip Astley

Philip Astley (8 January 1742 – 20 October 1814) was an English equestrian, circus owner, and inventor, regarded as being the "father of the modern circus". Modern circus, as an integrated entertainment experience that includes music, domesticated animals, acrobats, and clowns, traces its heritage to Astley's Amphitheatre, a riding school that Astley founded in London following the success of trick-riding displays given by him and his wife Patty Jones in 1768. Astley's first competitor was equestrian Charles Hughes, who had previously worked with Astley. Together with Charles Dibdin, a famous author of pantomimes, Hughes opened a rival amphitheatre in London, which Dibdin called the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy.

Astley and his wife Patty put on their first public show on Easter Monday, 4 April 1768. extending the equestrian performance with exhibitions of warlike sabre-work and sword-play. The initial performances were done in the open air at Ha'penny (= Halfpenny) Hatch, a field in Lambeth, London, near the present site of Waterloo railway station. The Astleys also performed at other locations in London. Astley performed his stunts in a circular arena, though Astley never used the title of 'circus' for his shows. Astley's 'Ride' (he also called it 'the Circle') was a ring 65 ft (19 metres) in diameter. Later, the size evolved to become standardised at 42 feet (13 metres) which is the size used by circuses ever since. Leasing more permanent premises at Westminster Bridge from 1769, he improved conditions for audiences with a covered stands. The performances themselves, however, were still performed in the open. In 1770 he hired acrobats, tightrope walkers, jugglers and a clown to fill in the pauses between acts. and so initiated the format which we now know as a 'circus' and which has since spread to many countries.

Biography
Philip Astley was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme in England the son of a cabinetmaker. At the age of nine, he apprenticed with his father, but Astley's dream was to work with horses, so he joined Colonel Eliott's Fifteenth Light Dragoons when he was 17, later becoming a sergeant major. His service in the Seven Years' War brought him into contact with professional trainers and riders. Astley himself was a brilliant rider.

Equestrian master
Astley had a genius for trick riding. He saw that trick riders received the most attention from the crowds in Islington. He had an idea for opening a riding school in London in which he could also conduct shows of acrobatic riding skill. In 1768, Astley performed in an open field in what is now the Waterloo area of London, behind the present site of St John's Church. Astley added a clown to his shows to amuse the spectators between equestrian sequences, moving to fenced premises just south of Westminster Bridge, where he opened his riding school from 1769 onwards and expanded the content of his shows (see below). He taught riding in the mornings and performed his "feats of horsemanship" in the afternoons.

Astley began to make a reputation and to grow wealthier. After two seasons in London he had to bring some novelty to his performances, so he hired other equestrians, musicians, a clown, jugglers, tumblers, tightrope walkers, and dancing dogs – the modern circus was created. Guilds and lineages of acrobats and clowns had performed throughout Europe for centuries before this, but as members of independent professions, not as part of an integrated entertainment experience for which an all-inclusive ticket was sold.

Astley did not invent trick-riding, which was already a popular entertainment of the period. Nor did he originate the idea of performing in a circular 'ring'. The use of the circular arena is successful for two reasons. First, it is easier for the audience to keep the riders in sight. Second, the circular ring (though Astley called it 'the Ride') helps riders through the generation of centrifugal force, which assists them in keeping their balance while standing on the backs of their galloping horses. Astley never called his 'Astley's Amphitheatre of Equestrian Arts' a circus; that title was thought up by Charles Dibdin, who in partnership with Astley's rival Charles Hughes, opened the Royal Circus on 4 November 1782, a short distance from Astley's in Lambeth, London. After a few years, Astley added a platform, seats, and a roof to his ring. Even after his death Astley's "Royal Amphitheatre" remained famous throughout the nineteenth century, being mentioned by Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. It was closed in 1893 and was demolished the next year. The garden of St Thomas's Hospital now occupies the site; a commemorative paving stone (see below) marks the Amphitheatre's former position.

Astley's original circus ring was 65 ft (~19 m) in diameter, and later he settled it at 42 ft (~13 m), which has been an international standard for circuses since. Not far from the Amphitheatre site is Hercules Road, named after the house Astley built and named Hercules Hall. The house is long gone, but its name is said to have commemorated Astley's popular human pyramid act, La Force d'Hercule.

International success
Astley's circus was so popular that he was invited in 1772 to perform before Louis XV of France in Versailles. Having been established from 1769 as a riding school and for open-air performances, the first Astley's Amphitheatre opened in London in 1773; it burned on 17 September 1794, but with abundant resources available due to the venture's prosperity it was rebuilt and, in due course was rebuilt again after successive fires, and eventually grew to become Astley's Royal Amphitheatre. In 1782, Astley established the first purpose-built circus in France, the Amphitheatre Anglais in Paris. Astley then established 18 other permanent circuses in cities throughout Europe.

During the summers and at other times when his London establishment was inactive, Astley began to establish wooden amphitheatres abroad; the first of these was erected in 1773 in Dublin, Ireland. He later established eighteen other circuses in European cities, was patronised by a great number of royals, and was famous, envied, and occasionally rich. He never used wild animals in the circus arena. In 1806, with the profits he had earned from his amphitheatre, Astley opened a new venue, the Olympic Pavilion (also known as the Olympic Theatre) on Wych Street, Westminster, near the Strand. This tent-like structure, partly built from the remains of a French warship, did not prove a success, and in 1813 he sold it to Robert William Elliston, who renamed it the Little Drury Lane. Astley died a year later in Paris and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery, the cause of his death being gout in the stomach.

Legacy
Astley's Amphitheatre is mentioned in the popular fiction of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and William Makepeace Thackeray, among others. In Jane Austen's Emma, in chapter 54: "He delivered these papers to John, at his chambers, and was asked by him to join their party the same evening to Astley's. They were going to take the two eldest boys to Astley's." It is also a motif of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.

Astley's fame is also marked by the existence of three dance tunes which bear his name: "Astley's Ride(s)", "Astley's Flag" and more common, "Astley's Hornpipe". "Astley's Ride" appears as the first song in the music manuscript book of poet John Clare.

Astley's circus is featured prominently in Tracy Chevalier's novel Burning Bright.

On 31 May 1982 the illusionist Fred Van Buren staged the first celebration of Philip Astley in the form of Newcastle-under-Lyme's annual carnival, which had the theme of Philip Astley's Circus. This event began the journey to bring Astley back into the public's awareness.

Then in 1992 the British magician illusionist Andrew Van Buren commissioned a life-size statue to be made of Philip Astley to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Astley's birth. Van Buren is the Astley expert and curator of the Philip Astley Project, creating and uniting archives, exhibitions and a series of events to celebrate the 250th anniversary of circus in 2018 and beyond.

Circus 250
The Circus250 celebrations began in January 2018 when Andrew Van Buren joined Albert II, Prince of Monaco, and Princess Stéphanie of Monaco for the unveiling of a plaque to Philip Astley in Monte Carlo. Following this in February 2018 the United Kingdom's first permanent monument to Philip Astley and his legacy of the circus was positioned on the border between Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. The monument was designed by Candida Kelsall, built by PM Training and funded by the Realise Foundation. This was then unveiled on World Circus Day 2018 by Federation Mondiale du Cirque director Zsuzsanna Mata, the Newcastle-under-Lyme Mayor Simon White and Van Buren. A second of these monuments was then positioned in the village of Silverdale, which is the opposite side of Newcastle-under-Lyme.

A commemorative plaque was inaugurated at the Ha'penny Hatch site off Cornwall Road, Lambeth, on Easter Monday 2018, two days before the exact 250th anniversary of the first performances there by the Astleys.. The plaque was provided by the Lambeth Estate Residents' Association and was unveiled by the circus ringmaster Chris Barltrop dressed as Astley and accompanied by horses and riders from Zippo's Circus. In 1989, Barltrop had been the first to identify the site of Astley's Ha'penny (= Halfpenny) Hatch .

Chris Barltrop researched and wrote a one-man play, Audacious Mr Astley, which he first performed at the Waterloo East Theatre, London, on Easter Monday 2018, and later at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Newcastle-under-Lyme's New Vic Theatre during the summer of 2018 ran the hugely successful Astley’s Astounding Adventure play, complementing their Roll Up events, which included a street exhibition of Circus art and photography curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum. Other events included The Brampton Museum's exhibition of Philip Astley artefacts. Also the Philip Astley Project's AstleyFest outdoor event which celebrated each aspect of Philip Astley's life and legacy. Astley’s Astounding Adventure was remounted by the New Vic Theatre in 2023.

On 14 September 2018, a flagstone commemorating the Amphitheatre was inaugurated in the St Thomas's Hospital garden. The flagstone was the initiative of Martin Burton, founder and director of Zippos Circus. A group of fully costumed performers from Zippos, including a trick-rider and his horse, accompanied Burton to help inaugurate the flagstone.

In 2019 a new hardback book was published, written by Karl Shaw entitled The First Showman, bringing together for the first time previously unknown facts and details of Astley's life and family history, as a combination of Shaw's own research, plus Newcastle-under-Lyme's Brampton Museum research team and Andrew Van Buren.

title: Philip Astley


text:
José Padilla (criminal)

José Padilla (born October 18, 1970), also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir or Muhajir Abdullah, is a United States citizen who was convicted in a federal court of aiding terrorists.

Padilla was arrested in Chicago on May 8, 2002, on suspicion of plotting a radiological bomb ("dirty bomb") attack. He was detained as a material witness until June 9, 2002, when President George W. Bush designated him an enemy combatant and, arguing that he was not entitled to trial in civilian courts, had him transferred to a military prison in South Carolina. Padilla was held for three and a half years as an enemy combatant. Upon pressure and lawsuits from civil liberties groups, he was transferred to a civilian jail in 2006.

In August 2007, a federal jury found him guilty of conspiring to commit murder and fund terrorism. Government officials had earlier claimed Padilla was suspected of planning to build and explode a "dirty bomb" in the United States, but he was never charged with this crime. He was initially sentenced to 17 years in prison, which was increased on appeal to 21 years. His lawsuits against the military for allegedly torturing him were rejected by the courts for lack of merit and jurisdictional issues.

Early life
José Padilla was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Estella Obregón and her husband, both of Puerto Rican descent. The family later moved to Chicago, Illinois. As a youth, Padilla joined the Latin Kings street gang and was arrested several times. During his gang years, he maintained several aliases, such as José Rivera, José Alicea, José Hernandez, and José Ortiz. As a 14-year-old juvenile, he was convicted of aggravated assault and manslaughter after a gang member, whom he had kicked in the head, died.

After serving his last jail sentence, Padilla converted to Islam after his marriage to a Muslim woman and moved to the Middle East. One of his early religious instructors was an Islamic teacher who professed a nonviolent philosophy and Padilla appeared at the time to be faithful to his mentor's teachings. While living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Padilla attended the Masjid Al-Iman mosque, as did Adham Amin Hassoun, "for most of the 1990s and [they] were reportedly friends."

U.S. authorities accused Hassoun of associating with radical Islamic fundamentalists, including Al-Qaeda. Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian, was arrested in 2002 for overstaying his visa and was charged in 2004 with providing material support to terrorists. By that time, Hassoun had already been charged with perjury, a weapons offense, and other offenses.

Marriage and family
Broward County, Florida court records show that on July 1, 1994, Padilla changed his name to one word: "Ibrahim". He was married under that name to Cherie Maria Stultz on January 2, 1996. They divorced in March 2001, according to court records. In January 2001, she had placed an ad in a local business newspaper, serving notice that she was seeking divorce. Their divorce papers identify him as Jose Ibrahim Padilla.

Padilla married an Egyptian woman named Shamia'a, and they had two sons together. When he was arrested in 2002, the boys were infants. At his bail hearing, his wife and children were believed to be overseas.

Terroristic activity
According to press reports in 2002, Padilla had been in the Afghanistan–Pakistan region in 2001 and early 2002. At the time, the Defense Department said that Abu Zubaydah, then believed to be a top al-Qaeda official, had led the US to Padilla.

Padilla was alleged to have been trained in the construction and employment of radiologic weapons – "dirty bombs" – at an al-Qaeda safe house in Lahore, Pakistan. Padilla and Binyam Mohammed, a United Kingdom resident, were alleged to have been recruited at the Lahore safe house to travel to the United States to launch terrorist attacks.

However, more recent evidence suggests that the "dirty bomb" plot was likely a ruse to get out of Pakistan and based on an internet joke website purporting to describe how to build an H-bomb by swinging buckets of uranium as fast as possible. A 2003 CIA memo notes that the satirical article "is filled with countless technical inaccuracies which would likely result in the death of anyone attempting to follow the instructions, and definitely would not result in a nuclear explosion".

Arrest
Padilla traveled to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. On his return, he was arrested by U.S. Customs agents at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on May 8, 2002, and held as a material witness on a warrant issued in the state of New York stemming from the September 11, 2001, attacks.

On June 9, 2002, two days before District Court Judge Michael Mukasey was to issue a ruling on the validity of continuing to hold Padilla under the material witness warrant, President George Bush issued an order to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to detain Padilla as an "enemy combatant." Padilla was transferred to a military brig in Charleston, South Carolina, without any notice to his attorney or family. The order "legally justified" the detention using the 2001 AUMF passed in the wake of September 11, 2001, (formally "The Authorization for Use of Military Force Joint Resolution" (Public Law 107-40)) and opined that a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil can be classified as an enemy combatant. (This opinion is based on the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Ex parte Quirin, a case involving the detention of eight German spies operating in the United States while working for Nazi Germany during World War II.)

According to the text of the ensuing decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Padilla's detention as an "enemy combatant" (pursuant to the President's order) was based on the following reasons:
 * 1) Padilla was "closely associated with al Qaeda," a designation for loosely knit insurgent groups sharing common ideals and tactics, "with which the United States is at war";
 * 2) he had engaged in "war-like acts, including conduct in preparation for acts of international terrorism";
 * 3) he had intelligence that could assist the United States in warding off future terrorist attacks; and
 * 4) he was a continuing threat to American security.

2002 memos
Shortly after September 26, 2002, the top political appointees David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, John A. Rizzo, William Haynes II, two Justice Department lawyers, Alice S. Fisher and Patrick F. Philbin, and then-Special Counsel to the General Counsel of the Department of Defense Jack Goldsmith flew to Camp Delta to view Mohammed al-Kahtani, then to Charleston, South Carolina, to view Padilla, and finally to Norfolk, Virginia, to view Yaser Esam Hamdi, who had been subjected to coercive techniques including solitary confinement. It was later learned that top administration officials had earlier discussed and approved the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques", a euphemism for torture, for the CIA. They were consulting with DOD agents to discuss techniques that might be used against the detainees in military custody. Later that year, additional "harsh techniques" were used on these three and other prisoners.

In October 2008, 91 pages of memos drafted in 2002 by officers at the Naval Consolidated Brig, Charleston were made public. The memos indicate that officers were concerned that the isolation of solitary confinement and lack of stimuli were causing the prisoner Yasser Hamdi mental anguish and threatened his sanity. The memos also state that Padilla and a third prisoner, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, were held in similar conditions at the Brig.

Habeas corpus
Because Padilla was being detained without any criminal charges being formally made against him, he, through his lawyer Jennifer Martínez, made a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, naming then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as the respondent to this petition. The government filed a motion to dismiss the petition on the grounds that:
 * 1) Padilla's lawyer was not a proper "next Friend" to sign and file the petition on Padilla's behalf.
 * 2) Commander Marr of the South Carolina brig, and not U.S. Secretary Rumsfeld, should have been named as the respondent to the petition.
 * 3) The New York court lacked personal jurisdiction over the named respondent Secretary Rumsfeld who resides in Virginia.

The New York District Court disagreed with the government's arguments and denied its motion. However, the court declared that President Bush had constitutional and statutory authority to designate and detain American citizens as "enemy combatants." It held that Padilla had the right to challenge his "enemy combatant" designation and detention in the course of his habeas corpus petition, although immediate release was denied. Both Padilla and the government made an interlocutory appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

On December 18, 2003, the Second Circuit declared that
 * 1) Padilla's lawyer is a proper "next friend" to sign and file the habeas corpus petition on Padilla's behalf because she, as a member of the bar, had a professional duty to defend her client's interests. Further, she had a significant attorney-client relationship with Padilla and was far from being some zealous "intruder" or "uninvited meddler," as described by the government.
 * 2) Secretary Rumsfeld can be named as the respondent to Padilla's habeas corpus petition, although South Carolina's Navy Commander Marr had immediate physical custody of Padilla, because there have been past cases where national-level officials have been named as respondents to such petitions.
 * 3) The New York District Court had personal jurisdiction over Secretary Rumsfeld although Rumsfeld resided in Virginia and not New York because New York's "long-arm statute" is applicable to Secretary Rumsfeld, who was responsible for Padilla's physical transfer from New York to South Carolina.
 * 4) Despite the legal precedent set by ex parte Quirin, "the president lacked inherent constitutional authority as commander in chief to detain American citizens on American soil outside a zone of combat." The Second Circuit relied on the case of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952), where the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that President Truman, during the Korean War years, could not use his position and power as commander in chief, created under Article 2, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution, to seize the nation's steel mills on the eve of a nationwide steelworkers strike. The extraordinary government power to curb civil rights and liberties during crisis periods, such as times of war, lies with Congress and not the president. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 2, of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress, and not the president, the power to suspend the right of habeas corpus during a period of rebellion or invasion.

Declaring that without clear congressional approval (per ), President Bush cannot detain an American citizen arrested in the United States and away from a zone of combat as an "illegal enemy combatant", the court ordered that Padilla be released from the military brig within 30 days. However, the court stayed the release order pending the government's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. Supreme Court
On February 20, 2004, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the government's appeal. The Supreme Court heard the case, Rumsfeld v. Padilla, in April 2004, but on June 28, 2004, the court dismissed the petition on technical grounds because
 * 1) It was improperly filed in federal court in New York instead of South Carolina, where Padilla was being detained.
 * 2) The Court held that the petition was incorrect in naming the secretary of defense as the respondent for habeas corpus purposes instead of the commanding officer of the naval brig who was Padilla's direct custodian.

District Court for South Carolina
The case was re-filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, and on February 28, 2005, the court ordered that the government either charge or release Padilla.

On June 13, 2005, the Supreme Court denied the government's petition to have his case heard directly by the court, instead of the appeal being first heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia. On September 9, 2005, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit ruled that President Bush had the authority to detain Padilla without charges. An opinion written by judge J. Michael Luttig cited the joint resolution by Congress authorizing military action following the September 11, 2001, attacks, as well as the June 2004 ruling concerning Yaser Hamdi.

Attorneys for Padilla and civil liberties organizations, filing amicus curiae briefs, argued that the detention was illegal. They said it could lead to the military holding anyone, from protesters to people who check out what the government considers the wrong books from the library. The Bush administration denied the allegations. The defense argument noted that the congressional military authorization (the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists) pertained only to nations, organizations, or persons whom the president "determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the September 11, 2001, attacks, or harbored such organizations or persons."

They advanced a reading of this language would suggest a congressional limitation to the military power would assure an appropriately narrow range of detainees and that the power to detain would last only so long as the congressional authorization was not revoked or remained in effect by its terms. Similarly, they noted that the Yaser Hamdi Supreme Court case (Hamdi v. Rumsfeld) upon which the court relied, required a habeas corpus hearing for any alleged enemy combatant who demands one, claiming not to be such a combatant, which would require additional judicial or military tribunal oversight over each such detention. The argument in the general public concerning the legality of Padilla's detention examined one of the provisions of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 enacted on October 17, 2006, which states:"Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, and notwithstanding any other law [emphasis added] (including section 2241 of title 28, United States Code, or any other habeas corpus provision), no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any claim or cause of action whatsoever, including any action pending on or filed after the date of enactment of this chapter, relating to the prosecution, trial, or judgment of a military commission convened under this section, including challenges to the lawfulness of the procedures of military commissions under this chapter."

Indictment
On November 22, 2005, CNN reported that Padilla had been indicted in federal court on charges he "conspired to murder, kidnap, and maim people overseas." Padilla's lawyer correlated the indictment's timing as avoidance of an impending Supreme Court hearing on the Padilla case: "The administration is seeking to avoid a Supreme Court showdown over the issue."

None of the original allegations made by the U.S. government three years prior, which had contributed to Padilla's being held the majority of the time in solitary confinement, was part of the indictment, nor was there any charge related to incidents within the United States.

Democracy Now! further asserted:"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced Padilla is being removed from military custody and charged with a series of crimes' and 'There is no mention in the indictment of Padilla's alleged plot to use a dirty bomb in the United States. There is also no mention that Padilla ever planned to stage any attacks inside the country. And there is no direct mention of Al-Qaeda. Instead the indictment lays out a case involving five men who helped raise money and recruit volunteers in the 1990s to go overseas to countries including Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia and Kosovo. Padilla, in fact, appears to play a minor role in the conspiracy. He is accused of going to a jihad training camp in Afghanistan but his lawyers said the indictment offers no evidence he ever engaged in terrorist activity."

Padilla was held for years in military custody with no formal charges. Critics said such a process would allow the U.S. government to detain citizens indefinitely without presenting the case that would eventually be tried.

On December 21, 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit refused to authorize a transfer from the Navy brig to civil court. The court suggested that the administration was manipulating the federal court system with "intentional mooting" in order to avoid Supreme Court review. It said that the "shifting tactics in the case threatens [the government's] credibility with the courts."

The Solicitor General Paul Clement said that the federal appeals court decision "defies both law and logic." He asked the Supreme Court authorize immediate transfer on December 30, 2005. This took place one day after Padilla's lawyers filed a petition charging the president with overstepping his authority.

On January 3, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a Bush administration request to transfer Padilla from military to civilian custody. He was transferred to a federal prison in Miami while the Supreme Court decided whether to accept his appeal of the government's authority to keep US citizens it designates "enemy combatants" in open-ended military confinement without benefit of trial.

On April 3, 2006, the Supreme Court declined, with three justices dissenting from denial of certiorari, to hear Padilla's appeal from the 4th Circuit Court's decision. It left the 4th Circuit court's ruling that the president had the power to designate and detain him as an "enemy combatant" without charges and with disregard to habeas corpus.

Criminal proceedings
Padilla was indicted on three criminal counts in the Miami, Florida, criminal proceeding. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial commenced on May 15, 2007, and lasted for 3 months.

Partial dismissal of counts against Padilla
Two weeks after the presiding judge claimed prosecutors were "light on facts" in their conspiracy allegations, the government dismissed one of its three charges against Padilla and dismissed another in part.

The count of conspiracy to murder (punishable by life imprisonment) was dismissed on August 16, 2006, on the grounds that it was duplicative of the other two counts pending against him. The second count was conspiracy to materially aid terrorists under (punishable by five years in prison) and the third was Providing material support to terrorists  (punishable by 15 years in prison). The trial court ordered that the government elect a single criminal statute in its second count of the indictment.

However, on January 30, 2007, the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit reversed the ruling and reinstated a charge of conspiracy to "murder, kidnap, and maim."

Delays in prosecution
Two additional motions filed in October 2006 argued that the case should be dismissed because the government took too much time between arresting Padilla and charging him, violating Padilla's constitutional right to a speedy trial as the arrest took place prior to his detention as an enemy combatant and not when he was transferred to civilian custody.

Mental competency hearing
In January 2007, a mental competency hearing was scheduled for Padilla for February 22, 2007. Two mental health experts hired by the defense to conduct a competency evaluation concluded Padilla was not mentally fit for trial; a third evaluation submitted by the Bureau of Prisons found him mentally competent. The judge ordered that Sandy Seymour, technical director of the Charleston brig; Craig Noble, brig psychologist; Andrew Cruz, brig social worker; four employees of the Miami federal detention center; and a Defense Department lawyer appear at the hearing.

On February 22, 2007, at the competency hearing, Dr. Angela Hegarty, a psychiatrist hired by Padilla's defense, said that after 22 hours of examining Padilla, she believed that he was mentally unfit to stand trial. She said he exhibited "a facial tic, problems with social contact, lack of concentration and a form of Stockholm syndrome." She diagnosed his condition as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and told the court, "It's my opinion that he lacks the capacity to assist counsel. He has a great deal of difficulty talking about the current case before him."

In cross examination, federal prosecutor John Shipley noted that Padilla had a score of zero on Hegarty's post-traumatic stress disorder test and pointed out that this information was omitted in her final report. Hegarty stated that the omission was an error on her part. Another psychiatrist hired by the defense testified along the same lines. The Miami Herald reported that a "U.S. Bureau of Prisons psychiatrist who believes Padilla is fit to face trial and Defense Department officials—are expected to testify at the ongoing hearing before U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke."

Conviction and sentencing
On August 16, 2007, after a day and a half of deliberations, the jury found Padilla guilty on all counts. He was scheduled to be sentenced on December 5, 2007, but his sentencing was postponed to January due to the death of a family member of the judge scheduled to sentence him. He was sentenced on January 22, 2008, to 17 years and 4 months in federal prison. His two co-defendants received sentences of 15 years, eight months, and 12 years and 8 months.

Before receiving his permanent prison assignment, Padilla was placed in the Federal Detention Center facility in Miami, Florida.

Direct appeal of criminal conviction
As of February 28, 2008, Padilla had appealed his conviction and sentence and the government had cross-appealed. The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial, "the lawyers suing for Padilla aren't interested in justice. They're practicing 'lawfare', which is an effort to undermine the war on terror by making U.S. officials afraid to pursue it for fear of personal liability." In January 2012, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision and his case has been ruled on numerous times.

Sentence ruled too lenient
On September 19, 2011, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the 17-year prison sentence imposed on Padilla, ruling that the sentence was too lenient. They sent the case back to the lower court for a new sentencing hearing. The Court said, "Padilla's sentence of 12 years below the low end of the [sentencing] guidelines range reflects a clear error of judgment about the sentencing of this career offender." On September 9, 2014, the district court sentenced Padilla to 21 years.

Padilla is serving his sentence at ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado. Padilla's prisoner number is 20796-424; he is projected to be released in 2026.

Criticism of his conviction
"What happened in this trial, I think you have to put it in the context of federal conspiracy law, where the government doesn't have to prove that something happened, but just that people agree that something should happen in the future. In this case, it was even more strained. The crime charged in this case was actually an agreement to agree to do something in the future. So when you're dealing with a charge like that, you're not going to have—or the government's not going to be required to produce the kind of evidence that you would expect in a normal criminal case."
 * Andrew Patel, Padilla's lawyer, said after the guilty verdict,

 * American economist Paul Craig Roberts criticized the jury's verdict in the Padilla case as having "overthrown" the Constitution and done far more damage to U.S. liberty than any terrorist could.
 * British journalist Andy Worthington wrote:"[Seventeen] years and four months seems to me to be an extraordinarily long sentence for little more than a thought crime, but when the issue of Padilla's three and half years of suppressed torture is raised, it's difficult not to conclude that justice has just been horribly twisted, that the president and his advisers have just got away with torturing an American citizen with impunity, and that no American citizen can be sure that what happened to Padilla will not happen to him or her. Today, it was a Muslim; tomorrow, unless the government's powers are taken away from them, it could be any number of categories of 'enemy combatants' who have not yet been identified."
 * Timothy Lynch of the Cato Institute raised several issues related to the Padilla seizure in an amicus brief he filed to the Supreme Court. In it, he asks questions such as whether the president can lock up any person in the world and then deny that person access to family, defense counsel, and civilian court review; and objects to the use of "harsh conditions" and "environmental stresses". He questioned whether such techniques can be employed against anyone once the president gives an order. Those legal questions remain unsettled. Lynch argued that, by abruptly moving Padilla from the military brig and transferring him into the civil criminal justice system, the Bush administration was able to forestall Supreme Court review of the president's military powers.
 * Glenn Greenwald, journalist and former constitutional law and civil rights litigator, wrote a highly critical piece in the online magazine Salon.com in September 2011:"The treatment Padilla has received in the justice system is, needless to say, the polar opposite of that enjoyed by these political elites ... Literally days before it was required to justify to the U.S. Supreme Court how it could imprison an American citizen for years without charges or access to a lawyer, the Bush administration suddenly indicted Padilla -- on charges unrelated to, and far less serious than, the accusation that he was A Dirty Bomber -- and then successfully convinced the Supreme Court to refuse to decide the legality of Padilla's imprisonment on the grounds of 'mootness'."

Civil proceedings
On January 4, 2008, Padilla and his mother filed suit against John Yoo in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (Case Number CV08 0035). The complaint sought damages based on the alleged torture of Padilla, and attributed this treatment as having been authorized by Yoo's legal opinions issued in August 2002, known as the "Torture memos". The suit posited that Yoo caused Padilla's damages by authorizing Padilla's alleged torture through his memoranda.

On June 28, 2009, the trial court held that the complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim, because if everything stated in the complaint was taken as true, it stated grounds for Yoo to be liable to Padilla for civil damages. But on February 17, 2011, the District Court dismissed another suit by Padilla against other former officials which had been brought on February 9, 2007. Lebron v. Rumsfeld, 764 F.Supp.2d 787 (D.S.C.). On January 23, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed this dismissal.

In May 2012, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Yoo could not be held accountable for Padilla's treatment because, though his treatment might have amounted to torture, it was not defined as such legally in 2002–2003 when it occurred.

Names
According to his attorney and others, Padilla has changed the pronunciation of his surname from the typical  to.

Padilla's Arabic name Abdullah al-Muhajir, which he began using during his jail sentence, literally means "Abdullah the migrant". "Al-Muhajir" is a laqab (epithet) rather than an adopted family name. Padilla is not related to or known to be connected in any way to Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.

title: José Padilla (criminal)


text:
Microsoft SideWinder

Microsoft SideWinder was the general name given to the family of digital game controllers developed by Microsoft for PCs. The line was first launched in 1995. Although intended only for use with Microsoft Windows, Microsoft SideWinder game controllers can also be used with macOS, Mac OS 9 with third-party software, and Linux.

The term "SideWinder" describes many types of Microsoft's PC game controllers including joysticks, gamepads and steering wheels. Several types of joysticks were made, including the Force Feedback 2, the 3D Pro, and the regular SideWinder joystick. Also, several types of gamepads were made, such as the original game port version, a plug-and-play game port version, and the USB version. Steering wheels are the Precision Racing Wheel and the Force Feedback Wheel variants which include throttle and brake pedals.

The family also includes some more exotic devices such as the SideWinder Game Voice system and the SideWinder Strategic Commander.

The SideWinder family of products was discontinued by Microsoft in 2003, citing poor sales. The company has since re-entered the gaming hardware market, in hopes of designing a standardized gamepad for Windows Vista with both the wired Xbox 360 controller and the Wireless Gaming Receiver that allows the use of the wireless Xbox 360 controller on the PC.

In August 2007, Microsoft announced they were relaunching the SideWinder line of gaming peripherals, starting with the SideWinder Mouse. The mouse was given an MSRP of $80 and a launch date of October 2007.

Gamepad
The original Microsoft SideWinder gamepad had a digital directional pad, six fire buttons, two trigger buttons, and a "Mode" and "Start" button. The original gameport version had a pass-through, so additional joypads or joysticks could be used without unplugging the SideWinder, and also allowed the connection of up to four SideWinder gamepads working simultaneously. Newer USB versions of the SideWinder gamepad have a round digital directional pad instead of the more traditional cross-shaped directional pad, and lack the mode button. The Microsoft SideWinder's button layout is very similar to that of the Sega Saturn controller, which was released over the same time period.

The Webdings dingbat font displays a picture of this gamepad for the character [Ä]

3D Pro
As Microsoft's first SideWinder joystick, the 3D Pro was responsible for setting the overall design as seen in all of Microsoft's future joysticks. Designed as a gaming-neutral joystick, rather than a specialized joystick for use with realistic combat flight simulators, the 3D Pro was built with a functional, but low-key geometric design. Intended to rival the other sticks from the time, the 3D Pro included 8 buttons - 4 on the base, 4 on the stick - an 8-way hat switch, a slider-based throttle, and the stick itself was twistable for Z/rudder/spin control. By going with a geometric design however, it meant the 3D Pro lacked an effective adherence to ergonomic principles, making it unsuitable for long gaming sessions for some users.

Electronically, the 3D Pro used a digital/analog hybrid design that was intended to correct the outstanding flaws in traditional analog joysticks, such as drift and CPU overhead, by using a digital/optical tracking mechanism to keep perfect track of the joystick, and a digital communication method over the analog gameport. However, this digital mode required software support, and could not be used with many DOS games at the time (MechWarrior 2 being the only major exception), as most software and gameports were built completely around an analog design.

Additionally, some soundcard gameports, and so-called accelerated game-ports - which attempted to resolve CPU overhead issues presented by polling the gameport directly themselves - such as those produced by Gravis, would not always be able to handle the stick in digital mode.

The 3D Pro had a unique feature in that it could fall-back to an 'analog emulation' mode, where it could emulate either a CH Flightstick Pro or a Thrustmaster FCS (Selectable by a switch on the base), in environments where the digital mode would not work.

In this mode, manual calibration was required, the four base-buttons no longer function and, the joystick would function essentially like a CH Flightstick Pro or Thrustmaster FCS depending on the mode selector switch.

However, on later operating systems the digital mode would be less and less reliable, and on modern PCs most 3D Pro owners can only run in analog mode. The 3D Pro was popular enough to spawn a successor, the Precision Pro, which was a USB device and, while it did not work in DOS at all, was far more reliable under Windows despite quality issues.

The joystick was widely praised in its inception and was one of the few joysticks with multiple buttons that did not require a keyboard pass-through. The stick was especially popular with MechWarrior and Descent players as it was one of the few multi-button joysticks supported by the games natively.

The joystick's popularity has created a small die-hard following, with many people still holding onto them despite their age. This resulted in the creation of a USB adapter for the 3D Pro.

The 3D Pro features as a character (Ã) in the Webdings dingbat font.

Standard
The SideWinder Standard joystick was a more basic joystick released around the same time as the 3D Pro. It was a simple two button, three axis joystick. It featured a trigger button, a thumb button and a throttle wheel on left side of the base. In addition it had two additional dials on the base for adjustment of the stick itself, one above stick and the other to the right of the stick. It used a gameport connector to interface with the computer.

Precision Pro
Microsoft introduced the SideWinder Precision Pro in 1995, correcting the ergonomic issues, fixing some of the electrical issues, and adding new features.

The Precision Pro introduced a new stick that was far more ergonomic than the "geometric" design of the 3D Pro. Microsoft also gave the rest of the Precision Pro a more rounded design, replacing the rectangular base buttons with more rounded versions at the top of the base, the slider-based throttle with a wheel-based throttle, and the base itself was made more rounded. The Precision Pro also added a shift button to the base, doubling the number of possible button combinations.

Signatures can be seen inside the joystick, on the base coverplate. Fred Iyc and Edie Adams are among the 17 people who have signed it.

For its electronics, the Precision Pro featured a refined hybrid system, resolving some of the hardware compatibility issues with the 3D Pro. However, with the widespread introduction of USB in consumer computers shortly after the Precision Pro was released, Microsoft soon re-released the joystick in a USB-compatible form (joysticks labeled as Part No. X03-57540, Product I.D. 85791-579-2177031-00000). The revised joystick still featured a gameport connector but had additional circuitry for interfacing with USB, and was bundled with a USB converter (a DIY converter project exists). Original Precision Pros remain incompatible with this converter, but a user made converter exists. The creation of the USB converter bypassed the problems with the analog gameport entirely, and as a result became the true solution to the electrical problems. However, due to a flaw in the design of the Precision Pro, in rare cases the stick would build up a static charge in its electronics and require either a complex process to discharge that was not always successful, or simply needed to stay unpowered for a number of hours to slowly discharge on its own. This is also one of the first joysticks to use light sensors instead of potentiometers so it required no calibration, and thus had no electronical moving parts. The only moving parts were mechanical on the throttle and joystick pivots which gave this joystick virtually unlimited lifetime. The Precision Pro 2 had reintroduced potentiometers to save money and thus their lifetime was limited to wear and tear of the potentiometers.

Thanks to the timing of the launch of the Precision Pro to coincide with the widespread launch of USB along the ergonomic corrections and rarity of the static charge problem, the Precision Pro saw a much higher sales volume and review scores than the earlier 3D Pro.

Force Feedback Pro
From technology acquired from EXOS, Inc, Microsoft then released a force feedback product called the Force Feedback Pro. Built on the design of the Precision Pro, the Force Feedback Pro differed only in the inclusion of motors for the force feedback effects, and the lack of USB compatibility. (A DIY converter project exists.) Due to the inclusion of the motors, the Force Feedback Pro was significantly larger and heavier than the Precision Pro, making it easy to differentiate between the two.

As the PC joystick port is input-only, the only way for data to be sent to the joystick (to trigger force feedback events) is to use the MIDI capabilities of the port. This extension to the original gameport, first popularised by Creative Labs in their early sound cards, was intended to allow MIDI instruments to be connected to the joystick port but is used here to provide bidirectional communication with the joystick instead. Force feedback events are triggered by messages on MIDI channel 6, with effect data uploaded via SysEx messages. This means that force feedback would be unavailable on the earliest of PCs, where the gameports lack MIDI functionality.

Precision 2
The basis of Microsoft's last generation of SideWinder joysticks, the Precision 2 design was a further refinement of the previous Precision Pro. Compared to the Precision Pro, the Precision 2 dropped the Pro's shift button, replaced the throttle wheel with a more traditional lever, and rearranged the face buttons on the stick into a symmetric design. The Precision 2 also dropped all gameport compatibility by only shipping in a USB version, and was slightly smaller and lighter than the Pro. In spite of being Microsoft's 2nd-generation USB controller, the Precision 2 in particular seemed to suffer more from the USB SideWinder's long-standing static buildup problem than the original Precision Pro.

Force Feedback 2
Along with replacing the Precision Pro with a new design, the Force Feedback Pro was replaced with a Precision 2 derivative, the Force Feedback 2. Compared to the Force Feedback Pro and the Precision 2, nothing new was added to the Force Feedback 2 that wasn't added to the Precision 2, in fact the shift button was taken away. The overall size and weight difference was not so great with the use of smaller motors. This joystick came in two varieties: one version with a silver trigger and textured hard plastic grip, and an updated version with translucent red parts (trigger, buttons 3 & 4, rounded part at the bottom) that switched to a rubberized coating on the grip. One of the main changes in the Force Feedback 2 from the Force Feedback Pro was removing the external power brick and replacing it with an internal power supply. Since the release of the Force Feedback 2, the stick has garnered a reputation of reliability and resiliency, many Force Feedback 2 sticks are still in use currently. On eBay Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joysticks regularly sell for more than the original MSRP of $109.

Joystick
Using the Precision 2 design once again, Microsoft introduced a value-oriented SideWinder joystick, simply called the SideWinder Joystick. In spite of its value designation, the SideWinder Joystick was functionally similar to the Precision 2. The main features dropped were Z-axis control and the 8-way hat switch. Otherwise the differences were cosmetic, including shrinking the base, moving the throttle to the front of the base, and replacing 2 of the rounded buttons on the stick with more rectangular buttons. Support for this joystick was dropped with the advent of Windows XP.

Force Feedback Wheel
The Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel is a steering wheel controller for sim racing. It was the first wheel controller to contain force feedback. The USB version of the wheel is compatible with one PlayStation 2 game, Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero.

Strategic Commander
The Strategic Commander is designed to complement a standard mouse/keyboard setup for Real Time Strategy games. It features a total of 6 programmable command buttons, 2 zoom buttons, 3 shift buttons, a macro record button and a 3-point configuration switch. The device also has three movement axes: X, Y and Z (rotation). Through extensive configuration of the shift and command buttons, it is possible to create a total of 24 different commands per configuration.

The Strategic Commander is a highly ergonomic device, and resembles a large mouse in shape, contoured for the left hand. It has an upper section attached to a base. On the upper section, the programmable buttons mentioned above are located near the tips of the index, middle and ring fingers for quick access. Three buttons are located near the thumb in an arc.

A feature of the device is that the upper section is also a 2-axis motion controller with additional support for rotation. It allows motion in the X, Y & Z axis (corresponding to Forward, Backwards, Strafe left & right, Turn left & right). This made it useful for first-person shooters, because one can aim weapons or look up and down with the right hand while simultaneously slewing position with the left hand, and change weapons etc. with the left finger buttons.

Software was included for the device to provide hotkeys for a number of (then popular) games. The buttons are also programmable, allowing the device to be used with other games and applications. For example, one application developed at Carnegie Mellon used the device as a peripheral for navigating massive social network maps.

Linux treats this device as a joystick (with all 3 axis and 12 plus 3 buttons) and can be used as one or using various applets can be used as a "joystick action to key press" device (e.g. Joy2Key)

Game Voice
The Game Voice is an early voice chat device. It was shaped like a hockey puck, with four channel buttons that allowed the user to speak to individual teammates. It could also be set to communicate with the entire team, or globally to all players. The driver software also allowed it to function as a voice command device using programmable macros. The package included a headset with an attached microphone, though these could be substituted with any other PC headset/microphone. The puck acted as an intermediary between the sound card and the sound input/output devices. The headset, along with the system speakers, plugged into the puck, where a switch could be used to set whether sound would be output from the speakers or the headset. The puck also had its own volume control. To provide power for the puck LEDs and drive the voice command and channel functions, a USB connection was also required. Microsoft recommended Game Voice as a microphone for use with the speech recognition feature of Microsoft Office XP.

Microsoft discontinued the product in 2003. By then, the market for voice chat had seen intense competition from downloadable and free-to-use software like Ventrilo and TeamSpeak, among others. These software packages only charge the host or server, whereas each person would have to own a Game Voice in order to use the hardware and software. As a result, the Game Voice ultimately lost that market. However, these competing software packages do not offer voice command systems.

Microsoft has not released the hardware specifications so that an open source driver could be developed. The device is supported under Windows XP, but no new driver is planned for Windows Vista. Despite this, Linux based operating systems can use this device using various third party applets (i.e. Kamevoice)

Freestyle Pro
The Freestyle Pro, released in 1998, was a unique gamepad, as the up-down-left-right directions in analogue mode were controlled by the physical movement of the controller, more precisely by the absolute pitch and roll position of the pad. (Similar behavior would later be found in the Sony PlayStation 3 SIXAXIS line, introduced in 2006.) Games such as Motocross Madness (which was bundled with and designed for the controller) profited from this physical interaction. The left side of the controller features an eight-direction d-pad which function varies depending on which mode the controller is on.

The control pad had a total of ten digital fire buttons: six buttons controlled with the right thumb (named ABC XYZ), two shoulder buttons (one left, one right), and two buttons controlled with the left thumb, one named start, the other marked with a shift key symbol (as the SideWinder software allowed to use this button to shift controls for the ABC XYZ buttons - on the driver side, it was just an action button like the others).

A sensor button switched the control pad between analogue mode (green LED) and digital mode (red LED). In analogue mode, the x- and y-axis were controlled by the analogue controller movements, and the D-pad was used as a hat switch. In digital mode, the D-pad controlled the x- and y-axis like a traditional digital control pad (therefore, there was no hat switch function in digital mode).

Due to the release in 1998, at which time USB was just taking off, the Freestyle Pro supported both game port and USB connection. Without the adapter, the controller's cable ended in a game port plug. The sale box contained the game port-to-USB adapter for free.

Dual Strike
The Dual Strike, which debuted in 1999, was Microsoft's second notable venture into strange gamepad designs, following the Freestyle Pro. The Dual Strike attempted to blend both mouse and gamepad functions into a single unit. It was composed of two portions; there is a hinge between the two that allows the user to rotate the right side up and down and from side to side. The Dual Strike only supported USB.

Sidewinder 92626
This is similar to the Precision Pro and has a USB connection. Circa 2002. Serial numbers begin with 92626.

Second generation

In 2007, following a collaboration with Razer in creating the Microsoft Habu and Microsoft Reclusa, a gaming mouse and gaming keyboard sold under the plain Microsoft Hardware brand, Microsoft resurrected the SideWinder brand with an all-new SideWinder Mouse, designed from the ground up for high-end PC gaming. The design incorporated a number of advanced features including adjustable weights, programmable macro mode, on- the- fly DPI change, and a built-in LCD display, the first ever found in a mouse.

In 2008, Microsoft also released the SideWinder X6 Gaming Keyboard, which is designed to be the keyboard counterpart of the Sidewinder Mouse. It features up to 30 programmable macro keys, volume control, media control, a detachable numpad and backlighting. Along with this keyboard a new mouse was released dubbed the SideWinder X5. The X5 has a more basic function set than its predecessor but was well received because of its lower price. Its shape is the same as the original but without the LCD, weight adjusting and metal side buttons. It also comes with a complete black design with red "LED Jets" on the back to make it stand out from the original and better fit the X6 keyboard.

In February 2009, Microsoft released another update to the SideWinder line, the SideWinder X8 gaming mouse. This new iteration incorporated new Microsoft BlueTrack tracking technology, intended to provide better tracking on non-standard surfaces. In addition, the mouse was made wireless, and the maximum DPI sensitivity was upped to 4000.

In March 2010, Microsoft released a second gaming keyboard, the Sidewinder X4. In comparison with the earlier X6, anti-ghosting technology was added. However, the detachable numpad was removed, and a numpad was instead attached permanently to the keyboard.

As of October 2014, Microsoft no longer offers any gaming mice or keyboards in the US.

title: Microsoft SideWinder


text:
Source of Labor

Source of Labor was a rap band formed in 1989 in Seattle, Washington, consisting of Wordsayer, Negus I, DJ Kamikaze, and later, Vitamin D.

History
Wordsayer and Negus I are brothers and Kamikaze was their roommate when they began performing at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center in Seattle's Central District in 1989. Source of Labor began a collective at that time that evolved into a record label called Jasiri Media Group. Their first show in downtown Seattle was in 1993 at the Crocodile Cafe.

Source of Labor was loosely associated with the female rap act Beyond Reality, whose lead, MC Kylea, was Wordsayer's partner and mother of his first child. Both performed at the all-day Rap Festival (featuring 30 or more of the top regional rap/hip-hop acts of that time). The event, much like Lollapolooza, was strictly Rap and was called "Phunky Phat 95." It took place at the Evergreen State College during the summer of 1995. Source of Labor performed at Seattle's arts festival, Bumbershoot, and inspired Macklemore to become a rapper. Wordsayer later gave Macklemore his first show at age 15. Source of Labor has been an inspiration to many other artists like Nardwuar the Human Serviette, Ryan Lewis, Strath Shepard, and Thee Satisfaction.

Source of Labor's contributions to Northwest hip hop were extremely influential in shaping post-Nastmix hip-hop. They were part of Seattle's second hip hop movement, the first wave centering around Nastymix recording artist Sir-Mix-a-Lot. Some credit the group's front man, Wordsayer, with personally moving hip-hop out of Seattle's Central District and into the rest of the city. In 1997 Source of Labor's DJ Kamikaze was replaced by Vitamin D.

Source of Labor disbanded in 2004 and the artists went on to focus on their individual projects. Wordsayer continued producing and taught poetry at Franklin High School. Vitamin D continued his rapping and production career.

Wordsayer, born Jonathan Moore, died of kidney failure in March 2017.

title: Source of Labor