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Stiv Bators

Steven John Bator (October 22, 1949 – June 4, 1990), known professionally as Stiv Bator and later as Stiv Bators, was an American punk rock vocalist and guitarist from Youngstown, Ohio. He is best remembered for his bands Dead Boys and The Lords of the New Church.

Early life
Stiv Bators was born Steven John Bator on October 22, 1949, in Youngstown, Ohio, to Mr and Mrs. Steven John Bator Sr. He was of Pennsylvania Dutch and Czech-Romani descent; "Stiv" is the Czech equivalent to Steven. He was in Catholic school for 12 years.

Music and film career
In the course of his career Bators was involved with a variety of bands beyond those for which he was best known, including Hormones, with Dennis Comeau and Andre Siva, Frankenstein, The Wanderers and The Whores of Babylon (with Dee Dee Ramone and Johnny Thunders). He also recorded as a solo artist with Bomp! Records.

As the lead singer and driving force of the Cleveland, Ohio–based Dead Boys, Bators helped pioneer the punk rock sound, look and attitude. The band quickly became a popular staple at CBGB, a music club in New York City's East Village. The Dead Boys were featured in the punk rock films Punking Out (1978), Live at CBGB's (1977) and Crash 'n' Burn (1977).

Following the demise of Dead Boys in 1979, Bators began a tumultuous relationship with Bomp! Records and its president, Greg Shaw. According to Shaw: "[W]hat he craved most was to escape the fetters of his Dead Boy image and win respect as a singer of contemporary pop rock (...) in other words, he wanted to be 'the thinking punk's Eric Carmen.'" To this end, and usually with first-wave punk rock veterans in tow, he recorded several singles, many of which were unreleased, and an LP, Disconnected, which was released in 1980. A retrospective album released in 1994, L.A. L.A. documented Bators' efforts as a pop-punk singer.

In 1980, Bators, located in London, formed The Wanderers with Dave Tregunna, the bass player for the punk group Sham 69, which had recently disbanded. The Wanderers came up with a concept album, called Only Lovers Left Alive (released in May 1981), along with two singles.

Bators and Tregunna formed The Lords of the New Church in 1981, with Brian James of The Damned. The Lords of the New Church became notorious for their live shows. A devotee of Iggy Pop, Bators had developed a fearless reputation in his Dead Boys days and continued such antics with The Lords of the New Church. They recorded two more successful albums.

Later, the punk vocalist gained additional exposure through more mainstream film. In 1981, Bators had a small role as "Bobo" in the satirical John Waters film Polyester. In 1988, Bators made a cameo appearance as "Dick Slammer", lead singer of the fictional band the Blender Children, in the offbeat comedy Tapeheads, starring John Cusack and Tim Robbins.

In summer 1985, Bators contributed backing vocals to "Sun City" by Artists United Against Apartheid and also appeared in its music video, shot in October.

The Lords of the New Church broke up in 1989, when Bators injured his back and guitarist Brian James secretly began advertising for a replacement singer.

Death
On June 4, 1990, Bators died in Paris after being hit by a car. He was on his motorbike when a car hit him and knocked him off the vehicle. He did not believe he was seriously injured, and returned to his apartment, where he died in his sleep as the result of a traumatic brain injury at the age of 40. He was survived by his parents.

Dave Tregunna said that Bators, a fan of Jim Morrison, had earlier requested that his ashes be spread over Morrison's Paris grave and his girlfriend complied.

In the director's commentary of the film Polyester, in which Bators had a small role, director/producer John Waters stated that Bators' girlfriend, Caroline Warren, confessed to him that she snorted a portion of Stiv's ashes so that she could be closer to him.

In film
In 2013, an American-made motion picture titled CBGB was released to theaters. Dead Boys were featured as one of the seminal punk bands that got their start at the CBGB club, and were first managed by Hilly Kristal. Bators is portrayed by actor Justin Bartha.

In 2019, a biographical documentary was released titled Stiv. Directed and written by Danny Garcia, the film chronicles the life, legacy and demise of Bators.

With Dead Boys

 * Studio albums

 * Young, Loud and Snotty – 1977, Sire
 * We Have Come for Your Children – 1978, Sire
 * Younger, Louder and Snottier – 1997, Bomp! (Alternate mix album)
 * 3rd Generation Nation – 1999, Bad Boy Production (Alternate mix album)

With the Wanderers

 * Studio albums

 * Only Lovers Left Alive – 1981, Polydor

With The Lords of the New Church

 * Studio albums

 * The Lords of the New Church – 1982, Illegal, I.R.S.
 * Is Nothing Sacred? – 1983, I.R.S.
 * The Method to Our Madness – 1984, I.R.S.

Solo

 * Studio albums

 * Disconnected – 1980, Bomp!

 * Live albums

 * Live at the Limelight – 1988, Perfect Beat (Germany, as Stiv Bators and His Evil Boys)

 * Compilation albums

 * The Lord and the New Creatures – 1983, Lolita (France)
 * I Wanna Be a Dead Boy... – 1992, Munster Records / Bomp!
 * L.A. L.A. – 1993, Bomp!
 * Sonic Reducer – 1994, Editions Atlas (France)
 * The Last Race – 1996, Bond Age (France)
 * L.A. Confidential – 2004, Bomp!
 * Do You Believe In Magyk? – 2015, Easy Action (Reissue of The Last Race and Live at the Limelight)

 * Singles

 * "It's Cold Outside" b/w "The Last Year" – 1979, Bomp!
 * "Not That Way Anymore" b/w "Circumstantial Evidence" – 1980, Bomp!
 * "Too Much To Dream" b/w "Make Up Your Mind" (12-inch) – 1980, Bomp!
 * "Story in Your Eyes" b/w "Have Love Will Travel" – 1987, Bomp!
 * "King of the Brats" b/w "Young Don't Cry" – 1995, Try To Understand (France, unofficial 7-inch – the B-side is a 1982 track by The Lords of the New Church)
 * "Make Up Your Mind" b/w "Make Up Your Mind" – 2013, Ugly Pop Records (Canada, split 7-inch with David Quinton – the B-side is Quinton's 1981 solo version of the same song)

 * Extended Plays

 * Last Stand 1980 EP – 2013, Ugly Pop Records (Canada, 7-inch, as Stiv Bators' Dead Boys – live recordings of "Son of Sam", "Third Generation Nation" and "All This and More")

 * Other appearances

 * Various Artists: Where The Action Is!, 1980 – "Circumstantial Evidence" and "I'll Be Alright" (Promotional sampler from Bomp!)
 * Artists United Against Apartheid: Sun City, 1985 – "Sun City" (Backing vocals)
 * Tapeheads, 1988 – "Mr. MX7" (Stiv Bators with the Zeros; featured in the film but not included on the soundtrack album)
 * Lyres: A Promise Is a Promise, 1988 – "Here's a Heart" (Guest vocals)
 * Michael Monroe: Peace of Mind, 2000 – "I Wanna Be with You" and "It's a Lie" (Backing vocals; 1985 demo sessions)

title: Stiv Bators


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List of oldest universities in continuous operation

This is a list of the oldest existing universities in continuous operation in the world.

Inclusion in this list is determined by the date at which the educational institute first met the traditional definition of a university used by academic historians although it may have existed as a different kind of institution before that time. This definition limits the term "university" to institutions with distinctive structural and legal features that developed in Europe, and which make the university form different from other institutions of higher learning in the pre-modern world, even though these may sometimes now be referred to popularly as universities.

To be included in the list, the university must have been founded prior to 1500 in Europe or be the oldest university derived from the medieval European model in a country or region. It must also still be in operation, with institutional continuity retained throughout its history. So some early universities, including the University of Paris, founded around the beginning of the 13th century but abolished by the French Revolution in 1793, are excluded. Some institutions reemerge, but with new foundations, such as the modern University of Paris, which came into existence in 1896 after the Louis Liard law disbanded Napoleon's University of France system.

The word "university" is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which approximately means "community of teachers and scholars." The University of Bologna in Bologna, Italy, where teaching began around 1088 and which was organised into a university in the late 12th century, is the world's oldest university in continuous operation, and the first university in the sense of a higher-learning and degree-awarding institute. The origin of many medieval universities can be traced back to the Catholic cathedral schools or monastic schools, which appeared as early as the 6th century and were run for hundreds of years prior to their formal establishment as universities in the high medieval period.

Ancient higher-learning institutions, such as those of ancient Greece, Africa, ancient Persia, ancient Rome, Byzantium, ancient China, ancient India and the Islamic world, are not included in this list owing to their cultural, historical, structural and legal differences from the medieval European university from which the modern university evolved. These include the University of al-Qarawiyyin and Al-Azhar University, which were founded as mosques in 857 and 970 respectively and developed into madrasas prior to the establishment of any European university, making them the oldest institutions of higher learning in continuous operation in the world. They became universities in 1963 and 1961 respectively.

Medieval origins
The university as an institution was historically rooted in medieval society, which it in turn influenced and shaped. Academic historian Walter Rüegg asserts that:

"The university is a European institution; indeed, it is the European institution par excellence. There are various reasons for this assertion. As a community of teachers and taught, accorded certain rights, such as administrative autonomy and the determination and realisation of curricula (courses of study) and of the objectives of research as well as the award of publicly recognised degrees, it is a creation of medieval Europe, which was the Europe of papal Christianity [...]."

Modern spread
From the early modern period onwards, the university spread from the medieval Latin West across the globe, eventually replacing all other higher-learning institutions and becoming the preeminent institution for higher education everywhere. The process occurred in the following chronological order:
 * Southern and Western Europe (from the 11th or 12th century)
 * Central and Northern Europe (from the 14th or 15th century)
 * Americas (from the 16th century)
 * Australia (from the 19th century)
 * Asia and Africa (from the 19th or 20th century), with the exception of the Philippines, where the University of Santo Tomas was established in the 17th century.

Founded as universities before 1500
This list includes medieval universities that were founded before 1500 and which have retained institutional continuity since then (excluding not only those that ceased to exist, but also those that merged into or split away to an institution which is regarded as newly established). Several of these have been closed for brief periods: for example the University of Siena was closed 1805–1815 during the Napoleonic wars, and universities in the Czech Republic and Poland were closed during Nazi occupation, 1938–1945.

Universities are dated from when, according to scholars, they first met the definition of a university. In cases such as the universities of Bologna and Oxford which trace their history back to teaching in individual schools prior to their formation into a university, or which existed in another form prior to being a university, the date in the list below is thus later than the date given by the institutions for their foundation.

Oldest universities by country or region after 1500 still in operation
The majority of European countries had universities by 1500. Many universities were established at institutes of learning such as schools and colleges that may have been founded significantly earlier but were not classed as universities upon their foundation; this is normally described in the notes for that institution. In some countries (particularly the US and those influenced by its culture), degree-granting higher education institutions that would normally be called universities are instead called colleges. In this case, both the oldest institution that would normally be regarded as a university and the oldest institution (if different) to actually be called a university are given. In many parts of the world, the first university to have a presence was an institution based elsewhere (often the University of London via the affiliation of a local college); where this is different from the first locally established university, both are given.

Europe
While Europe had 143 universities in 1789, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars took a heavy toll, reducing the number to 83 by 1815. The universities of France were abolished and over half of the universities in both Germany and Spain were destroyed. By the mid 19th century, Europe had recovered to 98 universities.

North America
In the United States, the colonial colleges awarded degrees from their foundation, but none were formally named as universities prior to the American Revolution, leading to various claims to be the first university in the United States. The earliest Canadian institutions were founded as colleges, without degree awarding powers, and gained degree granting authority and university status later.

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


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Arnold Brown (comedian)

Arnold Brown (born 1936, in Glasgow ) is a Scottish Jewish comedian, one of the main figures in the alternative comedy scene of the early 1980s.

Life and career
Originally an accountant, Brown worked hard at live standup, until he found a knack for presenting observational comedy in a slow, meandering but entertaining style. He won the Edinburgh Festival Perrier Award in 1987. His catchphrase is "And why not?"

He quotes the highlight of his career as supporting Frank Sinatra on stage in Glasgow's Ibrox Park.

He can be seen on: the original Julien Temple film The Comic Strip (1981), performing live on stage; the Bill Forsyth film Comfort and Joy in which he plays a psychiatrist in a manner reminiscent of his stand-up style; The Comic Strip television series (1982 onwards) in various roles; The Young Ones in various roles; and in The Dangerous Brothers (1985).

He appeared as himself in the 1994 partially-improvised comedy film There's No Business..., starring the comedy duos Raw Sex (Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron) and The Oblivion Boys. He has appeared in Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle in various roles; and in "Torture" (from Saturday Live) as a man who has experienced Chinese water torture. Also in 1994, Methuen published his book, Are You Looking at Me, Jimmy?.

Brown featured in 2012 in two Random Acts films on Channel 4 called "Where is the Fish That Never Swam?" and "The Alleyway of a Thousand Questions", directed by Jes Benstock. His DVD, Jokes I Have Known was produced and released by Go Faster Stripe in the same year.

In 2008, he performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in a show called Happiness: The Search Continues with Ian Macpherson. He appeared on KT Tunstall's documentary about Ivor Cutler in 2020, speaking about Cutler but also about Jewish life in Glasgow. In the same year, he was mentioned by Lenny Henry on Louis Theroux's Grounded podcast as an act who commendably does not resort to sexist or racist material.

Arnold Brown was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Scottish Comedy Awards in April 2014.

The University of Kent Special Collections & Archives holds a collection of Arnold Brown's material relating to his comedy career. It includes promotional material, audio recordings, press coverage and photographs.

title: Arnold Brown (comedian)


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Canonical correlation

In statistics, canonical-correlation analysis (CCA), also called canonical variates analysis, is a way of inferring information from cross-covariance matrices. If we have two vectors X = (X1, ..., Xn) and Y = (Y1, ..., Ym) of random variables, and there are correlations among the variables, then canonical-correlation analysis will find linear combinations of X and Y that have a maximum correlation with each other. T. R. Knapp notes that "virtually all of the commonly encountered parametric tests of significance can be treated as special cases of canonical-correlation analysis, which is the general procedure for investigating the relationships between two sets of variables." The method was first introduced by Harold Hotelling in 1936, although in the context of angles between flats the mathematical concept was published by Camille Jordan in 1875.

CCA is now a cornerstone of multivariate statistics and multi-view learning, and a great number of interpretations and extensions have been proposed, such as probabilistic CCA, sparse CCA, multi-view CCA, Deep CCA, and DeepGeoCCA. Unfortunately, perhaps because of its popularity, the literature can be inconsistent with notation, we attempt to highlight such inconsistencies in this article to help the reader make best use of the existing literature and techniques available.

Like its sister method PCA, CCA can be viewed in population form (corresponding to random vectors and their covariance matrices) or in sample form (corresponding to datasets and their sample covariance matrices). These two forms are almost exact analogues of each other, which is why their distinction is often overlooked, but they can behave very differently in high dimensional settings. We next give explicit mathematical definitions for the population problem and highlight the different objects in the so-called canonical decomposition - understanding the differences between these objects is crucial for interpretation of the technique.

Population CCA definition via correlations
Given two column vectors $$X = (x_1, \dots, x_n)^T$$ and $$Y = (y_1, \dots, y_m)^T$$ of random variables with finite second moments, one may define the cross-covariance $$\Sigma _{XY} = \operatorname{cov}(X, Y) $$ to be the $$ n \times m$$ matrix whose $$(i, j)$$ entry is the covariance $$\operatorname{cov}(x_i, y_j)$$. In practice, we would estimate the covariance matrix based on sampled data from $$X$$ and $$Y$$ (i.e. from a pair of data matrices).

Canonical-correlation analysis seeks a sequence of vectors $$a_k$$ ($$a_k \in\mathbb R^n$$) and $$b_k$$ ($$b_k \in\mathbb R^m$$) such that the random variables $$a_k^T X$$ and $$b_k^T Y$$ maximize the correlation $$\rho = \operatorname{corr}(a_k^T X, b_k^T Y)$$. The (scalar) random variables $$U = a_k^T X$$ and $$V = b_k^T Y$$ are the first pair of canonical variables. Then one seeks vectors maximizing the same correlation subject to the constraint that they are to be uncorrelated with the first pair of canonical variables; this gives the second pair of canonical variables. This procedure may be continued up to $$\min\{m,n\}$$ times.

 * $$(a_k,b_k) = \underset{a,b}\operatorname{argmax} \operatorname{corr}(a^T X, b^T Y) \quad\text{ subject to } \operatorname{cov}(a^T X, a_j^T X) = \operatorname{cov}(b^T Y, b_j^T Y) = 0 \text{ for } j=1, \dots, k-1$$

The sets of vectors $$a_k, b_k$$ are called canonical directions or weight vectors or simply weights. The 'dual' sets of vectors $$\Sigma_{XX}a_k, \Sigma_{YY} b_k$$ are called canonical loading vectors or simply loadings; these are often more straightforward to interpret than the weights.

Derivation
Let $$\Sigma _{XY}$$ be the cross-covariance matrix for any pair of (vector-shaped) random variables $$X$$ and $$Y$$. The target function to maximize is

\rho = \frac{a^T \Sigma _{XY} b}{\sqrt{a^T \Sigma _{XX} a} \sqrt{b^T \Sigma _{YY} b}}. $$

The first step is to define a change of basis and define

c = \Sigma _{XX} ^{1/2} a, $$

d = \Sigma _{YY} ^{1/2} b, $$ where $$\Sigma_{XX}^{1/2}$$ and $$\Sigma_{YY}^{1/2}$$ can be obtained from the eigen-decomposition (or by diagonalization):

\Sigma _{XX} ^{1/2} = V_X D_X^{1/2} V_X^\top,\qquad V_X D_X V_X^\top = \Sigma_{XX}, $$ and

\Sigma _{YY} ^{1/2} = V_Y D_Y^{1/2} V_Y^\top,\qquad V_Y D_Y V_Y^\top = \Sigma_{YY}. $$

Thus

\rho = \frac{c^T \Sigma _{XX} ^{-1/2} \Sigma _{XY} \Sigma _{YY} ^{-1/2} d}{\sqrt{c^Tc} \sqrt{d^Td}}. $$

By the Cauchy–Schwarz inequality,

\left(c^T \Sigma _{XX} ^{-1/2} \Sigma _{XY} \Sigma _{YY} ^{-1/2} \right)  (d)  \leq \left(c^T \Sigma _{XX} ^{-1/2} \Sigma _{XY} \Sigma _{YY} ^{-1/2} \Sigma _{YY} ^{-1/2} \Sigma _{YX} \Sigma _{XX} ^{-1/2} c \right)^{1/2} \left(d^T d \right)^{1/2}, $$

\rho \leq \frac{\left(c^T \Sigma _{XX}^{-1/2} \Sigma _{XY} \Sigma _{YY}^{-1} \Sigma _{YX} \Sigma_{XX}^{-1/2} c \right)^{1/2}}{\left(c^T c \right)^{1/2}}. $$

There is equality if the vectors $$d$$ and $$\Sigma_{YY}^{-1/2} \Sigma_{YX} \Sigma_{XX}^{-1/2} c$$ are collinear. In addition, the maximum of correlation is attained if $$c$$ is the eigenvector with the maximum eigenvalue for the matrix $$\Sigma_{XX}^{-1/2} \Sigma_{XY} \Sigma_{YY}^{-1} \Sigma_{YX} \Sigma_{XX}^{-1/2}$$ (see Rayleigh quotient). The subsequent pairs are found by using eigenvalues of decreasing magnitudes. Orthogonality is guaranteed by the symmetry of the correlation matrices.

Another way of viewing this computation is that $$c$$ and $$d$$ are the left and right singular vectors of the correlation matrix of X and Y corresponding to the highest singular value.

Solution
The solution is therefore:
 * $$c$$ is an eigenvector of $$\Sigma_{XX}^{-1/2} \Sigma_{XY} \Sigma_{YY}^{-1} \Sigma_{YX} \Sigma_{XX}^{-1/2}$$
 * $$d$$ is proportional to $$\Sigma _{YY}^{-1/2} \Sigma_{YX} \Sigma_{XX}^{-1/2} c$$

Reciprocally, there is also:
 * $$d$$ is an eigenvector of $$\Sigma_{YY}^{-1/2} \Sigma_{YX} \Sigma_{XX}^{-1} \Sigma_{XY} \Sigma_{YY}^{-1/2}$$
 * $$c$$ is proportional to $$\Sigma_{XX}^{-1/2} \Sigma_{XY} \Sigma_{YY}^{-1/2} d$$

Reversing the change of coordinates, we have that
 * $$a$$ is an eigenvector of $$\Sigma_{XX}^{-1} \Sigma_{XY} \Sigma_{YY}^{-1} \Sigma_{YX}$$,
 * $$b$$ is proportional to $$\Sigma_{YY}^{-1} \Sigma_{YX} a;$$
 * $$b$$ is an eigenvector of $$\Sigma _{YY}^{-1} \Sigma_{YX} \Sigma_{XX}^{-1} \Sigma_{XY},$$
 * $$a$$ is proportional to $$\Sigma_{XX}^{-1} \Sigma_{XY} b$$.

The canonical variables are defined by:

 * $$U = c^T \Sigma_{XX}^{-1/2} X = a^T X$$

 * $$V = d^T \Sigma_{YY}^{-1/2} Y = b^T Y$$

Implementation
CCA can be computed using singular value decomposition on a correlation matrix. It is available as a function in

 * MATLAB as canoncorr (also in Octave)
 * R as the standard function cancor and several other packages, including CCA and vegan. CCP for statistical hypothesis testing in canonical correlation analysis.
 * SAS as proc cancorr
 * Python in the library scikit-learn, as Cross decomposition and in statsmodels, as CanCorr. The CCA-Zoo library implements CCA extensions, such as probabilistic CCA, sparse CCA, multi-view CCA, and Deep CCA.
 * SPSS as macro CanCorr shipped with the main software
 * Julia (programming language) in the MultivariateStats.jl package.

CCA computation using singular value decomposition on a correlation matrix is related to the cosine of the angles between flats. The cosine function is ill-conditioned for small angles, leading to very inaccurate computation of highly correlated principal vectors in finite precision computer arithmetic. To fix this trouble, alternative algorithms are available in

 * SciPy as linear-algebra function subspace_angles
 * MATLAB as FileExchange function subspacea

Hypothesis testing
Each row can be tested for significance with the following method. Since the correlations are sorted, saying that row $$i$$ is zero implies all further correlations are also zero. If we have $$p$$ independent observations in a sample and $$\widehat{\rho}_i$$ is the estimated correlation for $$i = 1,\dots, \min\{m,n\}$$. For the $$i$$th row, the test statistic is:

 * $$\chi^2 = - \left( p - 1 - \frac{1}{2}(m + n + 1)\right) \ln \prod_{j = i}^{\min\{m,n\}} (1 - \widehat{\rho}_j^2),$$

which is asymptotically distributed as a chi-squared with $$(m - i + 1)(n - i + 1)$$ degrees of freedom for large $$p$$. Since all the correlations from $$ \min\{m,n\}$$ to $$p$$ are logically zero (and estimated that way also) the product for the terms after this point is irrelevant.

Note that in the small sample size limit with $$p < n + m$$ then we are guaranteed that the top $$m + n - p$$ correlations will be identically 1 and hence the test is meaningless.

Practical uses
A typical use for canonical correlation in the experimental context is to take two sets of variables and see what is common among the two sets. For example, in psychological testing, one could take two well established multidimensional personality tests such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) and the NEO. By seeing how the MMPI-2 factors relate to the NEO factors, one could gain insight into what dimensions were common between the tests and how much variance was shared. For example, one might find that an extraversion or neuroticism dimension accounted for a substantial amount of shared variance between the two tests.

One can also use canonical-correlation analysis to produce a model equation which relates two sets of variables, for example a set of performance measures and a set of explanatory variables, or a set of outputs and set of inputs. Constraint restrictions can be imposed on such a model to ensure it reflects theoretical requirements or intuitively obvious conditions. This type of model is known as a maximum correlation model.

Visualization of the results of canonical correlation is usually through bar plots of the coefficients of the two sets of variables for the pairs of canonical variates showing significant correlation. Some authors suggest that they are best visualized by plotting them as heliographs, a circular format with ray like bars, with each half representing the two sets of variables.

Examples
Let $$X = x_1$$ with zero expected value, i.e., $$\operatorname{E}(X)=0$$.

 * 1) If $$Y = X$$, i.e., $$X$$ and $$Y$$ are perfectly correlated, then, e.g., $$a=1$$ and $$b=1$$, so that the first (and only in this example) pair of canonical variables is $$U = X$$ and $$V = Y =X$$.
 * 2) If $$Y = -X$$, i.e., $$X$$ and $$Y$$ are perfectly anticorrelated, then, e.g., $$a=1$$ and $$b=-1$$, so that the first (and only in this example) pair of canonical variables is $$U = X$$ and $$V = -Y =X$$.

We notice that in both cases $$U =V$$, which illustrates that the canonical-correlation analysis treats correlated and anticorrelated variables similarly.

Connection to principal angles
Assuming that $$X = (x_1, \dots, x_n)^T$$ and $$Y = (y_1, \dots, y_m)^T$$ have zero expected values, i.e., $$\operatorname{E}(X)=\operatorname{E}(Y)=0$$, their covariance matrices $$\Sigma _{XX} =\operatorname{Cov}(X,X) = \operatorname{E}[X X^T]$$ and $$\Sigma _{YY} =\operatorname{Cov}(Y,Y) = \operatorname{E}[Y Y^T]$$ can be viewed as Gram matrices in an inner product for the entries of  $$X$$ and $$Y$$, correspondingly. In this interpretation, the random variables, entries $$x_i$$ of $$X$$ and $$y_j$$ of $$Y$$ are treated as elements of a vector space with an inner product given by the covariance $$\operatorname{cov}(x_i, y_j)$$; see Covariance.

The definition of the canonical variables $$U$$ and $$V$$ is then equivalent to the definition of principal vectors for the pair of subspaces spanned by the entries of $$X$$ and $$Y$$ with respect to this  inner product. The canonical correlations $$\operatorname{corr}(U,V)$$ is equal to the cosine of principal angles.

Whitening and probabilistic canonical correlation analysis
CCA can also be viewed as a special whitening transformation where the random vectors $$X$$ and $$Y$$ are simultaneously transformed in such a way that the cross-correlation between the whitened vectors $$X^{CCA}$$ and $$Y^{CCA}$$ is diagonal. The canonical correlations are then interpreted as regression coefficients linking $$X^{CCA}$$ and $$Y^{CCA}$$ and may also be negative. The regression view of CCA also provides a way to construct a latent variable probabilistic generative model for CCA, with uncorrelated hidden variables representing shared and non-shared variability.

title: Canonical correlation


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Slaughter & the Dogs

Slaughter and the Dogs are an English punk rock band formed in 1975 in Wythenshawe, Manchester. Their original line-up consisted of singer Wayne Barrett McGrath, rhythm guitar Mick Rossi, drummer Brian "Mad Muffet" Grantham, lead guitarist Mike Day and bassist Howard Bates.

History
Slaughter and the Dogs were founded in 1975. The band name is a mix of Slaughter on 10th Avenue and Diamond Dogs; the band had previously been called Wayne Barrett and the Mime Troupe. They were one of the first punk rock bands in North West England, and they supported the Sex Pistols at their gig at Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall on 20 July 1976. This concert, more than any other single event, spawned Manchester's punk scene, which was concentrated around the Electric Circus Club. Mike Day left the group after this gig.

The band befriended Rob Gretton, who went on to manage Joy Division, and with his financial help, became the first band to release a single on Manchester's independent record label Rabid Records. This debut single, "Cranked Up Really High", was released in June 1977 and was listed in Mojo's list of the top 100 punk rock singles of all time. It was also included on Streets, which has been described as an "essential" compilation album of early UK punk bands from a variety of independent record labels.

Wayne Barrett reformed Slaughter and the Dogs (including Mick Rossi and new drummer Phil Rowland, formerly of Eater).

Slaughter and the Dogs released the Beware Of... studio album in October 2001 on Captain Oi! Records.

In 2015, the band announced a one-off 40th anniversary show, "Back to the Start", featuring the original line-up of Barrett, Rossi, Bates and Grantham. Held at the Ruby Lounge in Manchester on 9 October 2015. In August 2016, the same original line up of Barrett, Rossi, Bates and Grantham performed together again at the Rebellion Music Festival in Blackpool, United Kingdom. In 2016, the band recorded the album Vicious in Los Angeles with a new rhythm section of Mark Reback (drums) and Dan Graziano (bass) and subsequently toured Japan in May 2016 and Europe in February and March 2017. It was released by Cleopatra Records on 16 September 2016 to rave reviews, including a 9-out-of-10 rating by Vive Le Rock magazine. Cleopatra issued a live album, Tokyo Dogs, in 2017.

On 9 February 2017, Slaughter and the Dogs embarked on a seven-week European tour, playing 33 shows in 10 countries.

On 5 August 2018, Slaughter and the Dogs headlined the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, England. and then embarked on a two-week UK tour.

In July 2019, Barrett announced on the band's Facebook page that he had fired the band, and that he intended to form a new line-up. In 2022, Barrett recruited a new line up, including ex-bassist Jean-Pierre Thollet, Martin Pellicier on guitar, and Denis Deleaz on drums. The band has been on tour promoting their last album 'Il Tradimento Silencio' in Europe and the United States.

Reviews

 * "A more consistent songwriting approach might have lengthened the Dogs' run, though their lack of airs ensured a winning team for a time. Any band cited by the disparate likes of New Order, the Stone Roses and Smiths' frontman Morrissey surely deserves another look".
 * "More often mentioned for the big name connections rather than their actual music, Slaughter & the Dogs nevertheless remain one of the key players in the early punk scene."
 * "Opinion on Slaughter is divided; glam chancers or punk? Who cares! What can't be denied is their songs are full of style, speed and tunes which coincided with punk and the Pistols. They deserved more but that's music for you ... Check 'em out on Don Letts 'Punk Movie' doing Cranked Up Really High."
 * "Cranked Up Really High, Where Have All the Bootboys Gone? and You're Ready Now ... [are] their enduring punk classics."
 * "Slaughter played with a rare conviction and power, soul-stirring napalm guitars that laid the groundwork for an entire generation of future punk minimalists."

Studio albums

 * Do It Dog Style (Decca Records, SKL 5292, May 1978)
 * Shocking (Receiver Records, May 1991)
 * Beware Of... (Captain Oi! Records, October 2001)
 * Vicious (Cleopatra Records, 16 September 2016)
 *  Il Tradimento Silenzioso (The Silent Betrayal) Contra Records, Spaghetty Town Records, (22 July 2022)

Singles

 * "Cranked Up Really High" / "The Bitch" (Rabid Records, June 1977)
 * "Where Have All the Boot Boys Gone?" / "You're a Bore" (Decca Records, September 1977)
 * "Dame to Blame" / "Johnny T" (Decca Records, November 1977)
 * "Quick Joey Small" / "Come on Back" (Decca Records, February 1978)
 * "It's Alright" / "Edgar Allan Poe" / "Twist and Turn" / "UFO" (TJM Records, March 1979)
 * "You're Ready Now" / "Runaway" (DJM Records, November 1979)
 * Half Alive E.P. ("Twist and Turn" / "Cranked Up Really High" / "Where Have All the Boot Boys Gone?") (Thrush Records, February 1983)
 * "Where Have All the Boot Boys Gone?" / "You're a Bore" / "Johnny T" (Damaged Goods, 1988)
 * "Saturday Night Till Sunday Morning" (TKO Records, 2001)
 * "Situations" / "Quick Joey Small" (Brass City Boss Sounds, 2015)
 * "Manchester Boys" / "Where Have All The Boot Boys Gone" (Blighty Records, Nov 2020)

Live albums

 * Live Slaughter Rabid Dogs (Rabid Records, December 1978)
 * Live at the Factory (Thrush Records, 1981)
 * Where Have All the Boot Boys Gone? (Receiver Records, March 1994)
 * Live in Blackpool 1996 (Dodgy Items, 1997)
 * Barking Up the Right Tree (Amsterdamned, 1998)
 * Tokyo Dogs (Cleopatra Records, 2017)

Compilation albums

 * The Way We Were (Thrush Records, 1983)
 * The Slaughterhouse Tapes (Link Records, 1989) – studio outtakes, demos, and live recordings
 * Cranked Up Really High (Captain Oi! Records, 1995)
 * The Punk Singles Collection (Captain Oi! Records, 2000)
 * We Don't Care: Anthology (Castle Music, 2002)
 * Best of Slaughter & the Dogs (Taang Records, 2002)
 * A Dog Day Afternoon (TKO Records, 2003)

Compilation appearances

 * "Runaway" and "Boston Babies" on Live at the Roxy WC2 (Harvest Records, June 1977) No. 24 UK Albums Chart
 * "Cranked Up Really High" on Streets (Beggars Banquet Records, 1977)
 * "Where Have All the Bootboys Gone?" ("Cranked Up Really High" on later CD pressings) on the Oi! The Album (EMI, 1980)
 * "Cranked Up Really High" on the limited-edition box set of North by North West: Liverpool & Manchester from Punk to Post-Punk & Beyond 1976–1984 (Korova, 2006)
 * "Run Rudolph Run" on Punk Rock Christmas (Cleopatra Records, 2015)

title: Slaughter & the Dogs


text:
Newtonian fluid

A Newtonian fluid is a fluid in which the viscous stresses arising from its flow are at every point linearly correlated to the local strain rate — the rate of change of its deformation over time. Stresses are proportional to the rate of change of the fluid's velocity vector.

A fluid is Newtonian only if the tensors that describe the viscous stress and the strain rate are related by a constant viscosity tensor that does not depend on the stress state and velocity of the flow. If the fluid is also isotropic (mechanical properties are the same along any direction), the viscosity tensor reduces to two real coefficients, describing the fluid's resistance to continuous shear deformation and continuous compression or expansion, respectively.

Newtonian fluids are the easiest mathematical models of fluids that account for viscosity. While no real fluid fits the definition perfectly, many common liquids and gases, such as water and air, can be assumed to be Newtonian for practical calculations under ordinary conditions. However, non-Newtonian fluids are relatively common and include oobleck (which becomes stiffer when vigorously sheared) and non-drip paint (which becomes thinner when sheared). Other examples include many polymer solutions (which exhibit the Weissenberg effect), molten polymers, many solid suspensions, blood, and most highly viscous fluids.

Newtonian fluids are named after Isaac Newton, who first used the differential equation to postulate the relation between the shear strain rate and shear stress for such fluids.

Definition
An element of a flowing liquid or gas will endure forces from the surrounding fluid, including viscous stress forces that cause it to gradually deform over time. These forces can be mathematically first order approximated by a viscous stress tensor, usually denoted by $$\tau$$.

The deformation of a fluid element, relative to some previous state, can be first order approximated by a strain tensor that changes with time. The time derivative of that tensor is the strain rate tensor, that expresses how the element's deformation is changing with time; and is also the gradient of the velocity vector field $$v$$ at that point, often denoted $$\nabla v$$.

The tensors $$\tau$$ and $$\nabla v$$ can be expressed by 3×3 matrices, relative to any chosen coordinate system. The fluid is said to be Newtonian if these matrices are related by the equation $$\boldsymbol{\tau} = \boldsymbol{\mu} (\nabla v)$$ where $$\mu$$ is a fixed 3×3×3×3 fourth order tensor that does not depend on the velocity or stress state of the fluid.

Incompressible isotropic case
For an incompressible and isotropic Newtonian fluid in laminar flow only in the direction x (i.e. where viscosity is isotropic in the fluid), the shear stress is related to the strain rate by the simple constitutive equation $$\tau = \mu \frac{du}{dy}$$ where
 * $$\tau$$ is the shear stress ("skin drag") in the fluid,
 * $$\mu$$ is a scalar constant of proportionality, the dynamic viscosity of the fluid
 * $$\frac{du}{dy}$$ is the derivative in the direction y, normal to x, of the flow velocity component u that is oriented along the direction x.

In case of a general 2D incompressibile flow in the plane x, y, the Newton constitutive equation become:

$$\tau_{xy} = \mu \left( \frac{\partial u}{\partial y} +\frac{\partial v}{\partial x} \right)$$ where:
 * $$\tau_{xy}$$ is the shear stress ("skin drag") in the fluid,
 * $$\frac{\partial u}{\partial y}$$ is the partial derivative in the direction y of the flow velocity component u that is oriented along the direction x.
 * $$\frac{\partial v}{\partial x}$$ is the partial derivative in the direction x of the flow velocity component v that is oriented along the direction y.

We can now generalize to the case of an incompressible flow with a general direction in the 3D space, the above constitutive equation becomes $$\tau_{ij} = \mu \left(\frac{\partial v_i}{\partial x_j} + \frac{\partial v_j}{\partial x_i} \right)$$ where
 * $$x_j$$ is the $$j$$th spatial coordinate
 * $$v_i$$ is the fluid's velocity in the direction of axis $$i$$
 * $$\tau_{ij}$$ is the $$j$$-th component of the stress acting on the faces of the fluid element perpendicular to axis $$i$$. It is the ij-th component of the shear stress tensor

or written in more compact tensor notation $$\boldsymbol{\tau} = \mu\left(\nabla\mathbf{u}+\nabla\mathbf{u}^{T}\right)$$ where $$\nabla \mathbf{u}$$ is the flow velocity gradient.

An alternative way of stating this constitutive equation is:

where $$\boldsymbol{\varepsilon} = \tfrac{1}{2} \left( \mathbf{\nabla u} + \mathbf{\nabla u}^\mathrm{T} \right)$$ is the rate-of-strain tensor. So this decomposition can be made explicit as:

This constitutive equation is also called the Newtonian law of viscosity.

The total stress tensor $$\boldsymbol{\sigma}$$ can always be decomposed as the sum of the isotropic stress tensor and the deviatoric stress tensor ($$\boldsymbol \sigma '$$):

$$\boldsymbol \sigma = \frac 1 3 Tr(\boldsymbol \sigma) \mathbf I + \boldsymbol \sigma'$$

In the incompressible case, the isotropic stress is simply proportional to the thermodynamic pressure $$p$$: $$p = - \frac 1 3 Tr(\boldsymbol \sigma) = - \frac 1 3 \sum_k \sigma_{kk}$$

and the deviatoric stress is coincident with the shear stress tensor $$\boldsymbol \tau$$: $$\boldsymbol \sigma' = \boldsymbol \tau = \mu\left(\nabla\mathbf{u}+\nabla\mathbf{u}^{T}\right)$$

The stress constitutive equation then becomes $$ \sigma_{ij} = - p \delta_{ij} + \mu \left(\frac{\partial v_i}{\partial x_j} + \frac{\partial v_j}{\partial x_i} \right)$$ or written in more compact tensor notation $$\boldsymbol{\sigma} = - p \mathbf{I} + \mu\left(\nabla\mathbf{u}+\nabla\mathbf{u}^{T}\right)$$ where $$\mathbf{I}$$ is the identity tensor.

General compressible case
The Newton's constitutive law for a compressible flow results from the following assumptions on the Cauchy stress tensor:

 the stress is Galilean invariant: it does not depend directly on the flow velocity, but only on spatial derivatives of the flow velocity. So the stress variable is the tensor gradient $\nabla \mathbf{u}$, or more simply the rate-of-strain tensor: $\boldsymbol{\varepsilon}\left(\nabla \mathbf{u}\right) \equiv \frac{1}{2}\nabla \mathbf{u} + \frac{1}{2} \left(\nabla \mathbf{u}\right)^T$  the deviatoric stress is linear in this variable: $\boldsymbol{\sigma}(\boldsymbol \varepsilon) = -p \mathbf I + \mathbf{C} : \boldsymbol \varepsilon$, where $p$ is independent on the strain rate tensor, $\mathbf{C}$  is the fourth-order tensor representing the constant of proportionality, called the viscosity or elasticity tensor, and : is the double-dot product. the fluid is assumed to be isotropic, as with gases and simple liquids, and consequently $\mathbf{C}$ is an isotropic tensor; furthermore, since the deviatoric stress tensor is symmetric, by Helmholtz decomposition it can be expressed in terms of two scalar Lamé parameters, the second viscosity $\lambda$  and the dynamic viscosity $\mu$, as it is usual in linear elasticity:

where $\mathbf{I}$ is the identity tensor, and $\operatorname{tr} (\boldsymbol \varepsilon)$  is the trace of the rate-of-strain tensor. So this decomposition can be explicitly defined as: $$\boldsymbol \sigma = -p \mathbf I + \lambda (\nabla\cdot\mathbf{u}) \mathbf I + \mu \left(\nabla\mathbf{u} + ( \nabla\mathbf{u} )^\mathrm{T}\right).$$

Since the trace of the rate-of-strain tensor in three dimensions is the divergence (i.e. rate of expansion) of the flow: $$\operatorname{tr} (\boldsymbol \varepsilon) = \nabla\cdot\mathbf{u}.$$

Given this relation, and since the trace of the identity tensor in three dimensions is three: $$\operatorname{tr} (\boldsymbol I) = 3.$$

the trace of the stress tensor in three dimensions becomes: $$\operatorname{tr} (\boldsymbol \sigma ) = -3p + (3 \lambda + 2 \mu )\nabla\cdot\mathbf{u}.$$

So by alternatively decomposing the stress tensor into isotropic and deviatoric parts, as usual in fluid dynamics: $$\boldsymbol \sigma = - \left[ p + \left(\lambda + \tfrac23 \mu\right) \left(\nabla\cdot\mathbf{u}\right) \right] \mathbf I + \mu \left(\nabla\mathbf{u} + \left( \nabla\mathbf{u} \right)^\mathrm{T} - \tfrac23 \left(\nabla\cdot\mathbf{u}\right)\mathbf I\right)$$

Introducing the bulk viscosity $\zeta$ , $$ \zeta \equiv \lambda + \tfrac23 \mu ,$$

we arrive to the linear constitutive equation in the form usually employed in thermal hydraulics:

which can also be arranged in the other usual form: $$\boldsymbol \sigma = -p \mathbf I + \mu \left(\nabla\mathbf{u} + ( \nabla\mathbf{u} )^\mathrm{T}\right) + \left(\zeta - \frac 2 3 \mu \right) (\nabla\cdot\mathbf{u}) \mathbf I.$$

Note that in the compressible case the pressure is no more proportional to the isotropic stress term, since there is the additional bulk viscosity term: $$p = - \frac 1 3 \operatorname{tr} (\boldsymbol \sigma) + \zeta (\nabla\cdot\mathbf{u})$$

and the deviatoric stress tensor $$\boldsymbol \sigma'$$ is still coincident with the shear stress tensor $$\boldsymbol \tau$$ (i.e. the deviatoric stress in a Newtonian fluid has no normal stress components), and it has a compressibility term in addition to the incompressible case, which is proportional to the shear viscosity:

$$\boldsymbol \sigma' = \boldsymbol \tau = \mu \left[\nabla\mathbf{u} + ( \nabla\mathbf{u} )^\mathrm{T} - \tfrac23 (\nabla\cdot\mathbf{u})\mathbf I\right]$$

Note that the incompressible case correspond to the assumption that the pressure constrains the flow so that the volume of fluid elements is constant: isochoric flow resulting in a solenoidal velocity field with $ \nabla \cdot \mathbf{u} = 0$. So one returns to the expressions for pressure and deviatoric stress seen in the preceding paragraph.

Both bulk viscosity $\zeta$ and dynamic viscosity $\mu$  need not be constant – in general, they depend on two thermodynamics variables if the fluid contains a single chemical species, say for example, pressure and temperature. Any equation that makes explicit one of these transport coefficient in the conservation variables is called an equation of state.

Apart from its dependence of pressure and temperature, the second viscosity coefficient also depends on the process, that is to say, the second viscosity coefficient is not just a material property. Example: in the case of a sound wave with a definitive frequency that alternatively compresses and expands a fluid element, the second viscosity coefficient depends on the frequency of the wave. This dependence is called the dispersion. In some cases, the second viscosity $\zeta$ can be assumed to be constant in which case, the effect of the volume viscosity $\zeta$  is that the mechanical pressure is not equivalent to the thermodynamic pressure: as demonstrated below. $$\nabla\cdot(\nabla\cdot \mathbf u)\mathbf I=\nabla (\nabla \cdot \mathbf u),$$$$ \bar{p} \equiv p - \zeta \, \nabla \cdot \mathbf{u} ,$$ However, this difference is usually neglected most of the time (that is whenever we are not dealing with processes such as sound absorption and attenuation of shock waves, where second viscosity coefficient becomes important) by explicitly assuming $\zeta = 0$. The assumption of setting $\zeta = 0$ is called as the Stokes hypothesis. The validity of Stokes hypothesis can be demonstrated for monoatomic gas both experimentally and from the kinetic theory; for other gases and liquids, Stokes hypothesis is generally incorrect.

Finally, note that Stokes hypothesis is less restrictive that the one of incompressible flow. In fact, in the incompressible flow both the bulk viscosity term, and the shear viscosity term in the divergence of the flow velocity term disappears, while in the Stokes hypothesis the first term also disappears but the second one still remains.

For anisotropic fluids
More generally, in a non-isotropic Newtonian fluid, the coefficient $$\mu$$ that relates internal friction stresses to the spatial derivatives of the velocity field is replaced by a nine-element viscous stress tensor $$\mu_{ij}$$.

There is general formula for friction force in a liquid: The vector differential of friction force is equal the viscosity tensor increased on vector product differential of the area vector of adjoining a liquid layers and rotor of velocity: $$ d \mathbf{F} = \mu _ {ij} \, d\mathbf{S} \times\mathrm {rot} \, \mathbf {u} $$ where $$ \mu _ {ij} $$ is the viscosity tensor. The diagonal components of viscosity tensor is molecular viscosity of a liquid, and not diagonal components – turbulence eddy viscosity.

Newtonian law of viscosity
The following equation illustrates the relation between shear rate and shear stress for a fluid with laminar flow only in the direction x: $$\tau_{xy} = \mu \frac{ \mathrm{d} v_x }{ \mathrm{d} y },$$ where: If viscosity is constant, the fluid is Newtonian.
 * $$\tau_{xy}$$ is the shear stress in the components x and y, i.e. the force component on the direction x per unit surface that is normal to the direction y (so it is parallel to the direction x)
 * $$\mu$$ is the viscosity, and
 * $\frac{ \mathrm{d} v_x }{ \mathrm{d} y }$ is the flow velocity gradient along the direction y, that is normal to the flow velocity $$v_x$$.

Power law model
The power law model is used to display the behavior of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids and measures shear stress as a function of strain rate.

The relationship between shear stress, strain rate and the velocity gradient for the power law model are: $$\tau_{xy} = -m\left| \dot{\gamma} \right|^{n-1} \frac{dv_x}{dy},$$ where
 * $$\left| \dot{\gamma} \right|^{n-1} $$ is the absolute value of the strain rate to the (n−1) power;
 * $\frac{dv_x}{dy}$ is the velocity gradient;
 * n is the power law index.

If
 * n < 1 then the fluid is a pseudoplastic.
 * n = 1 then the fluid is a Newtonian fluid.
 * n > 1 then the fluid is a dilatant.

Fluid model
The relationship between the shear stress and shear rate in a casson fluid model is defined as follows: $$\sqrt{\tau} = \sqrt{\tau _0} + S\sqrt $$ where τ0 is the yield stress and $$S = \sqrt{\frac{\mu}{(1-H)^\alpha}},$$ where α depends on protein composition and H is the Hematocrit number.

Examples
Water, air, alcohol, glycerol, and thin motor oil are all examples of Newtonian fluids over the range of shear stresses and shear rates encountered in everyday life. Single-phase fluids made up of small molecules are generally (although not exclusively) Newtonian.

title: Newtonian fluid


text:
Rik Mayall

Richard Michael Mayall (7 March 1958 – 9 June 2014), known professionally as Rik Mayall, was an English comedian, actor and writer. He formed a close partnership with Ade Edmondson while they were students at Manchester University, and was a pioneer of alternative comedy in the 1980s.

Mayall starred in numerous successful comedy series throughout his career, including The Young Ones (1982–1984), The Comic Strip Presents... (1983–2012), Filthy Rich & Catflap (1987), The New Statesman (1987–1994), Bottom (1991–1995), and Believe Nothing (2003). He also starred in the comedy films Drop Dead Fred (1991) and Guest House Paradiso (1999). Mayall won a Primetime Emmy Award for his voiceover performance as Mr. Toad in TVC London's 1996 animated movie The Willows in Winter (a sequel to TVC's 1995 production of The Wind in the Willows, where Mayall also played Toad). His comedic style was described as energetic "post-punk".

Mayall died of a heart attack at his home in London on 9 June 2014 at the age of 56. BBC Television director Danny Cohen praised him as a "truly brilliant" comedian with a unique stage presence, whose "fireball creativity" and approach to sitcom had inspired a generation of comedy stars.

Early life
The second of four children, Mayall was born on 7 March 1958 at 98 Pittmans Field, Harlow, Essex, to Gillian (née Harrild; 1930–2018) and John Mayall (1925–2011). He had an older brother, Anthony, and two younger sisters, Libby and Kate. When Mayall was three years old, he and his parents—who taught drama—moved to Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, where he spent the rest of his childhood and performed in his parents' plays.

He attended King's School, Worcester, to which he won a free scholarship. He failed most of his O-levels and scraped through A-levels. In 1975, Mayall went to the Victoria University of Manchester (now known as the University of Manchester) to study drama. He claimed that he failed to get a degree, or that he did not even turn up to his finals, but in reality he graduated with lower second-class honours in 1978. It was there that he met his future comedy partner Ade Edmondson; Ben Elton, a fellow student; and Lise Mayer, with whom he later co-wrote The Young Ones.

Young Ones and   The Comic Strip
Edmondson and Mayall gained their reputation at The Comedy Store, from 1980. Apart from performing in their double act, 20th Century Coyote, Mayall developed solo routines, using characters such as Kevin Turvey and a pompous anarchist poet named Rick. This led to Edmondson and Mayall, along with compere of the Comedy Store Alexei Sayle and other up-and-coming comedians, including Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, French and Saunders, Arnold Brown, and Pete Richens setting up their own comedy club called "The Comic Strip" in the Raymond Revuebar, a strip club in Soho. Mayall's Kevin Turvey character gained a regular slot in A Kick Up the Eighties, first broadcast in 1981. He appeared as "Rest Home" Ricky in Richard O'Brien's Shock Treatment, a sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He played Dentonvale's resident attendant as the love interest to Nell Campbell's Nurse Ansalong.

Mayall's television appearances as Kevin Turvey led to a mockumentary based on the character titled Kevin Turvey – The Man Behind The Green Door, broadcast in 1982. The previous year, he appeared in a bit role in An American Werewolf in London. His stage partnership with Edmondson continued, with them often appearing together as "The Dangerous Brothers", hapless daredevils whose hyper-violent antics foreshadowed their characters in Bottom. Channel 4 offered the Comic Strip group six short films, which became The Comic Strip Presents..., debuting on 2 November 1982. The series, which continued sporadically for many years, saw Mayall play a wide variety of roles. It was known for anti-establishment humour and for parodies such as Bad News on Tour, a spoof "rockumentary" starring Mayall, Richardson, Edmondson and Planer as a heavy metal band.

At the time The Comic Strip Presents... was negotiated, the BBC took an interest in The Young Ones, a sitcom written by Mayall and his then-girlfriend Lise Mayer, in the same anarchic vein as Comic Strip. Ben Elton joined the writers. The series was commissioned and first broadcast in 1982, shortly after Comic Strip. Mayall played Rick, a pompous sociology student and Cliff Richard devotee. Mayall maintained his double-act with Edmondson, who starred as violent heavy metal medical student Vyvyan. Nigel Planer (as hippie Neil) and Christopher Ryan (as "Mike the cool person") also starred, with additional material written and performed by Alexei Sayle.

The first series was successful and a second was screened in 1984. The show owed a comic debt to Spike Milligan, but Milligan disapproved of Mayall's style of performance. Milligan once wrote: "Rik Mayall is putrid – absolutely vile. He thinks nose-picking is funny and farting and all that. He is the arsehole of British comedy."

In 1986, Mayall played the private detective in the video of "Peter Gunn" by Art of Noise featuring Duane Eddy.

Becoming a household name
Mayall continued to work on The Comic Strip films. He returned to stand-up comedy, performing on Saturday Live—a British version of the American Saturday Night Live—first broadcast in 1985. He and Edmondson had a regular section as "The Dangerous Brothers", their earlier stage act. In 1985, Mayall debuted another comic creation. He had appeared in the final episode of the first series of Blackadder (1983) as "Mad Gerald". He returned to play Lord Flashheart in the Blackadder II episode titled "Bells". A descendant of this character, Squadron Commander Flashheart, was in the Blackadder Goes Forth episode "Private Plane". In the same episode, he was reunited with Edmondson, who played German flying ace Baron von Richthofen the "Red Baron", in a scene where he comes to rescue Captain Blackadder from the Germans. A decade later, Mayall also appeared in Blackadder: Back & Forth as Robin Hood.

In 1986, Mayall joined Nigel Planer, Edmondson and Elton to star as Richie Rich in Filthy Rich & Catflap, which was billed as a follow-up to The Young Ones. The idea of Filthy Rich & Catflap was a reaction to comments made by Jimmy Tarbuck about The Young Ones. The series' primary focus was to highlight the "has been" status of light entertainment. While Mayall received positive critical reviews, viewing figures were poor and the series was never repeated on the BBC. In later years, release on video, DVD and repeats on UK TV found a following. Mayall suggested that the series did not last because he was uncomfortable acting in an Elton project, when they had been co-writers on The Young Ones.

In the same year, Mayall had a No. 1 hit in the UK Singles Chart, when he and his co-stars from The Young Ones teamed with Cliff Richard to record "Living Doll" for the inaugural Comic Relief campaign. Mayall played Rick one last time in the Comic Relief stage-show and supported the Comic Relief cause for the rest of his life. 1987 saw Mayall co-star with Edmondson in one episode of the ITV sitcom Hardwicke House, although adverse reaction from press and viewers saw ITV withdraw the series after two episodes, leaving their appearance unbroadcast. He appeared on the children's television series Jackanory. His crazed portrayal of Roald Dahl's George's Marvellous Medicine proved memorable. However, the BBC received complaints "with viewers claiming both story and presentation to be both dangerous and offensive".

In 1987, Mayall played fictional Conservative MP Alan Beresford B'Stard in the sitcom The New Statesman (Yorkshire Television) written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran. The character was a satirical portrait of Tory Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom. The programme ran for four series—incorporating two BBC specials—between 1987 and '94 and was successful critically and in the ratings. In a similar vein to his appearance on Jackanory, in 1989 Mayall starred in a series of bit shows for ITV called Grim Tales, in which he narrated Grimm Brothers fairy tales while puppets acted the stories. In the early 1990s, Mayall starred in humorous adverts for Nintendo games and consoles. With money from the ads, he bought his house in London which he called "Nintendo Towers".

1990s
In 1991, Edmondson and Mayall co-starred in the West End production of Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the Queen's Theatre, with Mayall playing Vladimir, Edmondson as Estragon and Christopher Ryan as Lucky. Here they came up with the idea for Bottom, which they said was a cruder cousin to Waiting for Godot. Bottom was commissioned by the BBC and three series were shown between 1991 and 1995. Mayall appeared in Bottom as Richard 'Richie' Richard alongside Edmondson's Eddie Elizabeth Hitler. The series featured slapstick violence taken to new extremes, and gained a strong cult following.

In 1993, following the second series, Mayall and Edmondson decided to take a stage-show version of the series on a national tour, Bottom: Live. It was a commercial success, filling large venues. Four additional stage shows were embarked upon in 1995, 1997, 2001 and 2003, each meeting with great success. The violent nature of these shows saw both Edmondson and Mayall ending up in hospital at various points. A film version, Guest House Paradiso was released in 1999. A fourth TV series was also written but not commissioned by the BBC.

Mayall starred alongside Phoebe Cates in Drop Dead Fred (1991) as the eponymous character, a troublesome imaginary friend who reappears from a woman's childhood. He also appeared in Carry On Columbus (1992) with other alternative comedians. Mayall also provided the voice of the character Froglip, the prince of the goblins, in the 1992 animated film adaption of the 1872 children's tale The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. In 1993, he appeared in Rik Mayall Presents, six individual comedy dramas (Micky Love / Briefest Encounter / Dancing Queen / The Big One / Dirty Old Town / Clair de Lune). Mayall's performances won him a Best Comedy Performer award at that year's British Comedy Awards, and a second series of three was broadcast in early 1995. He provided the voice for Little Sod in Simon Brett's How to Be a Little Sod, written in 1991 and adapted as ten consecutive episodes broadcast by the BBC in 1995. In the early 1990s, he auditioned for the roles of Banzai, Zazu, and Timon in The Lion King (1994); he was asked to audition by lyricist Tim Rice but the role of Zazu went to Rowan Atkinson.

In 1995, Mayall featured in a production of the play Cell Mates alongside Stephen Fry. Not long into the run, Fry had a nervous breakdown and fled to Belgium, where he remained for several days, and the play closed early. In 2007, Mayall said of the incident: "You don't leave the trenches ... selfishness is one thing, being a __ is another. I mustn't start that war again." Edmondson poked fun at the event during their stage tours. Also in 1995, Mayall provided the voice of Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Willows. In Bottom Live: The Big Number Two Tour, after Mayall gave mocking gestures to the audience and insulted their town in a silly voice, Edmondson said, "Have you finished yet? It's just I'm beginning to understand why Stephen Fry __ off." In Bottom Live 2003: Weapons Grade Y-Fronts Tour, after Richie accidentally fondles Eddie, he replies, "I see why Stephen Fry left that play." Towards the end of the Cell Mates run, Mayall revealed a replica gun—a prop from the play—to a passer-by in the street. Mayall was cautioned over the incident and later conceded that this was "incredibly stupid, even by my standards". From 1999, Mayall was the voice of the black-headed seagull Kehaar, in the first and second series of the animated television programme, Watership Down. In the late 1990s Mayall was featured in a number of adverts for Virgin Trains.

In 1998, Mayall was involved in a serious quad bike accident. The pair wrote the first draft of their feature film Guest House Paradiso while Mayall was still hospitalised. They planned to co-direct, but Edmondson took on the duties himself. Mayall returned to work doing voice-overs. His first post-accident acting job was in the 1998 Jonathan Creek Christmas special, as DI Gideon Pryke, a role he later reprised in 2013. Jonathan Creek also featured Adrian Edmondson in a recurring role, though the two did not appear in any episodes together.

2000s
In 2000, Mayall voiced around half of the characters for the PlayStation and Windows PC video game Hogs of War. Also that year, Mayall appeared in the video production of Jesus Christ Superstar as King Herod. He joked in the "making of" documentary, which was included on the DVD release, that "the real reason why millions of people want to come and see this is because I'm in it! Me and Jesus!" In 2001, Mayall acted as Lt Daniel Blaney in the episode "The White Knight Stratagem" from the series Murder Rooms: The Mysteries of the Real Sherlock Holmes. In 2002, Mayall teamed up with Marks and Gran once more when he starred as Professor Adonis Cnut in the ITV sitcom, Believe Nothing. However, the sitcom failed to repeat the success of The New Statesman and lasted for only one series.

Following 2003's Bottom: Live tour, Bottom 5: Weapons Grade Y-Fronts, Mayall stated that he and Edmondson would return with another tour.

In 2004 Mayall had a starring cameo role playing the record boss in the video short "ABBA: Our Last Video Ever".

Mayall voiced Edwin in the BBC show Shoebox Zoo. In September 2005, he released an 'in-character' semi-fictionalised autobiography titled Bigger than Hitler, Better than Christ (ISBN 0-00-720727-1). At the same time, he starred in a new series for ITV, All About George. In 2006, Mayall reprised the role of Alan B'Stard in the play The New Statesman 2006: Blair B'stard Project, written by Marks and Gran. By this time B'Stard had left the floundering Conservatives and become a Labour MP. In 2007, following a successful two-month run in London's West End at the Trafalgar Studios, a heavily re-written version toured theatres nationwide, with Marks and Gran constantly updating the script to keep it topical. However, Mayall succumbed to chronic fatigue and flu in May 2007 and withdrew from the show. Alan B'Stard was played by his understudy, Mike Sherman during his hiatus.

Mayall was cast as the poltergeist Peeves in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), the first of the Harry Potter films, although all of his scenes were cut from the film. He had not been made aware that his scenes had been cut until the full film was officially unveiled at the premiere. During filming, the children in the cast were unable to suppress their giggles when he was filming and would corpse. Since Mayall's death there has been an outcry for the release of this footage from his fans. He told the story of this hiring/firing on his second website blog for his film, Evil Calls: The Raven (2008). For Evil Calls, Mayall's role as Winston the Butler was shot in 2002, when the film was titled Alone in the Dark. The film was not completed until 2008, and was released under its new Evil Calls title to distance it from the Alone in the Dark computer game film.

Mayall provided the voice of the Andrex puppy in the TV commercials for Andrex toilet paper, and also had a voice part in the Domestos cleaning product adverts. He performed the voice of King Arthur in the children's television cartoon series King Arthur's Disasters, alongside Matt Lucas who plays Merlin, Morwenna Banks as Guinevere, and Phil Cornwell as Sir Lancelot. Mayall also had a recurring role in the Channel Five remake of the lighthearted drama series, Minder. He also provided the voice of Cufflingk in the 2005 animated film Valiant.

In September 2009, Mayall played a supporting role in the television programme Midsomer Murders- shown on ITV1 and made by Meridian Broadcasting - as David Roper, a recovering party animal and tenuous friend of the families in and around Chettham Park House.

2010–2014
In April 2010, Motivation Records released Mayall's England Football anthem "Noble England" for the 2010 FIFA World Cup which he recorded with producer Dave Loughran at Brick Lane Studios in London. The release, on 26 April, was designed to coincide with St George's Day and the baptism of Shakespeare. On the track, Mayall performs an adapted speech from Shakespeare's Henry V. In June 2010, the official BBC Match of the Day compilation CD (2010 Edition) was released by Sony/Universal featuring Noble England. After Mayall's death in 2014, a campaign led by Jon Morter began to get "Noble England" to No. 1 during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It rapidly climbed the official charts in the United Kingdom and reached no. 7.

In September 2010, an audio book, narrated by Mayall, Cutey and the Sofaguard was released by Digital Download. The book was written by Chris Wade and released by Wisdom Twins Books. In the same month, Mayall played the voice of Roy's Dad and recorded five episodes of animation In November 2010, Mayall provided narrative for five different characters for CDs accompanying children's books published by Clickety Books. The books aid speech and language development by bombarding the child with troublesome sound targets. He recorded introductions and narratives for the titles.

On 5 March 2011, Mayall appeared on Let's Dance for Comic Relief in which he came on stage and attacked Ade Edmondson with a frying pan during his performance of The Dying Swan ballet. Edmondson mentioned backstage that it was the first time in eight years they had done something like that together and claimed Mayall had left with a small bump on his head. It would be the last time the duo performed together in public.

In April 2011, Mayall again revived the character of Alan B'Stard to make an appearance in a satirical television advertisement for the No2AV campaign prior to the 2011 voting reform referendum in the UK. The character is shown being elected under the alternative vote system, then using his newly gained position of power to renege on his campaign promises. In his personal life, Rik Mayall did not support the alternative vote. In May 2011 Mayall became the eponymous 'Bombardier' in a TV advertising campaign for Bombardier Bitter in the UK. The adverts landed broadcaster UKTV Dave in trouble with Ofcom when they were found to breach the Ofcom code for linking alcohol with sexual attractiveness or success.

On 23 August 2012, the BBC announced that Edmondson and Mayall's characters of Richie and Eddie would be returning in 2013 in Hooligan's Island, a television adaptation of their 1997 tour of the same name. However, on 15 October 2012, Edmondson announced during an interview with BBC radio presenter Mark Powlett that the project was cancelled prior to production as he wished to pursue other interests.

In September 2012, Mayall starred in The Last Hurrah, a six-episode, full-cast audio series that he also co-wrote with Craig Green and Dominic Vince.

In November 2012, Mayall narrated several children's books on the Me Books app, such as The Getaway and Banana! by children's illustrator and author Ed Vere.

In October 2013 he appeared in Channel 4 sitcom Man Down, playing the father of the protagonist, Greg Davies—despite being only ten years older.

On 7 May 2014, Mayall made one of his last recorded performances in the form of poetry and voice-overs read on English rock band Magic Eight Ball's second album, Last Of The Old Romantics (released on 10 November 2014).

Mayall's final TV appearance was in the first episode of the second series of Crackanory, which was broadcast posthumously on 24 September 2014 on Dave.

Family
Mayall married Scottish make-up artist Barbara Robbin in 1985, and the couple had three children. The couple met in 1981 while filming A Kick Up the Eighties and embarked on a secret affair. At the time, Mayall was in a long-term relationship with Lise Mayer. Upon discovering that Robbin was pregnant, Mayall left Mayer (who was also pregnant with his child at the time) while on a shopping trip with her and Ben Elton, and eloped with Robbin to Barbados. Mayer would later suffer a miscarriage. In a 2002 newspaper article, Mayall said that Mayer had since forgiven him.

Political activism
Mayall twice publicly involved himself in political campaigns. In 2002, he dressed up as Adolf Hitler for a cinema advertisement opposing the United Kingdom abolishing the pound sterling in favour of the euro, as a part of its membership of the European Union. In the United Kingdom Alternative Vote Referendum of 2011, he appeared in a television broadcast for the 'No' campaign in character as Alan B'Stard to oppose the adoption of an alternative non-proportional electoral system for Westminster Parliamentary elections.

Quad bike accident
On 9 April 1998, Mayall was injured when he crashed a quad bike near his home in Devon. Mayall's daughter Bonnie and her cousin had asked him to take them for a ride on the bike—a Christmas gift from his wife—but he refused because of bad weather approaching, and he went on out alone. Mayall remembered nothing about the accident. His wife Barbara looked out of the window and saw him lying on the ground trapped beneath the quad, which had turned over on top of him. Mayall later joked that his wife believed he was fooling around and initially left him for a few minutes. He was airlifted to Plymouth's Derriford Hospital, with two haematomas and a fractured skull. During the following 96 hours, he was kept sedated to prevent movement which could cause pressure on his brain. His family was warned that he could die or have brain damage. He was in an induced coma for several days. After five days doctors felt it safe to bring him back to consciousness. In a BBC Radio 2 interview in 2000, Mayall said that when filming Guest House Paradiso, Edmondson would make sure he had afternoons free to rest from filming following the accident. He was left with epilepsy as a result of the accident for which he had to take daily medication for the rest of his life.

During Mayall's hospitalisation, the Comic Strip special Four Men in a Car was broadcast for the first time. The film involves Mayall's character being hit by a car. Mayall and Edmondson joked about the event in stage versions of Bottom, Edmondson quipping "If only I'd fixed those brakes properly", Mayall referring to "quad bike flashbacks", and Mayall referring to himself: "You must know him, that tosser who fell off the quad bike." In his 2005 spoof autobiography, Mayall claims that he rose from the dead.

Death
On 9 June 2014, Mayall died at his home in Barnes, Richmond-upon-Thames, London, following a sudden heart attack after a morning jog. He was 56 years old. His funeral took place on 19 June 2014, at St. George's Church in Dittisham, Devon. Among the attendees were Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Peter Richardson, Alan Rickman and Mayall's Young Ones co-stars Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Alexei Sayle, along with Young Ones co-writer Ben Elton. Edmondson also served as a pallbearer. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried on his family estate at Pasture Farm, East Allington, Devon.

Recognition, critical opinion and legacy

 * 2005, Channel 4 poll, Comedians' Comedian, Mayall was voted among the top 50 comedy performers of all time.
 * 2008, Mayall was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Exeter. True to form, his acceptance speech contained a swear word, and reference to his indifferent performance as a student.
 * 2010, Mayall was present in Blackpool in August 2010 for the ceremonial laying of the first slab in the Comedy Carpet, commemorating one of his lines from The Young Ones.
 * 2010, poll, "Top 100 Stand-Up Comedians", Mayall was placed 91st.
 * 2014, on his death, The Guardian described Mayall as an actor whose "onscreen performances were so full of life. His characters weren't neatly drawn sketches: they were vast mad scribbles, jammed to the margins with noise and energy". Commenting on his role in the sitcom Blackadder, it noted, "Upstaging an entire fleet of world-class comedians should have been impossible. Mayall made it look effortless", and that he had replicated this success in his other best-known shows, by becoming the "face of the show" in The Young Ones and creating an "iconic" figure in The New Statesman character, Alan B'Stard.
 * 2014, as a tribute to Mayall, an unofficial blue plaque appeared in Hammersmith, London, which referenced the opening title sequence of BBC sitcom series Bottom.  At the same time, an online petition was launched in an effort to persuade Hammersmith & Fulham Council to install a memorial bench on Hammersmith Broadway. On 14 November 2014, a memorial bench for Mayall was unveiled on the same spot where the bench from Bottom used to be before its removal.
 * 2014, a 20 ft mural of Mayall was created by street artist Gnasher, on the Playhouse at Mayall's birthplace in Harlow, Essex.

Video games
He was originally going to be the voice of Newton in 2014's LittleBigPlanet 3, however his passing forced Sumo Digital to replace him with a new actor, being Hugh Laurie.

Books

 * Bigger than Hitler – Better than Christ (2005) (semi-autobiographical), HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0007207282

Awards and nominations

 * 1993 – British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actor – won
 * 1997 – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance – won

title: Rik Mayall


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Sharp-shinned hawk

The sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) or northern sharp-shinned hawk, commonly known as a sharpie, is a small hawk, with males being the smallest hawks in the United States and Canada, but with the species averaging larger than some Neotropical species, such as the tiny hawk. The taxonomy is far from resolved, with some authorities considering the southern taxa to represent three separate species: white-breasted hawk (A. chionogaster), plain-breasted hawk (A. ventralis), and rufous-thighed hawk (A. erythronemius). The American Ornithological Society and some other checklists keeps all four variations conspecific.

Taxonomy
The sharp-shinned hawk is sometimes separated into four species, with the northern group (see distribution) retaining both the scientific name and the common name: sharp-shinned hawk (A. striatus). In addition to the nominate taxon (A. s. striatus), it includes subspecies perobscurus, velox, suttoni, madrensis, fringilloides, and venator. The three remaining taxa, each considered a monotypic species if split, are the white-breasted hawk (A. chionogaster; Kaup, 1852), plain-breasted hawk (A. ventralis; Sclater, 1866) and rufous-thighed hawk (A. erythronemius; Kaup, 1850). The breeding ranges of the groups are entirely allopatric, although the wintering range of the nominate group partially overlaps with the range of chionogaster (as is also the case with certain taxa within the nominate group). This allopatry combined with differences in plumage (see appearance) and, apparently, certain measurements, has been the background for the split, but hard scientific data are presently lacking (AOU). Disregarding field guides, most material published in recent years (e.g. AOU, Ferguson-Lees et al. p. 586, and Dickinson et al.) has therefore considered all to be members of a single widespread species – but not without equivocation: Ferguson-Lees et al. say that if they were to make a world list, they would include the three taxa as separate species (p. 75), and the AOU's comment includes the note "split almost certainly good".

Storer (1952) suggested that the southernmost populations within the nominate group were paler below, thus approaching chionogaster. This has also been reflected in recent guides, where A. s. madrensis of southern Mexico is described as being relatively pale below (compared to more northern subspecies), but if this is a sign of intergradation with chionogaster or a north-south cline which includes both the members of the nominate group and chionogaster remains unclear. In Bolivia, ventralis and  erythronemius approach each other, but no evidence of intergradation is known – something that, without actual specimens, also would be hard to prove due to the variability in the plumage of ventralis.

A 2021 of study of sharp-shinned hawks recommended recognising the three endemic Caribbean island subspecies as distinct species, based on analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA and diagnosed by their plummage: A. striatus, restricted the island of Hispaniola, A. fringilloides to Cuba and A. venator to Puerto Rico. If this is accepted and A. striatus treated as endemic to Hispaniola, the continental complex would take the scientific name A. velox.

Description
This is a small Accipiter hawk, with males 23 to 30 cm long, with a wingspan of 42 to 58 cm and weight from 82 - 115 g. As common in Accipiter hawks, females are distinctly larger in size, averaging some 30% longer, and with a weight advantage of more than 50% being common. The female measures 29 to 37 cm in length, has a wingspan of 58 to 68 cm and weighs 150 to 219 g. The wings measure 14.1 - 22.9 cm each, the tail is 12 - 19 cm long and the tarsus is 4.5 - 5.9 cm. Measurements given here are for the northern group, but they are comparable for the remaining subspecies. Adults have short broad wings and a medium-length tail banded in blackish and gray with the tip varying among individuals from slightly notched through square to slightly rounded (often narrowly tipped white). The remiges (typically only visible in flight) are whitish barred blackish. The legs are long and very slender (hence the common name) and yellow. The hooked bill is black and the cere is yellowish. The remaining plumage varies depending on group:

 * Nominate group: Cap dark and upperparts blue-grey (the former darker). Often, a few more-or-less random white spots can be seen on the scapulars (feathers attached to the wing that cover the meeting of wing and body). Underparts white with rufous or tawny bars. The crissum (the undertail coverts surrounding the cloaca) is white. Thighs rufous, but often barred white. The cheeks are tinged rufous (sometimes faint, but generally very distinct in taxa from the Greater Antilles). The irides are dark orange to red, but these are yellowish to pale orange in juveniles. Juveniles have dark brownish upperparts, each feather edged rufous, giving a rather scaly appearance. The brown head is streaked whitish, and the whitish underparts are extensively streaked brown or reddish and usually with reddish barring on the sides.

 * A. (s.) chionogaster (white-breasted hawk): Resembles the members of the nominate group, but upperparts darker (often appears almost black), thighs whitish-buff and underparts and cheeks entirely white. Juveniles have darker upperparts and distinctly finer streaking below than juveniles of the nominate group.
 * A. (s.) ventralis (plain-breasted hawk): Polymorphic. The most common morph has dark grey upperparts (often appears almost black) and white underparts variably barred, shaded, or mottled with rufous or tawny-buff (extensively marked individuals may appear almost entirely rufous or tawny-buff below). Occasionally, the barring to the lower belly and flanks may appear duskier. The white morph has bluish-grey upperparts (similar to the nominate group), but its underparts are all white except for its rufous thighs. The rare dark morph, the only morph which sometimes lacks rufous thighs, is entirely sooty (occasionally with slight white barring to belly and faint grey bands in tail). The underparts of the females average paler than males of the same morph. The iris is typically yellow (contra illustrations in some books), but individuals (mainly sub-adults?) with a darker iris are occasionally seen. Juveniles have dark brownish or dusky upperparts with each feather typically edged rufous, giving a rather scaly appearance. The underparts are white streaked brown, and the thighs are rufous barred white. Occasionally, juveniles with underparts extensively rufous streaked blackish are seen.
 * A. (s.) erythronemius (rufous-thighed hawk): Resembles the nominate group, but upperparts darker, streaking to underparts rufous or dusky, cheeks typically with a clear rufous patch (occasionally lacking almost entirely) and iris yellow (contra illustrations in some books). Juveniles resemble juveniles of the nominate group, but streaking to underparts typically restricted to throat and central underparts, with flanks scaled or barred (often also belly).

Distribution
This species is widespread in North America, Central America, South America and the Greater Antilles. Below, the distributions of the four groups (see taxonomy) are described as they occur roughly from north to south:

 * The nominate (A. s. striatus) group is widespread in North America, occurring in all of the forested part of USA and Canada, breeding in most of it. Populations in the northern part of the range migrate south and spend the non-breeding season (winter) in the southern USA, Mexico and Central America as far south as Panama, with a smaller number spending the winter in the Greater Antilles. Resident populations exist in temperate parts of the US, Canada (in a few coastal regions), Mexico (highlands from Sonora to Oaxaca), Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.
 * A. (s.) chionogaster (white-breasted hawk) occurs in highlands from far southern Mexico (Chiapas and Oaxaca), through Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, to Nicaragua. It is, as far as known, resident, but some local movements may occur.
 * A. (s.) ventralis (plain-breasted hawk) occurs in the coastal mountains of northern Venezuela and Colombia, south through the Andes from western Venezuela, through Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, to central Bolivia. A disjunct population occurs in the Tepuis of southern Venezuela (likely to extend into adjacent parts of Roraima in far northern Brazil, but this remains unconfirmed). It is, as far as known, resident, but some local movements may occur.
 * A. (s.) erythronemius (rufous-thighed hawk) is widespread in eastern South America in eastern and southern Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, north-eastern Argentina and south-eastern Bolivia. It is, as far as known, resident in some regions and migratory in others. The movements are generally poorly understood, but it only occurs seasonally at some localities in Argentina.

Habitat
It occurs in a wide range of woodland and forest types, both dominated by conifers and by various types of broad-leaved trees (especially oaks) The largest populations of the nominate group (see taxonomy) are thought to occur in the temperate boreal forests, but winter in warmer regions farther south (see distribution). The taxa suttoni, madrensis (both from the nominate group), chionogaster (white-breasted hawk) and ventralis (plain-breasted hawk), are found in upper tropical to temperate highlands; mainly at altitudes of 300 –, but occasionally down to near sea-level and up to 4000 m. The taxon erythronemius (rufous-thighed hawk) is found in tropical and subtropical regions; both in lowlands and highlands.

Diet
These birds surprise and capture most of their prey from cover or while flying quickly through dense vegetation. They are adept at navigating dense thickets, although this hunting method is often hazardous to the hawk. The great majority of this hawk's prey are small birds, especially various songbirds such as sparrows, wood-warblers, finches, wrens, nuthatches, tits, icterids and thrushes. Birds caught range in size from a 4.4 g Anna's hummingbird to a 577 g ruffed grouse and virtually any bird within this size range is potential prey. Typically, males will target smaller birds, such as sparrows and wood-warblers, and females will pursue larger prey, such as American robins and flickers, leading to a lack of conflict between the sexes for prey. These hawks often exploit backyard bird feeders in order to target congregations of ideal prey. They often pluck the feathers off their prey on a post or other perch. Rarely, sharp-shinned hawks will also eat rodents, lizards, frogs, snakes, and large insects, the latter typically being dragonflies captured on the wing during the hawk's migration. Bats have occasionally been recorded as a prey of this hawk.

Reproduction
Sharp-shinned hawks construct a stick nest in a large conifer or dense group of deciduous trees. Clutches of 3 to 8 eggs have been recorded, but 4 to 5 eggs is the typical clutch size. The eggs measure 37.6 x and weigh about 19 g. The eggs are prized by egg-collectors, because they are heavily marked with surprisingly colorful and varied markings. The incubation period is thought to average at about 30 days. After hatching, the young are brooded for 16 to 23 days by the female, while the male defends the territory and catches prey. The young fledge at the age of about a month and rely on their parents for feeding and protection another four weeks. The nesting sites and breeding behavior of sharp-shinned hawks are generally secretive, in order to avoid the predation of larger raptors, such as the American goshawk and the Cooper's hawk. While in migration, adults are sometimes preyed on by most of the bird-hunting, larger raptors, especially the peregrine falcon. The breeding behavior of the taxa chionogaster (white-breasted hawk), ventralis (plain-breasted hawk) and erythronemius (rufous-thighed hawk) are comparably poorly known, but based on the available knowledge they appear to differ little from that of the nominate group

Conservation
In North America this species declined in numbers in the 1960s and 1970s, probably as a result of the use of DDT and other pesticides. The population of USA and Canada has rebounded since and might even exceed historical numbers today, probably due to the combination of the ban on DDT and the proliferation of backyard bird feeders in North America which create unnaturally reliable and easy prey sources. Migratory sharp-shinned hawks are one of the most numerous raptors recorded at "hawk watches" across the country. An exception is the subspecies from Puerto Rico, Accipiter striatus venator, which is rare and listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The remaining resident subspecies from the Greater Antilles, fringilliodes from Cuba and nominate (A. s. striatus) from Hispaniola, are uncommon, local, and, at least in the case of the latter, decreasing. Both ventralis (plain-breasted hawk) and erythronemius (rufous-thighed hawk) are fairly common (but easily overlooked due to their secretive behavior) and presently considered safe. The situation for chionogaster (white-breasted hawk) is potentially more problematic due to its limited range, although it, at least locally, remains fairly common.

Historical material

 * "Falco pennsylvanicus, Slate-coloured Hawk", "Falco velox, Sharp-shinned Hawk"; in American Ornithology 2nd edition, volume 1 (1828) by Alexander Wilson and George Ord. Colour plate from 1st edition by A. Wilson.
 * "Sharp-shinned or Slate-coloured Hawk, Falco fuscus Gmel." John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography volume 4 (1838). Illustration from Birds of America octavo edition, 1840.
 * "American Brown or Slate-colored Hawk", Thomas Nuttall, A manual of the ornithology of the United States and of Canada; volume 1, The Land Birds (1832).

title: Sharp-shinned hawk


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Nakhon Nayok province

Nakhon Nayok (นครนายก, ) is one of the central provinces (changwat) of Thailand, established by the Act Establishing Changwat Samut Prakan, Changwat Nonthaburi, Changwat Samut Sakhon, and Changwat Nakhon Nayok, Buddhist Era 2489 (1946), which came into force on 9 May 1946.

Neighboring provinces are (from north clockwise) Saraburi, Nakhon Ratchasima, Prachinburi, Chachoengsao, and Pathum Thani. Nakhon Nayok is known for waterfalls and fruit varieties.

Nakon Nayok is a nearby province to Bangkok and has various tourist attractions. Khao Yai National Park, Thailands oldest national park is in partly in Nakhon Nayok province and attracts many tourists. Khun Dan Prakarn Chon Dam is another tourist attraction 2 hours outside of Bangkok in Nakhon Nayok.

Toponymy
The word nakhon originates from the Sanskrit word nagara (Devanagari: नगर) meaning 'city', and the word nayok is thought to have been derived from the Sanskrit nāyaka (Devanagari:  नायक) meaning 'leader' or 'captain'. However, in this connection, na means '[tax of] rice field' and yok means 'exempted'. Hence the name of the province literally means 'tax-free city'.

History
The city of Nakhon Nayok dates back to the Dvaravati Kingdom, probably founded in the 11th century. Ruins from this time are visible at Mueang Boran Dong Lakhon south of the modern city. Originally named Mueang Lablae, the name "Nakhon Nayok" was assigned to it in 1350, when it became a garrison town of the Ayutthaya kingdom protecting the eastern boundary. On 1 January 1943 the government downgraded Nakhon Nayok province and combined it with Prachinburi province, except for Ban Na district which became part of Saraburi province. On 9 May 1946 the province was re-established.

Symbols
The provincial seal shows an elephant holding an ear of rice with its trunk. This symbolizes fertile rice fields, as well as the forests with numerous elephants. In the background two piles of straw, trees, and clouds symbolizing the natural beauty of the province.

The provincial tree and flower is the silk cotton tree (Cochlospermum religiosum).

Climate
Nakhon Nayok province has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen climate classification category Aw). Winters are dry and warm. Temperatures rise until May. Monsoon season runs from May through October, with heavy rain and somewhat cooler temperatures during the day, although nights remain warm. Climate statistics: maximum temperature is 42.2 °C (108 °F) in April and lowest temperature is 12.2 °C (54 °F) in December. Highest average temperature is 36.8 °C (98.2 °F) in April and minimum average temperature is 20.5 °C (68.9 °F) in December. Average annual rainfall is 1,823 millimeters in 134 days. Maximum daily rainfall is 195 millimeters in August.

Geography
The northern part of the province is in the Sankamphaeng Range, the southern prolongation of the Dong Phaya Yen Mountains, with the highest elevation the 1,292-meter-high Yod Khao Kiew. Most of that area is covered by the Khao Yai National Park, 2166 km2, along with three other national parks, make up region 1 (Prachinburi) of Thailand's protected areas. The central part of the province however is a rather flat river plain formed by the Nakhon Nayok River. The southern part of the province has relatively infertile acidic soil. The total forest area is 642 km2 or 30 percent of provincial area.

The main river of the province is the Nakhon Nayok River. It joins the Prachinburi River at Pak Nam Yothaka in Ban Sang district, Prachinburi province, which then becomes the Bang Pa Kong River.

Provincial government
The province is divided into four districts (amphoes). The districts are further divided into 41 subdistricts (tambons) and 403 villages (mubans).
 * 1) Mueang Nakhon Nayok
 * 2) Pak Phli
 * 3) Ban Na
 * 4) Ongkharak

Local government
As of 26 November 2019 there are: one Nakhon Nayok Provincial Administration Organisation (ongkan borihan suan changwat) and 6 municipal (thesaban) areas in the province. Nakhon Nayok has town (thesaban mueang) status. Further 5 subdistrict municipalities (thesaban tambon). The non-municipal areas are administered by 39 Subdistrict Administrative Organisations - SAO (ongkan borihan suan tambon).

Human achievement index 2022
Since 2003, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Thailand has tracked progress on human development at sub-national level using the Human achievement index (HAI), a composite index covering all the eight key areas of human development. National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) has taken over this task since 2017.

title: Nakhon Nayok province


text:
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The Comedians (1971 TV series)

The Comedians is a British television show of the 1970s (later reprised in the mid-1980s and early 1990s) produced by Johnnie Hamp of Granada Television. The show gave TV exposure to nightclub and working men's club comedians of the era, including Russ Abbot, Jim Bowen and Bernard Manning, many of whom went on to enjoy mainstream success in the 1980s. Filmed before a live audience in Manchester, comics each performed 20-minute sets, which were then edited together into half-hour shows featuring up to thirteen stand-up comics.

Working men's clubs were numerous in Britain, especially in the North of England and have been a useful training ground for artists, especially comedians. Most of these clubs are affiliated to the CIU (Working Men's Club and Institute Union) founded in 1862 by the Rev. Henry Solly. There are also political clubs, as well as Servicemen's Clubs affiliated to the Royal British Legion.

The Comedians began as an experiment for Granada TV and was popular during the earlier series, with an LP recording of the show reaching the best-seller charts, and several sell-out national tours following, including a season at the London Palladium. The programme won the Critics' Circle Award.

The comedy frequently took the form of anecdotes or jokes and often involved racist or sexist stereotypes. Like other British comedy successes of the day, notably, Love Thy Neighbour, this kind of entertainment was acceptable on British television during this period but would not be so today. Viewing the series in retrospect it stands as a major social document of the times.

Cast
Comedians appearing on the show included Russ Abbot (initially as Russ Roberts, later as Russ Abbott), Lennie Bennett, Stan Boardman, Jim Bowen, Jimmy Bright, Duggie Brown, Mike Burton, Dave Butler, Brian Carroll, Frank Carson, Johnnie Casson, Eddie Colinton, Mike Coyne, Colin Crompton, Bob Curtiss, Pauline Daniels, Charlie Daze, Les Dennis, Vince Earl, Steve Faye, Ray Fell, Eddie Flanagan, Stu Francis, Mike Goddard (known as Mike Goodwin in the early years of the show), Ken Goodwin, Jackie Hamilton, Jerry Harris, Jimmy Jones, Mike Kelly, George King, Bobby Knutt, Bernard Manning, Jimmy Marshall, Mike McCabe, Paul Melba, Mick Miller, Pat Mooney, Hal Nolan, Tom O'Connor, Tom Pepper, Bryn Phillips, Al Robbins, Don Reid, Mike Reid, George Roper, Harry Scott, Paul Shane, Pat Tansey, Sammy Thomas, Johnny Wager, Roy Walker, Jos White, Charlie Williams, Lee Wilson and Lenny Windsor.

Also featured on the series were Shep's Banjo Boys, a seven-piece band comprising (for the first five series) Charlie Bentley (tenor banjo), John Drury (sousaphone), Andy Holdorf (trombone), John Orchard (piano), John Rollings (drums), Graham Shepherd (banjo) and Howard Shepherd (lead banjo). In 1973, the line-up was Mike Dexter (banjo), Tony "Tosh" Kennedy (sousaphone), Ged Martin (drums), Tony Pritchard (trombone), Graham Shepherd (banjo) and Howard "Shep" Shepherd (lead banjo).

DVD releases
The first seven series including a DVD set (containing the first seven series broadcast 1971–74) have been released on DVD by Network.

title: The Comedians (1971 TV series)


text:
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