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The Matrix Online

The Matrix Online (abbreviated as MxO) was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) initially developed by Monolith Productions and later, a few months after launch, by Sony Online Entertainment. It was advertised as a continuation of the storyline of The Matrix films, as The Wachowskis, the franchise's creators, gave their blessing to the notion of gamers "inherit[ing] the storyline". The game began closed beta-testing in June 2004 which was then opened for people who pre-ordered the game in November 2004. Warner Bros. and Sega released MxO on March 22, 2005 in the United States. It was released in Europe on April 15, 2005. In June, Warner Bros. sold the rights to the game to Sony Online Entertainment, and the game's development and operation was transferred to the latter on August 15, 2005. Sony Online Entertainment shut down operation of the game on July 31, 2009.

Ubisoft backed out of an agreement to co-publish the game, not long after canceling plans for another MMORPG. Ubisoft and Warner Bros. stated that this did not have a negative impact on their relationship. At the time, doubts about the game circled within the industry, based on the lackluster reception of the second and third The Matrix films and an overcrowded MMORPG market.

Gameplay
In The Matrix Online, the player assumes the role of a redpill, a human who was formerly trapped inside the Matrix and has since been freed and shown the truth of humanity's imprisonment. When creating a new character, the player is given the choice of taking a blue pill that will return them to their former life (quit the game) or a red pill, which will free their mind from the Matrix and allow them to take the body of a physical human and experience reality. Characters who are unaware of the fact that they are in the simulation are often referred to as "bluepills" because they have either taken the blue pill or have not been given the choice yet. People who are aware of the simulation (players) are referred to as "redpills" because they have taken the red pill (or, in very rare cases, when a character has self-substantiated out of the Matrix on their own). Following the choice between the two pills, the player is then taken through a basic tutorial of the game's mechanics, including mission interaction and the combat system. After the tutorial, they are then free to roam the Mega City (the large metropolis that the entire Matrix story is set in).

Combat
Combat in the game is divided into two separate parts: Free-fire and Interlock. Free-fire mode allows for large gun battles to take place, while Interlock is often broken down into bullet-time-affected martial arts moves and close-quarters gunfire.

There are three main classes in The Matrix Online: Coder, Hacker, and Operative. Coders create a special "simulacrum" that fights for them. Hackers manipulate the code of the Matrix to affect friends and enemies from a distance, either damaging them, downgrading their combat abilities, or healing them and upgrading their powers. Operatives are the common soldiers seen from the movies - Martial Artists, Gunmen, and the new Spy class, which revolves around stealth fighting and knife throwing. Magazines never seem to run out of bullets and knife throwers also have an unlimited supply.

In free-fire mode, operatives exchange damage with each other. Gunmen and Hackers are well-equipped for this, with their ranged attacks and abilities. Martial Artists must get close to their targets to be effective, and although a Spy's most dangerous abilities are initiated out of Interlock, they also pull their opponents into Interlock. Each attack or ability is used at timed intervals, based on the system of damage per second (D.P.S.). For example, the strongest rifle in the Matrix does 15 damage points per second and has a fire rate of 3.5 seconds, which, in free-fire, causes the rifle to have a base damage of 52.5, to be altered by the player's own stats. Opposed to such, a Hacker's stronger attack ability such as Logic Barrage 4.0 does 63 D.P.S., but with a short casting timer, does base damage of only 120-180 damage.

In Interlock or Close Combat, two players exchange damage in rounds. Each round lasts exactly four seconds. For each round, the two players' accuracies are pitted against each other's defenses, which are slightly affected by a random "luck" roll. There are three different outcomes to a round: hit-hit, hit-miss, or miss-miss. In hit-miss, one of the players will hit the other while dodging or blocking their attack. In miss-miss, both players will parry each other without doing damage. In hit-hit, one player will damage the other, only to be damaged themselves in a counterattack. When special abilities are used, however, there can be no hit-hit round, although the miss-miss round can still apply.

When taking or dealing damage, one player's damage influences are pitted against another player's resistance influences of the same damage type (i.e. a gunman's ballistic damage versus an opponent's ballistic resistance). Higher resistance versus lower damage means that the defending player will not take as much damage.

When attacking or defending against attacks, one player's accuracy influences are pitted against another's defense influences of the same attack type.

There is no turn-based combat in the Matrix Online. All combat takes place in "real-time", and large-scale battles are often decided by the sheer numbers of forces of one side versus others. Amassing a large number of players to control the battlefield is affectionately dubbed "zerging".

Items that characters drop in the game world can be picked up, granting powers to the player that lugs them around. These are called "luggables".

Classes
The Matrix Online has a unique class system. Players can load abilities they have either purchased or produced (by the Coder class, known in-game as coding) at Hardlines, provided they have enough memory and the abilities that precede the loading one. These abilities can then be switched out at a Hardline at a moment's notice. This leads to a very flexible class system, without players being stuck in one class.

The three main archetypes are Hacker, Coder, and Operative. They are similar to the classes Mage, Crafter, and Fighter in other MMORPGs. These classes then branch out into sub-classes, with Coder, for example, is divided into Programmer (out of a battle item and ability maker) and Code Shaper (creates simulacrums to fight with, similarities to a necromancer/summoner in other MMOG's). The game has a total of 21 end-game classes with an additional two stubs.

Missions and organizations
After an initial set of introductory missions, players can join one of three organizations working in the Matrix, each with a different set of goals, beliefs, and methods: Zion, the Machines, and the Merovingian.

In order to receive increasingly critical and sensitive missions, players are expected to run missions for their chosen organization, which will increase their standing with their chosen organization but will also lower it with the other two.

Zion/Nirvana:

Zion is the last remaining human city on Earth, hidden deep underground and is concerned chiefly with protecting its citizens from the Machines who see those who have "awakened" as a threat to those still connected to the Matrix. Those who choose to work for Zion usually enlist in the Zion Military and see this as the best way to protect the ideals of freedom.

Machines:

The main motivation for choosing to side with the Machines is that this organization is seen as the most conducive towards maintaining the status-quo of the Matrix and protecting the lives of those still connected to it, i.e., bluepills. However, there are also those who feel that the only way to improve relations between man and machine is to work with them as closely as possible and see joining this organization as the best way to do so.

Merovingian:

Those who work for the Merovingian are in a unique position in that they need not concern themselves with the traditional hostilities between Zion and the Machines, preferring instead to act only when the situation would prove advantageous for themselves or the organization as a whole. However, this organization has also been chosen by some players as it is the only one out of the three that fights to protect the Exiles who reside within the Matrix.

Sub-organizations:

Players cannot run missions for these organizations although in storyline terms they are now quite separate from their original "parent" organization, even receiving their own Live Events:

 * EPN - E Pluribus Neo (Zion as parent organization):

Members of EPN are devoted to what they deem "Neo's legacy". This mostly involves giving all human beings the opportunity to question the true nature of their "reality", the Matrix, and to have the choice of the red or blue pill. Very much against the Machines, and Cypherites in particular, there are some more fundamentalist schools of thought within this organization who believe that the only solution to humanity's problems is to free the entire human population from the Matrix. They are led by The Kid with his old friend, Shimada - who also acts as their mission controller.

 * Cypherites (Machines as parent organization):

Usually seen as the more extreme elements of the Machine organization, Cypherites follow in the footsteps of Cypher, wanting to be reinserted into the Matrix as bluepills so that they may be blissfully unaware of the true nature of the Matrix as a computer program. The name of their hovercraft, Blue Dreamer, reflects this philosophy. They are currently led by Cryptos and his second-in-command, the Zion traitor, Veil. During the time that Cryptos was revealed to be a Machine Program inhabiting a redpill's body, Veil assumed control of the organization.

Following Chapter 11.3, the Cypherites and EPN were effectively withdrawn as playable organizations within the game. Existing factions that were granted their respective "EPN/CYPH" tags in their faction names continued to hold said tags unless they disbanded or reformed, but no new splinter org tags were granted. In addition, no further Live Events occurred for these organizations.

Continuing story
Another of The Matrix Online's defining and differentiating aspects was its inclusion and emphasis on what was called "The Continuing Story". This is to say the game itself is the official continuation of the universe, story and characters established in The Matrix series of fictional works including the film trilogy, The Animatrix short films, the Enter the Matrix video game and a series of officially written and produced Matrix comic books.

This continuation was written by comic book writer Paul Chadwick. It was also confirmed as having seen verification and input from Matrix creators The Wachowskis through the end of Chapter 9.

Progression of the storyline
The story progressed in real time, with a planned schedule in effect that included the following:
 * Nine new critical missions (three for each of the game's three main organizations) every six weeks, released weekly as part of the game's patch cycle.
 * A new hand-drawn cinematic every six weeks to coincide with the start of a new sub-chapter.
 * Daily live events.
 * Large-scale organizational meetings (one each month).

Chapter organization
The Matrix Online used a system of organization akin to that of software versioning to keep track of its chronological progression. Each "Critical" mission and development is given its own unique tag within this system.

For example: Chapter 1, sub-chapter 2, week 3 would be represented as 1.2.3.

It has been stated by MxO developer Rarebit, that this numbering system was meant purely for chronological measuring and game design (for the various rewards associated with completing past critical missions in a system called The Mission Archive). The chapters and sub-chapters are not intended as self-contained units. Rather, they are each equally relevant to the unfolding of the story as a whole.

LESIG program
The LESIG (Live Event Special Interest Group) was originally devised under Monolith's operation of the game to give developers insight into the player sentiment around live events, with the creation of a live events program, including the development of in-game event tools and server-specific event teams made of community members, as a long term goal.

However, when The Matrix Online moved to Sony Online Entertainment, the program underwent a radical change in direction as part of similar changes to the other story telling devices, most importantly, the scale and frequency of live events following the departure of a dedicated Live Events Team.

The group were given the new task of playing minor supporting roles (known as organization liaison officers) during future live events or even more permanent characters to enhance interaction between players, essentially replacing the paid staff of the LET with volunteer players.

Closing
In June 2009, Sony Online Entertainment stopped serving The Matrix Online due to low subscription numbers. The service was officially shut down on August 1, 2009. At the time, it had fewer than 500 active players.

The days leading up to the closing, as well as the end of the servers themselves, were chronicled on the gaming website Giant Bomb in a video series titled "Not Like This", a reference to a line in The Matrix's first movie.

After the closing, the website remained operational for a limited period of time. Visitors were greeted with an invitation to peruse the official memory book, which had been posted as a parting gift to the fans. The book included a summary of the storyline and various nostalgic items.

Reception
The game received "mixed or average" reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.

title: The Matrix Online


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Ocean current

An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours, shoreline configurations, and interactions with other currents influence a current's direction and strength. Ocean currents are primarily horizontal water movements.

An ocean current flows for great distances and together they create the global conveyor belt, which plays a dominant role in determining the climate of many of Earth's regions. More specifically, ocean currents influence the temperature of the regions through which they travel. For example, warm currents traveling along more temperate coasts increase the temperature of the area by warming the sea breezes that blow over them. Perhaps the most striking example is the Gulf Stream, which, together with its extension the North Atlantic Drift, makes northwest Europe much more temperate for its high latitude than other areas at the same latitude. Another example is Lima, Peru, whose cooler subtropical climate contrasts with that of its surrounding tropical latitudes because of the Humboldt Current. Ocean currents are patterns of water movement that influence climate zones and weather patterns around the world. They are primarily driven by winds and by seawater density, although many other factors – including the shape and configuration of the ocean basin they flow through – influence them. The two basic types of currents – surface and deep-water currents – help define the character and flow of ocean waters across the planet.

Causes
Ocean dynamics define and describe the motion of water within the oceans. Ocean temperature and motion fields can be separated into three distinct layers: mixed (surface) layer, upper ocean (above the thermocline), and deep ocean. Ocean currents are measured in units of sverdrup (sv), where 1 sv is equivalent to a volume flow rate of 1000000 m3 per second.

Surface ocean currents (in contrast to subsurface ocean currents), make up only 8% of all water in the ocean, are generally restricted to the upper 400 m of ocean water, and are separated from lower regions by varying temperatures and salinity which affect the density of the water, which in turn, defines each oceanic region. Because the movement of deep water in ocean basins is caused by density-driven forces and gravity, deep waters sink into deep ocean basins at high latitudes where the temperatures are cold enough to cause the density to increase. Surface currents are measured in units of meters per second (m/s) or in knots.

Wind-driven circulation
Surface oceanic currents are driven by wind currents, the large scale prevailing winds drive major persistent ocean currents, and seasonal or occasional winds drive currents of similar persistence to the winds that drive them, and the Coriolis effect plays a major role in their development. The Ekman spiral velocity distribution results in the currents flowing at an angle to the driving winds, and they develop typical clockwise spirals in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise rotation in the southern hemisphere. In addition, the areas of surface ocean currents move somewhat with the seasons; this is most notable in equatorial currents.

Deep ocean basins generally have a non-symmetric surface current, in that the eastern equator-ward flowing branch is broad and diffuse whereas the pole-ward flowing western boundary current is relatively narrow.

Thermohaline circulation
Deep ocean currents are driven by density and temperature gradients. This thermohaline circulation is also known as the ocean's conveyor belt. These currents, sometimes called submarine rivers, flow deep below the surface of the ocean and are hidden from immediate detection. Where significant vertical movement of ocean currents is observed, this is known as upwelling and downwelling. An international program called Argo began researching deep ocean currents with a fleet of underwater robots in the 2000s.

The thermohaline circulation is a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes. The adjective thermohaline derives from thermo- referring to temperature and -haline referring to salt content, factors which together determine the density of sea water. Wind-driven surface currents (such as the Gulf Stream) travel polewards from the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, cooling en route, and eventually sinking at high latitudes (forming North Atlantic Deep Water). This dense water then flows into the ocean basins. While the bulk of it upwells in the Southern Ocean, the oldest waters (with a transit time of around 1000 years) upwell in the North Pacific. Extensive mixing therefore takes place between the ocean basins, reducing differences between them and making the Earth's oceans a global system. On their journey, the water masses transport both energy (in the form of heat) and matter (solids, dissolved substances and gases) around the globe. As such, the state of the circulation has a large impact on the climate of the Earth. The thermohaline circulation is sometimes called the ocean conveyor belt, the great ocean conveyor, or the global conveyor belt. On occasion, it is imprecisely used to refer to the meridional overturning circulation, (MOC).

Distribution

Currents of the Arctic Ocean

Currents of the Atlantic Ocean

Currents of the Indian Ocean

Currents of the Pacific Ocean

Currents of the Southern Ocean

Oceanic gyres

Effects on climate and ecology
Ocean currents are important in the study of marine debris, and vice versa. These currents also affect temperatures throughout the world. For example, the ocean current that brings warm water up the north Atlantic to northwest Europe also cumulatively and slowly blocks ice from forming along the seashores, which would also block ships from entering and exiting inland waterways and seaports, hence ocean currents play a decisive role in influencing the climates of regions through which they flow. Cold ocean water currents flowing from polar and sub-polar regions bring in a lot of plankton that are crucial to the continued survival of several key sea creature species in marine ecosystems. Since plankton are the food of fish, abundant fish populations often live where these currents prevail.

Ocean currents are also very important in the dispersal of many life forms. An example is the life-cycle of the European Eel.

Ocean currents and climate change
As atmospheric temperatures continue to rise, this is anticipated to have various effects on the strength of surface ocean currents, wind-driven circulation and dispersal patterns. Ocean currents play a significant role in influencing climate, and shifts in climate, in turn, impact ocean currents. Over the last century, reconstructed sea surface temperature data reveal that western boundary currents are heating at double the rate of the global average. These observations indicate that the western boundary currents are likely intensifying due to this change in temperature, and may continue to grow stronger in the near future. Studies investigating international ocean current patterns have also suspected that anthropogenic climate change has accelerated upper ocean currents by 77%. Faster upper ocean currents are often associated with increased vertical stratification, as well as faster and stronger zonal currents.

In addition to water surface temperatures, the wind systems are a crucial determinant of ocean currents. Wind wave systems influence oceanic heat exchange, the condition of the sea surface, and can alter ocean currents. In the North Atlantic, equatorial Pacific, and Southern Ocean, increased wind speeds as well as significant wave heights have been attributed to climate change and natural processes combined. In the East Australian Current, global warming has also been accredited to increased wind stress curls, which intensify these currents, and may even indirectly increase sea levels, due to the additional warming created by stronger currents.

As ocean circulation changes due to climate, typical distribution patterns are also changing. The dispersal patterns of marine organisms depend on oceanographic conditions, which as a result, influence the biological composition of oceans. Due to the patchiness of the natural ecological world, dispersal is a species survival mechanism for various organisms. With strengthened boundary currents moving toward the poles, it is expected that some marine species will be redirected to the poles and greater depths. The strengthening or weakening of typical dispersal pathways by increased temperatures are expected to not only impact the survival of native marine species due to inability to replenish their meta populations but also may increase the prevalence of invasive species. In Japanese corals and macroalgae, the unusual dispersal pattern of organisms toward the poles may destabilize native species.

Economic importance
Knowledge of surface ocean currents is essential in reducing costs of shipping, since traveling with them reduces fuel costs. In the wind powered sailing-ship era, knowledge of wind patterns and ocean currents was even more essential. Using ocean currents to help their ships into harbor and using currents such as the gulf stream to get back home. The lack of understanding of ocean currents during that time period is hypothesized to be one of the contributing factors to exploration failure. The gulf stream and the Canary current keep western European countries warmer and less variable, while at the same latitude North America's weather was colder. A good example of this is the Agulhas Current (down along eastern Africa), which long prevented sailors from reaching India.

In recent times, around-the-world sailing competitors make good use of surface currents to build and maintain speed. Ocean currents can also be used for marine power generation, with areas of Japan, Florida and Hawaii being considered for test projects. The utilization of currents today can still impact global trade, it can reduce the cost and emissions of shipping vessels. Ocean currents can also impact the fishing industry, examples of this include the Tsugaru, Oyashio and Kuroshio currents all of which influence the western North Pacific temperature, which has been shown to be a habitat predictor for the Skipjack tuna. It has also been shown that it is not just local currents that can affect a country's economy, but neighboring currents can influence the viability of local fishing industries.

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

title: Ocean current


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Cube (1997 film)

Cube is a 1997 Canadian science fiction horror-thriller film directed and co-written by Vincenzo Natali. A product of the Canadian Film Centre's First Feature Project, Nicole de Boer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller, Julian Richings, Wayne Robson, and Maurice Dean Wint star as individuals trapped in a bizarre and deadly labyrinth of cube-shaped rooms.

Cube gained notoriety and a cult following for its surreal and Kafkaesque setting in industrial, cube-shaped rooms. It received generally positive reviews and led to a series of films. An American remake was in development at Lionsgate in 2015. A Japanese remake was released in 2021.

Plot
A man named Alderson awakens in a room which has hatches on each wall and floor, each leading to other rooms. He enters another room, but is killed by a trap.

Five different people all meet in another room: men Quentin, Rennes, and Worth, and women Leaven and Holloway. Quentin warns the group that he has seen traps in some of the other rooms. Leaven notices each hatch has plates with three sets of numbers etched into them. Rennes tests his theory that each trap could be set by detectors by throwing his boot into a room. This works, but he is killed by acid. The group realizes each trap is triggered by different types of sensor.

Quentin believes each person was chosen to be there. Leaven hypothesizes that rooms whose plates contain prime numbers are trapped. They encounter a mentally disabled man named Kazan, whom Holloway insists be brought along. Tension rises among the group, as well as the mystery of the maze's purpose. Worth admits to Quentin he was hired to design the maze’s shell, claims The Cube was created accidentally by a system, and guesses that its purpose has been forgotten and that they have only been placed inside to justify its use.

Worth's knowledge of the exterior dimensions allows Leaven to calculate that the Cube has 17,576 rooms, plus a "bridge" room that would connect to the shell. She realizes that the numbers may indicate each room's coordinates. The group travels to the edge but realize every room there is trapped. They successfully traverse a room with a trap. Holloway defends Kazan from Quentin's threats.

The group reaches the edge. Holloway tries to swing over to the shell using a rope made of clothing. The Cube shakes, causing the rope to slip; Quentin catches it at the last second and pulls her up, but then deliberately drops her to her death, telling the others that she slipped.

Quentin persuades Leaven to abandon Kazan and Worth. He tries to assault her, but Worth attacks him. Quentin counters savagely. Worth starts laughing hysterically. Quentin is horrified, but Worth finds the room where Rennes died in has now moved to the edge of the maze. Leaven deduces that traps are not tagged by numbers, but by powers of numbers. Kazan is revealed as a savant who can calculate factorizations. Leaven guides the group to the cube. Worth then traps Quentin in a hatch. He attempts to attack them, but Worth opens the hatch under him from the room below. All but Quentin travel to the room where they open the hatch, revealing a bright light.

Quentin reappears and impales Leaven with a lever. Worth attacks Quentin, who wounds him in the struggle and pursues Kazan to the other side. Worth grabs Quentin's legs. The cubes move, killing Quentin. Worth crawls to Leaven to stay by her side. Kazan wanders out into the light.

Cast
The cast is of Canadian actors who were relatively unknown in the United States at the time of the film's release. Each character's name is connected with a real-world prison.

 * Andrew Miller as Kazan, an autistic savant and mental calculator
 * David Hewlett as David Worth, an office worker and unwitting designer of the Cube's outer shell
 * Maurice Dean Wint as Quentin, a police officer who aggressively takes charge
 * Nicole de Boer as Leaven, a young mathematics student
 * Nicky Guadagni as Dr. Helen Holloway, a free clinic doctor and conspiracy theorist
 * Wayne Robson as Rennes, an escape artist who has broken out of seven prisons
 * Julian Richings as Alderson, the first killed in the Cube and the only one not to meet the others

On casting Maurice Dean Wint as Quentin, Natali's cost-centric approach sought an actor for a split-personality role of hero and villain. Wint was considered the standout among the cast and was confident that the film would be a breakthrough for the Canadian Film Centre.

Pre-production
Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, which was shot entirely in a lifeboat with no actor standing at any point, was reportedly an inspiration for the film.

Director Vincenzo Natali did not have confidence in financing a film. He cost-reduced his pitch with a single set reused as many times as possible, with the actors moving around a virtual maze. As the most expensive element, a set with a cube and a half was built off the floor, to allow the surroundings to be lit from behind all walls of the cube. In 1990, Natali had had the idea to make a film "set entirely in hell", but in 1994 while working as a storyboard artist's assistant at Canada's Nelvana animation studio, he completed the first script for Cube. The initial draft had a more comedic tone, surreal images, a cannibal, edible moss growing on the walls, and a monster that roamed the Cube. Roommate and childhood filmmaking partner Andre Bijelic helped Natali strip the central idea to its essence of people avoiding deadly traps in a maze. Scenes outside the cube were deleted, and the identity of the victims changed. In some drafts, they were accountants and in others criminals, with the implication that their banishment to the Cube was part of a penal sentence. One of the most important dramatic changes was the removal of food and water for a more urgent escape.

After writing Cube, Natali developed the short film Elevated. It is set in an elevator to show investors how Cube would hypothetically look and feel. Cinematographer Derek Rogers developed strategies for shooting in the tightly confined elevator, which he later reused on a Toronto soundstage for Cube.

Casting started with Natali's friends, and budget limitations allowed for only one day of script reading prior to shooting. As it was filmed relatively quickly with well prepared actors, there are no known outtake clips.

Filming
The film was shot in Toronto, Ontario in 21 days, with 50% of the budget as C$350,000 to C$375,000 in cash and the other 50% as donated services, for a total of C$700,000. Natali considered the cash figure to be deceptive, because they deferred payment on goods and services, and got the special effects at no cost.

The set's warehouse was near a train line, and its noise was incorporated into the film as that of the cubes moving. To change the look of each room, some scenes were shot with wide lens, and others are long lens and lit with different colors, for the illusion of traversing a maze. Nicole de Boer said that the white room was more comforting to actors at the start of a day's filming, compared to the red room which induced psychological effects on the cast during several hours in the confined space.

The Cube was conceived by mathematician David W. Pravica, who was the math consultant. It consists of an outer cubical shell or sarcophagus, and the inner cube rooms. Each side of the outer shell is 434 ft long. The inner cube consists of 263 = 17,576 cubical rooms (minus an unknown number of rooms to allow for movement), each having a side length of 15.5 ft. A space of 15.5 ft is between the inner cube and the outer shell. Each room is labelled with three identification numbers such as "517 478 565". These numbers encode the starting coordinates of the room, and the X, Y, and Z coordinates are the sums of the digits of the first, second, and third number, respectively. The numbers also determine the movement of the room. The subsequent positions are obtained by cyclically subtracting the digits from one another, and the resulting numbers are then successively added to the starting numbers.

Only one cube set was actually built, with each of its sides measuring 14 ft in length, with only one working door that could actually support the weight of the actors. The colour of the room was changed by sliding panels. This time-consuming procedure determined that the film was not shot in sequence, and all shots taking place in rooms of a specific color were shot separately. Six colors of rooms were intended to match the recurring theme of six throughout the film; five sets of gel panels, plus pure white. However, the budget did not stretch to the sixth gel panel, and so the film has only five room colors. Another partial cube was made for shots requiring the point of view of standing in one room and looking into another.

The small set created technical problems for hosting a 30-person crew and a 6-person cast, becoming "a weird fusion between sci-fi and the guerrilla-style approach to filmmaking".

Post-production
During post-production, Natali spent months "on the aural environment", including appropriate sound effects of each room, so the Cube could feel like what he described as a haunted house.

Release
Cube was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 1997 and released in Ottawa and Montreal on 18 September 1998. A theatrical release occurred in Spain in early 1999, while in Italy a release was scheduled for July 1999 and an opening in Germany was set for later that year. In the Japanese market, it became the top video rental at the time, and exceeded expectations, with co-writer Graeme Manson suggesting people in Japan had a better understanding of living in boxes so resonated better with the Japanese audience, as they were likely "more receptive to the whole metaphor underlying the film".

The film's television debut in the United States was on 24 July 1999 on the Sci-Fi channel.

In 2023, the film was one of 23 titles that were digitally restored under its new Canadian Cinema Reignited program to preserve classic Canadian films.

A 4K restoration of the film will debut at the 28th Fantasia International Film Festival on July 30, 2024.

Box office
In its home country of Canada, the film was a commercial failure, lasting only a few days in Canadian theatres. French film distributor Samuel Hadida's company Metropolitan Filmexport saw potential in the film and spent $1.2 million in a marketing campaign, posting flyers in many cities and flying members of the cast over to France to meet moviegoers. At its peak, the film was shown at 220 French box offices and became among the most popular films in France of that time, collecting over $10 million in box office receipts. It went on to be the second-highest-grossing film in France that summer.

Elsewhere internationally, the film grossed $501,818 in the United States, and $8,479,845 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $8,981,663.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Cube holds an approval rating of 63%, based on 40 reviews, and an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Cube sometimes struggles with where to take its intriguing premise, but gripping pace and an impressive intelligence make it hard to turn away". On Metacritic, the film has a score 61 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Bob Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle was highly critical: "If writer-director Vincenzo Natali, storyboard artist for Keanu Reeves's Johnny Mnemonic, were as comfortable with dialogue and dramatizing characters as he is with images, this first feature of his might have worked better". Nick Schager from Slant Magazine rated the film three out of five stars, noting that, its intriguing premise and initially chilling mood were undone by threadbare characterizations, and lack of a satisfying explanation for the cube's existence. He concluded the film "winds up going nowhere fast".

Anita Gates of The New York Times was more positive, saying the story "proves surprisingly gripping, in the best Twilight Zone tradition. The ensemble cast does an outstanding job on the cinematic equivalent of a bare stage... Everyone has his or her own theory about who is behind this peculiar imprisonment... The weakness in Cube is the dialogue, which sometimes turns remarkably trite... The strength is the film's understated but real tension. Vincenzo Natali, the film's fledgling director and co-writer, has delivered an allegory, too, about futility, about the necessity and certain betrayal of trust, about human beings who do not for a second have the luxury of doing nothing". Bloody Disgusting gave a positive review: "Shoddy acting and a semi-weak script can't hold this movie back. It's simply too good a premise and too well-directed to let minor hindrances derail its creepy premise". Kim Newman from Empire Online gave the film 4/5 stars, writing: "Too many low-budget sci-fi films try for epic scope and fail; this one concentrates on making the best of what it's got and does it well".

Accolades
The film won the award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 1997 Toronto International Film Festival and the Jury Award at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film.

In 2001, an industry poll conducted by Playback named it the eighth best Canadian film of the preceding 15 years.

Series and remakes
After Cube achieved cult status, it was followed by a sequel, Cube 2: Hypercube, released in 2002, and a prequel, Cube Zero, released in 2004.

In April 2015, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Lionsgate Films was planning to remake the film, titled Cubed, with Saman Kesh directing, Roy Lee and Jon Spaihts producing, and a screenplay by Philip Gawthorne, based on Kesh’s original take.

A Japanese remake, also called Cube, was released in October 2021.

title: Cube (1997 film)


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Halt and Catch Fire (computing)

In computer engineering, Halt and Catch Fire, known by the assembly language mnemonic HCF, is an idiom referring to a computer machine code instruction that causes the computer's central processing unit (CPU) to cease meaningful operation, typically requiring a restart of the computer. It originally referred to a fictitious instruction in IBM System/360 computers (introduced in 1964), making a joke about its numerous non-obvious instruction mnemonics.

With the advent of the MC6800 (introduced in 1974), a design flaw was discovered by programmers. Due to incomplete opcode decoding, two illegal opcodes, 0x9D and 0xDD, will cause the program counter on the processor to increment endlessly, which locks the processor until reset. Those codes have been unofficially named HCF. During the design process of the MC6802, engineers originally planned to remove this instruction, but kept it as-is for testing purposes. As a result, HCF was officially recognized as a real instruction. Later, HCF became a humorous catch-all term for instructions that may freeze a processor, including intentional instructions for testing purposes, and unintentional illegal instructions. Some are considered hardware defects, and if the system is shared, a malicious user can execute it to launch a denial-of-service attack.

In the case of real instructions, the implication of this expression is that, whereas in most cases in which a CPU executes an unintended instruction (a bug in the code) the computer may still be able to recover, in the case of an HCF instruction there is, by definition, no way for the system to recover without a restart.

The expression catch fire is a facetious exaggeration of the speed with which the CPU chip would be switching some bus circuits, causing them to overheat and burn.

Origins
The Z1 (1938) and Z3 (1941) computers built by Konrad Zuse contained illegal sequences of instructions which damaged the hardware if executed by accident.

Apocryphal stories connect this term with an illegal opcode in IBM System/360. A processor, upon encountering the instruction, would start switching bus lines very fast, potentially leading to overheating.

In a computer's assembly language, mnemonics are used that are directly equivalent to machine code instructions. The mnemonics are frequently three letters long, such as ADD, CMP (to compare two numbers), and JMP (jump to a different location in the program). The HCF instruction was originally a fictitious assembly language instruction, said to be under development at IBM for use in their System/360 computers, along with many other amusing three-letter acronyms like XPR (Execute Programmer) and CAI (Corrupt Accounting Information), and similar to other joke mnemonics such as "SDI" for "Self Destruct Immediately" and "CRN" for "Convert to Roman Numerals". A list of such mnemonics, including HCF, shows up as "Overextended Mnemonics" in the April 1980 Creative Computing flip-side parody issue.

In modern CPUs
CPU designers sometimes incorporate one or more undocumented machine code instructions for testing purposes, such as the IBM System/360 DIAGnose instruction.

Motorola 6800
The Motorola 6800 microprocessor was the first for which an undocumented assembly mnemonic HCF became widely known. The operation codes (opcodes—the portions of the machine language instructions that specify an operation to be performed) hexadecimal 9D and DD were reported and given the unofficial mnemonic HCF in a December 1977 article by Gerry Wheeler in BYTE magazine on undocumented opcodes. Wheeler noted that Motorola reported 197 valid operation codes for the M6800 processor, and so inferred that with 256 possible 8 bit combinations, there must be 59 invalid instructions. He described the HCF as a "big surprise", and said of the Catch Fire portion of the moniker, "Well, almost":

Another author wrote in 2002:

"In the old days of the Motorola 6800 microprocessor, instruction code DD caused the processor to go into an endless loop, reading from each memory address in order. (Other engineers referred to this as the "Halt and Catch Fire" [HCF] instruction, but we remembered the code by calling it the "Drop Dead" instruction.) Drop Dead mode was wonderful for spotting hardware timing and address logic problems with a scope; all of the address and clock lines were nice, cycling square waves."

The 6800's behavior when encountering HCF was known to Motorola by 1976. When the 6800 encounters the HCF instruction, the processor never finds the end of it, endlessly incrementing its program counter until the CPU is reset. Hence, the address bus effectively becomes a counter, allowing the operation of all address lines to be quickly verified. Once the processor entered this mode, it is not responsive to interrupts, so normal operation can only be restored by a reset (hence the "Drop Dead" and "Halt and Catch Fire" monikers). These references are thus to the unresponsive behavior of the CPU in this state, and not to any form of erratic behavior.. Motorola kept the HCF behavior in the 6802 variant of the processor (which released in 1977) as an intentional self-test for the 6802's 128 bytes of onboard RAM.

Other HCF-like instructions were found later on the Motorola 6800 when executing undocumented opcodes FD (cycling twice slower than 9D/DD) or CD/ED (cycling at a human-readable very low frequency on a limited number of high-address lines).

HCF is believed to be the first built-in self-test feature on a Motorola microprocessor.

Intel x86
The Intel 8086 and subsequent processors in the x86 series have an HLT (halt) instruction, opcode F4, which stops instruction execution and places the processor in a HALT state. An enabled interrupt, a debug exception, the BINIT signal, the INIT signal, or the RESET signal resumes execution, which means the processor can always be restarted. Some of the early Intel DX4 chips have a problem with the HLT instruction and cannot be restarted after this instruction is used, which disables the computer and turns HLT into more of an HCF instruction. The Linux kernel has a "no-hlt" option telling Linux to run an infinite loop instead of using HLT, which allows users of these broken chips to use Linux.

The 80286 has the undocumented opcode 0F 04, causing the CPU to hang when executed. The only way out is a CPU reset. In some implementations, the opcode is emulated through BIOS as a halting sequence.

Many computers in the Intel Pentium line can be locked up by executing an invalid instruction (F00F C7C8), which causes the computer to lock up. This became known as the Pentium F00F bug. No compiler creates the instruction, but a malicious programmer can insert it into code to render an afflicted computer inoperable until the machine is power-cycled. Since its discovery, workarounds have been developed to prevent it from locking the computer, and the bug has been eliminated in subsequent Intel processors.

During Black Hat USA 2017, Christopher Domas showed that he found a new "Halt and Catch Fire" instruction on an undisclosed x86 processor model using his own x86 processor fuzzer called sandsifter.

Other CPUs
The NMOS MOS Technology 6502 has 12 invalid instructions which cause the program counter to fail to fetch the next instruction, locking up the CPU and requiring a processor reset. The WDC version of the CMOS 65C02, as well as the 65C816, has the  (stop, opcode  ) instruction. When executed,  will stop the processor's internal clock, causing all processing to cease—also, the processor will be unresponsive to all inputs except   (reset). The only way to clear the effects of an  instruction is to toggle.

On the Zilog Z80, executing DI (disable interrupts) followed by HALT (wait for an interrupt) results in the CPU staying frozen indefinitely, waiting for an interrupt that cannot happen. However, the non-maskable interrupt signal can be used to break out of this state, making this pair not a true HCF. The /NMI signal is on Pin 17 of the original 40 pin DIP package. The pair will only result in a HCF condition if either the /NMI pin is connected directly to the +5V rail, making the generation of that signal impossible, or if the interrupt routine that services /NMI ends with a return, placing it back in the HALT state.

The SM83 processor core in the Game Boy's LR35902 system on chip has a similar issue, triggered by two consecutive HALTs with interrupts disabled. The core itself contains 11 opcodes that fully lock the CPU when executed.

The Hitachi SC61860, mainly used in Sharp pocket computers in the 1980s and 1990s, has an undocumented HCF instruction with the opcode 7B.

title: Halt and Catch Fire (computing)


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John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

Admiral of the Fleet John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher, (25 January 1841 – 10 July 1920), commonly known as Jacky or Jackie Fisher, was a British Admiral of the Fleet. With more than sixty years in the Royal Navy, his efforts to reform the service helped to usher in an era of modernisation which saw the supersession of wooden sailing ships armed with muzzle-loading cannon by steel-hulled battlecruisers, submarines and the first aircraft carriers.

Fisher has a reputation as an innovator, strategist and developer of the navy rather than as a seagoing admiral involved in major battles, although in his career he experienced all these things. When appointed First Sea Lord in 1904 he removed 150 ships then on active service which were no longer useful and set about constructing modern replacements, developing a modern fleet prepared to meet Germany during the First World War.

Fisher saw the need to improve the range, accuracy and rate-of-fire of naval gunnery, and became an early proponent of the use of the torpedo, which he believed would supersede big guns for use against ships. As Controller, he introduced torpedo-boat destroyers as a class of ship intended for defence against attack from torpedo boats or from submarines. As First Sea Lord he drove the construction of HMS Dreadnought (1906), the first all-big-gun battleship, but he also believed that submarines would become increasingly important and urged their development. He became involved with the introduction of turbine engines to replace reciprocating engines, and with the introduction of oil fuelling to replace coal. He introduced daily baked bread on board ships, whereas when he entered the service it was customary to eat hard biscuits, frequently infested by biscuit beetles.

He first officially retired from the Admiralty in 1910 on his 69th birthday, but became First Sea Lord again in November 1914. He resigned seven months later in frustration over Churchill's Gallipoli campaign, and then served as chairman of the Government's Board of Invention and Research until the end of the war.

Character and appearance
Fisher was five feet seven inches tall and stocky with a round face. In later years, some suggested that Fisher, born in Ceylon of British parents, had Asian ancestry due to his features and the yellow cast of his skin. However, his colour resulted from dysentery and malaria in middle life, which nearly caused his death. He had a fixed and compelling gaze when addressing someone, which gave little clue to his feelings. Fisher was energetic, ambitious, enthusiastic and clever. A shipmate described him as "easily the most interesting midshipman I ever met". When addressing someone he could become carried away with the point he was seeking to make, and on one occasion, the King asked him to stop shaking his fist in his face. He was considered a "man who demanded to be heard, and one who didn't suffer fools lightly".

Throughout his life he was a religious man and attended church regularly when ashore. He had a passion for sermons and might attend two or three services in a day to hear them, which he would 'discuss afterwards with great animation'. However, he was discreet in expressing his religious views because he feared public attention might hinder his professional career.

He was not keen on sport, but he was a highly proficient dancer. Fisher employed his dancing skill later in life to charm a number of important ladies. He became interested in dancing in 1877 and insisted that the officers of his ship learn to dance. Fisher cancelled the leave of midshipmen who would not take part. He introduced the practice of junior officers dancing on deck when the band was playing for senior officers' wardroom dinners. This practice spread through the fleet. He broke with the then ball tradition of dancing with a different partner for each dance, instead adopting the scandalous habit of choosing one good dancer as his partner for the evening. His ability to charm all comers of all social classes made up for his sometimes blunt or tactless comments. He suffered from seasickness throughout his life.

Fisher's aim was 'efficiency of the fleet and its instant readiness for war', which won him support amongst a certain kind of navy officer. He believed in advancing the most able, rather than the longest serving. This upset those he passed over. Thus, he divided the navy into those who approved of his innovations and those who did not. As he became older and more senior he also became more autocratic and commented, 'Anyone who opposes me, I crush'. He believed that nations fought wars for material gain, and that maintaining a strong navy deterred other nations from engaging it in battle, thus decreasing the likelihood of war: "On the British fleet rests the British Empire." Fisher also believed that the risk of catastrophe in a sea battle was far greater than on land: a war could be lost or won in a day at sea, with no hope of replacing lost ships, but an army could be rebuilt quickly. When an arms race broke out between Germany and Britain to build larger navies, the German Kaiser commented, 'I admire Fisher, I say nothing against him. If I were in his place I should do all that he has done and I should do all that I know he has in mind to do'.

Childhood and personal life

John Arbuthnot Fisher was born on 25 January 1841 on the Wavendon Estate at Ramboda in Ceylon. He was the eldest of eleven children, of whom only seven survived infancy, born to Sophia Fisher and Captain William Fisher, a British Army officer in the 78th Highlanders, who had been an aide-de-camp to the former governor of Ceylon, Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton, and was serving as a staff officer at Kandy. Sophia's father Alfred Lambe was a wine merchant and Purveyor of Mineral Water to the King. She was brought up New Bond Street in Mayfair, London. Fisher commented, "My mother was a most magnificent and handsome, extremely young woman....My father was 6 feet 2 inches..., also especially handsome. Why I am ugly is one of those puzzles of physiology which are beyond finding out".

William Fisher sold his commission the year John was born, and became a coffee planter and later chief superintendent of police. He incurred such debt on his two coffee plantations that he could barely support his growing family. At the age of six John (who was always known within the family as "Jack") was sent to England to live with his maternal grandfather, Alfred Lambe, in London. His grandfather had also lost money and the family survived by renting out rooms in their home. John's younger brother, Frederic William Fisher, joined the Royal Navy and reached the rank of admiral, and his youngest surviving sibling Philip became a navy lieutenant on HMS Atalanta (1844) before drowning in an 1880 storm.

William Fisher was killed in a riding accident on 5 May 1866 when John was 25. John's relationship with his mother Sophia suffered from their separation. However, he continued to send her an allowance until her death. In 1870, when Sophia suggested a visit, Fisher dissuaded her as strongly as he could. Fisher wrote to his wife: "I heard from my mother... She contemplates coming to see me... I am in a horrid fright of my mother turning up some day unexpectedly; I am sure we couldn't live together. I hate the very thought of it and really, I don't want to see her. I don't see why I should as I haven't the slightest recollection of her."

Fisher married Frances Katharine Josepha Broughton, known as 'Kitty', the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Delves Broughton and Frances Corkran, on 4 April 1866 while stationed at Portsmouth. Kitty's two brothers were both naval officers. According to a cousin, she believed that Jack would rise "to the top of the tree." They remained married until her death in July 1918. They had a son, Cecil Vavasseur, 2nd Baron Fisher (1868–1955), and three daughters, Beatrix Alice (1867–1930), Dorothy Sybil (1873–1962), and Pamela Mary (1876–1949), all of whom married naval officers who went on to become admirals. Beatrix Alice married Reginald Rundell Neeld in 1896, Pamela Mary married Henry Blackett in 1906, and in 1908 Dorothy Sybil married Eric Fullerton.

Early career (1854–1869)
Fisher's father ultimately aided his entry into the navy, via his godmother Lady Horton, widow of the governor of Ceylon to whom William Fisher had been Aide-de-camp. She prevailed upon a neighbour, Admiral Sir William Parker (the last of Nelson's captains), to nominate John as a naval cadet. The entry examination consisted of writing out the Lord's Prayer and jumping naked over a chair. He formally entered the Royal Navy on 13 July 1854, aged 13, on board Nelson's former flagship, HMS Victory, at Portsmouth. On 29 July he joined HMS Calcutta (1831), an old ship of the line. She was built of wood, in 1831, with 84 smooth-bore muzzle-loading guns arranged on two gun decks, and relied entirely on sail for propulsion. She had a crew of 700, and discipline was strictly enforced by the "hard-bitten Captain Robert Stopford". Fisher fainted when he witnessed eight men being flogged on his first day.

Calcutta participated in the blockade of Russian ports in the Gulf of Finland during the Crimean War, entitling Fisher to the Baltic Medal, before returning to Britain a few months later. The crew was paid off on 1 March 1856. On 2 March 1856, Fisher was posted to HMS Agamemnon (1852), and was sent to Constantinople (now Istanbul) to join her. He arrived on 19 May, just as the war was ending. After a tour around the Dardanelles picking up troops and baggage, Agamemnon returned to England, where the crew was paid off.

Promotion to midshipman came on 12 July 1856 and Fisher joined a 21-gun steam corvette, HMS Highflyer (1851), part of the China Station. He was to spend the next five years in Chinese waters, seeing action in the Second Opium War, 1856–1860. The Highflyer's captain, Charles Shadwell, was an expert on naval astronomy (subsequently being appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1861) and he taught Fisher much about navigation, with spectacular later results. When Shadwell was replaced as captain following an injury in action, he gave Fisher a pair of studs engraved with his family motto 'Loyal au Mort', which Fisher was to use for the rest of his life.

Fisher passed the seamanship examination for the rank of lieutenant, and was given the acting rank of mate, on his nineteenth birthday, 25 January 1860. He was transferred three months later from the steam frigate HMS Chesapeake (1855) to the screw corvette HMS Pearl (1855) as an acting lieutenant. Shortly afterwards, Fisher had his first brief command: taking the yacht of the China Squadron's admiral—the paddle-gunboat HMS Coromandel (1855)—from Hong Kong to Canton (presently Guangzhou), a voyage of four days.

He was transferred, on 12 June 1860, to the paddle-sloop HMS Furious (1850) where he saw sufficient action to add the Taku Forts and Canton clasps to his China War Medal. Furious left Hong Kong and the China Station in March 1861 and, after a leisurely voyage home, paid off her crew in Portsmouth on 30 August. Captain Oliver Jones of the Furious was entirely different from Shadwell: Fisher wrote there was a mutiny on board within his first fortnight, that Jones terrorized his crew and disobeyed orders given to him. For his part, by the end of the tour, Jones was impressed by Fisher.

At the end of November 1861, Fisher sat his final lieutenant's examination in navigation at the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, passing with flying colours. He had already received top grades in seamanship and gunnery, and achieved the highest score then attained under the recently introduced five-yearly scheme, with 963 out of 1,000 marks in navigation. For this, he was awarded the Beaufort Testimonial, an annual prize of books and instruments; but in the meantime he had to wait around, unpaid, until his appointment came through officially.

From January 1862 to March 1863, Fisher returned to the payroll at the navy's principal gunnery school aboard HMS Excellent (shore establishment), a three-decker moored in Portsmouth harbour. During this time, Excellent was evaluating the performance of the "revolutionary" Armstrong breech-loading guns against the conventional Whitworth muzzle-loading type. During free afternoons Fisher would walk the downs, shouting to practice his command voice. He spent 15 of the next 25 years in four tours of duty at Portsmouth concerned with development of gunnery and torpedoes.

In March 1863, Fisher was appointed Gunnery Lieutenant to HMS Warrior (1860), the first all-iron seagoing armoured battleship and the most powerful ship in the fleet. Built in 1859, she marked the beginning of the end of the Age of Sail and, coincidentally, was armed with both Armstrong guns (breech-loading) and Whitworth rifles (muzzle-loading). Fisher noted he was popular amongst his brother officers because he frequently stayed on board when others went ashore and could take duty for them.

Fisher returned to Excellent in 1864 as a gunnery instructor, where he remained until 1869. Towards the end of his posting he became interested in torpedoes, which were invented in the 1860s, and championed their cause as a relatively simple weapon capable of sinking a battleship. His expertise with torpedoes led to his being invited to Germany in June 1869 for the founding ceremony of a new naval base at Wilhelmshaven, where he met King William I of Prussia (soon to become German emperor), Bismarck and Moltke. Perhaps inspired by the visit, he started preparing a paper on the design, construction and management of electrical torpedoes, the cutting-edge technology of the time.

Commander (1869–1876)
On 2 August 1869 Fisher was promoted to the rank of commander, "at the early age of twenty-eight" according to biographer Ruddock Mackay. On 8 November, he was posted as second-in-command of HMS Donegal (1858), serving under Captain Hewett, a Crimean War Victoria Cross holder. Donegal was a Conqueror-class ship of the line, with auxiliary screw propulsion. She plied between Portsmouth and Hong Kong, taking out relief crews and bringing home the crews they replaced. During this time he completed his torpedoes treatise.

In May 1870, Fisher transferred, again as second in command, to HMS Ocean (1863), flagship of the China Station. It was whilst he was on Ocean that he wrote an eight-page memoir: "Naval Tactics", which Captain J. G. Goodenough had printed for private circulation. He installed a system of electrical firing so that all guns could be fired simultaneously, making Ocean the first vessel to be so equipped. Fisher noted in his letters that he greatly missed his wife, but also missed his work on torpedoes and the access to important people possible with a posting in England.

In 1872, he returned to England to the gunnery school Excellent, this time as head of torpedo and mine training, during which time he split the Torpedo Branch off from Excellent, forming a separate establishment for it called HMS Vernon (shore establishment). His duties included lecturing, and negotiating the purchase of the navy's first Whitehead torpedo. In order to promote the school, he invited politicians and journalists to attend lectures and organised demonstrations. This produced mixed reactions amongst some officers, who did not approve of his showmanship. He was promoted to captain on 30 October 1874, aged thirty-three, in time to be Vernon's first commander. Vernon consisted of the hulk of HMS Vernon (1832), William Symonds' 1832 50-gun sailing frigate, and the hulk of the 26-gun steam frigate HMS Ariadne (1859) provided accommodation. HMS Vesuvius (1874), a torpedo boat of 245 tons, was Vernon's experimental tender for the conduct of torpedo trials. They were moored in Portsmouth Harbour. In 1876, Fisher served on the Board of Admiralty's torpedo committee.

Captain R.N. (1876–1883)

 * September 1876 – March 1877: On half-pay with his family.
 * 30 January 1877 – 1 March 1877: Commanding HMS Hercules (1868).

Fisher was appointed to command HMS Bellerophon (1865) as flag captain to the Admiral of the North America and West Indies Station, Astley Cooper Key, from 2 March 1877 to 4 June 1878. Bellerophon had been in the dockyard for repairs, so the new crew was less than perfect in carrying out their duties. Fisher told them I intend to give you hell for three months, and if you have not come up to my standard in that time you'll have hell for another three months. Midshipman (later Admiral) Gordon Moore recalled, ''Fisher was a very exacting master and I had at times long and arduous duties, long hours at the engine room telegraphs in cold fog, etc., and the least inattention was punished. It was, I think, his way of proving us, for he always rewarded us in some way when an extra hard bit of work was over.''

Cooper Key was transferred to a special squadron operating in the Channel formed to combat fears of war with Russia. Fisher went with him as flag captain of HMS Hercules from 7 June to 21 August 1878. From 22 August to 12 September he transferred still as flag captain under Cooper Key to HMS Valorous (1851). At this time Fisher first became a proponent of the new compass being designed by Sir William Thomson which incorporated corrections for the deviation caused by the metal in iron ships.

From 9 January to 24 July 1879 Fisher commanded HMS Pallas (1865) serving in the Mediterranean Command under Geoffrey Phipps Hornby. Pallas was in poor condition, having a chain passed around the ship to hold the armour plates in place. The tour included an official visit to Istanbul where Fisher dined with the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from gold cups and plates. He then returned to the UK for two months leave at half pay, visiting Bruges with his family.

His next posting, starting 25 September 1879, was to HMS Northampton (1876) as Flag Captain to Sir Leopold McClintock, commanding the North American squadron. Northampton was a new ship with a number of innovations, including twin screws, searchlights and telephones, as well as being armed with torpedoes. It was fitted with an experimental Thomson-designed compass, which the inventor was on hand to adjust. Three days were spent attempting and failing to adjust the compass, with Thomson becoming increasingly bad tempered, until it was noticed that by accident the degree card had been marked with only 359 instead of 360 degrees. The ship was fitted with a new design of lamp created by Captain Philip Colomb, who came on board to inspect them. As a joke, Fisher arranged for anything that could go wrong with the lamps to do so, sending Colomb away disheartened over his invention (although Fisher officially reported favourably about the lamps). On another occasion, the naval hospital at Halifax requested some flags to fly for the Queen's birthday. Fisher obliged, but sent only yellow and black flags signifying plague and quarantine. On the other hand, he worked hard at improving his ship. As reported by his second in command, Commander Wilmot Fawkes, the ship carried out 150 runs with torpedoes in a fortnight, whereas the whole rest of the navy performed only 200 in a year.

Fisher's brother Philip was serving on the training ship HMS Atalanta (1844), which disappeared somewhere between the West Indies and England, believed lost in a storm. Northampton was one of the ships sent to search for her, but without result. In January 1881 Fisher received news of his appointment to the new ironclad battleship HMS Inflexible (1876). Admiral McClintock commented, Everyone regrets the departure of Captain Fisher, but I fancy we shall not fully realize our loss until he is gone....Since his nomination to the Inflexible, his spirits have returned and daily increased, and now he almost requires wiring down. The ship was still building, so Fisher was temporarily appointed to HMS Duke of Wellington (1852), flagship of the port admiral at Portsmouth between 30 January and 4 July 1881.

HMS Inflexible
Fisher was considered sufficiently able, with recommendations following all of his postings, to be appointed captain of the newly completed battleship HMS Inflexible (1876). Inflexible had the largest guns and thickest armour of any ship in the navy, but still carried masts and sails and had slow, muzzle-loading guns. She had been seven years under construction and had many innovations built into her, including electric lighting and torpedo tubes, but with such a tortuous layout that crew became lost. The sails were never used for propulsion, but because a ship's performance was partly judged on the speed with which a ship could set sails, Fisher was obliged to drill the crew in their use.

In spring 1882 Inflexible was part of the Mediterranean Fleet and was assigned to protection of Queen Victoria during a visit to Menton on the Riviera. This was intended as a reminder of British naval prowess to the French, but allowed Fisher to meet Victoria and her grandson, Prince Henry of Prussia, who later became admiral of the German navy. Victoria was impressed by Fisher, as she had been by his brother Philip who had served on royal yachts and for whom she had arranged the ill-fated posting to Atalanta.

Inflexible took part in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, bombarding the port of Alexandria as part of Admiral Seymour's fleet. Fisher was placed in charge of a landing party which was quartered in the Khedive's palace. Lacking means of reconnaissance, he devised a plan to armour a train with iron plates, machine gun and cannon. This became celebrated and widely reported by correspondents, so that its inventor, Fisher, came to the attention of the public for the first time as a hero. Shore duty had the unfortunate effect that Fisher became seriously ill with dysentery and malaria. He refused to take sick leave, but eventually was ordered home by Lord Northbrook, who commented, 'the Admiralty could build another Inflexible, but not another Fisher'.

During this time he became a close friend of the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. He was appointed a Companion of the Bath (CB) in 1882.

Home postings
From January to April 1883 Fisher was on half pay recovering from his illness. In January he was invited to visit Osborne House for a fortnight by Queen Victoria, concerned about the charming Captain Fisher. Fisher, having entered the navy penniless and unknown, was delighted.

In April 1883 Fisher had recovered sufficiently to return to duty and was appointed commander of HMS Excellent (shore establishment). He remained with Excellent for two years until June 1885, where he gained a following of officers concerned with the poor offensive capabilities of the fleet, including John Jellicoe and Percy Scott. For the next 15 months he had no naval command and still suffered the effects of his illness. He took to visiting Marienbad, which was famous amongst notable society for its restoring climate, and went there regularly in later years.

During June–July 1885 Fisher served a short posting to HMS Minotaur (1863) in the Baltic under Admiral Hornby, following the Panjdeh Incident, which led to fear of war with Russia.

From November 1886 to 1890, he was Director of Naval Ordnance, responsible for weapons and munitions. He was responsible for the development of quick-firing guns to be used against the growing threat from torpedo boats, and particularly claimed responsibility for removing wooden boarding pikes from navy ships. The Navy did not have responsibility for manufacture and supply of weapons and ammunition, which was in the hands of the War Office. Fisher began a long campaign to return this responsibility to the Admiralty, but did not finally succeed until he later became First Sea Lord. He was appointed Aide-de-Camp to the Queen in 1887, and promoted Rear-Admiral in August 1890.

Admiral (1890–1902)
From May 1891 to February 1892, Fisher was Admiral Superintendent of the dockyard at Portsmouth, where he concerned himself with improving the speed of operations. HMS Royal Sovereign (1891) was built in two years rather than three, while changing a barbette gun on a ship was reduced from a two-day operation to two hours. His example obliged all shipyards, both navy and private, to reduce the time they took to complete a ship, making savings in cost and allowing new designs to enter service more rapidly. He used all the tricks he could devise: an official who refused to step outside his office to personally supervise the work was offered a promotion to the tropics; he would find out the name of one or two men amongst a work crew and then make a point of complimenting them on their work and using their names, giving the impression he knew everyone personally; he took a chair and table into the yard where some operation was to be carried out and declared his intention to stay there until the operation was completed. He observed, When you are told a thing is impossible, that there are insuperable objections, then is the time to fight like the devil.

His next appointment was Third Naval Lord and Controller of the Navy,    the naval officer with overall responsibility for provision of ships and equipment. He presided over the development of torpedo boat destroyers armed with quick-firing small-calibre guns (called destroyers at Fisher's suggestion). A suggestion for the boats was brought to the Admiralty in 1892 by Alfred Yarrow of shipbuilders Thornycroft and Yarrow, who reported that he had obtained plans of new torpedo boats being built by the French, and he could build a faster boat to defend against them. Torpedo boats had become a major threat, as they were cheap but potentially able to sink the largest battleships, and France had built large numbers of them. The first destroyers were considered a success and more were ordered, but Fisher immediately ran into trouble by insisting that all shipbuilders, not just Yarrow's, should be invited to build boats to Yarrow's design. A similar (though opposite) difficulty with vested interests arose over the introduction of water tube boilers into navy ships, which held out the promise of improved fuel efficiency and greater speed. The first examples were used by Thornycroft and Yarrow in 1892, and then were trialled in the gunboat HMS Sharpshooter (1888). However, an attempt to specify similar boilers for new cruisers in 1894 led to questions in the House of Commons, and opposition from shipbuilders who did not want to invest in the new technology. The matter continued for several years after Fisher moved on to a new posting, with a parliamentary enquiry rejecting the new boilers. Eventually the new design was adopted, but only after another eighteen ships had been built using the older design, with consequent poorer performance than necessary. Fisher was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1894 as a Knight Commander of the Bath, promoted to vice-admiral in 1896, and put in charge of the North America and West Indies Station in 1897. In 1898 the Fashoda Crisis brought the threat of war with France, to which Fisher responded with plans to raid the French West Indies including Devil's Island prison, and return the "infamous" Alfred Dreyfus to France to foment trouble within the French army. It was Fisher's policy to conduct all manoeuvres at full speed while training the fleet, and to expect the best from his crews. He would socialise with junior officers so that they were not afraid to approach him with ideas, or disagree with him when the occasion demanded.

Fisher was chosen by Prime Minister Lord Salisbury as British naval delegate to the First Hague Peace Convention in 1899. The peace conference had been called by Russia to agree to limits on armaments, but the British position was to reject any proposal which might restrict use of the navy. Fisher's style was to say little in formal meetings, but to lobby determinedly at all informal gatherings. He impressed many by his affability and style, combined with a serious determination to press the British case with everyone he met. The conference ended successfully with limitations only upon dumdum bullets, poison gas and bombings from balloons, and Fisher was rewarded with appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet,  'the tip-top appointment of the fleet' . The German delegation summarised Britain's position: English world position depended upon the navy, the navy was sufficiently powerful to overcome any combination of states, and England reserved the right to employ that fleet any way it chose.

Mediterranean Fleet
Unlike the North America and West Indies station, the Mediterranean Fleet was a vital British command operating from Alexandria and Gibraltar. The important shipping route between India and Britain passed through the Suez Canal, and was considered threatened by France. France was concerned with the route north–south to its colonies in Northern Africa. Fisher retained his flagship from the North American Squadron, HMS Renown (1895), rather than choosing a more powerful but slower traditional battleship, despite criticism from other officers.

His strategy emphasised the importance of striking the first blow, but with an awareness that sunk ships could not easily be replaced, and would replace any officer who could not keep up with the standards he demanded. He gave lectures on naval strategy to which all officers were invited and once again encouraged his officers to bring ideas to him. He offered prizes for essays on tactics and maintained a large tabletop map room with models of all ships in the fleet, where all officers could come to develop tactics. A particular concern was the threat of torpedoes, which Germany had boasted would dispose of the British fleet, and the numerous French torpedo boats. Fisher's innovations were not universally approved, with some senior officers resenting the attention he paid to their juniors, or the pressure he placed on all to improve efficiency.

A programme of realistic exercises was adopted including simulated French raids, defensive manoeuvres, night attacks and blockades, all carried out at maximum speed. He introduced a gold cup for the ship which performed best at gunnery, and insisted upon shooting at greater range and from battle formations. He found that he too was learning some of the complications and difficulties of controlling a large fleet in complex situations, and immensely enjoyed it.

Notes from his lectures indicate that, at the start of his time in the Mediterranean, useful working ranges for heavy guns without telescopic sights were considered to be only 2000 yards, or 3000–4000 yards with such sights, whereas by the end of his time discussion centred on how to shoot effectively at 5000 yards. This was driven by the increasing range of the torpedo, which had now risen to 3000–4000 yards, necessitating ships fighting effectively at greater ranges. At this time he advocated relatively small main armaments on capital ships (some had 15 inch or greater), because the improved technical design of the relatively small (10 inch) modern guns allowed a much greater firing rate and greater overall weight of broadside. The potentially much greater ranges of large guns was not an issue, because no one knew how to aim them effectively at such ranges. He argued that "the design of fighting ships must follow the mode of fighting instead of fighting being subsidiary to and dependent on the design of ships." As regards how officers needed to behave, he commented, " Think and act for yourself is the motto for the future, not Let us wait for orders."

Lord Hankey, then a marine officer serving under Fisher, later commented, "It is difficult for anyone who had not lived under the previous regime to realize what a change Fisher brought about in the Mediterranean fleet. ... Before his arrival, the topics and arguments of the officers messes ... were mainly confined to such matters as the cleaning of paint and brasswork. ... These were forgotten and replaced by incessant controversies on tactics, strategy, gunnery, torpedo warfare, blockade, etc. It was a veritable renaissance and affected every officer in the navy." Lord Charles Beresford, later to become a severe critic of Fisher, gave up a plan to return to Britain and enter parliament, because he had "learnt more in the last week than in the last forty years."

Fisher implemented a program of banquets and balls for important dignitaries to improve diplomatic relations. The fleet visited Constantinople, where he had three meetings with the sultan and was awarded the Grand Cordon, Order of Osmanieh in November 1900, and the following year he was promoted to full Admiral on 5 November 1901. He lobbied hard with the Admiralty to obtain additional ships and supplies for the Mediterranean squadron. Beresford, who had established a career in politics alongside his naval one, continued a public campaign for greater funding of the fleet, which caused him to come into conflict with the Admiralty. While Fisher agreed with him as to the need for greater funding and instant readiness for war, he chose to stay out of the public debate. However, he maintained a steady confidential correspondence with the journalist Arnold White, providing him with information and advice for a newspaper campaign promoting the needs of the navy. During the course of the correspondence in 1902, Fisher noted that although France was Britain's historical enemy, Britain had considerable common interest with France as a possible ally, whereas growing German activity abroad made her a much more likely enemy.

The correspondence revealed that Fisher remained uncertain how his views were being received at the Admiralty and an uncertainty on his part whether he would receive further promotions. He had already received approaches to become a director of Armstrong Whitworth, of Elswick (then Britain's largest armaments firm), at a considerably larger salary than that of an admiral and with the possibility of building privately new designs of ship which he believed would be needed to maintain the strength of the fleet.

Second Sea Lord: reform of officer training (1902–1904)
In early June 1902 Fisher handed over the command of the Mediterranean Squadron to Admiral Sir Compton Domvile, and returned to the UK to take up the appointment as Second Naval Lord in charge of personnel. He was read in at the Admiralty on 9 June, and took up his duties the following day.

At this time engineering officers, who had become increasingly important in the fleet as it became steadily more dependent upon machinery, were still largely looked down upon by executive (command) officers. Fisher considered it would be better for the navy if the two branches could be merged, as had been done in the past with navigation officers who had similarly once been a completely separate speciality. His solution was to merge the cadet training of ordinary and engineer officers and revise the curriculum so that it provided a suitable grounding to later go on to either path. The proposal was initially resisted by the remainder of the Board of Admiralty, but Fisher convinced them of the benefits of the changes. Objections within the navy as a whole were harder to quell and a campaign once again broke out in newspapers. Fisher was thoroughly aware of the benefits of getting the press on his side and continued to leak information to friendly journalists. Beresford was approached by officers objecting to the changes to act as champion of their cause, but sided with Fisher on this issue.

Training was extended from under two years to four, with the resulting need for more accommodation for cadets. A second cadet establishment, the Royal Naval College, Osborne, was constructed at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight for the first two years of training, with the last two remaining at Dartmouth. All cadets now received an education in science and technology as it related to life on board a ship as well as navigation and seamanship. Those who went on to be command officers would now have the benefit of improved understanding of their ships while those who became engineers would be better equipped for command. Physical education and sport were to be taught, not only for the benefit of the cadets but also for the future training of ships' crews which were expected to produce sporting teams on good-will visits in foreign ports. Entrance by examination, which biased the intake to those who could obtain special tuition, was replaced with an interview committee tasked with determining the general knowledge of candidates and their reaction to the questions as much as their answers. After the four years, cadets were posted to special training ships for final practical experience before being posted to real command positions. The results of the final examination affected the seniority allotted to each cadet and his chance of future early promotion.

Fisher had described his Selborne-Fisher scheme as "unstoppable by prejudice, Parliament, Satan or even, beyond all these, the Treasury itself". However his original inclusion of the Royal Marines caused a drastic fall in the number of cadets opting to become officers in that branch of the service. Fisher accordingly was obliged to modify his reforms to exclude the Royal Marines in 1912.

He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list on 26 June 1902, and invested as such by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902.

In 1903 he became Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, with HMS Victory as his flagship.

First Sea Lord (1904–1910)
After spending September and the first half of October on the continent Fisher took office as First Sea Lord on 20 October 1904. The appointment came with a house in Queen Anne's Gate, but Fisher also leased Langham House, Ham where the family lived until his retirement. In June 1905 he was appointed to the Order of Merit (OM), in December he was promoted Admiral of the Fleet.

Fisher was brought into the Admiralty to reduce naval budgets, and to reform the navy for modern war. Amidst massive public controversy, he ruthlessly sold off 90 obsolete and small ships and put a further 64 into reserve, describing them as "too weak to fight and too slow to run away", and "a miser's hoard of useless junk". This freed up crews and money to increase the number of large modern ships in home waters. The navy estimate for 1905 was reduced by £3.5 million on the previous year's total of £36.8 million despite new building programs and greatly increased effectiveness. Naval expenditure fell from 1905 to 1907, before rising again. By the end of Fisher's tenure as First Sea Lord expenditure had returned to 1904 levels.

He was a driving force behind the development of the fast, all-big-gun battleship, and chaired the Committee on Designs which produced the outline design for the first modern battleship, HMS Dreadnought (1906). His committee also produced a new type of cruiser in a similar style to Dreadnought with a high speed achieved at the expense of armour protection. This became the battlecruiser, the first being HMS Invincible (1907). He also encouraged the introduction of submarines into the Royal Navy, and the conversion from a largely coal-fuelled navy to an oil-fuelled one. He had a long-running public feud with another admiral, Lord Charles Beresford.

In his capacity as First Sea Lord, Fisher proposed multiple times to King Edward VII that Britain should take advantage of its naval superiority to "Copenhagen" the German fleet at Kiel – that is, to destroy it with a pre-emptive surprise attack without declaration of war, as the Royal Navy had done against the Danish Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. In his memoirs, Fisher records a conversation where he was informed that "by all from the German Emperor downwards [he] was the most hated man in Germany", as the Emperor "had heard of [Fisher's] idea for the "Copenhagening" of the German Fleet." Fisher further added that he doubted that the suggestion had leaked out, and believed that "[the Emperor] only said it because he knew it was what [the British] ought to have done."

In 1908, he predicted that war between Britain and Germany would occur in October 1914, which later proved accurate, basing his statement on the projected completion of the widening of the Kiel Canal, which would allow Germany to move its large warships safely from the Baltic to the North Sea. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) that year.

On 7 December 1909, he was created Baron Fisher. He took the punning motto "Fear God and dread nought" on his coat of arms as a reference to Dreadnought.

Before the war (1911–1914)

He retired to Kilverstone Hall in Norfolk on 25 January 1911, his 70th birthday.

In 1912, Fisher was appointed chairman of the Royal Commission on Fuel and Engines, with a view to converting the entire fleet to oil. Classified "Secret", Fisher's Commission reported in on 27 November 1912, with two follow-up reports on 27 February 1913 and 10 February 1914.

Once the First World War broke out in August 1914, Fisher was a 'constant' visitor to Churchill at the Admiralty.

First Sea Lord (1914–1915)
In October 1914 Lord Fisher was recalled as First Sea Lord, after Prince Louis of Battenberg had been forced to resign because of his German name. The Times reported that Fisher "was now entering the close of his 74th year but he was never younger or more vigorous". He resigned on 15 May 1915 amidst bitter arguments with the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, over Gallipoli, causing Churchill's resignation too. Fisher was never entirely enthusiastic about the campaign—going back and forth in his support, to the consternation and frustration of members of the cabinet—and all in all preferred an amphibious attack on the German Baltic Sea coastline (the Baltic Project), even having the shallow-draft battlecruisers HMS Furious (47), HMS Glorious and HMS Courageous (50) constructed for the purpose. As the Gallipoli campaign failed, relations with Churchill became increasingly acrimonious. One of Fisher's last contributions to naval construction was the projected HMS Incomparable, a mammoth battlecruiser which took the principles of the Courageous class another step further; mounting 20-inch guns, but still with minimal armour, Incomparable was never approved for construction.

Fisher's resignation was initially not taken seriously: "Fisher is always resigning" commented the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. However, when Fisher vacated his room at the Admiralty with the announced intention of retiring to Scotland, the Prime Minister sent him an order in the King's name to continue his duties. Senior naval officers and the press made appeals to the now elderly (74) First Sea Lord to remain in his position. Fisher responded with an eccentric letter to Asquith setting out six demands that would "guarantee the successful termination of the war". These would have given him unprecedented sole authority over the fleet, including all promotions and construction. After commenting that Fisher's behaviour indicated signs of mental aberration, Asquith responded with a brusque acceptance of Fisher's original resignation.

Last years (1915–1920)
Fisher was made chairman of the Government's Board of Invention and Research, serving in that post until the end of the war. In 1917 he was awarded the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers, Grand Cordon, the highest of eight classes associated with the award. Notice of the King's permission to accept and to display this honour was duly published in The London Gazette.

Admiral Fisher's wife, Frances, died in July 1918. She was cremated and her ashes were interred in St Andrew's churchyard, adjacent to Kilverstone Hall, on 22 July. Her coffin was draped with Fisher's flag as Admiral of the Fleet and topped by a coronet.

Fisher died of cancer at St James Square, London, on 10 July 1920, aged 79, and he was given a national funeral at Westminster Abbey.

His coffin was drawn on a gun-carriage through the streets of London to Westminster Abbey by bluejackets, with six admirals as pall-bearers and an escort of Royal Marines, their arms reversed, to the slow beat of muffled drums. That evening the body was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium. The following day, Fisher's ashes were taken by train to Kilverstone, escorted by a Royal Navy guard of honour, and were placed in the grave of his wife, underneath a chestnut tree, overlooking the figurehead of his first seagoing ship, HMS Calcutta (1831).

In folklore and popular culture

 * A reference to Fisher was hidden as an encrypted message, the Smithy code, by Mr Justice Peter Smith in the April 2006 judgement on the Da Vinci Code plagiarism case. Smith's biography in Who's Who stated that he was a "Jackie Fisher fan".
 * Fisher is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with the earliest known use of the phrase "OMG" as an abbreviation for "Oh my God", in a letter to Winston Churchill on 9 September 1917. In Fisher's case it was "Oh! My God!"
 * Fisher coined the phrase "Buggins' turn" to describe the practice of making appointments by rotation or seniority rather than by merit, which he saw as a problem within the navy.
 * The song "Old Admirals" on the Al Stewart album Past, Present, and Future is based largely on Fisher's life.
 * Fisher makes an appearance as a midshipman during the Taiping Rebellion in George MacDonald Fraser's novel Flashman and the Dragon (1985).
 * Fisher makes an appearance in the television mini-series Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983), Episode 1, portrayed by actor Denis Holmes.

Honours

 * 🇬🇧 Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (1894)
 * 🇬🇧 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (1902)
 * 🇬🇧 Order of Merit (1905)
 * 🇬🇧 Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (1908)
 * 🇫🇷 Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (1906)
 * Order of Osmanieh (1900)
 * 🇯🇵 Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers, Grand Cordon (1917)

title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher


text:
Crepuscular animal

In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period, being matutinal, vespertine/vespertinal, or both. This is distinguished from diurnal and nocturnal behavior, where an animal is active during the hours of daylight and of darkness, respectively. Some crepuscular animals may also be active by moonlight or during an overcast day. Matutinal animals are active only before sunrise, and vespertine only after sunset.

A number of factors affect the time of day an animal is active. Predators hunt when their prey is available, and prey try to avoid the times when their principal predators are at large. The temperature may be too high at midday or too low at night. Some creatures may adjust their activities depending on local competition.

Etymology and usage
The word crepuscular derives from the Latin crepusculum ("twilight"). Its sense accordingly differs from diurnal and nocturnal behavior, which respectively peak during hours of daylight and darkness. The distinction is not absolute, because crepuscular animals may also be active on a bright moonlit night or on a dull day. Some animals casually described as nocturnal are in fact crepuscular.

Special classes of crepuscular behaviour include matutinal, or "matinal", animals active only in the dawn, and vespertine, only in the dusk. Those active during both times are said to have a bimodal activity pattern.

Adaptive relevance
The various patterns of activity are thought to be mainly antipredator adaptations, though some could equally well be predatory adaptations. Many predators forage most intensively at night, whereas others are active at midday and see best in full sun. The crepuscular habit may both reduce predation pressure, increasing the crepuscular populations, and offer better foraging opportunities to predators that increasingly focus their attention on crepuscular prey until a new balance is struck. Such shifting states of balance are often found in ecology.

Some predatory species adjust their habits in response to competition from other predators. For example, the subspecies of short-eared owl that lives on the Galápagos Islands is normally active during the day, but on islands like Santa Cruz that are home to the Galapagos hawk, the owl is crepuscular.

Apart from the relevance to predation, crepuscular activity in hot regions also may be the most effective way of avoiding heat stress while capitalizing on available light.

Crepuscular flight activity is preferred by some animals, such as the walnut twig beetle, due to warmer temperatures, moderate wind speeds, and low barometric pressure.

Crepuscular activity can be influenced by the lunar cycle due to the change in nocturnal light. This creates changes in animal sleep, reproduction, and foraging behaviours, often becoming less active during periods of low light.

Migration
Animal patterns of activity sometimes change during migration due to changes in environmental conditions. Mule deer are crepuscular, but they are only active at sunset before and during migration. In the spring they are only active at sunrise because the snow is at its hardest, so it is easier for the deer to move without sinking in the snow.

During migration, some types of swallow are active primarily during daytime hours with some activity during twilight hours.

Human impact on crepuscular behaviour
Crepuscular animal activity is affected by human activity, because humans are diurnal. Crepuscular animals are less likely to participate in typical foraging or reproductive behaviors and deal with increased stress and mortality rates when humans are present. Animals may change their usual activity patterns in response to the presence of humans. For example, Asian black bears may avoid areas with high human activity during the day, but go to these locations during twilight or nighttime hours.

Light pollution impacts crepuscular behaviour because it mimics natural light conditions, leading crepuscular animals to behave as they would on nights with more moonlight.

Occurrence of crepuscular behaviour
Many familiar mammal species are crepuscular, including the endangered Amazon river dolphin, some species of bats, hamsters, housecats, stray dogs, rabbits, ferrets, rats, jaguars, ocelots, bobcats, servals, strepsirrhines, red pandas, bears, deer, moose, sitatunga, capybaras, chinchillas, the common mouse, skunks, squirrels, foxes, wombats, wallabies, quolls, possums and marsupial gliders, tenrecs, and spotted hyenas.

Snakes, lizards, and frogs, especially those in desert environments, may be crepuscular.

Crepuscular birds include the common nighthawk, barn owl, owlet-nightjar, chimney swift, American woodcock, spotted crake, white-breasted waterhen, European nightjars, and common buzzards.

Many moths, beetles, flies, and other insects are crepuscular and vespertine. For example, Coprophanaeus ensifer, a South American necrophagous beetle, is most active during at dusk and dawn.

title: Crepuscular animal