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Obverse and reverse

The obverse and reverse are the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse means the back face. The obverse of a coin is commonly called heads, because it often depicts the head of a prominent person, and the reverse tails.

In numismatics, the abbreviation obv. is used for obverse, while ℞, )( and rev. are used for reverse.

In fields of scholarship outside numismatics, the term front is more commonly used than obverse, while usage of reverse is widespread.

The equivalent terms used in codicology, manuscript studies, print studies and publishing are "recto" and "verso".

Identification
Generally, the side of a coin with the larger-scale image will be called the obverse (especially if the image is a single head) and, if that does not serve to distinguish them, the side that is more typical of a wide range of coins from that location will be called the obverse. Following this principle, in the most famous of ancient Greek coins, the tetradrachm of Athens, the obverse is the head of Athena and the reverse is her owl. Similar versions of these two images, both symbols of the state, were used on the Athenian coins for more than two centuries.

In the many republics of ancient Greece, such as Athens or Corinth, one side of their coins would have a symbol of the state, usually their patron goddess or her symbol, which remained constant through all of the coins minted by that state, which is regarded as the obverse of those coins. The opposite side may have varied from time to time. In ancient Greek monarchical coinage, the situation continued whereby a larger image of a deity, is called the obverse, but a smaller image of a monarch appears on the other side which is called the reverse.

In a Western monarchy, it has been customary, following the tradition of the Hellenistic monarchs and then the Roman emperors, for the currency to bear the head of the monarch on one side, which is almost always regarded as the obverse. This change happened in the coinage of Alexander the Great, which continued to be minted long after his death. After his conquest of ancient Egypt, he allowed himself to be depicted on the obverse of coins as a god-king, at least partly because he thought this would help secure the allegiance of the Egyptians, who had regarded their previous monarchs, the pharaohs, as divine. The various Hellenistic rulers who were his successors followed his tradition and kept their images on the obverse of coins.

A movement back to the earlier tradition of a deity being placed on the obverse occurred in Byzantine coinage, where a head of Christ became the obverse and a head or portrait (half or full-length) of the emperor became considered the reverse. The introduction of this style in the gold coins of Justinian II from the year 695 provoked the Islamic Caliph, Abd al-Malik, who previously had copied Byzantine designs, replacing Christian symbols with Islamic equivalents, finally to develop a distinctive Islamic style, with just lettering on both sides of their coins. This script alone style then was used on nearly all Islamic coinage until the modern period. The type of Justinian II was revived after the end of the Byzantine Iconoclasm, and with variations remained the norm until the end of the Empire. Without images, therefore, it is not always easy to tell which side will be regarded as the obverse without some knowledge.

After 695 Islamic coins avoided all images of persons and usually contained script alone. The side expressing the Six Kalimas (the Islamic profession of faith) is usually defined as the obverse.

A convention exists typically to display the obverse to the left (or above) and the reverse to the right (or below) in photographs and museum displays, but this is not invariably observed.

Modern coins
The form of currency follows its function, which is to serve as a readily accepted medium of exchange of value. Normally, this function rests on a state as guarantor of the value: either as trustworthy guarantor of the kind and amount of metal in a coin, or as powerful guarantor of the continuing acceptance of token coins.

Traditionally, most states have been monarchies where the person of the monarch and the state were equivalent for most purposes. For this reason, the obverse side of a modern piece of currency is the one that evokes that reaction by invoking the strength of the state, and that side almost always depicts a symbol of the state, whether it be the monarch or otherwise.

If not provided for on the obverse, the reverse side usually contains information relating to a coin's role as a medium of exchange (such as the value of the coin). Additional space typically reflects the issuing country's culture or government, or evokes some aspect of the state's territory.

Coins of the Eurozone
Regarding the euro, some confusion regarding the obverse and reverse of the euro coins exists. Officially, as agreed by the informal Economic and Finance Ministers Council of Verona in April 1996, and despite the fact that a number of countries have a different design for each coin, the distinctive national side for the circulation coins is the obverse and the common European side (which includes the coin value) is the reverse. This rule does not apply to the collector coins as they do not have a common side.

A number of the designs used for obverse national sides of euro coins were taken from the reverse of the nations' former pre-euro coins. Several countries (such as Spain and Belgium) continue to use portraits of the reigning monarch, while the Republic of Ireland continues to use the State Arms, as on its earlier issues.

Coins of Japan
In Japan, from 1897 to the end of World War II, the following informal conventions existed:
 * the Chrysanthemum Throne (or Chrysanthemum Crest), representing the imperial family, appeared on all coins, and this side was regarded as the obverse;
 * the other side, on which the date appeared, was regarded as the reverse.

The Chrysanthemum Crest was no longer used after the war, and so (equally informally):
 * the side on which the date appears continues to be regarded as the reverse;
 * the side without the date is regarded as the obverse.

Coins of the United Kingdom
Following ancient tradition, the obverse of coins of the United Kingdom (and predecessor kingdoms going back to the Middle Ages) almost always feature the head of the monarch.

By tradition, each British monarch faces in the opposite direction of his or her predecessor; this is said to date from 1661, with Charles II turning his back on Oliver Cromwell. Hence, George VI faced left and Elizabeth II faced right. The only break in this tradition almost occurred in 1936 when Edward VIII, believing his left side to be superior to his right (to show the parting in his hair), insisted on his image facing left, as his father's image had. No official legislation prevented his wishes being granted, so left-facing obverses were prepared for minting. Very few examples were struck before he abdicated later that year, and none bearing this portrait were ever issued officially. When George VI acceded to the throne, his image was placed to face left, implying that, had any coins been minted with Edward's portrait the obverses would have depicted Edward facing right and maintained the tradition.

Current UK coinage features the following abbreviated Latin inscription: D[EI] G[RATIA] REX F[IDEI] D[EFENSOR] ('By the Grace of God King, Defender of the Faith'). Earlier issues, before 1954, included BRIT[ANNIARUM] OMN[IUM] ('of all the Britains' – that is, Britain and its dominions) and, before 1949, IND[IAE] IMP[ERATOR] ('Emperor of India').

Coins of the United States
The United States specifies what appears on the obverse and reverse of its currency. The specifications mentioned here imply the use of all upper-case letters, although they appear here in upper and lower case letters for the legibility of the article.

The United States government long adhered to including all of the following:
 * Obverse:
 * "Liberty"
 * "In God We Trust"
 * The four digits of a year, that of minting or issue
 * Reverse:
 * "United States of America"
 * "E Pluribus Unum"
 * Words (not digits) expressing the name or assigned value of the item, e.g., "quarter dollar", "one dime", "five cents"

The ten-year series of Statehood quarters, whose issue began in 1999, was seen as calling for more space and more flexibility in the design of the reverse. A law specific to this series and the corresponding time period permits the following:
 * Obverse:
 * as before:
 * "Liberty"
 * "In God We Trust"
 * instead of on the reverse:
 * "United States of America"
 * The words expressing the assigned value of the coin, "quarter dollar"
 * Reverse:
 * as before:
 * "E Pluribus Unum"
 * instead of on the obverse:
 * The four digits of the year of issue

title: Obverse and reverse


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Scanners

Scanners is a 1981 Canadian science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan. In the film, "scanners" are psychics with unusual telepathic and telekinetic powers. ConSec, a purveyor of weaponry and security systems, searches out scanners to use them for its own purposes. The film's plot concerns the attempt by Darryl Revok (Ironside), a renegade scanner, to wage a war against ConSec. Another scanner, Cameron Vale (Lack), is dispatched by ConSec to stop Revok.

Scanners premiered in January 1981 to lukewarm reviews from critics but became one of the first films produced in Canada to successfully compete with American films at the international box office. It brought Cronenberg and his controversial style of body horror attention from mainstream film audiences for the first time and has since been reevaluated as a cult classic. It is particularly well known for a scene that depicts Revok psychically causing a rival scanner's head to explode.

Plot
Cameron Vale is a vagrant suffering from voices manifesting in his head. After involuntarily causing a woman to have a seizure with his telepathy, Vale is captured by the private military company ConSec and brought to Dr. Paul Ruth.

Ruth explains that Vale is one of 237 super-powered individuals known as "scanners" capable of telepathy, empathy, biokinesis, technopathy and psychokinesis. Ruth injects Vale with a drug called "ephemerol," which restores his sanity by temporarily inhibiting his scanning abilities, and teaches him to control them. ConSec is recruiting scanners to stop a malevolent underground ring of scanners led by Darryl Revok, a former mental patient who was driven mad from hearing uncontrollable streams of thoughts.

Revok, on his quest to kill opposing scanners, infiltrates a ConSec marketing event and explodes the head of a ConSec scanner. ConSec security head Braedon Keller advocates shutting down their scanner research program but Ruth disagrees, believing the scanners are the next stage of human evolution, and argues that the assassination demonstrates Revok's danger. Ruth brings in Vale and asks him to help infiltrate Revok's group.

Unknown to Ruth, Keller is working for Revok and informs him of Ruth's infiltration plan. Revok dispatches assassins to follow Vale as he visits an unaffiliated scanner named Benjamin Pierce, a successful yet reclusive sculptor who copes with his abilities through his art. Revok's assassins murder Pierce, but Vale reads Pierce's dying brain and learns of a group of scanners, led by Kim Obrist, who oppose Revok's group. Vale tracks down Obrist and attends a meeting, but Revok's assassins strike again; only Vale and Obrist survive.

Vale learns of a pharmaceutical company, Biocarbon Amalgamate, which he soon discovers Revok is using to distribute large quantities of ephemerol under a ConSec computer program called "Ripe." Vale and Obrist return to ConSec to investigate, and Ruth admits that he founded Biocarbon Amalgamate and suggests Vale cyberpathically scan the computer system to learn more. Keller attacks Obrist and kills Ruth while Vale and Obrist flee the ConSec building. Vale cyberpathically hacks into the computer network through a telephone booth and downloads ephemerol shipment information directly into his mind. Keller is killed when the computer explodes during his attempt to intercept Vale. Vale and Obrist visit a doctor on the list of ephemerol recipients and discover that it is prescribed to pregnant women, turning their children into scanners. Revok's group captures Vale and Obrist and take them to the Biocarbon Amalgamate plant.

Revok reveals to Vale that they are both children of Ruth, who developed ephemerol as a sedative for pregnant women. Ruth learned about the drug's side-effect during his wife's pregnancies, and he made them the most powerful scanners in the world by administering a prototype dosage prior to abandoning them. Revok plans to create and lead a new generation of scanners to take over the world, but Vale refuses to join him. Vale accuses Revok of acting like his father, enraging him. The brothers engage in a telepathic duel, which incinerates Vale's body. However, when Obrist encounters Revok, she discovers that Vale somehow has managed to take over Revok's body during the duel.

Cast
William Hope, Christopher Britton, and Leon Herbert have uncredited appearances as Bicarbon Amalgamate employees. Neil Affleck has a minor role as a medical student.

Financing
Scanners was based on David Cronenberg's scripts The Sensitives and Telepathy 2000, which he planned to pitch to Roger Corman before beginning work on The Brood. Corman was shown the script, but did nothing with it. Cronenberg has called Scanners one of his most difficult films to make; most Canadian film productions of the 1970s and the early 1980s were funded through a 100-percent Capital Cost Allowance tax shield for investors passed by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1974, and the film was rushed into production without a finished script or constructed sets in order to claim the subsidies.

Victor Snolicki, Dick Schouten, and Pierre David of Vision 4, a company taking advantage of Canada's tax shelter policies, aided Cronenberg in the film's financing. Vision 4 dissolved after Schouten's death and reorganized into Filmplan International.

Filming
The film's first draft was not a script, but instead a series of ideas. The film was given two weeks of pre-production while a script was not written yet. According to Cronenberg, he would spend mornings prior to filming writing scenes. The film was initially titled The Sensitives, but it was altered as Cronenberg felt "it was too wimpy" while Scanners "was very strong". Cronenberg stated that the drug aspect of the film might have been influenced by Blue Sunshine. Star Jennifer O'Neill was given a script with all of the violence edited out and cried after seeing the uncensored script.

The film was shot in Montreal from 30 October to 23 December 1979, on a budget of $4,100,000. Cronenberg stated that "the first day was the most disastrous shooting day I've ever had" as "there was nothing to shoot" and a distracted truck driver watching the film crew hit a car killing two women inside it.

The lecture scene was filmed at Concordia University, and the Charles J. Des Baillets Water Treatment Plant doubled as the 'Bicarbon Amalgamate' compound. The "Future Electronique" building in Vaudreuil-Dorion provided the exterior of 'ConSec' headquarters. The sequence of Revok (Michael Ironside) hijacking a car and causing another to crash were shot on Rue de la Commune. Additional scenes were filmed in the Yorkville neighborhood. However, since the United States dominated the film industry and Canadian films were being marketed for international audiences, the film downplays its Canadian origin in favor of a generic "North American" setting. The only indicators of its location are a scene of Revok and Keller meeting at the Yorkdale station of the Toronto subway and some visible bilingual signs.

Cronenberg stated that "Scanners had the longest post-production of any film I've ever done" due to its nine months of editing and reshoots.

Effects
Make-up artist Dick Smith (The Exorcist, Amadeus) provided prosthetics for the climactic scanner duel and the iconic exploding head effect. Chris Walas, working at Lucasfilm at the time and later providing effects work for The Fly and Naked Lunch, also worked on the exploding head effect. Cronenberg later said in 2006 that Scanners was his most difficult film to shoot due to its special effects and complex story.

The iconic head explosion scene was the product of trial and error, eventually settling on a plaster skull and a gelatin exterior packed with "latex scraps, some wax, and just bits and bobs and a lot of stringy stuff that we figured would fly through the air a little better" as well as "leftover burgers." When other explosive techniques failed to give the desired effect, special effects supervisor Gary Zeller told the crew to roll cameras and get inside their trucks with doors and windows closed; he then lay down behind the dummy and shot it in the back of the head with a shotgun.

The exploding head scene was filmed four times, but Cronenberg accepted the first shot and did not remain to watch the three others opting to instead take a nap in his Winnebago. The scene depicting the exploding head was trimmed down to allow for a R-rating from the MPAA. Cronenberg originally intended for the scene to be the film's opening, but placed it later in the film after test screenings.

Release
The film was distributed by New World Pictures in Canada, Les Films Mutuels in Quebec, and Avco Embassy Pictures in the United States. Scanners was released in the United States on 14 January, and in Canada on 16 January 1981. It grossed $2,758,147 from 387 theatres in its opening weekend. It grossed a total of $14,225,876 at the box office. Cronenberg stated that it was his first film to be number one at the box office.

A novelization by Leon Whiteson, David Cronenberg's Scanners, was also released in 1981. The film was released on VHS in 1982.

Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 68% based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Scanners is a dark sci-fi story with special effects that'll make your head explode." On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 60% based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Film professor Charles Derry, in his overview of the horror genre Dark Dreams, cited Scanners as "an especially important masterwork" and calling it the Psycho of its day. In a contemporary review for Ares Magazine, Christopher John commented that "Scanners is top-notch entertainment. It is haunting, exciting, shocking and literate – an unusual combination to discover in a film these days."

Some reviews were less positive. Film critic Roger Ebert gave Scanners two out of four stars and wrote, Scanners is so lockstep that we are basically reduced to watching the special effects, which are good but curiously abstract, because we don't much care about the people they're happening around". In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, "Had Mr. Cronenberg settled simply for horror, as John Carpenter did in his classic Halloween (though not in his not-so-classic The Fog), Scanners might have been a Grand Guignol treat. Instead he insists on turning the film into a mystery, and mystery demands eventual explanations that, when they come in Scanners, underline the movie's essential foolishness". John Simon of National Review described Scanners as trash.

A reassessment of Scanners in the 2012 issue of CineAction looks at the film in light of Cronenberg's use of allegory and parables in much of his work. The argument is made that Cronenberg uses iconic imagery that refers directly and indirectly to the thirty-something Scanners as 1960s political radicals, counterculture hippies, and as nascent Young Urban Professionals. As a result, the film can be seen "as an oblique reflection on what might happen when the counterculture becomes the dominant culture". Kim Newman noted in an essay for The Criterion Collection that at the same time the film rejects the conservative values of the 1980s and the nostalgia for the 1950s present in contemporary science-fiction films such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Back to the Future. The film's fictional drug ephemerol also mirrors the real-life thalidomide scandal, in which the popular West German medication thalidomide caused severe birth defects in children born to mothers prescribed the drug for morning sickness in Western Europe and Canada.

Accolades
Although Scanners was not nominated for any major awards, it did receive some recognition. The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films gave the film its Saturn Award in 1981 for "Best International Film", and, in addition, the "Best Make-Up" award went to Dick Smith in a tie with Altered States. The film had also been nominated for "Best Special Effects".

Scanners also won "Best International Fantasy Film" from Fantasporto in 1983, and was nominated for eight Genie Awards in 1982, but did not win any.

Soundtrack
Mondo released the Howard Shore score for Scanners, alongside The Brood, on vinyl; it features cover art by Sam Wolfe Conelly.

Legacy
Scanners spawned sequels and a series of spin-offs; a remake was announced in 2007, but had not gone into production. Cronenberg was not involved in the sequels as he was both uninterested and would not make money off the characters or story he wrote.

Sequels

 * Scanners II: The New Order (1991)
 * Scanners III: The Takeover (1992)

Spin-offs

 * Scanner Cop (1994)
 * Scanners: The Showdown (also known as Scanner Cop II) (1995)

Canceled remake
In February 2007, Darren Lynn Bousman (director of Saw II, Saw III, and Saw IV) was announced as director of a remake of the film, to be released by The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films. David S. Goyer was assigned to script the film. The film was planned for release on October 17, 2008, but the date came and went without further announcements and all of the parties involved have since moved on to other projects. In an interview with Bousman in 2013, he recalled that he would not make the film without Cronenberg's approval, which was not granted.

Television series
Attempts to make a series include Dimension in 2011, Media Res and Bron Studios in 2017, and HBO, Media Res Studio, and Wayward Films in 2022.

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

title: Scanners


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Sabadell

Sabadell is a city and municipality in Catalonia, Spain. It is in the south of the comarca of Vallès Occidental, where it is one of the two capitals, the other being Terrassa. It is located on the River Ripoll, 20 km north of Barcelona, 190 m above sea level.

Sabadell pioneered the Industrial Revolution in Catalonia with its textile mills, together with its archrival Terrassa. Thus, in the mid-19th century, it became the most important wool city in Spain, being nicknamed the "Catalan Manchester". Today many mills from that period can still be seen, with most of them having been refurbished as residential buildings or other services. Nowadays, Sabadell is basically a commercial and industrial city; there are no significant agricultural activities.

Sabadell is an important communications point. Two motorways run beside the city: the C-58 (from Barcelona to Manresa) and the AP-7 (from France and Girona to Tarragona, Valencia, and Andalusia), and some roads link Sabadell with nearby cities and towns: Barcelona, Terrassa, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Sant Quirze del Vallès, Barberà del Vallès, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Castellar del Vallès, Sant Llorenç Savall, Granollers, Rubí, Sentmenat, and Molins de Rei.

A railroad line crosses the city (the Rodalies Barcelona line from Barcelona to Lleida) and another one terminates in the city (the FGC line from Barcelona to Sabadell via Sant Cugat del Vallès).

History
In Roman times, a little village called Arragone existed near where the church of La Salut now stands. This grew into the town called Arraona or Arrahona in the Middle Ages. Another little village was built just on the other side of the river. This second village, called Sabadell, located on a plain, began to grow and its population was about 600 people (152 houses) in 1378. Sabadell was enclosed by a wall, but due to population growth in the 16th century, some houses were built outside the wall. At that time the first textile industries appeared in the town, devoted especially to woolen clothing. The woolen industry grew over the next centuries, and in 1800 the town's population was about 2000 people.

The 19th century brought two important developments to the town: in 1856 the railway arrived, and in 1877 the town was dubbed a "city". In the 1897 census the population of the city was 23,044 people. The city had become the most important producer of woolen clothing in Spain, and these clothes achieved worldwide fame.

The modernisme movement (related to Art Nouveau) had an important influence in the architecture of the city in the early 20th century and distinctive buildings such as the modernista Hotel Suís (1902), Despatx Lluch (1908), and the Caixa d'Estalvis de Sabadell (1915), as well as the Torre de l'Aigua (1918) and the Mercat Central (1930), were built during the first half of the century.

In the early 20th century, Sabadell, with Terrassa, was the textile city par excellence, being the driving force of a territory poor in natural resources. The population was multiplied by eight, its industry boosted, particularly textiles and metals, and its economy was modernized in the service sector. Due to this industrial activity, Sabadell received massive waves of immigration in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s leading to uncontrolled urban expansion and the creation of some new neighborhoods such as Ca n'Oriac and Torre-Romeu.

There has always been since those days a rivalry between Terrassa and Sabadell, because both of them wanted to be capitals of the Vallés Occidental, as both were pretty relevant while this rise textile industry. Nowadays, still there are some popular sayings: "Sabadell mala pell" (Sabadell bad skin) and "Terrassa mala raça" (Terrassa bad race).

The growth of industry and population favored the emergence of an important workers' movement, and Catalanist, socialist and anarchist parties were very influential up until the upheavals of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). The victory of the Fascist faction in the war was a step backwards for the city, but in the fifties industry recovered and grew once more. Industries needed workers, and many people came from Andalusia, Murcia, Extremadura, Castile and other parts of Spain to work in the textile and the metal industry. Again, a new workers' and Catalanist movement emerged, this time against Francisco Franco's regime and with the support of the Roman Catholic Church.

Sabadell was the host of some sessions of the Assemblea de Catalunya, a multi-party organization that brought together communists, socialists, Catalan nationalists, Catholics and others against the Franco regime. The 1973 oil crisis and Franco's death in 1975 meant an important change in Spain and, of course, in Sabadell. The economic crisis compelled the city to diversify its economic activities. New commercial and leisure areas (the Eix Macià) appeared next to the traditional industries, leading to important economic development for the city. An ETA car bombing in 1990 killed six police officers.

Main sights

 * Little church of Sant Nicolau (11th century) is a vestige of the town of Arraona
 * Casa Duran is a traditional rural house (16th century) placed in the middle of the city
 * Hotel Suís (Swiss Hotel, 1902)
 * Caixa d'Estalvis (1915)
 * Torre de l'Aigua (water tower, 1918)
 * Mercat Central (Central Market, 1930)
 * Tower of Feu (1879)

Geography
Sabadell is located in the middle of the comarca named Vallès Occidental, approximately 20 km from Barcelona. It borders (clockwise, starting from the north) with Castellar del Vallès, Sentmenat, Polinyà, Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, Barberà del Vallès, Badia del Vallès, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Sant Quirze del Vallès, and Terrassa.

The city covers an area of 37.79 km2 and its population density is 5337.57 /km2 as of 2007. The altitude is 200 m.

Sports
During the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, Sabadell was one of the cities where the football competition took place. The matches were played in the Nova Creu Alta stadium, which is also home to the main football club in town: Centre d'Esports Sabadell. This local team, currently in the Segunda División, has played 14 seasons in the Primera División (First Division), once in the UEFA Cup and has even reached the final of the Copa del Rey.

Other major sports clubs are Club Natació Sabadell (Waterpolo and Swimming Club), with more than 30,000 members, OAR Gràcia Sabadell (Handball), currently playing in the First National Division (Group C) of the Spanish Handball League, the Unió Excursionista de Sabadell - UES (Hikers Club), with almost 3,000 associates, two basketball teams, the Sabadell Bàsquet and Sant Nicolau, both of them currently playing at EBA League, the Fourth Division of the Spanish Basketball League, and two historical tennis clubs, Cercle Sabadellès 1856 and Club de Tennis Sabadell, with 4,000 and 3,500 associates respectively.

FC Barcelona player Sergio Busquets was born in Sabadell on 16 July 1988.

Institutions

 * Banco Sabadell, a major bank
 * CE Sabadell FC, a football club

European Cooperation

 * Covilhã is a member city of the Eurotowns network

Notable people

 * Joan Oliver i Sallarès (1899–1986): Catalan-language poet and playwright, also known as Pere Quart
 * Ramon Barnils i Folguera (1940–2001): journalist and translator born in Sabadell
 * Benet Casablancas (1956–): composer and musicologist
 * Juan Fernández (1930–2020): racing driver
 * Jordi Gené (1970–): racing driver
 * Marc Gené (1974–): racing driver and former F1 driver
 * David Meca (1974–): professional swimmer
 * Sergio Dalma (1964–): pop singer
 * Aschwin Wildeboer (1986–): swimmer
 * Olaf Wildeboer (1983–): swimmer
 * Bernat Quintana: Actor in El Cor de la Ciutat, Max
 * Xavier Oriach (1927–): painter
 * Sergio Busquets (born 1988), footballer
 * Moisés Hurtado (born 1981), footballer
 * Miguel Ángel Lozano (born 1978), footballer
 * Oleguer Presas (born 1980), footballer
 * Alberto Edjogo-Owono (born 1984), footballer (Equatorial Guinea's international)
 * Juvenal Edjogo-Owono (born 1979), footballer (Equatorial Guinea's international)
 * Óscar García Junyent (born 1973), former footballer
 * Roger García Junyent (born 1976), former footballer
 * Dani Pedrosa (born 1985), Moto GP racer
 * Kilian Jornet Burgada (born 1987), mountain runner
 * Jordi Masip (born 1989), footballer
 * Cristian Tello (born 1991), footballer
 * Isaías Sánchez, footballer
 * Alfons Borrell i Palazón, painter
 * Manel Navarro, singer, entering Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with 'Do It for Your Lover'
 * Jimmy Jump, pitch invader
 * Ricard Zapata-Barrero (born 1965), scholar of migration studies

title: Sabadell


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Eugene Kleiner

Eugene Kleiner (12 May 1923 – 20 November 2003) was an Austrian-American engineer and venture capitalist. He is considered a pioneer of Silicon Valley. He was one of the original founders of Fairchild Semiconductor, part of the Traitorous Eight, and Kleiner Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm which later became Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The company was an early investor in more than 300 information technology and biotech firms, including Amazon.com, AOL, Brio Technology, Electronic Arts, Flextronics, Genentech, Google, Hybritech, Intuit, Lotus Development, LSI Logic, Macromedia, Netscape, Quantum, Segway, Sun Microsystems and Tandem Computers.

Early life and education
Kleiner was born on May 12, 1923, in Vienna, Austria. In 1938, he fled Nazi persecution of Jews with his family, arriving in New York two years later. He served in the U.S. Army, then earned a Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic University of New York in 1948 and a Master's degree in industrial engineering from New York University.

Career
After briefly teaching engineering, he joined Western Electric, the manufacturing arm of AT&T Corporation.

In 1956, he was among the first to accept an offer from William Shockley to come to California to help form what became Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. In 1957, he and seven colleagues (the "Fairchild eight", whom Shockley dubbed the "traitorous eight") left the laboratory to found Fairchild Semiconductor, which most historians mark as the first major spin-off of what later was called Silicon Valley. According to fellow venture capitalist Arthur Rock, Kleiner led the eight, obtaining a $1.5 million investment from Sherman Fairchild and taking over the new firm's administrative duties.

Kleiner later invested his own money in Intel, a semiconductor firm founded in 1968 by fellow Fairchild founders Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore.

In 1972, he joined Hewlett-Packard veteran Tom Perkins to found Kleiner Perkins, the venture capital firm now headquartered on Sand Hill Road. In 1977, the company added Brook Byers and Frank J. Caufield as named partners. He retired from day-to-day responsibilities in the early 1980s.

Personal life
In 1947, he married Rose Wassertheil (d. 2001), a Polish Jewish émigrée. They had two children, Robert and Lisa. He died on November 20, 2003, in Los Altos Hills, California.

Kleiner's laws

 * Make sure the dog wants to eat the dog food. No matter how ground-breaking a new technology, how large a potential market, make certain customers actually want it.
 * Build one business at a time. Most business plans are overly ambitious. Concentrate on being successful in one endeavor first.
 * Risk up front, out early.
 * The time to take the tarts is when they're being passed.
 * The problem with most companies is they don't know what business they're in.
 * Even turkeys can fly in a high wind. In times of strong economies, even bad companies can look good.
 * It's easier to get a piece of an existing market than to create a new one.
 * It's difficult to see the picture when you're inside the frame.
 * After learning some of the tricks of the trade, some people think they know the trade.
 * Venture capitalists will stop at nothing to copy success.
 * Invest in people, not just products.
 * When the money is available, take it.
 * There is a time when panic is the appropriate response.
 * The more difficult the decision, the less it matters what you choose.

title: Eugene Kleiner


text:
Edmund Ignatius Rice

Edmund Ignatius Rice, F.P.M., C.F.C. (Éamonn Iognáid Rís; 1 June 1762 – 29 August 1844) was a Catholic missionary and educationalist. He was the founder of two religious institutes of religious brothers: the Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers.

Rice was born in Ireland at a time when Catholics faced oppression under Penal Laws enforced by the British authorities, though reforms began in 1778 when he was a teenager. He forged a successful career in business and, after an accident that killed his wife and left his daughter disabled and with learning difficulties, thereafter devoted his life to the education of the poor.

Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers schools around the world continue to follow the traditions established by Edmund Rice (see: List of Christian Brothers schools).

Early life and education

Edmund Ignatius Rice was born to Robert Rice and Margaret Rice (née Tierney) on the farming property of "Westcourt", in Callan, County Kilkenny. Edmund Rice was the fourth of seven sons, although he also had two half-sisters, Joan and Jane Murphy, the offspring of his mother's first marriage.

Rice's education, like that of every other Irish Catholic of the day, was greatly compromised by the 1709 amendment to the Popery Act, which decreed that any public or private instruction in the Catholic faith would render teachers liable to prosecution, a measure that was not reformed until 1782. In this environment, hedge schools proliferated. The boys of the Rice family obtained education at home through Patrick Grace, a member of the small community of Augustinian friars in Callan. As a young man, Rice spent two years at a school which, despite the provisions of the penal laws, the authorities suffered to exist in the City of Kilkenny.

His uncle Michael owned a merchant business in the nearby port town of Waterford. In 1779 Edmund was apprenticed to him, moving into a house in the market parish of Ballybricken, entering the business of trading livestock and other supplies, and supervising the loading of victuals onto ships bound for the British colonies. Michael Rice died in 1785, and this business passed to Edmund. He was an active member of a society established in the city for the relief of the poor. His favourite charity was the Sick and Indigent Roomkeepers’ Association whose members visited the sick poor in their homes. He was also introduced to Jesuit spirituality when he joined the "Waterford group" of young men who met for prayer and reading at the "Little Chapel", now St Patrick's Catholic Church in Jenkin's Lane.

In about 1785 he married a young woman (perhaps Mary Elliott, the daughter of a Waterford tanner). "Little is known about their married life, and Mary died in January 1789 following an accident, possibly by a fever that set in afterwards. Mary was pregnant at the time, and a daughter was born on her deathbed." The daughter (also named Mary) was born handicapped. Edmund Rice was left a widower, with an infant daughter in delicate health.

Vocation and beginnings
Following his wife's death, he began discerning a vocation to join a monastery, perhaps in France. One day, while discussing his vocation with the sister of Thomas Hussey, the Bishop of Waterford, a band of ragged boys passed by. Pointing to them, she cried:"'What! Would you bury yourself in a cell on the continent rather than devote your wealth and your life to the spiritual and material interest of these poor youths?'"After settling his business affairs in 1802, Rice devoted his life to prayer and charitable work, particularly with the poor and marginalised of Waterford. In 1802, when he established a makeshift school in a converted stable in New Street, Waterford, he found the children were so difficult to manage that the teachers resigned. This prompted him to sell his thriving business to another prominent Catholic merchant, a Mr Quan, and devote himself to training teachers who would dedicate their lives to prayers and to teaching the children free of charge. Despite the difficulties involved, Edmund's classes were so popular that another temporary school had to be set up on another of his properties, this time in nearby Stephen Street.

The turning point of Rice's ministry was the arrival of two young men, Thomas Grosvenor and Patrick Finn, from his hometown of Callan. They came to him with the desire to join a congregation, but had not decided which they would join. As it turned out, they remained to teach at Edmund Rice's school and formed their own. The subsequent success of the New Street school led to a more permanent building, named "Mount Sion", where construction began on 1 June 1802. The Mount Sion monastery was officially blessed by Bishop Hussey on 7 June 1803. Since the schoolhouse was not yet completed, Rice, Finn, and Grosvenor took up residence but walked each day from Mount Sion to their schools on New Street and Stephen Street. On 1 May 1804, the adjoining school was opened and blessed by Hussey's successor, Bishop John Power, and their pupils transferred to the new building.

Thanks to the appeals of some of Rice's more influential friends, a request made to the local Church of Ireland bishop for a school licence was eventually granted. By 1806 Christian schools were established in Waterford, Carrick-on-Suir, and Dungarvan.

Foundation of the Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers
In 1808, seven of the staff including Edmund Rice took religious vows under the authority of Bishop Power of Waterford. Following the example of Nano Nagle's Presentation Sisters, they were called Presentation Brothers. This was the first congregation of men to be founded in Ireland and one of the few ever founded by a layman. Gradually, a transformation took place amongst the "quay kids" of Waterford, largely attributed to Edmund and his brothers' work, who educated, clothed and fed the boys. Other bishops in Ireland supplied Edmund Rice with men, and these he prepared for the religious life and a life of teaching. In this way, the Presentation Brothers spread throughout Ireland. However, the communities were under the bishop's control in each diocese rather than Edmund Rice, which created problems when Brothers were needed to be transferred from one school to another. Rice sought approval from Pope Pius VII for the community to be made into a pontifical congregation with a Superior General. He obtained this in 1820. The Pope's brief specified that the members were to be bound by vows of obedience, chastity, poverty and perseverance, and to give themselves to the free instruction, religious and literary, of male children, especially the poor. The heads of houses were to elect a Superior General; Rice held this office from 1822 to 1838, and he was then able to move brothers across diocesan boundaries to wherever they were most needed. During this time the institution extended to several English towns (especially in Lancashire), and the course of instruction grew out of the primary stage.

In the 1820s further difficulties emerged owing to the expansion of the society and its becoming two distinct congregations. From this time on they were called Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers. The motto of the Christian Brothers was: "The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord forever" (Job 1: 21).

In 1828, the North Richmond Street house and schools in Dublin were established by Rice, the foundation stone being laid by the politician Daniel O'Connell. The building housed the Brothers' headquarters for many years and the present residence incorporates the original house built by Rice, who lived here for several years beginning in 1831.

Later life and death
In February 1838, Edmund Rice left the North Richmond Street community and returned to Mount Sion in Waterford. Aged seventy-six, and by now in poor health, he wrote to the different communities calling for a General Chapter to elect a new Superior General. The chapter, which opened on 24 July 1838, resulted in the election of Michael Paul Riordan as Rice's successor.

From this time on, Edmund Rice spent an increasing proportion of his time at Mount Sion and the adjoining school, showing a continued interest in the pupils and their teachers. He would also take a short walk each day on the slope of Mount Sion, but his increasingly painful arthritis led the community superior, Joseph Murphy, to purchase a wheelchair for his benefit. At Christmas time, 1841, Rice's health took a turn for the worse, and even though expectations of his imminent death did not turn out to be justified, he was increasingly confined to his room.

After living in a near-comatose state for more than two years (in the constant care of a nurse since May 1842), Rice died at 11 a.m. on 29 August 1844 at Mount Sion, Waterford, where his remains lie in a casket to this day. Large crowds filled the streets around his house in Dublin to honour him.

Beatification and legacy
The first attempt to introduce Rice's cause to sainthood was in 1911 by Mark Hill who travelled Waterford and other parts of Ireland collecting statements from people as to why they thought Rice should be made a saint, but very little progress was made. The cause was taken up by Pius Noonan, who was the superior general at the time. With the help of Giovanni Battista Montini (the future Pope Paul VI), the cause was officially opened in Dublin in 1957.

In 1976, the Historical Commission of the Dublin Archdiocese recommended that Rice's cause be brought to Rome, and the Holy See agreed to look into it. Three brothers had the burden of investigating archives and collecting evidence as to why Rice should be declared a saint: Mark Hill, David Fitzpatrick and Columba Normoyle.

As a result of these investigations and the examination in Rome of the results, on 2 April 1993, Pope John Paul II approved the pursuit of the Roman phase of the cause, declaring Edmund Rice to be venerable.

Two years later, the same Pope approved a miracle attributed to Edmund Rice's intercession. The miracle occurred in 1976, when Kevin Ellison of Newry, had been given only 48 hours to live due to complications from a gangrenous colon, and an apparent lack of viable colon tissue (a conclusion reached by five doctors after hours in surgery). A family friend, Christian Brother Laserian O'Donnell, gave Ellison's parents a relic of Edmund Rice. Many friends prayed for a miracle through the intercession of Rice and a special Mass was offered for Ellison's recovery. Only the relic of Edmund Rice was placed at the bedside of the dying man. The latter survived the 48-hour period during which he was supposed to die, and more besides. Upon investigation, surgeons discovered a considerable length of the previously undetected colon. Ellison fully recovered after a few weeks.

These events paved the way for Rice's beatification on 6 October 1996 by Pope John Paul II. His feast day is 5 May.

A segment of his kneecap (in a reliquary) is on display in the new sports hall at St Joseph's College, Stoke-on-Trent, "part of the Edmund Rice family of schools, founded by the Christian Brothers and following the charism of Blessed Edmund Rice."

The Edmund Rice Centre is an Australian not-for-profit organisation established in 1996 that promotes human rights, social justice, and eco-justice, performing research, and using advocacy and community education to achieve its aims. It focuses especially on Indigenous Australians and other indigenous peoples, reconciliation in Australia, asylum seekers in Australia and elsewhere, and Pacific Islanders who are being affected by climate change.

title: Edmund Ignatius Rice