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Serenity (2005 film)

Serenity is a 2005 American space Western film written and directed by Joss Whedon in his feature directorial debut. The film is a continuation of Whedon's short-lived 2002 Fox television series Firefly and stars the same cast, taking place after the events of the final episode. Set in 2517, Serenity is the story of the crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship. The captain and first mate are veterans of the Unification War, having fought on the losing Independent side against the Alliance. Their lives of smuggling and cargo-running are interrupted by a psychic passenger who harbors a dangerous secret.

The film stars Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Serenity was released in North America on September 30, 2005, by Universal Pictures to generally positive reviews and several accolades, including the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, the Prometheus Special Award and the Nebula Award for Best Script, but underperformed at the box office.

Plot
In the 26th century, humanity has colonized a new solar system. The central planets formed the Alliance and won a war against the outer planet Independents who resisted joining the Alliance. Child genius River Tam is conditioned by Alliance scientists into becoming a psychic and an assassin but is rescued as a teenager by her brother Dr. Simon Tam. During her training, River inadvertently read the minds of several top government officials and learned their secrets. Consequently, an Alliance agent known only as the Operative is tasked with recapturing her.

The siblings have found refuge aboard the transport spaceship Serenity with Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, first mate Zoe Washburne, her husband, pilot Hoban "Wash" Washburne, mercenary Jayne Cobb, and mechanic Kaylee Frye. Despite Simon's objections, Mal brings River on a bank robbery. River warns them that savage and cannibalistic Reavers are coming. They escape, but Simon decides he and River will leave Serenity at the next port. Once there, however, a subliminal message in a television commercial causes River to attack numerous bar patrons, and Mal takes the siblings back aboard the ship. The crew contacts reclusive hacker Mr. Universe, who discovers the message designed to trigger River's mental conditioning. He notes River whispered "Miranda" before attacking and warns that someone else has viewed the footage.

Mal receives an invitation from courtesan Inara Serra. Realising it is a trap, Mal goes to confront the Operative who promises to let him go free if he hands over River. Mal barely escapes. Miranda is discovered to be a planet located beyond a region of space swarming with Reavers. The crew flies to the planet Haven but find it devastated and their old friend Shepherd Book mortally wounded. The Operative promises to kill anyone who assists them until he gets River.

Mal has the crew disguise Serenity as a Reaver ship and they travel to Miranda undetected. They find its 30 million colonists dead, and a recording that explains an experimental chemical to suppress aggression had been added into Miranda's atmosphere. The population became so docile they stopped performing all activities of daily living and placidly died. A small proportion of them had the opposite reaction and became insanely aggressive and violent. The Alliance had accidentally created the Reavers and this was the secret in River's subconscious.

Mr. Universe agrees to broadcast the recording. However, the Operative kills him and prepares an ambush. Knowing this, the crew provoke the Reaver fleet into chasing them toward the Alliance armada. The Reavers and Alliance battle while Wash pilots Serenity through the crossfire. He crash lands near the broadcast tower before being fatally impaled by a Reaver spear.

The crew make a last stand against the Reavers to buy Mal time to broadcast the recording. The crew retreats behind a set of blast doors that fail to properly close. Simon is shot, and River dives through the doors to throw back Simon's medical kit and close the doors before the Reavers drag her away. At the transmitter, Mal fights the Operative, finally subduing him and forcing him to watch as the recording is broadcast. Mal returns to the crew. The blast doors open to reveal that River has killed all the Reavers. The Operative orders the Alliance troops to stand down.

The Operative provides medical aid and resources to repair Serenity. He tells Mal the broadcast has weakened the Alliance government, but while he will try to convince the Parliament that River and Simon are no longer threats, he warns that they may continue their pursuit in retribution for getting the word out. Serenity takes off, with River as Mal's new pilot.

Development
The film is based on Firefly, a television series canceled by the Fox Broadcasting Company in December 2002, after 11 of its 14 produced episodes had aired. Attempts to have other networks acquire the series failed, and creator Joss Whedon started to sell it as a film. He had been working on a film script since the show's cancellation. Shortly after the cancellation, he contacted Barry Mendel, who was working with Universal Studios, and "flat-out asked him" for a way to continue the series as a film, including as a low-budget television film. Mendel introduced Whedon to then Universal executive Mary Parent. She had seen Firefly and immediately signed on to the project, even though Whedon had yet to create a story. Whedon remarked: "Universal came in where I thought nobody else would, and quite frankly, I'm not sure anybody else would've, with absolute faith and has maintained it. It's been the easiest process in terms of dealing with a studio that I've ever had. And they turned it into—not a blockbuster, which is not what I was trying to make, but not a low-budget movie either. They wanted to make a real movie out of it. They wanted to give us the scope that the show could never have had. So all I had to do was come up with a story that was worth that." In July 2003, Whedon said that though there was interest in the project, "I won't know really until I finish a draft whether or not it's genuine." He felt that any film deal was contingent on keeping the show's original cast, though he later stated that retaining the cast was "never an issue" as Universal executives believed the cast suitable after watching every episode of the series.

In early September 2004, a film deal with Universal was publicly confirmed. Universal acquired the rights to Firefly shortly before the confirmation. Whedon felt that the strong sales of the Firefly DVD, which sold out in less than 24 hours after the pre-order announcement, "definitely helped light a fire and make them [Universal] go, 'Okay, we've really got something here.' It definitely helped them just be comfortable with the decisions they were making, but they really had been supporting us for quite some time already." Whedon felt it was "important people understand that the movie isn't the series", and so the project was titled Serenity.

Writing
After Universal acquired the film rights from Fox, Whedon began writing the screenplay. His task was to explain the premise of a television series that few had seen without boring new viewers or longtime fans. He based his story on original story ideas for Firefly's un-filmed second season. Whedon's original script was 190 pages, and attempted to address all major plot points introduced in the series. After presenting the script to Barry Mendel under the title "The Kitchen Sink", Whedon and Mendel collaborated on cutting down the script to a size film-able under his budget constraints. All nine principal cast members from the television series were scheduled to return for the movie, but Glass and Tudyk could not commit to sequels, leading to the death of their characters in the second draft of the script. The tightened script and a budget Mendel and Whedon prepared were submitted to Universal on a Friday and on the following Monday morning, Stacey Snider, then head of Universal, called Mendel to officially greenlight the movie.

Universal planned to begin shooting in October 2003, but delays in finishing the script postponed the start of shooting to June 2004.

Filming
Principal photography for Serenity was originally estimated to require 80 days, lasting a typical 12 to 14 hours each, with a budget of over $100 million. Unwilling to approve of such a large budget, Universal Studios wished to shoot abroad to minimize production costs. However, Whedon, reluctant to uproot his family, insisted that filming take place locally and maintained that it was possible for a local production to cost fewer days and less than half the expected budget. On March 2, 2004, the film was greenlit for production with a budget of under $40 million. At the project's completion, the film spent $39 million, considered low for a science fiction action film featuring heavy special effects.

Serenity was filmed over a period of 50 ten-hour days, beginning June 3, 2004, and ending September 17, 2004. The film was primarily shot on Universal Studio sound stages with locations throughout Los Angeles. The sequence where the crew is pursued by Reavers after a bank robbery was filmed along the Templin Highway north of Santa Clarita. The shoot typically would have lasted 30 days, but the production completed filming the sequence in five days. Pyrotechnics were shot at Mystery Mesa, near Santa Clarita, over a period of three days rather than a typical two weeks. The scenes on the planet Miranda were filmed at Diamond Ranch High School in Pomona.

The production expected to save money by reusing the Serenity ship interior set from the Firefly television series, but the set was not available. Instead the ship was rebuilt, using DVD images of the television series as a guide. Construction was completed over 14 weeks on Universal Studios' Stage 12 by 23 supervised crews working independently but in coordination with one another. Universal was concerned about the extra cost but were satisfied when it was completed in just 14 weeks, according to executive producer David Lester.

Visual effects
As the budget for the film was considerably smaller than for the TV series, practical special effects were used as much as possible: if a computer-generated imagery (CGI) composite was required, as many tangible sets and props as possible were constructed to minimize the use of computer effects. The most technically challenging scene was the mule skiff chase. For budgetary reasons, a gimbal and CGI, much like those used in the pod race in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, were quickly ruled out. Instead, the crew fashioned a trailer with a cantilevered arm attached to the "hovercraft" and shot the scene while riding up Templin Highway north of Santa Clarita. Zoic Studios, the company that produced the graphics for the series, had to perform a complete overhaul of their computer model of Serenity, as the television model would not stand up to the high-definition scrutiny of cinema screens.

Musical score
In pre-production memos, Whedon described his vision for the score as "spare, intimate, mournful and indefatigable". Just as the landscape and speech drew from elements of the Western, he wished the same of the musical style and instrumentation. However, he did not want to step too far into Western clichés to "cause justified derision" and hoped the score would also draw from Chinese and other Asian musical elements. He wanted the musical elements "mixed up, hidden, or it's as much a cliché as the western feel. We don't want to be too specific about culture or time. We want to be comfortable enough with the sounds not to let them take us out of the story, but not so comfortable that we begin to be told where the story is." Music was to draw heavily on what could be carried, and he highlighted four instruments: voice, percussion, woodwind, strings particularly guitar. He cautioned against vocal orchestration, believing there to be only two voices in Hollywood and wishing to avoid both, and advised moderation in woodwind, feeling wind instruments to be "either too airy or too sophisticated".

Universal Studios wanted a composer with experience scoring films, ruling out Firefly composer Greg Edmonson. Whedon first thought of Carter Burwell, of whom Whedon was a huge fan. However, Whedon later felt that Burwell was not the right choice because as the film changed, the needs of the score changed as well. Burwell found working on the project difficult as it required he work "opposite" to his usual approach. The production would have continued with Burwell, but his other obligations left him little time to compose an entirely new score for Serenity. Burwell was dropped from the project a few weeks before the scheduled February 2005 recording.

David Newman was recommended by Universal's music executives when Whedon requested a composer capable of "everything" and "quickly". Whedon's instructions to Newman for the ship Serenity theme was something homemade and mournful, evoking the idea of pioneers who had only what they could carry. Whedon wished the theme to let viewers know they were now home. River Tam's theme was played on a uniquely shaped, square, antique piano that was slightly out of tune. The piano reminded Newman of River and composed a "haunting, haunted, vaguely eastern and achingly unresolved" theme that Whedon felt proved Newman's understanding of the film's musical needs.

The score was performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony under Newman's direction. The official soundtrack was released September 27, 2005.

Release
Serenity had its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 22, 2005. The premiere sold out, and the festival arranged for two more screenings on August 24, which sold out in twenty-four hours, and in the "Best of the Fest" line-up on August 28. The film was theatrically released September 30, 2005.

Serenity was originally released on traditional film prints. Because the original 2K digital intermediate scans were readily available, the film was chosen by Universal Pictures to test conversion to a Digital Cinema Distribution Master of the film and to "test the workflow required to create a [Digital Cinema Package]." Serenity became the first film to fully conform to Digital Cinema Initiatives specifications, marking "a major milestone in the move toward all-digital projection".

Marketing
In April 2005, Universal launched a three-stage grassroots marketing campaign. A rough cut of the film was previewed in a total of thirty-five North American cities where the Firefly television series received the highest Nielsen ratings. The screenings did not bear the name of the film and relied on word-of-mouth within the fanbase for promotion. All screenings sold out in less than twenty-four hours, sometimes in as quickly as five minutes. The first screening was held May 5, 2005, in ten cities. The second screening on May 26 increased the number of cities to twenty. In the twenty-four hours following the announcement of the second screening, the Firefly fanbase launched trial and error efforts to uncover the theaters holding the screenings, leading the event to be sold out before the official listing was released. The third screening on June 23 was held in thirty-five cities. A final screening was held at Comic-Con International, followed by a panel with Whedon and the cast.

Session 416
Session 416, also known as the R. Tam Sessions, are a series of five short videos anonymously released by Whedon through various websites and message boards as viral marketing. The first video, bearing the title card "R. Tam, Session 416, Second Excerpt", was released on the iFilm website on August 16, 2005. By September 7, 2005, all five videos had been released.

The series grew out of Universal executives' request that Whedon supply content for an online viral marketing campaign (though a representative from Universal Studios denied knowledge of the videos' origin). He decided to explore events before the film and the television series. The clips were filmed with a "tiny" crew in a single day and are shot in grainy, low quality, black-and-white. They were later included on the Collector's Edition DVD.

The videos, sequenced out of chronological order, depict excerpts of counseling sessions between River Tam, played by Summer Glau, and her unnamed therapist, played by Whedon, while she is held at the Alliance Academy. They follow her change from shy and sweet child prodigy to the mentally unstable girl of the television series.

Home media
Serenity was released on Region 1 DVD, VHS and UMD on December 20, 2005. The DVD ranked #3 in sales for the week ending December 25, 2005. Bonus features on the DVD version include audio commentary from Whedon; deleted scenes and outtakes; a short introduction by Whedon for advance screenings; a hidden featurette on the creation of the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial; and three featurettes on the Firefly and Serenity universe, special effects, and the revival of the television series to film. Region 2 releases included an additional making-of featurette, and Region 4 releases included additional extended scenes, a tour of the set, a feature on cinematographer Jack Green, and a question-and-answer session with Whedon filmed after an advance screening in Australia.

Serenity was released on HD DVD on April 18, 2006, the first Universal Studios film released on the format. In January 2007, it became the first full-resolution rip of an HD DVD release uploaded to the BitTorrent network after its title key was ripped from a software player and released online.

A 2-disc Collector's Edition DVD was released for Region 1 on August 21, 2007. It included the special features on the Region 4 disc, except the question-and-answer session; Session 416, a documentary on the film; and a second commentary with Whedon and actors Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, and Ron Glass. The film was released on Blu-ray on December 30, 2008, adding to the special features a video version of the cast commentary, picture-in-picture visual commentary, two databases of in-universe material, and a digital tour of Serenity. Serenity was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on October 17, 2017.

Box office
Despite high anticipation, Serenity performed poorly at the box office. Although several pundits predicted a #1 opening,  the film opened at #2 in the United States, taking in $10.1 million on its first weekend, spending two weeks in the top ten, and closed on November 17, 2005 with a domestic box office gross of $25.5 million. Movie industry analyst Brandon Gray described Serenity's box office performance as "like a below average genre picture".

Serenity's international box office results were mixed, with strong openings in the UK, Portugal and Russia, but poor results in Spain, Australia, France and Italy. United International Pictures canceled the film's theatrical release in at least seven countries, planning to release it directly to DVD instead. The box office income outside the United States was $14.9 million, with a worldwide total of $40.4 million.

Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 82% based on 187 reviews, with an average rating of 7.15/10. The site's critical consensus states: "Snappy dialogue and goofy characters make this Wild Wild West soap opera in space fun and adventurous." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on reviews from 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "Two Thumbs Up" rating. Roger Ebert, in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film three out of four stars, commenting that it is "made of dubious but energetic special effects, breathless velocity, much imagination, some sly verbal wit and a little political satire". "The movie plays like a critique of contemporary society", he observed, also stating that in this way it was like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Peter Hartlaub in the San Francisco Chronicle called it "a triumph", comparing its writing to the best Star Trek episodes. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times described it as a modest but superior science fiction film. Science fiction author Orson Scott Card called Serenity "the best science fiction film ever", further stating "If Ender's Game can't be this kind of movie, and this good a movie, then I want it never to be made. I'd rather just watch Serenity again."

USA Today film critic Claudia Puig wrote that "the characters are generally uninteresting and one-dimensional, and the futuristic Western-style plot grows tedious". Derek Elley of Variety declared that the film "bounces around to sometimes memorable effect but rarely soars".

Awards
Serenity won several awards after its release. It won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation—Long Form, the Nebula Award for Best Script, and the Prometheus Special Award. The film was also named film of the year by Film 2005 and FilmFocus, and it was determined by SFX magazine to be the best science fiction movie of all time in 2007. IGN Film awarded Serenity Best Sci-Fi, Best Story, and Best Trailer for the year, and it won second for Overall Best Movie after Batman Begins. The SyFy Genre Awards awarded it runner-up in the categories for Best Movie, Best Actor in a film (Nathan Fillion), and Best Actress in a film (Summer Glau), losing in all categories to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Serenity later ranked 383 on Empire magazine's 500 Greatest Films of All Time and 90 of the 301 Greatest Movies of All Time as voted by the magazine's readers.

Cultural impact
NASA astronaut Steven Swanson, an ardent fan of the series, took the Region 1 Firefly and Serenity DVDs with him on Space Shuttle Atlantis' STS-117 mission, which lifted off on Friday June 8, 2007. The DVDs currently reside on the International Space Station (ISS) as entertainment for the station's crews.

On February 20, 2009, NASA announced an online poll to name Node 3 of the ISS; NASA-suggested options included Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity, and Venture. At the March 20, 2009 poll close, 'Serenity' led those four choices with 70% of the vote. In the end, the poll was discarded and the node was named 'Tranquility'.

Charity screenings
Beginning in January 2006, fans (with Universal's blessing) began organizing charity screenings of Serenity to benefit Equality Now, a human rights organization supported by Joss Whedon. By mid-June, 41 such screenings had been confirmed for cities in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States, and as of June 19, 2006, there were 47 scheduled screenings. The project was referred to as "Serenity Now/Equality Now" on the official website, but was often referred to in shortened form as "Serenity Now", and was coordinated through "Can't Stop The Serenity". The name officially changed in 2007 to Can't Stop The Serenity (CSTS)

This has become a multi-venue event held each calendar year in various countries and cities and on various dates throughout the year. Funds raised by the events go to Equality Now (and other charities ).

Comics
Universal Studios wanted to do an animated prequel to the Serenity film, but after Whedon and Brett Matthews wrote a story, Universal scuttled the project. The story was rewritten into a three-issue comic book miniseries intended to bridge the gap between the television series and the film. Serenity: Those Left Behind was released from July through September 2005 by Dark Horse Comics.

After Those Left Behind, other comics of the series were also published.

Books
A novelization of the film was written by Keith DeCandido and published by Simon & Schuster under their Pocket Star imprint on August 30, 2005. Titan Publishing published Serenity: The Official Visual Companion on September 1, 2005, and Titan Magazines released a one-shot souvenir magazine. Margaret Weis Productions released the Serenity tabletop role-playing game based on the film on September 19, 2005.

Trading card set and action figures
Inkworks issued a 72-card trading card set, including autographed cards and cards with swatches of costumes used in the film, on September 21, 2005. The set won Diamond Comics' 2005 Non-Sports Card Product of the Year Gem Award. Diamond Select Toys released five six-inch action figures initially featuring Malcolm Reynolds, Jayne Cobb, and a Reaver, later adding River Tam, Inara Serra, and Zoe Washburne. The line was deemed to be "disappointing" with the figure of Malcolm Reynolds particularly singled out; both won MWCToys' silver award for Worst Line and Worst Male Figure under twelve inches for 2005.

Themes and cultural allusions
While the film depicts the Alliance as an all-powerful, authoritarian-style regime, Whedon notes it is not so simple. "The Alliance isn't some evil empire", he explains, but rather a largely benevolent bureaucratic force. The Alliance's main problem is that it seeks to govern everyone, regardless of whether they desire to belong to the central government or not. What the crew of Serenity represent—specifically Mal and his lifestyle—is the idea that people should have the right to make their own decisions, even if those decisions are bad.

The Operative embodies the Alliance and is, as Whedon describes, the "perfect product of what's wrong with the Alliance". He is someone whose motives are to achieve a good end, a "world without sin". The Operative believes so strongly in this idea that he willingly compromises his humanity in furtherance of it—as he himself admits, he would have no place in this world. In contrast, Mal is, at the movie's beginning, a man who has lost all faith. By the movie's ending, Mal has finally come to believe so strongly in something—individual liberty—that he becomes willing to lay down his life to preserve it.

Whedon has said that the most important line spoken in the film is when Mal forces the Operative to watch the Miranda footage at the climax of the film, promising him: "I'm going to show you a world without sin". Whedon makes the point that a world without sin is a world without choice, and that choice is ultimately what defines humanity. According to Whedon, the planet "Miranda" was named for William Shakespeare's Miranda in The Tempest, who in Act V, scene I says: "O brave new world, / That has such people in't!" A spaceship found on the planet Miranda carries the codename "C57D", a reference to the flying saucer in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. The plot to Forbidden Planet is based on The Tempest and, like Serenity, features a character struggling with his subconscious. The Alliance had hoped that Miranda would be a new kind of world, filled with peaceful, happy people, and represents the "inane optimism of the Alliance".

The Fruity Oaty Bar commercial shown in the Maidenhead spaceport bar, which carried the subliminal message that triggered River Tam, is partially inspired by Mr. Sparkle, the mascot of a fictional brand of dish-washing detergent, who was featured in The Simpsons episode "In Marge We Trust". Whedon mentions in a DVD feature that when the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial was being designed, he constantly asked the animators to redesign it and make it even more bizarre than the previous design, until it arrived at the version presented on screen.

Canceled sequel
Fans had hoped that if Serenity had been successful, it might lead to either a sequel or a film trilogy.

The first major sequel rumor began on December 1, 2005, when IGN Filmforce reported that Universal had expressed an interest in making a Serenity television movie for broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel. It was expected that commissioning of a television sequel would be contingent on strong DVD sales of Serenity. In a January 2006 interview, Whedon doubted the chances of a sequel. On October 1, 2006, Whedon posted a comment to the Whedonesque.com website, debunking a rumor that he was working on a sequel.

In an interview at the 2007 Comic-Con, Whedon stated that he believes hope for a sequel rests in the sales of the Collector's Edition DVD. In an August 2007 interview with Amazon.com prior to the Collector's Edition DVD release, Whedon stated, "It's still on my mind, I mean, but I don't know if mine is the only mind that it's on." He later said, "You know, whether or not anybody who's involved would be available at that point—everybody's working, I'm happy to say—is a question, but whether I would want to do another one is not a question."

title: Serenity (2005 film)


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Baron Kilbracken

Baron Kilbracken, of Killegar in the County of Leitrim, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1909 for the senior civil servant Sir Arthur Godley. He was Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India between 1883 and 1909. the title is held by his great-grandson, the fourth Baron, who succeeded his father in 2006.

John Robert Godley was the father of the first Baron. Another member of the Godley family was General Sir Alexander Godley. He was the first cousin of the first Baron.

Barons Kilbracken (1909)

 * Arthur Godley, 1st Baron Kilbracken (1847–1932)
 * Hugh John Godley, 2nd Baron Kilbracken (1877–1950)
 * John Raymond Godley, 3rd Baron Kilbracken (1920–2006)
 * Christopher John Godley, 4th Baron Kilbracken (b. 1945)

The heir apparent is the present holder's son The Hon. James John Godley (b. 1972)

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

title: Baron Kilbracken


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Baron Kennet

Baron Kennet, of the Dene in the County of Wiltshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1935 for the journalist and politician Sir Hilton Young. He was the youngest son of Sir George Young, 3rd Baronet, of Formosa Place. He was succeeded by his son, the second Baron. He was a writer and politician. the title is held by his son, the third Baron, who succeeded in 2009. As a great-grandson of Sir George Young, 3rd Baronet, of Formosa Place, he is also in remainder to this title.

The first Baron was married to the sculptor Kathleen Scott, widow of the polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott, the second to Elizabeth Young, Lady Kennet.

Barons Kennet (1935)

 * (Edward) Hilton Young, 1st Baron Kennet (1879–1960)
 * Wayland Hilton Young, 2nd Baron Kennet (1923–2009)
 * William Aldus Thoby Young, 3rd Baron Kennet (born 1957)

The heir apparent is the present holder's son the Honourable Archibald Wayland Keyes Young (born 1992).

title: Baron Kennet


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Flotsam and Jetsam (band)

Flotsam and Jetsam is an American thrash metal band that was formed in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1981. Before settling on its current name in 1984, the band had existed under three different names, Paradox, Dredlox and Dogz. Their current lineup includes vocalist Eric "A.K" Knutson, guitarists Michael Gilbert and Steve Conley, bassist Bill Bodily, and drummer Ken Mary. Flotsam and Jetsam went through several lineup changes over the years, leaving Knutson as the only constant member. They are also notable for featuring a then-unknown Jason Newsted, who was Flotsam and Jetsam's bassist from 1981 to 1986, when he left the band shortly after the release of their debut album to join Metallica.

Flotsam and Jetsam has released fourteen studio albums in their career, with the latest being 2021's Blood in the Water. Despite not achieving similar levels of commercial success as some of their thrash metal contemporaries, the band emerged as part of the second wave of the genre in the mid-to-late 1980s (along with Sepultura, Testament and Death Angel),     and has enjoyed some moderate success in the United States, with two of their albums (1988's No Place for Disgrace and 1990's When the Storm Comes Down) entering the Billboard 200 chart, and their fourth album Cuatro (1992) cracking the top 30 on the Heatseekers chart.

1981–1986: Early days
The group was founded in 1981 under the name Paradox by drummer Kelly David-Smith and guitarists Pete Mello and Dave Goulder, who were later joined by bassist Jason Newsted. Newsted had answered an advertisement that David-Smith had placed in the local newspaper, looking for a bass player. Newsted came to Phoenix with his band Gangster, from Michigan, on their way to California, but Gangster broke up while in Phoenix. David-Smith got a call from a couple of his high school friends, Mark Vasquez and Kevin Horton, looking for some people to jam with playing covers of bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, MSG, and UFO. The band then morphed into Dredlox together with the new recruits, and Newsted was now the main vocalist.

David-Smith saw "A.K." (Eric A. Knutson) singing "The Goodbye Girl" at his high school talent show. In 1982, they were in the same summer school class and David-Smith asked Knutson if he wanted to audition. They put him on two-week probation and he later joined the band. Due to the provisional nature of his membership, the band referred to Knutson as "the 2 weeker." Ed Carlson, from another local rival band called Exodus (not to be confused with the California Bay Area thrash metal band of the same name), also joined in 1983, after Horton's departure from the band. The name of the band changed into The Dogz, but it did not last long. Eventually the band renamed itself "Flotsam and Jetsam", after writing a song inspired by a chapter (Book II, chapter 9) from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, which bore the same name.

The band made its live debut in local clubs and in California and had the opportunity to play with bands such as Megadeth, Armored Saint, Alcatrazz, Malice, Exciter, Mercyful Fate, Riot, Autograph and Icon. In 1985, Mark Vasquez stepped out and 17-year-old Michael Gilbert joined the band. Flotsam and Jetsam released two demo tapes Iron Tears and Metal Shock in 1985.

They created their first video "Hammerhead" from the Metal Shock demo: "We taped it in Jason and Ed's apartment living room. We also made a live video at the infamous Bootlegger in Phoenix" (owned by Gloria Cavalera, currently married to Max Cavalera). These videos and the band's demos made a good impression on record labels. After the band contributed to the Speed Metal Hell II and Metal Massacre VII compilations, they then signed a deal with Metal Blade Records.

1986–1989: Doomsday for the Deceiver and No Place for Disgrace
Flotsam and Jetsam recorded their debut album Doomsday for the Deceiver in Los Angeles, with producer Brian Slagel and engineer Bill Metoyer. The album was released on July 4, 1986, and was the first in Kerrang!'s history to achieve the 6K rating.

Newsted, who was also the band's main lyric writer, departed soon after to join Metallica, replacing their bassist Cliff Burton, who died in a bus accident. On Halloween night 1986, he played his last gig with Flotsam and Jetsam. The band had asked another local bassist Phil Rind of Sacred Reich to fill in for a short time. They then hired Michael Spencer from the Sacramento band Sentinel Beast. Flotsam and Jetsam inked a deal with Metallica's then-label Elektra Records before opening for Megadeth in 1987 on the Peace Sells tour in Europe and North America. After touring with Megadeth, the band played selected shows in America with Slayer, Dark Angel, Possessed, Celtic Frost, Sacred Reich and Excel.

Michael Spencer left Flotsam and Jetsam shortly after a U.S. tour in the fall of 1987; his replacement was Troy Gregory. Their second studio album, No Place for Disgrace, was released in May 1988, and includes a cover of Elton John's hit "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting", for which a music video was shot. The band toured heavily behind No Place for Disgrace throughout 1988 and 1989. They opened for King Diamond in North America, and supported Megadeth, Testament and Sanctuary in Europe on the So Far, So Good... So What! tour. The band also toured or played shows with Testament, The Crumbsuckers, Fates Warning, Destruction, Metal Church, Death Angel, D.R.I., Acid Reign and Kreator, and landed a billing for festivals, such as Milwaukee Metalfest, and played at Aardschokdag twice (in May 1988 and April 1989).

1989–1995: MCA era
In 1989, Flotsam and Jetsam were signed to MCA Records and began work on their third album When the Storm Comes Down, which was released in May 1990. The band expected to gain recognition with this album, but it suffered from a variety of mixed reviews. A video made for "Suffer the Masses" did however receive heavy rotation on MTV's Headbangers Ball. Musically and lyrically, When the Storm Comes Down marked the beginning of at least two changes for Flotsam and Jetsam: it mirrored much of the occult and dark themes evidenced in the lyrical content of their previous two albums, instead focusing on politics and society in general, and saw the band expanding their thrash roots and using elements of the progressive and technical style of their later albums. The band toured for about a year and a half in support of When the Storm Comes Down; they co-headlined a U.S. tour with Prong, and subsequently toured or played selected shows with bands such as Testament, Savatage, Exodus, Vio-Lence, Sacred Reich, Wrathchild America and then-unknown Pantera.

Shortly after the When the Storm Comes Down tour ended, bassist Troy Gregory departed to join Prong. Holding auditions in Phoenix, the band hired Jason Ward to fill the role. With Ward as their new bassist, Flotsam and Jetsam released their fourth album Cuatro in October 1992. It marked an evolution in style and songwriting, moving from thrash to a slower, slightly more, melodic sound, while also continuing the progressive and technical song structures used on When the Storm Comes Down. The band released four singles this time, two of which ("Swatting at Flies" and "Wading Through the Darkness") were shot as music videos and both received regular rotation on Headbangers Ball. Flotsam and Jetsam promoted Cuatro with a year-long tour, playing with bands like Body Count, Sepultura, Testament, White Zombie, Nudeswirl and Damn the Machine, as well as doing a US tour with Mercyful Fate, Cathedral and Anacrusis.

Slowing down after the moderate success of their previous albums, it took nearly three years until Flotsam and Jetsam released their fifth album Drift in April 1995, which was dedicated to Jason's older brother Jeff Ward, former drummer of such bands as Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Revolting Cocks and Lard, who died in 1993. Three singles were released off of the record, and one of them ("Smoked Out") had a music video. However, with Headbangers Ball already off the air in the U.S., and many heavy metal radio stations changing formats, Drift did not sell as well as the band's previous albums, and about the same time they toured the U.S. with Megadeth and Korn during the summer of 1995, MCA's six-year relationship with Flotsam and Jetsam had ended.

1996–2001: Return to Metal Blade
After taking a break in most of 1996 and resigning from MCA to Metal Blade, Flotsam and Jetsam resurfaced in 1997 with their sixth album High. The album's song titles were designed with the font types/logos of famous bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Kiss, Van Halen, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Misfits, etc. to pay homage to those whom came before and inspired the band while it was coming up the ranks. The music was more experimental than before, and the album also featured the Lard cover song Fork Boy. Music video was released, Monster to follow-up.

Michael Gilbert and Kelly Smith left the band after the release and were replaced by guitarist Mark Simpson and drummer Craig Nielsen (at the suggestion of then-Megadeth drummer Nick Menza). With the new line-up Flotsam and Jetsam toured in Europe together with Anvil and Exciter.

Unnatural Selection was released in 1999 and Mark Simpson took a short break. He joined the band again in 2000 to record a new album, My God released in May 2001. At that time Eric A.K. had founded a country band, the A.K. Corral. He left the band for a short time to take a break from Metal and pursue his side project. (AK) "I had given Metal my life for a solid 15 years, I took some time to explore other musical flavors." Though Flotsam and Jetsam did not disband, there was a long break at that time. They found a new singer, James Rivera, who took over vocal duties live. Later the band felt that no one other than Eric A.K. could be their singer and Rivera left the band soon after.

2002–2010: Live in Phoenix, Dreams of Death and The Cold
During 2002 and 2003, the band were active only sporadically, but Eric A.K. rejoined for live dates in the Phoenix and Los Angeles areas in 2003. Tory Edwards was a guest for this tour. A live recording of these shows was released in 2004 as a live concert DVD under the title Live in Phoenix. Signed to the Crash Music label in May 2004 and with Eric A.K. joining the band again officially, they hit the road with Overkill and Death Angel for a series of sold-out concerts in Japan.

Spring 2005 Flotsam and Jetsam returned to the studio to work on their new album. The lyrics were mostly inspired by Eric's nightmares. This resulted into a concept album entitled Dreams of Death – like track 2 of No Place for Disgrace. The album was released July 2005.

The live DVD Live in Japan was released in February 2006 and shows their concert in front of hundreds of screaming Japanese fans at the Citta Club in Tokyo 2004.

Doomsday for the Deceiver was re-released in November 2006 by Metal Blade Records to celebrate the album's twentieth anniversary. This set (two CDs and one DVD) includes the original recording of Doomsday and a re-mixed and re-mastered(Digitized)version and also the two Flotsam and Jetsam demos. The bonus DVD includes rare live material, an interview filmed at David-Smith's High School and a photo slide-show.

In March 2008 Flotsam and Jetsam toured in Europe and played at the Metalmania Festival in Poland. This show was filmed and released as DVD Once in a Deathtime in July. Midyear 2008 the band were signed to Driven Music Group, founded by former KORN guitarist Brian "Head" Welch.

After a tour in Europe with support act Neurasthenia in April 2010 Flotsam and Jetsam finished their album The Cold. It was released on September 14, 2010. It was the last album with Mark Simpson on guitar. He left the band in friendship and was replaced by returning guitarist Ed Carlson, who had quit the band in March 2010, to be replaced by Michael Gilbert.

2011–2013: Ugly Noise
On September 19, 2011, Flotsam and Jetsam announced they had parted ways with Craig Nielson and reunited with founding drummer David-Smith. The band also announced a crowdfunding campaign on PledgeMusic to fund the recording of their next studio album.

On June 13, 2012, the band announced Ugly Noise as the title of the next album. In July, guitarist Michael Gilbert said the album would feature songwriting contributions from former bassist Jason Newsted. The album was released on December 21, 2012.

After tracking, Jason Ward was no longer able to commit to touring with the band any further due to his current personal commitments. He was replaced by Michael Spencer, who had previously replaced Jason Newsted in 1986.

During the tour, Edward Carlson started to have extreme physical pain in his lower back and numbness in his right arm. After the tour, an MRI revealed that he had bulging disks in his upper and lower back causing the dysfunction to occur. Flotsam and Jetsam then recruited guitarist Steve Conley of F5 to step in while they finished out their live commitments.

2013–2014: No Place For Disgrace 2014
No Place For Disgrace 2014 featured guest musicians Mark Simpson, Chris Poland and Tory Edwards. In June 2013, the band headlined at the Warriors of Metal Festival in Columbus Ohio.

Flotsam and Jetsam embarked on a 29-date European tour with Sepultura, Legion of the Damned and Mortillery. The tour kicked off on February 7, 2014, in Bochum, Germany.

Flotsam toured Europe 4 times in 2014 with a total of 40 shows in all. Returning home from Europe on August 11, the band planned to start writing for a new release in 2015. Michael Spencer and Steve Conley would be involved this time in the process. Spencer had written some material previously in 1987 that he took with him after his departure. Flotsam used at some of the archive material from Spencer.

2014–2021: Flotsam and Jetsam, The End of Chaos and Blood in the Water
In December 2014, drummer and founding member, David-Smith decided to leave the band due to unexpected family matters that required him to be home with his family. Handpicked by Smith to replace him on drums, was longtime friend and Shadows Fall drummer Jason Bittner. Bittner was present on Flotsam and Jetsam's self-titled twelfth studio album, which was released on May 20, 2016. The band did a world tour to support this album, including Europe with Destruction, Enforcer and Nervosa, North America with Helstar and Hatchet, and then back to Europe with Dew-Scented and Izegrim. They also opened for HammerFall on their spring/summer 2018 North American tour.

On July 6, 2017, it was announced that Flotsam and Jetsam were replacing Bittner (who had just joined Overkill) with Ken Mary (Fifth Angel, Alice Cooper, House of Lords, TKO, Chastain, Impellitteri), and that they had begun working on their thirteenth studio album The End of Chaos, which was initially reported to be released in November 2018; however, the album's release date was pushed back to January 18, 2019. In support of The End of Chaos, Flotsam and Jetsam (along with Destruction and Meshiaak) opened for Overkill on the European Killfest Tour in March 2019. A headlining US tour, titled Demolition of North America, was scheduled to take place in the spring of 2020, but it was postponed and then cancelled, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Less than a month after the release of The End of Chaos, frontman Eric "A.K." Knutson stated in an interview with Jesse Capps of Loudist that Flotsam and Jetsam would "probably start writing and recording" a follow-up album in November 2019.

On November 13, 2020, the band announced Bill Bodily had replaced Michael Spencer as their new bassist, and that the final mixes for their upcoming album were almost finished.

On April 1, 2021, Flotsam and Jetsam announced Blood in the Water as the title of their fourteenth studio album and June 4 as its release date. A week later, the band released a music video for the album's first single, "Burn the Sky". Flotsam and Jetsam promoted Blood in the Water with a headlining US tour, and they were slated to open for Accept on the European trek of their Too Mean to Die tour in January and February 2022 (along with Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons), but "many factors" prompted the band to withdraw from the tour. Flotsam and Jetsam did, however, tour Europe in June 2022 as a headlining act.

2021–present: I Am the Weapon
In an interview with AZ Central on June 5, 2021, the day after the release of Blood in the Water, frontman Eric "A.K." Knutson mentioned a follow-up album, revealing that he "probably [has] enough songs that didn't make it on the last two records to do two more records."

On April 26, 2024, Flotsam and Jetsam released "I Am the Weapon" as the first single from their upcoming fifteenth studio album of the same name. On May 31, 2024, a music video for the album's second single "Primal" was released, and on the same day, the band announced that I Am the Weapon will be released on September 13.

Members
Current members
 * Eric "A.K." Knutson – vocals (1983–2001, 2003–present)
 * Michael Gilbert – guitars (1985–1997, 2010–present)
 * Steve Conley – guitars (2013–present)
 * Ken Mary – drums (2017–present)
 * Bill Bodily – bass (2020–present, touring 2016, 2019)

Touring musicians
 * James Rivera – vocals (2001–2003)
 * Jeff Barbaree – bass (2013)

Session musicians
 * Tory Edwards – violin (2001, 2014), mandolin (2014)

Former members
 * Kelly David-Smith – drums (1981–1997, 2011–2014)
 * Jason Newsted – bass (1981–1986)
 * Mark Vazquez – guitars (1981–1985)
 * Kevin Horton – guitars (1981–1983)
 * Edward Carlson – guitars (1983–2013)
 * Phil Rind – bass (1986)
 * Michael Spencer – bass (1987–1988, 2013–2020)
 * Troy Gregory – bass (1988–1991)
 * Jason Ward – bass (1991–2013)
 * Craig Nielsen – drums (1997–2011)
 * Mark Simpson – guitars (1997–1999, 2000–2010)
 * Jason Bittner – drums (2015–2017)

Studio albums

 * Doomsday for the Deceiver (1986)
 * No Place for Disgrace (1988)
 * When the Storm Comes Down (1990)
 * Cuatro (1992)
 * Drift (1995)
 * High (1997)
 * Unnatural Selection (1999)
 * My God (2001)
 * Dreams of Death (2005)
 * The Cold (2010)
 * Ugly Noise (2012)
 * Flotsam and Jetsam (2016)
 * The End of Chaos (2019)
 * Blood in the Water (2021)
 * I Am the Weapon (2024)

Live albums

 * Live in Phoenix (2005)
 * Once in a Deathtime (2008)

Singles/EPs

 * "Flotzilla" (1987)
 * "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" (1988)
 * "Suffer the Masses" (1990)
 * "The Master Sleeps" (1990)
 * "Selections from Cuatro"/"Never to Reveal" (1992)
 * "Swatting at Flies" (1992)
 * "Wading Through the Darkness" (1992)
 * "Cradle Me Now" (1992)
 * "Smoked Out" (1995)
 * "Blindside" (1995)
 * "Destructive Signs" (1995)
 * "Life, Love, Death" (2019)

DVDs

 * Live in Phoenix (2004)
 * Live in Japan (2006)
 * Once in a Deathtime (2008)

title: Flotsam and Jetsam (band)


text:
LISTSERV

The term Listserv (styled by the registered trademark licensee, L-Soft International, Inc., as LISTSERV) has been used to refer to electronic mailing list software applications in general, but is more properly applied to a few early instances of such software, which allows a sender to send one email to a list, which then transparently sends it on to the addresses of the subscribers to the list.

The original Listserv software, the Bitnic Listserv (also known as BITNIC LISTSERV) (1984–1986), allowed mailing lists to be implemented on IBM VM mainframes and was developed by Ira Fuchs, Daniel Oberst, and Ricky Hernandez in 1984. This mailing list service was known as Listserv@Bitnic (also known as LISTSERV@BITNIC) and quickly became a key service on the BITNET network. It provided functionality similar to a UNIX Sendmail alias and, as with Sendmail, subscriptions were managed manually.

In 1986, Éric Thomas developed an independent application, originally named "Revised Listserv" (also known as "Revised LISTSERV"), which was the first automated mailing list management application. Prior to Revised Listserv, email lists were managed manually. To join or leave a list, people would write to a list administrator and ask to be added or removed, a process that became more time-consuming as discussion lists grew in popularity.

By 1987, the users of the Bitnic Listserv had migrated to Thomas' version.

Listserv was freeware from 1986 through 1993 and is now a commercial product developed by L-Soft, a company founded by Thomas in 1994. A free version limited to ten lists of up to 500 subscribers each can be downloaded from the company's web site.

Several other list-management tools were subsequently developed, such as Lyris ListManager in 1997 (now Aurea Email Marketing), Sympa in 1997, GNU Mailman in 1998, and Gaggle in 2015.

Automated mailing list management
In 1986, Éric Thomas developed the concept of an automated mailing list manager. Whilst a student at École Centrale Paris, he developed the software now known as LISTSERV. Some of the early software features allowed joining or leaving a list without the need for human administration. The list owner could also add or remove subscribers, and edit templates for both welcome and system messages. Amongst other innovations LISTSERV introduced double opt-in in 1993 and the first spam filter in 1995.

After the release of Thomas' LISTSERV in 1986, LISTSERV@BITNIC was enhanced to provide automatic list management, but this enhancement was abandoned a few months later when Bitnic installed Thomas' LISTSERV.

Other than their name, Bitnic's and Thomas' products are unrelated and neither product is based on the other product's code.

Though electronic mailing lists (also known as "email lists") are not as popular as they once were, they survive due to their ease of use.

Trademark
LISTSERV was registered as a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1995, based on its use since 1986. It was registered with the Swedish Patent and Registration Office, PRV, in 2001. As such, in those jurisdictions, using the word "listserv" to describe a different product or as a generic term for any email-based mailing list of that kind is a trademark misuse. The standard generic terms are electronic mailing list, e-list, or email list for the list itself, and email list manager or email list software for the software product that manages the list. Nevertheless, the generic use of the term has been common at times.

Security
Individual user passwords were stored in plaintext until version 15.0. This made them available to users who are listed as "Site Managers" or "Postmasters" in the application configuration. Storing passwords in plaintext has the potential to allow anyone with access to the site, including attackers who might have compromised the site, to read the credentials. With the 2007 release of version 15.5, passwords are now stored hashed to defend against this attack.

Editions
LISTSERV is available in several licensing options: LISTSERV Lite Free Edition for non-commercial hobby use; LISTSERV Lite for smaller workloads; LISTSERV, the standard, full-featured version; LISTSERV HPO (High Performance Option); and LISTSERV Maestro (for customized and targeted email publishing and reporting).

Supported operating systems
A list of currently-supported operating systems can be found at LISTSERV Supported Operating Systems

title: LISTSERV


text:
Gujō, Gifu

Gujō (郡上市) is a city located in Gifu, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 41,858, and a population density of 41 persons per km2, in 15,341 households. The total area of the city was 851.21 sqkm, including Gujo Hachiman, a part of the city that was an independent town until 2004, and has a large summer Bon odori festival, Gujo Odori.

Geography
Gujō is located in west-central Gifu Prefecture. The headwaters of the Nagara River are in the city.

Waterways
Gujō's waterways operate the same way as they did in the 17th century. The canals and fountains are still used for washing rice, vegetables, and laundry. Townspeople cooperate to keep the canals clean and the water fresh. As a result of their efforts, Gujō's drinking water is a source of local pride.

Gujō Hachiman is in a valley where three major fast-running rivers meet: the Yoshida, the Nagara and the Kodara. The local ayu, soba, and sake all depend on the water for their flavors. Some residents still use the town's unique system of small waterways to wash laundry and dishes, following a set of very strict rules that describe what may be washed where. This practice has survived for centuries and ensures that all households have access to clean water.

Climate
The city has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and mild winters (Köppen climate classification Cfa). The average annual temperature in Gujō is 12.8 C. The average annual rainfall is 2689.8 mm with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.3 C, and lowest in January, at around 0.8 C.

Neighbouring municipalities

 * Gifu Prefecture
 * Takayama
 * Seki
 * Mino
 * Gero
 * Fukui Prefecture
 * Ōno

Demographics
According to Japanese census data, the population of Gujō has steadily declined over the past 50 years.

History
Historically, area around Gujō was part of the former Mino Province. During the Edo period, most of the area was under the control of Gujō Domain of the Tokugawa shogunate. Post-Meiji restoration cadastral reforms, the area was organised into Gujō District, Gifu. The town of Hachiman was created on July 1, 1889, with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. The modern city of Gujō was established on March 1, 2004, from the combining the towns of Hachiman, Shirotori and Yamato, and the villages of Meihō, Minami, Takasu and Wara (all from Gujō District).

Government
Gujō has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city assembly of 18 members.

Food replicas
Gujō is a leading producer of food replicas in Japan. Many of the food replicas, used by restaurants to decorate their windows and inform patrons of their dishes, are produced here.

Education
Gujō has 22 public elementary schools, eight public middle schools operated by the city government, two public high school operated by the Gifu Prefectural Board of Education.

Railway

 * Nagaragawa Railway logo.svg - Nagaragawa Railway Etsumi-Nan Line
 * Hanno - Konno - Yasaka - Minami-Kodakara-Onsen - Ōya - Fukuno -  Minami-Kariyasu - Akaike - Fukado - Aioi -  Gujō-Hachiman -  Shizen'en-mae - Yamada -  Tokunaga - Gujō-Yamato -  Manba -  Kamimanba -  Ōnaka -  Ōshima - Mino-Shirotori - Shirotori-Kōgen -  Hakusan-Nagataki -  Hokunō

Highway

 * [[file:E41-SUI.svg|35px]] Tōkai-Hokuriku Expressway

Local attractions

 * Hirugano Botanical Garden
 * Gujō Hachiman Castle

Gujō Odori
The dance festival — Gujō Odori — started over 400 years ago and continues today. During the four days of Obon in mid-August, dances continue all night. The dances begin on the same night as Kyoto's Gion Festival and continue for 30 nights. They begin at the Yasaka Shrine and move to another shrine each night. The Gujō Odori Preservation Society tell musical stories through an o-hayashi, which consists of a soloist, a shamisen, a taiko, and a shakuhachi. Listeners participate by dancing around the stage. During Urabon (August 13 to 16) the dancing continues until 5 a.m. More than 20,000 visitors come to town for the odori.

title: Gujō, Gifu


text:
Baron Kenilworth

Baron Kenilworth, of Kenilworth in the County of Warwick, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1937 for the motor industry magnate Sir John Siddeley. His grandson, the third Baron, was an interior designer and the founder of John Siddeley International Ltd. the title is held by the latter's son, the fourth Baron, who succeeded in 1981.

The first Baron purchased Kenilworth Castle in 1937. The house is now in the care of English Heritage.

Barons Kenilworth (1937)

 * John Davenport Siddeley, 1st Baron Kenilworth (1866–1953)
 * Cyril Davenport Siddeley, 2nd Baron Kenilworth (1894–1971)
 * John Tennant Davenport Siddeley, 3rd Baron Kenilworth (1924–1981)
 * John Randle Siddeley, 4th Baron Kenilworth (b. 1954)

The heir apparent is the present holder's son Hon. William Randle Siddeley (b. 1992).

title: Baron Kenilworth


text:
Baron Kindersley

Baron Kindersley, of West Hoathly in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1941 for the businessman Sir Robert Kindersley, chiefly in recognition of his work as President of the National Savings Committee. His second son, the second Baron, was a Brigadier in the Scots Guards. the title is held by the latter's grandson, the 4th Baron, who succeeded his father in 2013.

Barons Kindersley (1941)

 * Robert Molesworth Kindersley, 1st Baron Kindersley (1871–1954)
 * Hugh Kenyon Molesworth Kindersley, 2nd Baron Kindersley (1899–1976)
 * Robert Hugh Molesworth Kindersley, 3rd Baron Kindersley (1929–2013)
 * Rupert John Molesworth Kindersley, 4th Baron Kindersley (b. 1955)

The heir apparent is the present holder's son the Hon. Frederick Hugh Molesworth Kindersley (b. 1987)

title: Baron Kindersley


text:
Gero, Gifu

Gero (下呂市) is a city located in Japan's Gifu Prefecture. , the city had an estimated population of 33,283, and a population density of 39 persons per km2 (101/sq mi), in 12,253 households. The total area of the city was 851.21 sqkm. The city is famous for its hot springs.

Geography
The Hida River and the Maze River run throughout the city. Over 91% of the city area is covered by mountains and forest. Much of the city is within the borders of the Hida-Kisogawa Quasi-National Park. The volcano, Mount Ontake, is located in Gero.

Climate
The city has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and mild winters (Köppen climate classification Cfa). The average annual temperature in Gero is 12.2 C. The average annual rainfall is 2440.3 mm with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.5 C, and lowest in January, at around 0.3 C.

Neighbouring municipalities

 * Gifu Prefecture
 * Takayama
 * Seki
 * Nakatsugawa
 * Gujō
 * Shirakawa
 * Hichisō
 * Nagano Prefecture
 * Kiso
 * Ōtaki

Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Gero has declined over the past 50 years.

History
The area around Gero was part of traditional Hida Province. During the Edo period, it was part of the tenryō controlled directly by the Tokugawa shogunate. During the post-Meiji restoration cadastral reforms, the area was organised into Mashita District, Gifu. The village of Gero was created on July 1, 1889, with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. It was raised to town status on January 1, 1925. Gero merged with the towns of Hagiwara, Kanayama and Osaka, and the village of Maze (all from Mashita District) on March 1, 2004, to form the city of Gero.

Government
Gero has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city legislature of 14 members.

Economy
Gero's major industry is tourism. It is known throughout Japan for its onsen, which are mentioned even in the Nara period Shoku Nihongi. Gero has many hotels that can be visited by guests that are looking for accommodations near the hot springs. Large tubs are located in some hotels allowing couples to bathe together. Some hotels lend yukatas to the couples. It's not unusual to see people wearing yukatas on the streets and even in stores. Besides those in hotels, there are many inexpensive and convenient onsens located near railway stations, residential areas, and commercial centers up and down the valley. Forestry and agriculture also play significant roles in the local economy.

Education
Gero has 13 public elementary schools and six public middle schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Gifu Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates two special education schools.

Railway
JR Tōkai - Takayama Main Line
 * Hida-Kanayama - Yakeishi - Gero - Zenshōji - Hida-Hagiwara - Jōro -  Hida-Miyada -  Hida-Osaka

International

 * 🇺🇸 Ketchikan, Alaska, United States
 * 🇺🇸 Pensacola, Florida, USA
 * 🇧🇷 Salesópolis, São Paulo, Brazil

Domestic

 * Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture
 * Hodatsushimizu, Hakui District, Ishikawa Prefecture

title: Gero, Gifu


text:
Talk:List of acronyms: 0–9

This Talk page contains all the discussion from the earlier articles "List of acronyms" and "List of initialisms" (which have been merged), as well as the discussion from the present article, of course.

Naming of things/article
This list should properly be called a list of general abbreviations. Acronyms and initialisms are not mutually exclusive sets. Both are subsets of the set of abbreviations. (unless somebody can think of an acronym or initialism that is not an abbreviation.) Of the illustrative samples AIDS is both acronym and initialism, Interpol is an acronym but not an initialism, FBI is  an initialism but not an acronym, and ACLU is an initialism which could be an acronym if it were pronounced ak-loo. Eclecticology

 * If we use the term Acronym for in the pages of the longer names below, an instant cross reference is generated at this wiki. --Chris

 * user eclecticology is absolutely right kkumpf

 * True, most of the entries are abbreviations, where there is also a list. But there's no point in trying to list every abbreviation, they are too numerous and dynamic.  I suggest cutting it down to the genuine acronyms.

 * Huh? What happens if we use Acronym for? - Also, who pronounces AKA ("ack-a")? I always read it "ay-kay-ay", but then again, I say "ay-eye-emm" when I knowmany say "ayme" for AIM. Geoffrey

 * I agree. Furthermore, the non-pronounceable abbreviations should be moved elsewhere from this article. Kingturtle 03:35 Apr 23, 2003 (UTC)

 * After receiving no feedback in reference to this issue, I am going to take the initiative and separate acronyms from abbreviations. Kingturtle 21:11 May 10, 2003 (UTC)

Acronyms from urban legends
Under Words that are not acronyms, but urban legends say that they are, I'd like to add "fuck" (incorrectly supposed by some to stand for "for unlawful carnal knowledge"), but I'm not sure that all our readers will approve. Perhaps it's better left on the Talk page. -- Heron

 * oops, too late. I already added it. Maybe I should put in some expletives deleted :) Kingturtle 21:39 May 10, 2003 (UTC)

 * Why are SNAFU, FUBAR and Fuck all asterisked out. The word is used in many other places in Wikipedia in full, so it seems kinda strange to find f****d etc here. -- sgb

Pronounceability issues
I thought that this page was for only pronouncible acronyms, yes? Thus, CPU, said "See-pee-yoo", should not be here? Qaless 10:45 Sep 3, 2003

 * I'd actually propose that we merge the two lists under one heading, list of acronyms and initialisms, where acronyms could be marked with an "(a)", and initialisms with an "(i)", or something like it, to simplify both the contribution to and maintenance of the list(s). As things stand now, it seems that some contributors who visit one of the lists, 'accidentally' add items that belong to the other list, no matter how clear the initial description of either list might be. Merging the lists could also ease the acronym/initialism borderline case problem, e.g. by allowing such markings as "(a/i)". --Wernher 11:40, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * Agree, and starting a merge now, see my note in Talk:List of initialisms. --Wikibob 11:30, 2004 Mar 4 (UTC)

Should this word not be here ?
COD is an initialism in my experience

 * I agree, it's pronounced 'see-oh-dee', unless one thinks of the fish :-). BTW, see my suggestion above, regarding merging of the two lists, which would lead to less confusing in such matters. --Wernher 13:14, 18 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Moved from Talk:List of initialisms

Initialisms vs abbreviations
Is there a difference between initialisms and abbreviations, if so what is it? Dieter Simon 21:28 30 May 2003 (UTC)

 * An abbreviation is any shortening of a word or phrase, e.g.

 * Mister -> Mr.
 * Johannesburg -> Jo'burg
 * North Atlantic Treaty Organization -> NATO
 * Light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation -> laser
 * Weapons of Mass Destruction -> WMD

 * Only the last example (WMD) is an initialism, which is an abbreviation composed of the initial parts of words, all the parts being pronounced individually. NATO is not an initialism because it is pronounced as a single word, not as four individual letters.  One or two of the above examples, depending on your definition, are also acronyms.  My source for this explanation is the OED. -- Heron

 * I didn't realize that, many thanks, Heron, that's cleared that up --Dieter Simon

 * It's not quite cleared up. In The Canadian Style (Dep't of Sec'y of State) 1985 p31: "An acronym is a pronounceable word formed from the first letter or letters of a series of other words...An initialism is formed from the initial letters only of a series of words and may not be pronounceable." Which I read as may or may not, esp since not everyone agrees on what is and isn't pronounceable. So NATO and AIDS are both initialisms (no more than the first letter of the words) and acronyms (pronounceable initialisms). Wish I had an OED to see exactly what it says...

 * OED says (full definitions): initialism: The use of initials; a significative group of initial letters. Now spec. a group of initial letters used as an abbreviation for a name or expression, each letter or part being pronounced separately (contrasted with ACRONYM). acronym: A word formed from the initial letters of other words --Zero 14:09, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * Highly interesting -- to me, this seems to say that the class of initialisms is a subset of the class of acronyms; so much the better to merge the two lists (see my list-merging-advocacy posting below). --Wernher 15:35, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * Furthermore, I see ASAP in acronyms...and I've very seldom heard it pronounced other than "eh es eh pea". (And is its other pronounciation "eh sap" or "ahsap"? If the former, which sounds most natural to me, then RBOC could not be logically excluded as "are bock".) shrug

Page protected accidentally
Why the heck the page is protected? -- Taku 16:42 31 May 2003 (UTC)

 * Probably an accident - it's quite easy to protect a page by mistake, because the link to do so is right next door to other useful links. I've unprotected it now. --Camembert

 * Thanks. -- Taku

Talk about confusion
This page would be rather confusing to a new speaker of English. The initial lines of list of initialisms and list of acronyms clearly imply that the distinction has been made as a pronunciation guide. They acknowledge that not everyone agrees with the distinction, but it is nevertheless a useful one to make. However, many of the items under list of initialisms are normally pronounced as words. For example, AIDS, BART, DIMM, FUBAR, KISS, QANTAS, etc, etc. I suggest we clarify the headings, then move the pronounceable ones to list of acronyms. However, there are also regional/personal variations e.g ACl = ay-see-ell or "ackle". Thoughts? --Roger 08:10 30 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * I'd actually propose that we merge the two lists under one heading, list of acronyms and initialisms, where acronyms could be marked with an "(a)", and initialisms with an "(i)", or something like it, to simplify both the contribution to and maintenance of the list(s). As things stand now, it seems that some contributors who visit one of the lists, 'accidentally' add items that belong to the other list, no matter how clear the initial description of either list might be.  Merging the lists could also ease the acronym/initialism borderline case problem, e.g. by allowing such markings as "(a/i)". --Wernher 11:37, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * I agree, and will start the daunting task of merging soon, using Wernher's suggestions on marking as in these examples:
 * AA - (i) Alcoholics Anonymous - Automobile Association
 * AIDS - (a) Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
 * Interpol - (a/p) International Criminal Police Organization

 * (a) = acronym
 * (i) = initialism
 * (p) = portmanteau

 * But first I will just automatically add (a) to all from list of acronyms and (i) to all from list of initialisms, and others can argue about what should really be within the parenthesis.

 * (removed my own misunderstandings about redirect here)
 * merge is half-completed, please see the intermediate subpages:

 * Talk:List of initialisms/marked
 * Talk:List of acronyms/marked
 * - Wikibob 12:27, 2004 Mar 4 (UTC)

 * sort done see Talk:List of initialisms/sorted
 * Please check the intermediate files if you believe anything got lost in the merge (although I'm pretty confident I got it right - crosses fingers) -Wikibob 14:00, 2004 Mar 4 (UTC)

Internet slang
Should internet slang be included in this list? IMHO, it doesn't belong here. --zandperl 02:33, 4 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Disputed entries
I question BIOS, GUI, LIFO, FIFO, and WASP. TMC1221 00:05, Jan 22, 2004 (UTC)

This ends all the talk moved from Talk:List of acronyms and Talk:List of initialisms

Articles merged & #redirected
List of acronyms and List of initialisms have now been merged into list of acronyms and initialisms, following Wernher's suggestion from Talk:List of initialisms. The original pages have each been changed to #REDIRECT list of acronyms and initialisms.

 * Great, thanks! I don't quite remember, but was there (m)any comments in the Talk pages of the original articles worth moving over to the present Talk page? AFAIR there was much discussion of acronyms vs initialisms and where those should be placed. Some of that should be (easier) resolved as of this merging, at least it's less work changing (a)'s to (i)'s, or compromising on (a/i), instead of moving items from one article to another... :-) --Wernher 22:43, 4 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Old Talk now moved to this Talk page. -Wikibob 01:00, 2004 Mar 5 (UTC)

 * Thanks; I fmt'ed the threads to make the discussions easier to follow. --Wernher 20:25, 5 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Portmanteaus
I'm wonder whether one should just let List of portmanteaus be on its own, instead of trying to incorporate it into this list of acronyms and initialisms; after all, portmanteaus are quite different beasts than (a)'s and (i)'s... --Wernher 23:26, 4 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * I agree, Interpol is now moved, what about these?

 * SOCCSKSARGEN - (a) a region in the Philippines: South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, General Santos City (pronounced sock-sar-gen)
 * SNOBOL - (a) StriNg Oriented symBOlic Language
 * UNIFEM - (a) United Nations Fund for Women

 * Wikibob 01:34, 2004 Mar 5 (UTC)
 * I'm asking for clarification on the accepted definition of Portmanteau on Wiktionary:Talk:Portmanteau (1872), as there's a difference on whether it's derived from two or several forms. -Wikibob

TLAs
There is a related list of three-letter acronyms (TLAs) at TLAs from AAA to DZZ, etc., which provides links to every possible TLA. Maybe every TLA on the "List of acronyms" page should be a link, so that when people add new TLA pages, the work will automatically be reflected here? -- Walt Pohl 21:16, 5 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * I'll start now. Several will need cleanup afterwards though. -Wikibob

 * Are we producing What Wikipedia is not? Lists are interesting but I hope it will not become a Mere collections of internal links. Meanwhile I used XEmacs regexps to wikify the TLA's like this:
 * All TLA's now wikified. -Wikibob 14:08, 2004 Mar 6 (UTC)
 * All TLA's now wikified. -Wikibob 14:08, 2004 Mar 6 (UTC)
 * All TLA's now wikified. -Wikibob 14:08, 2004 Mar 6 (UTC)

 * Anyone care to suggest in what category are the words emacs and XEmacs? portmanteaux? -Wikibob 14:25, 2004 Mar 6 (UTC)

 * Aren't those acronyms? Editing macros... eXtended (or whatever) Emacs... --Wernher 23:44, 19 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Non-English-language expansions
Are we, or are we not, including non-English-language acronym expansions in this list? I notice there are some in the list as of this writing. I'm not quite sure how/whether we should limit this in the English Wikipedia. --Wernher 23:44, 19 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * It seems the best policy is only to include acronyms that one would be likely to enconter in English texts. Nohat 15:23, 2004 Apr 6 (UTC)

Initialism vs acronym
I'm not going to argue about the criteria used for distinguishing acronyms and initialisms, as it is explained that it's just for this list, although in the way most people use the word "acronym" everything on the page is an acronym.

However, the intro says:

 * acronym: an abbreviation that is pronounced as a series of constituent letters
 * initialism: is an abbreviation whose pronunciation is wholly or partly the names of constituent letters

how does this apply to acronyms that meet both criteria, such as:
 * JPEG, where the pronunciation is partly the names of the constitutent letters (J), but also pronounced as a series of letters (PEG).
 * SQL, which some people pronounce as a "word" (sequel), and others pronounce as the names of the letters, "EskjuEl".

--Nohat 15:37, 2004 Apr 6 (UTC)

 * I don't think that they're mutually exclusive. Many entries are listed as being both acronyms and initialisms. Just last night, I updated the listing for USB to be both... I've always said it as "uh-ss-bb," and only rarely do I spell it out as USB. --Cgranade 16:35, Apr 6, 2004 (UTC)

 * As Cgranade says, this issue is a non-problem, since we made the (a/i) code specifically to denote abbreviations that may be both initialisms and acronyms, such as SQL. Sometimes, however, a word which qualifies as an (a/i) is recorded as only (a) or (i); please fix such misses at sight.

 * To Cgranade re USB: do you actually, positively, know for a fact that others than yourself are pronouncing the word like you do, as one syllable? --Wernher 18:31, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Well, people I talk to understand me well enough... I don't have empirical evidence to support that pronunciation, but I believe that it is indeed pronounced that way. -- Cgranade 00:24, Apr 7, 2004 (UTC)

Proposal for a new format.
I wish to submit to community an idea for a new format for this page which represents the item/definition relationship of the data herein expressed. Given the following example of an entry under the current format, please examine the same entry in the revised format.

Current style:
 * ATM - (i) automated teller machine - asynchronous transfer mode - at the moment

Proposed revised style:
 * ATM : (i) Automated teller machine.
 * (i) Asynchronous transfer mode.
 * (i) At the moment.

I believe that this format offers several advantages:
 * Empasizes the relationship between acronym/initialism and expansion.
 * Allows for easier organization of multiple expansions.
 * Allows for seperate expansions to be listed as different types [that is, i versus a versus p].

Of great importance is that each entry is not wikified, but rather each expansion is wikified, allowing for multiple definitions to be formatted the same way as single defintions.

At anyrate, I hereby submit my idea to the community for judgement.

Cgranade 02:30, Apr 7, 2004 (UTC)

 * That might work well, although I'd be interested in hearing some opinions from others first. The page, as it stands, is messy and disorganized. It needs standardization—of linking, capitalization, punctuation, and translation. Your idea might help make that easier. My primary concern would be the length it would add to the page. From what I understand, there is a maximum number of lines that most browsers can support for a webpage, and that might push us over. Defenestration 21:39, 5 May 2004 (UTC)

 * there is no maximum number of line in browsers. you could have "War and Peace" in a single html page. i agree with the proposed style change. --Quiddity 07:59, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

4D
I added that it can mean 4 spatial dimensions. This is most common in mathematics but magic cube is a good example too. —siroχo 20:28, Jun 25, 2004 (UTC)

Removing pseudo-blend redlink
The article pseudo-blend is listed on Most wanted articles with 20 links. All these links come from List of acronyms and initialisms and its sublists. Further, all Google hits for pseudo-blend seem to be either Wikipedia mirrors or unrelated uses. I am therefore removing the redlinks, since the use of the term on these pages seems to be nonstandard, and in any case it seems unlikely that this could ever become a real article. —Ilmari Karonen 16:29, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Structure
1. Is there any need for "List of acronyms and initialisms" to be more than a simple index, linking to the appropriate article?

e.g.

"A,B,C and D etc." all open a separate article, why not "J and K etc." ? The list would be simpler to use without this mixed format.

2. At the next level, e.g. "List of acronyms and initialisms: A", is there any need for this to contain such a duplication of information?

e.g.

"AA" contains seven listed alternatives, but opening the "AA" link shows dozens, which in theory could/should be added to the AA entry.

Why not redirect multiple entries and leave single entries, otherwise you end up with two very similar, but inevitably different, listings, e.g.

AA - See AA

AAAI - (i) American Association for Artificial Intelligence

It might not fit in with some of the semantics, but it would be more user friendly.

Shrew

 * This list is a work in progress. The in-line lists should indeed be moved off to their own pages, for consistency's sake. The various disambig page contents should be imported, to the extent that they are initialisms and symbols --however, not all disambig entries are of this nature, and disambig pages do not attempt exhaustiveness (which is the hope of these lists). I do think that large entries (such as AA) are best handled by simply sending the reader to the page ("See entry").
 * Urhixidur 17:45, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Thanks, it's a little clearer, but I still can't see the overall picture. Is there a simple schematic of how all these pages are planned to fit together ? Currently a lot of the information seems to be on disambiguation pages rather than on "Acronym" pages, e.g. searching for AA opens a disambiguation page containing a lot of acronyms, but there does not appear to be a page for an exhaustive AA "Acronym" list - such as "List of Acronyms and Initialisms: AA" (which as a large entry could be a "See entry" link from "List of Acronyms and Initialisms: A").  And looking at pages such as "List of all two-letter combinations" and "Category:Lists of abbreviations" doesn't exactly clear things up either !!
 * Shrew 12:03, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

 * More ..
 * 1. It seems that most acronym information is currently contained on disambiguation pages - and that this is not the place for the complete listings
 * 2. If all the information is added to pages such as List of acronyms and initialisms: P, then these pages will become far too large (way over the 32kB guidelines)

 * Proposal
 * Main page List of acronyms and initialisms remains
 * Sub pages, e.g. List of acronyms and initialisms: P remain
 * Sub sub pages are created where necessary to contain the complete listing for an entry e.g. "Acronyms and initialisms: PAN" - in this example it basically exists already as PAN

 * Searching for "Pan" would lead to basically the same Pan disambiguation page as currently available and say ..
 * Pan or PAN may refer to:
 * An acronym or initialism - with a link to "Acronyms and initialisms: PAN"
 * .. rest of the entries as current
 * Searching for "PAN" would lead to "Acronyms and initialisms: PAN", with for completeness a link such as "See also Pan (disambiguation) for other meanings" to complete the circle
 * Note that PAN is a particularly good example for the proposal, most similar entries contain very mixed, and more confusing, lists
 * Or is this re-inventing the wheel ?
 * - Oh, and I think that any individual pages should follow the format proposed by Cgranade above
 * Shrew 13:14, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Just an outsider's opinion
all of the acronyms should be on one page--not listed by each letter of the alphabet on a separate page. Making someone click twice is internet death. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.189.182.157 (talk) 17:25, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

"Pseudo-blend" makes no sense
Can we name this something that it least could be correct? These hybrids are actual blends, not false (pseudo-) blends. Elsewhere they're called hybrids, but this is vague. Any suggestions? Stephan Leeds (talk) 14:10, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Talk Pages Merge Proposal

 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: A
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: B
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: C
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: D
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: E
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: F
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: G
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: H
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: I
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: J
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: K
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: L
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: M
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: N
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: O
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: P
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: Q
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: R
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: S
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: T
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: U
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: V
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: W
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: X
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: Y
 * See Talk:List of acronyms and initialisms: Z

How about merging the above talk pages into this one? Most of them are largely or completely empty and this page has little content and it makes little sense. I suggest a redirect for the empty ones and a merge into this one from the ones that have any content.--Keer lls ton 18:50, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

A bold proposal
As noted above (see ), these pages are very hard to maintain: the disambiguation pages often show much more entries that presented in these lists (which in many cases are only one).

The disambiguation pages have since long ago used abbreviations in their lists (see Cats (disambiguation) for instance, through which I came here, using the "what links here" function), and this IMHO is the best way to maintain such lists of meanings for each acronyms. These pages are (effectively or potentially) huge, and as such very hard to keep up to date. Besides, having duplicated listings is counter-productive.

My proposal would be to move all content of these lists to the disambiguation pages (in case they aren't already there, that is!) and mark these lists as obsolete.

I know that for some of the one-meaning entries, both the disambig pages and the article don't exist and therefore the info displayed here would become "lost" -- but I don't propose that these lists be deleted -- only made into archives, still accessible (perhaps moved out of the main namespace).

What do you think? --Waldir talk 00:19, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Suggested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Move. We have a general consensus that "Initialism" is an obscure term and that its inclusion here thus runs afoul of various article title conventions, such as that titles should generally follow use in the reliable sources, and be recognizable, concise, not pedantic, and no more precise than they need to be. This, combined with the move of the main article from Acronym and initialism to Acronym, justifies the move.--Cúchullain t/ c 15:54, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

List of acronyms and initialisms → List of acronyms – Per recent consensus in related pages:219.79.90.218 (talk) 02:08, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

 * The article Acronym and initialism has been moved to Acronym per consensus on talk page
 * WP:AND no longer contemplates Acronym and initialism as an example, see consensus in talk page

Allow me to copy/adapt the rationale here:

 * "Initialism" has very scarce representation in mainstream dictionaries, and generally in reliable sources
 * Google count: 1 million for initialism versus 150 million for acronym (Google news: 244 vs 167,000; Google books: 11,600 vs 1,500,000)
 * Initialism is essentially a historical trivia, and in this article it is receiving undue weight
 * Current title is not encyclopedic. Encyclopedias tend to avoid "and" in titles, unless the article discusses dual concepts, or anyway concepts that naturally have comparable notability (see WP:AND)
 * Current title is in conflict with many other WP:TITLE guidelines and principles, and I quote:
 * Generally, article titles are based on what the subject is called in reliable sources
 * When this offers multiple possibilities, editors choose among them by considering several principles: the ideal article title resembles titles for similar articles, precisely identifies the subject, and is short, natural, and recognizable.
 * Article titles are based on what reliable English-language sources refer to the article's subject by
 * Recognizability – Titles are names or descriptions of the topic that are recognizable to someone familiar with (though not necessarily expert in) the topic
 * Naturalness – Titles are those that readers are likely to look for or search with as well as those that editors naturally use to link from other articles. Such titles usually convey what the subject is actually called in English.
 * Precision – Titles usually use names and terms that are precise enough to unambiguously identify the topical scope of the article, but not overly precise
 * Conciseness – Titles are concise, and not overly long
 * The choice of article titles should put the interests of readers before those of editors, and those of a general audience before those of specialists
 * The most common name for a subject, as determined by its prevalence in reliable English-language sources, is often used as a title because it is recognizable and natural.
 * Article titles should be neither vulgar nor pedantic. The term most typically used in reliable sources is preferred to technically correct but rarer forms
 * Other encyclopedias may be helpful in deciding what titles are in an encyclopedic register as well as what name is most frequently used [...] A search engine may help to collect this data
 * When this title is a name, significant alternative names for the topic should be mentioned in the article, usually in the first sentence or paragraph

In addition, some comments about these pages in particular:

 * If you take the view that "List of acronyms" would be inaccurate, then arguably so is "List of acronyms and initialisms", because these pages also list pseudo-blends and symbols. Yet I don't think anyone would agree to moving to "List of acronyms, initialisms, pseudo-blends and symbols"
 * It is always a shame to undo work that other people have passionately spent time on. However, the classification here is pretty arbitrary, ambiguous (per above), not easily processed/queried, novel ("pseudo-blend"?) and most importantly not supported by reliable sources.
 * Before anyone raises the (fairly irrelevant) point of who is going to execute all that moving work for all these pages, I hereby volunteer to do that, with the caveat that if nobody helps me, the effort may not be atomic, but span a few hours/days.

Thanks for your consideration and comments. 219.79.90.218 (talk) 02:08, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

 * Oppose. Initialism may not be in my 1964 Concise Oxford Dictionary but it's in the New Oxford American Dictionary on my relatively new computer. I'm perfectly happy with defining ECRM as an initialism for an "electronic character recognition machine" and the name of a company that manufactured them. You may consider it unnecessary jargon but I think it's a useful term and it's unfortunate that we don't have something similar for such bastard constructions as "BMO". My feeling is that this expunging of initialism has somehow slipped beneath the radar, particularly with its undiscussed disappearance from Wikipedia's Manual of Style and its subpages here and here. I don't believe that the Manual of Style should be based on the content of Wikipedia articles which are of uncertain reliability. I note also that the expunging of initialism  from the title of the relevant Wikipedia article page was carried out without much discussion here. Modal Jig (talk) 19:33, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Removal of the term from Acronym has indeed been discussed and it was decided to keep its definition and historical notes. Feel free to reopen the discussion if you seek to reintroduce it.
 * So far as I can see, Wikipedia is the only place where this term is used so frequently. Given what dictionaries say, it is perfectly correct to refer to what you call "initialisms" (and other forms that are not covered by "initialism") as "acronym", and indeed that's what the vast majority of people (and most importantly, reliable sources) do. You may find the term useful, but that does not change the fact that it is indeed WP:JARGON, and it is receiving WP:UNDUE weight on our site, thus making articles less accessible to most.
 * I don't think the fact that you are in possession of one of the dictionaries known to include the term is affecting my arguments above, which are based of our WP:TITLE policy. 219.79.91.244 (talk) 23:31, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

 * Support. "Initialism" is jargon widely used only on Wikipedia. Nohat (talk) 19:44, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support per WP:CRITERIA. Besides being linguistic jargon, "initialism" is being deprecated within Wikipedia per consensus, as the nominator has indicated. --BDD (talk) 00:03, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support - no need to split hairs. Staszek Lem (talk) 01:17, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Thanks. FYI, I have taken the liberty to also move all the other related pages (List of acronyms: A-Z, and the navbox template). 219.79.75.49 (talk) 05:17, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Geek acronyms
There are some acronyms like TRWTF used by computer geeks that isn't listed here. They need to be added. Or perhaps a List of Geek Acronyms created. --117.201.33.226 (talk) 10:54, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:List of acronyms: 0–9


text:
Baron Keyes

Baron Keyes, of Zeebrugge, and Dover in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1943 for the prominent naval commander Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes, 1st Baronet. He is chiefly remembered for his role in the Zeebrugge Raid in 1918, an attempt by the Royal Navy to neutralize the Belgian port of Zeebrugge which was used as a base for German submarine attacks on Allied shipping. Keyes had already been created a Baronet, of Zeebrugge, and of Dover in the County of Kent, in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom in 1919. the titles are held by his grandson, the third Baron, who succeeded his father in 2005. He does not use his title.

Geoffrey Charles Tasker Keyes, eldest son of the first Baron, was killed in 1941 during an attempt to capture General Erwin Rommel in Libya. For his actions, Keyes was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

Barons Keyes (1943)

 * Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes (1872–1945)
 * Roger George Bowlby Keyes, 2nd Baron Keyes (1919–2005)
 * Charles William Packe Keyes, 3rd Baron Keyes (b. 1951).

The heir presumptive is the present holder's brother the Hon. Leopold Roger John Keyes (b. 1956)

title: Baron Keyes