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Grand River (Ontario)

The Grand River, formerly known as the River Ouse, is a large river in Ontario, Canada. It lies along the western fringe of the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario which overlaps the eastern portion of southwestern Ontario, sometimes referred to as Midwestern Ontario, along the length of this river. From its source near Wareham, Ontario, it flows south through Grand Valley, Fergus, Elora, Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Paris, Brantford, Ohsweken, Six Nations of the Grand River, Caledonia, and Cayuga before emptying into the north shore of Lake Erie south of Dunnville at Port Maitland. One of the scenic and spectacular features of the river is the falls and Gorge at Elora.

The Grand River is the largest river that is entirely within southern Ontario's boundaries. The river owes its size to the unusual fact that its source is relatively close to the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, yet it flows southwards to Lake Erie, rather than westward to the closer Lake Huron or northward to Georgian Bay (most southern Ontario rivers flow into the nearest Great Lake, which is why most of them are small), thus giving it more distance to take in more water from tributaries.

The river's mostly rural character (even when flowing through the edges of Waterloo and Kitchener), ease of access and lack of portages make it a desirable canoeing location, especially the stretch between West Montrose and Paris. A number of conservation areas have been established along the river, and are managed by the Grand River Conservation Authority.

The Grand Valley Trail stretches 275 km along the river's valley between the town of Dundalk and Lake Erie.

The Mohawk name for the Grand River, O:se Kenhionhata:tie means "Willow River," for the many willows in the watershed. During the 18th century, the French colonists named it Grande-Rivière. It was later renamed as Ouse River by John Graves Simcoe for the River Great Ouse near his childhood home in Lincolnshire on the east coast of England. The anglicized form of the French name has remained in common use.

The Ojibwe name for Grand River is Owaashtanong-ziibi. A. Jones, the General Surveyor of Upper Canada reported the name of the river among the Mississaugas to be O-es-shin-ne-gun-ing, and he wrote "the one that washes the timber down and carries away the grass and the weeds" as the meaning of the name.

Watershed

The Grand River watershed consists of all the land that drains into the Grand River through tributary creeks and rivers such as the Conestogo, Speed, Eramosa, Irvine and Nith rivers. The Grand River has Southern Ontario's largest watershed.

Because the watershed is an ecosystem with natural borders, it includes and crosses many municipal boundaries and can be considered a transitional area between Southwestern Ontario and the Golden Horseshoe region that surrounds the west end of Lake Ontario. Its headwaters are near Dundalk in the north. The Grand River flows south-south-east.

Luther Marsh, a 52-square-kilometre wetland on the upper Grand, is one of the largest inland wetlands in southern Ontario and provides habitat for waterfowl, including least bittern and black tern, and amphibians. It is also an important staging area during bird migrations. The importance of the watershed (7000 square kilometers or 2600 square miles) has been recognized by the designation of the Grand as a Canadian Heritage River.

The Grand Valley Dam, located near the village of Belwood, helps to control the flow of water, especially during periods of spring flooding. The dam, completed in 1942, is commonly referred to as Shand Dam, named for a local family who were displaced by filling of the dam's reservoir, Lake Belwood.

Lakes, creeks and rivers
With a watershed area of 7000 km2, the Grand River flows from Dundalk to Lake Erie with numerous tributaries flowing into it:

 * Canagagigue Creek
 * Chilligo Creek
 * Conestogo River
 * Eramosa River
 * Fairchild Creek
 * Idlewood Creek
 * Irvine Creek
 * Knob Creek
 * Laurel Creek
 * McKenzie Creek
 * Mill Creek
 * Nith River
 * Schneider Creek
 * Speed River
 * Spencer Creek
 * Whitemans Creek

The Conestogo River joins the Grand at the village of Conestogo just north of Waterloo. The Eramosa River joins the Speed River in Guelph. The Speed River joins the Grand in Cambridge. The Nith River joins the Grand in Paris.

Pre-Laurentide hydrology

Prior to the most recent glaciation—the Laurentide—an earlier river flowed through a gorge roughly parallel to the current Grand River. Evidence of the "buried gorge" of the previous river has been found when wells have been drilled. Rather than finding water-bearing bedrock at a depth of a dozen metres or less, the path of the buried gorge can be found with overburden of dozens of metres.

Archaic period
The Laphroaig site (AgHa-54) on the lower Grand River shows evidence of occupation in the latter part of the Early Archaic period.

During the Late Archaic period (c. 4500 RCYBP to c. 2800 RCYBP), water levels in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario were higher due to drainage reasons as the land continued to deglaciate. The people of the Late Archaic were mobile hunter-gatherers who had not yet developed ceramics. While Late Archaic people in what is now southern Ontario used a variety of projectile point types, one distinct type, the Innes point, was associated with the Grand River drainage basin and took its name from a type site a few kilometres west of Brantford, which sits on the lower Grand River. Due to high water levels at the start of the Late Archaic, sites which are today located inland up the river may once have been true shoreline sites, similarly to the phenomenon of site stratification observed on Lake Huron. This phenomenon is also observable in reference to Lake Erie. For example, the Canada Century site (located on the Welland River) lies 17 km north of the Lake Erie shore, but may once have been significantly closer.

Due to the absence of ceramics, it is difficult to date Archaic sites. It is generally believed that sites were occupied seasonally, though there are notable exceptions to this. The archaeologist Chris Ellis argues that in the 1950s and 1960s, there was a tendency for archaeologists in eastern North America to identify sedentarization with progress on a conceptual level. Some sites may have had a number of distinct occupations, occurring in different seasons and for different purposes. Nevertheless, there is a broad grouping of sites into warm-weather, lowland sites characterized by ground stone tools and fishing equipment, or cold-weather, upland sites with abundant scrapers and projectile points, possibly indicating fall and winter deer hunting activities. Evidence of Late Archaic fishing activities in Ontario is concentrated at lakeshore sites located at river mouths; no known site of this type, however, has been located on the Grand River. No evidence of fish at upland sites has been found, suggesting a pattern of seasonal upland hunting and lowland fishing. Tincombe points out, however, that fishing may still have occurred on the upper Grand River, notwithstanding a lack of surviving remains at sites. He further proposes areas around Caledonia and Brantford as persistent places of occupation in the Late Archaic, due to a high concentration of consecutively dated sites from that period. One especially significant site, the Johnson Flats site (Borden AgGx-214), is located on a former bar in the Grand River near Caledonia. Discovered in 1994, the site contains materials dating to the Early, Middle, and Late Archaic periods, as well as the later Princess Point complex.

Woodland period
The people of the Princess Point complex (c. 500 CE – 1000 CE) are strongly associated with the Grand River by archaeologists. Princess Point sites cluster heavily along the river's length, where the focus and concentration of Princess Point people shifted from their earlier territory around Princess Point near Hamilton. Princess Point people were attracted to the fertile Grand River floodplains, in common with other peoples engaging in maize horticulture around the same time. Floodplains provided rich soils for cultivation, as well as easy access to riverine resources. Indeed, early evidence of lake sturgeon fishing on the Grand River has been discovered at the Cayuga Bridge site, which is also associated with the Princess Point complex and dated to AD 700–900. Thousands of fish remains were also unearthed at the Porteous and Holmedale sites near Brantford, which date to around AD 1000.

Protohistoric period
By the 16th and 17th centuries, the Grand River valley was inhabited by the Neutral people. This was a name given to them by European settlers, as they refused to side with either the Iroquois or the Petun tribes during their conflicts in the area. An Iroquoian people, they had close trade and cultural relations with other Ontario Iroquoian societies such as the Huron and Petun.

The Wyandot, another distinct Iroquoian-speaking nation, who resided northeast of the Grand River valley, had long competed to remain independent of their enemy the Iroquois Confederacy, a powerful alliance of five nations based around the Great Lakes in the present central and western New York state area. Caught in between, the Neutrals paid dearly for their refusal to ally. Historical accounts differ on exactly how the Neutral tribe was wiped out. The consensus is that the Seneca and the Mohawk nations of the Iroquois destroyed the smaller Neutral tribe in the 17th century, in the course of attacking and severely crippling the Huron/Wyandot. The Iroquois were seeking to dominate the lucrative fur trade with the Europeans. It was during this warfare that the Iroquois attacked the Jesuit outpost of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. The Jesuits abandoned the mission after many Wyandot and numerous priests were killed here.

To survive, remnants of The Neutral tribe migrated in 1667 to La Prairie (Caughnawaga or Kahnawake), a Catholic mission settlement just south of Montreal that was occupied primarily by converted Mohawk who had migrated north from New York. In 1674 identifiable groups of Neutrals were recorded among its population. It can be presumed that many of their descendants are still living there today. In later wars between Britain and France, the Caughnawaga people, many of whom had converted to Catholicism, were allies of the French. The Iroquois League in New York then was neutral or sided with the British. Because different nations were on different sides in this war, it was difficult for the Iroquois nations to adhere to the Great Law of Peace and avoid killing each other. They managed to avoid such bloodshed until the American Revolution (1775–83).

Other descendants of the Neutrals may have joined the Mingo, a loose confederacy of peoples who moved west in the 1720s, fleeing lands invaded by Iroquois, and settled in present-day Ohio. The Mingo were among tribes who later fought the Americans in the Northwest Indian Wars for the Ohio Valley (1774–95). During the 1840s, they were among the tribes removed to Oklahoma and Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Neutral descendants are among the people now known as the Seneca in Oklahoma.

After the desolation of the Neutral tribe, the Iroquois Confederacy used the Grand River Valley as a hunting ground and trapping territory. Though the Six Nations (by then including the Tuscarora) held the territory by right of conquest, they did not settle it, apart from a limited presence on the northern and western shores of Lake Ontario.

When the French explorers and Coureurs de bois came to the region in search of fur and other items of value to Europeans, the Grand River Valley was among the last areas of southern Ontario to be explored. Since the French worked closely with their Native allies in the acquisition of fur and trading of European goods for it, they went only where the natives resided. Even after the English conquered New France in 1760 during the Seven Years' War, the Grand River Valley remained largely unoccupied and largely uncharted.

An explorers' map in 1669 showed the River as being called the Tinaatuoa or Riviere Rapide. A 1775 map shows it as Urse, a name which also appeared on a 1708 map and on Bellin’s Carte des Lacs of 1744. The d’Anville map of 1755 shows the river Tinaatuoa but adds the words Grande River at its mouth. Other 18th Century names were Oswego and Swaogeh. In 1792, Simcoe tried to change the name of Grande Riviere to Ouse, after a river in England and the Thomas Ridout map of 1821 shows "Grand R or Ouse". Simcoe failed because the name Grand River had been in common usage for some time by then.

Six Nations of the Grand River

Apart from large numbers of Tuscarora and Oneida, who mainly allied with the American colonists, the other four nations of the Iroquois Confederacy sided with the British during the American War of Independence. Warfare throughout the frontier of the Mohawk Valley had resulted in massacres and atrocities on both sides, aggravating anti-Iroquois feelings among the colonists. Without consultation or giving the Iroquois a place in negotiations, the British ceded their land in New York to the new United States.

The Iroquois were unwelcome in the newly created nation. After the war, Six Nations leader Joseph Brant appealed to the British Crown for help, as they had promised aid for allies. In gratitude for their assistance during the war, the Crown awarded the Iroquois land in Upper Canada. Brant led Mohawk from the Upper Castle and families of the other Six Nations to Upper Canada. They first settled at what is present-day Brantford, where Brant crossed, or ‘forded’ the Grand River. It was also called Brant's Town. Not all members of the Six Nations moved north. Remnants of the past confederacy live today throughout New York state, some on federally recognized reservations. In 1784 the British Crown awarded to the Six Nations the "Haldimand Tract", a tract of land "six miles deep from each side of the river beginning at Lake Erie and extending in that proportion to the [source] of the said river." Much of this land was later sold or otherwise lost to the Six Nations.

A portion of this tract near Caledonia, Ontario, is the basis for the 2006 Caledonia land dispute, in which the Six Nations filed a land claim with the government. The Six Nations reserve south of Brantford, Ontario, is what remains of the Haldimand Tract. Throughout the 19th century, many Anglo-Canadian settlements developed along the Grand within former Six Nations territory, including Waterloo, Berlin (now Kitchener), Cambridge, Paris, Brantford, Caledonia, Dunnville and Port Maitland.

After the American War of Independence, the Crown purchased land from the Mississaugas in Upper Canada to award as grants to Loyalist refugees as compensation for their property losses in the colonies. Loyalists from New York, New England and the South were settled in this area, as the Crown hoped they would create new towns and farms on the frontier. In the 19th century, many new immigrants came to Upper Canada from England, Scotland, Ireland and Germany seeking opportunity. Settlements were popping up all over Southern Ontario, and many colonists coveted the prize Grand River Valley.

The 1846 Gazetteer relates the history of the First Nations of the area as follows: "'In 1784, Sir F. Haldimand ... granted to the Six Nations and their heirs for ever, a tract of land on the Ouse, or Grand River, six miles in depth on each side of the river, beginning at Lake Erie, and extending to the head of the river. This grant was confirmed, and its conditions defined, by a patent under the Great Seal, issued by Lieutenant Governor Simcoe, and bearing date January 14, 1793 ... The original extent of the tract was 694,910 acres, but the greater part of this has been since surrendered to the Crown, in trust, to be sold for the benefit of these tribes. And some smaller portions have been either granted in fee simple to purchasers with the assent of the Indians, or have been alienated by the chiefs upon leases; which, although legally invalid, the government did not at the time consider it equitable or expedient to cancel.'"

title: Grand River (Ontario)


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User talk:Jost ammon

Welcome to Wikipedia
Hello Jost ammon, welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Drop us a note at the new user log so that we can meet you and help you get started. If you need editing help, visit How does one edit a page. For format questions, visit our manual of style. If you have any other questions about the project then check out Help or add a question to the village pump.

Again, welcome! ugen64 22:15, Mar 13, 2004 (UTC)

 * Thank you for listing the "open points". I will see for car manufacturers, Leasing and related terms and some other suggestions like those below.

Welcome, Jost ammon! The English version of Pforzheim needs more attention, and you must be about the best person in the world to attend to it! :Robin Patterson 22:51, 28 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply on my talk page. Those other city pages you mentioned all have many paragraphs. I've added another paragraph to the Pforzheim stub; you could add one about the place you work in; then you could translate some of the city's homepage or the German Wikipedia page! http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pforzheim Kind regards, anyway - :Robin Patterson 22:44, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Pat Metheny Group
Welcome to Wikipedia. I am afraid you must have felt less than welcome when an article that you had edited a lot was essentially wiped out with little explanation and no attempt to improve it. That is not the message that Wikipedia wants to convey to new users, and I would like to apologize on behalf of the community. (Not that I have any special authority, I am a sysop but that position carries only technical responsibilities). You have unknowingly stumbled into a rather special situation, and I would just like to say that this is not how WIkipedia normally works or should work. Your contributions in the spirit of NPOV are most welcome, and I hope you will stay with us. Kosebamse 05:58, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Thank you for your very kind and encouraging words. I have in fact been disturbed though I theoretically subscribe to the very idea of wikipedia, about which I wrote in my weblog Giosetti writes in an entry of 09 Apr 2004|11:38pm.
 * I have poked around in your talk sites and understand your above comment now. I admire you for dealing with the usual "net trolls" - I would certainly have neither the patience nor the time to do so.Jost ammon 08:28, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Renault
It seems that your message on the Renault talk page did not pass... David.Monniaux 08:40, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * How is that? I can read it on the Renault|Talk:

 * Doing a ranking here (France's number one or number two car manufacturer) is pointless because the ranking differs with the criteria of which are abundantly many: do you count passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCV) seperately or do you count them together? Do you count the brands (PSA includes the two brands Peugeot and Citroen) separately or added? What about European/worldwide numbers? Currently the situation including passenger cars and LCV in Western Europe counted in terms of brands (a lot of paradigms, right?) is per April 22nd according to Finacial Times Germany, printed edition, page 12:
 * Renault 10,0% VW 9,3% Ford 9,2% Opel 8,9%
 * And then are those numbers rapidly changing - so I propose to leave it at "traditional manufacturer". Jost ammon 08:42, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Please retry cheking the Renault Talk, David - the note must be there. Jost ammon 08:53, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Thanks! =) 203.109.144.38 01:02, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Unreferenced BLPs
Hello Jost ammon! Thank you for your contributions. I am a bot alerting you that 1 of the articles that you created  is an  Unreferenced Biography of a Living Person. Please note that all biographies of living persons must be sourced. If you were to add reliable, secondary sources to this article, it would greatly help us with the current Category:All_unreferenced_BLPs article backlog. Once the article is adequately referenced, please remove the unreferencedBLP tag. Here is the article:

Thanks!--DASHBot (talk) 19:59, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) Steve Rodby -

ArbCom elections are now open!
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license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:Jost ammon


text: User talk:82.39.107.150

title: User talk:82.39.107.150


text:
Jón Thoroddsen

Jón Thoroddsen may refer to:

 * Jón Thoroddsen elder (c. 1818–1868)
 * Jón Thoroddsen junior (1898–1924)

title: Jón Thoroddsen


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Gold Box

Gold Box is a series of role-playing video games produced by SSI from 1988 to 1992. The company acquired a license to produce games based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game from TSR, Inc. These games shared a common game engine that came to be known as the "Gold Box Engine" after the gold-colored boxes in which most games of the series were sold.

Licensing and development
In the mid-1980s TSR, after seeing the success of the Ultima series and other computer role-playing games (CRPGs), offered its popular Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) property to video game companies. Ten companies, including Electronic Arts, Ultima creator Origin Systems, and Sierra Entertainment applied for the license. Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) president Joel Billings had, along with many other companies, earlier contacted TSR about licensing AD&D, but TSR was not interested at that time. Although smaller and less technically advanced than other bidders, SSI unexpectedly won the license in 1987 because of its computerized wargaming experience, and instead of releasing a single AD&D game as soon as possible, the company proposed a broad vision of multiple series of games and spinoffs that might become as sophisticated as TSR's tabletop original.

After winning the AD&D license, the number of SSI's in-house developers increased from seven to 25, including the company's first full-time computer-graphic artists. TSR significantly participated in the games' development, including designing a tabletop module that the first SSI game would be based on. Using Wizard's Crown's detailed combat system as a base for their work, the development of the Gold Box engine and the original games was managed by SSI's Chuck Kroegel and George MacDonald. Later versions were led by Victor Penman and Ken Humphries.

The series
The first game produced in the series was Pool of Radiance, released in 1988. This was followed by Curse of the Azure Bonds (1989), Secret of the Silver Blades (1990), and Pools of Darkness (1991), the games forming one continuous story rooted in the once-glorious city of Phlan, later encompassing the entire Moonsea Reaches and four outer planes: Dalelands, Cormyr, Cormanthyr (where Myth Drannor is located), and Thar. The original four titles were developed in-house at SSI, and the first three titles were the best selling Gold Box games. A series of TSR novels paralleled the stories in the games.

Released in 1990, Champions of Krynn was the first of SSI's Gold Box spin-offs based on TSR's very popular Dragonlance universe, and roughly in the novels by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Chronologically, it was the third Gold Box game and employed some innovations that showed up in later games, like the moon phases for mages, the choice of deities for clerics, and the level difficulty selector. The following titles were Death Knights of Krynn (1991) and The Dark Queen of Krynn (1992). While the games give players a chance to meet Dragonlance characters like Tanis Half-Elven and Raistlin Majere, the gameplay is far more linear.

When SSI began working on the Dark Sun game in 1989, all the programmers in-house had to stop the development of Gold Box games and start working on the Dark Sun engine. After Secret of the Silver Blades came out, Chuck Kroegel passed the Gold Box engine and the Forgotten Realms location to Beyond Software (later Stormfront Studios). They set their first Forgotten Realms Gold Box title, Gateway to the Savage Frontier (1991), in the Savage Frontier, an area to the extreme west of the previous games location. Following the events of the first game, Treasures of the Savage Frontier (1992) added a weather system and an innovative romance system between party members and NPCs.

SSI also adapted the Gold Box engine from fantasy to science fiction for a pair of Buck Rogers games: Countdown to Doomsday (1990) and Matrix Cubed (1992). They were based on the Buck Rogers XXVc tabletop RPG by TSR, with rules heavily based on those of the company's flagship game. According to Keith Brors (former technical director of SSI), the company was pressured by TSR into developing their Buck Rogers computer game against their better judgment, due to TSR president Lorraine Williams personally owning the Buck Rogers IP. The games did not perform as well as the fantasy settings, but they do represent some enhancements to the Gold Box engine.

Apart from the main games, Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace was launched in 1992. Based on the 2nd edition's Spelljammer rule set, it combined real-time ship combat, turn-based melee battles, and interplanetary trade. Besides the innovations, many gamers and critics took issue with its occasional bugs and lengthy load times.

Sales declined over time, as the engine—originally designed for the Commodore 64—aged, and SSI released too many games (11 Gold Box games over four years). When SSI and TSR extended the original contract expiring in January 1993 for 18 months, SSI was required to discontinue the engine, moving to new developing technologies. In March of the same year, SSI's last release was Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures, an editor that allows players to create their own games using the Gold Box engine. Game developers had access to 127 different monsters, 100 different event triggers, and a framework that could hold an adventure consisting of four different wilderness areas or 36 dungeon levels. It also included a mini-adventure called The Heirs to Skull Crag. An active community grew up around this game, including hacks that expanded its powers and its graphical capabilities.

Spin-off to MMO
All of the online RPGs of the 1980s were text-based MUDs, describing the action in the style of Rogue or Will Crowther's original Adventure game. Stormfront's Don Daglow had been designing games for AOL for several years, and the new alliance of SSI, TSR, America On-Line, and Stormfront led to the development of Neverwinter Nights, the first graphical MMORPG, which ran on AOL from 1991 to 1997. NWN was a multi-player implementation of the Gold Box engine, and was the most popular features on AOL's service, raising between US$5 million and US$7 million annually to the company from 1992 to 1997. It paved the way for later hits such as Ultima Online (1997) and EverQuest (1999).

Closure and legacy
When SSI and TSR announced in 1994 that the latter would not renew the former's AD&D license, the two companies described the end of the relationship as amicable. A SSI spokesperson said that the company disliked the license's restrictions. With the Gold Box engine's sales finally fading after a six-year run, the losses SSI absorbed during those two years of delays played a critical role in the sale of SSI to Mindscape in 1994.

Although the interest in the series eventually waned, the mantle of this genre was later assumed by more recent role-playing games such as Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment and Neverwinter Nights.

Interface
The "Gold Box Engine" had two main game play modes. Outside of character creation, game play took place in a screen that displayed text interactions, the names and current status of your party of characters, and a window which displayed images of geography, pictures of characters or events. When combat occurred, the screen would change to a top-down mode resembling the one found in Wizard's Crown, in which player character icons could move about to cast spells or attack icons representing the enemies. All the games typically involved long dungeon crawls, and were heavier on combat than on role-playing.

The Gold Box games formed a number of series in which you could move characters who had finished one game to the next one in the series. In addition, characters from Pool of Radiance could be imported into Hillsfar, a game based on an entirely different engine, and then exported into Curse of the Azure Bonds. The system was improved over time, adding better colors, graphics, more player-class levels, new story lines, and real-time multiplayer gameplay.

Platforms
The series went through the platforms Amiga, Apple II, Macintosh, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, NEC PC-9800, NES and Sega Genesis.

Languages
The C64 and Apple II versions were written completely in 6502 assembly, and were extremely advanced for the time, since those computers had around 64 KB of RAM. Most of the later ports and releases were written in Pascal. The latest official releases, Pirates of Realmspace and Unlimited Adventures were C/C++ based.

Developers and ports
Although the engine creation and most of the games were initially developed by SSI, there were many official ports and titles from other companies. Westwood Associates was in charge of some ports for the Amiga, which added mouse support and improved the graphics well before SSI's own MS-DOS versions going to VGA display mode. MicroMagic made the only port of the series for the Atari ST home computer, Curse of the Azure Bonds; following this, they developed The Dark Queen of Krynn and the Unlimited Adventures for SSI. Stormfront Studios did all the development for the Savage Frontier series and also the remarkable Neverwinter Nights. Also mentionable, Cybertech was responsible for the development of Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace. For video game consoles, there were only two ports: Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday for the Sega Genesis and Pool of Radiance for the Famicom/NES (from the Japanese company Marionette).

Original

 * The Pool of Radiance Forgotten Realms series (developed internally at SSI):
 * Pool of Radiance (1988)
 * Curse of the Azure Bonds (1989)
 * Secret of the Silver Blades (1990)
 * Pools of Darkness (1991)
 * The Savage Frontier Forgotten Realms series (developed by Stormfront Studios):
 * Gateway to the Savage Frontier (1991)
 * Treasures of the Savage Frontier (1992)
 * The Dragonlance series (the first two developed by SSI, the last by MicroMagic, Inc.):
 * Champions of Krynn (1990)
 * Death Knights of Krynn (1991)
 * The Dark Queen of Krynn (1992)
 * The Buck Rogers games (developed by SSI):
 * Countdown to Doomsday (1990)
 * Matrix Cubed (1992)
 * Neverwinter Nights (1991)
 * Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace (1992)
 * Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures (1993)

Collections

 * Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Limited Edition Collector's Set (1990, DOS, C64, Amiga, SSI) - a compilation of many early AD&D titles, including several Gold Box games.
 * Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Starter Kit (1992, DOS, SSI) - a compilation of the first games from the three Gold Box main series: Pool of Radiance, Gateway to the Savage Frontier and Champions of Krynn.
 * Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonlance Limited Collector's Edition (1992, DOS, SSI) - a compilation of all of the Dragonlance Gold Box titles.
 * Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Collector's Edition (1994, Macintosh, MacSoft) - a compilation of Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness, and The Dark Queen of Krynn.
 * Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Collectors Edition Vol. 1 (1994, DOS, WizardWorks) - a compilation of Curse of the Azure Bonds, Pool of Radiance, and Secret of the Silver Blades.
 * Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Collectors Edition Vol. 2 (1994, DOS, WizardWorks) - a compilation of Champions of Krynn, Death Knights of Krynn, and The Dark Queen of Krynn.
 * Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Collectors Edition Vol. 3 (1994, DOS, WizardWorks) - a compilation of Gateway to the Savage Frontier, Pools of Darkness, and Treasures of the Savage Frontier.
 * Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Collectors Edition (1994, DOS, WizardWorks) - a compilation of all nine Gold Box games above in the individual volumes, on a CD ROM.
 * Fantasy Fest! (1994, DOS, SSI) - a compilation of several AD&D games, including Unlimited Adventures.
 * Dungeons & Dragons Ultimate Fantasy (1995, DOS, Slash Corporation) - a compilation of several AD&D games, including Unlimited Adventures.
 * The Forgotten Realms Archives (1997, DOS/WIN, Interplay) - a compilation of SSI's Forgotten Realms video games, including the Gold Box series'.
 * Gamefest: Forgotten Realms Classics (2001, DOS/WIN, Interplay) - a compilation of SSI's Forgotten Realms video games, including the Gold Box series'.

Related games

 * Hillsfar (1989), player can import characters from Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds.
 * Order of the Griffon (1992), uses a turn-based combat engine similar to that of the Gold Box games.
 * Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (2001), a sequel to Pool of Radiance series in name and location only.

Reception
With 264,536 copies sold for computers in North America, Pool of Radiance became by far the most-successful game in SSI's history, outselling Ultima V and Bard's Tale III. It was given a score of 90% by Commodore User. The reviewer Tony Dillon was impressed with the features.

The next game in the series, Curse of the Azure Bonds, was also well received. It was given a score of 90% by magazine The Games Machine, and 89% on CU Amiga-64. Dave Arneson, one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons, expressed his disappointment that the Gold Box games did not innovate enough from previous CRPGs, comparing them to "a cross ... between Questron and Wizard's Crown presented in a new setting".

The final Gold Box game, The Dark Queen of Krynn (1992), sold 40,640 copies. SSI had sold over 1.5 million AD&D products by 1992, and more than two million AD&D-licensed games when it announced the end of the TSR license in 1994.

On modern systems
The games run well in DOSBox on modern operating systems. Also the Gold Box Companion has been developed to smooth out some of the rough edges in the programming of some of the games. Some of the early games, for instance, do not allow turning off Quick Fight, which sets characters to automatic in combat. The Gold Box Companion was included in the 2022 Steam release of the Gold Box games.

GOG.com released the Pool of Radiance and Savage Frontier Gold Box series digitally on August 20, 2015, as a part of "Forgotten Realms: The Archives - Collection Two". Later on October 27, they released the Dragonlance series as part of "Dungeons & Dragons: Krynn Series".

SNEG released the Gold Box Classics digitally through Steam on March 9, 2022.

title: Gold Box


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Tony Sirico

Genaro Anthony Sirico Jr. (July 29, 1942 – July 8, 2022) was an American actor known for his portrayal of Paulie Gualtieri in The Sopranos.

Born in Brooklyn to an Italian-American family, Sirico had a tumultuous early life marked by multiple arrests and periods of imprisonment for crimes including robbery, assault, and extortion. His interest in acting was sparked during a prison sentence, following a visit by an acting troupe of ex-convicts. Sirico's acting career began with minor roles in films such as Crazy Joe and eventually led to significant roles in movies including Goodfellas and Mighty Aphrodite, as well as appearances in 6 other Woody Allen films.

Aside from his film career, Sirico made notable contributions to television and animation, voicing characters in The Fairly OddParents and Family Guy. His role in The Sopranos earned him acclaim. Sirico's life off-screen was marked by his service in the United States Army, and his philanthropic efforts, including USO visits to Southwest Asia. He died in 2022, aged 79.

Early life
Sirico was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on July 29, 1942, to a family of Italian descent. He grew up in the East Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods of Brooklyn, and attended Midwood High School, but did not graduate. Sirico's brother, Robert Sirico, is a Catholic priest and co-founder of the free-market Acton Institute. As a teenager, Sirico was shot in a dispute over a girl. He subsequently served in the United States Army.

Sirico was convicted of several crimes and was arrested 28 times, including for disorderly conduct, assault, and robbery, before taking up acting. In 1967, he served time in prison for the first time as an adult. On February 27, 1970, he was arrested at a restaurant, and found with a .32 caliber revolver on his person. In 1971, he was indicted for extortion, coercion, and felony weapons possession, convicted, and sentenced to four years in prison, of which he served 20 months at Sing Sing.

According to a court transcript at the time of his sentencing, Sirico also had pending charges for criminal possession of a dangerous drug. Sirico stated that his prison was visited by an acting troupe composed of ex-convicts, which inspired him to give acting a try. He appeared in the 1989 documentary The Big Bang by James Toback, in which he discussed his earlier life.

Career
Sirico's first confirmed role in film was as an extra in the 1974 film Crazy Joe, securing the role with the help of Richard Castellano. Michael Gazzo was Sirico's first acting coach. Sirico played gangsters in a number of films, and made-for-TV films, including Goodfellas, Mob Queen, Mighty Aphrodite, Love and Money, Fingers, The One Man Jury, Defiance, The Last Fight, Innocent Blood, Bullets over Broadway, The Pick-up Artist, Gotti, Witness to the Mob, The Search for One-eye Jimmy, Cop Land, Turn of Faith, Hello Again, Mickey Blue Eyes, and Wonder Wheel. He also played policemen in the films Dead Presidents and Deconstructing Harry. Sirico was a close friend of Woody Allen, and appeared in seven of his films.

Sirico's most acclaimed acting job was that of Paulie Gualtieri in David Chase's Emmy award-winning drama The Sopranos. He originally auditioned for the role of Uncle Junior with Frank Vincent, but Dominic Chianese landed the role. David Chase instead offered him the role of Paulie Gualtieri; Sirico agreed under the condition that his character "would not become a rat".

In animation, Sirico provided the voice of "Big Daddy" Fairywinkle in The Fairly OddParents. On Family Guy, he voiced the character of Vinny, who for three episodes in late 2013 was the family's pet dog, replacing Brian Griffin after his death; Brian would later be brought back via time travel. Sirico also made a live-action cameo in the episode "Stewie, Chris, & Brian's Excellent Adventure", where he threatens Stewie, who had insulted Italians, calling them "ridiculous people". Vinny would return in a cameo appearance at the end of the Season 15 premiere, "The Boys in the Band". Sirico would later voice characters on Seth MacFarlane's other animated series American Dad!.

In 2018, he reunited with former Sopranos actors Federico Castelluccio and Vincent Pastore in Sarah Q.

Personal life
Sirico had two children, Joanne and Richard. In 2008, he released a cologne called Paolo Per Uomo.

Sirico died on the afternoon of July 8, 2022, at an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the age of 79. No cause of death was given, but he had been diagnosed with dementia some years before his death. Sirico's funeral mass was held at the Basilica of Regina Pacis, and he was interred at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.

title: Tony Sirico


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User talk:TarverKiley

Hello Tarver, welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Drop us a note at the new user log so that we can meet you and help you get started. If you need editing help, visit How does one edit a page. For format questions, visit our manual of style. If you have any other questions about the project then check out Help or add a question to the village pump.

Again, welcome! ugen64 22:18, Mar 13, 2004 (UTC)

authors: Template namespace initialisation script

title: User talk:TarverKiley


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Crow Creek

Crow Creek may refer to the following in the United States:

Bodies of water

 * Crow Creek (Alaska), a tributary of Turnagain Arm
 * Crow Creek (South Dakota), the site of the Crow Creek massacre
 * Crow Creek (South Platte River tributary), in Wyoming and Colorado
 * Crow Creek (Uwharrie River tributary), a stream in Montgomery and Randolph counties, North Carolina

Other

 * Crow Creek National Forest in Wyoming
 * Crow Creek Indian Reservation in South Dakota

title: Crow Creek


text: User talk:81.6.216.42

title: User talk:81.6.216.42


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Fort William Historical Park

Fort William Historical Park (formerly known as Old Fort William) is a Canadian historical site located in Thunder Bay, Ontario, that contains a reconstruction of the Fort William fur trade post as it existed in 1816. It officially opened on July 3, 1973.

The site is located on the banks of the Kaministiquia River at Point de Meuron. This point is a few kilometres upstream from the original fort's site, Fort Kaministiquia, which has been built over as part of the city of Thunder Bay. Point de Meuron has separate historical significance, as it was the location of an Hudson's Bay Company post of the same name.

History
The North West Company had a major depot at Grand Portage to the west of Fort William. After the American Revolutionary War, Britain finally ceded the area to the United States (US) under the Jay Treaty of 1796, to settle the northern border. British/Canadian fur traders wanted to create a new center of operations to avoid US taxes, and so the trading post was moved north to what became Fort William on the Canadian side of the border.

Fort William Historical Park is known as a living history site. Numerous historic buildings have been reconstructed to show the range of the post, and costumed historical interpreters recreate Fort William of the year 1816. Fort William was then not primarily a settlement, but a central transport depot within the now-defunct North West Company's network of fur trade outposts. Due to its central role, Fort William was much larger, with more facilities than the average fur trade post. Reflecting this, Fort William Historical Park contains 42 reconstructed buildings, a reconstructed Ojibwa village, and a small farm.

Historical interpreters represent the many roles and cultures involved in the fur trade, including Scottish fur traders (people of capital), who often took Native American wives and had their families living with them; French Canadian voyageurs and workers, who also had wives from among the Natives; and native hunters and trappers. The native people in the Fort William area are predominantly Ojibwa and are represented accordingly among the interpreters.

The North West Company's "winter partners", fur traders who lived at the post, in the early years married into the upper classes of the native people, strengthening their alliances. There were thus two tiers of society - the fur traders and chiefs and their daughters, and the workers, who formed liaisons or married native women. The descendants of the latter tended to stay in fur trapping and became the Métis ethnic group. While also of mixed heritage, children of fur traders and chief's daughters tended to receive thorough English educations (as well as learning Native culture from their mothers' families) and often moved within the upper classes of Canadian society, including being selected for government posts.

Fort William Historical Park has a working community of skilled tradesmen, including a blacksmith, tinsmith, carpenter, cooper, and birch bark canoe builder. They all craft products according to traditional early 19th-century methods and tools. Many of their crafts are not widely practised elsewhere. Fort William's canoe builder has built birch bark canoes for other Canadian cultural sites, including the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Each summer Fort William Historical Park hosts the "Great Rendezvous", a recreation of the annual meeting of company fur traders that took place at this central location. Participants from all over Canada and the United States register to camp for the weekend at Fort William Historical Park and take part in this historical reenactment.

Legacy
On 28 June 1985 Canada Post issued 'Fort William, Ont.' one of the 20 stamps in the “Forts Across Canada Series” (1983 & 1985). The stamps are perforated $12 1/2$ x 13 mm and were printed by Ashton-Potter Limited based on the designs by Rolf P. Harder.

Location
The park is located at the south end of King Road, which runs off of Broadway Avenue two kilometres west of Highway 61. Thunder Bay Transit’s route 4 Neebing makes several trips that include Fort William Historical Park throughout the daytime on weekdays.

Amphitheatre
In 2008 the fort built an amphitheatre to host a variety of events. It is one of Canada's largest purpose-built outdoor entertainment venues. The Amphitheatre is designed to host events with audience sizes up to 50,000. It is configured to be capable of hosting multiple independent events at the same time. The Amphitheatre is a year-round venue, capable of featuring six regulation-size hockey ice surfaces in the winter, and a full-service campground during special events and concerts in the summer.

Affiliations
The museum is affiliated with: CMA, CHIN, and Virtual Museum of Canada.

title: Fort William Historical Park


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No Way Out

No Way Out may refer to:

Film and television

 * No Way Out (1950 film), a film starring Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier
 * No Way Out (1973 film), a film starring Alain Delon and Richard Conte
 * No Way Out (1987 film), a film starring Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman
 * No Way Out, a film starring Héctor Echavarría, Estella Warren, and Danny Trejo
 * No Way Out, a film starring Keiran Lee
 * "No Way Out" (Porridge), an episode of Porridge
 * "No Way Out" (The Walking Dead), an episode of The Walking Dead
 * "No Way Out", an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Literature

 * No Way Out (novel), a novel by Nikolai Leskov
 * No Exit or No Way Out, a play by Jean-Paul Sartre
 * No Way Out, a Hardy Boys novel
 * No Way Out, a The Bluford Series book by Peggy Kern

Music

 * My American Heart or No Way Out
 * No Way Out (The Chocolate Watchband album) (1967)
 * No Way Out (Puff Daddy album) (1997)

Songs

 * "No Way Out" (Phil Collins song), a song from the Brother Bear soundtrack
 * "No Way Out" (Bullet for My Valentine song)
 * "No Way Out" (DJ Trevi song)
 * "No Way Out", a song by Annihilator from Feast
 * "No Way Out", a song by the Bloods & Crips from Bangin' on Wax
 * "No Way Out", a song by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony from BTNHResurrection
 * "No Way Out", a song by Dope from American Apathy
 * "No Way Out", a song by Electric Light Orchestra from Afterglow
 * "No Way Out", a song by Jefferson Starship from Nuclear Furniture
 * "No Way Out", a song by Loudness from Thunder in the East
 * "No Way Out", a song by Missing Persons from Spring Session M
 * "No Way Out", a song by Pete Townshend that reworked the Who's "However Much I Booze"
 * "No Way Out", a song by Peter Gabriel from Up
 * "No Way Out", a song by Screaming Jets from Scam
 * "No Way Out", a song by Stone Temple Pilots from No. 4
 * "No Way Out", a song by Theory of a Deadman from Gasoline
 * "No Way Out", a song by The Word Alive from Monomania

Other uses

 * WWE No Way Out, a professional wrestling pay-per-view event series

title: No Way Out


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Independent set (graph theory)

In graph theory, an independent set, stable set, coclique or anticlique is a set of vertices in a graph, no two of which are adjacent. That is, it is a set $$S$$ of vertices such that for every two vertices in $$S$$, there is no edge connecting the two. Equivalently, each edge in the graph has at most one endpoint in $$S$$. A set is independent if and only if it is a clique in the graph's complement. The size of an independent set is the number of vertices it contains. Independent sets have also been called "internally stable sets", of which "stable set" is a shortening.

A maximal independent set is an independent set that is not a proper subset of any other independent set.

A maximum independent set is an independent set of largest possible size for a given graph $$G$$. This size is called the independence number of $$G$$ and is usually denoted by $$\alpha(G)$$. The optimization problem of finding such a set is called the maximum independent set problem. It is a strongly NP-hard problem. As such, it is unlikely that there exists an efficient algorithm for finding a maximum independent set of a graph.

Every maximum independent set also is maximal, but the converse implication does not necessarily hold.

Relationship to other graph parameters
A set is independent if and only if it is a clique in the graph’s complement, so the two concepts are complementary. In fact, sufficiently large graphs with no large cliques have large independent sets, a theme that is explored in Ramsey theory.

A set is independent if and only if its complement is a vertex cover. Therefore, the sum of the size of the largest independent set $$\alpha(G)$$ and the size of a minimum vertex cover $$\beta(G)$$ is equal to the number of vertices in the graph.

A vertex coloring of a graph $$G$$ corresponds to a partition of its vertex set into independent subsets. Hence the minimal number of colors needed in a vertex coloring, the chromatic number $$\chi(G)$$, is at least the quotient of the number of vertices in $$G$$ and the independent number $$\alpha(G)$$.

In a bipartite graph with no isolated vertices, the number of vertices in a maximum independent set equals the number of edges in a minimum edge covering; this is Kőnig's theorem.

Maximal independent set
An independent set that is not a proper subset of another independent set is called maximal. Such sets are dominating sets. Every graph contains at most 3n/3 maximal independent sets, but many graphs have far fewer. The number of maximal independent sets in n-vertex cycle graphs is given by the Perrin numbers, and the number of maximal independent sets in n-vertex path graphs is given by the Padovan sequence. Therefore, both numbers are proportional to powers of 1.324718..., the plastic ratio.

Finding independent sets
In computer science, several computational problems related to independent sets have been studied. The first three of these problems are all important in practical applications; the independent set decision problem is not, but is necessary in order to apply the theory of NP-completeness to problems related to independent sets.
 * In the maximum independent set problem, the input is an undirected graph, and the output is a maximum independent set in the graph. If there are multiple maximum independent sets, only one need be output. This problem is sometimes referred to as "vertex packing".
 * In the maximum-weight independent set problem, the input is an undirected graph with weights on its vertices and the output is an independent set with maximum total weight. The maximum independent set problem is the special case in which all weights are one.
 * In the maximal independent set listing problem, the input is an undirected graph, and the output is a list of all its maximal independent sets. The maximum independent set problem may be solved using as a subroutine an algorithm for the maximal independent set listing problem, because the maximum independent set must be included among all the maximal independent sets.
 * In the independent set decision problem, the input is an undirected graph and a number k, and the output is a Boolean value: true if the graph contains an independent set of size k, and false otherwise.

Maximum independent sets and maximum cliques
The independent set problem and the clique problem are complementary: a clique in G is an independent set in the complement graph of G and vice versa. Therefore, many computational results may be applied equally well to either problem. For example, the results related to the clique problem have the following corollaries:
 * The independent set decision problem is NP-complete, and hence it is not believed that there is an efficient algorithm for solving it.
 * The maximum independent set problem is NP-hard and it is also hard to approximate.

Despite the close relationship between maximum cliques and maximum independent sets in arbitrary graphs, the independent set and clique problems may be very different when restricted to special classes of graphs. For instance, for sparse graphs (graphs in which the number of edges is at most a constant times the number of vertices in any subgraph), the maximum clique has bounded size and may be found exactly in linear time; however, for the same classes of graphs, or even for the more restricted class of bounded degree graphs, finding the maximum independent set is MAXSNP-complete, implying that, for some constant c (depending on the degree) it is NP-hard to find an approximate solution that comes within a factor of c of the optimum.

Exact algorithms
The maximum independent set problem is NP-hard. However, it can be solved more efficiently than the O(n2 2n) time that would be given by a naive brute force algorithm that examines every vertex subset and checks whether it is an independent set.

As of 2017 it can be solved in time O(1.1996n) using polynomial space. When restricted to graphs with maximum degree 3, it can be solved in time O(1.0836n).

For many classes of graphs, a maximum weight independent set may be found in polynomial time. Famous examples are claw-free graphs, P5-free graphs and perfect graphs. For chordal graphs, a maximum weight independent set can be found in linear time.

Modular decomposition is a good tool for solving the maximum weight independent set problem; the linear time algorithm on cographs is the basic example for that. Another important tool are clique separators as described by Tarjan.

Kőnig's theorem implies that in a bipartite graph the maximum independent set can be found in polynomial time using a bipartite matching algorithm.

Approximation algorithms
In general, the maximum independent set problem cannot be approximated to a constant factor in polynomial time (unless P = NP). In fact, Max Independent Set in general is Poly-APX-complete, meaning it is as hard as any problem that can be approximated to a polynomial factor. However, there are efficient approximation algorithms for restricted classes of graphs.

In planar graphs
In planar graphs, the maximum independent set may be approximated to within any approximation ratio c < 1 in polynomial time; similar polynomial-time approximation schemes exist in any family of graphs closed under taking minors.

In bounded degree graphs
In bounded degree graphs, effective approximation algorithms are known with approximation ratios that are constant for a fixed value of the maximum degree; for instance, a greedy algorithm that forms a maximal independent set by, at each step, choosing the minimum degree vertex in the graph and removing its neighbors, achieves an approximation ratio of (Δ+2)/3 on graphs with maximum degree Δ. Approximation hardness bounds for such instances were proven in. Indeed, even Max Independent Set on 3-regular 3-edge-colorable graphs is APX-complete.

In interval intersection graphs
An interval graph is a graph in which the nodes are 1-dimensional intervals (e.g. time intervals) and there is an edge between two intervals if and only if they intersect. An independent set in an interval graph is just a set of non-overlapping intervals. The problem of finding maximum independent sets in interval graphs has been studied, for example, in the context of job scheduling: given a set of jobs that has to be executed on a computer, find a maximum set of jobs that can be executed without interfering with each other. This problem can be solved exactly in polynomial time using earliest deadline first scheduling.

In geometric intersection graphs
A geometric intersection graph is a graph in which the nodes are geometric shapes and there is an edge between two shapes if and only if they intersect. An independent set in a geometric intersection graph is just a set of disjoint (non-overlapping) shapes. The problem of finding maximum independent sets in geometric intersection graphs has been studied, for example, in the context of Automatic label placement: given a set of locations in a map, find a maximum set of disjoint rectangular labels near these locations.

Finding a maximum independent set in intersection graphs is still NP-complete, but it is easier to approximate than the general maximum independent set problem. A recent survey can be found in the introduction of.

In d-claw-free graphs
A d-claw in a graph is a set of d+1 vertices, one of which (the "center") is connected to the other d vertices, but the other d vertices are not connected to each other. A d-claw-free graph is a graph that does not have a d-claw subgraph. Consider the algorithm that starts with an empty set, and incrementally adds an arbitrary vertex to it as long as it is not adjacent to any existing vertex. In d-claw-free graphs, every added vertex invalidates at most d-1 vertices from the maximum independent set; therefore, this trivial algorithm attains a (d-1)-approximation algorithm for the maximum independent set. In fact, it is possible to get much better approximation ratios:

 * Neuwohner presented a polynomial time algorithm that, for any constant ε>0, finds a (d/2-1/63,700,992+ε)-approximation for the maximum weight independent set in a d-claw free graph.
 * Cygan presented a quasi-polynomial time algorithm that, for any ε>0, attains a (d+ε)/3 approximation.

Finding maximal independent sets
The problem of finding a maximal independent set can be solved in polynomial time by a trivial parallel greedy algorithm. All maximal independent sets can be found in time O(3n/3) = O(1.4423n).

Counting independent sets
The counting problem #IS asks, given an undirected graph, how many independent sets it contains. This problem is intractable, namely, it is ♯P-complete, already on graphs with maximal degree three. It is further known that, assuming that NP is different from RP, the problem cannot be tractably approximated in the sense that it does not have a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme with randomization (FPRAS), even on graphs with maximal degree six; however it does have an fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (FPTAS) in the case where the maximal degree is five. The problem #BIS, of counting independent sets on bipartite graphs, is also ♯P-complete, already on graphs with maximal degree three. It is not known whether #BIS admits a FPRAS.

The question of counting maximal independent sets has also been studied.

Applications
The maximum independent set and its complement, the minimum vertex cover problem, is involved in proving the computational complexity of many theoretical problems. They also serve as useful models for real world optimization problems, for example maximum independent set is a useful model for discovering stable genetic components for designing engineered genetic systems.

title: Independent set (graph theory)


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Box-office bomb

A box-office bomb, box-office flop, box-office failure, or box-office disaster is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production budget, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after release has technically "bombed", the term is more frequently used for major studio releases which were highly anticipated, extensively marketed, and expensive to produce, and ultimately failed commercially. Originally a "bomb" had the opposite meaning and referred to a successful film i.e. a bomb "explodes" at the box office and is successful, and continued to be used in that way in the United Kingdom into the 1970s.

Negative word of mouth
With the advent of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter in the 2000s, word of mouth regarding new films is easily spread and has had a marked effect on box office performance. A film's ability or failure to attract positive or negative commentary can strongly impact its performance at the box office, especially on the opening weekend.

External circumstances
Occasionally, films may underperform because of issues largely unrelated to the content of the film, such as the timing of the film's release. This was one of the reasons given for the commercial failure of Intolerance, D. W. Griffith's follow-up to The Birth of a Nation. Owing to production delays, the film was not released until late 1916, when the widespread antiwar sentiment it reflected had started to shift in favor of American entry into World War I. Another example is the 2015 docudrama about FIFA entitled United Passions. A glowing portrayal of FIFA, which had mostly funded the film, United Passions was released in theaters in the United States at the same time FIFA's leaders were under investigation for fraud and corruption. The film grossed only $918 at the US box office in its opening weekend.

Sometimes, a film's performance may be adversely affected by national crisis or a disaster, such as the September 11 attacks in 2001, Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–2021.

High production costs
In evaluating box-office gross numbers, it is important to keep in mind that not all money is returned to the film studio. Some of the gross is kept by the film exhibitors and the film distributor. The scratch formula for making a rough estimate of a studio's portion of the gross is that the studio usually gets half.

A large budget can cause a film to fail financially, even when it performs reasonably well at the box office; 1980's Heaven's Gate, for example, exceeded its planned production schedule by three months, causing its budget to inflate from $12 million to $44 million. The film only earned $3.5 million at the box office.

For the 2005 film Sahara, its budget ballooned to $281.2 million for production, distribution, and other expenses. The film earned $119 million in theaters and $202.9 million overall with television and other subsidies included, resulting in a net loss of $78.3 million. In 2012, Disney reported losses of $200 million on John Carter. The film had made a considerable $234 million worldwide, but this was short of its $250 million budget plus worldwide advertising.

The 2007 film The Golden Compass had a production budget of $200 million. To be able to fund the film, New Line Cinema had to sell all of the film's international distribution rights to various film distributors around the world. The film underperformed domestically, but was an international success; however, New Line did not have a cut of the international box office. These events were major factors in New Line becoming a division of Warner Bros. Pictures.

Recovery
Films initially thought of as "flops" may recover income elsewhere. Several films have underperformed in their countries of origin, but have been sufficiently successful internationally to recoup losses or even become financial successes. Films may also recover money through international distribution, sales to television syndication, distribution outside of cinemas, and releases on home media. The 1995 post-apocalyptic action film Waterworld was the most expensive film ever made at the time after undergoing significant production difficulties. While it performed relatively well in the US box office, it did not initially turn a profit and became known as a box-office flop. However, international box-office takings and video sales led it to turn a profit. In 2023, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which underperformed at the box office, was given a COVID-19 insurance payout, which amounted to £57 million ($71 million).

Other films have succeeded long after cinema release by becoming cult films or being re-evaluated over time. High-profile films fitting this description include Vertigo, Blade Runner, The Wizard of Oz, It's a Wonderful Life, Citizen Kane, The Shawshank Redemption, Showgirls, Fight Club, The Thing, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, each of which initially lost money at the box office but has since become popular.

Studio failure
It is common for a single film's lackluster performance to push its studio into the red, in the sense of recording a net loss on its income statement. However, in extreme cases, a bomb may push its studio into bankruptcy or closure. Examples of this include United Artists (Heaven's Gate) and Carolco Pictures (Cutthroat Island). The Golden Compass was a success at the international box office and grossed $372 million worldwide; however, its underperformance at the box office in North America was seen as a significant factor in influencing the decision by Warner Bros. Pictures to take direct control of New Line Cinema.

In 2001, Square Pictures, a division of Square, released its only film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. It received mixed reviews from critics and failed to recover its $145 million cost. Following the film's struggles, Square Pictures did not make any more films and is now a consolidated subsidiary of Square Enix as Visual Works. In 2011, Mars Needs Moms was the last film released by ImageMovers Digital before Disney's stake got absorbed by ImageMovers to a loss of nearly $140 million – the largest box-office bomb of all time in nominal dollar terms. Regardless of this loss, the decision to close the production company had been made a year prior to the film's release.

Independent films
The 2006 independent movie Zyzzyx Road made just $30 at the US box office. With a budget of $1.2 million and starring Tom Sizemore and Katherine Heigl, its tiny revenue is due to its limited box-office release – just six days in a single theater in Dallas for the purpose of meeting Screen Actors Guild requirements – rather than its ability to attract viewers. According to co-star Leo Grillo, it sold six tickets, two of which were to cast members.

Previously, the 2000 British film Offending Angels had become notorious for taking in less than £100 (~$150 ) at the box office. It had a £70,000 (~$105,000 ) budget but was panned by critics, including the BBC, who called it a "truly awful pile of garbage", and Total Film, who called it "irredeemable".

In 2011, the film The Worst Movie Ever! opened to just $11 at the US box office. It played in only one theater.

title: Box-office bomb


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Cuban prime

A cuban prime is a prime number that is also a solution to one of two different specific equations involving differences between third powers of two integers x and y.

First series
This is the first of these equations:

 * $$p = \frac{x^3 - y^3}{x - y},\ x = y + 1,\ y>0,$$

i.e. the difference between two successive cubes. The first few cuban primes from this equation are

 * 7, 19, 37, 61, 127, 271, 331, 397, 547, 631, 919, 1657, 1801, 1951, 2269, 2437, 2791, 3169, 3571, 4219, 4447, 5167, 5419, 6211, 7057, 7351, 8269, 9241, 10267, 11719, 12097, 13267, 13669, 16651, 19441, 19927, 22447, 23497, 24571, 25117, 26227

The formula for a general cuban prime of this kind can be simplified to $$3y^2 + 3y + 1$$. This is exactly the general form of a centered hexagonal number; that is, all of these cuban primes are centered hexagonal.

the largest known has 3,153,105 digits with $$y = 3^{3304301} - 1$$, found by R.Propper and S.Batalov.

Second series
The second of these equations is:

 * $$p = \frac{x^3 - y^3}{x - y},\ x = y + 2,\ y>0.$$

which simplifies to $$3y^2 + 6y + 4$$. With a substitution $$y = n - 1$$ it can also be written as $$3n^2 + 1, \ n>1$$.

The first few cuban primes of this form are:

 * 13, 109, 193, 433, 769, 1201, 1453, 2029, 3469, 3889, 4801, 10093, 12289, 13873, 18253, 20173, 21169, 22189, 28813, 37633, 43201, 47629, 60493, 63949, 65713, 69313

The name "cuban prime" has to do with the role cubes (third powers) play in the equations.

title: Cuban prime


text:
West Mead

West Mead may refer to:

 * West Mead Township, Pennsylvania, a township in the United States
 * USS West Mead (ID-3550), also Westmead, a United States Navy cargo ship in commission from 1918 to 1919

 * See also
 * Westmead (disambiguation)
 * Westmeath (disambiguation)

title: West Mead