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Simcoe County

Simcoe County is located in the central portion of Southern Ontario, Canada. The county is just north of the Greater Toronto Area, stretching from the shores of Lake Simcoe in the east to Georgian Bay in the west. Its most populated city is Barrie. Simcoe County forms part of the Greater Golden Horseshoe area, a densely populated and industrialized region, centred on the Greater Toronto Area.

The land area of the county is 4818.93 km2. The elevated Niagara Escarpment runs through sections of the western part of the county, and the Minesing Wetlands, a Ramsar Convention wetland of international importance, is located in the central area of the county.

The county administrative centre is on Highway 26 in Midhurst, outside Barrie.

Geography
Simcoe County is informally split into two subregions, “South Simcoe” and “North Simcoe”. The dividing line between these two areas is Simcoe County Road 90 (Mill St.).

South Simcoe municipalities are situated at the northern boundary of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and therefore generally have a closer socio-economic association with the GTA. South Simcoe is also within the Toronto commuter belt as it is home to a relatively high proportion of people commuting to the GTA. South Simcoe is home to five municipalities, including: the Town of Innisfil, the Township of Adjala-Tosorontio, the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, the Township of Essa and the Town of New Tecumseth (which includes: Alliston, Beeton and Tottenham).

North Simcoe is less connected to the GTA due to its more removed geographic location, is generally less industrial than South Simcoe, and generally has a closer socio-economic association with the Muskoka area, located immediately north. However, North Simcoe hosts two GO Transit train stations that provide daily commuter rail service to Toronto. North Simcoe includes the Township of Clearview, the Township of Oro-Medonte, the Township of Ramara, the Township of Severn, the Township of Springwater, the Township of Tay and the Township of Tiny, the Town of Collingwood, the Town of Midland, the Town of Penetanguishene and the Town of Wasaga Beach. The cities of Barrie and Orillia are geographically within North Simcoe, but both are politically independent single-tier municipalities.

History
Simcoe County, in particular the former Wendake area near Nottawasaga Bay, was the site of the earliest French exploration and settlement of Ontario; they were the first Europeans in the area. Several historic sites, including Carhagouha and Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, mark the earliest known contacts between the area's traditional Huron population and French missionaries. The Huron capital, Ossossané, was at one time the largest aboriginal settlement in all of North America outside Mexico. The County, named by Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe in honour of his father Captain John Simcoe, was established as part of the Home District in 1798 by the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada. Its initial territory was described as follows:

"...Matchedash, Gloucester, or Penetanguishene, together with Prince William Henry's Island, and all the land lying between the Midland District and a line produced due north from a certain fixed boundary (at the distance of about fifty miles north-west from the outlet of Burlington Bay) till it intersects the northern limits of the Province..."

At its beginning, the County existed only for purposes of military enlistment. In 1823, it became a separate constituency for elections to the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, but, as eligibility to vote was dependent upon having title to property, and Simcoe's first registrar of deeds was not appointed until 1826, it did not send a separate member to the Assembly until the election of John Cawthra in 1828. It was withdrawn from the Home District in 1837, with its territory divided as follows:

Between 1837 and 1841 several acts were passed by the Legislature of Upper Canada which set apart Simcoe District. These acts named the townships that the County would encompass and authorized the levying of taxes for the purpose of constructing a jail and court house. On January 11, 1843, the jail and court house having been duly erected, the Governor General proclaimed the County of Simcoe to be a separate and distinct District. The province of Canada also appointed James R. Gowan as the first judge of the District of Simcoe.

The District was restructured in 1845, changing its composition to the following 24 townships:

 * Adjala
 * Artemesia
 * Collingwood
 * Essa
 * Flos
 * West Gwillimbury
 * Innisfil
 * Medonte
 * Matchedash
 * Mulmur
 * Mono
 * Nottawasaga
 * Osprey
 * Oro
 * North Orillia
 * South Orillia
 * Saint Vincent
 * Sunnidale
 * Tay
 * Tecumseth
 * Tosorontio
 * Tiny
 * Uphrasia (sic)
 * Vespra

Effective January 1, 1850, Simcoe District was abolished, and Simcoe County was organized for municipal purposes.

Between 1845 and 1851, there had been a campaign to have the part of West Gwillimbury south of the Holland River annexed to York County. The County Council finally agreed to this action in 1851, subject to arbitration as to the division of liabilities. It was implemented by an Act of the Parliament of the Province of Canada later that year.

On January 1, 1852, after transferring its five western townships to Grey County, the County was defined as including the following townships:

 * Adjala
 * Essa
 * Flos
 * Gwillimbury West
 * Innisfil
 * Matchedash
 * Medonte
 * Mono
 * Mulmur
 * Nottawasaga
 * Orillia
 * Oro
 * Sunnidale
 * Tay
 * Tecumseth
 * Tiny
 * Tossorontio (sic)
 * Vespra

Together with the unorganized territory bounded to the north by the French River, to the south by the Severn River and Rama Township, to the west by Lake Huron and to the east by the former boundary between the Home District and the Newcastle District as extended to the French River.

The unorganized territory, some of which had been surveyed into townships, together with parts of Victoria County and Nipissing District, was withdrawn in 1868-1869 to form the new District of Muskoka and District of Parry Sound. However, any municipalities established in them still formed part of the original counties for municipal purposes, and they were still responsible for the administration of justice, which proved to be problematic. The portions of the districts that were not part of Simcoe County were transferred to it in 1877. This lasted until 1888, when the territory contained within the districts was separated from Simcoe County.

Mono and Mulmur Townships were withdrawn from Simcoe County in 1881 and transferred to the newly formed Dufferin County.

Mara and Rama Townships were transferred to Simcoe County following the dissolution of Ontario County in 1974.

Restructuring (1994)

In 1994, the County was restructured into 16 local municipalities:

 * Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury
 * Town of Collingwood
 * Town of Innisfil
 * Town of Midland
 * Town of New Tecumseth
 * Town of Penetanguishene
 * Town of Wasaga Beach
 * Township of Adjala–Tosorontio
 * Township of Clearview
 * Township of Essa
 * Township of Oro-Medonte
 * Township of Ramara
 * Township of Severn
 * Township of Springwater
 * Township of Tay
 * Township of Tiny

The cities of Barrie and Orillia are separated from the County, as are three Indian reserves:

 * Christian Island 30
 * Christian Island 30A
 * Mnjikaning First Nation 32

Demographics
As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Simcoe County had a population of $533,169$ living in $202,824$ of its $225,087$ total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of $479,635$. With a land area of 4818.93 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

Government
The Corporation of the County of Simcoe comprises 16 local municipalities. As an "upper tier" municipality, the County of Simcoe is responsible for municipal services which include social housing, land ambulance and emergency planning, environmental services (solid waste management), a County road system, Ontario Works, children's services, homes for the aged, a library co-operative, museum, archives, County forest management, tourism, a Geographic Information System (computer mapping) and land use policy planning.

The local, or "lower tier" municipalities are responsible for water and sewer services, local roads, public libraries, recreation services, fire and police services, land use development control and licensing and permitting services.

The cities of Barrie and Orillia, although separate politically and administratively from the County, are geographically and economically part of the County and send elected representatives to serve on County committees which provide services to the residents of the cities, including paramedic services, long term care facilities, social services, social housing, archives and Museum. They are counted within the census division.

County Council is composed of the mayors and deputy mayors of each of the sixteen towns and townships which comprise the County of Simcoe. The head of County Council is called the Warden and is elected for a one-year term by the council members at the Inaugural Meeting, held each December.

Though once a consideration according to the Wasaga Sun, Simcoe County has elected not to restructure itself as a regional municipality.

Federal and provincial representation
Simcoe County encompasses all or part of the federal electoral districts of Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, Barrie—Innisfil, York—Simcoe, Simcoe—Grey and Simcoe North.

The current Members of Parliament representing Simcoe County are:
 * Bruce Stanton (Conservative), Simcoe North
 * Terry Dowdall (Conservative), Simcoe—Grey
 * Doug Shipley (Conservative), Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte
 * John Brassard (Conservative), Barrie—Innisfil
 * Scot Davidson (Conservative), York—Simcoe

Simcoe County encompasses all or part of the provincial electoral districts of Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, Barrie—Innisfil, York—Simcoe, Simcoe—Grey and Simcoe North.

The current Members of Provincial Parliament representing Simcoe County are:
 * Jill Dunlop (Progressive Conservative), Simcoe North
 * Brian Saunderson (Progressive Conservative), Simcoe—Grey
 * Doug Downey (Progressive Conservative), Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte
 * Andrea Khanjin (Progressive Conservative), Barrie—Innisfil
 * Caroline Mulroney (Progressive Conservative), York—Simcoe

Law enforcement and policing
Five police services provide law enforcement and local policing in Simcoe County:
 * Barrie Police Service in Barrie
 * South Simcoe Police Service in Innisfil and Bradford West Gwillimbury
 * Rama Police Service in Rama, Ontario and for the Chippewas of Rama First Nation
 * Anishinabek Police Service on Christian Island and for the Beausoleil First Nation
 * Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) for the rest of the county including Orillia, and enforcement on provincial highways, especially Ontario Highway 400 and Ontario Highway 11.

The Midland Police Service, which served the Town of Midland, was disbanded in February 2018. The OPP assumed policing responsibilities in Midland afterwards.

Canadian Forces Military Police provides policing and security for CFB Borden (25 km southwest of Barrie).

Public health
The local public agency for the county, the cities of Barrie and Orillia, and the neighbouring District Municipality of Muskoka is the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. It is responsible for delivering public health programs and services, enforcing public health regulations, and advising local officials and local governments on health issues.

Simcoe County has five hospitals:
 * Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie
 * Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital
 * Stevenson Memorial Hospital in Alliston, Ontario (New Tecumseth)
 * Collingwood General And Marine Hospital
 * Georgian Bay General Hospital in Midland and Penetanguishene

Southern parts of the County are also served by the Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ontario (York Region).

The County operates ambulance and paramedic services (EMS) for the county and the independent cities of Barrie and Orillia. The Beausoleil First Nation (Christian Island) and the Chippewas of Rama First Nation (Rama) operate their own EMS services for their territories.

Economy
The economy of Simcoe County is diverse and includes a full range of businesses from agricultural, industrial and high-tech sectors.

Honda of Canada Manufacturing has been established in Simcoe County since 1986 and is one of the county's largest single employers. In addition to the automotive industry, other industries include plastics, glass manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and aggregate resources. The county is also home to other institutions including Casino Rama, Georgian College, Canadian Forces Base Borden, a campus of Lakehead University and the Ontario Provincial Police Headquarters.

Agri-business is a diverse, multi-faceted industry and farmland in the region is among the best in all of Canada, including a section of the Holland Marsh in Bradford.

Tourism is a vital industry in Simcoe County, providing a diversity of jobs and economic impact in a variety of sectors including accommodation, restaurants, destinations, events and retail. Simcoe County plays host to over eight million visitors annually that contributes more than 570 million dollars in spending to its economy.

Road
The road network in Simcoe County is based on a grid pattern, with most roads running north–south or east–west. The topography of the land has permitted roads to be set in predominantly straight lines.

Simcoe County is traversed by many Provincial Highways; Ontario Highway 400 being the most significant. Other provincial highways in Simcoe County include: Highway 11, Highway 12, Highway 26, Highway 89 and Highway 93.

Simcoe County also maintains an extensive series of County Roads, see List of numbered roads in Simcoe County.

Rail
GO Transit operates daily commuter rail services to and from downtown Toronto along its Barrie line with three stops in Simcoe County: one stop in Bradford West Gwillimbury (Bradford) and two stops in Barrie (Barrie South and Allandale Waterfront).

Via Rail's Canadian Toronto-Vancouver transcontinental passenger train makes request stops at the Washago railway station in Severn.

There are three main rail freight operators in Simcoe County; Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and Barrie Collingwood Railway.

Air
Lake Simcoe Regional Airport is a registered airport located almost midway between Barrie and Orillia, in the township of Oro-Medonte. The airport is owned jointly by the City of Barrie (10%), and the County (90%). The airport is equipped to accommodate propeller and jet aircraft, and is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency. The County is also served by the Orillia Ramara Regional Airport in Ramara, 12 km northeast of Orillia. The closest major airport, however, is Toronto Pearson International Airport.

LINX
The County has operated an intercommunity regional bus service, LINX, since 2018. It also operates a subsidiary paratransit service called LINX+. The LINX system connects population centres in the area such as Barrie, Orillia, Midland, Penetanguishene, Wasaga Beach, and Collingwood, and acts as an intermediate transit layer between local community bus services and higher-order regional transit, such as GO Transit and Ontario Northland. Planned future routes would connect Alliston with Bradford West Gwillimbury, and Midland with Orillia.

Local transit
Some of the County's larger urban centres have local public transit operations, which consist of bus services. These include Barrie Transit, BWG Transit (Bradford West Gwillimbury), Colltrans (Collingwood), Orillia Transit, Midland Penetanguishene Transit, and Wasaga Beach Transit.

Intercity bus
Intercity bus services serving Simcoe County include GO Transit (Route 68), and Ontario Northland.

Education
There are 4 public school boards which operate in Simcoe County:

 * The Simcoe County District School Board operates all public schools within Simcoe County.
 * The Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board operates the separate Catholic school system within Simcoe County.
 * The Conseil scolaire Viamonde operates all French language public schools within Simcoe County.
 * The Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir operates all French language Catholic schools within Simcoe County.

Undergraduate and graduate university programs are offered at Lakehead University in Orillia. Post-secondary education is also offered by Georgian College in Barrie, Midland, Orillia and Collingwood. A number of additional universities offer programs through the University Partnership Centre (UPC) in Georgian College.

title: Simcoe County


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Infineon Technologies

Infineon Technologies AG is Germany's largest semiconductor manufacturer. The company was spun-off from Siemens AG in 1999. Infineon has about 58,600 employees in 2023 and is one of the ten largest semiconductor manufacturers worldwide. In 2023 the company achieved sales of €16.309 billion.

Markets
Infineon markets semiconductors and systems for automotive, industrial, and multimarket sectors, as well as chip card and security products. Infineon has subsidiaries in the US in Milpitas, California, and in the Asia-Pacific region, in Singapore and Tokyo, Japan.

Infineon has a number of facilities in Europe, one in Dresden. Infineon's high power segment is in Warstein, Germany; Villach, Graz and Linz in Austria; Cegléd in Hungary; and Italy. It also runs R&D centers in France, Singapore, Romania, Taiwan, UK, Ukraine and India, as well as fabrication units in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China and Hungary. There is also a Shared Service Center in Porto, Portugal.

Infineon is listed in the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

In 2010, board member Klaus Wucherer was elected to step into the chairman's office upon the retirement of the then-current chairman Max Dietrich Kley following a proxy contest in advance of the shareholders' meeting.

In 2023, it was Germany's largest chip manufacturer.

As of 2011, Infineon comprised four business areas after several restructurings:

Automotive (ATV)
Infineon provides semiconductor products for use in powertrains (engine and transmission control), comfort electronics (e.g., steering, shock absorbers, air conditioning), as well as in safety systems (ABS, airbags, ESP). The product portfolio includes microcontrollers, power semiconductors and sensors. In the fiscal year 2018 (ending September), sales amounted to €3,284 million for the ATV segment.

Green Industrial Power (GIP)
The industrial division of the company (named IPC until 2023 ) includes power semiconductors and modules which are used for generation, transmission and consumption of electrical energy. Its application areas include control of electric drives for industrial applications and household appliances, modules for renewable energy production, conversion and transmission. This segment achieved sales of €1,323 million in fiscal year 2018.

Power & Sensor Systems (PSS)
The division Power & Sensor Systems sums up the business with semiconductor components for efficient power management or high-frequency applications. Those find application in lighting management systems and LED lighting, power supplies for servers, PCs, notebooks and consumer electronics, custom devices for peripheral devices, game consoles, applications in medical technology, high-frequency components having a protective function for communication and tuner systems and silicon MEMS microphones. In the fiscal year 2018, PSS generated €2,318 million.

Connected Secure Systems (CSS)
The CSS business provides microcontrollers for mobile phone SIM cards, payment cards, security chips and chips for passports, identity cards and other official documents. Infineon delivers a significant number of chips for the new German identity card. CSS achieved €664 million in fiscal year 2018. "Infineon is the number 1 in embedded security" (IHS, 2016 – IHS Embedded Digital Security Report).

Acquisitions and divestitures
Infineon bought the Taiwanese chip designer ADMtek in 2004. In 2006, the former Memory Products division was carved out as Infineon's subsidiary Qimonda AG, of which Infineon last held a little over three-quarters. At its height Qimonda employed about 13,500 people; it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange until it filed for bankruptcy with the district court in Munich in January 2009. When Infineon sold Wireline Communications in July 2009 to Golden Gate Capital for €250 million, the resulting company was named Lantiq. With around 1,000 employees, Lantiq was acquired by Intel for US$345 million in 2015. Infineon's wireless business segment was sold to Intel in January 2011 for US$1.4 billion, with the resulting new company named Intel Mobile Communications (IMC). IMC had approximately 3,500 employees. The smartphone modem business of IMC was acquired by Apple Inc. in 2019.

In August 2014 Infineon Technologies agreed to buy the International Rectifier Corporation (IR) for about US$3 billion, one third by cash and two-thirds by credit line. The acquisition was officially closed on January 13, 2015. In July 2016, Infineon agreed to buy the North Carolina-based company Wolfspeed from Cree Inc. for US$850 million in cash, although the deal was ultimately stopped due to US security concerns. In October 2016, Infineon acquired the company Innoluce, which has expertise in MEMS and LiDAR systems for use in autonomous cars. The MEMS lidar system can scan up to 5,000 data points a second with a range of 250 meters, with an expected unit cost of $250 in mass production. Infineon Technologies AG sold its RF Power Business Unit in March 2018 to Cree Inc. for €345 million. Infineon announced in June 2019 that it would acquire Cypress Semiconductors for US$9.4 billion. The acquisition closed on 17 April of 2020. In May 2023, Infineon acquired "tiny machine learning" company Imagimob, a Stockholm, Sweden based company with a platform for development and deployment of AI applications. Infineon acquired GaN Systems, headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, in October 2023. Infineon in 2023 acted on an expansion plan by investing EUR 5 billion into its semiconductor fab in Kulim, Kedah, Malaysia. As of 2023 Infineon was also planning to build two additional plants in Dresden for €5 billion, asking the government to subsidize it with €1 billion, financed through the €4 billion European Chips Act. It would employ 3000 people.

Management
In 2019 the following persons were in the following positions:

 * Jochen Hanebeck (CEO)
 * Andreas Urschitz (CMO)
 * Rutger Wijburg (COO)
 * Elke Reichart (CDSO)
 * Sven Schneider (CFO)

Litigation
In 2004–2005, an investigation was carried out into a DRAM price fixing conspiracy during 1999–2002 that damaged competition and raised PC prices. As a result, Samsung paid a $300 million fine, Hynix paid $185 million, Infineon $160 million.

Security flaw
In October 2017, it was reported that a flaw, dubbed ROCA, in a code library developed by Infineon, which had been in widespread use in security products such as smartcards and TPMs, enabled private keys to be inferred from public keys. As a result, all systems depending upon the privacy of such keys were vulnerable to compromise, such as identity theft or spoofing. Affected systems include 750,000 Estonian national ID cards, 300,000 Slovak national ID cards, and computers that use Microsoft BitLocker drive encryption in conjunction with an affected TPM. Microsoft released a patch that works around the flaw via Windows Update immediately after the disclosure.

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

title: Infineon Technologies


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Wikipedia:WikiProject Fluid dynamics/Top draft

Mécanique des fluides& Mehanika teko&

Fluid mechanics is the study of the macroscopic physical behaviour of fluids. Fluids are specifically liquids and gases though some other materials and systems can be described in a similar way. The solution of a fluid dynamic problem typically involves calculating for various properties of the fluid, such as velocity, pressure, density, and temperature, as functions of space and time.

Fluid mechanics has a wide range of applications. For example, it is used in calculating forces and moments on aircraft, the mass flow of petroleum through pipelines, and in prediction of weather patterns. Fluid mechanics offers a mathematical structure that underlies these practical discipines which often also embrace empirical and semi-empirical laws, derived from flow measurement, to solve practical problems.

The concept of a fluid is surprisingly general. For example, some of the basic mathematical concepts in traffic engineering are derived from considering traffic as a continuous fluid.

The continuity assumption
Gases and liquids are composed of molecules which collide with one another and with solid objects. The continuity assumption, however, considers fluids to be continuous, making it a subdiscipline of continuum mechanics. That is, properties such as density, pressure, temperature, and velocity are taken to be well-defined at infinitely small points, and are assumed to vary continuously from one point to another. The discrete, molecular nature of a fluid is ignored.

The reliability of this continuity premise is assessed using the Knudsen number. Physical systems with Knudsen numbers at or above unity require the use of statistical mechanics, which itself provides the underlying physics of fluids which is an input to fluid mechanics.

The important distinction between Newtonian and Non-newtonian fluids is discussed further in the article on viscosity.

Foundations of fluid mechanics
The foundational axioms of fluid mechanics are the conservation laws, specifically, conservation of mass, conservation of momentum (also known as Newton's second law), and conservation of energy. These are based on classical mechanics and are violated in relativistic mechanics.

These basic laws are used, along with empirical experience, to derived the basic laws of fluid statics. This then provides a basis through which fluid dynamics can be developed through the introduction of interial effects.

The simplest problems of fluid dynamics are those that set all changes of fluid properties with time to zero. This is called steady flow, and is applicable to a large class of problems, such as lift and drag on a wing or flow through a pipe.

Laminar versus turbulent flow
Turbulence is flow dominated by recirculation, eddies, and apparent randomness. Flow in which turbulence is not exhibited is called laminar.

It is believed that turbulent flows obey similar equations to the laminar case. However, the flow is so complex that it is not possible to solve turbulent problems from first principles with the computational tools available today or likely to be available in the near future. Turbulence is instead modeled using one of a number of turbulence models and coupled with a flow solver that assumes laminar flow outside a turbulent region.

Newtonian versus non-Newtonian fluids
Sir Isaac Newton showed how stress and the rate of change of strain are related in a simple was for many familiar fluids, such as water and air. These Newtonian fluids are characterised by a simple viscosity.

However, some other materials, such as milk and blood, and also some plastic solids, have more complicated non-Newtonian stress-strain behaviours. These are studied in the sub-discipline of rheology.

Compressible versus incompressible Flow
A fluid problem is called compressible if changes in the density of the fluid have significant effects on the solution. If the density changes have negligible effects on the solution, the fluid is called incompressible and the changes in density are ignored.

In order to determine whether to use compressible or incompressible fluid dynamics, the Mach number of the problem is evaluated. As a rough guide, compressible effects can be ignored at Mach numbers below approximately 0.3. Nearly all problems involving liquids are in this regime and modeled as incompressible.

The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are simplifications of the Navier-Stokes equations in which the density has been assumed to be constant. These can be used to solve incompressible problems.

Viscous versus inviscid flow
Viscous problems are those in which fluid friction has an important effect on behaviour. Problems for which friction can safely be neglected are called inviscid.

Inviscid flow is governed by the Euler equations for which there are many simple solution methods depending on what specific assumptions can be made. In addition, the boundary condition of the equations is that flow is stationary normal to a solid surface.

Viscous flows are governed by the Navier-Stokes equations which must satisfy the stricter boundary condition that flow is stationary both normal and tangential to a solid surface. These are nonlinear differential equations that typically need to be solved using the techniques of computational fluid dynamics.

The Reynolds number can be used to evaluate whether viscous or inviscid equations are appropriate to the problem. High Reynolds numbers indicate that the inertial forces are more important than the viscous forces. However, even in high Reynolds number regimes certain problems require that viscosity be included in a thin boundary layer, even where the Euler equations are used for the flow distant from a body.

The Navier Stokes equations can be applied to a vast range of problems.

History
Main article: History of fluid mechanics

Applications

 * Acoustics
 * Aerodynamics
 * Aeroelasticity
 * Aeronautics
 * Fluid power
 * Hemodynamics
 * Hydraulics
 * Meteorology
 * Oceanography
 * Pneumatics

Fluid phenomena
The following observed fluid phenomena can be characterised and explained using fluid mechanics:
 * Boundary layer
 * Coanda effect
 * Convection cell
 * Rossby wave
 * Shock wave
 * Soliton
 * Turbulence
 * Venturi effect
 * Vortex
 * Wave drag


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New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University

The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University (NYSCC) is a statutory college of the State University of New York located on the campus of Alfred University, Alfred, New York. There are a total of 616 students, including 536 undergraduates and 80 graduates.

History
The college was founded by an Act, signed into law on April 11, 1900 by Governor Theodore Roosevelt, per Chapter 383 of the Session Laws of New York, 1900 establishing the New York State School of Clay-Working and Ceramics. This move by Alfred University to petition the New York State legislature in 1899 followed a period of crisis at the University starting in 1895, which was facing low enrollments, mounting deficits, and the recent resignation of then President A.E. Main (1893-95). The Trustees, with support from area businesses and alumni recognized the trends in higher education toward applied sciences and technology, supporting the decision to petition the legislature.

Charles Fergus Binns, a British ceramist, served as the first Director of the school, after completing a career at Royal Worcester Porcelain Works. In 1932 it was renamed as the New York State College of Ceramics (NYSCC) with two departments, General Technology and Engineering and Applied Art. The College is presently composed of the School of Art and Design, the Inamori School of Engineering and the Samuel R. Scholes Library. The College also houses the Inamori Museum of Fine Ceramics, one of two such collections globally, focused on technical ceramics and glass.

The Inamori School of Engineering at Alfred University offers programs in ceramics, glass, biomaterials, and materials science engineering. In addition, the programs in mechanical engineering and renewable energy engineering are offered through Alfred University, the private institution the NYSCC is affiliated with. The School of Engineering is one of only two institutions in the U.S. that offers a B.S. in Ceramic Engineering, and the only institution in the U.S. that offers degrees in glass science.

Notable alumni

 * Margaret Boozer
 * Cristina Córdova
 * R. Guy Cowan
 * Karon Doherty
 * Julia Galloway
 * Maija Grotell
 * Isaac Scott Hathaway
 * Steve Heinemann
 * Vivika Heino
 * Ayumi Horie
 * Packard Jennings
 * Michael Lax
 * Tony Marsh
 * Walter McConnell
 * Ruth Gowdy McKinley, first potter elected to Royal Canadian Academy of Art
 * Rebekah Modrak
 * Judy Moonelis
 * William O'Connor
 * Ken Price
 * Daniel Rhodes
 * Norm Schulman
 * Robert Chapman Turner
 * Betty Woodman
 * Arnold Zimmerman

Notable faculty

 * Charles Fergus Binns
 * Daniel Rhodes
 * Robert Chapman Turner
 * Walter McConnell
 * Wayne Higby
 * Andrew Deutsch
 * Paul DeMarinis
 * Heather Mae Erickson
 * William Underhill


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Steps (pop group)

Steps are a British dance-pop group consisting of Lee Latchford-Evans, Claire Richards, Lisa Scott-Lee, Faye Tozer and Ian "H" Watkins. They were formed in May 1997 and achieved four number-one albums in the UK, 14 consecutive UK top-5 singles including two number ones (one a double A-side). The group has sold over 22 million records worldwide, 15 million albums worldwide. In-addition to earning a BRIT Award nomination in 1999, for Best Newcomer, the group would be an opening support act for Britney Spears on her debut American tour the same year. When Richards and Watkins departed to form a recording duo, the group disbanded, on 26 December 2001 (officially). Their penultimate single reached No. 5 on the UK charts, while their final album of greatest hits, Gold (2001), was the group's second No. 1 album in the UK.

Steps re-formed in May 2011 for a four-part Sky Living documentary series titled Steps: Reunion. The series started airing on 28 September, following an announcement of a second greatest-hits album, The Ultimate Collection, released on 10 October 2011. The album debuted at No. 1, becoming the band's third album to top the British charts. The second series of Steps: Reunion, titled "Steps: On the Road Again", aired on Sky Living in April 2012; the series followed the band as they embarked on their sellout, 22-date UK tour. On 24 September 2012, the group confirmed they would release their fourth studio album, Light Up The World, on 12 November 2012, alongside a six-date Christmas tour, starting on 30 November and ending on 5 December. The group re-formed for a second time on 1 January 2017 in celebration of their 20th anniversary, and later announced their fifth studio album, Tears on the Dancefloor, which was released in April 2017.

Steps' sixth studio album, What the Future Holds, was released on 27 November 2020. It was preceded by three singles, the title song "What the Future Holds", "Something in Your Eyes" and "To the Beat of My Heart". Their seventh studio album, What the Future Holds Pt. 2, with 10 new tracks, four stripped-back versions of songs and a new sound for some tracks, was released in 2021. The band's third compilation album, Platinum Collection was released in August 2022, and debuted at number 1 in the UK, making Steps the first British, mixed-gender group to achieve four number 1 albums in four different decades.

1997–1999: Formation, commercial success and Step One
Steps were formed by Steve Crosby and Barry Upton (writers of "5,6,7,8") alongside manager Tim Byrne after auditioning hopefuls who answered an ad in The Stage newspaper. Byrne had previously been involved in the production of the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, the BBC collaboration with the pop magazine Smash Hits.

After auditions, the original line-up of Watkins, Scott-Lee, Derek O'Brien, Maddy Chan, and Mitch Stevens was finalised and the band started shooting promotional images and recording tracks. However, O'Brien, Chan and Stevens left, as they wanted more than a one-hit wonder, and saw no long-term future with Steps. New auditions were held on 7 May 1997, and in conjunction with the manufacturers, they selected Faye Tozer, Lee Latchford-Evans and Claire Richards as the remaining members.

The group's name came from a marketing plan: The dance steps for each of the quintet's choreographed music videos would be included with their singles.

Their first single "5,6,7,8" was a techno line dance song. Though not typical of what became their style, it was their first hit both in the UK and internationally. Despite only peaking at number 14, the single achieved considerable longevity in the fast-paced singles climate of 1997–1998, racking up over four months on the UK chart. The track remains one of the highest-selling singles never to reach the top 10 on the UK Singles Chart. Its release in Australia gave the group their first number one in 1998.

Tim Byrne then founded a management and production company, Byrne Blood, with former BMG head of marketing and video, Victoria Blood, which took over sole management of Steps and was also instrumental in the creation and management of A1.

The group were then presented to pop impresario, Pete Waterman who signed them to his Eastern Block Unity Label (EBUL) in a partnership with his long time associates, Jive Records. Waterman and his new PWL production partners, Mark Topham and Karl Twigg, reworked the "5,6,7,8" demo, introducing the prominent fiddle into the arrangement. Waterman stated that whilst he was pleased with the final mix of "5,6,7,8", his co-producers were less so, to the extent that on the single liner notes they did not take a credit, although they were credited on all subsequent releases, such as the Step One album. In April 1998, Steps launched their second single, a cover version of Bananarama's "Last Thing on My Mind", which became their first UK top ten, peaking at number 6.

By August 1998, Steps continued to build momentum with their third single "One for Sorrow" which peaked at number 2, and began an unbroken chain of 14 consecutive Top 5 hits on the UK singles chart. Steps' singles success translated into album sales, with their debut album Step One entering the chart at number 2. It was certified 5× Platinum following a run of 50 weeks in the Top 20.

The next single release was a double A-side which provided Steps with their signature song and biggest career seller. The single was a cover version of the Bee Gees' "Tragedy" and original track "Heartbeat". The single was released in November 1998, when it charted at number 2. Following enduring popularity over the Christmas period, the single rebounded up the chart and became their first number-one hit in January 1999, eight weeks after it was initially released. The single eventually sold over a million copies and occupied the chart for 30 weeks.

The final track to be released from Step One was "Better Best Forgotten". Because of the continued success of the previous single, the CD release was delayed by nearly two months. Nonetheless, "Better Best Forgotten" entered the chart at number 2.

Steps were part of the ensemble that released "Thank ABBA for the Music" (a medley of ABBA's "Take a Chance on Me", "Dancing Queen", "Mamma Mia" and "Thank You for the Music") in March 1999, as performed at the BRIT Awards. The other artists singing were Tina Cousins, Cleopatra, B*Witched, and Billie, known collectively as the Supertroupers. The single later peaked at number four. The group was also nominated for Best Newcomer. Pete Waterman claimed to have been told days before the ceremony that Steps had won the award, as voted for by listeners of BBC Radio 1. However, on the night the award was handed to the Scottish band Belle & Sebastian, who were assumed to be rank outsiders. Despite the allegation that a significant number of votes for Belle & Sebastian were traced to the University of Strathclyde campus, the band held onto their award as foul play was denied by organizers of the BRIT Awards.

A fan-created Steps fanzine, Count Me In, started in 1998. This became known for its Steps Photostory, in which cut-out members of Steps went on a variety of fun adventures. It ran for 13 issues and later issues included interviews with Steps themselves, as well Dermot O'Leary, Pink and other pop-culture figures of the time. Count Me In can be viewed by visiting the British Library archive where all issues are held.

1999–2000: Steptacular, International tour and Buzz
In July 1999, Steps released the first single from an all-new album, "Love's Got a Hold on My Heart". Once again they narrowly missed the number-one spot following a last-minute surge by Ricky Martin. After the single's release, Steps went to America to support Britney Spears on her 1999 ...Baby One More Time Tour. A remixed version of "One for Sorrow" was included in the film Drive Me Crazy and released as their debut American single. They were also successful in Europe and Australasia.

Steps returned home to release their second album, Steptacular, which was accompanied by "After the Love Has Gone". The album charted at number 1 and was eventually certified 4× Platinum, thus becoming their second UK million selling album. The group subsequently released an album in North America which was titled Step One and was an amalgamation of their first two albums. The group's next two singles, "Say You'll Be Mine/Better the Devil You Know" and "Deeper Shade of Blue" (originally recorded by labelmate Tina Cousins for her debut album), both continued their top-five run.

In February 2000, Disney Channel aired a concert special featuring Steps and another group, Youngstown, titled "Steps and Youngstown in Concert". The concert itself promoted the group and the sales of the album.

In July 2000, Steps released another double A-side, consisting of the Steptacular track "When I Said Goodbye" and an entirely new song, "Summer of Love". The latter was a Latino-flavoured pop song, which later appeared on their third album. Steps were also awarded the BRIT Award for Best Selling Live Act of the year in 2000.

In October 2000, "Stomp" became their second number one single. The third album, Buzz, followed shortly and whilst it was less successful than their first two albums, went on to achieve double platinum status and contains five UK Top 5 singles. The group worked with many American and Swedish producers who had created hits for other Jive artists such as Britney Spears, 'N Sync, and the Backstreet Boys. The following single, "It's the Way You Make Me Feel", reached number 2 upon its January 2001 release. Steps promoted Buzz worldwide and did not return to the UK until May, when they released "Here and Now / You'll Be Sorry".

2000–2002: Gold, group tensions, Watkins' and Richards' departure, and split
Split rumours started circulating after it was announced that Steps would release a greatest hits album. The group continuously denied this in their interviews. "Chain Reaction", a cover of the popular Diana Ross song, was released as the first new single from Gold: Greatest Hits. The single became their biggest in almost two years. The second single, "Words Are Not Enough/I Know Him So Well", was another top five hit. It would become their final single as a group until their re-formation in 2012.

In 2001, following their Boxing Day split, the group were heavily criticised by their fans. Many UK tabloid papers published the fans' disgust on their front pages, displaying quotes taken from Steps message boards. After the group spent much of 2001 strongly dismissing claims of a split, fans were furious and accused the group of capitalising on the success of a host of merchandise released in the lucrative pre-Christmas market. However, it has since come to light that both Watkins and Richards left the group on the last night of the Steps' Gold: Greatest Hits tour, because of their ongoing unhappiness within the group, although Steps' official statement stated that the split was caused by their belief that they should end on a high, while they were at their best and could be remembered for being the best of their kind. H and Claire went on to form a duo in 2002 and signed to Warner Music for a reputed £5 million (over five albums), although they only released one album, Another You Another Me same year, before being dropped due to poor album sales.

2002–2010: The Last Dance, Reissue of Steps Classics and solo careers
Jive released a remix and B-side compilation in 2002. The Last Dance featured previously released remixes, B-sides and rarities. The album charted at number 57 without any promotion. A planned release for the track "Baby Don't Dance" was scrapped in November 2002. However, promotional copies were pressed and a video based upon their live Gold tour briefly aired on MTV. In the same year, Faye released her first single, "Someone Like You", a duet with Russell Watson, which was in the top-10 singles UK 2002. Scott-Lee released Lately on 12 May 2003 by Fontana Records and the song was written by Scott-Lee and Point4. The single peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart, reached number 24 on the Irish Singles Chart, and also charted in the Netherlands and Switzerland. To date, it is Scott-Lee's only single to reach the top 10 in the United Kingdom. After then, she released another two singles same year and in 2005 but they didn't chart in the top 10 UK. In 2007, BMG reissued a collection of the band's first two albums as a 10-year anniversary of the band. Same year, Scott-Lee released her debut album, "Never or Now".Claire Richards performed "Tragedy" on ITV1 special Everybody Dance Now in 2008. This was also Richards' first public appearance in six years. Watkins played the role of Silly Billy in pantomime Jack & The Beanstalk at the Southport Theatre from 10 December 2009 to 3 January 2010. Christmas 2010 saw his return to Grimsby as he performed in the pantomime Beauty and the Beast, playing the part of Muddles.

2011–2012: Reunion, The Ultimate Collection and touring
Since the band's break-up, rumours had been circulating that they would reunite in one form or another. In 2009, Lee Latchford-Evans revealed that the band had been approached to perform a series of concerts. He hinted that a future reunion was possible, but said "it isn't the right time right now".

In early 2011, rumours began circulating that Steps would reunite for a TV series and a one-off concert to mark the tenth anniversary of their 2001 split. The reunion was denied by band's members, including Richards on her Twitter page. Richards also announced on 9 July 2011, that a Steps reunion would be "silly", but she would "never say never". Contrary to these claims, just 12 days later, it was announced that Steps would be reuniting for a four-part Sky Living documentary, depicting their split and the interim years. The band would also release their Ultimate Collection, as well as potential new material.

In a promo for the show each member revealed their true feelings, with Watkins sharing that he regrets the way it all ended but insisting: "If I were to revisit it and turn the clock back, I would probably have done it exactly the same way." Evans commented: "They took something away from three people that we loved and we didn't get a choice because certain people took that choice away from us and I think that is very unfair." Steps: Reunion premiered on Sky Living at 9pm on Wednesday, 28 September.

Steps said in a 2011 interview with Digital Spy that they believed there was a gap in the market for their brand of "happy pop". Scott-Lee said: "Times have changed, but we are in a recession and Steps' music was very light-hearted and fun, so there could be a place for that in today's society," "What else is interesting is that there aren't any boy/girl pop groups out there at the moment, so there's definitely a gap there."

In the first episode, the group opened up about the tension in the band, with Scott-Lee saying "problems first arose when Watkins started flying in Britney Spears' private jet while the rest of them travelled by bus." Before, Richards stated "Further cracks appeared when I discovered that H had been secretly dating the band's manager Tim Byrne." The second episode focused on the band talking about their reasons for the breakdown of communication and friendships in the group and also documented the first time they had all been together in the same room for over a year. The girls then flew to Marbella, Spain to bond whilst the boys went to Wales. The fourth episode showed Steps discussing the possible future of the band.

Steps' newly recorded and produced version of "Dancing Queen" (not to be confused with the 1999 version) was added to the track list for The Ultimate Collection.

On 10 October 2011, Steps appeared for the first time on This Morning, performing "It's the Way You Make Me Feel" and "Tragedy" and announced their 14-date 2012 arena tour entitled The Ultimate Tour. They also announced that they had re-formed as a band full term. On 14 October 2011, Steps appeared on Lorraine and sang "Deeper Shade of Blue", which they also sang during an appearance on Loose Women on 24 October 2011. They then announced they had added 6 performances and removed 2 from the tour, bringing the total to 18 dates; they also announced a new date at the Summer Saturdays at Newmarket Racecourse on 25 August 2012. On 16 October 2011, their new album The Ultimate Collection went to number one in the UK Albums Chart. Steps performed a medley of their singles, including "Deeper Shade of Blue" and "One for Sorrow", on 19 November for Children in Need. They also appeared on Alan Carr: Chatty Man on 25 December 2011 and performed a medley of "One for Sorrow", "Deeper Shade of Blue" and "Tragedy". A DVD of the Reunion tour entitled Steps – The Ultimate Tour Live was released on Monday 29 October 2012. It charted at number one on the Official Charts Company's Music Video Chart on 4 November 2012.

2012–2016: Light Up the World and hiatus
It was announced that the group would release their own fragrance called Guilty Pleasure in a disco ball-styled bottle. It was put out to stores on 1 November 2012. They also brought out an official calendar for 2013. It was released on 15 October 2012. On 13 October 2012, Steps without H appeared on BBC Radio 2 with Graham Norton. Their new single "Light Up the World" aired for the very first time. They announced that it would be released on 22 October 2012.

Following their sell-out arena tour, the group performed a number of summer shows and public appearances. At the end of June, Tozer confirmed on Twitter that there would be more from the group after their summer shows. In August, H posted a picture on Twitter confirming the group were in the studio recording. In September, it was confirmed that a new album, titled Light Up the World, would be released by the end of the year, consisting of Christmas songs. On 12 November 2012, Steps released Light Up the World, their fourth studio album, which consisted of Christmas songs. The lead single from the album, "Light Up the World", was released on 22 October 2012. The group also embarked on a six-date Christmas tour entitled Christmas with Steps in November 2012 through December 2012. In an interview with Metro, H confirmed that there could be two new fragrances for 2013, following the success of Guilty Pleasure. In an interview with Digital Spy, H also confirmed that he would like Rylan Clark to be a support act on their next tour. Tozer appeared on Loose Women in February 2013 and when asked about the future of the band she commented saying that they would soon be meeting and discussing what to do next. In March 2013, H announced on Twitter that he and the rest of Steps were having a meeting.

In May 2013, it was announced that Steps were going to be taking a break due to heavily touring last year, confirming on several occasions, after some speculation, that they have not split up. During this hiatus they each pursued solo projects.

Faye appeared in the worldwide premiere of the musical The Tailor Made Man from March to April and appeared in the musical Singin' in the Rain from December through to March. H appeared in Joseph from June to October and in Jack and the Beanstalk in December. Lee ran three marathons and took time out to manage his wife's band Concrete Rose. Claire has her own fashion range for Fashion World, which she also models. In January 2014, Claire announced on Twitter that she had begun work on her first studio album.

A new compilation entitled 5,6,7,8: The Collection was released on 27 November 2015 through Music Club Deluxe containing most of the singles with some B-sides and remixes. This is a budget-release CD which has no official connection to Steps or any previous management or record company but a selection of tracks licensed to Music Club Deluxe for release. The album is available on CD and via download. On 1 April 2016, a three-disc compilation entitled Stomp All Night: The Remix Anthology was announced, featuring 36 of the group's remixes, 20 of which have never before been released in the UK. The release includes a brand new remix of "Say You'll Be Mine".

2017–2021: Tears on the Dancefloor and What the Future Holds Parts 1 & 2
The group officially confirmed on 1 January 2017, that they were ending their five-year break following their reunion tour and Christmas album. Their first appearance was at London's G-A-Y nightclub, where the group confirmed the reunion. The group later performed at the I Love The 90's event in Hasselt, Belgium, due to the band's massive popularity in Belgium during the late 1990s.

The group's fifth studio album, Tears on the Dancefloor, was released on 21 April 2017 and entered the charts at number 2. On 5 March 2017, the group confirmed the release of the new album, alongside its lead single, "Scared of the Dark", and a 22-date tour, Party on the Dancefloor. A deluxe edition of the album, titled Tears on the Dancefloor: Crying at the Disco, was released on 27 October.

In November 2017, Tozer announced that the reunion was no longer just a 20th-anniversary celebration and that the group intends to continue after their 2018 Summer of Steps tour. In April 2018, Richards announced that following their summer tour, they would begin work on their sixth studio album. In February 2019, Richards announced the group would begin recording their next album during the summer months.

On 7 September 2020, via their social media accounts, Steps announced the release date of their album entitled What the Future Holds. The album was released on 27 November of the same year, with pre-orders available from 8 September. The next day, they confirmed a new 14-date UK tour (with special guest Sophie Ellis-Bextor) starting in November 2021. The first single from the album was the Greg Kurstin-and-Sia-penned "What the Future Holds", released on 9 September 2020. It was followed by "Something in Your Eyes" on 27 October 2020. "To the Beat of My Heart" was released as the album's third single in January 2021.

In April 2021, Steps announced that an upcoming deluxe version of What the Future Holds was now to become a completely separate album entitled What the Future Holds Pt. 2 with 10 new tracks, four stripped back versions of songs and a new sound for some tracks.

The first single of What the Future Holds Pt. 2 was confirmed as a reworked version of "Heartbreak in This City" featuring Michelle Visage. The second single was revealed as "Take Me For A Ride", released on 29 July 2021. Steps released a third single from What the Future Holds Pt. 2 on 20 August 2021, a cover of British pop group Five Star's 1987 hit "The Slightest Touch". On 18 November 2021, Steps released their fourth single, "A Hundred Years of Winter", written by Darren Hayes. Later that month, the band postponed the last few dates of the tour as two musicians and several crew members had tested positive for COVID-19.

2022–present: 25th anniversary and musical
Steps announced a string of summer shows to celebrate their 25th anniversary including headlining Mighty Hoopla on 3 June 2022. On 30 May 2022, it was announced the band would release their third official greatest-hits album, titled Platinum Collection, which would include 21 tracks including two new tracks. The single "Platinum Megamix" was released on 1 June 2022 and debuted at number 15 on the UK Top 100 Singles Sales Chart on 3 June 2022. On 7 July 2022, Steps released the single "Hard 2 Forget". The single, a cover of the 2020 Vincint track, debuted on 8 July 2022 at number 21 on the UK Official Singles Download Chart Top 100. Platinum Collection was released on 19 August 2022. On 26 August, the album debuted at number 1 on the UK Official Top 100 Albums, and also placed at number 1 on the Official Albums Sales Chart and at number 2 on the Official Vinyl Albums Top 40. Previously unreleased song "The Runner" (cover version of The Three Degrees 1978 song) debuted at number 56 on the UK Official Singles Downloads Chart, despite not being released as an official single.

On 26 January 2024, the group announced Here & Now, a stage jukebox musical based on their back catalogue. It will premiere at Birmingham's The Alexandra on 9 November 2024 until 24 November 2024. The group stated "We’ve been lucky to do many things together as a band, but the question we get asked again and again is “where is the Steps musical?” Well…it’s finally here and we couldn’t be more excited. On 23 February 2024, Steps reissued their first three studio albums, Step One, Steptacular and Buzz, on vinyl record for the first time ever.  All three releases debuted in the Top 10 of the UK Vinyl Albums Chart on 1 March 2024. Richards explained that she and her bandmates won't be in the musical, only their hit songs. She also stated that Steps will have a little rest before having a bigger comeback soon.

Filmography
Steps had their own talent show named Steps to the Stars, in which young people performed three acts to be judged by a public vote. It was revealed on the next show who would go through to the final. This was shown on CBBC in 2000/2001. Two series were aired, presented by H and Claire, although the group performed one of its classics at the end of each show. The show featured a young Danny Jones in a band called Y2K in which he played guitar with his sister and their friend, and the eventual winner was a female solo singer called Jenny-Lynn Smith. Also featured were Gareth Gates, before he found fame on Pop Idol, and Sean Smith from pop duo Same Difference before he found fame with his singing partner and sister, Sarah Smith, on The X Factor.

In 2011, Steps re-formed and appeared in their own reality series called Steps: Reunion. It followed them as they rebuilt their friendships following the group's acrimonious split in December 2001. Following the huge success of the first series, a second series followed the group on their first arena tour in over ten years, airing in 2012. Both series were aired on Sky Living. Following the series' success, ITV2 decided to bring back seven pop bands of the late 1990s and early 2000s in a nine-part series: The Big Reunion.

Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" ! scope="col" | Award ! scope="col" | Year ! scope="col" | Category ! scope="col" | Nominee(s) ! scope="col" | Result ! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Ref. ! scope="row" rowspan=4|Brit Awards !scope="row"|British LGBT Awards !scope="row"|Music Week Awards !scope="row"|Popjustice £20 Music Prize ! scope="row"|The Record of the Year
 * rowspan=1|1999
 * British Breakthrough Act
 * rowspan=6|Themselves
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=1|
 * rowspan=2|2000
 * Best Selling Live Act of 1999
 * Won
 * rowspan=2|
 * rowspan=2|British Pop Act
 * Nominated
 * 2001
 * Nominated
 * 2001
 * Nominated
 * Nominated
 * 2022
 * Music Artist
 * Won
 * 2023
 * Catalogue Marketing Campaign
 * Nominated
 * 2017
 * Best British Pop Single
 * "Scared of the Dark"
 * Nominated
 * 1998
 * Record of the Year
 * "One for Sorrow"
 * Nominated

Discography

 * Step One (1998)
 * Steptacular (1999)
 * Buzz (2000)
 * Light Up the World (2012)
 * Tears on the Dancefloor (2017)
 * What the Future Holds (2020)
 * What the Future Holds Pt. 2 (2021)

Headlining

 * Step One Tour (1999)
 * Next Step Tour (1999)
 * Steptacular Tour (2000)
 * Steps into Christmas (2000)
 * Open Air Tour (2000)
 * Gold Tour (2001)
 * The Ultimate Tour (2012)
 * Christmas with Steps (2012)
 * Party on the Dancefloor Tour (2017)
 * Summer of Steps Tour (2018)
 * What the Future Holds Tour (2021)
 * 25th Anniversary Summer Tour (2022)

Opening act

 * ...Baby One More Time Tour (opened for Britney Spears) (1999)

title: Steps (pop group)


text:
Talk:Pedro II do Brasil

I have moved this page to the Portuguese Wikipedia. You will have to import the pictures there, but all of the text is there already. This is the English Wikipedia, so texts in Portuguese don't really belong here. To find it in Portuguese, click on the link above the English-language version Pedro II of Brazil or here 1 Thanks. Danny 13:12, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Pedro II do Brasil


text:
Talk:Charles C. Krulak

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.133.108.214 (talk • contribs) 13:12, 7 March 2004

..do we really need such detailed cv´s here? The only thing I can read from that is, that he made a normal carreer. Is that so special?

Untitled

 * He was Commandant of the Marine Corps, not just "normal career". — ERcheck (talk) 00:06, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Is this the same Charles Krulak that patrolled with Moshe Dayan? KAM 00:34, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Seems so. See  — ERcheck (talk) 01:35, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Charles C. Krulak


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Talk:Mount Tambora

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 13:56, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Tambora-Vesuv.jpg

Time of Year
The eruption occurred in April 1815, but the Northern Hemisphere "year without a summer" was 1816. This suggests that the global distribution of ash and dust took more than 3 months; otherwise 1815 would (also) be notable as much cooler than normal. Can anyone clarify the spread and dissipation timeline, at least in terms of weather records? Martindo (talk) 21:54, 27 July 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Mount Tambora


text:
User:Perrak

Hello,

since I'm from Germany, you can find my page at http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Perrak

de:Benutzer:Perrak

title: User:Perrak


text:
User:Rabbit1997

Tracy Sun, Chinese name 孙凌青(Sun Lingqing) is from Shanghai,China, and she is currently living in Portland, Oregon.

Tracy got her Bachelor's degree in MIS from Fudan University,China, and her Master's degree in Information System Management from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,USA.

title: User:Rabbit1997


text:
The UNIX-HATERS Handbook

The UNIX-HATERS Handbook is a semi-humorous edited compilation of messages to the UNIX-HATERS mailing list. The book was edited by Simson Garfinkel, Daniel Weise and Steven Strassmann and published in 1994.

Contents
The book concerns the frustrations of users of the Unix operating system. Many users had come from systems that they felt were far more sophisticated in features and usability, and they were frustrated by the perceived "worse is better" design philosophy that they felt Unix and much of its software encapsulated.

The book is based on messages sent to the UNIX-HATERS mailing list between 1988 and 1993, and contains a foreword by the human factors guru Don Norman and an "anti-foreword" by Dennis Ritchie, one of the creators of the operating system.

Many of the book's complaints about the Unix operating system are based on design decisions and anomalies in the command-line interface.

The front-matter page's dedication says: "To Ken and Dennis, without whom this book would not have been possible.", referring to Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, the creators of Unix.

Release
This book was printed as a trade paperback. Its front cover was designed to be similar to The Scream. An air sickness bag, printed with the phrase "UNIX barf bag", was inserted into the inside back cover of every copy by the publisher.

The book was made available to download for free in electronic format in 2003.

Reception
Later reviewers of the book have noted that some issues were resolved in the future, such as the development of the ext2 filesystem addressing the discussed lack of block storage.

title: The UNIX-HATERS Handbook


text:
Chic Young

Murat Bernard "Chic" Young (January 9, 1901 – March 14, 1973) was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip Blondie. His 1919 William McKinley High School Yearbook cites his nickname as Chicken, source of his familiar pen name and signature. According to King Features Syndicate, Young had a daily readership of 52 million. Stan Drake, who drew Blondie in the 1980s and 1990s, stated that Young "has to go down in history as one of the geniuses of the industry."

Comic strips
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young began drawing with the encouragement of his mother, who was an artist. Although his father James was a shoe salesman who didn't think much of artists, all of the children in the family were creative: Walter was a painter, daughter Jamar entered the commercial art field and Lyman, Chic's older brother, drew the Tim Tyler's Luck comic strip for King Features. It was Lyman who spurred Chic to constantly draw.

Chic Young grew up in a German-Lutheran neighborhood on the south side of St. Louis. After graduating from high school in St. Louis, he returned to Chicago where he worked as a stenographer while taking night classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1921, he learned that the Newspaper Enterprise Association was seeking an artist to do a comic strip about an attractive young woman. He headed for Cleveland and earned a weekly salary of $22 while drawing The Affairs of Jane about a struggling film actress who dreamed of graduating from low-budget pictures to stardom. The short-lived strip, which began in 1921 on Halloween, came to a conclusion five months later on March 18, 1922. In the NEA art department, Young worked near cartoonist Gene Ahern, and the two often played pranks on each other. When a call came from King Features' J. Gortatowski offering an annual salary of $10,000, Young thought it was a prank and turned down the job. Looking for work later, he applied to Gortatowski and learned the call was legitimate.

After six months in Cleveland, Young left for New York where he created another female flapper strip, Beautiful Bab, which the Bell Syndicate began distributing on July 15, 1922. It ran for only four months but landed him a job in the art department of King Features Syndicate, mainly as an assistant to cartoonist Jack Callahan, adopting his drawing and storytelling styles. In 1924, he began Dumb Dora, about brunette Dora who "wasn't as dumb as she looked."

In 1927, Young married professional harpist Athel Lindorff (d. 1979). In the spring of 1930, after six years of Dumb Dora's increasing popularity, Young requested more money and strip ownership. This action led to changes, and Paul Fung took over Dumb Dora in April 1930 when Young dropped it to create a new strip.

Blondie
In the summer of 1930, working in his studio in Great Neck, Long Island, Young created Blondie. When it debuted September 8, 1930, it quickly became the most popular comic strip in America, gaining even more readers when Blondie and Dagwood married in 1933, followed by the 1934 birth of Baby Dumpling (later known as Alexander). When his first son, Wayne, died of diphtheria in 1937, Young took a year's hiatus; the experience made it difficult for him to draw Baby Dumpling. After Young and his wife spent a year traveling in Europe, he began Blondie once again, quelling rumors that he might not return to the strip.

With films, radio, television and products, the strip became a licensing and media bonanza that made Young a wealthy man. During his lifetime, he produced more than 15,000 Blondie strips. Described by former King Features president Joseph Connelly as "the greatest story teller of his kind since the immortal Charles Dickens," Young at his peak received more fan mail than any other cartoonist. His other works include the strip Colonel Potterby and the Duchess, which ran as a topper strip on the Blondie page from 1935 through 1963.

Young worked with several assistants, including Alex Raymond and Ray McGill. Alex Raymond's younger brother, Jim Raymond, who began as Young's assistant in 1935, took over all the art in 1950 when Young's eyesight began to fail.

, Blondie is written by Chic Young's son, Dean Young, and illustrated by John Marshall.

Personal life
Living in suburban New Rochelle, New York, Chic and Athel had two other children, Dean and Jeanne. In 1939, Young relocated his family to California to be more closely involved with the popular Blondie film series for Columbia Pictures. In the early 1950s, the entire family vacationed in Paris, and a few years later, they moved to Florida, prompting his comment, "We reside on a little island off the west coast of Florida, where the porpoises and pelicans entertain me while I work on the strip. Hobbies? Oh, fishing, golf, very amateurish Oriental cooking and such nonsense."

Young died of a pulmonary embolism on March 14, 1973, at the Apollo Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, at the age of 72. He had been in ill health for some time, remaining near his home in Clearwater Beach, Florida.

Awards
Chic Young received the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for Blondie in 1948, only one of many awards.

title: Chic Young


text:
Italian orthography

Italian orthography (the conventions used in writing Italian) uses the Latin alphabet to write the Italian language. This article focuses on the writing of Standard Italian, based historically on the Florentine dialect, and not the other Italian dialects.

Written Italian is very regular and almost completely phonemic – having an almost one-to-one correspondence between letters (or sequences of letters) and sounds (or sequences of sounds). The main exceptions are that stress placement and vowel quality (for and ) are not notated,  and  may be voiced or not,  and  may represent vowels or semivowels, and a silent  is used in a very few cases other than the digraphs  and  (used for the hard  and  sounds before  and ).

Alphabet
The base alphabet consists of 21 letters: five vowels (A, E, I, O, U) and 16 consonants. The letters J, K, W, X and Y are not part of the proper alphabet, but appear in loanwords (e.g. "jeans", "weekend"), foreign names, some scientific terms (e.g. km) and in a handful of native words – such as the names Kalsa, Jesolo, Bettino Craxi, and Cybo, which all derive from regional languages. In addition, grave and acute accents may modify vowel letters; circumflex accent is much rarer and is found only in older texts.

Double consonants represent true geminates and are pronounced as such: anno "year", pronounced (cf. English ten nails). The short–long length contrast is phonemic, e.g. ritto "upright" vs. rito  "rite, ritual", carro  "cart, wagon" vs. caro  "dear, expensive".

Vowels
The Italian alphabet has five vowel letters, $⟨a e i o u⟩$. Of those, only $⟨a⟩$ represents one sound value, while all others have two. In addition, $⟨e⟩$ and $⟨i⟩$ indicate a different pronunciation of a preceding $⟨c⟩$ or $⟨g⟩$ (see below).

In stressed syllables, $⟨e⟩$ represents both open and close. Similarly, $⟨o⟩$ represents both open and close  (see Italian phonology for further details on those sounds). There is typically no orthographic distinction between the open and close sounds represented, though accent marks are used in certain instances (see below). There are some minimal pairs, called heteronyms, where the same spelling is used for distinct words with distinct vowel sounds. In unstressed syllables, only the close variants occur.

In addition to representing the vowels and, $⟨i⟩$ and $⟨u⟩$ also typically represent the semivowels  and , when unstressed and occurring before another vowel. Many exceptions exist (e.g., , , , , , , , , , , ). An $⟨i⟩$ may indicate that a preceding $⟨c⟩$ or $⟨g⟩$ is "soft".

C and G
The letters $⟨c⟩$ and $⟨g⟩$ represent the plosives and  before $⟨r⟩$ and before the vowels $⟨a⟩$, $⟨o⟩$, $⟨u⟩$. They represent the affricates and  when they precede a front vowel ($⟨i⟩$ or $⟨e⟩$).

The letter $⟨i⟩$ can also function within digraphs (two letters representing one sound) $⟨ci⟩$ and $⟨gi⟩$ to indicate "soft" (affricate) or  before another vowel. In these instances, the vowel following the digraph is stressed, and $⟨i⟩$ represents no vowel sound: ciò, giù. An item such as CIA "CIA", pronounced with  stressed, contains no digraph.

For words of more than one syllable, stress position must be known in order to distinguish between digraph $⟨ci⟩$ or $⟨gi⟩$ containing no actual phonological vowel and sequences of affricate and stressed. For example, the words camicia "shirt" and farmacia "pharmacy" share the spelling $⟨-cia⟩$, but contrast in that only the first $⟨i⟩$ is stressed in camicia, thus $⟨-cia⟩$ represents with no  sound (likewise, grigio ends in  and the names Gianni and Gianna contain only two actual vowels:, ). In farmacia is stressed, so that $⟨ci⟩$ is not a digraph, but represents two of the three constituents of.

When the "hard" (plosive) pronunciation or  occurs before a front vowel $⟨i⟩$ or $⟨e⟩$, digraphs $⟨ch⟩$ and $⟨gh⟩$ are used, so that $⟨che⟩$ represents  or  and $⟨chi⟩$ represents  or. The same principle applies to $⟨gh⟩$: $⟨ghe⟩$ and $⟨ghi⟩$ represent or  and  or.

In the evolution from Latin to Italian, the postalveolar affricates and  were contextual variants of the velar consonants  and. They eventually came to be full phonemes, and orthographic adjustments were introduced to distinguish them. The phonemicity of the affricates can be demonstrated with minimal pairs:

The trigraphs $⟨i⟩$ and $⟨e⟩$ are used to indicate geminate and, when they occur before $⟨cch⟩$ or $⟨ggh⟩$; e.g.   "eyes",   "to dress up". The double letters $⟨i⟩$ and $⟨e⟩$ before $⟨cc⟩$ or $⟨gg⟩$ and $⟨i⟩$ and $⟨e⟩$ before other vowels represent the geminated affricates and, e. g.  "hedgehog",  "worse".

$⟨cci⟩$ joins with $⟨ggi⟩$ to form a digraph representing palatal before $⟨g⟩$ (before other vowels, the trigraph $⟨l⟩$ is used), and with $⟨i⟩$ to represent  with any vowel following. Between vowels these are pronounced phonetically long, as in aglio "garlic",  ogni "each". By way of exception, $⟨gli⟩$ before $⟨n⟩$ represents in some words derived from Greek, such as  "wisteria", from learned Latin, such as  "negligent", and in a few adaptations from other languages such as glissando, partially italianised from French glissant. $⟨gl⟩$ before vowels other than $⟨i⟩$ represents straightforward.

The digraph $⟨gl⟩$ is used before $⟨i⟩$ and $⟨sc⟩$ to represent ; before other vowels, $⟨e⟩$ is used for. Otherwise, $⟨i⟩$ represents, the $⟨sci⟩$ of which follows the normal orthographic rules explained above.

Intervocalic, , and are always geminated and no orthographic distinction is made to indicate this.

Some words are spelled with $⟨sc⟩$, $⟨c⟩$, and $⟨i e⟩$. Historically, the letters $⟨cie⟩$ in these combinations represented a diphthong, but in modern pronunciation these combinations are indistinguishable from $⟨gie⟩$, $⟨scie⟩$, and $⟨ie⟩$. Notable examples: cieco "blind" (homophonous with ceco "Czech"), cielo  "sky" (homophonous with celo "I conceal"), scienza  "science".

The plurals of words ending in -, - are written with -, - if preceded by a vowel (camicia "skirt" → camicie "skirts", valigia "suitcase" → valigie "suitcases") or with -, - if preceded by a consonant (provincia "province" → province "provinces"). This rule has been established since the 1950s; prior to that, etymological spellings such as valige and provincie were in use.

The letter combination $⟨ce⟩$ is pronounced the same as $⟨ge⟩$ and occurs when the ending -iamo (1st person plural present indicative and 1st person plural present subjunctive) or -iate (2nd person plural present subjunctive) is attached to a stem ending in $⟨sce⟩$: sognare "to dream" → sogniamo "we dream".

C and Q
Normally is represented by $⟨gnia⟩$, but it is represented by $⟨gna⟩$ in some words, such as, , , ,  and. These words all contain a sequence derived from an original  which was subsequently diphthongised. The sequence is always spelled $⟨gn⟩$ (e.g. ), with exceptions being spelled $⟨qu⟩$ in the words, its derivation , and  and , two alternative forms of  or.

S and Z
$⟨cu⟩$ and $⟨cqu⟩$ are ambiguous to voicing.

$⟨qqu⟩$ represents a dental sibilant consonant, either or. However, these two phonemes are in complementary distribution everywhere except between two vowels in the same word and, even with such words, there are very few minimal pairs.
 * The voiceless occurs:
 * At the start of a word before a vowel (e.g. ) or a voiceless consonant (e.g.  )
 * After any consonant (e.g. )
 * Before a voiceless consonant (e.g. )
 * At the start of the second part of a compound word (e.g., , , , , ). These words are formed by adding a prefix to a word beginning with
 * The voiced occurs before voiced consonants (e.g.  ).
 * It can be either voiceless or voiced ( or ) between vowels; in standard Tuscany-based pronunciation some words are pronounced with between vowels (e.g., , , , , , , , ), but most words are pronounced with  (e.g. , , , , ); in Northern Italy (and also increasingly in Tuscany) $⟨s⟩$ between vowels is always pronounced with  whereas in Southern Italy $⟨z⟩$ between vowels is always pronounced.

$⟨s⟩$ always represents voiceless :,  ,  , etc.

$⟨s⟩$ represents a dental affricate consonant; either  or , depending on context, though there are few minimal pairs.
 * It is normally voiceless :
 * At the start of a word in which the second syllable starts with a voiceless consonant
 * Exceptions (because they are of Greek origin):, , , , ,
 * When followed by an $⟨s⟩$ which is followed, in turn, by another vowel (e.g.,  ,  )
 * Exceptions:, all words derived from words obeying other rules (e.g.  , which is derived from )
 * After the letter $⟨ss⟩$ (e.g. )
 * Exceptions:  and
 * In the suffixes -anza, -enza and -onzolo (e.g.,  ,  )
 * It is normally voiced :
 * At the start of a word in which the second syllable starts with a voiced consonant or the letter $⟨z⟩$ itself (e.g.,  )
 * Exceptions: ,
 * At the start of a word when followed by two vowels (e.g. )
 * Exceptions: and its derived terms (see above)
 * If it is single (not doubled) and between two single vowels (e.g. )
 * Exceptions:  (from the German pronunciation of $⟨i⟩$)

Between vowels and/or semivowels ( and ), $⟨l⟩$ is pronounced as if doubled ( or, e.g. ,  ). Generally, intervocalic z is written doubled, but it is written single in most words where it precedes $⟨z⟩$ followed by any vowel and in some learned words.

$⟨z⟩$ may represent either a voiceless alveolar affricate or its voiced counterpart : voiceless in e.g. ,  ,  ,  , voiced in  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,. Most words are consistently pronounced with or  throughout Italy in the standard language (e.g.   "magpie",   "mug"), but a few words, such as  "effervesce, sting", exist in both voiced and voiceless forms, differing by register or by geographic area, while others have different meanings depending on whether they are pronounced in voiced or voiceless form (e.g. :  (race, breed) or  (ray, skate)). The verbal ending -izzare from Greek -ίζειν is always pronounced (e.g.  ), maintained in both inflected forms and derivations:   "I organise",   "organisation". Like above, however, not all verbs ending in -izzare continue suffixed Greek -ίζειν, having instead -izz- as part of the verb stem. , for example, of Latin origin reconstructed as * INDIRECTIARE, has in all forms containing the root indirizz-.

Silent H
In addition to being used to indicate a hard $⟨z⟩$ or $⟨i⟩$ before front vowels (see above), $⟨zz⟩$ is used to distinguish, , , (present indicative of , "to have") from  ("or"),  ("to the", m. pl.),  ("to"),  ("year"); since $⟨c⟩$ is always silent, there is no difference in the pronunciation of such words. The letter $⟨g⟩$ is also used in some interjections, where it always comes immediately after the first vowel in the word (e.g., , , ). In filler words and  both ⟨h⟩ and the preceding vowel are silent. ⟨h⟩ is used in some loanwords, by far the most common of which is, but also handicap, habitat, hardware, hall "lobby, foyer", hamburger, horror, hobby. Silent $⟨h⟩$ is also found in some Italian toponyms: Chorio, Dho, Hano, Mathi, Noha, Proh, Rho, Roghudi, Santhià, Tharros, Thiene, Thiesi, Thurio, Vho; and surnames: Dahò, Dehò, De Bartholomaeis, De Thomasis, Matthey, Rahò, Rhodio, Tha, Thei, Theodoli, Thieghi, Thiella, Thiglia, Tholosano, Thomatis, Thorel, Thovez.

J, K, W, X and Y
The letter (I lunga "long I" or gei) is not considered part of the standard Italian alphabet; however, it is used in some Latin words, in proper nouns (such as Jesi, Letojanni, Juventus, etc.), in words borrowed from foreign languages (most common: jeans, but also jazz, jet, jeep, banjo), and in an archaic spelling of Italian.

Until the 19th century, $⟨h⟩$ was used in Italian instead of $⟨h⟩$ in word-initial rising diphthongs, as a replacement for final -, and between vowels (as in Savoja); this rule was quite strict in official writing.

The letter $⟨h⟩$ represents in Latin and Italian and dialect words such as Romanesco dialect ajo  ("garlic"; cf. Italian aglio ); it represents  in borrowings from English (including judo, borrowed from Japanese via English); and  in borrowings from French (julienne, bijou).

The letters (cappa),  (V doppia or doppia V, "double V"),  (ics) and  (ipsilon or I greca "Greek I") are not part of the standard Italian alphabet and are used only in unassimilated or partially assimilated loanwords.

The letter $⟨j⟩$ is used in karma, kayak, kiwi, kamikaze, etc.; it is always pronounced. It is often used informally among young people as a replacement for $⟨i⟩$, paralleling the use of $⟨j⟩$ in English (for example, ke instead of che).

The letter $⟨k⟩$ is used in web, whisky, water "water closet / toilet", western "Western movie", watt, etc; it is alternately pronounced (in web, whisky, western) or  (in water, watt). A capital is used as an abbreviation of viva or evviva ("long live"). Although $⟨ch⟩$ is named V doppia or doppia V, in initialisms such as B. M. W., T. W. A., W. W. F., W. C., www it is normally read simply as vu.

The letter $⟨k⟩$ represents either, as in extra, uxorio, xilofono, or when it is preceded by $⟨w⟩$ and followed by a vowel, e.g. exoterico. In most words, it may be replaced with or  (with different pronunciation: xilofono/silofono, taxi/tassì) or, rarely, by  (with the same pronunciation: claxon/clacson). In some other languages of Italy, it represents (Venetian),  (Sicilian), or  (Sardinian and Ligurian).

The letter $⟨w⟩$ is used in yoga, yogurt, yacht, Uruguay, etc. This letter is sometimes replaced by $⟨x⟩$ in some words like yoga/ioga and yogurt/iogurt, but the spellings with $⟨e⟩$ are much more common.

Diacritics
The acute accent (´) may be used on $⟨y⟩$ and $⟨i⟩$ to represent stressed close-mid vowels. This use of accents is generally mandatory only to indicate stress on a word-final vowel; elsewhere, accents are generally found only in dictionaries. Since final $⟨y⟩$ is hardly ever close-mid, $⟨é⟩$ is very rarely encountered in written Italian (e.g. "subway", from the original French pronunciation of  with a final-stressed ).

The grave accent (`) is found on $⟨ó⟩$, $⟨o⟩$, $⟨ó⟩$, $⟨à⟩$, $⟨è⟩$. It may be used on $⟨ì⟩$ and $⟨ò⟩$ when they represent open-mid vowels. The accents may also be used to differentiate minimal pairs within Italian (for example "peach" vs.  "fishing"), but in practice this is limited to didactic texts. In the case of final $⟨ù⟩$ and $⟨è⟩$, both diacritics are encountered. By far the most common option is the grave accent, $⟨ò⟩$ and $⟨ì⟩$, though this may be due to the rarity of the acute accent to represent stress; the alternative of employing the acute, $⟨ù⟩$ and $⟨ì⟩$, is in practice limited to erudite texts, but can be justified as both vowels are high (as in Catalan). However, since there are no corresponding low (or lax) vowels to contrast with in Italian, both choices are equally acceptable.

The circumflex accent (ˆ) can be used to mark the contraction of two unstressed vowels ending a word, normally pronounced, so that the plural of  "study, office" may be written $⟨ù⟩$, $⟨í⟩$ or $⟨ú⟩$. The form with circumflex is found mainly in older texts, though it may still appear in contexts where ambiguity might arise from homography. For example, it can be used to differentiate words like ("genes", plural of ) and  ("geniuses", plural of ) or  ("princes", plural of ) and  ("principles", plural of ). In general, current usage usually prefers a single $⟨studi⟩$ instead of a double $⟨studii⟩$ or an $⟨studî⟩$ with circumflex.

Monosyllabic words generally lack an accent (e.g., ). The accent is written, however, if there is an $⟨i⟩$ or a $⟨ii⟩$ preceding another vowel. This applies even if the $⟨î⟩$ is "silent", i.e. part of the digraphs $⟨i⟩$ or $⟨u⟩$ representing and. It does not apply, however, if the word begins with $⟨i⟩$. Many monosyllabic words are spelled with an accent in order to avoid ambiguity with other words (e.g., versus , ). This is known as accento distintivo and also occurs in other Romance languages (e.g. the Spanish tilde diacrítica).

Sample text
"Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita

mi ritrovai per una selva oscura

ché la diritta via era smarrita."

Lines 1–3 of Canto 1 of the Inferno, Part 1 of the Divina Commedia by Dante Alighieri, a highly influential poem. Translation (Longfellow): "Midway upon the journey of our life \ I found myself in a dark wood \ for the straight way was lost."

title: Italian orthography


text:
Senyera

The Senyera (meaning "pennon", "standard", "banner", "ensign", or, more generically, "flag" in Catalan) is a vexillological symbol based on the coat of arms of the Crown of Aragon, which consists of four red stripes on a yellow field. This coat of arms, often called bars of Aragon, or simply "the four bars", historically represented the King of the Crown of Aragon.

The senyera pattern is currently in the flag of four Spanish autonomous communities (Aragon, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Community), and is the flag of the historically Catalan-speaking city of Alghero (Catalan: L'Alguer) in Sardinia. It is also used on the coat of arms of Spain, the coat of arms of Pyrénées-Orientales and of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the flag of Roussillon, Capcir, Vallespir, and Provence in France, one quarter of the coat of arms of Andorra, and on the local flags of many municipalities belonging to these territories. The Senyera (sometimes together with the flag of Andorra) is also used informally in Catalonia to represent the Catalan language.

It is also a synonym (in Catalan Senyal Reial or Senyera and old Spanish Señal Real or Señera) for Royal Flag, although the word normally refers to the Aragonese and Catalan flags. Also in Aragonese, it is usually referred to as O Sinyal d'Aragón, i.e. "The Sign of Aragón".

Origin and history
The Senyera is one of the oldest flags in Europe still used in the present. There are several theories advocating either a purely Aragonese or a purely Catalan origin for the symbol.

The Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa states that its first material undisputed evidence dates back to a royal seal of Alfonso II of Aragon (1159), and that all evidence about a "Catalan" origin is debatable since historically nothing can be accepted other than the concept of "barcelonès", and understanding that as allusive to the House of Barcelona (Counts of Barcelona), and then, nothing referring to the ancient geographical area known as Cathalania, Catalonie (Catalonia) where the County of Barcelona was found.

The Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana (1968) claims that the first appearance of the flag is in the arms of the tomb of Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona, died in 1082 as well as later in the seals of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona of Barcelona and III of Provence in Provençal (1150) and then in Catalan (1157) documents.

Besides, amongst the ancient manuscripts preserved today in Poblet Monastery is found a carte plegada on son tots los Reys d'Arago e Comtes de Barchinona figurats, a genealogical roll of the Kings of Aragon and Counts of Barcelona commissioned between 1396 and 1400 by King Martin I of Aragon. In the document, the four red stripes on a golden background appears only in the royal images painted of Wilfred the Hairy Count of Barcelona (878–897), Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona (1131–1162), King Martin I of Aragon (1356–1410) and King Martin I of Sicily (1390–1409). So it may suggest the Four Red Bars on Golden Background emblem was believed to belong to the House of Barcelona and the Counts of Barcelona in times of the initial dynasty (1164–1410) who ruled the Crown of Aragon.

Furthermore, the Pennon of the Conquest of Valencia is documented as the world's oldest extant flag, dating from 1238, even though the yellow part was originally white, but the red stripes design was the same.

The Government of Catalonia states about its official symbols that it may derive from 11th century or 12th century pre-heraldic symbols and the County of Barcelona's coat of arms, in which the yellow and red bars were vertical, while horizontal in the flag. The dynastic coat of arms became also the one for the lands ruled by the counts. It is thus present in the flags and shields of the territories that once were part of the Crown of Aragon and also in the arms of Andorra, Provence-Côte d'Azur and Sicily among others.

Another version is that the Kings of Aragon used and adopted the colours of the Papal States in their own coat of arms as a public and notorious submission to the Pope, something which the County of Barcelona would have followed shortly after according to this version. The colours for the city of Rome, which in those times was controlled by the Pope, were the same. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the flag of the Holy See's Navy from the 12th century on consisted of two vertical red and yellow bands, sometimes bearing the tiara and the keys. According to the Vatican official website, the yellow and red of the flag of the Holy See were two colours traditional of the Roman Senate and People. This ancient flag can still be seen on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, near the Roman Forum. The Papal States changed its colours in 1808 to the present yellow and white, while the City of Rome sticks to the old colours to this day. We can reject this theory based on the works of Geronimo de Blancas, chronicler of the Kingdom of Aragon, 1585. This author reports that Pope Innocent III after crowning the King Pedro II (the Catholic) accepted that Aragon was a tributary kingdom of the Apostolic See. To compensate for this gesture the Pope appointed King Peter II Gonfalonier of the Church and that the Church's banner had the colours of the crown of Aragon.

The Almogavars of the Catalan Company used a royal pennon with the arms of the Kings of Aragon when campaigning in the Byzantine Empire. It was used as ensign of the Aragonese Navy from 1263 to 1516. The plain version of this was used as official flag of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia during the Second Spanish Republic and since the Spanish transition to democracy. In its plain version, it is also used in the French département of Pyrénées-Orientales (Northern Catalonia), part of the former Principality of Catalonia until 1659. It is also used as the flag of Provence, a distinct region with historic ties to the Counts of Barcelona and the Crown of Aragon.

The blazon of this standard version is Or, four bars Gules.

Modern usage
The senyera pattern is nowadays in the flag of four Spanish autonomous communities: without any change for Catalonia, and, with variations, for the territories of the former kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon: Aragon proper, the Balearic Islands and Valencia (while the latter two are modern interpretations, the Valencian Senyera Coronada does originate back to medieval times). It also forms the basis of various unofficial versions, such as the blue or red estelada used by Catalan independence supporters.

The senyera is also the basis for the coat of arms of Pyrénées-Orientales, the flag of the pays of Roussillon in France, and one quarter of the Coat of arms of Andorra. Dozens of municipalities belonging to these territories base their local flags on the Senyera as well.

Origin legends
According to a 14th-century legend, the flag dates back from the 9th century, when the four red bars were drawn, as an act of gratitude, on Wilfred I the Hairy's (Count of Barcelona) golden shield by king Charles the Bald's fingers drenched with blood from the Count's war wounds prior to Wilfred's death in 897 during the siege of Barcelona by Lobo ibn Mohammed, the Moorish governor of Lleida. This legend would relate the emblem unambiguously to the Counts of Barcelona title. However, Charles the Bald had died 20 years earlier, in 877. Romantic-driven Catalan nationalists were particularly keen on this legend during the Renaixença, in the 19th century, albeit it has always been recognized and divulged as such even in patriotic circles.

Another version of this legend cites Louis the Pious as the king drawing the bars during the conquest of Barcelona, in this version drawing them in a golden shield, but Louis died before Guifré was born. Also, Barcelona was conquered long before the events described on the legend. Another medieval variant of the legend features Ramon Berenguer painting the bars with his own blood on a yellow shield, with the yellow field of the shield being the arms of Aragon before his marriage.

Variations
There are a few variations in the official flags of other territories. For instance, in Aragon an extra coat-of-arms, in Balearic Islands a castle in the canton, and in València a blue crowned fringe on the hoist.

Current official territorial flags

title: Senyera