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Fanny and Alexander

Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) is a 1982 period drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. The plot focuses on two siblings and their large family in Uppsala, Sweden during the first decade of the twentieth century. Following the death of the children's father (Allan Edwall), their mother (Ewa Fröling) remarries a prominent bishop (Jan Malmsjö) who becomes abusive towards Alexander for his vivid imagination.

Bergman intended Fanny and Alexander to be his final picture before retiring, and his script is semi-autobiographical. The characters Alexander, Fanny and stepfather Edvard are based on himself, his sister Margareta and his father Erik Bergman, respectively. Many of the scenes were filmed on location in Uppsala. The documentary film The Making of Fanny and Alexander was made simultaneously with the feature and chronicles its production.

The production was originally conceived as a television miniseries and cut in that version, spanning 312 minutes; a 188-minute cut version was created later for cinematic release, although this version was in fact the one to be released first. The television version has since been released as a complete film, and both versions have been shown in theaters throughout the world. The 312-minute cut is one of the longest cinematic films in history.

The theatrical version was released to universal critical acclaim. It won four Academy Awards, including for Best Foreign Language Film; three Guldbagge Awards, including Best Film; and other honours. Fanny and Alexander was followed by stage adaptations and further semi-autobiographical screenplays by Bergman, released as films in 1992: The Best Intentions, directed by Bille August, and Sunday's Children, directed by Daniel Bergman. On both review websites Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic it is the highest-rated film of the 1980s, and has since then been regarded as one of Bergman's finest works, one of the greatest works of Swedish cinema, and of the 1980s and beyond.

Plot
In 1907, young Alexander, his sister Fanny, and their well-to-do family, the Ekdahls, live in a Swedish town, running a moderately profitable theatre. At Christmastime, the Ekdahls hold a Nativity play and later a large Christmas party. The siblings' parents, Emilie and Oscar, are happily married until Oscar suddenly dies from a stroke. Shortly thereafter, Emilie marries Edvard Vergérus, the local bishop and a widower, and moves into his home where he lives with his mother, sister, aunt, and maids.

Emilie initially expects that she will be able to carry over the free, joyful qualities of her previous home into the marriage, but realises that Edvard's harsh authoritarian policies are unshakable. The relationship between the bishop and Alexander is especially cold, as Alexander invents stories, for which Edvard punishes him severely. As a result, Emilie asks for a divorce, which Edvard will not consent to; though she may leave the marriage, this would be legally considered desertion, placing the children in his custody. Meanwhile, the rest of the Ekdahl family has begun to worry about their condition, and Emilie secretly visits her former mother-in-law, Helena, revealing she is pregnant.

During Emilie's absence, Edvard confines the children to their bedroom, ostensibly for their safety. There, Alexander shares a story, claiming he was visited by the ghosts of the Vergérus family, who revealed the bishop was responsible for their deaths. The maid Justina reports the story to Edvard, who responds with corporal punishment. After Emilie returns, the Ekdahl family friend Isak Jacobi helps smuggle the children from the house. They live temporarily with Isak and his nephews in their store.

Emilie's former brothers-in-law confront Edvard to negotiate a divorce, using the children, the bishop's debts, and the threat of a public scandal for leverage, but Edvard is unmoved.

Emilie, now in the later stages of her pregnancy, refuses to restore the children to Edvard's home. Emilie allows Edvard to drink a large dosage of her bromide sedative. She explains to him, as the medication takes effect, that she intends to flee the home as he sleeps. He threatens to follow her family and ruin their lives, but falls unconscious. After she escapes, Edvard's dying Aunt Elsa accidentally overturns a gas lamp, setting her bedclothes, nightgown, and hair on fire. Engulfed in flames, she runs through the house, seeking Edvard's help, but he, too, is set aflame. Although partially incapacitated by the sedative, he is able to disentangle himself from Aunt Elsa, but is badly burned and dies shortly thereafter.

Alexander had fantasised about his stepfather's death while living with Isak and his nephews Aron and Ismael Retzinsky. The mysterious Ismael explains that fantasy can become true as he dreams it.

The Ekdahl family reunites for the christening celebration of Emilie's and the late bishop's daughter as well as the extra-marital daughter of Alexander's uncle, Gustav Adolf, and the family maid, Maj. Alexander encounters the ghost of the bishop who knocks him to the floor, and tells him that he will never be free. Emilie, having inherited the theatre, hands Helena a copy of August Strindberg's play A Dream Play to read and tells her that they should perform it together onstage. Initially scoffing at the idea and declaring Strindberg a "misogynist," Helena takes to the idea and begins reading it to a sleeping Alexander.

Cast
The cast consists of:

The Ekdahl house

The Bishop's house

Jacobi's house

The Theatre

Development
Director Ingmar Bergman conceived of Fanny and Alexander while working on his 1980 film From the Life of the Marionettes, and wrote the screenplay at Fårö in summer 1979. Bergman intended Fanny and Alexander to be his last feature film, but he wrote several screenplays afterwards and directed for television. He told the press he decided to retire, because, "I don't have the strength any more, neither psychologically nor physically". The screenplay was semi-autobiographical, attempting to portray Bergman's fondest memories in what he called a "happy and privileged" childhood; Alexander himself was meant as a representation of the young Ingmar. His recollections of his grandmother's home were a particular inspiration. He commented on his boyhood: "It was difficult to differentiate between what was fantasy and what was considered real. If I made an effort, I was perhaps able to make reality stay real. But, for instance, there were ghosts and specters. What should I do with them? And the sagas, were they real?" Bergman also recalled receiving his own magic lantern at age 10, from his aunt; in his autobiography, he described it as personally significant, and previously depicted a magic lantern in his 1972 Cries and Whispers.

However, the Ekdahls do not entirely match the Bergmans. Ingmar's relationship with his sister Margareta during their shared childhood is depicted through the character Fanny, who is included in the title though she is not as large a character as Alexander. Bergman had previously modeled characters after his mother, Karin Åkerblom, as simultaneously "virgin and seductress": Emilie also fits that self-contradictory design.

Margareta and Ingmar's father was the strict Erik Bergman, a Lutheran pastor. Edvard is based on Erik, and like Edvard, Erik was raised in a family almost completely made up of women. Erik and Ingmar also often conflicted over "truth" and honesty, much as Edvard and Alexander do. The story Alexander tells of being sold to a circus resembles one Ingmar had told as a boy, and he was accosted by Erik much as Edvard lectures Alexander. However, Bergman also stated that "It has been suggested ... that 12-year-old Alexander is my alter-ego. But this is not quite true. Fanny and Alexander is a story, the chronicle of a middle-class, perhaps upper-middle-class family sticking closely together ... There's a lot of me in the Bishop, rather than in Alexander. He is haunted by his own devils".

Bergman proposed the project to producer Jörn Donner, who said he could provide the budget if all production and costume design crew would be Swedish. Bergman initially doubted that Sweden alone had the manpower, but eventually caved, Donner said. The estimated budget of 40 million SEK made it the most costly Swedish film ever. To raise the $6 million, Donner and the Swedish Film Institute partnered with the French company Gaumont and West German TV. Bergman completed the screenplay by October 1980 and assembled a budget of $7 million, according to New York.

Casting
The project was announced in October 1980 with Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow and Erland Josephson in lead roles; von Sydow was cast as Edvard, the bishop who Ingmar told the press resembled Erik Bergman. However, negotiations to secure von Sydow became troubled as he continued to act more in productions beyond Sweden, and as his agent demanded a larger salary. Edvard was recast with Jan Malmsjö, whom Bergman had worked with before in Scenes from a Marriage. In 1981, Ullmann also rejected the role of Emilie, due to a scheduling conflict, though in 2013 she remarked "I still don't know why I did that".

Bertil Guve was 10 when cast as Alexander. Bergman had seen Guve in a television film by Lasse Hallström and called for an audition with Guve, though the boy did not know who Bergman was. Bergman ultimately cast Guve, without sharing the story of Fanny and Alexander with him, recognising his imagination when he told a story about killing his own grandfather during the audition. Guve also said, "I asked Ingmar later why he chose me. He said it was because I acted with my eyes". Child actress Pernilla Allwin was cast as Fanny, and she and Guve regarded each other as rivals when they first met and began working; Bergman identified with this sibling rivalry.

Other actors, like Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, and Jarl Kulle, had previously appeared in Bergman's filmography. Björnstrand was developing Alzheimer's syndrome, making it difficult for him to memorise his dialogue, but he was still awarded a small role. Veteran actress Gunn Wållgren was cast as Helena, despite the fact that she was suffering from cancer, often concealing her pain during shots. Fanny and Alexander marked the final film appearances of both Björnstrand and Wållgren.

Pernilla Wallgren (later August) was cast, out of a state school where she was studying the stage, for what became her breakthrough role. August later explained she received a message inviting her to read the screenplay, and she did not know how the filmmakers knew of her. She had developed an interest in acting after seeing Bergman's Cries and Whispers, and wanted a part like Kari Sylwan's in a film one day. Bergman also cast some of his real-life children, including Mats Bergman as Isak's nephew Aron, and Anna Bergman as Hanna Schwartz; Linn Ullmann was to play Alexander's older sister Amanda, but when Linn's school refused to give her a break for production, her father cut the character. His ex-wife Käbi Laretei was cast as an aunt. In total, there were 60 characters with lines, and over 1,200 extras.

Pre-production
Art director Anna Asp was given six months before production to prepare, and started by building miniature models and drawing sets. In creating the Ekdahl home, Bergman envisioned his real-life grandmother's Uppsala residence as a model. She had one apartment in the residence, whereas the other apartment belonged to Erik Bergman and his family. Asp designed Oscar and Emilie's apartment with an Art Nouveau style. For the bishop's house, Asp sought a design that would be frightening while still being a plausible home for a man of the church, and found inspiration from a photograph of a castle in a magazine. In designing Isak's residence, Asp worked from Bergman's memory of a Jewish antiques shop owner, looking for a labyrinth-style.

Costume designer Marik Vos oversaw a project requiring 250 costumes for the principal actors, along with over 1,000 costumes for the extras. She allowed the testing of the vast majority of fabric samples to determine how they appeared in photography, with Bergman demanding to see as many of the test shots as he could. Vos also co-ordinated colours with Asp.

Filming
Principal photography began in Uppsala, Sweden, lasting from 7 September 1981 to 22 March 1982. The filmmakers began shooting around Uppsala streets, which municipal leaders allowed the crew to redecorate. Scenes were shot in chronological order, and Guve only learned the thrust of the story was his conflict with his stepfather during production. On the first day of photography, Bergman decided to stage a pillow fight, which the apprehensive Wallgren credited for putting her at ease. It also endeared the director to the child actors. Guve developed a generally amiable relationship with Bergman and later Pernilla Allwin, and Allwin and Guve's habit of playing on bicycles between filming would dirty their costumes and cause the crew to rush to clean them. Guve also conflicted with Bergman when he laughed during a shoot, at which point Bergman reprimanded him and said that it was "the most outrageous, the most unprofessional behaviour" he had ever seen. While production meant full-time days during the workweek, Guve remained in school by spending the weekend on homework.

Scenes were shot outside of Uppsala Cathedral, with the crew conflicting with the dean over whether an antenna could be removed. For Edvard's house, shooting moved to Upplandsmuseet, Uppsala County's museum. For interiors, the same sets in Uppsala and the Swedish Film Institute were used to portray multiple places.

With Bergman suffering from influenza, his colleagues substituted for him in shooting Oscar's funeral scene with 500 extras and a brass band. At one point during production, a crossbeam fell over in the studio and nearly hit Bergman and cinematographer Sven Nykvist. Other crew were injured in workplace accidents. One injury took place when a male stunt performer portraying the burning Aunt Elsa was actually burned by spilled napalm. Much of the production was recorded by Bergman and Arne Carlsson for the 1984 documentary, The Making of Fanny and Alexander.

Themes and interpretations
Critic Michiko Kakutani identified Fanny and Alexander as sharing marriage-drama and domestic themes as his Thirst (1949), Scenes from a Marriage (1973) and From the Life of the Marionettes. In contrast, academic Linda Haverty expressed surprise at Bergman, including his use of fantastical elements such as ghosts and telepathy as they were a departure from the psychological horror of his work in the 1960s and 1970s, for this Bildungsroman story. Professor Frank Gado argued in his 1986 book The Passion of Ingmar Bergman that Fanny and Alexander is "actually two films, which, except that they concern members of the same family, are dramatically separate entities. The glow that warmed audiences radiates from only an outer layer; its core is as chilling as any of Bergman's fictions".

Magic and reality
Academic Egil Törnqvist identified the character Gustav Adolf with secular merriment, while Alexander and Isak inhabit a world filled with the supernatural and evil. Critic Dave Kehr interpreted the fairy tale style as a product of the story being told from Alexander's perspective, coloured with "myth and legend". Alexander experiences "visions of ghosts or dream visions alongside everyday reality", author Laura Hubner wrote. The sequence these visions are seen in may be significant. After being punished by Edvard for telling a story about how the Vergérus family died, Alexander is haunted by the ghosts of the family who deny Edvard's culpability, suggesting Edvard frightened Alexander into seeing this new vision. Writer Mas'ud Zavarzadeh rationalised Alexander's visions as a product of the character being "an artist in the making". Zavarzadeh further noted, "He is involved in the construction of a more genuine and stable reality than the one that surrounds him".

As indicated by Gustav Adolf's final speech, most of the Ekdahls do not spend much time grappling with the meaning of life. Zavarzadeh also contrasted Alexander to another of his uncles, Carl, a scholar who relies on logic but who is reduced to an absurdity, at one point entertaining the children with his flatulence. Törnqvist considered the surname of the characters to be inspired by Henrik Ibsen's 1884 play The Wild Duck, and that it made the name Ekdal synonymous with characters who cope with illusions about reality. Fanny and Alexander adds an H to Ekdal, giving it an aristocratic air, Törnqvist added.

Huber cited academics Marilyn Johns Blackwell and Törnqvist in support of the point that, despite the title, Alexander is the lead role and Fanny is a minor character; Blackwell added that imagination is "largely gendered as male". Concurring that Fanny is a minor character, Kehr further argued that Alexander influences the plot to a lesser degree than the adult characters, but remains the focus in the storytelling.

On Alexander's visions and their reality, critic Roger Ebert argued: "Fanny and Alexander is above all the story of what Alexander understands is really happening. If magic is real, if ghosts can walk, so be it. Bergman has often allowed the supernatural into his films. In another sense, the events in Fanny and Alexander may be seen through the prism of the children's memories, so that half-understood and half-forgotten events have been reconstructed into a new fable that explains their lives."

In the end, Helena reads from August Strindberg's 1902 play A Dream Play: "Anything can happen, all is possible and probable. Time and space do not exist. On an insignificant foundation of reality, imagination spins out and weaves new patterns". As with A Dream Play, Fanny and Alexander explores "the unreality of life itself". Gado suggested the quote refers to memories and imagination, and that all of Bergman's filmography could be dreams forming parts of one dream.

Family conflict
Film Quarterly essayist Jarrod Hayes concluded the conflict between Alexander and Edvard is a "clash of two Titans", as Edvard summons "the power of an image, God, Alexander has the power of the Image". Törnqvist observed Alexander's father Oscar wears white while his stepfather Edvard wears black, signifying they represent good and evil. Academic Amir Cohen-Shalev also observed contrasts between Oscar and Edvard, Oscar as "well-meaning, loving but passive", and Edvard, as a far more strict man of the church, in the mold of Erik Bergman. Cohen-Shalev argued Edvard disguises his emotional shortcomings with his bourgeois veneer and "glib, affected piety". While espousing his devotion, Edvard personally may have secretly lost his belief, and he conflicts with Alexander with "doublethink": using "love" to mean "hate". Following Oscar's death, Cohen-Shalev argued Emilie chooses to marry Edvard because she is frightened as to how empty she is: "I could not understand why nothing really happened, why I never felt really happy".

The story makes multiple references to William Shakespeare's play Hamlet; According to Scott-Douglas, Alexander observes Oscar playing Hamlet's Ghost before he dies, and afterward appears as a ghost, while Alexander acquires a new abusive stepfather. This made "theatre and reality seem indistinguishable". Cohen-Shalev argued Oscar being reduced to a ghost is his punishment for never truly living, and losing his life. Törnqvist wrote the "triangle" of Alexander, Emilie and Edvard is explicitly explained with Emilie's reference to Hamlet, and the characters Hamlet, Queen Gertrude and King Claudius: "Don't act Hamlet, my son. I'm not Queen Gertrude, your kind stepfather is no king of Denmark, and this is not Elsinore Castle, even if it does look gloomy". Emilie, like Gertrude, is also portrayed as unfaithful, with Bergman's screenplay suggesting Oscar is not Alexander's biological father: in the Nativity play, Oscar plays Joseph. According to Helena, Oscar fell impotent after Fanny's birth, and Emilie afterward conducted circumspect affairs.

By framing Edvard as "stepfather-king", the story becomes a battle between "infanticide and parricide", where killing Edvard is associated with Alexander's "artistic/sexual emancipation", scholar Arnold L. Weinstein wrote. Törnqvist wrote Alexander displays an "erotic attraction to his mother", combined with a hatred for his stepfather, referencing the Oedipus complex. Author Viveka Nyberg identified Oedipal themes as pervasive, suggesting Alexander believes he may have killed both his father and stepfather in competition for his mother's love. Nyberg described Emilie as "beautiful and aloof in equal measure", and she cares for her children but concerns herself more with other things. Alexander's story of being sold to the circus reflects his feelings of his mother forsaking him. While Alexander appears to admire Oscar and his imagination, Alexander also listens in on his parents' interactions, and sleeps in Maj's bed, with Maj acting as stand-in mother and an object of sexual desire.

Cohen-Shalev described cyclical patterns in the story: the family endures seasons of distinct "symbols, myths, and moods", including death in winter and resurrections in the spring; or, a trip to which the protagonist experiences a test in the "Valley of Tears" before achieving "blissful family unification". Edvard is also forgiven with "a kind of humanity", Cohen-Shalev wrote, as Edvard confesses his faith is a mask, and his burning death mirrors his analogy of a mask that cannot be removed unless the flesh is removed as well.

Christianity and Judaism
The story opens with exploring celebrations of the Swedish Christmas, which is expressed through "colors, sounds, movements, music" that Cineaste critic Royal Brown called "life-affirming, pagan Christianity". This is starkly contrasted with Edvard's Christianity, which is dictated by asceticism, authoritarianism and concern with death, with Alexander finding his new home a bare, cold prison. Professor Freddie Rokem wrote that, in contrast to Edvard's "rigorous and sterile" Protestantism, the Ekdahl Christmas party can include the Jewish Isak, as he is a dear friend of matriarch Helena Ekdahl, and this friendship is "utopian". While at Isak's, his nephew Aron Retzinsky brings out a puppet of God, or deus ex machina, to which Alexander reacts with terror; he then tries to play down that fear, and is left to wonder how seriously to take the supernatural. Author Harry Perridon argued that when Alexander declares God "is a shit", he means God in Christianity, associating the deity with suffering in the world. After this point, true miracles in Bergman's universe have to come from a different source, Perridon wrote.

The depiction of Jews in Sweden revolves around Isak, which academic Rochelle Wright argues is "far more nuanced" than in Bergman's previous The Touch (1971). Isak is not completely assimilated, but his presence in Sweden is presented as positive, as he stands for imagination, "magic and mystery", Wright wrote. Erland Josephson, who played Isak, described his performance as a stereotyped portrayal of a Jew, but with mystical and tragic elements, drawing on Jewish people and their history. Hayes argued that with its take on "time and space", the story hinted at Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah. The light that engulfs Isak when he screams after being beaten by Edvard calls on the light of the Kabbalah to vanquish evil, Hayes hypothesised. The scream may have invited "spiritual intervention", allowing the children's escape by rendering them invisible in Isak's trunk, while the children seemingly appear lying on the floor to Edvard. Törnqvist hypothesised that Jewish pantheism replaces Christian belief in "grace and punishment" in the story. Royal Brown argued that Isak's "cabbalistic magic and animism" is closer to the Ekdahls' Christianity than to Edvard's.

Törnqvist identified Ismael as "one of the more enigmatic features" of Fanny and Alexander, commenting on the character as a fusion of elements. Ismael speaks the Finno-Swedish language, and he is androgynous, being a male character played by a woman, Stina Ekblad. Ismael also says to Alexander, "Perhaps we are the same person". Author Daniel Humphrey also commented in Ismael's androgyny, conveying "queerness and foreignness" but presented as spiritually identical to Alexander. Additionally, Humphrey commented on the name, with Ishmael of the Bible being a bastard son of Abraham and progenitor of the Arab people, considered "paradigmatic" by Christians and Jews alike. A Dream Play author Strindberg had taken interest in the Ishmael character. Törnqvist also identified Ismael as matching Hamlet in education, intelligence, real or feigned insanity and anti-social nature.

Hayes commented on the way Ismael holds Alexander, remarking it was "Alexander's erotic encounter with a man/a woman/himself". Critic Robin Wood and Richard Lippe argued Ismael directly replaces Oscar, dismissed by Alexander as not serving a purpose; Ismael instead brings danger and sexual ambiguity: Wood and Lippe observed Ismael touching Alexander and kissing Aron. The role of Ismael and Alexander's ritual in Edvard's death is uncertain: Ismael speaks of what will happen in the future in describing Edvard's death, but it can all be logically explained, with a police officer informing Emilie the death is legally accidental.

Release
While cinematic film stock was used in production, Bergman conceived of the presentation as a television miniseries, and there are different versions, presented as a miniseries and film. The longer version intended for television was the original. After completing production, Bergman had to edit the complete cut to 188 minutes for screenings in theatres, regretting losing much of the fantasy material. He remarked, "This was extremely troublesome, as I had to cut into the nerves and lifeblood of the film". The film premiered in Stockholm on 17 December 1982 in its 188-minute theatrical cut. Distribution rights were sold to 30 other countries in 1982. It subsequently opened in France on 9 March 1983, West Germany on 8 October 1983, and the United States on 17 June 1983.

The complete version runs 312 minutes. It was released in Swedish theatres in 1983, and screened at the 40th Venice International Film Festival in September 1983. It subsequently aired as a miniseries on Sveriges Television in four segments, and five episodes of unequal length at Bergman's demand. They ran 92, 40, 37, 60 and 90 minutes, beginning 25 December 1984. After debuting at the Swedish Film Institute on 16 September 1984, The Making of Fanny and Alexander aired with a television repeat of Fanny and Alexander in Sweden on 18 August 1986. In 1991, the Guinness Book of World Records listed the five-hour version as among the longest films in history. The entire miniseries ran on SVT1 in Sweden on 2 August 2007, with 10-minute newscast interruption, rendering it a two-part version. The screenplay was also published as a book and translated into English in 1983.

In Region 2, Artificial Eye released the five-hour version on DVD in 2002. In 2011 in Region A, The Criterion Collection published a Blu-ray edition including the theatrical version, the television version, and The Making of Fanny and Alexander.

Box office
There were large audiences in Sweden at showings of Fanny and Alexander, including at the five-hour cut, making it the most popular box-office film Bergman had in his native country. It had 374,208 admissions in France and 165,146 in Germany. This amounted to minimal presence in the French box-office.

Fanny and Alexander finished its run grossing $6,783,304 in North America. According to critic Vincent Canby's analysis, the film did "extremely well" and had its niche audience, but could not match summer blockbuster competition which dominated the top 15 spots in the box office, particularly Return of the Jedi. In 1992, Variety ranked it the 21st highest grossing foreign film in U.S. box office history, and the fifth-highest grossing Swedish film after 1967's I Am Curious (Yellow) and Elvira Madigan, Dear John (1964) and My Life as a Dog (1985).

Critical reception
Upon release in Sweden, the film received generally positive reviews, with Expressen critic Lasse Bergström approving of the portrayal of the Oscarian era. Critic Stig Larsson assessed it as Bergman's ironic take on his past filmography. Jönköpings-Posten posted a positive review on 7 February 1983, followed by a second critic in the same paper accusing the film of creating false joy on 21 February. The film ranked 10th on Cahiers du Cinéma's Top 10 Films of the Year List in 1983.

Vincent Canby's contemporary review in The New York Times described it a "big, dark, beautiful, generous family chronicle"; Canby also praised the cast as "uniformly excellent". Roger Ebert awarded it four stars, assessing it as "a big, exciting, ambitious film", relatable to audiences though more specific in its story than Bergman's prior studies of faith and sex, and named it the 4th best film of 1983. Variety staff called it "a sumptuously produced period piece" blending "elegance with intimacy". For The Washington Post, Rita Kempley found the story more cheerful than past Bergman productions, highlighting Ewa Fröling and comparing her to Liv Ullmann. In The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani compared the film's "generosity of vision" to the comedies of William Shakespeare. The Nation critic Robert Hatch compared it to Shakespeare's The Tempest as a final life-affirming work, featuring "magic with the casual authority of Prospero himself". Kerry Brougher denied it was Bergman's magnum opus, but still said it was "a thoughtful, graceful, beautifully filmed work". National Review critic John Simon wrote a negative review, calling it "overstuffed", and expressing lack of interest in Fröling and Guve as newcomers to Bergman's filmography.

Ebert added it to his Great Movies list in 2004, hailing it as "astonishingly beautiful", crediting Sven Nykvist for "color and warmth". In 2010, The Guardian ranked the film eighth in its list of 25 greatest arthouse films. Reviewing The Criterion Collection Blu-ray, Andre Dellamorte wrote that despite the five-hour runtime, the story was uncomplicated but always interesting. The Observer quoted actor Matthew Macfadyen as saying the film "featured just the most extraordinary acting I'd ever seen". Macfadyen added that as a RADA student, the film was shown as "an example to follow – an example of people acting with each other". Polish film director Agnieszka Holland also praised it in 2012, saying both children and intellectuals could enjoy it and that it gives a very vivid portrait of another era. In his 2015 Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin gave it four stars, identifying its emotions as "exquisitely expressed".

Pauline Kael wrote a more mixed review, enjoying the merry atmosphere but writing the "conventionality" is "rather shocking", suggesting Bergman had moved to Victorian times to escape his usual eccentric viewpoints. The Guardian critic Alex Cox wrote a negative review in 2006, claiming there was no story for the first two of three hours, and that the analogy to Hamlet did not hold up as Alexander knows Edvard is evil, whereas Hamlet is uncertain if the Ghost is a demon and Claudius is innocent. Cox had not seen the longer version, but considered it might be better.

In 1990, Fanny and Alexander was named the best film of the 1980s by Los Angeles Times by Sheila Benson, who called it "generous, ribald, reflective and radiantly life-affirming", and Michael Wilmington, and the third best by Newsweek critic David Ansen. In 1996, Fanny and Alexander was ranked at No. 36 in Movieline Magazine's "100 Greatest Foreign Films". In 2004, The New York Times also included the film on its list of "the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made". Xan Brooks, in The Guardian's Film Season, chose the film as the eighth "best arthouse film of all time". He described it as "an opulent family saga, by turns bawdy, stark and strange" with a rare abundance of "indelible supporting characters". In 2007, the film was ranked at No. 23 by The Guardian's readers' poll on its list of "40 greatest foreign films of all time". The film was Voted at No. 44 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 2008. In the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound polls of the greatest films ever made, Fanny and Alexander was 84th among critics and 16th among directors. In the earlier 2002 version of the list, the film ranked 35th among critics and 19th among directors. Also in 2002, Sight and Sound magazine invited several critics to make a list of the best films of last 25 years and Fanny and Alexander was ranked at number three. In 2012 the film was voted at number five on the 25 best Swedish films of all-time list by a poll of 50 film critics and academics conducted by film magazine FLM. In 2018 ,the film was ranked 28th in BBC's list of The 100 greatest foreign language films. In 2022 edition of Sight & Sound's Greatest films of all time list the film ranked 53rd in the director's poll.

Fanny and Alexander has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 45 reviews, with a weighted average of 9/10. The site's consensus reads: "Ingmar Bergman conveys the sweep of childhood with a fastidious attention to detail and sumptuous insight into human frailty in Fanny and Alexander, a masterwork that crystalizes many of the directors' preoccupations into a familial epic". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 100 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Accolades
The film received six Academy Award nominations, winning four, including Best Foreign Language Film. It also received the third highest number of nominations of 1984, after Terms of Endearment and The Right Stuff (both released in 1983). The four wins was the most any foreign-language film had received at the Academy Awards to date until it tied the record with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon  (2000), Parasite (2019) and All Quiet on the Western Front (2022). Fanny and Alexander marked the third and final time Bergman won Best Foreign Language Film, after The Virgin Spring (1960) and Through a Glass Darkly (1961). Bergman did not personally attend the ceremony, while working on a stage production in Munich, so his award was accepted by his wife Ingrid von Rosen and Jörn Donner. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at 1983 Venice Film Festival. It also won the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics Award for Best Foreign Film.

Legacy
After ostensibly retiring from directing, Bergman completed After the Rehearsal in 1984. Bergman also conceived of a biographical project following his parents Erik and Karin Åkerblom, and in a press conference in August 1989, announced he planned a production that could be considered a follow-up to Fanny and Alexander and his 1987 autobiography The Magic Lantern. The resulting 1991–92 miniseries and film The Best Intentions was directed by Bille August and won the Palme d'Or at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. Bergman selected Bille August as director on condition that Fanny and Alexander actress Pernilla Wallgren star as Bergman's mother; she did under the name Pernilla August. Critic Vincent Canby also identified Ingmar's screenplay Sunday's Children, directed by Daniel Bergman and released in 1992, as "a continuation" of Fanny and Alexander and The Best Intentions, and questioned if Ingmar had truly retired. Whereas Ingmar's recollections of Erik Bergman are damning in Fanny and Alexander, his study of his father is "far more forgiving" in The Best Intentions and Sunday's Children. After The Best Intentions, Pernilla August played Ingmar's mother twice more, in the 1996 Private Confessions and 1997 In the Presence of a Clown.

Following Bergman's death in 2007, PostNord Sverige decided to honour the director with a postage stamp depicting him directing Fanny and Alexander. In the two decades following the release, "Fanny and Alexander" decorations were also common in Swedish businesses at Jul. In 2017, Hallwyl Museum also exhibited costumes from Fanny and Alexander and other Bergman films.

Stefan Larsson directed a stage adaptation of Fanny and Alexander for the Royal Dramatic Theatre, which traveled to Uppsala City Theater in 2012. It played at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in 2013. In 2010, stage adaptations also played in Finland, directed by Maria Lundström and Tiina Puumalainen, and Norway, where it was the biggest box office success in the National Theatre's history. Later, Stephen Beresford wrote an adaptation for The Old Vic in London, directed by Max Webster and starring Penelope Wilton. It was scheduled to debut February 2018.

The film has exercised considerable influence on subsequent filmmaking, not only in Sweden. South Korean director Bong Joon-ho has listed it as one of his favourite films, and stated that it has "the most beautiful ending to a feature film career in the history of cinema". French director Arnaud Desplechin frequently cites Fanny and Alexander as a critical touchstone for his own career, and has labelled his own La Vie des Morts as "a complete rip-off of that film". He noted that "I saw Fanny and Alexander and then I became a director. Before, I was a technician, and after that film, I became a director." Fanny and Alexander is also listed as a favourite by filmmakers Barry Jenkins and Akira Kurosawa.

title: Fanny and Alexander


text:
User:Perl/example

 * February 24
 * On Sol 50, ending at 2:35 p.m. PST, Spirit finished observations of the trench at "Laguna Hollow," then continued on its journey toward the crater called "Bonneville." Driving in a dog-leg pattern to avoid some bumpy terrain, Spirit traveled approximately 18.8 meters (61.7 feet) toward the halfway point, called "Middle Ground." The last 2.8 meters (9.2 feet) were covered using autonomous navigation software.
 * After completing the drive, Spirit gathered miniature thermal emission spectrometer data on the ground on both sides of the rover, and its panoramic camera and navigation camera took pictures.
 * The wake-up song this morning (Sunday evening Pacific time) was "Samba De Marte" by Beth Carvalho from her "Perolas Do Pagode" album. The lyrics include a verse about waking up the rover on Carnival Day. This song was written by Beth Carvalho after she heard that one of her songs was used to wake up Mars Pathfinder's Sojourner rover during the 1997 mission. This is quite appropriate, as this spirited sol 50 also began on Carnival day in Brazil!
 * In the coming sols, Spirit will complete the drive to "Middle Ground."

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

title: User:Perl/example


text:
Newton Rowell

Newton Wesley Rowell, (November 1, 1867 – November 22, 1941) was a Canadian lawyer, politician, judge, and lay leader in the Methodist Church. Rowell led the Ontario Liberal Party from 1911 to 1917 and put forward a platform advocating temperance. Rowell's Liberals failed to oppose the Whitney government's passage of Regulation 17 which restricted the teaching of the French language in schools and alienated the province's French-Canadian minority.

Life and career
Rowell was born in London Township, Ontario. He ran for the House of Commons of Canada in the 1900 federal election but was defeated in York East. Returning to his law practice, Rowell was made King's Counsel in 1902. He became senior partner in his law firm (Rowell, Reid, and Wood) and had a prominent legal career.

He returned to politics in 1911. Though not a candidate, he was a prominent campaigner supporting the government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier during the 1911 federal election. Rowell spoke across Ontario to promote both Laurier's plan for a Canadian Navy and the trade reciprocity agreement that had been negotiated between the federal government and the United States against the opposition of prominent Liberal business leaders, who feared that free trade would be extended to manufacturing.

Later that year, Rowell was chosen to lead the Ontario Liberal Party, despite not having a seat in the legislature, after the incumbent leader, Alexander Grant MacKay, was forced to resign shortly before the beginning of that year's election campaign. He was elected to the legislature in the 1911 provincial election (representing Oxford North) and became Leader of the Opposition.

In 1917, Rowell, a supporter of conscription during World War I, left the Ontario legislature and broke with Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberal Party of Canada to join the national Unionist government of Sir Robert Borden as a result of the Conscription Crisis of 1917. He was appointed to Borden's government as President of the Privy Council of Canada in October 1917 and was also made vice-chairman of the government's War Committee, which gave him primary responsibility for organizing the war effort and enforcing conscription. He went on to win a seat in the House of Commons as the Unionist MP for Durham in the December 1917 federal election.

Rowell attended meetings of the Imperial War Cabinet in London, England, along with other senior Canadian ministers. In 1919, he was given added responsibilities as Canada's first Minister of Health. Rowell declined to join the government of Borden's successor, Arthur Meighen, in 1920, and he did not run for re-election to parliament in 1921.

After the war, Rowell served as a Canadian delegate to the League of Nations and became involved in international affairs. He also helped lead the Methodists into a merger with Presbyterians to form the United Church of Canada.

As a lawyer, Rowell had one of the strongest litigation practices in Toronto, arguing many cases before the Supreme Court of Canada and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, including Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General), better known as the Persons Case. In 1903, he had founded the firm that is now known as McMillan LLP. In 1929, he argued and won the Persons Case, concerning whether women were eligible for appointment to the Canadian Senate. The Supreme Court of Canada said that they were not, but Rowell successfully appealed the case to the Privy Council in London in a landmark decision for female equality in Canada.

Rowell served as president of the Ontario Bar Association from 1927 to 1930 and as national president of the Canadian Bar Association from 1932 to 1934. In 1936, he was appointed Chief Justice of Ontario.

He is also noted for being the first chair of the 1937 Rowell–Sirois Commission into Dominion-Provincial economic relations and for being a founding leader of the United Church of Canada. Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest it had ow as in now – row-ELL.

His daughter Mary wed Harry Jackman in 1930. As a result, Rowell was the maternal grandfather of former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Hal Jackman and former Senator Nancy Ruth.

Archives
There is a Newton Wesley Rowell fonds at Library and Archives Canada.

title: Newton Rowell


text:
User-Agent header

In computing, the User-Agent header is an HTTP header intended to identify the user agent responsible for making a given HTTP request. Whereas the character sequence  comprises the name of the header itself, the header value that a given user agent uses to identify itself is colloquially known as its user agent string. The user agent for the operator of a computer used to access the Web has encoded within the rules that govern its behavior the knowledge of how to negotiate its half of a request-response transaction; the user agent thus plays the role of the client in a client–server system. Often considered useful in networks is the ability to identify and distinguish the software facilitating a network session. For this reason, the User-Agent HTTP header exists to identify the client software to the responding server.

Use in client requests
When a software agent operates in a network protocol, it often identifies itself, its application type, operating system, device model, software vendor, or software revision, by submitting a characteristic identification string to its operating peer. In HTTP, SIP, and NNTP protocols, this identification is transmitted in a header field User-Agent. Bots, such as Web crawlers, often also include a URL and/or e-mail address so that the Webmaster can contact the operator of the bot.

In HTTP, the "user agent string" is often used for content negotiation, where the origin server selects suitable content or operating parameters for the response. For example, the user agent string might be used by a web server to choose variants based on the known capabilities of a particular version of client software. The concept of content tailoring is built into the HTTP standard in RFC 1945 "for the sake of tailoring responses to avoid particular user agent limitations".

The user agent string is one of the criteria by which Web crawlers may be excluded from accessing certain parts of a website using the Robots Exclusion Standard (robots.txt file).

As with many other HTTP request headers, the information in the user agent string contributes to the information that the client sends to the server, since the string can vary considerably from user to user.

Format for human-operated web browsers
The user agent string format is currently specified by section 10.1.5 of HTTP Semantics. The format of the user agent string in HTTP is a list of product tokens (keywords) with optional comments. For example, if a user's product were called WikiBrowser, their user agent string might be WikiBrowser/1.0 Gecko/1.0. The "most important" product component is listed first.

The parts of this string are as follows:

 * product name and version (WikiBrowser/1.0)
 * layout engine and version (Gecko/1.0)

During the first browser war, many web servers were configured to send web pages that required advanced features, including frames, to clients that were identified as some version of Mozilla only. Other browsers were considered to be older products such as Mosaic, Cello, or Samba, and would be sent a bare bones HTML document.

For this reason, most Web browsers use a user agent string value as follows:

For example, Safari on the iPad has used the following:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/7B405

The components of this string are as follows:

 * Mozilla/5.0: Previously used to indicate compatibility with the Mozilla rendering engine.
 * (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us): Details of the system in which the browser is running.
 * AppleWebKit/531.21.10: The platform the browser uses.
 * (KHTML, like Gecko): Browser platform details.
 * Mobile/7B405: This is used by the browser to indicate specific enhancements that are available directly in the browser or through third parties. An example of this is Microsoft Live Meeting which registers an extension so that the Live Meeting service knows if the software is already installed, which means it can provide a streamlined experience to joining meetings.

Before migrating to the Chromium code base, Opera was the most widely used web browser that did not have the user agent string with "Mozilla" (instead beginning it with "Opera"). Since July 15, 2013, Opera's user agent string begins with "Mozilla/5.0" and, to avoid encountering legacy server rules, no longer includes the word "Opera" (instead using the string "OPR" to denote the Opera version).

Format for automated agents (bots)
Automated web crawling tools can use a simplified form, where an important field is contact information in case of problems. By convention the word "bot" is included in the name of the agent. For example:

Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Automated agents are expected to follow rules in a special file called "robots.txt".

Encryption strength notations
Web browsers created in the United States, such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, previously used the letters U, I, and N to specify the encryption strength in the user agent string. Until 1996, when the United States government allowed encryption with keys longer than 40 bits to be exported, vendors shipped various browser versions with different encryption strengths. "U" stands for "USA" (for the version with 128-bit encryption), "I" stands for "International" – the browser has 40-bit encryption and can be used anywhere in the world –  and "N" stands (de facto) for "None" (no encryption). Following the lifting of export restrictions, most vendors supported 256-bit encryption.

User agent spoofing
The popularity of various Web browser products has varied throughout the Web's history, and this has influenced the design of websites in such a way that websites are sometimes designed to work well only with particular browsers, rather than according to uniform standards by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) or the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Websites often include code to detect browser version to adjust the page design sent according to the user agent string received. This may mean that less-popular browsers are not sent complex content (even though they might be able to deal with it correctly) or, in extreme cases, refused all content. Thus, various browsers have a feature to cloak or spoof their identification to force certain server-side content. For example, the Android browser identifies itself as Safari (among other things) in order to aid compatibility.

Other HTTP client programs, like download managers and offline browsers, often have the ability to change the user agent string.

A result of user agent spoofing may be that collected statistics of Web browser usage are inaccurate.

User agent sniffing
User agent sniffing is the practice of websites showing different or adjusted content when viewed with certain user agents. An example of this is Microsoft Exchange Server 2003's Outlook Web Access feature. When viewed with Internet Explorer 6 or newer, more functionality is displayed compared to the same page in any other browsers. User agent sniffing is considered poor practice, since it encourages browser-specific design and penalizes new browsers with unrecognized user agent identifications. Instead, the W3C recommends creating standard HTML markup, allowing correct rendering in as many browsers as possible, and to test for specific browser features rather than particular browser versions or brands.

Websites intended for display by mobile phones often rely on user agent sniffing, since mobile browsers often differ greatly from each other.

Deprecation of User-Agent header
In 2020, Google announced that they would be freezing parts of the User-Agent header in their Chrome browser as it's no longer required for determining browser capabilities and instead mainly used for browser fingerprinting. They stated that other major web browser vendors were supportive of the move. Google stated that a new feature called Client Hints would replace the functionality of the user agent string.

Starting with Chrome 113, released in April 2023, User-Agent header stays the same except for the major version part.

Browser misidentification
Starting with Firefox 110 released in February 2023, Mozilla announced it would temporarily freeze portions of the browser's user agent string at version 109. This was done due to several websites incorrectly recognizing a development version of the browser (which identified itself by the string ) as the deprecated Internet Explorer 11 (which reports  ). The problem will self-correct after the release of Firefox 120, as only browsers identifying themselves as 110 through 119 were observed to be affected by it.

title: User-Agent header


text:
Information geometry

Information geometry is an interdisciplinary field that applies the techniques of differential geometry to study probability theory and statistics. It studies statistical manifolds, which are Riemannian manifolds whose points correspond to probability distributions.

Introduction
Historically, information geometry can be traced back to the work of C. R. Rao, who was the first to treat the Fisher matrix as a Riemannian metric. The modern theory is largely due to Shun'ichi Amari, whose work has been greatly influential on the development of the field.

Classically, information geometry considered a parametrized statistical model as a Riemannian manifold. For such models, there is a natural choice of Riemannian metric, known as the Fisher information metric. In the special case that the statistical model is an exponential family, it is possible to induce the statistical manifold with a Hessian metric (i.e a Riemannian metric given by the potential of a convex function). In this case, the manifold naturally inherits two flat affine connections, as well as a canonical Bregman divergence. Historically, much of the work was devoted to studying the associated geometry of these examples. In the modern setting, information geometry applies to a much wider context, including non-exponential families, nonparametric statistics, and even abstract statistical manifolds not induced from a known statistical model. The results combine techniques from information theory, affine differential geometry, convex analysis and many other fields.

The standard references in the field are Shun’ichi Amari and Hiroshi Nagaoka's book, Methods of Information Geometry, and the more recent book by Nihat Ay and others. A gentle introduction is given in the survey by Frank Nielsen. In 2018, the journal Information Geometry was released, which is devoted to the field.

Contributors
The history of information geometry is associated with the discoveries of at least the following people, and many others.

 * Ronald Fisher
 * Harald Cramér
 * Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao
 * Harold Jeffreys
 * Solomon Kullback
 * Jean-Louis Koszul
 * Richard Leibler
 * Claude Shannon
 * Imre Csiszár
 * Nikolai Chentsov (also written as N. N. Čencov)
 * Bradley Efron
 * Shun'ichi Amari
 * Ole Barndorff-Nielsen
 * Frank Nielsen
 * Damiano Brigo
 * A. W. F. Edwards
 * Grant Hillier
 * Kees Jan van Garderen

Applications
As an interdisciplinary field, information geometry has been used in various applications.

Here an incomplete list:
 * Statistical inference
 * Time series and linear systems
 * Filtering problem
 * Quantum systems
 * Neural networks
 * Machine learning
 * Statistical mechanics
 * Biology
 * Statistics
 * Mathematical finance

title: Information geometry


text:
Talk:Booya

Removed reference to some porn actor that included a link to an adult vid. Seriously! —lxk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.8.1.178 (talk) 22:09, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Junk - no Google confirmation. —User:Davodd

 * Eh? I admit I'd never heard of it either, but here's one good query: http://www.google.com/search?q=booya+recipe Of course, this page should probably also mention that booya is a common guttural utterance by marines, frat boys, etc. —Mulad 17:12, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Booya & Marines?. —User:lkarayan

 * I think this is a common mistake, isn't it supposed to be _HOO-AH_ as evidenced here: http://www.dix.army.mil/PAO/post03/post071803/HistoryOfHooah.htm —Levon Karayan 10:12, 25
 * According to R. Lee Ermey on his History Channel show "Mail Call" it seems to be more like "OO-RAH" or "UH-RAH!"Pat Payne 16:57, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

List of catch phrases
I removed the listing of people who use "Booya" as a catch-phrase, because in no case will a link be disambiguated using this list. (eg. those pages tend to link to this one... to disambiguate, are we supposed to link to the original article from itself?)  Disambiguation pages aren't for generic list-making. Either the list should be made an actual article detailing the use of Booya as a catch phrase, and all the backlinks for that should be moved to the article, or do something similar with Wiktionary, or leave the list off. --Interiot 17:27, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Origin
Recall hearing somewhere that booya is an onomatopoeia from urban slang, supposedly the sound made by the discharge of a shotgun round. knoodelhed 16:16, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

"death to white men"
i removed "booyakasha meaning death to white men" beacuse booyakasha is nothing more then a made up slang term from da ali g show. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Xion infinity (talk • contribs) 06:16, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

That's an error, mate... Ali G is a comedy about white London boys trying to be like their Jamaican-British friends in the neighbourhood, and it's a phrase that far outdates Ali G, it's Jamaican slang. I think casher is the person taking the money, basically the white men who kidnapped African workers to be slaves. Mostly works for police or authority figures now or whoever's attacking or trying to take over space + autonomy from Jamaican or black community. Booya is the sound of the gun you wish you were firing at them. It was long used in the London Jamaican community at least, way before Ali G, way before General Levy. I don't have any references for you, just having lived here for 20 years and it's part of language. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.32.161.203 (talk) 01:07, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

Booya!
It is also a popular game on OMGPop which is a website where you can play free games including Booya! You have to match colors and numbers somewhat like Uno and Skip-Bo. --Subzerovsscorpian2012 (talk) 10:55, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

Give me diamonds
My freefire uid is 2442652708 Sheeba m110p (talk) 09:08, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Booya


text:
Weak base

A weak base is a base that, upon dissolution in water, does not dissociate completely, so that the resulting aqueous solution contains only a small proportion of hydroxide ions and the concerned basic radical, and a large proportion of undissociated molecules of the base.

pH, Kb, and Kw
Bases yield solutions in which the hydrogen ion activity is lower than it is in pure water, i.e., the solution is said to have a pH greater than 7.0 at standard conditions, potentially as high as 14 (and even greater than 14 for some bases). The formula for pH is:
 * $$\mbox{pH} = -\log_{10} \left[ \mbox{H}^+ \right]$$

Bases are proton acceptors; a base will receive a hydrogen ion from water, H2O, and the remaining H+ concentration in the solution determines pH. A weak base will have a higher H+ concentration than a stronger base because it is less completely protonated than a stronger base and, therefore, more hydrogen ions remain in its solution. Given its greater H+ concentration, the formula yields a lower pH value for the weak base. However, pH of bases is usually calculated in terms of the OH− concentration. This is done because the H+ concentration is not a part of the reaction, whereas the OH− concentration is. The pOH is defined as:

 * $$\mbox{pOH} = -\log_{10} \left[ \mbox{OH}^- \right]$$

If we multiply the equilibrium constants of a conjugate acid (such as NH4+) and a conjugate base (such as NH3) we obtain:

 * $$ K_a \times K_b = {[H_3O^+] [NH_3]\over[NH_4^+]} \times {[NH_4^+] [OH^-]\over[NH_3]} = [H_3O^+] [OH^-]$$

As $${K_w} = [H_3O^+] [OH^-]$$ is just the self-ionization constant of water, we have $$K_a \times K_b = K_w$$

Taking the logarithm of both sides of the equation yields:

 * $$logK_a + logK_b = logK_w$$

Finally, multiplying both sides by -1, we obtain:

 * $$pK_a + pK_b = pK_w = 14.00$$

With pOH obtained from the pOH formula given above, the pH of the base can then be calculated from $$pH = pK_w - pOH$$, where pKw = 14.00.

A weak base persists in chemical equilibrium in much the same way as a weak acid does, with a base dissociation constant (Kb) indicating the strength of the base. For example, when ammonia is put in water, the following equilibrium is set up:

 * $$\mathrm{K_b={[NH_4^+] [OH^-]\over[NH_3]}}$$

A base that has a large Kb will ionize more completely and is thus a stronger base. As shown above, the pH of the solution, which depends on the H+ concentration, increases with increasing OH− concentration; a greater OH− concentration means a smaller H+ concentration, therefore a greater pH. Strong bases have smaller H+ concentrations because they are more fully protonated, leaving fewer hydrogen ions in the solution. A smaller H+ concentration means a greater OH− concentration and, therefore, a greater Kb and a greater pH.

NaOH (s) (sodium hydroxide) is a stronger base than (CH3CH2)2NH (l) (diethylamine) which is a stronger base than NH3 (g) (ammonia). As the bases get weaker, the smaller the Kb values become.

Percentage protonated
As seen above, the strength of a base depends primarily on pH. To help describe the strengths of weak bases, it is helpful to know the percentage protonated-the percentage of base molecules that have been protonated. A lower percentage will correspond with a lower pH because both numbers result from the amount of protonation. A weak base is less protonated, leading to a lower pH and a lower percentage protonated.

The typical proton transfer equilibrium appears as such:

 * $$B(aq) + H_2O(l) \leftrightarrow HB^+(aq) + OH^-(aq)$$

B represents the base.

 * $$Percentage\ protonated = {molarity\ of\ HB^+ \over\ initial\ molarity\ of\ B} \times 100\% = {[{HB}^+]\over [B]_{initial}} {\times 100\%}$$

In this formula, [B]initial is the initial molar concentration of the base, assuming that no protonation has occurred.

A typical pH problem
Calculate the pH and percentage protonation of a .20 M aqueous solution of pyridine, C5H5N. The Kb for C5H5N is 1.8 x 10−9.

First, write the proton transfer equilibrium:

 * $$\mathrm{H_2O(l) + C_5H_5N(aq) \leftrightarrow C_5H_5NH^+ (aq) + OH^- (aq)}$$

 * $$K_b=\mathrm{[C_5H_5NH^+] [OH^-]\over [C_5H_5N]}$$

The equilibrium table, with all concentrations in moles per liter, is

This means .0095% of the pyridine is in the protonated form of C5H5NH+.

Examples

 * Alanine
 * Ammonia, NH3
 * Methylamine, CH3NH2
 * Ammonium hydroxide, NH4OH

Simple Facts

 * An example of a weak base is ammonia. It does not contain hydroxide ions, but it reacts with water to produce ammonium ions and hydroxide ions.
 * The position of equilibrium varies from base to base when a weak base reacts with water. The further to the left it is, the weaker the base.
 * When there is a hydrogen ion gradient between two sides of the biological membrane, the concentration of some weak bases are focused on only one side of the membrane. Weak bases tend to build up in acidic fluids. Acid gastric contains a higher concentration of weak base than plasma. Acid urine, compared to alkaline urine, excretes weak bases at a faster rate.

title: Weak base


text:
League of the Three Emperors

The League of the Three Emperors or Union of the Three Emperors (Dreikaiserbund) was an alliance between the German, Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires, from 1873 to 1887. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck took full charge of German foreign policy from 1870 to his dismissal in 1890. His goal was a peaceful Europe, based on the balance of power. Bismarck feared that a hostile combination of Austria-Hungary, France, and Russia would crush Germany. If two of them were allied, then the third would ally with Germany only if Germany conceded excessive demands. The solution was to ally with two of the three. In 1873 he formed the League of the Three Emperors, an alliance of the Kaisers of Germany and Austria-Hungary and the Tsar of Russia. Together they would control Eastern Europe, making sure that restive ethnic groups such as the Poles were kept in control. It aimed at neutralizing the rivalry between Germany's two neighbors by an agreement over their respective spheres of influence in the Balkans and at isolating Germany's enemy, France. The Balkans posed a more serious issue, and Bismarck's solution was to give Austria predominance in the western areas, and Russia in the eastern areas.

The first League of the Three Emperors was in effect from 1873 to 1878. A second one was established June 18, 1881, and lasted for three years. It was renewed in 1884 but lapsed in 1887. Both alliances ended because of continued strong conflicts of interest between Austria-Hungary and Russia in the Balkans. The second treaty provided that no territorial changes should take place in the Balkans without prior agreement and that Austria could annex Bosnia and Herzegovina when it wished; in the event of war between one party and a great power not party to the treaty, the other two parties were to maintain friendly neutrality.

Bismarck was able to temporarily preserve ties with Russia in the Reinsurance Treaty of 1887; but, after his dismissal, this treaty was not renewed, and a Franco-Russian alliance developed.

First agreement (1873)
On 22 October 1873, Bismarck negotiated an agreement between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany. The alliance sought to resurrect the Holy Alliance of 1815 and act as a bulwark against radical sentiments that the rulers found unsettling. It was preceded by the Schönbrunn Convention, signed by Russia and Austria–Hungary on 6 June 1873.

Policy
Bismarck often led the League as it assessed challenges, centred on maintaining the balance of power among the states involved and Europe at large. The cornerstone of his political philosophy included preserving the status quo and avoiding war. Despite German victory in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, violence remained fresh in the new state's memory and made Germany reluctant to antagonize France but keen as ever to limit its power.

According to the coalition, radical socialist bodies like the First International represented one of the other key threats to regional stability and dominance. The League actively opposed the expansion of its influence.

The League also met crisis in the Eastern Europe, where Bulgarian unrest elicited violent reaction from the Ottoman forces there, which, in turn, met with horror from observing states. The account of the insurrection from an Englishman, Sir Edwin Pears, describes the gruesome atrocities and reveals British surprise at their extent.

First dissolution (1878)
The collective initially disbanded in 1878 over territorial disputes in the Balkans as Austria-Hungary feared that Russian support for Serbia might ultimately ignite irredentist passions in the Slav populations. Russian authorities, likewise, feared insurrection if a Pan-Slavist movement gained too much power.

The body's first conclusion in 1879 gave way to the defensive Dual Alliance between Austria-Hungary and Germany to counter potential Russian aggression. In 1882, Italy was included in a second agreement, the Triple Alliance, but the Triple Alliance never replaced the Dual Alliance, which remained in effect.

Revival (1881–1887)
The Treaty of Berlin (1878) made Russia feel cheated of its gains in the Russo-Turkish War. Its key role in European diplomacy was not, however, forgotten by Bismarck. A more formal Three Emperors' Alliance was concluded on 18 June 1881. It lasted for three years, and was renewed at Skierniewice in 1884, but lapsed in 1887. Both alliances ended because of conflicts between Austria-Hungary and Russia in the Balkans. To preserve a common understanding with Russia, Germany signed the mutual Reinsurance Treaty in 1887.

Although the Russians considered it humiliating and prevented them using their Black Sea Fleet elsewhere, the closure of the Straits to foreign warships, included in the treaties of 1881 and 1884, meant there was little reason to maintain their fleet in the Black Sea.

title: League of the Three Emperors


text:
Dravograd

Dravograd (Unterdrauburg) is a small town in northern Slovenia, close to the border with Austria. It is the seat of the Municipality of Dravograd. It lies on the Drava River at the confluence with the Meža and the Mislinja. It is part of the traditional Slovenian provinces of Carinthia and the larger Carinthia Statistical Region.

History
From 976 onwards the Dravograd area was part of the Duchy of Carinthia. The German name Unterdrauburg denoted the place where the Drava River left Carinthia and flowed into the neighbouring Duchy of Styria. It corresponded with Oberdrauburg up the river at Carinthia's western border with the County of Tyrol. The name Dravograd was invented during the Slovene national revival in the 19th century. Previously, the local Slovene name of the town was Traberk, a derivative of the German name Drauburg. The 19th century was a period of national awakening of the Carinthian Slovenes, and also of the rise of competing nationalisms: Slovene and German.

After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918, the whole area south of Dravograd was occupied by the Slovene volunteer forces of Major Franjo Malgaj, acting in the name of the newly established State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The town of Dravograd itself however remained in the hands of the volunteers acting in the name of the German-Austrian rump state. In mid-December 1918, Dravograd was seized by the volunteer forces of Slovene General Rudolf Maister. Per the 1919 Treaty of Saint Germain, Dravograd became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (the later Yugoslavia).

In the interwar period, the area of Dravograd witnessed an important process of industrialization. In the 1930s, social tensions grew as the consequence of the world economic crisis, as did the tensions between the small ethnic German minority and the Slovene-speaking majority. In the late 1930s, the Nazi movement started penetrating the German community in Dravograd, triggering the reaction of the Slovene majority. Physical violence between the pro-Nazi organization and the local section of the Sokol movement were common. In 1939 and in 1940, two mass anti-Nazi rallies were held in the municipality of Dravograd, organized by patriotic and nationalist Slovene organizations, mostly of left-wing orientation.

In April 1941, after the Invasion of Yugoslavia, Dravograd was occupied by Wehrmacht forces and incorporated into the Carinthian Reichsgau of Nazi Germany. The use of the Slovene language was prohibited, all Slovene organizations were abolished, and numerous Slovenes were deported to central Germany or to the area governed by the Military Administration in Serbia. Local Slovene political activists were either executed or deported to Nazi concentration camps. In July 1941, the local artist Franjo Golob organized an underground anti-Nazi resistance cell, which was however soon discovered. Violent repression followed, which hindered the further development of anti-German resistance in this area. In mid-1943, the Yugoslav Partisans resistance movement started taking roots in the Dravograd area, which grew stronger by 1944, despite the brutal repressions of the Nazi authorities. Upon the German Instrument of Surrender and the nearby Battle of Poljana on 14/15 May 1945, the whole area was controlled by the Partisans.

In the communist period, the Dravograd area further developed its industrial capacities. During the Ten Day War of Slovenian independence in June and July 1991, some fighting took place in the Dravograd area.

Sights
Ruins of the old Dravograd castle (also referred to as Castrum Trahburck) overlook the town from the hill above the area of old market town. The castle was built in 1161 and in possession of Ortlof Trušenjski and his heirs until 1278. Afterwards, owners of the castle frequently changed (e.g., the Habsburgs in 1355, the Counts of Celje in 1387, and again the Habsburgs in 1456).

The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist and belongs to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Maribor. It was first mentioned in written documents dating to the late 14th century. It was rebuilt in 1520 and in 1621. The current church is Baroque with a characteristic onion dome on its belfry. A second church in the town is dedicated to Saint Vitus and is a late 12th-century Romanesque building.

Lake Dravograd (Dravograjsko jezero, Črneško jezero) is a reservoir upstream from the hydroelectric power plant, between Dravograd and Črneče. It is an important natural habitat included in Natura 2000.

Transportation
The Dravograd railway station is on the Drautalbahn railway line from Maribor to Innichen (San Candido) in Italy, opened in 1863. Highway No. 3 leading from Maribor to the Austrian border runs through the town, where highway No. 10-10 to Celje branches off.

Dravograd Hydroelectric Power Plant
The power plant on the Drava River was built by the Germans during the Second World War, between 1941 and 1944. It started operating in 1944 with two vertical Kaplan turbines. It was the first pier-type power plant in Europe (along with a similar plant in Lavamünd, built in the same period). In April 1945, the plant was bombed and damaged by Allied air strikes. Renovation started after the war, with the first turbine becoming operational in December 1945 and the second in January the next year. Renovation ended in 1955, when the third turbine was added.

Refurbishment commenced in 1994, increasing the net capacity to 26.2 MW. Today the power plant can generate 142 million kWh of electricity annually, with an 8.9 m available head. Four 24 m wide spillways have a total spilling capacity of up to 5400 m3/s of water. For comparison, the highest water flows since construction of the power plant, measured during the 2012 floods, were 2570 m3/s. Three turbine piers are placed among the spillways. The plant reservoir is 10.2 km long and stretches up to the higher power plant at Lavamünd, Austria. It contains 5.6 million m3 of water.

The power plant is one of eight power plants on the Drava River in Slovenia and is managed by the company Dravske Elektrarne Maribor.

Other data

 * Postal code: SI-2370
 * Area code: 02 (Maribor)
 * Vehicle registration plate prefix: SG (Slovenj Gradec)

Notable people
Notable people that were born or lived in Dravograd include:
 * Eva Boto, singer, represented Slovenia in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest
 * Boštjan Nachbar, basketball player
 * Andrej Pečnik, football player
 * Nejc Pečnik, football player
 * Marijan Pušnik, football coach
 * brothers Ivo Polančič and Lovro Polančič, anti-Nazi resistance fighters
 * Anton Vogrinec, theologian

title: Dravograd