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Festivalgate

Festivalgate (フェスティバルゲート) was an amusement park in Osaka, Japan, just beside the Shin-Imamiya Station of the Osaka Loop Line of Nishinihon Japan Railway and Nankai Railway.

The park opened in July 1997. The city of Osaka invested in the park, but the theme park was originally managed by a private company which went bankrupt in 2004, and has since been managed by the municipal government of Osaka. In 2007, the local authorities decided to put the property up for sale.

The park was demolished on 19 March 2012. In late 2014, a new building on the site opened containing a Maruhan entertainment center and a Mega Donki outlet.

title: Festivalgate


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Capital of Japan

The capital of Japan is Tokyo. Throughout history, the national capital has been in locations other than Tokyo. The oldest capital of Japan is Nara.

History
Traditionally, the home of the Emperor is considered the capital. From 794 through 1868, the Emperor lived in Heian-kyō, modern-day Kyoto. After 1868, the seat of the Government of Japan and the location of the Emperor's home was moved to Edo, which it renamed Tokyo.

In 1941, the Ministry of Education published the "designation of Tokyo as capital" (東京奠都).

Modern law
While no laws have designated Tokyo as the Japanese capital, many laws have defined a "capital area" (首都圏) that incorporates Tokyo. Article 2 of the Capital Area Consolidation Law (首都圏整備法) of 1956 states: "In this Act, the term 'capital area' shall denote a broad region comprising both the territory of the Tokyo Metropolis as well as outlying regions designated by cabinet order." This implies that the government has designated Tokyo as the capital of Japan, although (again) it is not explicitly stated, and the definition of the "capital area" is purposely restricted to the terms of that specific law.

Other laws referring to this "capital area" include the Capital Expressway Public Corporation Law (首都高速道路公団法) and the Capital Area Greenbelt Preservation Law (首都圏近郊緑地保全法).

This term for capital was never used to refer to Kyoto. Indeed, shuto came into use during the 1860s as a gloss of the English term "capital".

The Ministry of Education published a book called "History of the Restoration" in 1941. This book referred to "designating Tokyo as capital" (東京奠都) without talking about "relocating the capital to Tokyo" (東京遷都). A contemporary history textbook states that the Meiji government "moved the capital (shuto) from Kyoto to Tokyo" without using the sento term.

The proposals to move the capital were conceptualized in 1979, and 16 years later, in 1995, the parliament voted to move the capital away from Tokyo to a place no more than 180 miles and forty minutes away from the airport, which was planned to be completed in 2010. In 1999, the following sites were proposed: Tochigi and Fukushima prefectures, north of Tokyo; the second candidate is Gifu and Aichi prefectures, south of Tokyo; and the panel recommended the third region near the ancient capitals, Nara, Kyoto, and Shiga prefectures. However, the plans for moving were not made.

As of 2007, there is a movement to transfer the government functions of the capital from Tokyo while retaining Tokyo as the de facto capital, with the Gifu-Aichi region, the Mie-Kio region and other regions submitting bids for a de jure capital. Officially, the relocation is referred to as "capital functions relocation" instead of "capital relocation", or as "relocation of the Diet and other organizations".

In 2023, the Government of Japan moved the Agency for Cultural Affairs to Kyoto. This was the first time that a central government office has been relocated outside Tokyo since Tokyo was designated as the capital.

Legendary
This list of legendary capitals of Japan begins with the reign of Emperor Jimmu. The names of the Imperial palaces are in parentheses:

 * 1) Kashihara, Yamato at the foot of Mount Unebi during reign of Emperor Jimmu
 * 2) Kazuraki, Yamato during reign of Emperor Suizei
 * 3) Katashiha, Kawachi during the reign of Emperor Annei
 * 4) Karu, Yamato during reign of Emperor Itoku.
 * 5) Waki-no-kami, Yamato during the reign of Emperor Kōshō
 * 6) Muro, Yamato during reign of Emperor Kōan
 * 7) Kuruda, Yamato during the reign of Emperor Kōrei
 * 8) Karu, Yamato during reign of Emperor Kōgen
 * 9) Izakaha, Yamato during reign of Emperor Kaika
 * 10) Shika, Yamato (Palace of Mizugaki) during reign of Emperor Sujin
 * 11) Shika, Yamato (Palace of Tamagaki) during reign of Emperor Suinin
 * 12) Makimuko, Yamato (Palace of Hishiro) during reign of Emperor Keikō
 * 13) Shiga, Ōmi (Palace of Takaanaho) during reign of Emperor Seimu
 * 14) Ando, Nara (Palace of Toyoura) and Kashiki on the island of Kyushu during reign of Emperor Chūai

Historical
This list of capitals includes the Imperial palaces names in parentheses.

Kofun period
 * Karushima, Yamato (Palace of Akira), reign of Emperor Ōjin
 * Naniwa, Settsu (Palace of Takatsu), reign of Emperor Nintoku
 * Iware, Yamato (Palace of Wakasakura), reign of Emperor Richū
 * Tajihi, Kawachi (Palace of Shibakaki), reign of Emperor Hanzei
 * Asuka, Yamato (Palace of Tohotsu), reign of Emperor Ingyō
 * Isonokami, Yamato (Palace of Anaho), reign of Emperor Ankō
 * Sakurai, Nara (Hatsuse no Asakura Palace), 457–479 in reign of Emperor Yūryaku
 * Sakurai, Nara (Iware no Mikakuri Palace), 480–484 in reign of Emperor Seinei
 * Asuka, Yamato (Chikatsu-Asuka-Yatsuri Palace), 485–487 in reign of Emperor Kenzō
 * Tenri, Nara (Isonokami Hirotaka Palace), 488–498 in reign of Emperor Ninken
 * Sakurai, Nara (Nimiki Palace), 499–506 in reign of Emperor Buretsu
 * Hirakata, Osaka (Kuzuha Palace), 507–511
 * Kyōtanabe, Kyoto (Tsutsuki Palace), 511–518 in reign of Emperor Keitai
 * Nagaoka-kyō (Otokuni Palace), 518–526 in reign of Keitai
 * Sakurai, Nara (Iware no Tamaho Palace), 526–532 in reign of Keitai
 * Kashihara, Nara (Magari no Kanahashi Palace), 532–535 in reign of Emperor Ankan
 * Sakurai, Nara (Hinokuma no Iorino Palace), 535–539 in reign of Emperor Senka

Asuka period
 * Asuka, Yamato (Shikishima no Kanasashi Palace), 540–571 in reign of Emperor Kinmei
 * Kōryō, Nara (Kudara no Ohi Palace), 572–575
 * Sakurai, Nara (Osata no Sakitama Palace or Osada no Miya), 572–585 in reign of Emperor Bidatsu
 * Shiki District, Nara (Iwareikebe no Namitsuki Palace), 585–587 in the reign of Emperor Yōmei
 * Shiki District, Nara (Kurahashi no Shibagaki Palace), 587–592 in the reign of Emperor Sushun
 * Asuka, Yamato (Toyura Palace or Toyura-no-miya), 593–603 in the reign of Empress Suiko
 * Asuka, Yamato (Oharida Palace or Oharida-no-miya), 603–629 in the reign of Suiko
 * Asuka, Yamato (Okamoto Palace or Oakmoto-no-miya), 630–636 in the reign of Emperor Jomei
 * Kashihara, Nara (Tanaka Palace or Tanaka-no-miya), 636–639
 * Kōryō, Nara (Umayasaka Palace or Umayasaka-no-miya, 640
 * Kōryō, Nara (Kudara Palace or Kudara-no-miya), 640–642
 * Asuka, Yamato (Oharida Palace), 642–643
 * Asuka, Yamato (Itabuki Palace or Itabuki no miya), 643–645 in the reign of Empress Kōgyoku
 * Osaka (Naniwa Nagara-Toyosaki Palace), 645–654 in the reign of Emperor Kōtoku
 * Asuka, Yamato (Itabuki Palace), 655–655 in the reign of Kōtoku
 * Asuka, Yamato (Kawahara Palace or Kawahara-no-miya), 655–655
 * Asuka, Yamato (Okamoto Palace or Nochi no Asuka-Okamoto-no-miya), 656–660 in the reign of Emperor Saimei
 * Asakura, Fukuoka (Asakura no Tachibana no Hironiwa Palace or Asakure no Tachibana no Hironiwa-no-miya), 660–661
 * Osaka, (Naniwa Nagara-Toyosaki Palace), 661–667
 * Ōtsu, Shiga (Ōmi Ōtsu Palace or Ōmi Ōtsu-no-miya), 667–672 in reign of Emperor Tenji and the reign of Emperor Kōbun
 * Asuka, Yamato (Kiyomihara Palace or Kiomihara-no-miya), 672–694 in the reign of Emperor Tenmu and in the reign of Empress Jitō
 * Fujiwara-kyō (Fujiwara Palace), 694–710 in the reign of Emperor Monmu

Nara period
 * Heijō-kyō (Heijō Palace), 710–740 in the reigns of Empress Genmei, Empress Genshō, and Emperor Shōmu
 * Kuni-kyō (Kuni Palace), 740–744 in the reign of Shomu
 * Naniwa-kyō (Naniwa Palace), 744
 * Naniwa-kyō, Shigaraki Palace, 744–745
 * Heijō-kyō (Heijō Palace), 745–784
 * Nagaoka-kyō (Nagaoka Palace), 784–794 in the reign of Emperor Kanmu

Heian period
 * Heian-kyō (Heian Palace), 794–1180 in the reign of Kammu and others
 * Fukuhara Palace, 1180 in the reign of Emperor Antoku

Medieval Japan and Early modern period (see also: History of Japan)
 * Heian-kyō or Kyōto (Heian Palace), 1180–1868
 * Yoshino (Nanboku-chō period), 1336–1392

Modern Japan (see also: History of Japan)
 * Tōkyō (Kōkyo), 1868–present

Historical capitals

 * Hiraizumi was the capital of totally independent Northern Fujiwara polity (Ōshū) based in Tōhoku region, having defeated Emishi tribes. This polity existed as Kyoto's internal politics prevented  Kyoto's authority from 1100 to 1189.
 * Hakodate was the capital of the short lived Republic of Ezo (1869)
 * Shuri was the capital of Ryukyu Kingdom (1429–1879) and Urasoe was capital of Chuzan from at least 1350, which predated the Ryukyu Kingdom.

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

title: Capital of Japan


text:
Berlin Cathedral

Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom), also known as the Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church, is a monumental German Protestant church and dynastic tomb (House of Hohenzollern) on the Museum Island in central Berlin. Having its origins as a castle chapel for the Berlin Palace, several structures have served to house the church since the 15th century. The present collegiate church was built from 1894 to 1905 by order of Emperor William II according to plans by Julius Raschdorff in Renaissance and Baroque Revival styles. The listed building is the largest Protestant church in Germany and one of the most important dynastic tombs in Europe. In addition to church services, the cathedral is used for state ceremonies, concerts and other events.

Since the demolition of the Memorial Church (Denkmalskirche) section on the north side by the East German authorities in 1975, Berlin Cathedral has consisted of the large sermon church in the center, and the smaller Baptismal and Matrimonial Church (Tauf- und Traukirche) on the south side and the Hohenzollern crypt (Hohenzollerngruft), which covers almost the entire basement. Damaged during the Allied bombing in World War II, the cathedral's original interior was restored by 2002. Currently there is discussion about restoring the historical exterior as well.

Term
Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) is the common name for the Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church (Oberpfarr- und Domkirche zu Berlin) in Berlin, Germany.

The Dom is the parish church of the congregation Gemeinde der Oberpfarr- und Domkirche zu Berlin, a member of the umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. The term Dom denotes a collegiate church (equivalent to the Italian duomo, or the English "Minster"); however, as most cathedrals are also collegiate churches, the term "Dom" has become the common term for a cathedral in German, though they are not synonymous. Berlin Cathedral has never been a cathedral in the actual sense of that term since it has never been the seat of a bishop. The bishop of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg (under this name 1945–2003) is based at St. Mary's Church and Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin.

History
Berlin Cathedral has a long history starting as a Catholic place of worship in the 15th century.

Establishment of a Collegiate Church in Berlin (1451–1536)
The history of today's Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church and its community dates back to 1451. In that year Prince-Elector Frederick II Irontooth of Brandenburg moved with his residence from Brandenburg upon Havel to Cölln (today's Fishers' Island, the southern part of Museums Island) into the newly erected City Palace, which also housed a Catholic chapel. In 1454 Frederick Irontooth, after having returned – via Rome – from his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, elevated the chapel to become a parish church, richly endowing it with relics and altars. Pope Nicholas V ordered Stephan Bodecker, then Prince-Bishop of Brandenburg, to consecrate the chapel to Erasmus of Formiae.

On 7 April 1465 – at Frederick Irontooth's request – Pope Paul II attributed to St Erasmus Chapel a canon-law College named Stift zu Ehren Unserer Lieben Frauen, des heiligen Kreuzes, St. Petri und Pauli, St. Erasmi und St. Nicolai dedicated to Mary(am) of Nazareth, the Holy Cross, Simon Peter, Paul of Tarsus, Erasmus of Formiae, and Nicholas of Myra. A collegiate church is a church endowed with revenues and earning estates, in order to provide a number of canons, called in canon law a College, with prebends. In this respect a collegiate church is similar to a cathedral, which is why in colloquial German the term cathedral college (Domstift), became the synecdoche used – pars pro toto – for all canon-law colleges. So the college of St. Erasmus' chapel, called Domstift in German, bestowed the pertaining church its colloquial naming, Domkirche (cathedral church). Frederick Irontooth provided the college with estates, sufficient to supply eight canon prebendaries. On 20 January 1469, Dietrich IV, then Prince-Bishop of Brandenburg, invested eight clergymen, chosen by Frederick Irontooth, as collegiate canons with the prebends.

The Collegiate Church in the former Black Friars' Church of St. Paul's south of the Palace (1536–1747)
In 1535, Prince-Elector Joachim II Hector reached the consent of Pope Paul III to shut down the 1297-founded Dominican convent (Black Friars), southerly neighboured to the palace, to acquire the pertaining monastic St. Paul's Church, built ca. in 1345. On 28 May 1536, most of the Black Friars moved to a Dominican monastery in Brandenburg upon Havel. Joachim II Hector assigned the thus void, three-nave church building to the Collegiate Church of Our Lady, the Holy Cross, the Ss. Peter, Paul, Erasmus and Nicholas and enlarged the College to 12 prebendaries, bestowing two of them to canons taken on from the Dominican convent. In 1538, a new western façade with two towers was attached to the collegiate church, which – due to its prior status as a church of a mendicant order – had no tower before. In the next year, Joachim II Hector converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism, as many of his subjects had done earlier. The collegiate church thus became Lutheran too, like most of the electoral subjects and all the churches in the Electorate. However, Joachim II Hector's ideas of Reformation were different from the modern ones. After his conversion he enriched the collegiate church with luxuriant furnishings, such as paraments, monstrances, relics, chasubles, carpets and antependia. From 1545 on the electoral family of Hohenzollern used the church building as their burial place.

In 1608, the year of his accession to the throne, Prince-Elector John Sigismund, then a crypto-Calvinist, dissolved the college and the church was renamed into Supreme Parish Church of Holy Trinity in Cölln. In 1613, John Sigismund publicly confessed his Calvinist faith (in Germany usually called Reformed Church), but waived his privilege to demand the same of his subjects (Cuius regio, eius religio). So he and his family, except his steadfastly Lutheran wife Anna, converted, while most of his subjects remained Lutherans. While Berlin's other churches, subject to Lutheran city-council jurisdiction, remained Lutheran, the Supreme Parish Church of Holy Trinity, the Hohenzollern's house church, became Berlin's first, and until 1695, only Calvinist church, serving from 1632 on as the parish for all Calvinists in town. Being now a Calvinist church, the patronage of the Holy Trinity was increasingly skipped.

In 1667, the dilapidated double-tower façade was torn down and in 1717 Martin Böhme erected a new Baroque façade with two towers. With the effect of 1 January 1710, Cölln was united with Berlin under the latter name. In 1747, the Supreme Parish Church was completely demolished to clear space for the baroque extension of Berlin Palace.

The Supreme Parish Church in its new Building north of the Palace (1750–1893)
On 6 September 1750, the new baroque Calvinist Supreme Parish Church was inaugurated, built by Johann Boumann the Elder in 1747–1750. The electoral tombs were transferred to the new building. The new structure covered a space north of the palace, which is still covered by the present building. In 1817, under the auspices of King Frederick William III of Prussia, the community of the Supreme Parish Church, like most Prussian Calvinist and Lutheran congregations joined the common umbrella organization named Evangelical Church in Prussia (under this name since 1821), with each congregation maintaining its former denomination or adopting the new united denomination. The community of the Supreme Parish Church adopted the new denomination of the Prussian Union. Today's presbytery of the congregation bears the unusual name in Domkirchenkollegium, literally Cathedral College, thus recalling the history of the church as a collegiate church.

In celebration of the Union Karl Friedrich Schinkel remodeled the interior in the same year and in 1820–1822 the exterior of Boumann's church in the neoclassicist style. The Supreme Parish and Cathedral Church faced at its southern façade Berlin City Palace, the residence of the Hohenzollerns (severely damaged in World War II and demolished later by the East German government), and the Lustgarten park at its western front, which is still there.

Modern Berlin Cathedral (1893–present)

However, in the 19th century, a new building was under discussion, but the post-Napoleonic poverty made its realization impossible. After dismantling the movable interior (altar, paintings, sarcophagi), Boumann's building was demolished in 1893 and Julius and Otto Raschdorff, father and son, built the present Supreme Parish and Cathedral Church in exuberant forms of high Neo-Renaissance style.

With no separation of Protestant church and state of Prussia, Wilhelm II officiated as the summus episcopus (Supreme Governor of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces, as it was named since 1875) and the state paid the complete construction cost of 11.5 million Marks. At 114 m long, 73 m wide and 116 m tall, it was much larger than any of the previous buildings and was considered a Protestant counterweight to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. On 27 February 1905, the present building was inaugurated.

In 1940, the blast waves of Allied bombing blew away part of the windows. On 24 May 1944, a bomb of combustible liquids entered the roof lantern of the dome. The fire could not be extinguished at that unreachable section of the dome. So the lantern burnt and collapsed into the main floor. Between 1949 and 1953, a temporary roof was built to enclose the building. On 9 May 1967 the then still undivided Evangelical Church of the Union decided a committee for the reconstruction of the Supreme Parish and Cathedral Church, then located in East Berlin. The government of the Eastern German Democratic Republic did not oppose the work of the committee due to the concomitant inflow of Deutsche Marks.

In 1975, reconstruction started, simplifying the building's original design and demolishing the north wing, the 'Denkmalskirche' – Memorial Church. Compared by some to the Medici Chapel, it had survived the war completely intact but was demolished for ideological reasons by the communist government due to it being a hall of honour for the Hohenzollern dynasty. This resulted in scaffolding for restoration appearing on the church while detonation charges were applied to its undamaged rear. The government also demanded the removal of as many crosses as possible. The demolition and redesign cost 800,000 marks, while the restoration (done on the cheap) cost just 50,000 marks. The Berlin Cathedral Building Society now seek to rebuild the Denkmalskirche.

In 1980, the baptistery and wedding church reopened for services. The restoration of the nave began in 1984. On 6 June 1993, the nave was re-inaugurated in an event attended by Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl and televised nationwide in Germany. There has been discussion to restore the dome and surrounding cupolas to their original appearance, but this has not occurred due to a lack of funds.

Main organ
The pipe organ, built by Wilhelm Sauer, was fully restored during reconstruction. It has 113 stops, including three ranks of 32' pipes on the pedal division, played by a 4-manual console:

 * II/I, III/I, IV/I, Super I, III/II, IV/II, Super II, IV/III, I/P, II/P, III/P, IV/P
 * 3 Freie Kombinationen, Mezzoforte, Forte, Tutti, Rohrwerke, Jalousieschweller III. Manual, Jalousieschweller IV. Manual, Jalousieschweller Vox humana, Handregister ab, Rückpositiv ab.

Ensembles
Contributing to the cathedral's comprehensive concert programme is their own set of choirs (Berliner Domkantorei) and a brass ensemble (Berliner Dombläser). Berlin Cathedral is also the main place of activity for the renowned boys' choir Staats- und Domchor Berlin, an institution of the Berlin University of the Arts. Since Advent 2015, The English Choir Berlin, a multinational SATB adult choir, sings Choral Evensong (Domvesper in anglikanisher Tradition) monthly on a Saturday evening and, from time to time sings at Sunday morning divine services.

title: Berlin Cathedral


text:
Dave Baksh

Dave Baksh (born July 26, 1980) also known by his stage name Dave Brownsound, is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter best known as the lead guitarist of rock band Sum 41. Baksh quit Sum 41 in 2006 (not counting a guest appearance on stage in 2008) to pursue his own career in his heavy metal/reggae project Brown Brigade. He rejoined Sum 41 in 2015 and has released three subsequent studio albums with the band. He also plays guitar for Organ Thieves, with two of his fellow Brown Brigade members and the Canadian deathpunk four-piece Black Cat Attack. In 2019, Baksh co-founded the merchandise company Loud & Immortal.

Early and personal life
Baksh grew up in Ajax, Ontario to an Indo-Guyanese family. Baksh learned to play guitar alongside his cousin. He went to school with fellow Sum 41 bandmate Jason McCaslin and their former drummer Steve Jocz. Baksh attended Exeter High School and was in the graduating class of 1998. He is a fan of English Premier League club Newcastle United.

Sum 41 (1998–2006; 2015–present)
Baksh joined Sum 41 as the third member in 1997, after Deryck Whibley and Steve Jocz formed the band in the summer of 1996. In addition to being the lead guitarist, Baksh also provided backing vocals. Baksh went by the name Pleasure in Sum 41's alter-ego band, Pain for Pleasure. Baksh also goes by the names "Dave Brownsound" and "Hot Chocolate", playing off of his Indian heritage and brown sound, the name Eddie Van Halen coined for his own guitar tone. He has stated his favorite Sum 41 songs are "Mr. Amsterdam," "Machine Gun," "Pain for Pleasure," and "The Bitter End", and his least favorite to play with the band is "Pieces".

On July 23, 2015, Sum 41 played their comeback show at the Alternative Press Music Awards, which featured DMC and Baksh himself as guests. On August 14, 2015, after rumors and speculation, it was announced that Baksh had officially returned to Sum 41, and would appear on the band's sixth studio album. The resulting album 13 Voices was released on October 7, 2016.

In 2019 during an interview with Loudwire, Baksh confirmed that he regretted leaving the band after hearing the band's fifth album Screaming Bloody Murder.

Brown Brigade (2006–2008)
On May 11, 2006, Baksh announced in a statement through his management company that he was leaving Sum 41 for personal reasons. He explained that he could not keep trying to express himself through guitar skills without being a pain to the band. During the post-Chuck hiatus, he decided it was time to move on from Sum 41 and to focus on his side project Brown Brigade, his new band that he founded with his cousin Vaughn Lal and with which he currently plays lead guitar.

Brown Brigade's debut album Into the Mouth of Badd(d)ness was released September 18, 2007, in Canada and Japan only and became critically successful, even though it was not released widely in the US and have not brought the band any outside attention, the band still continues to tour Canada in support of the album.

Baksh stated that the band is currently working on new and experimental songs to be released for free on the band's website. The new songs, unlike the band's traditional music, would feature varied music such as punk rock, funk and reggae and not metal like the debut album.

In a show that took place on March 27, 2008, in Toronto, Ontario, Baksh joined Sum 41 to play "Pain for Pleasure" at the end of the show. Some thought this was a hint of him returning to the band, however, Deryck Whibley said that Baksh's appearance was a one-off cameo and that he would continue with Brown Brigade.

On September 12, 2008, Baksh announced on the Brown Brigade's Myspace page that he would quit singing for the band, but would remain as the lead guitarist. The band was looking for a new lead singer to work on new material. On November 27, 2009, Baksh announced that due to his cousin Vaughn Lal's involvement in his business, they intended to keep Brown Brigade strictly a studio act, releasing single songs and collaborating in the studio with many different artists, with a small chance of playing live. Baksh's main focus will be Organ Thieves and Vaughn's main focus will be his new business.

Organ Thieves (2008–2015)
In mid-2008, Baksh started recording and producing his fellow Brown Brigade member Chuck Coles' new project Organ Thieves. By November 2008, Coles had asked Baksh to join the band for a few live shows, resulting in Baksh joining as a full-time member. He recorded the band's first EP God's Favorite Sons in January 2009. The EP was released for free on the band's Myspace page and was later released into physical copies in March 2009. On the same month, Baksh also joined Canadian hardcore punk outfit Blackjacket for a short UK tour.

In October 2009, Organ Thieves began pre-production for their first full-length studio album, with former longtime Sum 41 producer/manager Greig Nori. Organ Thieves has since become Baksh's main focus as he intends to keep Brown Brigade strictly a studio act.

On April 24, 2012, their first full-length studio album, Somewhere Between Free Men and Slaves, was released through MapleMusic Recordings.

Equipment
He generally plays a Paul Reed Smith McCarty Double Cut Solid body, but he also plays Paul Reed Smith Single Cuts and Gibson Les Pauls and also a Gibson Explorer Studio (Alpine White). He uses Dean Markley and Ernie Ball strings. For his pedals, he uses MXR Effects, a Digitech Whammy, and Dunlop wah Pedals. He uses Marshall Amplification.

Discography
With Sum 41
 * Half Hour of Power (2000)
 * All Killer No Filler (2001)
 * Does This Look Infected? (2002)
 * Chuck (2004)
 * 13 Voices (2016)
 * Order in Decline (2019)
 * Heaven :x: Hell (2024)

With Brown Brigade
 * Appetizer for Destruction (EP) (2006)
 * Into the Mouth of Badd(d)ness (2007)

With Organ Thieves
 * God's Favorite Sons (EP) (2009)
 * Somewhere Between Free Men and Slaves (2012)

With Black Cat Attack
 * Brightside of the Moon (EP) (2014)
 * Edraculation (2016)

title: Dave Baksh


text:
User:Malekith~enwiki

My name is Michal Moskal in the real world.

title: User:Malekith~enwiki


text: User talk:81.10.145.233

title: User talk:81.10.145.233


text:
Talk:Osaka

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Place of interest/tourist attractions
This section has several lists of tourist attractions. Inclusion criteria would seem to be that the item is a tourist attraction and it is located in or very near Osaka. Recently Tobita  was removed by an editor who was offended that a red-light district was listed in the entertainment category and felt that it shouldn't be listed as a tourist attraction at all. So it was removed entirely rather than adjusting the sub-category it was listed in.

Wikipedia is not censored. We don't white-wash articles to avoid the mention of things that might offend people or reflect poorly on the reputation of a subject. It is fairly easy to find sources that confirm that Tobita is a tourist attraction. While prostitution is prohibited (as a legal matter, perhaps not in practice) it appears that additional forms of entertainment are provided in Tobita. Many of the entries in the entertainment sub list are areas of restaurants, bars and clubs offering nightlife options. It seems a good fit for Tobita. However, after looking at List of tourist attractions in Amsterdam I'm inclined to put Tobita back in a separate sub-list: 'Red-light districts'.

Wikipedia does not exist to right great wrongs. Gab4gab (talk) 12:57, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

 * I agree with this. It should be a separate category and not just lumped in with entertainment in general. Signed, John Gillnitz 2.0 — Preceding unsigned comment added by John Gillnitz2.0 (talk • contribs) 23:22, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Osaka


text:
The Soul Sessions

The Soul Sessions is the debut studio album by English singer and songwriter Joss Stone, released on 16 September 2003 by S-Curve Records. The album consists of cover versions of soul songs from the 1960s and 1970s, in addition to a cover of the White Stripes' 2001 song "Fell in Love with a Girl" (renamed "Fell in Love with a Boy"). In 2004, The Soul Sessions was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize and was nominated for a MOBO Award for Best Album.

Background
The Soul Sessions was produced by Miami soul singer Betty Wright and S-Curve Records chief executive officer Steve Greenberg. Stone worked with veteran Miami soul musicians Benny Latimore, Little Beaver, Timmy Thomas and Wright herself. She also worked with contemporary musicians such as neo soul singer Angie Stone and the alternative hip hop group the Roots.

Stone told MTV News that she felt intimidated by the credentials of the musicians that worked on the album. "It was weird because they've worked with so many great, great singers. I'm talking the best. I kind of walked in, just like this little girl and started singing."

Critical reception
The Soul Sessions received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 74, based on 15 reviews. Jon Caramanica of Rolling Stone stated that "Stone shines on this impressive covers set" and that "[s]he chooses songs wisely." AllMusic's Thom Jurek wrote that Stone "has unique phrasing and a huge voice that accents, dips, and slips, never overworking a song or trying to bring attention to itself via hollow acrobatics." Jim Greer from Entertainment Weekly noted that Stone "does have an extraordinary voice", but added that "the only misguided ploy on The Soul Sessions is a Roots-produced slo-mo cover of a White Stripes tune." Russell Baillie from The New Zealand Herald opined that "with her strong, emotive voice she nails it time and again, and with performances that aren't an excuse for the vocal acrobatic show you imagine this would have been had Stone been America's next bright young thing."

The Guardian's Dorian Lynskey described her singing as "rich, mature and agile but not showy". Nick Duerden of Blender magazine commented that "Stone's voice is remarkably authentic, and the atmosphere she conjures is smoky and sleazy, pure mid-'60s Detroit." Jason MacNeil wrote for PopMatters that her voice is "more of a soulful voice than those so-called soul divas out there today" and that it "oozes sex appeal as Benny Latimore's piano weaves some magic." At The A.V. Club, Keith Phipps remarked that "Sessions establishes Stone as a formidable interpreter." Andrew McGregor of BBC Music felt that the album "seems a bit of an artistic compromise, music from the rule book rather than the heart." Similarly, The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau viewed Stone's covers as "the kind of soul marginalia Brits have been overrating since Doris Troy was on Apple".

Commercial performance
The Soul Sessions entered the UK Albums Chart at number 89 for the week ending 10 January 2004, peaking at number four in its fifth week on the chart. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified the album triple platinum on 15 April 2005, and by July 2012, it had sold 1,075,492 copies in the United Kingdom. Additionally, it became the 16th best-selling album of 2004 in the UK.

In the United States, The Soul Sessions was a sleeper hit. On the issue dated 4 October 2003, the album debuted at number 199 on the Billboard 200 and at number 76 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, peaking at number 39 on the former and at number 38 on the latter in its 24th week on both charts, on the issue dated 8 May 2004. Prior to that, the album topped the Top Heatseekers chart during the week of 21 February 2004. Sales were high on the East Coast, especially in cities such as New York City, Philadelphia and Boston. Within six months of its release, The Soul Sessions was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on 29 March 2004. The album had sold 981,000 units in the US as of July 2011.

The album was also commercially successful in the rest of Europe, where it reached number four in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway, number five in Portugal, number seven in Belgium, number eight in Italy, number 12 in Sweden and number 14 in Switzerland, as well as number four on the European Top 100 Albums. In June 2004, The Soul Sessions was awarded a Platinum Europe Award by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for sales in excess of one million copies across Europe. In Oceania, the album peaked at number 16 in Australia and number eight in New Zealand, earning platinum accreditations from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) for sales in excess of 70,000 and 15,000 copies, respectively. The Soul Sessions had sold five million copies worldwide as of June 2012.

Track listing
All tracks are produced by Betty Wright, Steve Greenberg and Michael Mangini, except "Fell in Love with a Boy" and "The Player", produced by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Wright, Greenberg and Mangini, and "I've Fallen in Love with You", produced by Greenberg and Mangini.

Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of The Soul Sessions.

Musicians

 * Joss Stone – vocals
 * Willie "Little Beaver" Hale – guitar (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9)
 * Timmy Thomas – organ (tracks 1, 2, 4, 8)
 * Benny Latimore – piano (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9)
 * Jack Daley – bass (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9)
 * Cindy Blackman – drums (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9)
 * Angelo Morris – acoustic guitar (track 1); guitar (tracks 2, 4, 5); organ (tracks 6, 9); keyboards (track 10)
 * Betty Wright – background vocals (tracks 1–3, 4, 6, 9, 11)
 * Jeanette Wright – background vocals (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 9)
 * Namphuyo Aisha McCray – background vocals (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 9)
 * Ignacio Nunez – percussion (track 2)
 * Mike Mangini – tambourine (track 2)
 * Angie Stone – background vocals (tracks 3, 11)
 * Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson – drums (tracks 3, 7, 11)
 * Kirk Douglas – guitar (tracks 3, 11)
 * Adam Blackstone – bass (tracks 3, 11)
 * James Poyser – keyboards (tracks 3, 11)
 * Kamal – keyboards (track 3)
 * Jimmy Farkus – acoustic guitar (track 5)
 * John Angier – string arrangement (track 7)
 * Danny Pierre – keyboards (track 7)
 * Mark Ciprit – guitar (track 7)
 * Sam Furnace – saxophone (track 7)
 * Steve Greenwell – bass (track 7)
 * Taneka Duggan – background vocals (track 7)
 * Deanna Carroll – background vocals (track 7)
 * Sandra Park – violin (track 7)
 * Lisa Kim – violin (track 7)
 * Sharon Yamada – violin (track 7)
 * Myung Hi Kim – violin (track 7)
 * Fiona Simon – violin (track 7)
 * Sarah Kim – violin (track 7)
 * Laura Seaton – violin (track 7)
 * Liz Lim – violin (track 7)
 * Soo Hyun Kwon – violin (track 7)
 * Jenny Strenger – violin (track 7)
 * Jung Sun Yoo – violin (track 7)
 * Rob Shaw – violin (track 7)
 * Karen Dreyfus – viola (track 7)
 * Robert Rinehart – viola (track 7)
 * Dawn Hannay – viola (track 7)
 * Tom Rosenfeld – viola (track 7)
 * Alan Stepansky – cello (track 7)
 * Sarah Seiver – cello (track 7)
 * Jeremy Turner – cello (track 7)
 * Leanne LeBlanc – cello (track 7)

Technical

 * Betty Wright – production (tracks 1–6, 8–11)
 * Steve Greenberg – production, executive production
 * Michael Mangini – production
 * Steve Greenwell – engineering, mixing
 * Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson – production (tracks 3, 11)
 * Chris Gehringer – mastering at Sterling Sound (New York City)

Artwork

 * David Gorman – art direction, design
 * Bryan Lasley – art direction, design
 * Charles Allen Smith – photography
 * Karen Fuchs – photography

title: The Soul Sessions


text:
Regions of Belarus

At the top level of administration, Belarus is divided into six regions and one capital city. The six regions are oblasts (also known as voblastsi), while the city of Minsk has a special status as the capital of Belarus. Minsk also serves as the administrative center of Minsk Region.

At the second level, the regions are divided into districts (raions).

The layout and extent of the regions were set in 1960 when Belarus (then the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic) was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union.

History
At the start of the 20th century, the boundaries of the Belarusian lands within the Russian Empire were still being defined. In 1900 it was contained within all of the Minsk and Mogilev governorates, most of Grodno Governorate, parts of Vitebsk Governorate, and parts of Vilna Governorate. World War I, the independence of Poland, as well as the 1920–1921 Polish–Soviet War affected the boundaries. In 1921, Belarus had what is now all of Minsk Governorate except for the western fringe, the western part of Gomel Region, a western slice of Mogilev, and a small part of Vitebsk Region. In 1926, the eastern part of Gomel region was added.

In the Byelorussian SSR, new administrative units, called oblasts or voblastsi (cognate of Russian word oblast with prothetic v-) were introduced in 1938. During World War II, Belarus gained territory to the west, with the Baranavichy, Belastok (Białystok), Brest, Pinsk, and Vileyka oblasts. In 1944, Belastok was eliminated and the new oblasts of Babruysk, Grodno, and Polotsk were created. At that same time, Vileika oblast was renamed Molodechno Oblast.

At different times between 1938 and 1960, the following oblasts existed:

 * Babruysk Oblast, created 1944, eliminated 1954
 * Baranavichy Oblast, created 1939, eliminated 1954
 * Belastok Oblast, created 1939, eliminated 1944 (now Białystok in Poland)
 * Brest Region, created 1939
 * Gomel Oblast, created 1938
 * Grodno Oblast, created 1944
 * Maladzyechna Oblast renamed from Vileyka Oblast 1944, eliminated 1960
 * Mogilev Oblast, created 1938
 * Minsk Oblast, created 1938
 * Navahrudak Oblast, created 1939, renamed Baranavichy Oblast December 1939
 * Pinsk Oblast, created 1939, eliminated 1954
 * Polatsk Oblast, created 1944, eliminated 1954
 * Polesia Oblast, created 1938, eliminated 1954
 * Vitebsk Oblast, created 1938
 * Vileyka Oblast, created 1939, renamed to Maladzyechna Oblast 1944

title: Regions of Belarus


text:
Japanese dolls

Japanese dolls (人形) are one of the traditional Japanese crafts.

There are various types of traditional dolls, some representing children and babies, some the imperial court, warriors and heroes, fairy-tale characters, gods and (rarely) demons, and also people of the daily life of Japanese cities. Many have a long tradition and are still made today for household shrines, formal gift-giving, or for festival celebrations such as, the doll festival, or , Children's Day. Some are manufactured as a local craft, to be purchased by pilgrims as a souvenir of a temple visit or some other trip.

History
There may be a continuity in the making of the dogū (土偶), humanoid figures, by the ancient Jōmon culture in Japan (8000–200 BC), which were associated with fertility or shamanistic rites, at a time when dolls were thought to have souls. Dolls also have continuity from the funerary figures of the subsequent Kofun culture (around 300–600 AD). Expert Alan Pate notes that temple records refer to the making of a grass doll to be blessed and thrown into the river at Ise Shrine in 3 BC; the custom was probably even more ancient, but it is at the root of the modern doll festival, or.

In the early 11th century, around the peak of the Heian period, several types of dolls had already been defined, as known from Lady Murasaki's novel The Tale of Genji. Girls played with dolls and doll houses; women made protective dolls for their children or grandchildren; dolls were used in religious ceremonies, taking on the sins of a person whom they had touched. At that time, it was thought that evil could be ritualistically transferred to a paper image called a katashiro (形代), which were then cast to the river or sea; Japanese dolls today may be the result of the combination of and paper dolls children once played with. , though not explicitly mentioned in The Tale of Genji, were soft-bodied dolls given to young women of age and especially to pregnant women to protect both mother and unborn child. Sources mentioning them by name start appearing in the Heian period, but are more apparent in the Muromachi period.

are roly-poly toys made from papier-mâché, dating back to at least the 14th century. They are good-luck charms and symbols of perseverance and resilience.

Probably the first professional dollmakers were temple sculptors, who used their skill to make painted wooden images of children (Saga dolls). The possibilities of this art form, using carved wood or wood composition, a shining white "skin" lacquer called made from ground oystershell and glue, and textiles, were vast.

During the Edo period (1603–1867), when Japan was closed to most trade, there developed both fine dollmakers and a market of wealthy individuals who would pay for the most beautiful doll sets for display in their homes or as valuable gifts. Sets of dolls came to include larger and more elaborate figures, and more of them. The competitive trade was eventually regulated by government, meaning that doll makers could be arrested or banished for breaking laws on materials and height.

Annual doll festival
Homes and shops put up traditionally-clothed dolls of various sizes, set on a red dais, around 3rd March for the festival of. These feature the emperor and empress, attended by a court retinue: warriors, ministers and so on. Full versions include 15 dolls and apparatus such as utensils for Japanese tea ceremony (茶の湯). The most elaborate sets can fetch many millions of yen (tens of thousands of US$). The Doll Festival is celebrated to ensure girls' future happiness, and this link to daughters is rooted in the use of dolls in children's play. However, the Doll Festival itself has been part of Japanese culture only since the Edo period.

Types
It was during the Edo period that most of the traditional doll types known today developed.

 * dolls are the dolls for, the doll festival on March 3. They can be made of many materials, but the classic doll has a pyramidal body of elaborate, many-layered textiles stuffed with straw and/or wood blocks, carved wood hands (and in some cases feet) covered with , and a head of carved wood or composite molded wood covered with , with set-in glass eyes (though before about 1850, the eyes were carved into the  and painted), and human or silk hair. A full set comprises at least 15 dolls, representing specific characters, with many accessories , though the basic set is a male-female pair, often referred to as the Emperor and Empress.
 * dolls are offered to Japanese children during the holiday, in order to inspire in them the bravery and strength of the legendary Kintarō.
 * , or warrior dolls, are usually made of materials similar to the dolls, but the construction is often more complicated, since the dolls represent men (or women) seated on camp chairs, standing, or riding horses. Armor, helmets, and weapons are made of lacquered paper, often with metal accents. There is no specified "set" of such dolls; subjects include Emperor Jimmu, Empress Jingū with her prime minister Takenouchi holding her newborn imperial son, Shoki the Demon-Queller, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his generals and tea-master, and fairy-tale figures such as Momotarō the Peach Boy or Kintarō the Golden Boy.
 * dolls show fat, cute babies in a simplified form. The basic is an almost-naked sitting boy, carved all in one piece, with very white skin, though  with elaborate clothing, hairstyle, and accessories, female as well as male, became popular as well. They developed as a gifts associated with the Imperial court, and  could be translated "palace" or "court".
 * dolls (木目込人形) are made of wood. The ancestors of dolls are  ("willow-wood") dolls, small dolls carved of willow and decorated with cloth scraps.  refers to a method of making dolls. They start with a carved and/or molded base of wood, wood composite, or (in some modern dolls) plastic foam. A design of different patterned cloth scraps is planned out, and the base is grooved so that the edges of the cloth can be hidden in the grooves. The cloth is glued on and the edges tucked in. The head and hands (if any) of the doll are usually finished with ; the hair may be part of the molded head or be a separate wig. These dolls have become a very popular craft and kits with finished heads can be purchased. The method is also used by some of Japan's avant-garde dollmakers, who adapt the old materials to new visions.
 * , puppets or dolls are mechanical; they include the large figures on festival floats, for festivals like Kyoto's Gion Matsuri and smaller entertaining scenes, often with a musical element accompanying the movement. They often depict legendary heroes.
 * is a form of theatrical puppet theatre which rivalled and inspired the kabuki theater, and survives today.
 * dolls have been made for 150 years, and are from Northern Honshū, the main island of Japan. They were originally made as toys for children of farmers. They have no arms or legs, but a large head and cylindrical body, representing little girls. From a simple toy, it has now become a famous Japanese craft, and now an established souvenir for tourists.
 * are life-sized lifelike dolls, that were popular in shows.  Artists made  that were novel not just for their subjects that shocked viewers—figures lying in pools of their own blood, for example—but for their influence on Japanese dolls. The works of Matsumoto Kisaburō and Yasumoto Kamehachi, in particular, contributed to form an extreme sense of realism.
 * dolls (市松人形) represent little girls or boys, correctly proportioned and usually with flesh-colored skin and glass eyes. The original were named after an 18th-century kabuki actor, and must have represented an adult man, but since the late 19th century the term has applied to child dolls, usually made to hold in the arms, dress, and pose (either with elaborately made joints or with floppy cloth upper arms and thighs). Baby boy dolls with mischievous expressions were most popular in the late 19th and early 20th century, but in 1927 the friendship doll exchange involved the creation of 58 32 in dolls representing little girls, to be sent as a gift from Japan to the United States, and the aesthetic of these dolls influenced dollmakers to emulate this type of a solemn, gentle-looking little girl in elaborate kimono.
 * are spherical dolls with red bodies and white faces without pupils. They represent Bodhidharma, an East Indian who founded Zen about 1500 years ago; according to legend, he removed his own eyelids to prevent sleep from breaking his concentration, and his limbs withered after prolonged meditation. dolls are charms to bring good fortune, continued prosperity, and fortitude to accomplish goals. Usually  dolls are purchased with blank eyes. One eye is filled when making a wish, the other when the wish is fulfilled. Wishes can be made throughout the year, but it is common in Japan to do it on New Year's Day.
 * ("shine-shine monk") are strictly speaking not a type of doll. They are handmade of white paper or cloth, and hung from a window by a string to bring good weather and prevent rain.
 * dolls ("crawling child") are a soft-bodied doll given to young women of age and especially to pregnant women in Japan as a talisman to protect both mother and unborn child.

With the end of the Edo period and the advent of the modern Meiji era in the late 1800s, the art of doll-making changed as well:

 * Silk-skinned or "mask-face" dolls became a popular craft in Japan in the 1920s and 1930s, allowing the individual to design elaborate kimono for dolls representing women of various periods of Japanese history, particularly the Edo period. Dolls of this type continued to be made and were a popular item for servicemen and tourists to bring back after World War II, though they also might choose dolls representing similar subjects made with faces.
 * Bisque dolls are made of fired clay. Fukuoka is a traditional center of the manufacture of bisque dolls, and are famous throughout Japan.
 * and (literally "big sister dolls" and "bookmark dolls," respectively) are made of washi paper.  tend to be three-dimensional, whereas  are flat.  often have elaborate hairstyles and costumes made of high-quality washi paper. They often lack facial features. Those from Shimane Prefecture are especially famous.
 * A hybrid of and, called , has become popular in recent years.   are a type of Japanese paper dolls made with figures and scenes and are mounted on , a rectangular fancy cardboard about a square foot (about a tenth of a square meter) in size.
 * More recent and less traditional Japanese dolls are ball-jointed dolls (BJDs), whose growth in popularity has spread to the US and other countries since the advent of the Super Dollfie, first made by Volks in 1999. BJDs can be very realistic-looking or based more on the anime aesthetic. They are made of polyurethane resin which makes them very durable. These dolls are highly customizable in that owners can sand them, change out their wig and eye colors, and even change their face paint. Because of this hands-on aspect of customization, they are not only popular with collectors, but also with hobbyists.

Collectors
Japanese dolls are broken down into several subcategories. Two of the most prominent are Girl's Day,, and the Boy's Day , or display dolls, , , and. Collections can be categorized by the material they are made of such as wood dolls ( and nara-ningyō) and clay forms such as, , and.

In the 19th century, were introduced to the West. Doll collecting has since become a popular pastime in the West. Famous well known collectors from the West include individuals such as James Tissot (1836–1902), Jules Adeline (1845–1909), Eloise Thomas (1907–1982), and Samuel Pryor (1898–1985). James Tissot was known to be a religious history painter. In 1862, after attending a London Exhibition, he was drawn to Japanese art. During the 1860s, Tissot was known as one of the most important collectors of Japanese art in Paris. His collections included -style kimono, paintings, bronze, ceramics, screens and a number of (dolls from the late Edo period). Adeline was known as a working artist and he is also known as "Mikika". Adeline produced many works throughout his career as a working artist. He is best known for his etchings and received the Cross of the Legion of Honor for his Vieux-Roven "Le Parvis Notre-Dame". Unlike Tissot, Adeline is recognized as a true collector. A majority of Adeline's collection consisted of, and only a few prints.

During the Meiji period, three men became pioneers in collecting : Shimizu Seifū (1851–1913), Nishizawa Senko (1864–1914), and Tsuboi Shōgorō (1863–1913). The three men are referred to as ("the three great toy collectors"). They introduced a systematic approach to collecting in an effort to preserve and document the various forms of. Shimizu, an artist and calligrapher, put his artistic ability to use by creating an illustrated catalog of his own collection of 440 dolls. The catalog was published in 1891, under the title. Nishizawa, a banker, gathered a significant collection on. He was an active researcher, collector of stories, documents, and information relating to the development of during the Edo period. Nishizawa's son Tekiho (1889–1965) inherited his collection, but a great portion of the collection was lost in the Kanto earthquake of 1923. Tsuboi, founder of the Tokyo Anthropological Society, was the most trained of the three, and he brought a scientific element to the collecting of.

Dolls have been a part of Japanese Culture for many years, and the phenomenon of collecting them is still practiced. Many collections are preserved in museums, including the Peabody Essex Museum, Kyoto National Museum, and the Yodoko Guest House.

title: Japanese dolls


text:
Recreational diving

Recreational diving or sport diving is diving for the purpose of leisure and enjoyment, usually when using scuba equipment. The term "recreational diving" may also be used in contradistinction to "technical diving", a more demanding aspect of recreational diving which requires more training and experience to develop the competence to reliably manage more complex equipment in the more hazardous conditions associated with the disciplines. Breath-hold diving for recreation also fits into the broader scope of the term, but this article covers the commonly used meaning of scuba diving for recreational purposes, where the diver is not constrained from making a direct near-vertical ascent to the surface at any point during the dive, and risk is considered low.

The equipment used for recreational diving is mostly open circuit scuba, though semi closed and fully automated electronic closed circuit rebreathers may be included in the scope of recreational diving. Risk is managed by training the diver in a range of standardised procedures and skills appropriate to the equipment the diver chooses to use and the environment in which the diver plans to dive. Further experience and development of skills by practice will improve the diver's ability to dive safely. Specialty training is made available by the recreational diver training industry and diving clubs to increase the range of environments and venues the diver can enjoy at an acceptable level of risk.

Reasons to dive and preferred diving activities may vary during the personal development of a recreational diver, and may depend on their psychological profile and their level of dedication to the activity. Most divers average less than eight dives per year, but some total several thousand dives over a few decades and continue diving into their 60s and 70s, occasionally older. Recreational divers may frequent local dive sites or dive as tourists at more distant venues known for desirable underwater environments. An economically significant diving tourism industry services recreational divers, providing equipment, training and diving experiences, generally by specialist providers known as dive centers, dive schools, live-aboard, day charter and basic dive boats.

Legal constraints on recreational diving vary considerably across jurisdictions. Recreational diving may be industry regulated or regulated by law to some extent. The legal responsibility for recreational diving service providers is usually limited as far as possible by waivers which they require the customer to sign before engaging in any diving activity. The extent of responsibility of recreational buddy divers is unclear, but buddy diving is generally recommended by recreational diver training agencies as safer than solo diving, and some service providers insist that customers dive in buddy pairs. The evidence supporting this policy is inconclusive.

Scope
Recreational diving may be considered to be any underwater diving that is not occupational, professional, or commercial, in that the dive is fundamentally at the discretion of the diver, who dives either to their own plan, or to a plan developed in consensus with the other divers in the group, though dives led by a professional dive leader or instructor for non-occupational purposes are also legally classified as recreational dives in some legislations.

The full scope of recreational diving includes breath-hold diving and surface supplied diving – particularly with lightweight semi-autonomous airline systems such as snuba – and technical diving (including penetration diving), as all of these are frequently done for recreational purposes, but common usage is mostly for open water scuba diving with limited decompression.

Scuba diving implies the use of an autonomous breathing gas supply carried by the diver, the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus which provides the name for this mode of diving. Scuba may be the simpler and more popular open circuit configuration or one of the more complex and expensive closed or semi-closed rebreather arrangements. Rebreathers used for recreational diving are generally designed to require a minimum task loading on the diver and as far as possible to fail safe and give the diver ample warning to bail out to open circuit and abort the dive.

Open water is the definitive environment for recreational diving, and in this context implies that there is no physical or physiological barrier to the diver concluding the dive at any time by a direct ascent to the surface, either vertically, or via a clearly visible route adequately illuminated by ambient light. Some organisations extend the scope of recreational diving to allow short decompression obligations which can be done without gas switching. Depth limitations are imposed by the certification agencies, and relate to the competency associated with the specific certification. Entry level divers may be restricted to a depth of 18 or 20 m, and more advanced divers to 30, 40, 50 or 60 m depending on the certification and agency. Junior divers may be restricted to shallower depths generally confined to a depth of 12 metres (40 ft).

Recreational diving is generally limited to the use of air or a single nitrox mixture with an oxygen fraction not exceeding 40% for the planned dive, but this does not preclude constant oxygen partial pressure nitrox provided by electronically controlled closed circuit rebreathers like the Poseidon Mk6 or variable nitrox mixtures such as provided by the earlier semi-closed circuit Dräger Ray rebreather. Emergency gas supplies are either by sharing with a dive buddy or from a bailout cylinder for open circuit diving, and by bailout to open circuit for rebreather diving.

Most recreational diving officially applies the buddy system, but in reality there are a significant proportion of dives which are either effectively solo dives or where larger groups of nominally paired divers follow a dive leader and may be escorted by another dive leader.

Reasons to dive
The reasons to dive for recreational purposes are many and varied, and many divers will go through stages when their personal reasons for diving change, as the initial novelty of the alien environment becomes familiar and skills develop to the point where the diver is able to pay more attention to the surroundings.

Many people start diving for the adventure of experiencing a different environment and the ability to maneuver fairly freely in three dimensions, but the novelty wears off after a while. This may be replaced by the satisfaction of developing the skills to operate in a wider range of environments, and developing excellence in those skills, the addition of compatible interests and activities to complement the basic activity, like underwater photography and an interest in the details of the environment, including exploration and study and recording of aspects of the environment. Experience of the underwater environment varies depending on where the diver has access to suitable sites - there is more to see on a coastal reef than in most freshwater lakes, and scuba diving tourism can make a wide variety of more entertaining and challenging sites available. Exploration can also extend beyond tourism to the search for previously unvisited sites and the satisfaction of being the first to be there and in some cases, tell the story.

Reasons to dive include:
 * Tourism and sight-seeing, including visiting a variety of places with different things to see.
 * Extreme sport aspect: some divers wish to explore their personal limits and abilities under challenging conditions. This includes some competitive underwater sports, and environmental and physiological challenges.
 * Naturalist and underwater life observers. This may be combined with recording the environment and contributing to citizen science databases.
 * Exploration: the underwater environment is relatively unexplored, it is not difficult to find places where no-one has gone before or if they have, no-one has recorded the fact or described or surveyed the site, even quite close to heavily populated areas. The marine ecosystems are largely undescribed, and there are many undiscovered species yet to be found and described. There are shipwrecks and flooded caves to challenge the adventurous and foolhardy.
 * Stress management: recreational diving in reasonably good conditions which are comfortably managed by the diver can produce health benefits of mood improvement.

Activities
There are many recreational diving activities, and equipment and environmental specialties which require skills additional to those provided by the entry level courses, These skills were originally developed by trial and error, but training programmes are offered by most diver training agencies for the convenience of the diver, and profit for the agency, or in the case of club oriented systems, for the overall benefit of the club community:

Activities:
 * Snorkeling – Swimming at the surface with a diving mask and snorkel to view the shallow underwater environment.
 * Free-diving (also called skin diving) – Swimming below the surface on breath-hold.
 * Identifying, surveying, and monitoring sea life and freshwater life: This may be associated with citizen science projects and underwater photography (see also marine biology).
 * Maritime archeology or Underwater archeology – Also may be associated with citizen science and underwater photography
 * Rescue Diver – Usually considered a desirable diving skill, but may be part of the requirements and function of volunteer safety divers, and generally a requirement for any dive leadership certification.
 * Underwater navigation – Enhanced competence at following and recording underwater routes, generally excluding the use of a guide-line, which is considered a separate competence, and using a compass and landmarks.
 * Underwater photography - Use of photographic equipment designed or modified for underwater use for recording the environment or artistic purposes.
 * Underwater search and recovery Knowledge and procedural skills for conducting underwater searches and recovering relatively small objects from underwater.
 * Underwater videography – Use of video recording equipment designed or modified for underwater use for recording the environment or artistic purposes.
 * Underwater hunting and gathering for sport and food. The ecological impact is variable, but can be severe.

Specialties
Some recreational diving activities require skills sufficiently beyond the basic recreational open water diving skill set that they are classed by the recreational diver training industry as specialties, and for which further training and certification is available. These can be broadly distinguished as environmental and equipment specialties.

Environmental specialties:
 * Altitude diving – Knowledge and skills associated with diving in waters where the surface pressure is significantly below average sea level pressure, and affects decompression.
 * Cave diving – Knowledge and procedural skills related to managing risk in underwater cave environments.
 * Deep diving – Knowledge and procedural skills related to managing risk at greater depths, and the decompression associated with deep exposure.
 * Drift diving – Procedures used to dive while transported by currents.
 * Ice diving – Knowledge and procedural skills related to managing risk in very cold water and under an ice surface layer.
 * Low impact diving  – Knowledge and procedural skills intended to minimise the environmental impact of recreational diving, mainly by minimising contact with the sensitive reef life, but it also applies to diving on fragile structure of historical wrecks and in caves with delicate rock formations.
 * Night diving – Knowledge and procedural skills related to managing risk while diving in very low levels of natural illumination.
 * Underwater surveys and mapping of dive sites, in caves, wrecks and open water reefs. A part of recording exploration, and of archaeological work.
 * Wreck diving – Knowledge and procedural skills related to managing risk while diving inside wrecks.

Equipment specialties:
 * Dry suit – Knowledge and procedural skills related to managing risk associated with the use of dry suits, and optimising their usage.
 * Rebreather – Knowledge and procedural skills related to managing risk related to diving with rebreathers. Type certification is often required for the specific model of rebreather.
 * Sidemount diving – Knowledge and procedural skills related to use of side-mounted scuba equipment.
 * Nitrox diving – Knowledge related to managing risk when using nitrox as a breathing gas.
 * Recreational trimix diving – Knowledge related to managing risk when using trimix as a breathing gas. The depths which make trimix a preferred breathing gas also often imply obligatory decompression and gas switching for accelerated decompression.
 * Safe use of a diver propulsion vehicle (scooter). This activity is not generally associated with a formal training programme and certification, but some practice and knowledge is necessary for safe and effective use, particularly in combination with other complex or high risk activities or equipment.

Many diver training agencies such as ACUC, BSAC, CMAS, IANTD, NAUI, PADI, PDIC, SDI, and SSI offer training in these areas, as well as opportunities to move into professional dive leadership, instruction, technical diving, public safety diving and others.

History
Recreational scuba diving grew out of related activities such as Snorkeling and underwater hunting. For a long time, recreational underwater excursions were limited by breath-hold time. The invention of the aqualung in 1943 by Émile Gagnan and Jacques-Yves Cousteau and the wetsuit in 1952 by University of California, Berkeley physicist, Hugh Bradner and its development over subsequent years led to a revolution in recreational diving. However, for much of the 1950s and early 1960s, recreational scuba diving was a sport limited to those who were able to afford or make their own kit, and prepared to undergo intensive training to use it.

As the sport became more popular, manufacturers became aware of the potential market, and equipment began to appear that was easy to use, affordable and reliable. Continued advances in SCUBA technology, such as buoyancy compensators, improved diving regulators, wet or dry suits, and dive computers, increased the safety, comfort and convenience of the gear encouraging more people to train and use it.

Until the early 1950s, navies and other organizations performing professional diving were the only providers of diver training, but only for their own personnel and only using their own types of equipment. The first scuba diving school was opened in France to train the owners of the Cousteau and Gagnan designed twin-hose scuba. The first school to teach single hose scuba was started in 1953, in Melbourne, Australia, at the Melbourne City Baths. RAN Commander Batterham organized the school to assist the inventor of the single hose regulator, Ted Eldred. However, neither of these schools was international in nature.

There were no formal training courses available to civilians who bought the early scuba equipment. Some of the first training started in 1952 at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography where Andy Rechnitzer, Bob Dill and Connie Limbaugh taught the first scuba courses in the United States, then in 1953 Trevor Hampton created the first British diving school, the British Underwater Centre and in 1954 when Los Angeles County created an Underwater Instructor Certification Course based on the training that they received from the scientific divers of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Early instruction developed in the format of amateur teaching within a club environment, as exemplified by organizations such as the Scottish Sub Aqua Club and the British Sub Aqua Club from 1953, Los Angeles County from 1954 and the YMCA from 1959.

Professional instruction started in 1959 when the non-profit NAUI was formed, which later effectively was split, to form the for-profit PADI in 1966. The National Association of Scuba Diving Schools (NASDS) started with their dive center based training programs in 1962 followed by SSI in 1970. Professional Diving Instructors College was formed in 1965, changing its name in 1984 to Professional Diving Instructors Corporation (PDIC).

In 2009 PADI alone issued approximately 950,000 diving certifications. Approximately 550,000 of these certifications were "entry level" certifications and the remainder were more advanced certifications.

Scuba-diving has become a popular leisure activity, and many diving destinations have some form of dive shop presence that can offer air fills, equipment sale, rental and repair, and training. In tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world, there is a large market for 'holiday divers'; people who train and dive while on holiday, but rarely dive close to home.

Technical diving and the use of rebreathers are increasing, particularly in areas of the world where deeper wreck diving is the main underwater attraction. Generally, recreational diving depths are limited by the training agencies to a maximum of between 30 and 40 meters (100 and 130 feet), beyond which a variety of safety issues such as oxygen toxicity and nitrogen narcosis significantly increase the risk of diving using recreational diving equipment and practices, and specialized skills and equipment for technical diving are needed.

Standard equipment
The standard recreational open circuit scuba equipment includes the following items:

Basic equipment, which can be used for most modes of ambient pressure diving: A scuba set, comprising: Auxiliary equipment to enhance safety. For solo diving a bailout cylinder is considered standard for dives where there is an appreciable risk of entrapment, or where a direct controlled emergency swimming ascent is not an acceptable option to manage an out-of-air incident at any point in the planned dive profile.
 * a diving mask for underwater vision;
 * a snorkel to aid surface swimming;
 * a pair of swimfins, for mobility;
 * a diving suit, which may be a dry suit, wetsuit or dive skins, or a regular swimsuit, depending on the water temperature and other factors, for thermal and environmental protection;
 * a diving weighting system such as a weight belt or BCD integrated weight system, to counteract the buoyancy of the fully equipped diver (mostly the diving suit);
 * a single diving cylinder (also known as scuba tank), with cylinder valve, to supply breathing air, and a harness to support it. In the past, twin cylinders were also popular.
 * a buoyancy compensator, (also known as buoyancy control device or BCD), which is usually part of the harness used to carry the cylinder, to adjust buoyancy by controlled inflation and deflation.
 * a diving regulator to reduce the pressure of the air from the cylinder, with:
 * a primary second stage, to supply the diver with ambient pressure air on demand;
 * a secondary second stage (octopus) to supply emergency air to a buddy diver who needs assistance;
 * a submersible pressure gauge (SPG) (also known as contents gauge), to monitor the remaining air supply;
 * a low pressure inflation hose for the buoyancy compensator, and if applicable, for the dry suit, to inflate the BCD and suit for buoyancy control and to avoid suit squeeze.
 * a dive computer (also known as personal decompression computer) or a depth gauge and timer, to monitor the dive profile, avoid decompression obligation and facilitate a controlled ascent;
 * a surface marker buoy or other surface detection aid may be standard equipment in some regions to allow the surface crew and boats to monitor the diver's position.
 * a diver's cutting tool should be carried in areas where there is a significant risk of entanglement in ropes, lines, or nets. (usually lost or discarded fishing gear)

Standard procedures
Some skills are generally accepted by recreational diver certification agencies as necessary for any scuba diver to be considered competent to dive without direct supervision, and others are more advanced, though some diver certification and accreditation organizations may consider some of these to also be essential for minimum acceptable entry level competence. Divers are instructed and assessed on these skills during basic and advanced training, and are expected to remain competent at their level of certification, either by practice or refresher courses.

The skills include selection, functional testing, preparation and transport of scuba equipment, dive planning, preparation for a dive, kitting up for the dive, water entry, descent, breathing underwater, monitoring the dive profile (depth, time and decompression status), personal breathing gas management, situational awareness, communicating with the dive team, buoyancy and trim control, mobility in the water, ascent, emergency and rescue procedures, exit from the water, un-kitting after the dive, cleaning and preparation of equipment for storage, and recording the dive, within the scope of the diver's certification. A significant amount of harmonization of training standards and standard and emergency procedures has developed over the years, largely due to organisations like World Recreational Scuba Training Council. This allows divers trained by the various certifying organisations to dive together with a minimum of confusion, which enhances safety. Diver communications is a particular aspect where most of the basic hand signals are common to most recreational diver training agencies. This does not mean that there is no variation. There are some procedures such as emergency donation of air which are quite strongly polarized between those who advocate donation of the secondary (octopus) regulator and those who advocate donating the primary regulator. Length of regulator hose and position of the secondary second stage depend on the donation technique.

There are also variations in procedures for self rescue in an out-of-air situation, and in procedures for bringing an unresponsive casualty to the surface.

Solo diving, once considered technical diving and discouraged by most certification agencies, is now seen by many experienced divers and some certification agencies as an acceptable practice for those divers suitably trained and experienced. Rather than relying on the traditional buddy diving safety system, solo divers rely on self-sufficiency and are willing to take responsibility for their own safety while diving.

Buddy diving is the more generally advocated procedural alternative, on the principle that in case of an emergency, a dive buddy can assist the diver in difficulty, but this is only valid if the buddy is close enough to help, notices the problem, and is competent and willing to assist.

Training
Many recreational diver training organisations exist, throughout the world, offering diver training leading to certification: the issuing of a "diver certification card", also known as a "C-card," or qualification card.

Recreational diver training courses range from minor specialties which require one classroom session and an open water dive, and which may be completed in a day, to complex specialties which may take several days to weeks, and require several classroom sessions, confined water skills training and practice, and a substantial number of open-water dives, followed by rigorous assessment of knowledge and skills. Details on the approximate duration of training can be found on the websites of most certification agencies, but accurate schedules are generally only available from the specific school or instructor who will present that course, as this will depend on the local conditions and other constraints.

Diving instructors affiliated to a diving certification agency may work independently or through a university, a dive club, a dive school or a dive shop. They will offer courses that should meet, or exceed, the standards of the certification organisation that will certify the divers attending the course.

Diving skills
Diver training can be divided into entry-level training, which are those skills and knowledge considered essential for the diver to dive unsupervised at an acceptably low level of risk by the certifying agency, and further skills and knowledge which allow better performance and extend the environmental capacity and equipment choices of the diver.

Entry level
There is a significant variation in entry-level training, with some training agencies requiring the bare minimum as specified by RSTC and ISO, and others requiring a greater level of competence with associated assumption of lower risk to the diver and dive buddy, and less likelihood of environmental damage. Entry level training may include skills for assisting or rescue of another diver, but this is not always the case. Divers without rescue training are routinely assigned to dive as buddy pairs to follow organizational protocols. This is not generally a contravention of the training agencies' recommendations.

The initial training for open water certification for a person who is medically fit to dive and a reasonably competent swimmer is relatively short. The minimum number of open-water dives required for certification is usually four, but instructors are generally required by training standards to ensure that the diver is sufficiently skilled to dive safely in the local environment before certification is issued, and this may require further training and experience beyond the required minimum. Many dive shops in popular holiday locations offer courses intended to teach a novice to dive in a few days, which can be combined with diving on the vacation. Other instructors and dive schools will provide more thorough training, which generally takes longer.

Beyond entry level
Skills and knowledge beyond the minimum requirement are generally labelled Advanced skills, and these may include skills such as competent buoyancy control, which are included in the entry level skills by other agencies. Many skills which are considered advanced by recreational training agencies are considered basic entry-level skills for professional divers.

Training standards
Each diver certification agency has its own set of diver training standards for each level of certification that they issue. Although these standards are usually available on request or on the organisation's website, the assessment criteria are often not available to the public, making a direct comparison of standards difficult. Most agencies comply with the minimum requirements of the World Recreational Scuba Training Council (WRSTC) or ISO for the relevant certification (ISO 24801-2 Autonomous diver, and ISO 24801-3 Dive leader ), but most certification levels are not defined by the international standards.

Under most entry-level programs (SEI, SDI, PADI, BSAC, SSAC, NAUI, SSI, and PDIC), divers can complete a certification with as few as four open water dives. This complies with the minimum requirements of ISO 24801-2 Autonomous diver. Such a qualification allows divers to rent equipment, receive air fills, and dive without supervision to depths typically restricted to 18 meters (60 feet) with an equally qualified buddy in conditions similar to, or easier than those in which they were trained. Certification agencies advise their students to dive within the scope of their experience and training, and to extend their training to suit the conditions in which they plan to dive.

In the 1980s, several agencies with DEMA collaborated to author ANSI Standard Z86.3 (1989), Minimum Course Content For Safe Scuba Diving which defines their training as the Accepted Industry Practices. The International Standards Organisation has since published ISO 24801 and ISO 24802 which define minimum training standards for two levels of recreational diver and for recreational diving instructors.

A few recreational certification agencies such as GUE, and the commercial diver training standards of several countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, and Canada, consider the competence provided by the recreational diver training industry minimum standard to be inadequate for safe diving, particularly occupational diving, where the diver has a legal duty of care towards other members of the dive team, even though the responsibility for occupational dive planning and safety is held by a professional diving supervisor.

Risk
Recreational scuba diving involves physical and psychological risks and therefore can be classified as an extreme sport. Fatality rates of 16.4 deaths per 100,000 persons per year among DAN America members and 14.4 deaths per 100,000 persons per year the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) members were similar and did not change during 2000–2006. This is comparable with jogging (13 deaths per 100,000 persons per year) and motor vehicle accidents (16 deaths per 100,000 persons per year), and within the range where reduction is desirable by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) criteria.

Data for 17 million student-diver certifications during 63 million student dives over a 20-year period from 1989 to 2008 show a mean per capita death rate of 1.7 deaths per 100,000 student divers per year. This was lower than for insured DAN members during 2000–2006 at 16.4 deaths per 100,000 DAN members per year, but fatality rate per dive is a better measure of exposure risk, A mean annual fatality rate of 0.48 deaths per 100,000 student dives per year and 0.54 deaths per 100,000 BSAC dives per year and 1.03 deaths per 100,000 non-BSAC dives per year during 2007. The total size of the diving population is important for determining overall fatality rates, and the population estimates from the 1990s of several million U.S. divers need to be updated.

The most frequent root cause for diving fatalities is running out of or low on gas. Other factors cited include loss of buoyancy control, entanglement or entrapment, rough water, equipment misuse or problems, and emergency ascent, which is often a response to a breathing gas problem. The most common injuries and causes of death were drowning or asphyxia due to inhalation of water, air embolism and cardiac events. Risk of cardiac arrest is greater for older divers, and greater for men than women, although the risks are equal by age 65.

Several plausible opinions have been put forward but have not yet been empirically validated. Suggested contributing factors included inexperience, infrequent diving, inadequate supervision, insufficient predive briefings, buddy separation, and dive conditions beyond the diver's training, experience, or physical capacity.

Legal status
Legal constraints on recreational diving vary considerably across jurisdictions. In many countries recreational diving is either not mentioned at all in laws and regulations, or specifically excluded from regulations covering occupational diving. In others, only diver training and dive-leading activities where the diver is either employed or takes a leadership position where they are responsible for the safety of others is covered by legislation. At the other extreme, countries such as Israel have statutory law covering all recreational diving activities.

Recreational diver training and dive leading are industry regulated in some countries, and only directly regulated by government in a subset of them. In the UK, HSE legislation includes recreational diver training and dive leading for reward; in the US and South Africa industry regulation is accepted, though non-specific health and safety legislation still applies. In Israel recreational diving activities are regulated by the Recreational Diving Act, 1979.

The legal responsibility for recreational diving service providers is usually limited as far as possible by waivers which they require the customer to sign before engaging in any diving activity. The extent of responsibility of recreational buddy divers is unclear and has been the subject of considerable litigation. It is probable that it varies between jurisdictions. In spite of this lack of clarity, and conflicting evidence, buddy diving is recommended by recreational diver training agencies as safer than solo diving, and some service providers insist that customers dive in buddy pairs.

Economic impact
Recreational diving provides a market for the diving equipment industry, the diver training industry and the diver services industry, all of which are interdependent, and at retail level, frequently provided by the same local specialist outlet, thus contributing to the local economy. These activities contribute to generation of revenue through dive tours, certification courses and equipment rentals which in turn, support wages for dive charter captains and crews, and hotel and its employees.

Diving activities aid in marine ecosystem conservation, supporting the development of infrastructure and services like videography, scientific researches and other local businesses, simultaneously promoting tourism.

The combined contribution of recreational scuba diving and snorkeling to the US gross domestic product was estimated at $11 billion in a 2019 report by the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association.

Scuba diving tourism is the industry based on servicing the requirements of recreational divers at destinations other than where they live. It includes aspects of training, equipment sales, rental and service, guided experiences and environmental tourism. Customer satisfaction is largely dependent on the quality of services provided, and personal communication has a strong influence on the popularity of specific service providers in a region.

Demographics
A 2014 survey of American divers indicates with a high level of confidence for the specified population, that about 3.145 million Americans (1.1 percent of population) took part in scuba diving at least once in the survey year, which is a 0.9 percent decrease over 2013, but participation increased by 1.3 percent on average for the previous five years. There were about 2.252 million casual participants who made between one and seven dives per year and 893,000 core participants who dived eight or more times per year. 66% of casual and 74% of core participants were male. The age distribution of casual and core participants differs. Core participants tend to be older. Casual participation tends to gradually rise to a peak in early middle age, then drop markedly after about 45 years old, while core participation tends to continue at a relatively consistent rate over age groups up to about 65 years, after which it drops markedly. Some training agencies will accept trainees as young as 8 years old for participation in supervised scuba experiences, and 10 years for certification. The record age for a scuba dive as of January 2020 is 95 years. Recreational scuba divers appear to be on average wealthier and better educated than the general population, as indicated by earlier surveys. There is a greater tendency than average for scuba divers to participate in other sporting and exercise activities than the general population, but lack of adequate physical fitness is frequently cited as a contributory factor in diving accidents.

The medical literature, anecdotal evidence and a small-scale survey suggest that a significant part of the recreational scuba diving population may have chronic medical conditions that affect their fitness to dive according to the Recreational Scuba Training Council's guidelines. This may have an influence on risk, as unfitness and preexisting medical conditions are frequently cited in incident reports where the incident was adequately investigated.

PADI worldwide certification statistics indicate a slow but steady trend of increasing proportion of certification of female divers at all levels from 34.4% in 2013 to 38.0% in 2018, and a decrease in the average age of certifications over the same period.

Personality profiles of recreational divers were analysed in a 2010 study on entry level divers: The participants scored high on self-sufficiency, impulsiveness and boldness and low on warmth, sensitivity and conformity, and differed from the typical extreme sport participant's personality profile. Personality types identified include adventurer, dreamer, rationalist and passive-aggressive macho diver, and results suggested that the risk behaviour likely to be exhibited by the diver would depend on their personality type.

Venues for diving
Most types of bodies of water can be used as dive sites:

Flooded excavations often have low visibility. Disused and flooded quarries are popular in inland areas for diver training as well as recreational diving. Rock quarries may have reasonable underwater visibility - there is often little mud or silt to create mid-water particles that cause low visibility, and the lack of flow allows silt to settle on the bottom, where it may later be kicked up by unskilled divers to temporarily reduce visibility locally. As they are not natural environments, and usually privately owned, quarries may contain objects intentionally placed for divers to explore, such as sunken boats, automobiles, aircraft, or structures like grain silos and gravel chutes. The popularity of a dive site will usually depend on accessibility, known hazards, desirable features, and the variety of alternative options nearby. Sites known for exceptionally desirable features may attract expeditions in spite of major accessibility problems and significant hazards.
 * Seas and oceans - these consist of salt water and a huge variety of flora and fauna.
 * Lakes - small lakes are often used for diver training. Large lakes have many features of seas including wrecks and a variety of aquatic life. Some lakes are high in altitude, and they require special considerations for diving. See altitude diving
 * Caves - these are more adventurous and dangerous than normal diving. See cave diving.
 * Rivers - are often shallow, murky and may have strong currents.
 * Man-made lakes, such as dams and flooded clay pits, gravel pits and quarries.
 * Swimming pools are popular as training venues, and for some underwater sports.

Dive site features
Many types of underwater features make an interesting dive site, for example:

 * Wildlife at the site. Popular examples are coral, sponges, fish, sting rays, molluscs, cetaceans, seals, sharks and crustaceans.
 * The topography of the site. Coral reefs, drop offs (underwater cliffs), rock reefs, gullies and caves can be spectacular. Deep dive sites mean divers must reduce the time they spend because more gas is breathed at depth and decompression sickness risks increase. Shallow regions can be investigated by snorkeling. Wall diving allows a range of depths in a small area.
 * Historical or cultural items at the site. Shipwrecks and sunken aircraft, apart from their historical value, form artificial habitats for marine fauna making them attractive dive sites.
 * Underwater visibility varies widely. Poor visibility is caused by particles suspended in the water, such as silt, plankton and sewage. Dive sites that are close to sources of these particles, such as human settlements and river estuaries, are more prone to poor visibility. Currents and turbulence can stir up particles which had settled, and may keep them in suspension. Diving close to sediments on the bottom can result in the particles being kicked up by wash from the divers fins. Good visibility is a highly desirable characteristic for a dive site, and can significantly influence risk.
 * Temperature. Warm water diving is comfortable and convenient. Although cold water is uncomfortable and can cause hypothermia it can be interesting because different species of underwater life thrive in cold conditions. For cold water divers tend to prefer dry suits with inner thermal clothing which offer greater thermal protection, although they require additional knowledge and skill to use safely.
 * Currents. Currents can transport nutrients to underwater wildlife increasing the variety and density of that life at the site. Currents can also be dangerous to divers as they can carry them away from their surface support or suitable exit points. Currents that meet large underwater obstructions can cause strong up or down flow that can be dangerous because it may cause the diver to rapidly change depth, with possible loss of buoyancy control and increased risk of barotrauma and decompression sickness.

Marine citizen science
Marine citizen science, the scientific research and monitoring projects for which members of the public collect, categorize, transcribe or analyze scientific data, is an increasingly popular but underutilised collaboration between society and institutionalised scientific research, in which members of the recreational scuba diving community actively participate in marine data acquisition and recording, largely by way of geolocated photographic observations collected during recreational dives, but also in more structured and long term experimental work. Some barriers exist between divers and projects that are beyond the control of either the divers or the project organisers, but other aspects such as access to projects and feedback after participation are amenable to improvement. Recreational scuba divers are generally well disposed towards marine science, and participation could be improved by better management. Stakeholders to be considered are the scuba diving industry and professional intermediaries.

Citizen science can be an effective approach to marine and coastal conservation, and methods of making better use of citizen input for projects relating to policy, education, community capacity building, site management, species management, and research. have been investigated and developed. Marine citizen science projects face different challenges to terrestrial systems. The main challenges are logistical, as people spend very little time in the water. Access often requires expensive boats, diving gear, or transportation to the coast, and safety and liability issues can be complicated. Using citizen scientists can economically increase the temporal and spatial scale of a project. Early involvement of divers in the planning of a project can increase buy-in and avoid errors due to inaccurate assessment of capabilities and interest of volunteers. Training and some field oversight by professionals will usually be necessary to ensure reliable data collection. Retention of volunteers is affected by their perception of the recognition of the value of their work.

The availability of affordable and compact high definition video and easy to operate underwater cameras allows citizen scientists to provide reliable observations that can be archived and reviewed by experts when desirable. Accuracy of geolocation is generally lower than for terrestrial observations as the GPS features available on many digital cameras do not work underwater, and most cameras do not record depth.

title: Recreational diving


text:
Aleksey Tupolev

Aleksey Andreevich Tupolev (Алексе́й Андре́евич Ту́полев; 20 May 1925 – 12 May 2001) was a Soviet and later Russian aircraft designer who led the development of the first supersonic passenger jet, the Tupolev Tu-144. He also helped design the Buran space shuttle and the long-range heavy bomber Tu-2000, both of which were suspended for lack of funding.

Biography
Aleksey Andreevich Tupolev was born on 20 May 1925 in Moscow. He was the son of the famed Soviet aircraft pioneer Andrei Tupolev.

Aleksey worked at the Tupolev Design Bureau in 1942–1949 as a factory designer. He graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1949.

During Soviet leader Khrushchev's visit to the U.S. in September 1959, he insisted on taking Tu-114 despite that its maiden long-distance flight only occurred in May. In order to guarantee the safety, Aleksey Tupolev was sent by his father Andrei, along as a sign of his confidence in the plane. Khrushchev later said, "We didn't publicize the fact that Tupolev's son was with us" for "to do so would have meant giving explanations, and these might have been damaging to our image".

In 1961 was born his son Andrey Alekseevich Tupolev.

Aleksey became chief designer of Tupolev Design Bureau in 1963 and general designer in 1973.

Aleksey Tupolev died on 12 May 2001. He was buried in Moscow.

Projects

 * Tupolev Tu-134 is a twin-engined, jet airliner built in the Soviet Union for short and medium-haul routes from 1966 to 1989.
 * Tupolev Tu-144 is a Soviet supersonic passenger airliner.
 * Tupolev Tu-154 is a three-engined, medium-range, airliner designed in the mid-1960s.
 * Tupolev Tu-160 is a supersonic heavy strategic bomber.
 * Tupolev Tu-204 is a twin-engined medium-range narrow-body jet airliner.
 * "Buran" was the first spaceplane to be produced as part of the Soviet/Russian Buran programme.
 * Tupolev Tu-123 Yastreb was one of the earliest Soviet reconnaissance drones.
 * Tupolev Tu-142 is a Soviet/Russian maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft.

title: Aleksey Tupolev