text:
Miles Franklin Award

The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–1954), who is best known for writing the Australian classic My Brilliant Career (1901). She bequeathed her estate to fund this award. As of 2016, the award is valued at A$60,000.

Controversies
Author Frank Moorhouse was disqualified from consideration for his novel Grand Days because the story was set in Europe during the 1920s and was not sufficiently Australian.

1995 winner Helen Darville, also known as Helen Demidenko and Helen Dale, won for The Hand That Signed the Paper and sparked a debate about authenticity in Australian literature. Darville claimed to be of Ukrainian descent and said it was fiction based on family history. Writer David Marr, who presented the award to her, said that revelations about her true background did not "alter a single thing about the quality of the story, it knocks completely out of the water her answers to critics who said it was not historically accurate, that she knows because of direct family experience, which appears to be complete bull."

Even before the hoax was revealed, Darville’s book was considered anti-Semitic and justified the genocide of Jewish people. It was also later revealed that she plagiarised from multiple sources.

In 2004, judges of the award resigned due to what they viewed as the commodification of the awards.

2022 longlisted writer John Hughes was accused of plagiarising significant sections of his 2021 book The Dogs from Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich's nonfiction book The Unwomanly Face of War. Nearly 60 similarities and identical sentences were found in a comparison of Hughes' novel and the English version of Alexievich's book. The Guardian newspaper also found similarities between incidents described in the books, including the central scene from which The Dogs takes its title. Further investigation found other examples of plagiarism in the novel and that Hughes copied sections of classic texts including The Great Gatsby and Anna Karenina without acknowledging the original source. The book was subsequently withdrawn from competition.

The Stella Prize was created in 2013 as a reaction to the under-representation of women as winners of literary prizes, in particular the 2011 Miles Franklin Award shortlist.

Repeat winners

 * (4) Thea Astley: 1962, 1965, 1972, 2000
 * (4) Tim Winton: 1984, 1992, 2002, 2009
 * (3) Peter Carey: 1981, 1989, 1998
 * (3) David Ireland: 1971, 1976, 1979
 * (2) Jessica Anderson: 1978, 1980
 * (2) Rodney Hall: 1982, 1994
 * (2) Thomas Keneally: 1967, 1968
 * (2) Michelle de Kretser: 2013, 2018
 * (2) George Johnston: 1964, 1969
 * (2) Christopher Koch: 1985, 1996
 * (2) Alex Miller: 1993, 2003
 * (2) Kim Scott: 2000, 2011
 * (2) Patrick White: 1957, 1961

Shortlisted works
Shortlisted titles are only shown for the years 1987 onwards. No record has yet been found for any shortlists being released prior to that year. Winners are listed in bold type.

1980s
In 1989, the date changed from the year of publication to year of announcement, so no award was named in 1988.

Longlisted works
Longlisted titles are only shown for the years 2005 onwards. That was the first year that such a list was released by the judging panel. The number of works included on the longlist varies from year to year.

2005–2009
2005
 * Salt Rain, Sarah Armstrong
 * The Gift of Speed, Steven Carroll
 * Backwaters, Robert Engwarda
 * The Ghost Writer, John Harwood
 * The Broken Book, Susan Johnson
 * Sixty Lights, Gail Jones
 * A Private Man, Malcolm Knox
 * The Philosopher's Doll, Amanda Lohrey
 * The White Earth, Andrew McGahan
 * I Have Kissed Your Lips, Gerard Windsor
 * The Submerged Cathedral, Charlotte Wood
 * The Last Ride, Denise Young

2006
 * Knitting, Anne Bartlett
 * The Garden Book, Brian Castro
 * The Secret River, Kate Grenville
 * An Accidental Tourist, Stephen Lang
 * The Ballad of Desmond Kale, Roger McDonald
 * Prochownik's Dream, Alex Miller
 * Sunnyside, Joanna Murray-Smith
 * A Case of Knives, Peter Rose
 * The Broken Shore, Peter Temple
 * Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living, Carrie Tiffany
 * Dead Europe, Christos Tsiolkas
 * The Wing of Night, Brenda Walker

2007
 * Theft: A Love Story, Peter Carey
 * Silent Parts, John Charalambous
 * The Unknown Terrorist, Richard Flanagan
 * Beyond the Break, Sandra Hall
 * Dreams of Speaking, Gail Jones
 * The Unexpected Elements of Love, Kate Legge
 * Careless, Deborah Robertson
 * Carpentaria, Alexis Wright

2008
 * The Fern Tattoo, David Brooks
 * The Time We Have Taken, Steven Carroll
 * Love Without Hope, Rodney Hall
 * Orpheus Lost, Janette Turner Hospital
 * Sorry, Gail Jones
 * The Widow and Her Hero, Thomas Keneally
 * The Memory Room, Christopher Koch
 * Landscape of Farewell, Alex Miller
 * Secrets of the Sea, Nicholas Shakespeare

2009
 * The Pages, Murray Bail
 * Wanting, Richard Flanagan
 * Addition, Toni Jordan
 * One Foot Wrong, Sofie Laguna
 * Ice, Louis Nowra
 * Fugitive Blue, Claire Thomas
 * A Fraction of the Whole, Steve Toltz
 * The Devil's Eye, Ian Townsend
 * The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas
 * Breath, Tim Winton

2010–2019
2010
 * Figurehead, Patrick Allington
 * Parrot and Olivier in America, Peter Carey
 * The Bath Fugues, Brian Castro
 * Boy on a Wire, Jon Doust
 * The Book of Emmett, Deborah Forster
 * Sons of the Rumour, David Foster
 * Siddon Rock, Glenda Guest
 * Butterfly, Sonya Hartnett
 * The People's Train, Thomas Keneally
 * Lovesong, Alex Miller
 * Jasper Jones, Craig Silvey
 * Truth, Peter Temple

2011
 * Rocks in the Belly, John Bauer
 * The Good Daughter, Honey Brown
 * The Mary Smokes Boys, Patrick Holland
 * The Piper's Son, Melina Marchetta
 * When Colts Ran, Roger McDonald
 * Time's Long Ruin, Stephen Orr
 * That Deadman Dance, Kim Scott
 * The Legacy, Kirsten Tranter
 * Bereft, Chris Womersley

2012
 * Blood, Tony Birch
 * Spirit of Progress, Steven Carroll
 * Spirit House, Mark Dapin
 * The Precipice, Virginia Duigan
 * All That I Am, Anna Funder
 * Sarah Thornhill, Kate Grenville
 * Five Bells, Gail Jones
 * Foal's Bread, Gillian Mears
 * Autumn Laing, Alex Miller
 * Cold Light, Frank Moorhouse
 * Past the Shallows, Favel Parrett
 * The Street Sweeper, Elliot Perlman
 * Animal People, Charlotte Wood

2013
 * Floundering, Romy Ash
 * Lola Bensky, Lily Brett
 * Street to Street, Brian Castro
 * Questions of Travel, Michelle de Kretser
 * The Beloved, Annah Faulkner
 * The Daughters of Mars, Thomas Keneally
 * The Mountain, Drusilla Modjeska
 * The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman
 * Mateship with Birds, Carrie Tiffany
 * Red Dirt Talking, Jacqueline Wright

2014
 * The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt, Tracy Farr
 * The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan
 * The Railwayman's Wife, Ashley Hay
 * Mullumbimby, Melissa Lucashenko
 * The Night Guest, Fiona McFarlane
 * Belomor, Nicolas Rothwell
 * Game, Trevor Shearston
 * My Beautiful Enemy, Cory Taylor
 * Eyrie, Tim Winton
 * The Swan Book, Alexis Wright
 * All the Birds, Singing, Evie Wyld

2015
 * In Certain Circles, Elizabeth Harrower
 * Golden Boys, Sonya Hartnett
 * The Eye of the Sheep, Sofie Laguna
 * The Golden Age, Joan London
 * The Lost Child, Suzanne McCourt
 * Here Come the Dogs, Omar Musa
 * When the Night Comes, Favel Parrett
 * After Darkness, Christine Piper
 * Tree Palace, Craig Sherborne
 * Nest, Inga Simpson

2016
 * Ghost River, Tony Birch
 * Coming Rain, Stephen Daisley
 * Hope Farm, Peggy Frew
 * Leap, Myfanwy Jones
 * The World Without Us, Mireille Juchau
 * The Hands : An Australian Pastoral, Stephen Orr
 * Black Rock White City, A. S. Patrić
 * Salt Creek, Lucy Treloar
 * The Natural Way of Things, Charlotte Wood

2017
 * The Easy Way Out, Steven Amsterdam
 * An Isolated Incident, Emily Maguire
 * The Last Days of Ava Langdon, Mark O'Flynn
 * Their Brilliant Careers, Ryan O'Neill
 * A Loving, Faithful Animal, Josephine Rowe
 * Waiting, Philip Salom
 * Where The Trees Are, Inga Simpson
 * Hold, Kirsten Tranter
 * Extinctions, Josephine Wilson

2018
 * A Long Way from Home, Peter Carey (Penguin Random House)
 * No More Boats, Felicity Castagna (Giramondo Publishing)
 * The Life to Come, Michelle de Kretser (Allen & Unwin)
 * The Crying Place, Lia Hills (Allen & Unwin)
 * The Last Garden, Eva Hornung (Text Publishing)
 * Some Tests, Wayne Macauley (Text Publishing)
 * Storyland, Catherine McKinnon (HarperCollins Publishers)
 * Border Districts, Gerald Murnane (Giramondo Publishing)
 * From the Wreck, Jane Rawson (Transit Lounge)
 * The Restorer, Michael Sala (Text Publishing)
 * Taboo, Kim Scott (Picador Australia/Pan Macmillan Australia)

2019
 * The Lebs, Michael Mohammed Ahmad (Hachette)
 * Flames, Robbie Arnott (Text Publishing)
 * Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton (Fourth Estate)
 * A Sand Archive, Gregory Day (Picador)
 * Inappropriation, Lexi Freiman (Allen & Unwin)
 * A Stolen Season, Rodney Hall (Picador)
 * The Death of Noah Glass, Gail Jones (Text Publishing)
 * Too Much Lip, Melissa Lucashenko (UQP)
 * Dyschronia, Jennifer Mills (Picador)
 * The Lucky Galah, Tracy Sorensen (Picador)

2020–
2020

2021
 * The White Girl, Tony Birch (UQP)
 * Room For a Stranger, Melanie Cheng (Text Publishing)
 * Islands, Peggy Frew (Allen & Unwin)
 * No One, John Hughes (UWA Publishing)
 * Act of Grace, Anna Krien (Black Inc.)
 * A Season on Earth, Gerald Murnane (Text Publishing)
 * The Returns, Philip Salom (Transit Lounge)
 * Exploded View, Carrie Tiffany (Text Publishing)
 * The Yield, Tara June Winch (Hamish Hamilton)
 * The Weekend, Charlotte Wood (Allen & Unwin)

2022
 * Amnesty, Aravind Adiga (Picador)
 * The Rain Heron, Robbie Arnott (Text Publishing)
 * Our Shadows, Gail Jones (Text Publishing)
 * Infinite Splendours, Sofie Laguna (Allen & Unwin)
 * The Labyrinth, Amanda Lohrey (Text Publishing)
 * The Animals in That Country, Laura Jean McKay (Scribe)
 * Lucky’s, Andrew Pippos (Picador)
 * Stone Sky, Gold Mountain, Mirandi Riwoe (UQP)
 * The Fifth Season, Philip Salom (Transit Lounge)
 * Song of the Crocodile, Nardi Simpson (Hachette)
 * The Inland Sea, Madeleine Watts (Pushkin Press)
 * At the Edge of the Solid World, Daniel Davis Wood (Brio)

2023
 * The Other Half of You, Michael Mohammed Ahmad (Hachette)
 * After Story, Larissa Behrendt (UQP)
 * Scary Monsters, Michelle de Kretser (Allen & Unwin)
 * Bodies of Light, Jennifer Down (Text Publishing)
 * Echolalia, Briohny Doyle (Vintage)
 * The Magpie Wing, Max Easton (Giramondo Publishing)
 * The Airways, Jennifer Mills (Picador)
 * One Hundred Days, Alice Pung (Black Inc.)
 * The Performance, Claire Thomas (Hachette)
 * 7 ½, Christos Tsiolkas (Allen & Unwin)
 * Grimmish, Michael Winkler (Puncher & Wattmann)

2024
 * Hopeless Kingdom, Kgshak Akec (UWA Publishing)
 * Limberlost, Robbie Arnott (Text Publishing)
 * Cold Enough for Snow, Jessica Au (Giramondo Publishing)
 * Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, Shankari Chandran (Ultimo Press)
 * Enclave, Claire G. Coleman (Hachette Australia)
 * Losing Face, George Haddad (UQP)
 * Forty Nights, Pirooz Jafari (Ultimo Press)
 * Madukka: The River Serpent, Julie Janson(UWA Publishing)
 * The Lovers, Yumna Kassab (Ultimo Press)
 * Iris, Fiona Kelly McGregor (Pan Macmillan Australia)
 * Waypoints, Adam Ouston (Puncher & Wattmann)

 * Only Sound Remains, Hossein Asgari (Puncher & Wattmann)
 * Wall, Jen Craig (Puncher & Wattmann)
 * Strangers at the Port, Lauren Aimee Curtis (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
 * Anam, André Dao (Hamish Hamilton)
 * The Bell of the World, Gregory Day (Transit Lounge)
 * Edenglassie, Melissa Lucashenko (UQP)
 * The Sitter, Angela O'Keeffe (UQP)
 * Hospital, Sanya Rushdi (Giramondo)
 * Stone Yard Devotional, Charlotte Wood (Allen & Unwin)
 * Praiseworthy, Alexis Wright (Giramondo)

title: Miles Franklin Award


text:
Emera

Emera Incorporated is a publicly traded Canadian multinational energy holding company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Created in 1998 during the privatization of Nova Scotia Power, a provincial Crown corporation, Emera now invests in regulated electricity generation as well as transmission and distribution across North America and the Caribbean.

History
Emera was created out of the privatization of the provincial Crown corporation Nova Scotia Power Incorporated (NSPI). On December 2, 1998, NSPI shareholders voted to restructure the company to create a holding company which would be shareholder-owned, with the regulated utility being a wholly owned subsidiary of the holding company. On December 9, 1998, NSPI received approval to establish NS Power Holdings Incorporated and NSPI shareholders exchanged their shares in NSPI for shares in NS Power Holdings Inc. on a one-to-one basis on January 1, 1999. Common shares in NS Power Holdings Inc. began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Montreal Stock Exchange on January 6, 1999. The NS Power Holdings Inc. name was changed to Emera Incorporated on July 17, 2000.

In 2013, Emera acquired the Bridgeport Energy, Rumford Power, and Tiverton Power plants from Capital Power Corporation for $541 million.

On September 4, 2015, Emera announced the acquisition of TECO Energy, a utility company based in Tampa, Florida, whose holdings include Tampa Electric, Peoples Gas (no relation to the Chicago-based company of the same name), and New Mexico Gas. Emera paid $10.4 billion for TECO. The deal closed in July 2016.

Subsidiaries
Source:

Electric Utilities

 * Nova Scotia Power is a vertically integrated utility in Nova Scotia, with 500,000 customers, and 2487 MW of generating capacity
 * Tampa Electric, a vertically integrated utility in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, with 725,000 customers and 4700 MW of generating capacity
 * Emera Caribbean is a utility that serves 227,000 customers in the Caribbean. Its subsidiaries include:
 * Light and Power Holdings - LUCELEC in St. Lucia
 * Barbados Light and Power Company in Barbados
 * Grand Bahama Power Company in The Bahamas
 * Dominica Electricity Services in Dominica

Former Subsidiaries

 * Emera Maine was a utility with 130,000 customers in Maine, created through the merger of Bangor Hydro (acquired in 2002) and Maine Public Service (acquired in 2010). In 2020, Emera Maine was sold to another Canadian utility, ENMAX of Calgary, Alberta. Under ENMAX, the former Emera Maine territory now trades as Versant Power.

Natural Gas Utilities

 * New Mexico Gas Company serves 540,000 customers is the largest natural gas utility in New Mexico.
 * Peoples Gas is a natural gas utility in Florida with 365,000 customers.

Other Subsidiaries

 * Emera Energy trades and markets natural gas and electricity. Power plants owned include:
 * Bear Swamp Hydroelectric Power Station, a 600 MW hydro-electric plant in northern Massachusetts, 50% owned by Emera
 * Emera New Brunswick runs the Brunswick Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline through New Brunswick, Canada
 * Emera has a 12.5% ownership stake in the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline

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

title: Emera


text:
Final Fantasy: Unlimited

Final Fantasy: Unlimited (FF:U ～ファイナルファンタジー:アンリミテッド ～) (FF:U) is an anime television series based on Square Enix's popular Final Fantasy role-playing video game franchise. Produced by Gonzo, avex mode, TV Tokyo, Dentsu and GDH, the series was directed by Mahiro Maeda, with Atsuhiro Tomioka writing the scripts, Kazuto Nakazawa and Camel 7 designing the characters and Shirō Hamaguchi and Akifumi Tada composing the music. The TV series incorporates both 2D animation and 3D graphics, and takes elements from the Final Fantasy games. It was licensed for North America and the United Kingdom by ADV Films were released on Blu-ray. Square Enix game designer Akitoshi Kawazu served as base concept planning and was intended to be the director for the planned video game series.

Due to a combination of low ratings and the financial failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the anime series's planned 52-episode run was cut to 25, leaving the story unfinished. The continuation of the story has been released in a variety of other media including printed and web novel series, manga, radio dramas, and video games.

Plot
FF:U follows the story of Ai and Yu Hayakawa, 12-year-old twins who travel into Wonderland, a mysterious parallel dimension, in search of their missing parents. Other main characters include Lisa Pacifist, a 22-year-old woman whom Ai and Yu encounter in the Subway as she becomes their protector while helping them search for their parents in Wonderland. The series is divided into two major sections, defined by the main method of transport the protagonists are utilizing. The first half of the series sees the group using the Ghost Train to reach a part of Wonderland, crossing paths with Kaze as he has no memory of his past save Makenshi, who aids the Lords of Gaudium who attack them. The group also encounters fragments of a destructive being named Omega, which is after the Ghost Train's power source to become whole. Meanwhile, the story from the antagonist's view is periodically revealed with Earl Tyrant's discussion with his lords. Earl is the embodiment of Chaos and is seeking the fragments of Omega to possess a power equal to the Unlimited, beings of immense power like Kaze and Makenshi who could destroy him.

The second half of the series sees the protagonists join up with the rebel faction, the Comodeen, and board the submarine, Jane, which is bound for Telos, the only place in Wonderland that has a natural deposit of the gravity-defying Flying Water. Both parties sought this substance: the Comodeen to power their airship Silvia to reach Earl's flying fortress Gaudium and the Earl's forces using the substance to contain Omega's power. The series climaxes when the Earl himself makes a move on the Comodeen, destroying Jane and capturing the protagonists in his true form: Chaos Tyrant. It was then that the Earl's right-hand man, Oscha, reveals that Ai and Yu were spawned from Chaos in the aftermath of Kaze and Makenshi's sending their adoptive parents to Wonderland. With only Omega's heart, Clear, remaining and fused with his Flying Water suit into a crystal, the Earl intended to absorb the Hayakawa twins as well to increase Chaos's power from their experiences. Luckily, Lou Lupus and Moogle come to their friends' aid as the Earl killed the former. Confronted with Chaos Tyrant, Kaze and Makenshi sacrifice themselves to destroy the Earl, thus ending his reign of terror over Wonderland while Lisa and the Hayakawa family were found by the Comodeen. There are also two mysterious figures that the group encounter, "Black Wind" (黒き風) and Makenshi (魔剣士), beings of incredible power who each lost their world before coming to Wonderland.

Production and release
FF:U was directed by Mahiro Maeda of GONZO and produced by TV Tokyo's Keisuke Iwata, and Square Enix's Kensuke Tanaka. Square Enix game designer Akitoshi Kawazu served as base concept planning. A series of video games were intended with Kawazu as director. Due to a combination of low ratings and the financial failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the anime series's planned 52-episode run was cut to 25, leaving the story unfinished. FF:U aired on TV Tokyo's Network 6 on weekly on Tuesday 6:30PM starting on October 2, 2001. Japan released the series for home media via DVD and divided it into nine separate releases, known as "Phases". ADV Films picked up the series for North America and United Kingdom on May 1, 2003. The North American complete boxset re-arranges the series into five discs of five episodes each, titled "Phase 1" through "Phase 5". A European complete boxset retains the seven discs as released singularly. Both were released by A.D.V. Films. A promotional DVD titled Final Fantasy: Unlimited Prologue Phase.0 was released containing the history of Final Fantasy, the production history of FF:U and interviews with the cast. It was released on January 30, 2002.

Music
FF:U was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Shirō Hamaguchi, and Akifumi Tada. The series has an opening theme and three ending themes. The opening theme for the series is "Over the FANTASY" (Composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Arranged by Takahiro Ando, Lyrics by Yuko Ebine) performed by Kana Ueda. The first theme is "VIVID" (Lyrics and Composition by Takashi Genouzono, Arrangements by Fairy Fore and Masao Akashi) performed by Fairy Fore and was used for episodes 1-13. For episodes 14-24 the ending theme was "Romancing Train" (Composition and arrangements by t-kimura, lyrics by motsu) performed by move. The third ending theme was "Over the FANTASY" and was used on the final episode of the series.

Avex mode released the singles for the opening and endings. The "VIVID" single was released on November 7, 2001. The "Over the FANTASY" single was released on December 5, 2001. The single for "Romance Train" was released on February 6, 2002. Two soundtracks were produced by Avex mode. The first is Final Fantasy: Unlimited Music Adventure Verse.1 (FF:U ～ファイナルファンタジー：アンリミテッド～ MUSIC ADVENTURE Verse. 1) and was released December 19, 2001. The second titled Final Fantasy: Unlimited Music Adventure Verse.2 (FF:U ～ファイナルファンタジー：アンリミテッド～ MUSIC ADVENTURE Verse. 2) was released on April 17, 2002.

All music and arrangements were made by Shiro Hamaguchi unless where otherwise specified.

Printed
A novel titled, Final Fantasy: Unlimited – Sou no Kizuna (ファイナルファンタジー:アンリミテッド―双の絆) was released on March 28, 2002, by Kadokawa Shoten. The novel was written by Sho Katigiri, illustrated by Kazuto Nakazawa, and supervised by Squaresoft. It explores a side story that is set in the time of the television series. A 96-page artbook titled Final Fantasy: Unlimited – Kaze to Kumo Noita Sekai (ファイナル ファンタジー・アンリミテッド －風と雲のいた世界－) was published by Kadokawa Shoten and released on April 22, 2002. A book titled FF:U After – Gakai no Sho (FF:U After ~外界の章~) was released on May 15, 2002 by DigiCube. The book contains a 32-page manga drawn by Hiroyuki Yamashita and a 120-page script written by Atsuhiro Tomioka. It covers the twins' return to their own world, the revelation of Lisa's past, and introduces a new villain under Gaudium: Soljashy. A serial web novel titled FF:U After Spiral was written by Sho Katigiri, supervised by Atsuhiro Tomioka, and was published on the official Japanese FF:U website. The series has a total of seven chapters and one spin-off chapter were released and take place after the events of FF:U After.

Audio
A serial audio drama titled FF:U Voice Theater – fābura no ikai e no sasoi (FF:U ヴォイスシアター「ファーブラの異界への誘い」) was available for those who subscribed to TV Tokyo's Anime-X service via mobile phones on i-mode's distribution service. A total of 10 episodes were released monthly beginning on January 15, 2002. It was conducted by Yoshitomo Yonetani with Kikuko Inoue returning as Fabula's voice actress. The series was compiled and released on September 30 the same year in CD-ROM for Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP, and iMac G3. Two drama CDs were released by Avex mode. The first drama CD titled FF:U Before - Aura Inochi Tsugu Mono (FF:U Before ～アウラ いのちつぐもの～) was given to customers for a limited time as a gift for those who purchased the DVD Boxset. It tells a story in the form of a flashback of the destruction of Kaze and Makenshi's worlds. A radio drama titled FF:U After 2 – Risa tachi kira reta kusari (FF:U After 2-リサ た ちきられたクサリ-) was released on December 26, 2002 and deals with Comodeen's final attack on Gaudium and brings a conclusion to the conflict between Lisa and Soljashy.

Video games
Two video games have been released. The first, titled FF:U with U, is an RPG video game adaptation for Japanese mobile phones on i-mode's distribution service developed by Index was released on August 20, 2002. The game contains the same plot as the anime. Points were accumulated by playing through the game's scenarios and used to purchase more characters. Ringtones based on the music of FF:U could be purchased through the game as microtransactions. The second game, titled FF:U on PC Meikyū – Kuroki Yume Noki Oku (FF:U on PC 迷宮 くろきゆめのきおく), is a visual novel and card game set in the FF:U universe. Published by Amada Printing, it was released May 16, 2003. Unlimited Saga was in production around the same time as the anime and originally connected to the setting of the anime series, but these plans were shelved during production. Kawazu later said that many of the similarities were coincidental due to his work on both projects.

Reception
The series was ranked 18 by popular vote for Top 20 Anime in Japan for November 2001. Outside Japan, the series had received mixed reviews. Play magazine reviewer David Halverson was disappointed that the series was aimed at a younger audience. Allen Divers of Anime News Network (ANN) ranked the series an overall score "B"; although he considered the plot "somewhat" formulaic, he felt that the series has an ambition and that manages to be visually engaging. Sandra Scholes of Active Anime praised the series, saying that the characters were created with care and consideration for the fans who have followed Final Fantasy series from the start. Ken Hargon of ANN criticized the series for being unappealing and not living up to the Final Fantasy series nor any other anime. Carlos Ross of T.H.E.M. ranked the series three stars stating that "the style is firmly entrenched in Saturday morning", but considered better than Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals. Paul Gaudette of Mania.com gave the series a "D" rating, saying that despite not having to do with its namesake, he called Final Fantasy Unlimited somewhat enjoyable in the beginning while noticing that the show was written for a younger audience.

title: Final Fantasy: Unlimited


text:
Otis Williams

Otis Williams (born Otis Miles Jr.; October 30, 1941) is an American second tenor/baritone singer. He is occasionally also a songwriter and a record producer. Williams is the founder and last surviving original member of the Motown vocal group The Temptations, a group in which he continues to perform; he also owns the rights to the Temptations name.

Early life
Williams was born Otis Miles Jr. in Texarkana, Texas, to Otis Miles and Hazel Louise Williams. The couple separated shortly after their son's birth. While he was still a toddler, his mother married and moved to Detroit, Michigan, leaving the young Otis to be raised by both of his grandmothers in Texarkana.

Hazel Williams moved her son to Detroit when he was ten years old, where he lived with her and his stepfather.

1950s-1990s
Becoming interested in music as a teenager, Otis Miles Jr. adopted his mother's maiden name for his stage name, and as Otis Williams put together a number of singing groups. These groups included Otis Williams and the Siberians, the El Domingoes, and the Distants. In 1959, The Distants scored a local hit, co-written by Williams and their manager/producer Johnnie Mae Matthews, called "Come On", with lead vocals by Richard Street. Later Distants recordings were not as successful, and after an offer from Berry Gordy of Motown Records, Williams and his friends/bandmates Elbridge "Al" Bryant and Richard Street quit the Distants. Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams from The Primes later joined Williams, Bryant, and Franklin to create the Elgins, who signed to Motown in March 1961 as "The Temptations", after being told another group was already using that name. The Temptations became one of the most successful acts in soul music over the course of nearly five decades, during which singers such as David Ruffin, Dennis Edwards, former Distant Richard Street, Damon Harris, Ron Tyson, Ali-Ollie Woodson, Theo Peoples, Ray Davis and former Spinners singer G. C. Cameron have all been members. As a member of the Temptations, he sings both Tenor and Baritone vocals.

The Temptations biggest selling tracks include: My Girl, and (I Know) I'm Losing You, among many others. The groups have won four Grammy Awards, and have been nominated for nine.

Although he has served the longest tenure in the Temptations, Williams rarely sings lead, focusing instead on his role as the group's leader and organizer, and as the background "baritone in the middle". Some examples are The Smokey Robinson and Eddie Kendricks written track "Don't Send Me Away" from the LP The Temptations with a Lot o' Soul (1967) and the intro on the early group song "Check Yourself" (1961).

Most notably, rare showcases for Williams singing lead are: "This Guy's in Love with You" from the 1968 albums Live at London's Talk of the Town and Diana Ross & The Supremes Join the Temptations and The Norman Whitfield-penned tune "I Ain't Got Nothing" from 1972's All Directions

Williams has provided non-singing (spoken word) contributions to some Temptation songs, including: "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" (1968, a hit duet with Diana Ross and Eddie Kendricks sharing the lead vocals), "I'm the Exception to the Rule", from the album Sky's the Limit (The Temptations album) (1971) which features leads from both Eddie Kendricks and Dennis Edwards, During the opening verse of "Masterpiece" (1973), and "For Your Love", which is done in a medley with "You Send Me" (led by Ali-Ollie Woodson) on the For Lovers Only album (1995).

1990s-present
The Temptations lineup changes were so frequent, stressful and troublesome that Williams and Melvin Franklin promised each other they would never quit the group. Franklin would remain in the group until 1994, when he became physically incapable of continuing. Franklin died on February 23, 1995, leaving Otis Williams, then 53, as the last surviving original member of the quintet.

Williams still remains in the Temptations as of 2024, has performed on every release by the band, including their most recent studio album, Temptations 60, released on January 28, 2022, which also included a collaboration with Motown artist Smokey Robinson.

Additional works
Williams is the co-author, with Patricia Romanowski, of Temptations, a 1988 book that served as both his autobiography and a history of the group. Ten years later, the book was adapted into an NBC television miniseries The Temptations. Williams was portrayed by actor Charles Malik Whitfield.

Personal life
Williams married Josephine Rogers in 1961; the couple's son, Otis Lamont Miles, was born the same year. He and Josephine divorced in 1964. Otis Lamont Miles was a construction worker who died from falling off a building in a workplace accident in Detroit in 1985. Williams was engaged to Patti LaBelle. She ended the engagement when he asked her to quit music and become a housewife.

Williams was married to Ann Cain from 1967 to 1973. Cain was Ike Turner and Tina Turner's housekeeper. He married his third wife, Arleata "Goldie" Williams (née Carter), in 1983. Arleata Williams' daughter Elan Carter was Playboy's Playmate of the Month for June 1994.

Awards and honors
In 1989, Otis Williams was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Temptations. Williams received an honorary doctorate from Stillman College in May 2006.

In popular culture
The musical then debuted on the West End in the Prince Edward Theatre in 2023.
 * Charles Malik Whitfield portrayed Williams in the 1998 NBC-TV miniseries The Temptations.
 * Aint Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, a musical based on Williams' memoir The Temptations premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theater in September 2017. Williams was played by Derrick Baskin. The show then reached Broadway's Imperial Theater, opening March 21, 2019.

title: Otis Williams


text:
MVRDV

MVRDV is a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based architecture and urban design practice founded in 1993, with additional offices in Berlin, New York, Paris, and Shanghai. It is currently regarded as one of the world's finest architecture firms. MVRDV is an acronym of the founding members' surnames: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, and Nathalie de Vries.

History
Maas and Van Rijs worked at OMA, De Vries at Mecanoo before starting MVRDV.

The trio studied architecture together at the Delft University of Technology, Netherlands and won the "Europan 2" competition with their project "Berlinvoids" in 1991 before founding MVRDV two years later. The situation for starting a new office in the Netherlands was favourable - government support for young architects means all three received a grant to help start their architectural practice.

It took some time for the company to get going, working without a fixed office until the firm's first major commission arrived. This was the new offices for the public broadcasting corporation VPRO in Hilversum, the Netherlands (1993–1997). Other early built works include the Wozoco housing in Amsterdam (1994–1997) and the Dutch Pavilion at the Hannover World Exhibition Expo 2000 (1997–2000). These were followed by a business park 'Flight Forum' in Eindhoven, Gemini Residence silo conversion in Copenhagen, the Silodam Housing complex in Amsterdam, the Matsudai Cultural Centre in Japan, Unterföhring office campus near Munich, the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam, an urban plan and housing in The Hague Ypenburg, the rooftop – housing extension Didden Village in Rotterdam, the cultural Centre De Effenaar in Eindhoven, the boutique shopping building Gyre in Tokyo, part of Veldhoven's Maxima Medical Centre, and the iconic Mirador housing estate in Madrid. Recently completed projects include a public library in Spijkenisse, the Netherlands, a shopping center in Schijndel, the Netherlands, a bank headquarters in Oslo, Norway, and most recently a public market hall, combining housing and shopping within the shape of a monumental arch, in Rotterdam.

Current projects in progress or on site include various housing projects in the Netherlands, China, France, India, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries, a sustainable office building in Paris, a central business district in Shanghai, an office tower in Poznań, a museum of rock music and a community cultural centre in Roskilde and Frederiksberg respectively, large scale urban masterplans in Oslo, Bordeaux and Caen, an entire new eco-city in Logrono, Spain, a structural development vision for Dutch New Town Almere, the masterplan for the Floriade (Netherlands) Horticultural Expo 2022, also in Almere, and a research masterplan into the future of greater Paris which was commissioned by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë.

MRVDV also maintains a research-oriented project called "The Why Factory", which the company describes as an "independent think-tank and research institute". It is run together with the Delft University of Technology.

Influences
In a 2010 interview with Designboom, Winy Maas cited Rem Koolhaas as one of the most important people that he had worked with and for, describing parts of MVRDV's work as intellectual responses to Koolhaas's questions. The architect and critic Rafael Moneo has noted the common featured between OMA and MVRDV, starting with the positioning of the architect in their draft process, with projects treated as collaborative efforts and the architect acting as a catalyst, An article in El Croquis further argued that "if the notion of creation is still present in their discourse, it is more than a co-creation or synergy between all the parties than as the exclusive vision or synthesis of an architect."

The concept of densification - where the population density or building density is increased via taller buildings or adding more housing units - is a topic Koolhaas focused heavily on in his book "Delirious New York". Reflection on the notion of densification also comprises a significant part of MVRDV's research, for instance in their publications FARMAX and KM3, with Maas further noting that "... proximity makes sense. That's a fundamental part of our culture for many of us." In El Croquis, architect Fernando Márquez Cecilia notes that "through these conceptual overlaps, the projects of the two offices show in some cases even strong formal accordance, as in the case of the VPRO Building and the Educatorium".

Maas has also noted that the Club of Rome warnings made in the 1960s over the dangers of global growth, which Maas heard as a ten-year old, contributed to his decision to study landscape architecture and urban planning. This continue to inform his ideas - solutions to what is now acknowledged as the climate crisis must be sought on a large scale.

Nathalie de Vries cites De Stijl, the Dutch museum director Franks Haks, and Mecanoo´s housing and neighbourhood projects as influences. Mecanoo would be where de Vries began her professional career.

Architectural language
The variety of design choices in their buildings demonstrate that MVRDV wishes not to develop a specific style of architecture, but to provide and develop different methods in designing architecture and urban space. Projects are developed by interdisciplinary teams that test different possibilities rather than designing "top-down". Over the years, this strategy led to the development of an architectural language that helps in explaining design choices to others.

The exhibition "Architecture speaks" – The Language of MVRDV was an opportunity for MVRDV to present four conceptual themes to describe their work. The exhibition was shown in the "aut", an architectural centre in the Tyrol region of Innsbruck, Austria and was curated by Natalie de Vries.

 * "stack": This refers to the ever growing demand in space as well as the approach to stack and connect functions vertically, to create a three-dimensional space. This method came into use for the "Berlinvoids" design, where the office saw an opportunity to renew the standard way to deal with densification.
 * "pixel": The term "pixel" deals with the boundaries of space and provides the smallest unit in an agglomeration of units. It was initially developed as a measuring tool for the offices software "The Function mixer" and transformed into a flexible form that is adapted to the needs of its function.
 * "village": With the manifestation of the term village, MVRDV takes the next step into not only wanting to develop the immediate building but also the context. They use the "village" to be an example for ideal homes and neighbourhoods that can work as a basis for "healthy community-making"(DeVries, 2019).
 * "activator": Spaces that engage social interaction are referred to as "activators". These projects provide structures that exceed habitable use, being descriptive of the social interaction process rather than the formalistic character of the structure itself.

Valley, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Winner of the Emporis Skyscraper Award, Valley is a mixed-use, semi-publicly accessible development in the Zuidas business district of Amsterdam. Comprising three towers of heights ranging from 67 to 100 metres tall, it combines offices, shops, catering, cultural facilities, and apartments in one building. Described as “an oasis in a business district dominated by regular office buildings” a green valley winds between the fourth and fifth floors, wholly accessible via two stone external staircases.

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
MVRDV won the design competition for the depot in 2013, for which the assignment was to offer a glimpse behind the scenes of the museum world and make the whole art collection accessible to the public. The world’s first publicly accessible art storage facility and a 2023 Architectural Digest “Work of Wonder”, the depot displays more than 150,000 works of art and design that the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen previously had no room to exhibit. In addition to the significant amount of storage space required for art and design works, the depot comprises exhibition halls, a rooftop garden, and a restaurant.

Tianjin Binhai Library, Tianjin, China
Nicknamed “The Eye”, the Tianjin Binhai Library is part of the Binhai Cultural Center, and MVRDV's second complered project in the Chinese municipality. A five-level library possessing a total floor space of 33,700 square metres, it features floor-to-ceiling terraced bookshelves able to hold 1.2 million books, with a 110-capacity auditorium set in a central sphere. According to Newsweek’s, culture writer Anna Menta, the library is “breathtaking” and “every book lover’s dream.” This was MVRDV's fastest realised project to date, taking only three years from the first sketch to the opening.

Current Projects
As of 2023, MVRDV's current projects include:

Awards
MVRDV has won awards across multiple architectural categories including housing, public buildings, commercial buildings, mixed-used developments, interior design, exterior design, and landscape architecture. Notable accolades include the RIBA House of the Year (Public Vote), European Museum of the Year Jury Prize, Emporis Skyscraper Award, ArchDaily Building of the Year, Prix Versailles, International Architecture Award, Architizer A+ Award, and Red Dot Design Award. MVRDV's work has been exhibited in multiple locations including Gallery MA, Tokyo; Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam; ArchiLib Gallery, Paris;, Kyoto Global Design Awards - Environmental Design category and Architektur Galerie, Berlin.

Criticism
MVRDV's rise to that of a significant force within the architecture industry has been accompanied by critical voices. The Markthal in Rotterdam, despite winning several awards,  did not meet with universal acclaim. Rob Bevan of Architectural Review described it as being part of an overall mistaken preference in Rotterdam for a "stodgy diet of instant icons" and indicative of "noodle-headed re-shaping and architectural gymnastics", the implication being that more modest designs as part of a more integrated city-wide planning would create more successful buildings, although Bevan tempered his criticism in acknowledging that "There is curiosity value then in MVRDV’s immovable feast with its seemingly calculated jolie laide proportions and it has brought vigour to a corner of the city demanding it".

The urban and architectural geographer Mark Minkjan expressed a belief that contemporary architects often serve as makeup artists of sales pitches, or producers of visually pleasing "eye candies" using MVRDV's "Valley" to illustrate his view. As a case study, he made a specific critique of the renderings of Valley, an MVRDV project located in an emerging business district of Amsterdam and subsequently named the world's best skyscraper in the 2021 Emporis Awards. Minkjan saw the renderings as cosmetic, deceptive images that hid the environmental, financial challenges that would occur during and after the building's construction, saying "In reality ... the building will never turn out like the rendering". Furthermore, despite "Valley's" commercial spaces receiving BREEAM "Excellent" certification, the building's energy performance being 30% better than local regulations require, and the residential area scoring 8 out of 10 on the GPR Building Scale, Minkjan nonetheless accuses the office of greenwashing, stating his view that the unrealistic illustration of rooftop gardens and terraces, which ignore the effects of smog, wind, poor soil and changing seasons, deflect attention from the sizeable emissions of the building construction. Minkjan's criticism notwithstanding, "Valley" has been positively received,   and garden designer Piet Oudolf worked with MVRDV on the building, using around 13,500 plants in 370 planting areas over 27 floors.

MVRDV's design of the Marble Arch Mound in London was not well received. Critics named the creation of an artificial hill around and over London's Marble Arch to be pointless, a massive waste of time and material, a pile of rubble, and London's worst attraction. MVRDV acknowledged the poor architectural result but also pointed to Westminster City Council for watering down their design, excluding the studio from overseeing the construction, and ignoring their advice.

The Why Factory
The Why Factory is a global think tank and research institute at Delft University of Technology, led by professor Winy Maas. Its research revolves around analyzing urban developments and providing scenarios for future cities and societies. There is particular focus on opening engaging the public in architectural debate through exhibitions, workshops, publications and panel discussions. Founded in 2007, the think tank also provides an experimental outlook on the urban landscape of the future by exploring imaginary narratives and their interlinked new social contexts. To develop scenarios further, the Why Factory also uses computational design tools for analyzing and generating these concepts.

Some of research projects of MVRDV.

Publications

 * FARMAX (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 1999)
 * Metacity/Datatown (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 1999)
 * Reading MVRDV (NAi Publishers, Rotterdam, 2003)
 * Spacefighter The evolutionary city game (Actar, Barcelona, 2005)
 * KM3 Excursions on Capacities (Actar, Barcelona, 2006)
 * Skycar City (Actar, Barcelona, 2008)
 * MVRDV Agendas on Urbanism (Equal Books, Seoul, 2012)
 * The Glass Farm – Biography of a Building (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2013)
 * Book Mountain – Biography of a Building (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2013)
 * MVRDV Buildings (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2015)
 * MVRDV Dream Works (Arquitectura Viva, Spain, 2016)
 * MVRDV: Investigations and new creative visions of the Urban Landscape (ARCS Media Group - Corriere della Sera, Italy, 2017)
 * Rooftop Catalogue (Rotterdamse Dakendagen, Rotterdam, 2021)
 * Attitudes: MVRDV (Maas Lawrence, Rotterdam, 2024)

title: MVRDV


text:
Empire Company

Empire Company Limited is a Canadian conglomerate engaged mostly in food retail and corporate investments. Founded in 1963, the company is headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia and owns the Sobeys supermarket chain. In total, the company owns, affiliates or franchises more than 1,500 stores; in addition to Sobeys, brands include Safeway, IGA, Foodland, Farm Boy, FreshCo, Thrifty Foods and Lawtons Drug.

Acquisitions
Empire Company has a long history of acquisitions:

 * 1976 Lawton's Drug Stores Limited, which operated 18 stores in Nova Scotia.
 * November 1980 – July 1981 Empire acquires Sobey Holdings Limited, gaining a 50.97% stake in the company.
 * February 1983 Empire ups its ownership of Hannaford Bros. Co., an American food retailer, to 25% (Sold in 2000)
 * June 1987 Empire buys the remaining 49.03% of Sobeys, making it an entirely owned subsidiary. (Sold in 1998, re-bought in 2007)
 * 1987 Empire buys out its partner in Empire Theatres, turning it into an entirely owned subsidiary.
 * May 1988 Empire buys a 25% stake in Provigo.
 * 1988 Empire acquires an additional 22% stake in Wajax, resulting in a total ownership of 45%.
 * June 1989 Empire re-purchases the outstanding share of Atlantic Shopping Centres, making it an entirely owned subsidiary.
 * December 1993 Empire Real Estate buys 64% of Halifax Developments, Ltd; making it an entirely owned subsidiary.
 * December 1998 Empire buys Oshawa Group for $1.5 billion.
 * January 2001 Empire Real Estate buys a 35.7% stake in Genstar Developmental Partnership for $29 million.
 * February 2004 Sobey's acquires Commisso's Food Markets, and Empire Real Estate acquires Commisso's real estate for a total of $103.5 million.
 * September 2005 Empire Theatres acquires 27 more theatres.
 * August 2006 Sobey's acquires Achille de la Chevrotière Ltée, including its grocery chain of about 25 stores in Quebec and Ontario. This costs $79.2 million.
 * July 15, 2007 Empire re-buys the remaining outstanding Sobey's share, making it once again an entirely owned subsidiary.
 * September 2007 Sobeys buys Thrifty Foods for $256.6 million.
 * 2011 Sobeys purchases 236 retail gas locations for $214.9 million in Québec and Atlantic Canada.
 * June 2013 Empire buys all of Safeway Canada's stores for $5.8 billion
 * September 2018 Empire announces intent to buy Farm Boy stores in an $800 million deal.
 * March 2021 Empire announces it will buy 51% stake in Longo's and its Grocery Gateway e-commerce business for $357 million. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of Empire's 2022 financial year.

Sales of Subsidiaries/Interests

 * 1998 Empire sells 38% of Sobeys, putting it out on the public stock exchange.
 * 2000 Empire sells its 25% stake in Hannaford Bros Co for $1.03 billion.
 * March 2002 Empire sells Serca Foodservice to SYSCO for $411 million.
 * June 2005 When Wajax became an income trust, Empire sold 2.875 million shares for $50.8 million.
 * 2006 Empire sells 44 properties to Crombie REIT.
 * April 2008 Empire sells another 61 properties to Crombie REIT
 * 2011 Empire sells its remaining share of Wajax.
 * June 2013 Empire announces the sale of Empire Theatres to Cineplex Entertainment and Landmark Cinemas. The aggregate gross purchase price paid to Empire Theatres in the two transactions was approximately $248 million in cash.
 * October 2013 Sale of Empire Theatres to Cineplex and Landmark is complete.
 * August 2013 Sobeys sells the land of 68 Safeway locations to Crombie REIT for $900 million.
 * Oct/Nov/Dec 2013 Sobeys announces the planned sale of 23 of its stores in Alberta in preparation to the Safeway acquisition; this move was required in order to satisfy the Competition Bureau.

title: Empire Company


text:
Gwyddelwern

Gwyddelwern is a small village and community of 508 residents, reducing to 500 at the 2011 census, situated approximately 2 mi north of Corwen in Denbighshire in Wales. Historically the village was part of the Edeyrnion district of Meirionnydd. Edeyrnion was part of the Glyndŵr district of Clwyd from 1974 to 1996, when the area became part of the principal area of Denbighshire. The village straddles the A494 road (trunk road).

Etymology
The name is often "poetically", but incorrectly, translated as The Irishman's Alder Grove. Gwyddel being Irishman, wern usually referring to a damp or swampy area arising from run-off from surrounding hills. However, the name is derived from gwyddeli, meaning thickets, hence the correct translation would be alder marsh in the thickets. In colloquial speech the village is often referred to simply as Gwyddel.

Geography
The outlook to the west of the village is dominated by the hills Mynydd-Rhŷd-Ddu and Bryn Gwenallt. To the south the view extends over the Dee Valley to the Berwyn Mountains and Arenig Fawr near Bala.

Besides farm work, local employers include a saw mill in the village and light manufacturing in Corwen and Cynwyd, further south.

History

The nearby hamlet of Bryn Saith Marchog (53.04028°N, -3.37917°W), features in the story of Branwen, daughter of Llyr, part of the Mabinogion, and is so named after Bendigeidfran (Bran the Blessed), who stationed seven princes or knights there (the Saith Marchog) to watch over his lands while he was away in Ireland.

The Lordship of Gwyddelwern was a junior title within the Princely House of Powys Fadog and was recorded in 1400 as being held by Tudur ap Gruffudd, son of Gruffydd Fychan II, who was the younger brother of Prince Owain Glyndŵr.

Tudur perished in battle during Glyndŵr's war of independence and the title became dormant. His grandson, Ellis ap Griffith, husband of Margaret, the heiress of Plas yn Yale, would later succeed Tudur to the Lordship of Gwyddelwern and become Baron of Gwyddelwern.

In 1550, Gwyddelwern absorbed the neighboring parish of Llanaelhaiarn (named after its founder and patron saint Aelhaiarn, who visited the region in the early 7th century with his master Saint Beuno); a small village at the site was long also known as Aelhaiarn but was eventually replaced by the small community of Pandy'r Capel.

During the English Civil War a significant part of the village sided with the Royalist Cause - or at least enough people for the village to be required to give financial retribution. At the end of 1649 at least 20 men from the village were fined by the Parliamentarian side for "delinquency" to pay for their involvement fighting for the king. This included a heavy fine of £28 for Peter Meyrick at Ucheldref Farm.

Quarrying was important to Gwyddelwern: the two local quarries being the Dee Clwyd Granite Quarry and Graig Lelo Quarry. There is still activity at Graig Lelo, which plays host to a vehicle breakers and a granite and marble finishing business.

The Coming and Going of the Railways
Gwyddelwern became the first full-operational railway station in the Vale of Edeyrnion, when services started on 22 September 22, 1864 with the opening of the Denbigh, Ruthin and Corwen Railway. The station generated much income from the two quarries, which both had their own sidings. The station also had a coal yard, horse loading bay and cattle pens with a weighing machine. There was a freight loop at Gwyddelwern, on the otherwise single track line.

Passenger services ended on 2 February 1953 and goods traffic on 2 December 1957.

Architecture
Gwyddelwern's historic architecture includes the much-rebuilt high spire of the parish church of St Beuno. The churchyard is circular, an indication of the age of the site, possibly to pre Christian times.

Which shares a boundary with the local inn - Tŷ Mawr, formerly the Rose and Crown. Parts of Tŷ Mawr date back to the 11th century and, during extensive renovation, a rare jeton or 15th century gaming token was found in one of the wall spaces.

title: Gwyddelwern


text: User talk:4.26.200.109

title: User talk:4.26.200.109


text:
Garreg Lwyd (Black Mountain)

Garreg Lwyd, also known as Moel Gornach, is a peak in the Black Mountain of the Brecon Beacons, South Wales. It is a subsidiary summit of Fan Brycheiniog.

It is the westernmost area over 2,000 feet above sea level in South Wales. Although no marked path crosses the mountain, it may be climbed from the car parks on the A4069 between Brynamman and Llangadog. A cairn with a trig point marks the summit.

title: Garreg Lwyd (Black Mountain)


text:
Quantum error correction

Quantum error correction (QEC) is a set of techniques used in quantum computing to protect quantum information from errors due to decoherence and other quantum noise. Quantum error correction is theorised as essential to achieve fault tolerant quantum computing that can reduce the effects of noise on stored quantum information, faulty quantum gates, faulty quantum state preparation, and faulty measurements. Effective quantum error correction would allow quantum computers with low qubit fidelity to execute algorithms of higher complexity or greater circuit depth.

Classical error correction often employs redundancy. The simplest albeit inefficient approach is the repetition code. A repetition code stores the desired (logical) information as multiple copies, and—if these copies are later found to disagree due to errors introduced to the system-determines the most likely value for the original data by majority vote. E.g. suppose we copy a bit in the one (on) state three times. Suppose further that noise in the system introduces an error which corrupts the three-bit state so that one of the copied bits becomes zero (off) but the other two remain equal to one. Assuming that errors are independent and occur with some sufficiently low probability p, it is most likely that the error is a single-bit error and the intended message is three bits in the one state. It is possible that a double-bit error occurs and the transmitted message is equal to three zeros, but this outcome is less likely than the above outcome. In this example, the logical information is a single bit in the one state and the physical information are the three duplicate bits. Creating a physical state that represents the logical state is called encoding and determining which logical state is encoded in the physical state is called decoding. Similar to classical error correction, QEC codes do not always correctly decode logical qubits, but instead reduce the effect of noise on the logical state.

Copying quantum information is not possible due to the no-cloning theorem. This theorem seems to present an obstacle to formulating a theory of quantum error correction. But it is possible to spread the (logical) information of one logical qubit onto a highly entangled state of several (physical) qubits. Peter Shor first discovered this method of formulating a quantum error correcting code by storing the information of one qubit onto a highly entangled state of nine qubits.

In classical error correction, syndrome decoding is used to diagnose which error was the likely source of corruption on an encoded state. An error can then be reversed by applying a corrective operation based on the syndrome. Quantum error correction also employs syndrome measurements. It performs a multi-qubit measurement that does not disturb the quantum information in the encoded state but retrieves information about the error. Depending on the QEC code used, syndrome measurement can determine the occurrence, location and type of errors. In most QEC codes, the type of error is either a bit flip, or a sign (of the phase) flip, or both (corresponding to the Pauli matrices X, Z, and Y). The measurement of the syndrome has the projective effect of a quantum measurement, so even if the error due to the noise was arbitrary, it can be expressed as a combination of basis operations called the error basis (which is given by the Pauli matrices and the identity). To correct the error, the Pauli operator corresponding to the type of error is used on the corrupted qubit to revert the effect of the error.

The syndrome measurement provides information about the error that has happened, but not about the information that is stored in the logical qubit—as otherwise the measurement would destroy any quantum superposition of this logical qubit with other qubits in the quantum computer, which would prevent it from being used to convey quantum information.

Bit flip code
The repetition code works in a classical channel, because classical bits are easy to measure and to repeat. This approach does not work for a quantum channel in which, due to the no-cloning theorem, it is not possible to repeat a single qubit three times. To overcome this, a different method has to be used, such as the three-qubit bit flip code first proposed by Asher Peres in 1985. This technique uses entanglement and syndrome measurements and is comparable in performance with the repetition code.

Consider the situation in which we want to transmit the state of a single qubit $$\vert\psi\rangle$$ through a noisy channel $$\mathcal E$$. Let us moreover assume that this channel either flips the state of the qubit, with probability $$p$$, or leaves it unchanged. The action of $$\mathcal E$$ on a general input $$\rho$$ can therefore be written as $$\mathcal E(\rho) = (1-p) \rho + p\ X\rho X$$.

Let $$|\psi\rangle = \alpha_0|0\rangle + \alpha_1|1\rangle$$ be the quantum state to be transmitted. With no error correcting protocol in place, the transmitted state will be correctly transmitted with probability $$1-p$$. We can however improve on this number by encoding the state into a greater number of qubits, in such a way that errors in the corresponding logical qubits can be detected and corrected. In the case of the simple three-qubit repetition code, the encoding consists in the mappings $$\vert0\rangle\rightarrow\vert0_{\rm L}\rangle\equiv\vert000\rangle$$ and $$\vert1\rangle\rightarrow\vert1_{\rm L}\rangle\equiv\vert111\rangle$$. The input state $$\vert\psi\rangle$$ is encoded into the state $$\vert\psi'\rangle = \alpha_0 \vert000\rangle + \alpha_1 \vert111\rangle$$. This mapping can be realized for example using two CNOT gates, entangling the system with two ancillary qubits initialized in the state $$\vert0\rangle$$. The encoded state $$\vert\psi'\rangle$$ is what is now passed through the noisy channel.

The channel acts on $$\vert\psi'\rangle$$ by flipping some subset (possibly empty) of its qubits. No qubit is flipped with probability $$(1-p)^3$$, a single qubit is flipped with probability $$3p(1-p)^2$$, two qubits are flipped with probability $$3p^2(1-p)$$, and all three qubits are flipped with probability $$p^3$$. Note that a further assumption about the channel is made here: we assume that $$\mathcal E$$ acts equally and independently on each of the three qubits in which the state is now encoded. The problem is now how to detect and correct such errors, while not corrupting the transmitted state.

Let us assume for simplicity that $$p$$ is small enough that the probability of more than a single qubit being flipped is negligible. One can then detect whether a qubit was flipped, without also querying for the values being transmitted, by asking whether one of the qubits differs from the others. This amounts to performing a measurement with four different outcomes, corresponding to the following four projective measurements:$$\begin{align} P_0 &=|000\rangle\langle000|+|111\rangle\langle111|, \\ P_1 &=|100\rangle\langle100|+|011\rangle\langle011|, \\ P_2 &=|010\rangle\langle010|+|101\rangle\langle101|, \\ P_3 &=|001\rangle\langle001|+|110\rangle\langle110|. \end{align}$$This reveals which qubits are different from the others, without at the same time giving information about the state of the qubits themselves. If the outcome corresponding to $$P_0$$ is obtained, no correction is applied, while if the outcome corresponding to $$P_i$$ is observed, then the Pauli X gate is applied to the $$i$$-th qubit. Formally, this correcting procedure corresponds to the application of the following map to the output of the channel: $$\mathcal E_{\operatorname{corr}}(\rho)=P_0\rho P_0 + \sum_{i=1}^3 X_i P_i \rho\, P_i X_i.$$

Note that, while this procedure perfectly corrects the output when zero or one flips are introduced by the channel, if more than one qubit is flipped then the output is not properly corrected. For example, if the first and second qubits are flipped, then the syndrome measurement gives the outcome $$P_3$$, and the third qubit is flipped, instead of the first two. To assess the performance of this error-correcting scheme for a general input we can study the fidelity $$F(\psi')$$ between the input $$\vert\psi'\rangle$$ and the output $$\rho_{\operatorname{out}}\equiv\mathcal E_{\operatorname{corr}}(\mathcal E(\vert\psi'\rangle\langle\psi'\vert))$$. Being the output state $$\rho_{\operatorname{out}}$$ correct when no more than one qubit is flipped, which happens with probability $$(1-p)^3 + 3p(1-p)^2$$, we can write it as $$[(1-p)^3+3p(1-p)^2]\,\vert\psi'\rangle\langle\psi'\vert + (...)$$, where the dots denote components of $$\rho_{\operatorname{out}}$$ resulting from errors not properly corrected by the protocol. It follows that $$F(\psi')=\langle\psi'\vert\rho_{\operatorname{out}}\vert\psi'\rangle\ge (1-p)^3 + 3p(1-p)^2=1-3p^2+2p^3.$$This fidelity is to be compared with the corresponding fidelity obtained when no error-correcting protocol is used, which was shown before to equal $${1-p}$$. A little algebra then shows that the fidelity after error correction is greater than the one without for $$p<1/2$$. Note that this is consistent with the working assumption that was made while deriving the protocol (of $$p$$ being small enough).

Sign flip code
Flipped bits are the only kind of error in classical computer, but there is another possibility of an error with quantum computers, the sign flip. Through the transmission in a channel the relative sign between $$|0\rangle$$ and $$|1\rangle$$ can become inverted. For instance, a qubit in the state $$|-\rangle=(|0\rangle-|1\rangle)/\sqrt{2}$$ may have its sign flip to $$|+\rangle=(|0\rangle+|1\rangle)/\sqrt{2}.$$

The original state of the qubit $$|\psi\rangle = \alpha_0|0\rangle+\alpha_1|1\rangle$$ will be changed into the state $$|\psi'\rangle = \alpha_0|{+}{+}{+}\rangle+\alpha_1|{-}{-}{-}\rangle.$$

In the Hadamard basis, bit flips become sign flips and sign flips become bit flips. Let $$E_\text{phase}$$ be a quantum channel that can cause at most one phase flip. Then the bit flip code from above can recover $$|\psi\rangle$$ by transforming into the Hadamard basis before and after transmission through $$E_\text{phase}$$.

Shor code
The error channel may induce either a bit flip, a sign flip (i.e., a phase flip), or both. It is possible to correct for both types of errors on a logical qubit using a well-designed QEC code. One example of a code that does this is the Shor code, published in 1995. Since these two types of errors are the only types of errors that can result after a projective measurement, a Shor code corrects arbitrary single-qubit errors.

Let $$E$$ be a quantum channel that can arbitrarily corrupt a single qubit. The 1st, 4th and 7th qubits are for the sign flip code, while the three groups of qubits (1,2,3), (4,5,6), and (7,8,9) are designed for the bit flip code. With the Shor code, a qubit state $$|\psi\rangle=\alpha_0|0\rangle+\alpha_1|1\rangle$$ will be transformed into the product of 9 qubits $$|\psi'\rangle=\alpha_0|0_S\rangle+\alpha_1|1_S\rangle$$, where $$|0_{\rm S}\rangle=\frac{1}{2\sqrt{2}}(|000\rangle + |111\rangle) \otimes (|000\rangle + |111\rangle ) \otimes (|000\rangle + |111\rangle)$$ $$|1_{\rm S}\rangle=\frac{1}{2\sqrt{2}}(|000\rangle - |111\rangle) \otimes (|000\rangle - |111\rangle) \otimes (|000\rangle - |111\rangle)$$

If a bit flip error happens to a qubit, the syndrome analysis will be performed on each block of qubits (1,2,3), (4,5,6), and (7,8,9) to detect and correct at most one bit flip error in each block.

If the three bit flip group (1,2,3), (4,5,6), and (7,8,9) are considered as three inputs, then the Shor code circuit can be reduced as a sign flip code. This means that the Shor code can also repair a sign flip error for a single qubit.

The Shor code also can correct for any arbitrary errors (both bit flip and sign flip) to a single qubit. If an error is modeled by a unitary transform U, which will act on a qubit $$|\psi\rangle$$, then $$U$$ can be described in the form $$U = c_0 I + c_1 X + c_2 Y + c_3 Z$$ where $$c_0$$,$$c_1$$,$$c_2$$, and $$c_3$$ are complex constants, I is the identity, and the Pauli matrices are given by $$\begin{align} X &= \begin{pmatrix} 0&1\\1&0 \end{pmatrix} ; \\ Y &= \begin{pmatrix} 0&-i\\i&0 \end{pmatrix} ; \\ Z &= \begin{pmatrix} 1&0\\0&-1 \end{pmatrix}. \end{align}$$

If U is equal to I, then no error occurs. If $$U=X$$, a bit flip error occurs. If $$U=Z$$, a sign flip error occurs. If $$U=iY$$ then both a bit flip error and a sign flip error occur. In other words, the Shor code can correct any combination of bit or phase errors on a single qubit.

Bosonic codes
Several proposals have been made for storing error-correctable quantum information in bosonic modes. Unlike a two-level system, a quantum harmonic oscillator has infinitely many energy levels in a single physical system. Codes for these systems include cat,  Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP), and binomial  codes. One insight offered by these codes is to take advantage of the redundancy within a single system, rather than to duplicate many two-level qubits.

Binomial code
Written in the Fock basis, the simplest binomial encoding is $$|0_{\rm L}\rangle=\frac{|0\rangle+|4\rangle}{\sqrt{2}},\quad |1_{\rm L}\rangle=|2\rangle,$$ where the subscript L indicates a "logically encoded" state. Then if the dominant error mechanism of the system is the stochastic application of the bosonic lowering operator $$\hat{a},$$ the corresponding error states are $$|3\rangle$$ and $$|1\rangle,$$ respectively. Since the codewords involve only even photon number, and the error states involve only odd photon number, errors can be detected by measuring the photon number parity of the system. Measuring the odd parity will allow correction by application of an appropriate unitary operation without knowledge of the specific logical state of the qubit. However, the particular binomial code above is not robust to two-photon loss.

Cat code
Schrödinger cat states, superpositions of coherent states, can also be used as logical states for error correction codes. Cat code, realized by Ofek et al. in 2016, defined two sets of logical states: $$\{|0^+_L\rangle, |1^+_L\rangle\} $$ and $$\{|0^-_L\rangle, |1^-_L\rangle\} $$, where each of the states is a superposition of coherent state as follows

$$\begin{aligned} |0^+_L\rangle& \equiv |\alpha\rangle + |-\alpha\rangle, \\ |1^+_L\rangle& \equiv |i\alpha\rangle + |-i\alpha\rangle, \\ |0^-_L\rangle& \equiv |\alpha\rangle - |-\alpha\rangle, \\ |1^-_L\rangle& \equiv |i\alpha\rangle - |-i\alpha\rangle. \end{aligned}$$

Those two sets of states differ from the photon number parity, as states denoted with $$^+$$ only occupy even photon number states and states with $$^-$$ indicate they have odd parity. Similar to the binomial code, if the dominant error mechanism of the system is the stochastic application of the bosonic lowering operator $$\hat{a}$$, the error takes the logical states from the even parity subspace to the odd one, and vice versa. Single-photon-loss errors can therefore be detected by measuring the photon number parity operator $$\exp(i\pi \hat{a}^\dagger\hat{a}) $$ using a dispersively coupled ancillary qubit.

Still, cat qubits are not protected against two-photon loss $$\hat{a}^2$$, dephasing noise $$\hat{a}^\dagger\hat{a}$$, photon-gain error $$\hat{a}^\dagger$$, etc.

General codes
In general, a quantum code for a quantum channel $$\mathcal{E}$$ is a subspace $$\mathcal{C} \subseteq \mathcal{H}$$, where $$\mathcal{H}$$ is the state Hilbert space, such that there exists another quantum channel $$\mathcal{R}$$ with $$ (\mathcal{R} \circ \mathcal{E})(\rho) = \rho \quad \forall \rho = P_{\mathcal{C}}\rho P_{\mathcal{C}},$$ where $$P_{\mathcal{C}}$$ is the orthogonal projection onto $$\mathcal{C}$$. Here $$\mathcal{R}$$ is known as the correction operation.

A non-degenerate code is one for which different elements of the set of correctable errors produce linearly independent results when applied to elements of the code. If distinct of the set of correctable errors produce orthogonal results, the code is considered pure.

Models
Over time, researchers have come up with several codes:

 * Peter Shor's 9-qubit-code, a.k.a. the Shor code, encodes 1 logical qubit in 9 physical qubits and can correct for arbitrary errors in a single qubit.
 * Andrew Steane found a code that does the same with 7 instead of 9 qubits, see Steane code.
 * Raymond Laflamme and collaborators found a class of 5-qubit codes that do the same, which also have the property of being fault-tolerant. A 5-qubit code is the smallest possible code that protects a single logical qubit against single-qubit errors.
 * A generalisation of the technique used by Steane, to develop the 7-qubit code from the classical [7, 4] Hamming code, led to the construction of an important class of codes called the CSS codes, named for their inventors: Robert Calderbank, Peter Shor and Andrew Steane. According to the quantum Hamming bound, encoding a single logical qubit and providing for arbitrary error correction in a single qubit requires a minimum of 5 physical qubits.
 * A more general class of codes (encompassing the former) are the stabilizer codes discovered by Daniel Gottesman, and by Robert Calderbank, Eric Rains, Peter Shor, and N. J. A. Sloane; these are also called additive codes.
 * Two dimensional Bacon–Shor codes are a family of codes parameterized by integers m and n. There are nm qubits arranged in a square lattice.
 * Alexei Kitaev's topological quantum codes, introduced in 1997 as the toric code, and the more general idea of a topological quantum computer are the basis for various code types.
 * Todd Brun, Igor Devetak, and Min-Hsiu Hsieh also constructed the entanglement-assisted stabilizer formalism as an extension of the standard stabilizer formalism that incorporates quantum entanglement shared between a sender and a receiver.
 * The ideas of stabilizer codes, CSS codes, and topological codes can be expanded into the 2D planar surface code, of which various types exist. As of June 2024, the 2D planar surface code is generally considered the most well-studied type of quantum error correction, and one of the leading contenders for practical use in quantum computing.

That these codes allow indeed for quantum computations of arbitrary length is the content of the quantum threshold theorem, found by Michael Ben-Or and Dorit Aharonov, which asserts that you can correct for all errors if you concatenate quantum codes such as the CSS codes—i.e. re-encode each logical qubit by the same code again, and so on, on logarithmically many levels—provided that the error rate of individual quantum gates is below a certain threshold; as otherwise, the attempts to measure the syndrome and correct the errors would introduce more new errors than they correct for.

As of late 2004, estimates for this threshold indicate that it could be as high as 1–3%, provided that there are sufficiently many qubits available.

Experimental realization
There have been several experimental realizations of CSS-based codes. The first demonstration was with nuclear magnetic resonance qubits. Subsequently, demonstrations have been made with linear optics, trapped ions, and superconducting (transmon) qubits.

In 2016 for the first time the lifetime of a quantum bit was prolonged by employing a QEC code. The error-correction demonstration was performed on Schrodinger-cat states encoded in a superconducting resonator, and employed a quantum controller capable of performing real-time feedback operations including read-out of the quantum information, its analysis, and the correction of its detected errors. The work demonstrated how the quantum-error-corrected system reaches the break-even point at which the lifetime of a logical qubit exceeds the lifetime of the underlying constituents of the system (the physical qubits).

Other error correcting codes have also been implemented, such as one aimed at correcting for photon loss, the dominant error source in photonic qubit schemes.

In 2021, an entangling gate between two logical qubits encoded in topological quantum error-correction codes has first been realized using 10 ions in a trapped-ion quantum computer. 2021 also saw the first experimental demonstration of fault-tolerant Bacon-Shor code in a single logical qubit of a trapped-ion system, i.e. a demonstration for which the addition of error correction is able to suppress more errors than is introduced by the overhead required to implement the error correction as well as fault tolerant Steane code.

In 2022, researchers at the University of Innsbruck have demonstrated a fault-tolerant universal set of gates on two logical qubits in a trapped-ion quantum computer. They have performed a logical two-qubit controlled-NOT gate between two instances of the seven-qubit colour code, and fault-tolerantly prepared a logical magic state.

In February 2023 researchers at Google claimed to have decreased quantum errors by increasing the qubit number in experiments, they used a fault tolerant surface code measuring an error rate of 3.028% and 2.914% for a distance-3 qubit array and a distance-5 qubit array respectively.

In April 2024, researchers at Microsoft claimed to have successfully tested a quantum error correction code that allowed them to achieve an error rate with logical qubits that is 800 times better than the underlying physical error rate.

This qubit virtualization system was used to create 4 logical qubits with 30 of the 32 qubits on Quantinuum’s trapped-ion hardware. The system uses an active syndrome extraction technique to diagnose errors and correct them while calculations are underway without destroying the logical qubits.

Quantum error-correction without encoding and parity-checks
In 2022, research at University of Engineering and Technology Lahore demonstrated error-cancellation by inserting single-qubit Z-axis rotation gates into strategically chosen locations of the superconductor quantum circuits. The scheme has been shown to effectively correct errors that would otherwise rapidly add up under constructive interference of coherent noise. This is a circuit-level calibration scheme that traces deviations (e.g. sharp dips or notches) in the decoherence curve to detect and localize the coherent error, but does not require encoding or parity measurements. However, further investigation is needed to establish the effectiveness of this method for the incoherent noise.

title: Quantum error correction


text:
QEC

QEC may refer to:

 * Quantum error correction
 * Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier, two aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy
 * Electoral Commission of Queensland
 * Queen Elizabeth College
 * Queen Elizabeth College, London, UK
 * Queen Elizabeth College, Palmerston North, New Zealand
 * Queen Elizabeth College, Mauritius
 * Queen Elizabeth Centre, Ballarat
 * Qulliq Energy Corporation

title: QEC


text:
Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001

The Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001, is the official name of the inquiry conducted by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence into the activities of the U.S. Intelligence Community in connection with the attacks of September 11, 2001. The investigation began in February 2002 and the final report was released in December 2002.

Calls for inquiry
The White House, Senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.), chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence, and Representative Porter Goss (R-Fla.), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, originally rebuffed calls for an inquiry following the September 11 attacks. After December 2001, initial resolutions in the Senate called for the establishment of an independent bipartisan commission. The joint inquiry was announced February 14, 2002, with Senator Graham saying it would not play "the blame game about what went wrong from an intelligence perspective", and Representative Goss saying, "This particular effort focuses on the broader issues of terrorism worldwide, our capacity to counter terrorist activities and our preparedness to protect the American people at home and abroad."

Investigation
Senator Graham and Representative Goss, accompanied by their respective committee ranking minority members, Republican Senator Richard C. Shelby and Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi, led the joint inquiry. L. Britt Snider, the former inspector general of the CIA, was staff director. He hired a 30-person investigative staff to gather evidence and interview Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

However, the committee quickly ran into stonewalling, delays and attacks from Vice President Dick Cheney and United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, especially after an alleged leak from the committee. CNN had reported classified information that the National Security Agency had received warning of the attacks on September 10 but failed to translate and forward them. Staff director L. Britt Snider was pressured to resign in April 2002 because of questions about whether one or more of his hires had lacked proper clearance to view classified material.

The Washington Post reported in May 2002 that Representative Goss dismissed as "a lot of nonsense" reports that five weeks before the attacks a CIA briefing had alerted President Bush about possible Osama bin Laden associates' plans to highjack aircraft; he said the investigation focus would be on why the United States intelligence bureaucracy composed of 13 agencies failed to detect the hijackers. Senator Graham said the question was why wasn't the intelligence precise. Critics on and off of Capitol Hill complained that Goss was too aligned with the CIA and Graham was insufficiently assertive.

In August 2002 unnamed individuals who had read the report revealed it contained accusations of links between the government of Saudi Arabia and the attacks. The Saudis denied this and asked that the section be made public, but President Bush refused. In December 2002 Senator Graham himself revealed in a PBS interview that "I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States."

The report
The joint inquiry released their findings in December 2002. The 832-page report (available as both S. Rept. 107-351 and H. Rept. 107-792) presents the joint inquiry’s findings and conclusions, an accompanying narrative, and a series of recommendations. The critical and comprehensive report detailed failings of the FBI and CIA to use available information, including about terrorists the CIA knew were in the United States, in order to disrupt the plots.

Redacted sections
The 28 pages refers to a small section at the end of the inquiry commission report on the September 11 attacks that includes the details of foreign state sponsor support for al-Qaeda prior to the attack and the possible Saudi connection with the terrorists. This part of the congressional report was classified by the George W. Bush administration. Since then, attempts were made to declassify the redacted pages by senators and political activists, among them former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the co-chairman of the joint congressional panel, Bob Graham. United States' intelligence agencies declassified the pages, and Congress publicly released the pages with some parts redacted on July 15, 2016.

Aftermath
September 11 victim families were frustrated by the unanswered questions and redacted material and demanded an independent commission. In late 2002, President George W. Bush and Congress established the 9/11 Commission, an independent bipartisan commission charged with investigating the September 11 attacks.

In 2004, Senator Graham released his book Intelligence Matters: The CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia, and the Failure of America's War on Terror that dealt with issues raised by the investigation. In April 2016, both co-chairmen of the Inquiry, Bob Graham and Porter Goss, later director of the CIA, as well as other former U.S. officials, who are familiar with the entire text of the joint inquiry′s report, aired their belief that the U.S. government was persisting in its coverup on the Saudi Arabian government officials′ substantial aid provided to the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack and urged the Obama administration to declassify the bowdlerized pages of the report. A bipartisan effort led by Walter Jones and Stephen Lynch seeks to make the document fully available to the public. Questions are likely to persist even if the "28 pages" are released.

In 2015, efforts began in the U.S. Senate to pass a bill that would allow victims to sue foreign powers that fund terrorist groups, such as Al Qaeda, to kill Americans on American soil. This bill became law on September 28, 2016, as the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act.


text:
Cy Williams

Frederick "Cy" Williams (December 21, 1887 – April 23, 1974) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs (1912–17) and Philadelphia Phillies (1918–30). As Major League Baseball emerged from the dead-ball era, Williams became one of the most prominent home run hitters in the National League.

Baseball career
Born in Wadena, Indiana, Williams attended Notre Dame where he studied architecture and played football with Knute Rockne. His hitting prowess caught the attention of the Chicago Cubs, who purchased his contract after he graduated from college. Williams made his major league debut with the Cubs on July 18, 1912 at the age of 24. From 1915 to 1927 he was a consistent power hitting center fielder, leading the National League in home runs four times during his career.

Williams was the first National League player to hit 200 career home runs, and is one of three players born before 1900 to hit 200 homers in his career (Babe Ruth and Rogers Hornsby are the others). He was the National League's career home run leader until his record of 251 was surpassed by Hornsby in 1929.

In a 19-year major league career, Williams played in 2,002 games, accumulating 1,981 hits in 6,780 at bats for a .292 career batting average along with 251 home runs, 1,005 runs batted in and an on-base percentage of .365. He hit over .300 six times in his career. An excellent defensive player, Williams had a .973 career fielding percentage, which was nine points higher than the league average during his playing career.

The Williams Shift, in which defensive players moved to the right side of the playing field, is often associated with Ted Williams, but it was actually first employed against Cy Williams during the 1920s. He played in his final major league game on September 22, 1930 at the age of 42. In 1931, Williams served as a player-manager in the minor leagues for the Richmond Byrds of the Eastern League.

Later life
After retirement, Williams worked as an architect at the 3 Lakes Theatre in Three Lakes, Wisconsin beginning in 1949. Before that, he designed the 3 Lakes Theatre's exterior and interior and later opened that June of the same year.

title: Cy Williams


text: User talk:69.192.252.24

title: User talk:69.192.252.24


text: File:Cy Williams Baseball.jpg

title: File:Cy Williams Baseball.jpg


text:
Helijet

Helijet International is a helicopter airline and charter service based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Its scheduled passenger helicopter airline services operates flights from heliports at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), downtown Vancouver, downtown Nanaimo and downtown Victoria. It also operates a charter division (Helijet Charters) serving the film, television, aerial tour, industrial and general helicopter and corporate jet charter markets, as well as helicopter and jet air ambulance services. Its head office and main hangar is Vancouver International Airport (YVR).

Sightseeing harbour and city tours and scheduled services to Victoria and Nanaimo operate from the Vancouver Harbour Heliport located on the shores of Burrard Inlet, adjacent to Waterfront Station. The actual heliport is a floating structure located in the harbour waters. Helijet is also British Columbia's largest air medical service provider, operating rotary wing, fixed wing medevac aircraft including Learjet.

History
The airline was established in 1986 as Helijet Airways and started operations between Vancouver and Victoria in November 1986 with one Bell 412 helicopter and 14 staff members. It was formerly known as Helijet Airways. During the past 30 years of operation, Helijet has grown from one aircraft in scheduled service with 14 personnel carrying just 22,000 passengers into a diversified company with 15 aircraft and 150+ employees carrying over 100,000 passengers per year. The company has an excellent record of aviation safety. With US Helicopter now defunct in the New York City area since 2009, Helijet and BLADE Urban Air Mobility Inc. are the only scheduled passenger helicopter airline service in North America.

In the past, Helijet provided scheduled passenger services with Sikorsky S-76 helicopters or Beechcraft 1900 turboprop fixed-wing aircraft to Seattle-Boeing Field, Abbotsford International Airport, Langley Regional Airport, Victoria International Airport and Campbell River Airport, all of which are still destinations accessible by Helijet Charters' services. Helijet has operated large, 19 passenger seat Sikorsky S-61 helicopters as well including in scheduled service between Vancouver and Victoria.

All scheduled passenger services between the company's heliports located in downtown Vancouver, B.C. and downtown Victoria, B.C. have been operated for many years with twin engine, Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) capable Sikorsky S-76 helicopters flown by two pilots. During the 2013 summer season, all scheduled service between Vancouver and Victoria was being operated with Bell 206L-3 LongRanger III turbine powered rotorcraft. However, with the advent of the 2013 fall season, Helijet was once again operating Sikorsky S-76 helicopters between Vancouver and Victoria and is currently doing so.

Helijet International operates the Vancouver and Victoria Harbour Heliports under its wholly owned subsidiary, Pacific Heliport Services.

Destinations
As of August 2019, Helijet operates scheduled services to the following destinations:

 * Nanaimo (Nanaimo Harbour Heliport)
 * Vancouver (Vancouver Harbour Heliport)
 * Victoria (Victoria Harbour (Camel Point) Heliport at Ogden Point)

Helijet operates air ambulance at the following heliports/airports in British Columbia, Canada:

 * Prince Rupert/Seal Cove, in Prince Rupert, British Columbia
 * Vancouver International Airport (YVR) - home base and corporate headquarters

Helijet also operates a year-round base at Sandspit Airport and provides helicopter services between Masset Airport and numerous fishing lodges in the Haida Gwaii area during the BC fishing season. The fishing lodges have an operating helipad to facilitate this service, which includes passenger and cargo transfers.

On March 11, 2015, Helijet began operating new scheduled passenger service utilizing Sikorsky S-76 helicopters with seven roundtrip flights every weekday between the company's downtown heliport located in Vancouver Harbour and the Nanaimo Harbour Heliport located at the Nanaimo Cruise Ship Welcome Centre.

Current
The Helijet fleet consists of the following aircraft types (as of March 2024):

Former

HeliJet has operated the following fixed wing turboprop and helicopter types:
 * Aérospatiale Eurocopter AS355 (AS355 F1)
 * Beechcraft 1900 (1900D)
 * Beechcraft Super King Air
 * Sikorsky S-61 (S-61N)

title: Helijet


text:
Intercity Shopping Centre

Intercity Shopping Centre is a shopping mall in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. It was one of the first shopping malls in Thunder Bay and is the largest of its kind in Northwestern Ontario, with 456430 sqft of retail space.

Originally, Intercity was built as a strip mall in 1982. However, in the 1990s, the entire Intercity site was redesigned. The strip mall was demolished and a more modern mall was constructed. Since then, the mall has seen various anchor stores and changes over the years. Today, it is Thunder Bay’s dominant shopping mall.

Description
The mall is located in the middle of Thunder Bay, in the heart of the Intercity Neighbourhood. The mall is surrounded by the Harbour Expressway to the North, Fort William Road on the east, Isabel Street to the south, and Memorial Avenue to the west. By the main entrance, Thunder Bay Transit has a 2-platform bus hub, served by routes 1, 3M, 8, 9, and 12 when the mall is open.

The mall is home to dozens of shops. Shops range from clothing shops, to hair salons, to electronic shops, and more. The main entrance (on Fort William Road) leads to the food court on the south side of the mall. In addition, there is a second floor on the north side of the mall. This second floor is called the Office Galleria, and is home to several offices situated within the mall.

Anchor Stores
Today, there are 4 anchor stores within Intercity Shopping Centre. At the very south, is Dollarama. It has two entrances: one from Fort William Road, and the other from the mall. The southwest corner has Urban Planet, which can only be accessed by the mall. The west side of the mall is home to Sportchek, the only original anchor store remaining. It can be accessed from Memorial Avenue, or from the mall’s food court. At the very north, is Marshalls, accessible from the mall or Fort William Road.

The southernmost anchor store was originally Zellers from the opening of Intercity Mall until January 2013, when Zellers closed permanently. Renovations to this part of the mall began immediately, and a new Target store opened on 16 July 2013. Zellers and Target, both also had a third entrance at the corner of Memorial Avenue and Isabel Street. Like most Target stores in Canada, the Intercity location closed on 1 April 2015. In August 2016, Lowe's had renovated this spot in the mall and was one of the mall's anchor for several years. This location of Lowe’s had a garden centre on the west side of the store, and used the Memorial-Isabel entrance as their contractor’s entrance. In 2020, Lowe’s closed their Thunder Bay location and the south anchor was empty until Dollarama opened a store in the eastern half of the space in 2022. Thunder Bay Public Library intends on using the other half of the space to create a central library.

At the north end of the mall, Sears was the tenant of a 2-store anchor store. They sold clothing and footwear on the lower level while furniture and home decor were sold on the upper level. Other than Thunder Bay Airport, Sears was the only other place in Thunder Bay to have escalators. There were three entrances, one from the mall, second from Fort William Road, and the third facing the Harbour Expressway. Finally, Sears Canada closed down in 2018, resulting in the closure of the Thunder Bay location too. Subsequently, Marshall’s moved into the space after renovations. However, Marshall’s is only occupying a fraction of the first floor, leaving the second storey of Sear’s and the northernmost space from Sears abandoned.

The southwest anchor store formerly was HomeSense. It relocated to Thunder Centre on the opposite side of Fort William Road on 20 March 2018. Following their relocation, Urban Planet has been located in that space. Sportchek, on the west side of the mall, is the only original anchor store that has not been changed.

Food Court
The main entrance (Entrance 1) on Fort William Road leads into a passage that leads to the food court. The food court leads to several fast food restaurants that serve the mall. They include:
 * Laura Secord Chocolates
 * A&W
 * Manchu Wok
 * Subway
 * Sheffield Express
 * Sam’s Kitchen
 * Taco Bell
 * New York Fries

Several restaurants are outside of the food court. Rocky Mountain Chocolates is located on the north side of the mall instead. Freshly Squeezed used to be located in the centre of the food court but has since moved to a larger location in the middle of the mall.

The food court has a recycling and composting program. Instead of using garbage bins, all food waste is to be brought to a tray station in the centre. Customers bring their trash to the station and staff will sort recycling and compost and dispose of them sustainably.

Thunder Bay Public Library
Thunder Bay Public Library has shown an interest in acquiring space from the former Lowe’s space and making their central library. Currently, they have two main libraries located in the core of the two former cities of Port Arthur and Fort William. The creation of the Intercity library would see the consolidation of these libraries as the main library, leaving them to become neighborhood branches, much like County Fair and Mary J.L. Black branches are today. Currently, this development is in the consultation phase.

title: Intercity Shopping Centre