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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a 2009 fantasy film directed by David Yates from a screenplay by Steve Kloves, based on the 2005 novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) and the sixth instalment in the Harry Potter film series. It stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry's best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger respectively. The story follows Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts as he receives a mysterious textbook, falls in love, and attempts to retrieve a memory that holds the key to Lord Voldemort's downfall.

Filming began on 24 September 2007, leading to the film's worldwide cinematic release on 15 July 2009. With an estimated budget of $250 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made and the most expensive film in the Harry Potter film series.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released in 2D cinemas and IMAX formats in the United Kingdom and the United States on 15 July, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received positive reviews, with praise for the story, emotional weight, cinematography and performances. It was a major commercial success, breaking the record for the biggest single-day worldwide gross with $104 million. In five days, the film made $394 million, breaking the record for highest worldwide five-day opening. With a total gross of $934 million, it is the second-highest-grossing film of 2009. The film was nominated for many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and the BAFTA Award for Best Production Design and Best Special Visual Effects.

It was followed by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 in 2010.

Plot
Lord Voldemort tightens his grip on the wizarding and Muggle worlds: his Death Eaters kidnap Mr Ollivander, a Wand maker and destroy London's Millennium Bridge. With Lucius Malfoy incarcerated in Azkaban, Voldemort chooses his son, Draco Malfoy, to carry out a secret mission at Hogwarts. Draco's mother, Narcissa, and aunt Bellatrix Lestrange seek out Severus Snape, who gains their confidence by claiming he is a mole within the Order of the Phoenix. Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa to protect Draco and fulfil his task should he fail.

Harry Potter accompanies Albus Dumbledore to persuade former Potions professor Horace Slughorn to return to Hogwarts. Then, at the Burrow, Harry reunites with his best friends Ron and Hermione. In Diagon Alley, they see Draco and Narcissa Malfoy, and follow them into Knockturn Alley. The pair meet with Death Eaters, including the werewolf Fenrir Greyback, at Borgin & Burke's. Harry believes Draco is now a Death Eater, but Ron and Hermione are sceptical. On the Hogwarts Express, Harry sneaks into the Slytherin carriage wearing his Invisibility Cloak to spy on Malfoy. Malfoy notices and petrifies Harry, leaving him on the train. Luna Lovegood finds him and counters Draco's spell.

Harry discovers that his used Potions textbook is filled with helpful notes and spells added by the "Half-Blood Prince". Using it, Harry excels in class, annoying Hermione and impressing Slughorn, who awards him a Liquid Luck potion. Ron makes the Gryffindor Quidditch team as Keeper and begins dating Lavender Brown, upsetting Hermione, who harbours feelings for him. Harry consoles Hermione while acknowledging his own feelings for Ginny Weasley. Harry spends the Christmas holidays with the Weasleys. His suspicions about Draco are dismissed by the Order, but Arthur Weasley reveals that the Malfoys may be interested in a Vanishing Cabinet at Borgin & Burke's. Bellatrix and Greyback attack and destroy the Burrow.

At Hogwarts, Dumbledore asks Harry to retrieve Slughorn's memory of a young Voldemort. Slughorn has resisted giving an accurate memory. After Ron accidentally ingests a love potion intended for Harry, Harry takes him to Slughorn for a cure. After curing Ron, Slughorn offers both boys some mead he had intended as a gift to Dumbledore. Ron is poisoned upon sipping it, and Harry's quick thinking saves him. While recovering in the infirmary, Ron murmurs Hermione's name, causing Lavender to end their relationship. Harry confronts Draco about the poisoned mead and also a cursed necklace that nearly killed Katie Bell. A duel erupts, and Harry uses one of the Half-Blood Prince's curses without knowing what it is. The curse severely injures Malfoy, and he is only saved by Snape's timely arrival and reversal of the curse. Fearing the book contains Dark Magic, Ginny persuades Harry to hide it in the Room of Requirement. They then share their first kiss.

In Hagrid's hut, Harry uses his Liquid Luck potion to convince the reluctant Slughorn to surrender the memory Dumbledore needs. Viewing it in the Pensieve, Dumbledore and Harry learn Voldemort sought information about Horcruxes, magical objects containing pieces of a wizard's soul for immortality. Dumbledore surmises Voldemort divided his soul into six Horcruxes, two of which have been destroyed: Tom Riddle's diary and Marvolo Gaunt's ring. They travel to a cave where Harry aids Dumbledore in drinking a potion that hides another Horcrux, Slytherin's locket.

A weakened Dumbledore defends them from Inferi by creating a ring of fire, and apparates them back to Hogwarts, where Bellatrix, Greyback, and other Death Eaters have entered through the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement that Draco has secretly connected to one in Knockturn Alley. As Harry hides, Draco appears and disarms the headmaster, revealing Voldemort chose him to kill Dumbledore. Draco hesitates; Snape, however, arrives and kills Dumbledore. As the Death Eaters escape, Snape reveals to Harry that he is the Half-Blood Prince.

As Hogwarts students and staff mourn Dumbledore's death, Harry tells Ron and Hermione that the locket is fake and contains a message from "R.A.B.", who stole the real Horcrux intending to destroy it. Harry, Ron and Hermione agree to forgo their final Hogwarts year to hunt for the remaining Horcruxes.

Cast

 * Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter: A 16-year-old British wizard who now enters his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
 * Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley: One of Harry's two best friends
 * Emma Watson as Hermione Granger: One of Harry's two best friends
 * Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange: One of Voldemort's principal Death Eaters and Draco Malfoy's aunt
 * Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn: The newly appointed Potions master who had held the position before Severus Snape
 * Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid: The Hogwarts gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts
 * Warwick Davis as Filius Flitwick: The Charms master and head of Ravenclaw
 * Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy: Harry's rival and recipient of Voldemort's secret mission
 * Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore: The headmaster of Hogwarts
 * Alan Rickman as Severus Snape: The former Potions master, current Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and head of Slytherin
 * Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall: The Hogwarts Transfiguration teacher, deputy headmistress and head of Gryffindor
 * Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew: The Death Eater who betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort; Pettigrew has no lines in this film, but appears as a servant at Snape's house
 * David Thewlis as Remus Lupin: A member of the Order of the Phoenix and Harry's ex-Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher
 * Julie Walters as Molly Weasley: The Weasley matriarch and a mother figure to Harry

Gemma Jones returned to the cast as Hogwarts' matron, Poppy Pomfrey. Mark Williams plays Molly's husband, Arthur, who is a member of the Order of the Phoenix, while Natalia Tena plays fellow member Nymphadora Tonks. James and Oliver Phelps play Ron's siblings Fred and George and Bonnie Wright plays their sister Ginny, while Devon Murray, Alfred Enoch and Matthew Lewis play Gryffindor students Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom. Evanna Lynch plays Ravenclaw student Luna Lovegood. Jamie Waylett and Joshua Herdman play Slytherin students Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Jessie Cave, Anna Shaffer and Freddie Stroma also play Gryffindor students Lavender Brown, Romilda Vane and Cormac McLaggen respectively, while Rob Knox plays Ravenclaw Marcus Belby. Helen McCrory plays Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother and Bellatrix's sister, while David Legeno plays werewolf Fenrir Greyback. Hero Fiennes Tiffin portrayed 11-year-old Tom Riddle, with Frank Dillane playing the 16-year-old version of him. David Bradley plays Hogwarts caretaker, Argus Filch. Louis Cordice plays Blaise Zabini, a Slytherin student.

Development and casting
Before David Yates was officially chosen to direct the film, many directors had expressed an interest in taking the helm. Alfonso Cuarón, the director of the third film, stated he "would love to have the opportunity" to return. Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell declined a spot to direct the fifth film, and was not approached for this film. Guillermo del Toro turned down the chance to direct the film in order to direct Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Terry Gilliam was Rowling's personal choice to direct Philosopher's Stone. When asked whether he would consider directing a later film, Gilliam said, "Warner Bros. had their chance the first time around, and they blew it." Yates was still working on Order of the Phoenix when he was approached to direct Half-Blood Prince. The producers were happy with his direction, and was asked to start pre-production during the former's marketing.

Radcliffe and Grint were initially hesitant to continue, but agreed to reprise their roles. Emma Watson considered not returning for the film, citing fear of being typecast, but eventually decided that "the pluses outweighed the minuses" and could not bear to see anyone else play Hermione. Nicholas Hooper returned to compose the score; he included a reworking of John Williams's "Hedwig's Theme", which has recurred in all films. Other members like costume designer Jany Temime, visual effects supervisor Tim Burke, creature and make-up effects designer Nick Dudman, and special effects supervisor John Richardson continued for this film. Yates and Heyman have noted that some of the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows influenced the script of Half-Blood Prince.

Christian Coulson, who played the young Tom Riddle in Chamber of Secrets, expressed interest in returning for the role in flashback sequences; but Yates responded that Coulson was too old (nearing 30), to be playing the role. Thomas James Longley was the original choice to take on the role, but Riddle was ultimately played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin as a child and Frank Dillane as a teenager. Jamie Campbell Bower was in talks to portray Tom Riddle teenager before Dillan was cast, he would later portray a young Grindelwald in the Deathly Hallows - Part 1. Helen McCrory appears as Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother and younger sister of Bellatrix. McCrory was originally cast as Bellatrix in Order of the Phoenix, but had to drop out due to pregnancy. Naomi Watts was previously reported as having accepted the role, only for it to be denied by her agency.

Both Clémence Poésy and Chris Rankin, who had played Fleur Delacour and Percy Weasley, respectively, were interested in returning, but did not appear in the film. After Bill Nighy expressed an interest in appearing, Yates confirmed that Nighy would be his first choice for the role of Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour. Scrimgeour's character was ultimately cut from the film, but Nighy appeared in his role in Deathly Hallows. Bob Hoskins auditioned for the role of Horace Slughorn, but Jim Broadbent ultimately secured the part. Warner Bros and MSN also ran an online Order of the Phoenix quiz, with the prize being a walk-on part in the Half-Blood Prince.

Sets
Stuart Craig, the production designer of the first five films, stayed on to design all the sets in Half-Blood Prince. Several new sets were introduced, including Tom Riddle's orphanage, the Astronomy Tower, and the cave. Craig noted that the film used several CGI sets, noticeably the interior of the cave where Harry and Dumbledore both go to hunt Horcruxes. The exterior of the scene was filmed at the Cliffs of Moher in the west of Ireland, the only location to be filmed outside of the United Kingdom throughout the film series. The interior of the cave is made up of geometric crystal formations. Radcliffe said that the scene took three-to-four months to prepare. Some of the Hogwarts sets were taken down after the filming, as they would not be used for the following film.

Filming
Before filming began, there was belief that filming might move from the UK, where all previous films were shot. The crew also scouted around Cape Wrath in Scotland, for use in the cave scene. Filming returned to Glen Coe and Glenfinnan, both of which have appeared in the previous films, to preserve the continuity of the landscape.

Following a week of rehearsals, principal photography began on 24 September 2007 and ended on 17 May 2008. Radcliffe, Gambon and Broadbent started shooting in late September 2007. Other cast members started much later: Grint did not begin until November 2007; Watson started in December 2007, Rickman and Leung in January 2008, and Bonham Carter in February 2008.

On the weekend of 6 October 2007, the crew shot scenes involving the Hogwarts Express in the misty and dewy environment of Fort William, Scotland. A series of night scenes were filmed in the village of Lacock and the cloisters at Lacock Abbey for three nights starting 25 October 2007. Filming took place from 5 pm to 5 am daily, and residents of the street were asked to black out their windows with dark blinds. On set reports indicated that the main scene filmed was Harry and Dumbledore's visit to Slughorn's house. Further filming took place in Surbiton railway station in October 2007, at Gloucester Cathedral, where the first and second films were shot, in February 2008, and at the Millennium Bridge in London in March 2008.

In the previous films, the scenes showing Hogwarts Express on its way to the wizarding school were typically shot in Scotland. However, since the screenplay required a snowy atmosphere for the train to go through and it did not snow during planned production dates, the crew decided to film these scenes in Rauma Line, Norway. This included the scene where Harry and Ron are talking about the Unbreakable Vow Snape had to swear to as the train goes through a snowy plot. The filming location in Norway is located in Northern Norway, close to the village of Bjorli.

Cinematography
Due to cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel's use of de-focussing and soft wipes in the digital grade, Warner Bros. asked director David Yates to add more colours to the film. Yates did not want to lose the "very European look" of the film, but after retouching the picture, he said, "It's not what you wanted, but we're happy with it." After five minutes of watching the film, the studio were pleased with the changes. In an interview with Total Film, Yates said that the choice of angles, the extreme close-ups, and the pacing of the scenes made the film "incredibly rich".

One of the major challenges for Delbonnel was the lighting of the film. In an interview with the Academy, Delbonnel said that he did not want to change the lighting effects used in the previous films, and finally decided to give it a darker, moody variation of grey. Yates and the other producers supported this new effect, and he went ahead with it. In reference to the cave scene, Delbonnel said, "I wanted to have some kind of 'dynamism' with the light. I thought it could be interesting and more dramatic if the light was floating, circling above the characters faces: sometimes lighting them, sometimes hiding them in a very random and unpredictable way."

Visual effects
The opening scenes of the Death Eaters' attack on Diagon Alley and London was created by Double Negative, led by VFX supervisor Paul Franklin. Double Negative spent six months surveying and documenting the environment around the River Thames and Trafalgar Square to create the swooping views of the city. Double Negative also contributed to the Pensieve sequences, developing complex directed fluid simulations to realise the swirling world of memory and the past.

Tim Burke and Tim Alexander were the visual effects supervisors for the rest of the film. Tim Alexander said that completing the Inferi-attack scene took several months. He said that the scene was much bolder and scarier compared to previous films, and director Yates wanted to avoid making them look like zombies. On differentiating them, he commented, "A lot of it came down to their movement – they don't move fast, but they don't move really slow or groan and moan. We ended up going with a very realistic style." He also noted that Inferi are skinnier than zombies, waterlogged and grey.

On Dumbledore's ring of fire to combat the Inferi, he added that research was done on molten volcanoes, among other references. He said, "The visual effects team emulated these six fire parameters: heat ripples, smoke, buoyancy, viscosity, opacity, and brightness." Since the scene was very time-consuming, computer-graphics artist Chris Horvath spent eight months finding a faster way to conjure the flames. Eventually, the final effect would look as though someone sprayed propane and then lit it.

Music
The film's score was composed by Nicholas Hooper, who also composed the music for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The soundtrack was released on an Audio CD format on 14 July 2009, a day before the film was released in cinemas.

The album debuted at number twenty-nine on the Billboard 200 chart, thus making it the highest-charting soundtrack among all the six movie soundtracks released. It was nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

Differences from the book
Half-Blood Prince added or changed several events in the literary canon. The book begins with a scene involving the Muggle Prime Minister. Yates and his crew debated over this scene, as well as the inclusion of Rufus Scrimgeour. They eventually revised the start of the film to instead include events described, but not seen in the book. Yates thought it would give the audience a feel for what the Death Eaters were doing if they showed the collapse of the Millennium Bridge rather than simply describe it (as was done with the Brockdale Bridge in the book). As with Goblet of Fire, the Dursleys were cut, which Steve Kloves did to "break the pattern". Further background of Tom Riddle was removed, such as the Gaunts, because they felt it more important to concentrate on Riddle as a young boy, and an additional action scene at the Burrow was added to keep with the tone of the franchise. Yates felt that they needed "an injection of jeopardy and danger", and that without it, there was too much comedy and lightness. A small battle scene at Hogwarts which happened during the end of the book was also cut; Heyman commented that it was removed to "[avoid] repetition" with the forthcoming adaptation of the Battle of Hogwarts in Deathly Hallows. Dumbledore's funeral was removed as it was believed that it did not fit with the rest of the film.

Marketing
Warner Bros. spent an estimated $155 million to market and distribute the film. The special-edition two-disc DVD for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix contained two sneak peeks of the film, while the US edition included an additional clip. The first teaser for the film, with a length of 15-seconds, was shown alongside the IMAX release of The Dark Knight. The first full-length US teaser trailer was released on 29 July on AOL's Moviefone website. An international teaser was released on 26 October and another teaser trailer was released later. Another trailer was screened on the Japanese TV station Fuji TV during a screening of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on 18 January 2009. Scenes from the film were aired during ABC Family's Harry Potter marathon, which took place between 5 and 7 December 2008. On 5 February 2009, the first three promotional teaser posters were released, featuring Dumbledore and Harry. On 5 March and 16 April 2009, new trailers were released by Warner Bros.

As with the previous films, EA Games produced a video game based on the film. On 10 March 2009, it was announced that there would be a video game soundtrack, which was released on 17 March 2009. On 27 March, six character posters were released: Harry, Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Draco and Snape. A Japanese version of the international trailer was released, alongside the original one on 10 April. On 8 May, The CW aired a 30-second TV spot, which focused on the romantic side of the film. On 20 May, first clip from the film was released through The Ellen DeGeneres Show's official website, showing a love-struck Ron. Another clip of the film, showing Dumbledore visiting Tom Riddle's orphanage, was released on 31 May 2009, at the MTV Awards.

Theatrical release
The film was released in many countries on 15 July 2009. It was originally set to be released on 21 November 2008, but was pushed back by eight months to 17 July, despite being completed. Warner Bros. executive Alan F. Horn noted that the move was meant "to guarantee the studio a major summer blockbuster in 2009," with other films being delayed due to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike. The box-office success of summer WB films Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and The Dark Knight also motivated the decision. An unnamed rival studio executive told Entertainment Weekly that the move was to "stop next year's profits from looking seriously underwhelming after the phenomenal success of The Dark Knight," as "they don't need the money this year anymore." Dan Fellman, WB head of distribution, said that the studio had considered the date change for three to four weeks prior to the announcement, but gave it serious consideration a week before they came to their final decision. Three months before its release in July, the date was again changed by 2 days from 17 to 15 July, so it could open on a Wednesday like most tentpole summer movies.

The date change was met with a heavily negative reaction by Harry Potter fans, as the Los Angeles Times noted: "Petitions were circulating, rumors were flying and angry screeds were being posted on Internet sites within minutes of the Thursday announcement." The move was mocked by Entertainment Weekly, which had Half-Blood Prince on the cover on its "Fall Preview Issue". Despite each being owned by Time Warner Inc., Entertainment Weekly was unaware of the change until it was publicly announced by WB and noted that readers would now be in possession of a "Dewey Defeats Truman collectible". Several days after the announcement, Horn released a statement in response to the "large amount of disappointment" expressed by fans of the series. Following the date change, Half-Blood Prince's release slot was taken by Summit Entertainment's Twilight and Walt Disney Pictures' Bolt.

The sixth film was simultaneously released in regular cinemas and IMAX 3D everywhere but the United States, due to a conflicting agreement in which Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was given a four-week window by itself in IMAX in that country. Therefore, the IMAX 3D version of the film was released on 29 July 2009 there. The film had been chosen to be screened at the 2008 Royal Film Performance on 17 November but was not shown. Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund chief executive Peter Hore noted he was "very disappointed" with Warner Bros' decision.

With a runtime of 153 minutes, Half-Blood Prince is the third-longest film in the series, behind Chamber of Secrets (161 minutes) and Goblet of Fire (157 minutes).

Home media
Like the previous films, a 1-disc and 2-disc special edition for the film was released on Blu-ray as a digital copy and DVD on 7 December 2009 in the United Kingdom, and 8 December 2009 in the United States. The Blu-ray and DVD include an 11-minute, 38-second feature on the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter mini theme park, which opened on 18 June 2010 at Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida. These also include deleted scenes, with a running length of 6 minutes and 31 seconds, and a sneak peek of the next Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010). The Blu-ray and DVD of the film was also released in India, the Philippines, South Africa, Czech Republic and Israel on 16 November 2009. The Blu-ray and two-disc DVD editions in North America include a digital copy of the film. In the United Kingdom, the DVD release became the fastest-selling DVD of the year, with an estimated 840,000 copies of the film sold in a few hours. In the US, the DVD made a strong debut at number one in both the DVD and Blu-ray markets, widely beating out any competition with sales of 4,199,622 copies. Worldwide DVD and Blu-ray sales of the film show that it is the fastest-selling film of 2009. On 14 June 2011, an Ultimate Edition was released simultaneously with the Ultimate Edition of the Order of the Phoenix film on both Blu-ray and DVD, containing new bonus features, documentaries and collectables.

Box office
With an estimated budget of $250 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made and the most expensive film in the Harry Potter film series. Advance ticket sales on Fandango.com for Half-Blood Prince surpassed advance ticket sales for Transformers 2 at the same point in sale cycles. It is also in MovieTickets.com's top 25 advance sellers of all time.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince broke the then-record for biggest midnight showings, making $22.8 million in 3,000 cinemas; The Twilight Saga: New Moon bested this with $26.3 million in November. Half-Blood Prince opened in the same Wednesday slot that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix did in 2007. The film's box office run finished on 17 December 2009.

The film opened in 4,325 cinemas (rising to 4,455 three weeks later, becoming the largest number of cinemas until The Twilight Saga: Eclipse surpassed it with the 4,468 cinemas in 2010); and grossed $58.2 million on its opening day at the top of the United States and Canadian box office, the third-highest Wednesday opening of all time behind Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. It is also the nineteenth-highest single-day gross of all time and the third-highest for a film in the Harry Potter franchise behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2's $91.1 million and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, which made $61.1 million. It earned an additional $46 million overseas for a worldwide total of $104 million, breaking the record for highest single-day worldwide gross, previously held by The Dark Knight. By 20 July, the film had taken in $158.7 million in the US and $236 million from 85 other markets, for a worldwide tally of $394.7 million. This broke the record for biggest-ever worldwide five-day opening, surpassing Spider-Man 3's $381 million. In the US, it surpassed all of its predecessors by a wide margin, achieving the sixth-largest-ever five-day opening in that country. The film held this worldwide record for two years until it was topped by Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($483.2 million). In the UK, the film grossed £19.75 million (equivalent to about $38.13 million), the highest opening for both the series and releases of 2009. At the end of the film's US and Canadian box office run, the total ticket sales of the film were $302.3 million; making it the third-most successful film in the franchise, after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as well as the third-highest-grossing film of 2009 in these regions behind Avatar and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. As with all of the previous films in the franchise, Half-Blood Prince proved to be extremely successful globally with an estimated non-US total gross of $632.1 million, totalling approximately $934.5 million worldwide. This made it the second-highest-grossing film of 2009, behind Avatar. It is the fifth-highest-grossing film in the franchise, behind Philosopher's Stone, both parts of Deathly Hallows, and Order of the Phoenix. It was once the eighth-highest-grossing film of all time.

In South Africa, the film opened with the number-one position, grossing $789,176; it maintained the number-one position during the second week, with a total of $242,336. In Australia, the film broke records with a debut of $11.5 million. Opening at number one, it maintained a second week at number one with a total of $5.3 million (down 54%), and grossed a total of $24.2 million. In France, the film debuted at $20.5 million from 949 cinemas. In Japan, the film held the top spot in the box office rankings until the release of Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker, which took the top spot in its first weekend.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on  reviews, with an average rating of. The website's critical consensus reads, "Dark, thrilling, and occasionally quite funny, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is also visually stunning and emotionally satisfying." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The film scored an 87 from professional critics at the Broadcast Film Critics Association; it is the first Harry Potter film to receive a Critic's Choice certificate. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

The first review of the film came three weeks before the official release: Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com ranked the film with The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and called the film a possible Oscar contender. He highly praised the performance of Sir Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman and Daniel Radcliffe. He commented, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a tour-de-force that combines style and substance, special effects and heart and most importantly great performances from all of the actors young and not-so-young". Another early review came from Devin Faraci of the UK tabloid Chud.com, who called the film the best in the Harry Potter series, and also in the year.

Andrew Pulver of The Guardian gave a positive review, scoring it 3.5 out of 5 stars. Todd McCarthy of the trade magazine Variety said that the film is "dazzlingly well made" and "less fanciful than the previous entries". He praised Alan Rickman's performance, described Helena Bonham Carter as "mesmerising", and Jim Broadbent as a "grand eccentric old professor". BBC News's Tim Masters praised the film's cinematography, visual effects, production design, acting and darker plotline. The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt felt that the film's first half is "jerky and explosive", but in the second half, the film finds better footing. He also praised Nicholas Hooper's composition, Bruno Delbonnel's cinematography, and Stuart Craig's set design. Chris Tilly of IGN UK commented on the length of the film, saying "while on occasion it drags, the 153-minute run-time never feels too long, thanks in no small part to the astonishing visuals and (largely) marvellous performances," and felt that it was the best film in the series.

However, Dave Golder of SFX Magazine found some aspects of the film to be a disappointment, mainly due to the large number of opportunities the director and screenwriter had sacrificed to devote "huge swathes of the film to subplots of Harry and his chums' teenage romances," but nevertheless found the film to be a large enjoyment, praising the performances of Broadbent and Rickman. Screen Daily commented, "David Yates and his team struggle to whip J.K. Rowling’s 608-page tome into a consistently thrilling cinematic experience", but praised the shooting of some scenes and Bonham Carter's acting. David Stratton, of Margaret and David at the Movies, gave the film a 2.5 out of a possible 5 stars, remarking, "For non-readers [of the Harry Potter series] the films are now borderline incomprehensible", and that the film was "a little tedious" and "generally less interesting visually than its predecessors." He, however, praised the acting of Gambon and Broadbent.

Accolades
The film was nominated for BAFTA Awards in Production Design and Visual Effects, and was in the longlists for five other categories, including Best Supporting Actor for Alan Rickman. Bruno Delbonnel was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography at the 82nd Academy Awards. The film was also one of the final seven contenders for Best Visual Effects. Half-Blood Prince is the only film in the series to be nominated for the Best Cinematography accolade at the Academy Awards.


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Borodino (village), Mozhaysky District, Moscow Oblast

Borodino (Бородино, ) is a village in Mozhaysky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located 13 km west of Mozhaysk.

The village is famous as the location of the Battle of Borodino that took place on 7 September 1812 as part of the Napoleonic Wars during the French invasion of Russia. The Borodino Battlefield (Бородинское поле) is now part of the State Borodino War and History Museum and Reserve. The reserved area is 109.7 km2; the area of the protected zone is 645 km2.

History
Archaeological evidence suggests that the area around Borodino was settled around 500 BC by the Finnish, and then Slavic tribes. The well-preserved earthworks of a fort dating from about 200 BC, located near the village of Gorki, Mozhaysky District, Moscow Oblast, represent the earliest known military-historical construction in the Borodino area. However, the earliest written mention of the village of Borodino that has been found was in the 17th century.

Borodino's lands were attached to the Moscow principality at the beginning of the 14th century and were at the boundary with Lithuanian territory along the old Smolensk road. The peasants farming the land cultivated winter rye, spring barley, oats, summer wheat, flax, hemp, and buckwheat. The farms were assessed as "fair" to "average". Women, except for fieldwork, were engaged in spinning flax and wool, weaving and knitting, for home use. During the Time of Troubles the area suffered from bandits and raiders, and even until the end of the 18th century much of the area was still abandoned.

According to some reports the hamlet of Borodino was first mentioned in the Mozhayskie scribe books in 1601. During the Time of Troubles the village was described as having a "churchyard on the Tsar's sovereign land on the Voinka River (река Воинка) with the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord and the chapel of St. Nicholas", and further "in the church, images and candles and books and every church structure had secular parishioners".

Prior to the construction of its own church at Borodino, people from the area were parishioners of the church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which was on the other side of the Kolocha River at the confluence of the Stonets and Prudki creeks. This church with a chapel (the lower church) in honour of St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra was destroyed in the Time of Troubles, probably in 1609. After that, the locals were parishioners in the church of the Assumption in the village Semenov also having a lower chapel of St. Nicholas. There is no further history of this church following the middle of the 17th century.

During the 1941 Battle of Moscow, the field was the place of a severe clash between the Soviet and German forces.

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


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Raffles Institution

Raffles Institution (RI) is an independent educational institution in Singapore. Founded in 1823, it is the oldest school in the country. It provides secondary education for boys only from Year 1 to Year 4, and pre-university education for both boys and girls in Year 5 and Year 6. Since 2007, RI and its affiliated school Raffles Girls' School have been offering the six-year Raffles Programme, which allows students to skip the Singapore-Cambridge GCE O-Level examinations and proceed to take the Singapore-Cambridge GCE A-Level examinations at the end of Year 6.

RI is notable for having produced 96 President's Scholars, three presidents, two prime ministers, four speakers of Parliament, several Cabinet ministers and Members of Parliament, as well as many chief executive officers of statutory boards, agencies and state-owned companies. Its alumni body, the Old Rafflesians Association (ORA), includes former Prime Ministers Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, as well as former Presidents Yusof Ishak, Benjamin Sheares and Wee Kim Wee.

RI has one of the highest admission rates to the elite universities of the world such as the Ivy League and Oxbridge. It had the highest number of admissions to the University of Cambridge, with 48 students receiving offers in the 2022 admissions cycle, while 52 were accepted for Oxford and Cambridge combined in 2021, and 77 in 2022 (2nd highest of all schools).

Foundation
RI was founded by Stamford Raffles, who proposed the establishment of "the Institution" or "Singapore Institution" at a meeting he convened on 1 April 1823. Raffles wanted to establish a college for the people of Singapore since the founding of the colony, and wrote on 12 January 1823 that a site for a planned college had been selected. His intention was to provide education for the children of local leaders in the new British colony of Singapore as well as the company's employees and others who wished to learn the local languages. Another objective was to "collect the scattered literature and traditions of the country" so that the most important may be published and circulated. Raffles referred to the plan as his "last public act"; by setting up the Institution, he hoped it that it could, through its generations of alumni, serve as "the means of civilising and bettering the conditions of millions" beyond Singapore. Those involved in the plan for the Institution included Reverend Robert Morrison, Sophia Raffles, William Farquhar, and William Marsden. It was initially suggested that the Institution should merge with the Anglo-Chinese College founded by Morrison in Malacca, but this plan did not materialise. Raffles contributed S$2,000, secured a grant of S$4,000 from the British East India Company and, together with subscriptions from other individuals, raised funds totalling S$17,495 for the project. He drafted the curriculum, and set up the structure for the board of trustees that included William Wilberforce.

The original building of RI was sited on Bras Basah Road and it was designed by engineer Philip Jackson. Raffles laid the foundation stone of the building on 5 June 1823, a few days before he left Singapore for the last time on 9 June. No classes were held while the building was under construction, but the project stalled and the building was left unfinished for some time. Raffles' vision was also not shared by John Crawfurd, the British Resident of Singapore, who felt the scale of the project excessive, and that the government should focus its efforts on elementary education instead. In 1835, a group of European merchants raised money for the Raffles Monument Fund to commemorate Raffles' contribution to Singapore, and proposed that it should be used to complete the Institution. George Drumgoole Coleman was then hired to finish and extend the original building by Jackson.

Early years
On 1 August 1834, Reverend F. J. Darrah opened the Singapore Free School with 46 boys, which quickly grew to nearly 80. When the building for the Institution was completed in 1837, the school applied to occupy the building, a proposal the trustees of the Institution accepted. The Singapore Free School moved into the building in December 1837, and became the Institution Free School. It was, however, established as an elementary school rather than the college that Raffles had initially intended. Originally the school offered classes in Malay, Chinese and English, but the Malay classes soon closed in 1842 due to low enrolment, and it would eventually become an English-medium school. In May 1839, the first wing extension was completed, and the second at the end of 1841. In 1856, the Singapore Institution Free School was renamed Singapore Institution.

In the 1860s, the school gradually turned into a high school. In 1868, the school was renamed Raffles Institution in honour of its founder. The most significant headmasters of the period were J. B. Bayley and R. W. Hullett, who oversaw the transition and ran the school for a cumulative period of 50 years.

The school is Singapore's first institution to enrol girls, with 11 pupils accepted in 1844. In 1879, the girls' wing of the school was established as a separate but affiliated school, Raffles Girls' School.

Relocation
In March 1972, the school moved to Grange Road. The old building was demolished and replaced by Raffles City Shopping Centre. The Bras Basah campus's library building is featured on the S$2 paper and polymer note in Singapore currency.

In 1984, RI became one of two schools selected by the Ministry of Education to pilot the Gifted Education Programme to cater to intellectually gifted students.

In 1990, the school moved again, this time from Grange Road to a new campus at Bishan, then a recently created new town.

Raffles Junior College
In 1982, Raffles Junior College (RJC) was established at Paterson Road to take over the school's burgeoning pre-university enrolment. It subsequently moved to Mount Sinai Road in 1984.

In 2004, the six-year Raffles Programme was offered to Secondary 1 to 3 students. It allows RI students to skip the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level examinations, which students would previously sit for at the end of Year 4. Instead, they move on directly to RJC for Years 5 and 6 and sit for the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level examinations at the end of Year 6. This frees up time which students would otherwise spend on preparing for the O Level examinations, allowing them to spend more time engaging in enrichment and co-curricular or passion-driven activities. The curriculum serves to "seek to nurture the best and brightest into men and women of scholarship who will be leaders of distinction, committed to excellence and service in the interest of the community and nation." This subsequently led to the merging of RI's GEP and Special/Express streams to form a single Raffles Programme stream, and the establishment of its in-house academic talent development programme, Raffles Academy, catering to exceptionally gifted students via subject-specific pullout classes from Year 3 onwards, in 2007.

In 2005, RJC, along with Hwa Chong Junior College, became one of the first junior colleges in Singapore to attain independent status. RJC moved to its new Bishan campus adjacent to RI at the start of the 2005 school year, after attaining independent status and becoming the first pre-university institution in Singapore to be awarded the School Excellence Award.

In 2009, RI and RJC re-integrated to form a single institution under the name "Raffles Institution" to facilitate the running of the Raffles Programme and better align processes and curriculum.

School identity and culture
RI is a member of various academic partnerships and alliances, such as the G30 Schools and Winchester Network. It also co-founded the Global Alliance of Leading-Edge Schools.

Motto
The school motto - Auspicium Melioris Aevi - comes from the coat of arms of its founder, Stamford Raffles. The official translation by the school is "Hope of a Better Age".

Houses
The five houses, three of them named after former headmasters, are Bayley, Buckley, Hullett, Moor and Morrison, represented by the colours yellow, green, black, red and blue respectively.
 * C. B. Buckley was the Secretary to the Board of Trustees of Raffles Institution.

J. B. Bayley was a Headmaster who "raised Raffles Institution to a large and flourishing establishment", as recorded by the board of trustees.
 * J. H. Moor was the first Headmaster of the school, whose 4th great-grandson is Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada.
 * Reverend Robert Morrison was the co-founder of Raffles Institution.
 * R.W. Hullett was Raffles Institution's longest-serving Headmaster (31 years).

Year 1 students are sorted into houses by class. In the early years of RI's history, there were ten houses, including a sixth Philips house (purple), later disbanded. House allocations used to be student-based, instead of class-based. Each House is led by a House Captain, a Year 4 student, who carries out his role along with the respective House Committee. The Houses participate in inter-house tournaments and activities, notably including the annual Inter-House Sports Carnival, Dramafeste and the Inter-House Debate tournament, with points earned from each activity contributing to the House Championship which is awarded at the end of the school year.

Students of the college section were divided into five Houses, the name of which is an amalgamation of its counterparts in RI and RGS:
 * Buckle-Buckley
 * Bayley-Waddle
 * Hadley-Hullett
 * Moor-Tarbet
 * Morrison-Richardson

Uniform
The school uniform from Years 1 to 4 is all-white, including a white short-sleeved shirt with the school badge at the top-right corner of the shirt pocket. Lower secondary students (Years 1 and 2) wear white short trousers and white socks. From Year 3 onwards, students may continue in short pants or opt for white long trousers. Shoes are white-based for all students, with the exception of laces, which must be fully white. Year 3 and 4 prefects must wear formal black shoes, except for Physical Education lessons, where they are required to change into appropriate shoes. School ties are worn only for formal occasions. Teachers wear a formal gown for special occasions. The uniform for male students in Years 5 and 6 male are identical to the uniforms worn by students in Years 3 and 4. The uniform for female students in Years 5 and 6 consist of a white blouse and a dark green pleated skirt.

Discipline
In his memoir The Singapore Story, Lee Kuan Yew mentioned that he was caned by the headmaster D. W. McLeod for chronic tardiness when he attended RI in the 1930s. In 1956, a former RI prefect also wrote that during his time there, "boys were caned on their bottoms for even winking at the girls. We did have very good discipline in our time and the boys became good citizens, lawyers, doctors, etc."

Curriculum and student activities
Since 2007, the school has offered the six-year Integrated Programme, which allows students to bypass the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level examinations and take the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level examinations at the end of Year 6. Known within the Raffles schools as the Raffles Programme, it is offered jointly with Raffles Girls' School.

Year 1 Orientation Camp
The new intake of Year 1 students go through a 3-day orientation camp, involving understanding the school's culture and knowing the campus grounds, and various activities to facilitate class bonding, leadership development, etc. Year 4 Peer Support Leaders and the Head and Deputy head prefects guide them through this camp and the rest of the orientation period. At the end of the camp, the first-year students receive their school badges in the Junior Rafflesian Investiture Ceremony (JRIC), which occurs on the Friday of the Orientation Week.

Raffles Leadership Programme
The Raffles Leadership Programme is an initiative of the Leadership Development Department, aimed at preparing students to take on positions of leadership in school and in life. All Year 3 pupils go through the programme which includes going through the Leadership Challenge Workshop and taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Instrument. It also features a one-term residential component at RI Boarding. The boarding programme started as a trial in 2008 and has now become a full-cohort programme.

Under the Raffles Leadership Programme, Our Year 3 pupils also get to take part in a ten-week residential programme in RI Boarding to learn about independent living skills. The boarding programme was shortened to a seven-week programme in 2019.It can be held in terms 1, 2 or 3.

Students' Council (Year 5-6)
The Students' Council of the Years 5-6 section is divided into a total of eight departments, namely the Welfare Department, the Communications Department, the CCA Department and five House Directorates, which form the EXCO for each of the five houses. Each councillor also takes up one or two of the six functions, which are college events organised by the council: National Day, Teachers' Day, Grad Night, Open House, Orientation and Council Camp. Members of the Students' Council are selected through a college-wide election process. Each batch undergoes a rigorous selection process, which culminates in the Council Investiture. The Students' Council is headed by a President, who is assisted by his/her executive committee consisting of two vice-presidents, two Secretaries, the three Heads of Departments and the five House Captains. As of May 2024, the school is served by the 43rd batch of Student Councillors.

Year 1-4 (Secondary School section)
RI offers about 40 co-curricular activities (CCAs), including sports, uniformed groups, performing arts, and clubs and societies.

CCAs are categorised as either core or merit CCAs. Core CCAs comprise all sports, uniformed groups and performing arts, as well as Raffles Debaters while merit CCAs consist of all other clubs and societies. Every student of the school takes up at least one core CCA. Merit CCAs are optional, but students are encouraged to take up at least one merit CCA to supplement their core CCA. Certain merit CCAs, such as the Infocomm Club, however, may substitute for a core CCA instead.

The school's sports teams and uniformed groups have earned top places in many national inter-school competitions, doing well in Red Cross Youth, rugby, National Cadet Corps, sailing, floorball, Boys' Brigade, and cross-country running, among others.

The performing arts groups have also done well in the Singapore Youth Festival, held once every two years, while the clubs and societies have also won awards.

Year 5-6 (Junior College Section)
The Year 5-6 section offers over 70 CCAs, including sports, performing arts, and clubs and societies. Unlike in the first four years of the Raffles Programme, no distinction is made between core and merit CCAs. Students may offer up to two CCAs, no more than one of which may be a sports or performing arts group.

Teams from RI performed well nationally in 2011, with the performing arts groups clinching 15 Golds (including nine with honours) and five Silvers at the biennial Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging and the sports teams winning 32 championship titles as well as 24 Silvers and 11 Bronzes at the National Interschools Sports Championships. The school's clubs and societies have also performed excellently in their various national competitions, with Raffles Debaters clinching championship titles and the History and Strategic Affairs Society clinching best school delegation awards at international Model United Nations conferences.

Publications
The college community is served by the Raffles Press, the school's journalism society, which publishes its flagship online student newspaper Word of Mouth. The newspaper includes features, op-ed columns, sports reports and concert reviews. In addition, all staff and most students also receive a copy of the Rafflesian Times, the school's official magazine, from the Communications Department.

The journalism society regularly publishes articles dealing with daily school life, recent assemblies and events as well as wider national issues including Singapore's golden jubilee (SG50) and the 2015 Southeast Asian haze.

In 2015, students from the school also started an unofficial satirical publication, The Waffle Press, which pokes fun at school events and examinations.

Boarding

Raffles Institution Boarding is housed in a boarding complex consisting of five blocks. These are named after the five Houses; Bayley, Buckley, Hullett, Moor and Morrison. Each block, apart from the new Hullett block, can accommodate 90 pupils. All blocks have their own staff, and the boarding complex is overseen by several Boarding Mentors.

History
The foundation stone of the Boarding Complex was laid by Lee Kuan Yew on 25 March 1994. The first batch of boarders moved into the Complex in 1996. During the upgrading works in 2006, the former Moor block was demolished to make way for a 13-storey twin tower hostel, the Hullett block, completed in July 2007, and the former Hullett block in turn renamed Moor. The three blocks of Buckley, Moor and Bayley houses boys enrolling in Raffles Leadership Programme, whereas Morrison block catered to girls previously.

Campus

The Raffles Institution Year 1 - 4 campus consists of six main blocks on 18.65 hectares of land.

Yusof Ishak Block (Former Admin Block)

The main building is the Yusof Ishak Block, comprising offices, staff rooms, lecture theatres, study areas and computer labs, as well the Main Atrium. It houses the Year 1-4 General Office and the Raffles Archives & Museum. Major upgrading works were completed in early 2007.

Science Hub
The Science Hub, opened in 2008, includes facilities for specialised research such as Xploratory-Labs; as well as Chemistry, Physics and Biology labs. It also houses the Discovery Labs, a Laser Animation/Technology Studio, the Materials Science Lab and the Raffles Academy Home Room. It is connected to the Yusof Ishak Block.

Hullett Memorial Library / Shaw Foundation Dining Hall
The Hullett Memorial Library (HML) stands below the Shaw Foundation Dining Hall, with a staircase leading down to the library. Co-founded by Lim Boon Keng and Song Ong Siang, it was named after RI's longest-serving Headmaster, Richmond William Hullett, in 1923. The library's official founding (even though a library and museum, from which the National Museum originated, had existed for decades prior to 1923) also marked the centenary of the founding of the institution. The library traces its roots to the founding of RI, making it the oldest library in Singapore. The origins of Singapore's National Library lie in the HML.

Sports facilities
The school's gymnasium underwent renovation in 2010, and was used as a training venue for gymnasts during the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, together with that in the Year 5-6 campus. The school also has two tennis courts, two basketball courts, two squash courts, and two cricket nets.

Following the re-integration with Raffles Junior College from 2009, more sports facilities are available. Floorball, table tennis, judo and gymnastics are RI sports now able to use the Year 5-6 Campus facilities.

Academia

 * Tan Eng Chye, President of the National University of Singapore

Arts

 * Alfian Sa'at, writer, poet and playwright
 * Abdul Ghani Abdul Hamid, writer, poet and artist
 * Chandran Nair, writer, poet and artist
 * Ayden Sng, actor, host and musician

Business

 * Robert Kuok, Malaysian billionaire
 * Lim Boon Keng, philanthropist and co-founder of OCBC Bank and Singapore Chinese Girls' School
 * Peter Lim, billionaire and owner of Valencia CF
 * Andrew Ng, British-American computer scientist, former chief scientist at Baidu, and co-founder of Coursera
 * Andy Ong, entrepreneur, writer and property investor
 * Min-Liang Tan, founder of tech company Razer Inc.

Politics

 * Presidents
 * Yusof Ishak, 1st President of Singapore
 * Benjamin Sheares, 2nd President of Singapore
 * Wee Kim Wee, 4th President of Singapore

 * Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers
 * Lee Kuan Yew, 1st Prime Minister of Singapore
 * Goh Chok Tong, 2nd Prime Minister of Singapore
 * David Marshall, 1st Chief Minister of Singapore
 * Lim Yew Hock, 2nd Chief Minister of Singapore

 * Speakers of Parliament
 * Edmund W. Barker, 2nd Speaker of Parliament
 * Abdullah Tarmugi, 7th Speaker of Parliament
 * Tan Chuan Jin, 10th Speaker of Parliament

 * Current Cabinet ministers
 * Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore
 * K. Shanmugam, Minister for Law and Minister for Home Affairs
 * Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Education and Minister-in-charge of the Public Service
 * Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Health
 * Desmond Lee, Minister for National Development

 * People's Action Party Members of Parliament (MPs)
 * Saktiandi Supaat, MP for Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC
 * Seah Kian Peng, MP for Marine Parade GRC
 * Zaqy Mohamad, MP for Marsiling–Yew Tee GRC

 * Workers' Party Members of Parliament (MPs)
 * He Ting Ru, MP for Sengkang GRC
 * Jamus Lim, MP for Sengkang GRC
 * Dennis Tan, MP for Hougang SMC

 * Progress Singapore Party politicians
 * Tan Cheng Bock, founder and leader of the Progress Singapore Party
 * Leong Mun Wai, non-constituency MP

 * Former politicians
 * Ahmad Mattar, former Cabinet minister
 * Howe Yoon Chong, former Cabinet minister
 * S. Jayakumar, former Cabinet minister
 * Lee Yock Suan, former Cabinet minister
 * Lim Hng Kiang, former Cabinet minister
 * Raymond Lim, former Cabinet minister
 * Othman Wok, former Cabinet minister
 * S. Rajaratnam, former Cabinet minister
 * Balaji Sadasivan, former People's Action Party MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC
 * Png Eng Huat, former Workers' Party MP for Hougang SMC
 * Viswa Sadasivan, former Nominated MP

 * Non-Singaporean politicians
 * Abdul Razak Hussein, 2nd Prime Minister of Malaysia
 * Aziz Ishak, Malaysian politician
 * Michael Chan, British politician
 * Sardon Haji Jubir, Malaysian politician
 * Tan Cheng Lock, Malaysian politician
 * Tony Pua, Malaysian politician
 * Ong Kian Ming, Malaysian politician
 * Emil Elestianto Dardak, Indonesian politician

Public service

 * Defence
 * Ng Jui Ping, 2nd Chief of Defence
 * Bey Soo Khiang, 3rd Chief of Defence
 * Lim Chuan Poh, 4th Chief of Defence
 * Perry Lim, 9th Chief of Defence
 * Kirpa Ram Vij, former Director, General Staff of the Singapore Armed Forces

 * Education
 * Ong Teck Chin, former principal of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)
 * Wong Siew Hoong, former Director-General of the Ministry of Education and headmaster of RI

 * Legal
 * T. S. Sinnathuray, Supreme Court judge
 * Choor Singh, Supreme Court judge
 * Ahmad Mohamed Ibrahim, 1st Attorney-General of Singapore
 * Walter Woon, 5th Attorney-General of Singapore
 * Charles Gregory Pestana, usher of the Second Magistrate's Court.

 * Foreign affairs
 * Albert Chua, former Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations
 * Tommy Koh, former Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations

 * Others
 * Ambat Ravi S Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore
 * Tee Tua Ba, former Commissioner of Police
 * Andreas Emil Lange, former Private Secretary to Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak and the son of Mads Johansen Lange and Nyai Kenyer a princess of Bali

Sports

 * Au-Yeong Pak Kuan, former national footballer
 * Daphne Chia, former national rhythmic gymnastics athlete, competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games
 * Choo Seng Quee, famed national football coach in the 1970s
 * Quah Kim Song, former national footballer
 * Soh Rui Yong, two-time SEA Games Marathon Champion and Singapore national record holder at 5,000m, 10,000m, Half Marathon and Marathon
 * Cherie Tan, Bowling World Champion, six-time SEA Games Gold Medalist, two-time Asian Games Gold medalist

Religion

 * Kong Hee, founder and pastor of City Harvest Church
 * Shi Ming Yi, Buddhist monk and former chief executive officer of Ren Ci Hospital and Medicare Centre

Others

 * Subhas Anandan, Singaporean criminal lawyer
 * Prince Azim of Brunei
 * Lim Bo Seng, Singapore-based Chinese resistance fighter during World War II
 * T. A. Sinnathuray, Malaysian professor of obstetrics and gynaecology
 * Robert M. Solomon, Bishop of the Methodist Church in Singapore
 * Leaena Tambyah, Singaporean social worker and founder of the first school for children with multiple disabilities in Singapore
 * Gerald Cho Guang Hao, RI 1999, Singaporean Doctor and former Singapore Air Force Specialist

title: Raffles Institution


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Category:Jaguar vehicles

This category is for automobiles produced by Jaguar Cars.

title: Category:Jaguar vehicles


text:
Talk:List of AMD processors

AMD Family
Wold be nice if the family name (6, fh, 10h or 11h) of each chip where specified. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.241.192.62 (talk) 20:01, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Geode
The AMD Geode and AMD Am186 microcontroller series need to be mentioned, as well as AMD's SC520.

 * And where's the Turion? —Vespristiano 18:10, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)

X2s moved to K8
K9 was indeed originally meant to be dual-core K8, but AMD has since revised their plans. The X2s are classified as K8 by various reputable sources, including but not limited to sandpile.org and AMD themselves (which must be worth something).

Oh, also, added San Diego in for regular A64s. Yes, the San Diego is used in both the FX and certain A64s (the 3700+, for example). SVI 01:17, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

Actually, the whole K9 thing is dubious at best. In May 2006 there were rumors about K8L. This was at least a year after dual core was launched in 2005. In one interview, an AMD official even used K8L synomously with K10. Is there any reason to include the K9 rumor which was never used by AMD? The K9 designation simply comes from adding to the previous generations: K5, K6, K7, K8. However there is every indication that AMD understood the negative connotations of K9 and never intended to use it. This is similar to the way many hotels skip room number 13.

Intel had much more trouble with this yet none of these rejected names are in the Intel section:

Pentium, Sexium (rejected) Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium IV (rejected perhaps because of poison ivy) Pentium 4, Pentium 5 (rejected probably because of fear of the common 55 mph speed limit) Pentium 4D, Pentium 4E, Pentium 4F (rejected probably because of the military designation 4F meaning unfit for service) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Brehmel (talk • contribs) 11:36, 6 June 2011 (UTC)
 * K8L = development codename for AMD Turion (K8 low power), K9 = development codename for dual-core K8. K9 was originally something completely new but dropped later on so re-used for the K8 dual-cores. --Denniss (talk) 14:40, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

K7 not in production anymore
There was an article at the inquirer showing a photograph of asian AMD workers holding a sign that the last K7 processor had been packaged (can't find the page now). Plus there is this article (I don't have any articles from other sites ATM). So I guess the K7 headline can be changed to K7 series (1999–2005). Also I haven't seen any Socket-A CPUs on AMD's price-lists for some time now (as quoted in the press), be it Sempron or Athlon MP, see for example this article on Heise Online (german, this is where c't mag comes from) from August 1 2005. Ok, there still is the Geode NX which is K7-based, but this article doesn't feature any Geode CPUs.

386sx?
wasn't there a 386sx? Kingturtle 01:24, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

There most certainly was I used to own one. http://www.cpu-collection.de/?l0=co&l1=AMD&l2=386%20SX AMD Am386SX-20, Am386SX/SXL-25, and Am386SX/SXL-33. Evil genius (talk) 06:26, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Code names link broken
The list of code names on the external link redirects to AMD community front page. I couldn't find the list there. Maybe someone who is more familiar will know where the list has gone and fix the link? Ta jayoval (talk) 21:26, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

Templates in AfC
There are several templates in AfC so that the tables can be shared. 84.73.9.156 (talk) 18:43, 8 May 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:List of AMD processors


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The Business

The Business may refer to:

 * The Business (magazine), a British weekly magazine
 * The Business (novel), a novel by Iain Banks
 * The Business (band), an English punk rock/Oi! band
 * The Business (film), a 2005 film directed by Nick Love
 * The Business, an RTÉ Radio 1 show presented by John Murray
 * The Business, a National Public Radio film industry news digest produced by KCRW
 * The Business (TV program), an Australian business program
 * The Business (TV series)
 * "The Business" (Yung Berg song), 2008
 * "The Business" (Tiësto song), 2020
 * "The Business" a song by X Ambassadors from The Reason
 * The Business – the Definitive Singles Collection, a compilation album by Madness

title: The Business


text:
Bonnay

Bonnay may refer to:

Surname

 * Michel de Bonnay
 * Yvette Bonnay

Places

 * Bonnay, Doubs, France
 * Bonnay, Saône-et-Loire, France
 * Bonnay, Somme, France

title: Bonnay


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Communist Party of United States of India

The Communist Party of United States of India (ఇండియా సంయుక్త రాష్ట్రాల కమ్యూనిస్టు పార్టీ) is an underground communist political party in India, based in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The CPUSI was formed on 17 May 1997 as a result of fractional infighting in the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti. The founder of CPUSI was M. Veeranna and it is sometimes referred to as the 'Janashakti Veeranna' faction. Veeranna was later killed by police forces. CPUSI belonged to the section who wanted to put stronger emphasis on caste issues rather than class issues. CPUSI conducts armed struggle, through 'dalam' squads.

Sadhu Malyadri Jambhav is the Andhra Pradesh state secretary of CPUSI.

In June 2001 a high-ranking leader of CPUSI, Yerra Narasa Reddy, surrendered to the police.

The last incident involving the group was in 2005, when two militants of the group were shot dead by police in Andhra pradesh.


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Michael Morris, Baron Naseby

Michael Wolfgang Laurence Morris, Baron Naseby, (born 25 November 1936) is a British Conservative Party politician.

Early life
Born in London and educated at Bedford School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, Morris was taught to fly in Pakistan and Canada and served in the Royal Air Force.

Parliamentary career
Morris contested Islington North at the 1966 general election, being beaten by Labour's Gerry Reynolds.

He was first elected to the House of Commons at the February 1974 general election for the then-marginal seat of Northampton South. His majority was just 179 in February 1974, and 141 in October 1974. In 1983 boundary changes turned it into a safe Conservative seat.

Morris oversaw the passing of the Maastricht Treaty in the Commons in his role as Deputy Speaker. He was defeated by 744 votes at the 1997 general election, when the Labour Party under Tony Blair won a landslide victory.

From 1992, Morris held the non-voting position of Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker, and after the election he accepted a life peerage as Baron Naseby, of Sandy in the County of Bedfordshire on 28 October 1997.

Controversies
In 2014, the Daily Telegraph's chief political commentator Peter Oborne described Lord Naseby as an apologist for the Sri Lankan government, who had given misleading and inaccurate statements about war crimes in Sri Lanka. He was described as giving "comfort to the perpetrators of state sponsored terror" and receiving hospitality from the Sri Lankan government. Human rights groups accuse Lord Naseby of purposely downplaying the death toll figures gathered by the United Nations panel in 2011 which found that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in the final months of the civil war in 2009.

title: Michael Morris, Baron Naseby


text:
Talk:Bob Taft

Untitled
Is this the appropriate place for this article? Both his father and grandfather were also known as "Bob Taft." john k 13:08, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * Yes, it probably should redirect to Robert Taft. Not sure if that page should be a disambig or continue to be about "Mr. Republican", though. - Nat Krause 13:41, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * Most people who want to know who "Bob Taft" is are going to be concerned about current events. Although it would help to put something like "if you are looking for ..."

 * The father and grandfather are known as Robert. They are rarely, if ever, referred to as Bob. "Bob Taft" pretty clearly refers to the current governor. Acsenray 16:09, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

The poll putting his favorability at 19% is probably not right

This vandalism is terrible! How do i report it?

you don't report it. this is wikipedia. you fix it! i just took off "he sucks"--Alhutch 02:33, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * FWIW, 19% is very much in keeping with every recent poll I've seen.  It looks like the detail was deleted from the article.   If I have time I'll add it back in after substantiating, because that's a noteworthy fact. - PhilipR 01:05, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Substantiation for 17%: http://www.surveyusa.com/50State2005/50StateGovApproval1205ByNetApproval.htm .  I'm not all that good at Wikipedia form for sources but I'll try to include in the article. - 71.192.214.166 21:37, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

 * I know these comments are rather old at this juncture, but I can indeed verify as an Ohio resident, Taft is indeed (still) polling below 20%. --Dh100 00:44, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Birth year
Is his birth year correct? Or is the picture up to date? I can't believe the guy in that picture is going to be 65 day after tomorrow. —Angr 10:31, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Missing info in article
This is a pretty good article, but there are major gaps in the info. What else, in addition to the rather noteworthy but relatively minor ethics violation, contributed to his low public approval rating? (Likely, it was part of a general public distaste with the Republican control of government in that swing state—the same anger which drove Michael DeWine from office.) In IMHO, his 8 years of rule were of a "caretaker" nature—he's not necessarily a charismatic leader, or endowed with the "vision thing"—contributing to a mailaise which may have been a contributing factor.

What is Taft doing now, now that he no longer occupies the Governor's office? Enquiring Minds...--HughGRex 02:14, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

 * He has stated that he wishes to be a professor of public policy and education policy at an institution of higher education in Ohio and that he is not interested in returning to law practice. I have spoken with the interim director of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs and he said that they have not heard from Taft. That would leave Ohio University (which may be Taft's preference because they have the Voinovich institute there), Akron, Toledo, BGSU, Cleveland State, and Wright State.  Cincinnati does not have a public policy school, but they do have educational policy. Rkevins 05:02, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Protected
This article is not intended to be a battleground for disputes over a category, and accordingly I have protected it until the RFC has been determined. Furthermore, it is not necessary to breach WP:3RR to be considered a disruptive editor. -- Rodhullandemu  (Talk) 16:56, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

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II or III
If his dad was "Jr." wouldn't he be "III"--Scottandrewhutchins (talk) 17:17, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Bob Taft


text:
Talk:Ayrshire Coast Line

Untitled
Umm... I haven't been to Glasgow in the last few years, so maybe I'm slow... but I can't even tell if this is supposed to be about the coastal landforms themselves, the rail line along the coast, or the ferry line nearby. -FZ 13:09, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * It's about the railway - is linked from Strathclyde Passenger Transport. I've tried to make a proper article out of it. - Raikje 13:37, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

It's unclear whether this Line terminates at Ayr or Stranraer. In the first paragraph it is Ayr, but later Stranraer is referred to and an entry for Barrhill railway station states it is on the Ayrshire Coast Line, when surely it is on the Galloway Line?

Scotrail has called this line the Strathclyde West/Clyde Coast Line for some time. Should the article be renamed? Benson85 (talk) 11:13, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ayrshire Coast Line


text:
Barren Fork (Collins River tributary)

The Barren Fork is a 23.4 mi tributary of the Collins River in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Via the Collins River, the Caney Fork, and the Cumberland and Ohio rivers, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed.

The Barren Fork rises in western Warren County, Tennessee. It is formed from the confluence of its north and south prongs, which join near the tiny community of Trousdale. Its component streams and their tributaries drain much of the eastern portions of Cannon County and Coffee County. The stream flows generally from west to east until it reaches the town of McMinnville, county seat of Warren County. From there it turns in a more northeasterly direction. From this point it is less than 5 linear miles (8 km) to the mouth of the Barren Fork into the Collins River, but considerably longer by the meandering course taken by the stream in its lower reaches. Near downtown McMinnville is a dam formerly utilized by the city as an electric power source; it was supplanted by the Tennessee Valley Authority system, as the small amount (by modern standards) of electricity it was capable of producing makes it impracticable to man and maintain by modern standards.

The Barren Fork is named for the "Barrens" area of Middle Tennessee. This area comprises much of Coffee County, western Warren County, and southeastern Cannon County. The area was first named this by the early settlers, who were surprised to find a largely unforested area in the midst of what was generally a dense hardwood forest surrounding it. Several theories have been suggested as to its origin. The area is somewhat swampy, however; it is too moist for many types of hardwood trees that cannot survive long periods of "wet feet". It is suggested that it was cleared by Native Americans, in part using fire, so that the resulting open area would improve grazing conditions for elk, deer, and buffalo and thus improve hunting, and that they, like their white successors, also used the area for agriculture. Since only a limited number of native hardwood trees could grow in the area, it was relatively easy for the area to remain cleared once it had initially had much of its woody vegetation removed.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) maintains three boat access sites in McMinnville.

title: Barren Fork (Collins River tributary)


text:
The Secret of Roan Inish

The Secret of Roan Inish is a 1994 independent fantasy-adventure film written and directed by John Sayles. It is based on the 1957 novel Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry, by Rosalie K. Fry.

It is centered on the Irish and Orcadian folklores of selkies—seals that can shed their skins to become human. The story, set on the west coast of Ulster in the north-west of Ireland, is about Fiona, a young girl who is sent to live with her grandparents and her cousin Eamon near the island of Roan Inish, where the selkies are rumored to reside. It is a family legend that her younger brother was swept away in his infancy and raised by a selkie. Part of the film takes place in Donegal Town.

Plot
Set in 1946, the story is told from the point of view of Fiona (Jeni Courtney), a young girl who is sent to live with her grandparents in an Irish fishing village, after the death of her mother, illness of her father, and her own failing health.

In the evenings, her grandfather tells tales about the family's history, including the evacuation from their generational home on the tiny island of Roan Inish during the Second World War. Known in Irish as Rón Inis, meaning "Island of Seals", Roan Inish is a real location near Narin, a village on the west coast of County Donegal in the west of Ulster.

They live in the Ireland of tiny fishing villages, places where everyone knows one another. People live close to nature, and animals are respected and live alongside the villagers. Seals are especially respected for their special human-like spirit. It is said to be terribly wrong to harm a seal.

As she meets other villagers, Fiona hears from a distant cousin, Tadhg, about an ancestor who married a beautiful selkie (seal-woman). The story goes that although theirs was a marriage full of happiness, success and many children, there was always the mysterious seal-bond to the ocean. Tadhg tells her that the selkie's blood remains in their family tree, and once in a generation, there is a "dark one" in the family, like himself, and Fiona's baby brother Jamie.

Fiona hears details about how the sea seemed to steal her infant brother, Jamie, during the departure from Roan Inish, bobbing out of sight in his little cradle boat, some years earlier, never to be seen again.

Her cousin, Eamon, who also lives near the grandparents for his health, often accompanies the Grandfather in his curragh - fishing boat - on daily errands to the islands including Roan Inish. Quickly the bright and older Eamon becomes a partner in Fiona's plans, as the day's adventures on the sea and shore become more interesting.

Soon, on one of the visits to Roan Inish, Fiona believes that she has found Jamie romping on the strand and again, in the grass. She confides in Eamon, who warns her to not tell the grandparents for now. She observes that the seals seem to care for him, helping to feed him and play with him.

They get the idea that her grandparents should move back to Roan Inish and, when they do, the seals will return Jamie to them. The grandparents' current landlord is selling their home and they will need to move soon, but won't move to Roan Inish due to the sadness they feel at losing Jamie. Without telling them, Fiona and Eamon reason: if they must move again, why not back to the cottages they loved best?

Saying nothing to anyone about their plan, Fiona and Eamon set to the hard work of reclaiming the long-abandoned cottages on Roan Inish. They clean and restore the cottages, give them new thatch, paint, gardens, and furnishings.

After returning to her grandparents, a terrible storm rises and Fiona fears for Jamie's safety in the strong winds. She wonders aloud: "I hope he thinks to go inside the cottage." Her grandparents hear her and are in utter disbelief at her explanation.

Her grandmother is wise and unhesitant - rising to her feet and to the moment, her body and actions say: if there is any chance the child lives, when thought dead these years, rescue must be immediate.

She gathers her husband, Eamon and Fiona, they pack what they need, and climb into the curragh and make their way to Roan Inish. Racing inside, they see that Jamie is not there and the wind is rising in power and the rain has begun. The grandparents are, however, astonished and grateful to Fiona and Eamon for their secret restoration of the cottages these past few weeks.

Jamie's tiny cradle bobs to shore and he jumps out, heading for the cottages to escape the storm, shepherded to safety lovingly by the seals, as they'd probably been doing all along. But then he stops and runs back - he sees his grandparents and Eamon and Fiona, his big sister, and has no memory of them. In front of the group, grandmother calls to him to not be afraid and to come to them for love and safety - come to his family at last. Jamie remains motionless and afraid, still, then runs for his cradle, but at this point several of the seals herd him towards his family, and prevent him from returning to the cradle boat and the sea. He reluctantly makes his way into his grandmother's open arms and they make their way inside. Seeing that Jamie is safe, the seals depart.

Indoors, the victorious family are elated at the return of the child they thought dead. They wrap Jamie in a blanket and sit in front of a warm dry fire. Fiona rocks him to sleep in her arms.

Cast

 * Jeni Courtney as Fiona Coneelly
 * Eileen Colgan as Tess Coneelly
 * Richard Sheridan as Eamon Coneelly
 * Dave Duffy as Jim
 * Pat Slowey as Priest
 * Declan Hannigan as Oldest brother
 * Mairéad Ní Ghallchóir as Barmaid
 * Eugene McHugh as Bar Patron 1
 * Tony Rubini as Bar Patron 2
 * Mick Lally as Hugh Coneelly
 * Michael MacCarthaigh as Schoolmaster
 * Fergal McElherron as Sean Michael
 * Brendan Conroy as Flynn
 * John Lynch as Tadhg Coneelly
 * Susan Lynch as Nuala the Selkie
 * Frankie McCafferty as Tim
 * Cillian Byrne as Jamie Coneelly

Production
In creating the film, John Sayles drew on original research of Celtic island lore and language, including the Blasket memoirs, a series of vernacular memoirs collected in the 1920s and '30s from residents of the Great Blasket, an island off the County Kerry coast evacuated by the Irish government in 1953 and made a national park in 1989.

"Veteran cinematographer Haskell Wexler gives The Secret of Roan Inish an effortlessly elemental look. Without ostentation or self-consciousness, the film immerses you in the spume, fog and glare of the seaside life, with its temporal mysteries and its organic metamorphoses. Mason Daring's spare, traditional Irish score adds one more layer of melancholy atmosphere," noted Scott Rosenberg of SFGate. Although in the original novel the story takes place in Scotland, the filmmakers decided to have the film take place in Ireland for practical reasons. According to John Sayles in the director's commentary, most of the film was shot in County Donegal in Ulster in the north of Ireland, with some scenes being filmed on the Isle of Mull in Argyll, Scotland.

Over 1,000 girls were tested for the role of Fiona, which required the actress to be "Thin, underweight, pale complexion, but perky and not afraid of water."

Restoration
In 2020, the UCLA Film and Television Archive made a digitally restored print of the film.

Critical response
It holds a 96% average rating of 7.8/10 on review site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 45 reviews. Scott Rosenberg of SFGate describes it as being "a lot like the island it's named after: It seems to occupy a time of its own, cut off from the speed and overload of contemporary life and drifting to its own ancient rhythms." Critic Stephen Holden, film critic for The New York Times, liked the film's direction. He wrote, "The Secret of Roan Inish is the first film directed by Mr. Sayles that could be described as visually rhapsodic. Photographed by Haskell Wexler on Ireland's rugged northwestern seacoast, it is a cinematic tone poem in which man and nature, myth and reality flow together in a way that makes them ultimately indivisible."

title: The Secret of Roan Inish


text:
Centre points of the United Kingdom

There has long been debate over the exact location of the geographical centre of the United Kingdom, and its constituent countries, due to the complexity and method of the calculation, such as whether to include offshore islands, and the fact that erosion will cause the position to change over time. There are two main methods of calculating this "centre": either as the centroid of the two-dimensional shape made by the country (projected to the Airy ellipsoid then flattened using the Transverse Mercator projection), or as the point farthest from the boundary of the country (either the sea, or, in the case of constituent countries, a land border). These two methods give quite different answers.

Traditional locations
The town of Haltwhistle in Northumberland has banners stating that it is the "Centre of Britain". By another calculation the centre can also be said to be Dunsop Bridge, Lancashire, 71 miles (114 km) to the south.

However, in 2002 the Ordnance Survey conducted studies that pinpointed the respective centres more precisely, and it is their results that are quoted below.

Centroid locations
The centroid is a mathematically derived point that is in every sense the centre of a two dimensional area like a piece of land. If a straight line is drawn through a centroid in any direction there will be equal length of the line on either side of the centroid as measured from it to the boundary if the line is unbroken on either side. If a line crosses an inlet of the sea then it can be considered as a stick of uniform weight with a material of negligible weight crossing the water, the line would then balance precisely at the centroid point if suspended.

Put simply, the centroid is the point at which a cardboard cut-out of the area could be perfectly balanced on the tip of a pencil. Islands are assumed fixed to the mainland in their precise position by invisible rigid weightless wires. A mathematical method is used to do the balancing to a much greater accuracy than the practical method could achieve.

Unless stated, positions are the centroids of the two-dimensional shapes made by the countries. Calculations include offshore islands unless stated.

United Kingdom

 * A position "in the middle of Morecambe Bay", approximately 1.5 mi off the coast at Morecambe (#2), Lancashire, at Ordnance Survey.

Great Britain

 * Whitendale Hanging Stones (#1 on the map), near Brennand Farm, outside Dunsop Bridge, Lancashire in the Forest of Bowland.(54.00366°N, -2.54785°W; )

Great Britain (mainland only)

 * A field south of Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (#3), near Whalley, Lancashire

England

 * Lindley Hall Farm (#4), Leicestershire (near Fenny Drayton and Higham on the Hill) (52.56193°N, -1.46485°W; ) A plaque denoting this point, and disputing the "traditional" centre of England as being at Meriden in the West Midlands, was erected by Ordnance Survey on 14 June 2013

Northern Ireland

 * Annaghone (#5), near Cookstown, County Tyrone (54.60758°N, -6.69315°W  ) Irish grid ref  H 84494 74047.

Scotland

 * Between Blair Atholl (#6) and Dalwhinnie, Perthshire (56.81674°N, -4.18396°W; )

Wales

 * Near Cwmystwyth (#7), Devil's Bridge, Ceredigion (52.33022°N, -3.76641°W; )

Locations found by other methods
Point farthest from the sea

 * Church Flatts Farm (#8), Coton in the Elms, Derbyshire (52.72759°N, -1.6252°W)

Point farthest from high tide mark (including tidal rivers)

 * Between Hammerwich and Wall, south-west of Lichfield, Staffordshire (52.66°N, -1.85°W;)

 Mid point of the longest north–south axis
 * Haltwhistle, Northumberland. The midpoint of the longest north–south meridian; also approximately the midpoint of each of the lines through it across Great Britain along the 16 main compass directions.

Centre of population
 * This calculation depends on the method used (mean, median or geometric median; see Centre of population for details).
 * A calculation by Danny Dorling using the mean (least squares) method based on local authority district data from the 1990s gave the population centre of Great Britain at Appleby Parva, Leicestershire, 20 miles south of Derby. Since then, the population centre will have moved slightly south and east.

Centre of England For centuries the parish of Meriden to the west of Coventry has claimed to be the geographical centre of England, and there has been a stone cross there commemorating the claim for at least 500 years. The justification is that the point farthest from the sea is in the parish. Morton, Derbyshire also claims to be the centre of England as it is not only midway along England's longest north-south axis, but also midway between the east coast and the Welsh border. Claims are also made for a tree, the Midland Oak, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, although the basis for these claims is not clear.

title: Centre points of the United Kingdom


text:
User:Metaquasi

Hi, I'm always keeping my eyes open for opportunities of a minor edit. Not doing any original stuff at this point, but maybe someday that'll change for the worse.

title: User:Metaquasi


text:
Ekta Shakti

Ekta Shakti Party (United Force Party) was a regional political party in Haryana, India. Founded in 2004. The party president was Maratha Virender Verma, a former government employee. Verma is the son of Shiv Ram Verma, who was a member of the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Maratha bases his political movement amongst a people of North Haryana. Maratha claims that the previous governments of haryana did discrimination against the north haryana.he was initially able to win some support from the community. Maratha builds his political discourse on the accusation that northern Haryana has been discriminated against by politicians from western Haryana.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections the party fielded three candidates from northern Haryana. They got 13022, 82430 and 31202 votes respectively.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha election the party fielded candidates from Karnal (Lok Sabha constituency) seat Maratha Virender Verma (BSP)got around 228352 votes. He was in 2nd position after Congress candidate Arvind Sharma

Later merged to Indian National Congress

title: Ekta Shakti


text:
Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam

Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (Tamil People's Progressive Federation) is a political party in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was founded in 2000.

History
The party was founded by B. John Pandian in 2000. It is a caste-based political party in Tamilnadu.

2001 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
In the 2001 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, the party joined the AIADMK-led Alliance and was alloted Egmore constituency to be contested on "Twin-leaves" symbol. The party fielded its founder John Pandian in the seat. But he lost the seat to Parithi Ilamvazhuthi by a slender margin of 86 votes in its maiden election.

2011 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
In the 2011 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, the party opted to join the Third front led by Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi led by T. R. Paarivendhar comprising Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, Samooka Samathuva Padai, Tamil Nadu Vanigar Peravai and VOC Peravai. The front fielded candidates in more than 150 constituencies.

2016 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
In the 2016 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, the party contested 52 seats in "Pot" symbol with John Pandian contesting in the Tiruvadanai Assembly constituency. But the party faced defeat in all constituencies which it contested. It also formed alliance with Marudham Makkal Katchi headed by former MLA Soundarapandian and Bharatiya Vikasha Shakti party for the elections allotting five and two seats to them respectively.

2019 Lok Sabha election
The demand for merging the subsects of Scheduled Caste in the state of Tamilnadu such as Pallar, Devendrakulathar, Pannadi, Kaladi, Vathiriyar and Kudumbar into a single entity as Devendrakula Velalar gained pace along with the delisting of those subsects to Other Backward Class. The party joined the National Democratic Alliance in 2017. The party supported the alliance in 2019 Indian general election.

2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
The party was alloted one seat in the alliance for the 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election. After 20 years, B. John Pandian once again contested the Egmore constituency and lost it. Post the election, the party left AIADMK-led Alliance citing differences over seat sharing in the election. However it continued its partnership in the National Democratic Alliance.

2024 Lok Sabha election
As a part of NDA alliance, the party was allocated to contest the Tenkasi Lok Sabha constituency seat in Lotus symbol.

title: Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam


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K-type asteroid

K-type asteroids are relatively uncommon asteroids with a moderately reddish spectrum shortwards of 0.75 μm, and a slight bluish trend longwards of this. They have a low albedo. Their spectrum resembles that of CV and CO meteorites. A larger K type is 9 Metis.

These asteroids were described as "featureless" S-types in the Tholen classification. The K-type was proposed by J. F. Bell and colleagues in 1988 for bodies having a particularly shallow 1 μm absorption feature, and lacking the 2 μm absorption. These were found during studies of the Eos family of asteroids.

title: K-type asteroid